Movies with Rhianna

There are "unbelievable stories", then there's the tale they're telling with Welcome To Chippendales, the latest Hulu drama to make its way over to the UK and land on Disney+ (alongside Welcome To Wrexham and, um, the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie), inspired by a book that says a lot just in the title: 'Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders'. Best to say not too much more, eh? But! Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett play the two key figures in the incredible tale of how the all-male dancing revue took over the world, and how good ol' power does so love to corrupt.

Gillian Anderson needs no introduction, but with this being the introduction part of the podcast, an introduction is what she shall have. An Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (the list goes on and on, and quite rightly) award winner, Anderson is a veteran of the X-Files series - but of course - as well as, more recently, The Crown and Sex Education, not forgetting Bleak House, American Gods, Great Expectations and much, much more. Here she talks to a very chilly Ali over Zoom in honour of her latest, the Netflix detective mystery thriller The Pale Blue Eye. No spoilers here, we promise!

2023 is here! And with it, Radio 1's Screen Time interview specials for you to listen to, you lucky, lucky things. First up is Blake Harrison, most recently seen in the second series of I Hate Suzie on Sky, but also in the likes of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (a must watch if you're a David Cross fan), The Great, A Very English Scandal and some thing called - checks notes - The Inbetweeners, where of course he played the legendary Neil. Here Blake talks to Ali about all of the above and more, even coming up with a whole new word in the process...

What is Ali's film of the year? You may be able to guess but just to maintain an air of mystery, let's say it's A BIG SURPRISE (it's not). Then there are the big movies of next year to look forward to - so many blockbusters it's almost unbelievable - plus a cheeky 'last interview of the year' with the stars of Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody, namely Naomi Ackie and Stanley Tucci. And if you're reading this podcast description, let us just say... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The cast of the new Witcher prequel series - four episodes hitting Netflix on Christmas Day, as you do - chat with Ali about baths, staffs, warhammers, regular hammers, shooting in Iceland, shooting in caves, the glory that is Michelle Yeoh as well as that pesky "Conjunction of the Spheres". Fair warning: Ali's a bit poorly, so he's even more eccentric than normal. Yeah... that's saying something, for sure.

Brian Tyree Henry is one of those actors, you know? Always good in everything he appears in, whether it's Atlanta, Boardwalk Empire, How To Get Away with Murder, This Is Us, If Beale Street Could Talk or even Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. He's just got that special X factor that lifts his characters up, and frankly, Ali may be a bit obsessed. Brian's getting rave reviews for his work in his latest effort, Causeway, and was kind enough to tell us all about it here...

2009's Avatar is - at the time of writing - the biggest film of all time. Ever. And now, 13 years later, its sequel is finally hitting cinemas, going by the name of Avatar: The Way Of Water. In this audio version of the BBC iPlayer programme, Ali speaks to the cast of the films - as well as producer Jon Landau and director (amongst many other things) James Cameron - to ask after the secret of the series' enormous success.

One of the very best things on Apple TV+ is Slow Horses, and one of the very best actors in Slow Horses is Jack Lowden - of Mary Queen Of Scots, Fighting With My Family and War And Peace fame - here playing alongside the legendary Gary Oldman in this thoroughly entertaining spy thriller series based on the books by Mick Herron. In this particular conversation, you'll hear Jack talking to Ali about meeting Sir Alex Ferguson, taking selfies with Mr. Oldman and what he's currently binging on TV. Pretty sure you're not going to guess what, to be honest...

With December chugging ever onwards and January and February just around the corner, what are the awards-worthy films we'll need to pretend we've seen in the new year? Friend of the show and Rotten Tomatoes' in-house awards expert Jacqueline Coley had a good old chat with Ali about the nature of modern film criticism as well as who's in the running for The Academy Awards 2023. The Whale, Tar, The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Women Talking... looks like we've got a lot of (very enjoyable) homework to do. You know, in a good way!

Odds are if you listen to Radio 1's Screen Time - and if you're reading this, there's a decent chance you do - you're aware of the super soaraway podcast success that is No Such Thing As A Fish, where four QI elves get together to throw semi-incredible facts at each other. One of their number is Dan Schreiber, a friend of the show here at Screen Time, and he was kind enough to stop by Radio 1 recently to indulge in a fact-slinging match with Ali about troubled movie productions, inspired in part by some killer stories in his new book, The Theory Of Everything Else. So expect extreme geekery and a surprising reassessment of 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Kaya Scodelario stops by - through the magic of the internet, that is - the podcast this week to talk about her new Christmas movie called, um, This Is Christmas. It's very Christmassy. Elsewhere on the podcast, the first half is all about the amazing avalanche of movie and TV news that's been occurring of late, with trailers for Indiana Jones 5, Guardians 3 and more all arriving, plus bits and pieces on The Last Of Us adaptation, His Dark Materials and much more.

Ali is joined by comedian and friend of the show Jordan Gray for an extended, spoilerific, conversation all about one of the finest super hero movies ever, X2: X-Men United.

Ali chats with Willow star Warwick Davis as well as creator Jonathan Kasdan and vaious other other cast members.

Will Ferrell? In a Christmas film? Inconceivable! The artist sometimes known as Buddy the elf teams up with Ryan Reynolds for Apple TV+'s festive musical outing, Spirited, a toe-tapping take on the classic Christmas Carol story. Here you'll hear from Will himself as well as his co-star Octavia Spencer, not forgetting their director Sean Anders. Ho ho ho and so forth.

The Menu hits cinemas this weekend, a thriller-horror-psychological... food film, you might say? As in, a film about food. Ralph Fiennes plays an all-powerful chef who invites a select group of foodies to a night they'll never forget at his remote island restaurant. Here stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult tell us all about it - as well as Mad Max Fury Road and much, much more...

Connor Swindells may be best known for his performance as Adam Groff in Sex Education, but his new role as SAS founder David Stirling in the BBC's SAS Rogue Heroes may take over that prized position. Here's a chat with the charming so-and-so that touches on what to expect from Sex Ed series 4 and how to best survive a desert shoot in the baking heat when sand gets absolutely everywhere. Top tip: turn the air con off. Seriously. Now you know.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is finally here: the 30th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the long-awaited follow-up to the box office-busting worldwide cultural phenomenon that was the first Black Panther, which came out back in 2018. This is an interview special in honour of the film - featuring writer-director Ryan Coogler as well as some of his cast, including Winston Duke, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o and more - touches on the passing of the late, great Chadwick Boseman as well as what it was like to be caught up in the maelstrom of Black Panther mania when the first film came out.

A short and sweet conversation with Aimee Lou Wood - of Sex Education fame, sure, but she was in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, let's not forget, and lots of theatre too - for you this Sunday, as we celebrate her first lead role in a motion picture: Living. A remake of the Japanese classic Ikiru, it stars Bill Nighy as a bureaucrat with a terminal illness, and Aimee as his work colleague that starts to bring him out of his shell. It's a real winner this one, well worth seeking out, as Aimee herself will tell you...

The cast for the Enola Holmes movies on Netflix, well, it's a little bit ridiculous. Eleven herself, Millie Bobby Brown, might have been enough, but you've also got Henry Cavill (as Sherlock, no less), Helena Bonham Carter, David Thewlis and Sam Claflin (in the first film, at least). Speaking from New York last week - just after that big Superman news dropped - both Millie and Henry were on great form, getting very geeky about reality TV shows and fantasy novels. Wonder if you can guess who was getting geeky about what...

House Of The Dragon has wrapped up its first series and now all us Game Of Thrones fans are left waiting well over a year for the next episode to land in - gulp - 2024. To help assuage the pain, Ali has teamed up with friend of the podcast Steffan Powell (formerly of Radio 1's Newsbeat, now the BBC's Gaming Reporter) for a bit of low-on-expertise-but-high-on-enthusiasm spoilerific chat about the GoT prequel. You know, just the way we like it here at Radio 1's Screen Time, eh?