THIS MONTH

“AS THIS YEAR’S brain-meltingly hot summer fades away (was

EMPIRE WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO THIS MONTH

CHATTING TO RIAN JOHNSON FOR THE KNIVES OUT SEQUEL

CROSSWORD AND COMPETITION

Chaos in Gotham!

With Bat-people popping up everywhere, we lay out the latest happenings in the world of the Caped Crusader

How to make a killer ending

David Gordon Green explains how he’s wrapping up his grisly Michael Myers trilogy with HALLOWEEN ENDS

HUNGER GAMES’ NEW PLAYERS

MEET THE MAJOR CHARACTERS IN DYSTOPIAN PREQUEL THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES

BLACK IN FOCUS

AMON WARMANN chews over the main moment in Black film and TV this month

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Unfiltered, uncensored, uncompromising trailer reactions from team EMPIRE

Brandon Perea

THE 27-YEAR-OLD ACTOR PLAYS A CURIOUS TECH SALESMAN IN JORDAN PEELE’S NOPE

A new kind of comic-book movie

Director Owen Kline on Funny Pages, his ink-stained coming-of-ager

Why Martin McDonagh got the band back together

The director of THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN on going from Oscar success to a reunion with old friends

Inside Nope’s chilling chimp attack

Jordan Peele and Terry Notary break down their show-stopping set-piece

The gripping true story set to take on Top Gun

DEVOTION director J.D. Dillard on his deeply personal aviation movie

NEXT IN THE SERIES

You fell in love with that incredible new TV show. And then it ended! Don’t despair — Boyd Hilton recommends the sibling shows to watch next

Ryan Gosling: Ghost Rider

The star has said he wants to play the flame-headed motorcyclist, and Kevin Feige approves. Here’s why it makes sense

A foodie thriller plating up privilege

Succession director Mark Mylod talks us through his star-studded gastro-satire, THE MENU

The serial-killer story that puts evil in scrubs

Writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns on true-crime medical thriller The Good Nurse

His Guy Cary

Jason Isaacs on his formidable new challenge: playing Cary Grant in a new biopic series

The teen horror show Mike Flanagan was meant to make

An emotional bond ties the genre master to his latest show, THE MIDNIGHT CLUB

“There was only one accident on set. It was just a flesh wound”

[ THE Q&A] As a younger, pluckier Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, MORFYDD CLARK is ready for anything

The crazy creatures of Strawberry Mansion

The filmmakers of the year’s quirkiest sci-fi on making their dreams (and nightmares) a reality

RETRO VESTS

These garish gilets prove that you don’t need sleeves to make a statement

The Swimmers

[ ON-SET REPORT] The true story of an Olympic athlete and her sister fleeing Syria gets the feature-length treatment

The TV offer Stallone couldn’t refuse

Why the star signed up for his first leading small-screen role: a Mafia capo in Tulsa King

The star who took sci-fi into the future

[ IN MEMORIAM]

Remembering the electrifying Olivia Newton-John

[IN MEMORIAM]

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN

ILLUSTRATION ARN0 Which movie have you seen the

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE

BIG SCREEN. SMALL SCREEN. YOUR REVIEWS BIBLE STARTS

BODIES BODIES BODIES

The party’s over for Bee (Maria Bakalova) and

PIGGY

★★★ OUT 7 OCTOBER / CERT 18 /

LUCK

★★★ OUT NOW (APPLE TV+) / CERT PG

MOONAGE DAYDREAM

David Bowie: none more Ziggy. Or, for that

THE FORGIVEN

Desert storm: Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes as

AFTER YANG

★★★★ OUT 22 SEPTEMBER / CERT TBC /

ALL IS VANITY

★★★ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER / CERT TBC /

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING

Djinn and tonic: Alithea (Tilda Swinton) has

PREY

Dane DiLiegro as the new — or rather,

IT IS IN US ALL

★★ OUT 23 SEPTEMBER / CERT 15 /

STRAWB ERRY MANSION

★★★ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER / CERT 12A /

SPEAK NO EVIL

★★★★ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER (SHUDDER) / CERT TBC

THE RETALIATORS

★★ OUT 14 SEPTEMBER / CERT TBC /

FUNNY PAGES

★★★★ OUT 16 SEPTEMBER / CERT TBC /

LAAL SINGH CHADDHA

★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 159

DAY SHIFT

Once bitten: Seth (Dave Franco) attempts to see

ORPHAN: FIRST KILL

★★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 98

THE SCORE

★★★ OUT 9 SEPTEMBER / CERT 15 /

BULLET TRAIN

The Pulp Fiction prop sale had turned nasty.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

Daemon (Matt Smith) inspects a dragon’s egg; ★★★

SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW

Going green: Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and She-Hulk (Tatiana

BAD SISTERS

Black comedy: sisters are doing it for themselves

BACK ON THE CASE

THINK YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A KNIVES OUT SEQUEL? AS DIRECTOR RIAN JOHNSON, DANIEL CRAIG AND THE CAST OF SUN-BAKED MURDER-MYSTERY GLASS ONION TELL US, YOU HAVEN’T A CLUE…

KNOW YOUR ONIONS

BEFORE GLASS ONION THERE WAS… THIS LOT. READ IT AND WEEP

FULL FORCE

RIAN JOHNSON THREW EVERYTHING HE HAD INTO THE LAST JEDI, WHICH CHALLENGED EVERYONE: HIM, HIS CAST AND HIS AUDIENCE. FIVE YEARS SINCE ITS RELEASE, HE LOOKS BACK AT THE FILM THAT SHOOK UP THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE FOREVER

CALLING THE SHOTS

RIGHT FROM THE START, RIAN JOHNSON HAS BEEN TAKING PHOTOS ON HIS SETS, CAPTURING CANDID MOMENTS FOR POSTERITY. HERE, HE LEADS US THROUGH A NOSTALGIC TOUR OF HIS WORK, INCLUDING SOME IMAGES NEVER SEEN BEFORE

NEW ROM NTICS

BROS WANTS TO MAKE US LAUGH, MAKE US CRY, AND BREAK A WHOLE LOT OF NEW GROUND IN THE PROCESS. AS ITS STAR BILLY EICHNER AND THE TEAM TELL US, THE GAY ROMCOM HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING

The Bombs Hell

SHE’S THE MOST COMPLEX, TALKED-ABOUT, SPECTACULAR ICON OF OUR TIME. AND NOW MARILYN MONROE HAS THE FILM TO MATCH. STAR ANA DE ARMAS AND DIRECTOR ANDREW DOMINIK REVEAL HOW THEY RAMPED UP THEIR AMBITION FOR THE EXPLOSIVE BLONDE

GANG FIGHT

AS EXPLOSIVE ACTION-DRAMA GANGS OF LONDON RETURNS, DIRECTOR CORIN HARDY, STAR SOPÉ DÌRÍSÙ AND MORE TELL US HOW THEY DESIGNED AND EXECUTED A BRUTAL DEATH-MATCH

LADY DYNAMITE

From 1970s pioneer to modern-day icon, the trailblazing PAM GRIER has always done things her way...

All Our Yesterdays

As the first two Star Trek movies hit 4K, the legendary WILLIAM SHATNER talks transferring Trek to the big screen

With friends like these…

The pair behind pitch-black Brit-com ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME talk us through its cringe-inducing characters

MOVIE PLAYLIST

THE CRITIC AND SCALA RADIO PRESENTER CHOOSES SCORES HE’S BEEN PLAYING ON HIS WEEKLY SHOW

THE MASTERPIESE

We reassess the greatest films of all ime, one film at a time

CAGNEY IN NUMBERS

THE 101 ON FILM’S GANGSTER NO. 1

THE RANKING

Four Empire writers. One super-producer. Tons of films. Ordered definitively.

THE TOP TEN

1 THE ROCK (1996) Helen: “With chewy, tough-guy

THE VIEING GUIDE

A deep dive into the must-see moments from the month’s big release

EMPIRE FILM PODCAST

EMPIREONLINE.COM/PODCAST

THE CULT OF KIM NEWMAN

The critic and novelist selects the month’s weirdest home-ent releases

That’ll do, pig

BONG JOON-HO on why his Criterion-approved giant-hog movie deserves a second look

THE STORY OF THE SHOT

How iconic images came to life

6 OF THE BEST

Team Empire on the month’s essential movies and TV

CLASSIC SCENE

Standout sequences from the great movies