Issue April 2020 - Empire (2024)

Home//Empire/April 2020

NEWS! Empire brings you world-exclusive movie news and first-look pictures of the films you want to watch and care about. REVIEWS! Empire delivers the most independent and authoritative movie reviews in the world - period. ACCESS! Empire's incredible insider-access brings you the interviews with A-list Hollywood stars that no-one else can get. All served with an irreverent sense of humour and unparalleled movie knowledge...

Read on Any Device

Switch between PDF & Text Mode

Bookmark & Search Content

Read Offline

Receive New Issue Notifications

Cancel Anytime

in this issue

IN THIS ISSUETHIS MONTHTHE MANDALORIAN: A new dawn in Star Wars, with a new mantra (and a thousand new memes). It’s a mantra that connects people, a code by which they live. Simply it’s: “This is the way.”But The Mandalorian’s arrival marks not just a new dawn in the world that George Lucas began, but the one we now live in. This is much more than the start of a great new telly show, but a whole new world and a whole new way. With Disney+, we’re set to see the most ambitious small-screen/big-screen/telly/movie cinematic storytelling crossover project ever. What does it mean for cinema? What does it mean for TV? Oh God, wherever will we get the time? As with all big changes we’re nervous, a bit scared and massively excited. So…1 min

BOND THE ULTIMATE CELEBRATIONGRAPHIC VIOLENCEWITH 2006’S CASINO ROYALE, BOND started again. As Eon finally brought Ian Fleming’s introductory story to the screen, the series went back to basics with a bang, Daniel Craig’s no-nonsense, non-quipping 007 taking no prisoners. As such, the title sequence and accompanying theme song had a job to do. Ruthlessness was in order. “A great title sequence should prepare you for the experience of what the film is,” says composer David Arnold, who wrote the song, ‘You Know My Name’, with ex-Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell. “[Former Bond song lyricist] Don Black said that the early Bond songs had a ‘whiff of a boudoir’ about them. This one didn’t.” The sequence, says designer Daniel Kleinman, was “an introduction to Bond. I had a chat with [Casino Royale director] Martin Campbell, and…4 min

BOND THE ULTIMATE CELEBRATIONBOND BEGINS‘COMMANDER JAMAICA’ SOUNDS, maybe, like a problematic fish-out-of-water sitcom from the 1970s. It certainly would have been an inauspicious title for the first James Bond film, but was, in fact, the proposed name of a TV series that Ian Fleming had planned in the mid-1950s, focusing on a sexy secret agent named James Gunn. It was inspired by a memorable holiday the author had taken in the Bahamas, where he’d wandered through dense mangrove swamps, sparse salt flats and encountered fat Land Rovers that roared through the night (a sight that inspired Dr. No’s legendary ‘dragon’ tank). However, the project collapsed, and Fleming popped it in a drawer to recycle elsewhere at another time. Ultimately the story, about a spy in the West Indies exploring a secret, dangerous, forbidden island…10 min

BOND THE ULTIMATE CELEBRATIONTHE 007 DOSSIEROFFICE POLITICS (GOLDFINGER, 1964) Barbara Broccoli: “The wonderful Bernard Lee here, such a phenomenal actor. He had such presence. M is always so important to Bond because M represents everything; authority, government, Queen, country. He is the one person Bond has to answer to. It’s a very important relationship. These scenes are about setting up the plot — giving Bond his mission — or telling Bond off because he did not do what he was supposed to do on the mission. You have to feel there is a mutual respect between them, even though it may get challenged at times. M is always going to back Bond. He may not say it to his face, but he is always going to have Bond’s back in the field.” DIAMONDS ARE FORVER:…6 min

BOND THE ULTIMATE CELEBRATIONMISSION CONTROLLERSJOHN GLEN DIRECTED FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, OCTOpuss*, A VIEW TO A KILL, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, LICENCE TO KILL WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST DAY DIRECTING BOND LIKE? It was The Spy Who Loved Me — they sent me out to Mount Askard on the Arctic Circle to shoot the ski-parachute sequence [Glen was second unit director on the film]. And so the first shot of that new film was the ski-parachute jump. Thank God it was such a success. It gave the whole film such a great boost. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE LOCATION? India, for Octopuss*. We were in Udaipur. There were four palaces, including the Winter Palace up on the hill, and we had the maharaja’s garden. It was absolutely perfect. WHAT WAS THE TOUGHEST STUNT TO PULL OFF?…7 min

IN THIS ISSUETALK TO USBABY BOOMMy girlfriend and I loved the page of baby Star Wars characters in the March issue. Every year for my birthday she draws me something, and most recently it was us as baby Rancors (see pic), inspired by the most heartbreaking part of Return Of The Jedi which is, of course, the tale of the Rancor trainer and the best friend he raised from a baby (Rancling?) tragically taken too soon.OLI BAUER, VIA EMAILHere’s hoping the next season of The Mandalorian gives us a whole nurseryload of Star Wars babies – if you’re listening, Favreau, we reckon baby Max Rebo plushes would fly off the shelves.Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for a friend! Valid for one year at 23 Picturehouse Cinemas across the UK, including…2 min

Issue April 2020 - Empire (2024)

you may also like

References