Film event of the year? This depends on you. The long-awaited fourth instalment of the Star Wars series has attracted such ridiculous reams of relentless hype that it can't help but obscure the project itself - we are, after all, talking about a simple two-hour adventure/fantasy film for kids from six to sixty, not the Second Coming of Christ.
William St Leger, A freelance graphic designer from Clonmel now living in London, locked himself to the roof of an American military base during a recent high profile Greenpeace action in England. Here is his account of the day, as told to Adrienne Murphy
Attack Of The Clones turns out to be almost as awful as its predecessor, with only the occasional lightsabre fight serving to deflect attention from the demented ridiculousness of the entire enterprise
Twenty years after its original release, George Lucas sci-fi epic STAR WARS is back on the cinema screens of the world, fully restored and with several minutes of extra new footage. CRAIG FITZSIMONS explores the myth, mayhem and madness of the film, and attempts to nail down exactly what makes it so great.
How did a non sci-fi fan end up producing the most famous interplanetary blockbuster of all time? Red FM’s Victor Barry talks to Rick McCallum about his relationship with George Lucas, the logistics of shooting in 17 different countries – and the health of his liver.
No, she doesn’t hate Tim Wheeler but yes, she does look up her own chart position first. A solo Charlotte Hatherly on Bowie, Star Wars and life with and without Ash.
It’s Star Trek Jim, but not as we know It. Over tea and biscuits, Mr Spock and Captain Kirk – aka actors ZACHARY QUINTO and CHRIS PINE – talk about filling the most famous boots in science fiction – and explain why JJ Abrams’ sexy new Trek movie is anything but a nerd-fest. words Tara Brady
The First (and almost certainly the worst) blockbuster to benight our summer thus far, Battlefield Earth is a work of such devastating intellectual incompetence and emotional emptiness as to make Star Wars: Phantom Menace resemble Bergman's Seventh Seal.
In the new Hot Press, Star Trek movie director JJ Abrams – known for his work on Alias and Lost – makes the shocking admission that he's always preferred George Lucas' take on sci-fi.
Never mind Cradle of Filth and their “Jesus Is A Cunt” t-shirts, if it’s real, honest to Beelzebub offensiveness you’re after look no further than Norwegian death metallers Gorgoroth who’ve been charged with blasphemous obscenity following a particularly boisterous gig in Poland.
Self-contained, intelligent, and far from the pouting princess of her stage persona, Natalie Imbruglia in person is a cool customer. The singer here discusses Kylie’s recent illness, her hit album Counting Down The Days, being the face of L’Oreal and forthcoming movie projects. “I couldn’t just do the one thing. I’d get bored,” she tells Ed Power.
She’s worked with film makers as diverse as Alan Parker and Quentin Tarantino. For her latest role Bronagh Gallagher found herself in a Middle Ages love triangle. No wonder she kept breaking out in giggles.
Nerd godhead Kevin Smith has gone back to the motherlode with his new movie, Clerks II. Middle age has done little to dent his infatuation with potty humour, he tells Tara Brady.
Having revolutionised television with Lost, wunderkind producer J.J. ABRAMS has now focused his sights on the ailing Star Trek franchise. But can a ‘Trek agnostic really breathe fresh life into the most famous brand in science fiction? And will his gamble of casting relative unknowns as the iconic Enterprise crew come off?
When he’s not playing the evil criminal mastermind in Hollywood blockbusters, Eddie Izzard can be found wandering the corridors of the European Parliament with Tony Blair. Tara Brady gets a yes, no and maybe from the nail polish-loving English comedian.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon was devastated when his follow-up project, a Western-tinged space-opera, was cancelled without warning. Rather than sulking, Whedon brought the show back to life in movie forkm, as the sci-fi pulp extravaganza Serenity.
"This is hell, dude!"
- Ascanio Pignatelli. L.A. based graduate student and would-be actor, interviewed during the Malibu fires by the Los Angeles Times.
The new year, according to some astrologer or other, was a very good time for making resolutions, as long as you got on with them from the start. If you’ve left it ’til now, forget it. Depending on your particular weakness, you might be just as well off.
The creator of cinema’s lost peyote sacraments, mime master, graphic novelist, the man who married Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese, and the secret architect of Dune and Alien, 78-year-old Alejandro Jodorowsky is a counter-cultural legend.
The first time The Killers played Oxegen they fretted whether anyone would turn up to see them. Now they’re sweeping in to headline the main stage. They talk to us about being chased by papparazi, growing up in Middle America and sharing a bill with Bono and, er, Gary Barlow
From hip replacement to hip and onto hip-hop, the second coming of texas has been one of the most unlikely artistic and commercial triumphs of recent years.
But as olaf Tyaransen discovers, the new-look
sharleen spiteri remains very much her old self.
She has the bearing of a 19th-Century aristocrat but, face to face, Keira Knightley is nobody’s princess. Here she talks about starring in Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End and explains why, for her at least, it really is time to jump overboard from the franchise.
Yes, it's the long-awaited return of the world's greatest politically incorrect headline. Michael Hutchence of Féile headliners INXS explains why he's flying a flag for the old-fashioned values and going back to his musical roots. All this plus: condoms, Mick Jagger at 50 and the best-hung member of INXS. Interview: Neil McCormick.
When Paddy Moloney isn t busy gigging, rehearsing or recording with his band of merry men, The chieftains, he s laughing. A man who makes The Laughing Policeman look like Leonard Cohen, Moloney recently took a 10-minute break to talk to Paul Byrne about the band s new album REEL MUSIC, their upcoming London festival weekend, their up-coming Christmas album, Van Morrison and oh, about four million other things The Chieftains are currently involved with. Hold onto your sides!
Having dominated the charts here for the past ten years, Ash are gearing up for a full-scale invasion of America. Stuart Clark dons his hard hat as Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte tell him about their new record of mass destruction Meltdown, and the A-list celebrity company they’ve been keeping in the city of angels.
American writer john horgan has earned the wrath of the scientific community and the unwelcome support of the fundamentalist Right for his provocative theories aimed at separating science fact from science fiction.
Interview: liam fay. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
Out goes Bernard Butler, in comes Richard Oakes and Suede seem to go from strength to strength. LORRAINE FREENEY discovers that Brett Anderson and co. are shiny, happy people again.
Or that's what the proponents of the phenomenon of Virtual Reality might want us to believe. GERRY McGOVERN enters this brave new world and discovers that its capacity to transform our lives - at work, rest and foreplay - is truly mindblowing. Now, put on your headset and start reading!
He may have already seated his place in movie history with searing performances in the likes of Scarface and Dog Day Afternoon, but legendary screen icon Al Pacino remains keen to seek out fresh challenges. Hotpress caught up with Pacino to discuss his role in People I Know, the gritty New York thriller which sees the actor go back to his lo-fi indie roots.
An absolute feast for the eyes, The Matrix is a hugely expensive and inordinately flashy virtual-reality filmic experience that has to be seen to believed.
A chick-flick with attitude, a delicious comedy that’s become a phenomenon in the States, and a journey into the hellish world of teen girl bullying – there are plenty of good reasons why Mean Girls is one of the movies of the year.
From Taxi Driver and Raging Bull to The Last Temptation Of Christ and his latest leftfield masterpiece The Walker, Paul Schrader has gifted us a succession of Hollywood’s finest moments. Here he talks to Tara Brady about the changing face of film, lying to the FBI and his admiration for the late Ingmar Bergman.
A once high-flying solicitor who was jailed for fraud, David Elio Malocco is now a budget film-maker with a strong anti-establishment view, a man who says he has swapped a "disgraceful" materialistic lifestyle for a social conscience. Here, he talks about crime, punishment, Sinn Fein, Shelbourne, God and the movies
Oh, how I’ve prayed for this day. George Lucas’ increasingly unappealing franchise has spluttered its avaricious last and not before time. May the force be gone. True, Revenge Of The Sith, the final instalment of this tweenie space opera is infinitely preferable to the previous two films (in much the same way as an enema is nicer than a bullet in the head) but the same old problems are annoyingly in evidence.
Older and wiser but still mad for it, Oasis have delivered their best album in years. In an exclusive – and expletive-filled – interview Liam Gallagher holds forth on fatherhood, brotherly love and explains why Coldplay and The Killers are limp-wristed also-rans.
Giant lemons, 100ft toothpicks and enough lights to put Las Vegas on full-scale UFO alert. Helena Mulkerns watches with gob well and truly smacked as U2's PopMart extravaganza opens for business at the Sam Boyd Stadium.
Pix: All Action
John Walshe travels to Berlin to see Ash in superlative live form on Paddy's night. And no wonder: the band reckon their new album, free all angels could put them in the Michael Jackson league! plus: why they're so down on Louis Walsh, Westlife and Ronan Keating and so up for Bono, John Hume, David Trimble and - wait for it - Darius of Popstars. Flash photography: Mella Travers
He’s been at the helm with U2 since 1979. In the intervening time he’s been involved in every aspect of the career of the biggest rock band in the world. In a rare in-depth interview, Paul McGuinness talks about the highs and lows of managing the fab four and reflects on the State of the Nation and the implosion of the Irish economy.
Saturday, July 13th, 1985 will go down in history as Live Aid Day, the extraordinary culmination of Bob Geldof's attempts to mobilise the international music industry behind urgently-needed famine relief in Africa. Among the stellar cast performing for 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium, London are U2, a band determined to rise to the occasion. Report: Neil McCormick
Prince may be content just to party but in a four-page special the Hot Press journalistic elite takes a look at everything 1999 has to offer. And then some.
It's Christmas, 1997 is drawing to a close and Noel Gallagher is in suitably reflective mood. "I can't be bothered writing music anymore", says the Oasis mainman before telling Stuart Clark precisely what he thinks of Liam, Meg, Sinéad O'Connor, that cunt Mick Jagger and England's chances of lifting the World Cup.
The technology which drives home entertainment is changing, and it's changing fast. Colm O'Hare takes a close-up look at what's happening in hi-fi, television, video and home cinema technology and discovers that the future has already arrived.
U2 manager Paul McGuinness is among the most powerful players in the music industry. To coincide with the DVD release of U2’s classic ZOO TV Live From Sydney, he talks candidly about his relationship with the band and their controversial decision to move part of their business empire to the Netherlands in order to lower their tax burden.
Even if On The Run had proved the most misbegotten experiment since Robbie Williams did that swing album, you would have to applaud the audacity of this venture.
Yes folks, it's here at last: the most eagerly-awaited film in all human history, starring the almighty Rupert Everett alongside his erstwhile pal Madonna in what aspires to be a serious issue-based drama about parenting, surrogacy, homosexuality and the nature of friendship
There’s a moment in this decidedly odd, nay Heller-esque drama, when eccentric violinist Ismael (Amalric) bemoans the quality of his dreams to his Jungian therapist, annoyed that the ladders witnessed during his slumbers are merely the result of his subconscious working in a cheap allusion to the Yeats’ poem The Circus Animals' Desertion. “It’s tragic dreaming about translation problems,” he sighs.
A few hours after Bono hoisted up Trimble and Hume s arms at the Yes show, I found myself trying to buy drinks at a city centre bar and having a strange conversation with a well known local politician. A prominent face during the pro-Agreement campaign, I d assumed that he d be delighted with the way that the gig had panned out. But no, he shrugged off the entire occasion as a bubbly inconsequence and said that the Yes camp would be lucky to get 68% of the vote. For someone convinced that his cause was on the cusp of a massive historical defeat, he didn t appear to be overly upset. In fact, he seemed happy enough showing off his Larry Mullan Jr autograph and blaming the Unionists.
From his role as Officer Larvell Jones in Police Academy to voicing Gremlins and imitating Zeppelin and Hendrix, Michael Winslow has been making funny noises with his mouth for decades.
THOSE OF us who watched the highlights of Shelbourne's victory over a Ukrainian outfit in the European Cup-Winners' Cup, were wondering if perhaps we had stumbled onto the wrong channel.
From being the voice of the toilet duck (no, really) to having his own chat show (well, kind of), actor and comedian Rob Brydon (aka keith barret) has finally come of age.
The opening night of a U2 tour can be fraught with peril. But in the Camp Nou in Barcelona tonight they exorcised the demons of previous tours and started on a winning note. Report: Olaf Tyaransen
