#444 — Reginald Hudlin, Frank Marshall

This week's Empire Podcast sees Chris Hewitt sit down (across Zoom) with two directors whose first film came out 30 years ago, and who are back back back in the director's chair with new efforts. First up is Reginald Hudlin, the polymath who, along with his brother Warrington, made House Party, then tried his hand at a number of things, including producing the Oscars and writing Black Panther comics. His new film, Safety, hits Disney+ this week. Then Chris also chats to the legendary producer Frank Marshall, who returns to the director's chair for only the fifth time (Arachnophobia being his first) with the documentary, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? In this interview, Chris chats to Frank about his musical background, working on Noises Off!, and his strange Twitter handle, @LeDoctor.

Then, in the virtual podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara and James Dyer for a fun episode in which they talk about their ideal cinematic Christmas presents, answer a listener question about Christmasified (it's a word, honest) sequels, discuss the week's movie news (NOT including the big Disney news drop, which will get a special all of its own), and review Dreamland, The Prom, Safety, Songbird, and the last of Steve McQueen's epic Small Axe series, Education.

Enjoy.