The premiere of Flawless was one diamond night. Michael Caine was otherwise engaged, but there was plenty of A-list heat to warm the attendant paparazzi, with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher braving the chilly trip down the red carpet.

The Michael Radford-directed Flawless is a swinging '60s heist movie, with Moore as a mining executive scheming with Caine’s embittered janitor to relieve her employers of enough diamonds to redecorate P. Diddy. If the word ‘caper’ is running through your mind, you’d be pretty much on the money.

Flawless reunites Caine and Moore, who worked together in much sunnier climes as father and daughter in 1984 comedy Blame It On Rio,* and Moore was eager to talk up her co-star in his absence. “I was actually more excited to work with Michael this time because I just have a greater appreciation for who he is and all he has done. I hope that when I'm in my seventies I can be as on top of my game as he is!”

The actress is approaching top form herself and shared with Empire a few beans about the upcoming and highly intriguing Bunraku, a Gondry-esque fantasy named after a form of Japanese poetry and co-starring Josh Hartnett, Ron Perlman and Woody Harrelson. “It’s an action-adventure, set in a world of its own creation. The look combines something that’s a little Japanese modern with Victorian and an ‘80s punk ethos.”

With three films currently on the go, Moore is fully immersed in filmmaking again and says she has no complaints about the roles on offer: “I don’t believe Hollywood is ageist - I think in general as human beings we’re captivated by what’s new. It’s nice to be back making independent films, it’s about finding balance.”

Flawless’ director Michael Radford brought a sobering note to the glitz, revealing that the credit crunch has seen his latest project, Spanish Civil War drama La Mula, put on ice. “Spanish banks have ceased to cashflow movies and it’s stopped us in our tracks. We had the money to make it but we can’t get out of the banks.” The Oscar nominee said the downturn was starting to affect the British film industry as well: “It’s a tough time. It shouldn’t be because usually the movie industry rides out these slumps, but it’s a tough time.”

Empire also collared the lovely Natalie Dormer - the other Boleyn girl from HBO’s The Tudors – to ask about Fencewalkers, a film based on the life of notoriously secretive X-Files creator Chris Carter. Sadly, that turned out to be secret too. “It would probably be in breach of contract to go into too much detail, but there are no aliens in it!”

And with that, the stars were hustled into the cinema to introduce the film, taking all the glitz and glamour with them, while Empire walked off into the night to start planning on our own diamond heist to one day join them.

*…featuring this from the vault of taglines-best-forgotten: ‘She's the hottest thing on the beach. She's also his best friend's daughter!’