The Empire Film Podcast

Ryan Gosling is on the podcast this week to talk about his directorial debut Lost River, out today. So for details on that, his love of cereal and Disneyland-based friendship with Guillermo del Toro, be sure to listen to this episode, which also features reviews of John Wick and Cobain Montage Of Heck.

Greg Nicotero is a special effects legend. From kicking off his career working with George A. Romero on Day of the Dead to his current role as Walking Dead gore guru - goru? - and director-cum-producer, he's seen everything that could possibly be covered in fake blood be covered in fake blood. Here, he talks all about his life in the business, including the emotional farewells he's given to beloved cast members killed off the incredibly popular show. So, to give fair warning, if you're not full up to date with The Walking Dead Season 5, go and watch it all, then come right back and listen to this.

The Empire Podcast comes out just a little earlier than normal, what with this Easter weekend thing and all, and to celebrate the kind folks at Universal have released Fast & Furious 7 to bamboozle and enthrall. Here, in this hour-long podcast, the team comes to terms with everything Vin Diesel has to offer. Plus, Ron Moore!

Antonion Banderas and his beautiful voice take centre stage in this appropriately-named Antonio Banderas interview special Empire Podcast. In town to talk about the delightfully bonkers The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, we took the time to not only ask about his character in it, Burgerbeard, but also much, much more, from Expendables 3 to The Skin I live In, not forgetting a certain Puss In Boots...

Sir Ken is the one and only guest on this week's show, a show where one of us nearly dies, and there's a good deal of thought given to ways that Tom Cruise could die, depending on what happens with the next Mission Impossible movie. As ever, it makes sense in context, promise.

Two acting legends enter the Empire Podcast booth this week in the form of Sir Ben Kingsley and Sean Penn, with the former here to talk about next week's Robot Overlords and the latter chatting about this week's The Gunman. Elsewhere, the team come to terms with a giant meteorite hitting the earth. In makes sense in context, honest.

In an unfortunately mildly unexciting week for movies, we have two very exciting guests talking about two movies out next week, namely Jim Parsons for Dreamworks animation Home and Gemma Arterton for serial killer comedy The Voices. The mid-'00s dramedy Ed comes up, for some reason. You'll see.

Admire our restraint as we speak to Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell about Chappie and only bring up the new Alien movie twice! Applaud our ingenuity as we ask Julianne Moore whether she does her own running - it works in context, promise - and try to find her a football team to support! Also, listen to this podcast! Exclamation marks!

Spoiler: Birdman won Best Director and Best Picture, while Boyhood did not. Neil Patrick Harris, meanwhile, did not win Best Presenter, though perhaps failing to make it a real category was his biggest mistake. Fortunately the Empire Podcast is here to make everything all right with its unique blend of sleep deprivation and sugar-high funtimes. Feel free to play us off at any time, by the way.

It's the Oscars this weekend, which means most of the Empire Podcast team are currently trying to amass as much confectionary and is humanly possible in advance of the all-night onslaught of famous folk in very expensive clothing on Sunday. But before all that happens, here's a great little podcast featuring It Follows' wonderful Maika Monrie and the one and only Bill Nighy. Remember, kids: don't buy drugs!

Two of Empire's favourite people star in this week's podcast, with tried-and-true 27 per center Titus Welliver making his debut and old hand Douglas Booth returning for his third visit.

It's a directorial double-header this week, with Ex Machina's Alex Garland and Inherent Vice's Paul Thomas Anderson on the show to talk about their respective movies and a hell of a lot more (think baths, for some reason). Also, a franchise discussion bonanza - the question being: is anything sacred?

Ethan Hawke drops by the Empire Podcast studio this week to talk about the critically-acclaimed Oscar frontrunner Boyhood, which is now out on Blu-ray and DVD, while director extraordinaire J.C. Chandor was here to explain why the title of his latest, A Most Violent Year, doesn't actually reflect the amount of violence in the actual movie.

The nominations for the 2015 Academy Awards were announced this week, which makes this particular Empire Podcast - featuring interviews from Into The Woods' Meryl Streep and Testament Of Youth's Alicia Vikander - particularly Oscar-themed, with the team taking the time to analyses the snubs and even review a few of the films what got nodded, such as the wonderful Whiplash.

It's BAFTA nomination week this week, so there are gong-worthy nominees aplenty on the latest Empire Podcast, with Birdman's Michael Keaton and The Theory Of Everything's Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones all dropping by to be better at acting than us. Plus, someone says "I'm Batman" in that voice, and it may well be Mr. Keaton...

The final regular podcast of 2014 ends on a high note, with some stellar interview talent in the form of Tim Burton (Big Eyes) and three members of the Dumb And Dumber To team: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels and one of them there Farrelly Brothers everyone's talking about.

The Golden Globes nominations were announced, Star Wars revealed some of its names, Jonathan Frakes threw his hat into Star Trek 3's ring - so to speak - and The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies came out. It's been quite a week in movies, so let's talk about it.

The best, the worst, the disappointing, the surprising... the lot, basically. So much is talked about in this year's very special review of the year Empire Podcast that it's over 90 minutes long, and that's without any interviews or anything.