THE WATCH LIST
Team Empire (and a famous friend) on their upcoming picks from TV and film
THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (12 MARCH, IN CINEMAS) NICK DE SEMLYEN, DEPUTY EDITOR
I’ve recently busted open my Blu-ray box set of The Sopranos, finding joy during lockdown in returning to the world of the shooty, shouty Bada Bing!. Not only has it made me annoy my friends and family by saying “gabagool” a lot, but it’s got me feverishly excited to see the long-in-the-making prequel movie. We’ll get to finally see Uncle Junior when he was actually junior, plus Tony Soprano again, played by James Gandolfini’s son, Michael. Basically, bring on the gabagool. Sorry.
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (12 MARCH, IN CINEMAS) BEN TRAVIS, ONLINE STAFF WRITER
What happens when you stick the director of Blindspotting on a Disney movie? I can’t wait to find out, as Carlos López Estrada teams with Disney veteran Don Hall for a vibrant fantasy adventure drawing from Southeast Asian culture, boasting the voices of the immensely loveable Kelly Marie Tran and comic genius Awkwafina. Post Frozen and Moana, Raya looks set to give the nu-princess archetype an action-heroine overhaul. Frankly, I need a fresh sprinkle of Disney magic right now — and you probably do too.
THE NORTH WATER (SPRING TBC, BBC ONE/IPLAYER) JOHN NUGENT, NEWS EDITOR
Andrew Haigh is a director who seems to operate on the fringes. But he’s someone whose work I’ve been consistently wowed by — whether on the big screen (artful, low-key dramas like Lean On Pete or | 45 Years) or small (genre-defying US shows like The OA or Looking). So I’m appropriately hyped about his new BBC miniseries: adapted from a blisteringly brutal book by Ian Mcguire about a Victorian whaling ship that goes a bit murder-y, Haigh has recruited some proper acting big hitters (Colin Farrell, Stephen Graham, Tom Courtenay, Jack O’connell) to tell the four-part story. But don’t expect the gentle relationship dynamics of 45 Years. To coin a phrase: there will be blood.
ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE (STREAMING MID-2021) CHRIS HEWITT, RE.VIEW EDITOR
Nobody has any idea what Zack Snyder’s Justice League is going to look like. Not even Zack Snyder, judging from all the additional material (Jared Leto’s Joker!), reshoots (Ben Affleck donning the Batsuit again!) and extra sequences he’s apparently being allowed to drop in, at no little expense, to the four-hour mini-series. And that’s the exciting part. Snyder’s previous movies in this realm are flawed as hell, but also clearly the work of a filmmaker with a vision. Now he’s finally getting a chance to finish what he started on Justice League. At the very least, it’ll be an incredible curio. But if it works, it’ll be Batmanshit crazy.
WHAT I’M WATCHING… JEFF GOLDBLUM ON BABYLON BERLIN (NOW TV)
“I sure liked that Last Dance documentary, about Michael Jordan. I went crazy for that. But something I really love right now is Babylon Berlin. I’ve even dressed up as one of the characters. I love the acting. I love the production. I thought it was just wonderfully done, with those two compelling leads. You know, that time in history, even in this version of it, it’s a cautionary tale. About culture, when it is infected by difficulty and stupidity and coarseness and insensitivity and brutality and corruption. It’s what we have to watch out for.”