Sneak Preview: Issue 244

1. Avatar
Avatar Day has come and gone and James Cameron’s electric blue dream is certainly getting people talking. But for the full story on this long-awaited event you’ll need to enter the intensely azure world of Pandora, where scary monsters (ahem, Thanatars – Ed.) and the hostile indigenous population (the Na’vi) live hand-in-claw atop a potentially priceless natural mineral reserves which us horrible humans want to strip mine to the core. We find out exactly what James “King of the World” Cameron has been up to on the planet and why this promises to be the cinematic event of the decade.

2. News: Comic-Con Special
OK, so we’ve all gone a bit ‘Con cuckoo this month, with half the office decamping to San Diego to geek out at Comic Con 2009 and then returning to our very own, and much cooler, BFI Empire Movie Con a couple of weeks later. We bring you all the highlights and lowdowns on what we saw in both sets of hallowed halls, including Iron Man 2, Tron Legacy, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Jonah Hex, New Moon, and Matthew Vaughn’s wildly improbable teen superhero flick Kick-Ass. Phew!

3. The Box
Donnie Darko director rises above the belly-flop that was Southland Tales to go all Twilight Zone with ‘70s psychological thriller The Box. Starring James Marsden and Cameron Diaz as a normal couple presented with a big moral dilemma by a mysterious visitor played by a digitally-deformed Frank Langella. We talk to Richard Kelly about making a script out of a six-page Richard ‘I Am Legend’ Mattheson story, and why his parents needed to be on set for half the making of the movie.

4. John Hughes Remembered
The man who made it cool to be a teen in the‘80s is gone, but we take a fond look back over the life and times of a legend who brought us an entire collection of feel good classics such as Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Sixteen Candles. His peak may have lasted only half a decade, but his oeuvre defined a generation, launched the careers of the Brat Pack and sparked a thousand imitators.

5. Harry Brown
Michael Caine does a Gran Torino in this gritty British vigilante drama, which went down a storm at this year’s Movie-Con. Pitching a retired serviceman against the worst kind of scum on an Elephant & Castle council estate, Harry Brown sees Caine return to his Sarf Landan manor where even the estate they filmed on had a mural of his legendary face, fact fans. Not a lot of people know that.

6. Pixar On Pixar
The just wonderful Up is on its way, and with the 3D re-issues of Pixar classics coming thick and fast, we take a look at the pioneers of the animation which makes it all possible: Pixar. Toy Story 3 is in the pipeline, with teaser promos doing the rounds attached to revitalised 3D footage of the first two movies in the franchise. We meet the magic quadumvirate – John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton and Pete Doctor – who make Pixar what it is today.

7. 2012
According to doomsman director Roland Emmerich, 2012 will be the “disaster movie to end all disaster movies…” – and judging by the trailers, he’s set to destroy everything so thoroughly that he won’t leave much for even Michael Bay. With just over two years left until the end is nigh, we get inside the set for the making of The Day After Independence Day, to see what has John Cusack running for his life and how the disaster master has surpassed himself yet again.

8. Martin Scorsese
As we approach the release of the chilling Shutter Island, we take a unique pictorial journey through the filmmaking life of director Martin Scorsese. From his relationships with Robert De Niro, Daniel Day Lewis and his latest leading man Leonardo Di Caprio, he has forged a glittering screen legacy with classics such as Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and Gangs of New York – and he finally won an Oscar a couple of years back, you might have seen it. This is your complete guide to the man and his films.

9. Back Story: Jodorowsky’s Dune
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune was a masterpiece in sci-fi starring actors as diverse as Mick Jagger and Orson Welles, a legend in its own lifetime. Only it never actually got made. We look at the story behind the non-making of the HR Giger-inspired classic that isn’t Alien and explore the sublime concept art and story of the film a whole quarter of a century on.

10. The Big Interview: Sir Anthony Hopkins
With such a relaxed attitude to work that he freely admits to accepting roles for the cash and the chance of a trip somewhere exotic, it’s a good thing that Sir Anthony Hopkins is also a master of his craft. Up next as erratic father to the beast in The Wolfman, the self-described ‘philistine’ tells us how he worked his way from working-class Wales to the Oval office as Nixon, by way of a certain persuasive cannibalistic psychiatrist.

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PREVIEW
Flick the pages below to take your exclusive look inside Issue 244 of Empire.