Nick De Semlyen

London

Editor at Empire

Editor @empiremagazine. Author of The Last Action Heroes and Wild And Crazy Guys.

Articles

In the picture | In the picture | thenews.com.pk

Mar 22, 2025 | thenews.com.pk | Nick De Semlyen

The Studio ☆☆☆☆Starring: Catherine O’Hara, Seth Rogen, Bryan Cranston,Chase Sui Wonders, Kathryn Hahn, and Ike BarinholtzCreated by: Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, and Evan Goldbergs the old-adage goes, in Hollywood nobody knows anything. That seems to be even more the case in our hyper-caffeinated, multi-platform, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-injected modern times: the Dream Factory out in LA seems more chaotic than ever.
The 10 Greatest Robert De Niro Movies Of All Time

Mar 21, 2025 | empireonline.com | Ben Travis |Nick De Semlyen |John Nugent

The latest Robert De Niro movie to grace the big screen, The Alto Knights, understands one key rule: the more De Niro you can have in your movie, the better. Hence, it stars De Niro in two roles, as duelling mob bosses – a genre and milieu that he knows better than most, having starred in several of the greatest gangster movies ever made. But that’s just scratching the surface of De Niro – compelling whether he’s playing career criminals, comedians, cackling psychos, or champion boxers.
The Studio

Mar 13, 2025 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

Hapless Hollywood exec Matt (Seth Rogen) finds himself in the top job at Continental Studios, where he must deliver a billion-dollar blockbuster while not pissing off ‘the talent’. Streaming on: Apple TV+Episodes viewed: 10 of 10As the old adage goes, in Hollywood nobody knows anything. That seems to be even more the case in our hyper-caffeinated, multi-platform, AI-injected modern times: the Dream Factory out in LA seems more chaotic than ever.
Ke Huy Quan On Blowing Up, Kicking Ass, And Turning Leading Man

Jan 30, 2025 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

Ke Huy Quan is in the eye of the storm. He’s been here before, of course. When he was barely a teenager, he was a global icon — we all grew up gasping at his adventures, from battling Thuggees in a cave system lousy with voodoo in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, to being menaced by Robert Davi and Joey Pants in The Goonies. Those blockbusters put him on the map.
Saturday Night

Jan 28, 2025 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

On 11 October 1975, in Midtown Manhattan, a group of people are preparing to put on a show. The content may be silly, but the stakes are higher than the famous 66-storey building they’re in. Original Title:Saturday NightSaturday Night would make for a very solid double-bill with a Muppets movie. And not just because there are Muppets in it — well, primitive Muppets, at least, in the form of early Jim Henson creations King Ploobis and Vazh.
David Lynch Conjured Cinematic Dreams - And We All Got To Live In Them

Jan 17, 2025 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

A few years back, I went to see my favourite David Lynch film, Mulholland Drive, at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. The house was, pleasingly, pretty much packed. And as the movie started, I sank into Lynch’s nocturnal underworld of haunted starlets and malevolent hoods. Then, something odd happened. Half an hour into the film, a group of about ten people shuffled into the empty row in front of us.
Spinal Tap 2: Rob Reiner On Unlocking The Sequel And Reuniting The Band - World-Exclusive Q&A

Dec 18, 2024 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

The band Spinal Tap are all about instant gratification. “Tonight I’m gonna rock you tonight,” they howled in their song ‘Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight‘. “Gimme some money,” they crooned in their anthem ‘Gimme Some Money’. Whether it’s canapes, big bottoms, or unintentionally tiny models of Stonehenge, they want it now. When it’s come to their new adventure, however, we’ve had to wait a while. Over 40 years, in fact.
Paddington In Peru

Nov 4, 2024 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

Paddington (Ben Whishaw) travels to Peru when his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) goes missing. A nun (Olivia Colman) and a river-boat captain (Antonio Banderas) are allies in his quest… or are they? Original Title:Paddington In PeruThe bar for the bear has been raised awfully high. A decade ago, the polite, Peruvian furball with a hankering for fruit preserves stormed the box office — and our hearts — with his first cinematic outing.
Strange Darling

Sep 17, 2024 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

In Oregon, following a casual hook-up, a cat-and-mouse game plays out between a serial killer and their prey. The ensuing mayhem will leave bodies in its wake. Right at the end of summer, at the tail end of a movie season stuffed with whirling tornadoes, raging apes and a mouldy Michael Keaton, comes another welcome throwback: a low-budget thriller that emerges out of nowhere to bowl you over. With its enigmatic title and cast of relative unknowns, it was on few radars until recently.
Hundreds Of Beavers

Jul 12, 2024 | empireonline.com | Nick De Semlyen

It’s the 19th century, and when his applejack distillery is destroyed spectacularly, frontier hero Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) must face the perils of the frosty wilds — not least the small army of deranged beavers who are plotting something deep within the forest. If you predicted that one of the most entertaining films of the summer would be a deranged $150,000 comedy about a man battling beavers in the frozen north, then congratulations, you are more prescient than us.