Total Film Annual - Volume 5 - September 2022

150 Pages·2022·39 MB·English

TOTAL FILM ANNUAL
CELEBRATING THE YEAR IN FILM
20 23
TOP GUN, OBI-WAN KENOBI, THOR,
THE BATMAN, MS. MARVEL,
THE NORTHMAN AND MORE...

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FIRST EDITIO

Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA
Bookazine Editorial
Editor Jordan Farley
Senior Art Editor Mike Brennan
Senior Art Editor Andy Downes
Head of Art & Design Greg Whitaker
Editorial Director Jon White
Magazine Editorial
Group Editor-in-Chief Jane Crowther
Art Editor Mike Brennan
Content Director, Games & Film Daniel Dawkins
Head of Art & Design Rodney Dive
Contributors
Paul Bradshaw, Jamie Graham, Leila Latif, Matthew Leyland, Matt Looker,
Matt Maytum, James Mottram, Oshanti Omkar, Rafa Sales Ross, Jack
Shepherd, Josh Winning
Photography
Alamy, Getty, Shutterstock THE BIG SCREEN
All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected
Advertising
Media packs are available on request IS BACK, BABY!
Commercial Director Clare Dove
International
Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw
[email protected]
www.futurecontenthub.com
A
Circulation
Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers fter two of the most trying years in film history,
Production
cinemas are open for business. Changing habits
Head of Production Mark Constance
Production Project Manager Matthew Eglinton have contributed to softer box office returns over
Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby
Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson the last 12 months, leading to choppy waters for major
Production Managers Keely Miller, Nola Cokely,
Vivienne Calvert, Fran Twentyman chains like Cineworld, but there have been rare instances
Printed in the UK (looking at you, Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way
Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 Home) of films performing at or above pre-pandemic levels.
5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: [phone]
Streaming isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – and nor
Total Film Annual 2023 First Edition (FIB4658)
© 2022 Future Publishing Limited should it – but what’s clear is that audiences will continue to
We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly turn out in droves for films taking full advantage of the big
managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this bookazine
was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict screen experience. Unsurprisingly, superheroes continue to
environmental and socioeconomic standards.
dominate, but there’s a clear appetite for stories that don’t
All contents © 2022 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. originate in comic books, with the likes of Everything,
All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or
reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Everywhere All At Once and Baz Luhrmann’s glitzy Elvis biopic
Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in resoundingly exceeding expectations.
this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of
going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such There’s also a big blue behemoth waiting in the wings
information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to
the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in Avatar: The Way Of Water, the long-awaited sequel to the
in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents
or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not highest-grossing film of all time. A lot’s changed in the 13
affiliated in any way with the comgepta onnie ws mithe tnhteio fnuend s htuefrfe..i.n. Now the boring bit’s over, let’s years since king of the world James Cameron put Pandora on
the galactic map, but a wise person never counts Cameron
out. Skip ahead to p72, and you can find out why he remains a
peerless world builder, from the man himself.
Like cinemas finding renewed purpose in the face of
streamers, here at Total Film we believe a lovingly curated,
beautifully designed print product still has a place in a
non-stop digital world. To that end, what you’re reading
represents the very best of the year in Total Film’s montly
offerings, and is packed with world-exclusive insight from
some of the most exciting filmmakers working today.
Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne We hope you enjoy what you’re about to read, and here’s to
company quoted on the Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford
L(soynmdboonl :S FtUocTkR )Exchange Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand another great year at the movies!
www.futureplc.com Tel [phone]
Jordan Farley
Editor
ANNUAL 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 3
THE BIG LIST
6 SCARY MOVIES
The TF team reveal the films that make their
spines shiver and skin crawl. Be afraid...
FEATURES
14 TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Tom Cruise and his wingmen on the high-
flying sequel that’ll take your breath away.
26 ELVIS
A hunk, a hunk of Luhrmann love went into
this musical biopic. Truly, it’s fit for a king.
32 OBI-WAN KENOBI
Ewan McGregor on the long, long overdue
Return of the Jedi. Hello there…
44 LICORICE PIZZA
Paul Thomas Anderson’s film: far more
enjoyable than an actual liquorice pizza [barf].
50 THE NORTHMAN
The film-financing genius that gave Robert
Eggers $90million to make a viking movie
deserves their spot in Valhalla.
60 AVATAR: THE WAY
OF WATER
Aka James Cameron’s Waterworld. Don’t be
blue, the 13-year wait is almost over.
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INTERVIEWS
64 TOM HIDDLESTON
Marvel’s mischief maker talks us through
his life as a professional shapeshifter.
72 JAMES CAMERON
Legendary filmmaker, peerless world-builder,
ruddy good illustrator… is there anything Big
Jim can’t do?
79 RACHEL ZEGLER
The West Side Story star and future Snow White
on her fairytale career.
80 JESSICA CHASTAIN
All eyes on the Best Actress Oscar winner as we
build her hall of Fay(m)e.
88 RIDLEY SCOTT
From The Duellists to The Last Duel,
we celebrate a truly great Scott.
SUPERHEROES
100 THE BATMAN
R-Battz cleans up the streets of Gotham, and
not a Bat-nipple in sight.
114 MOON KNIGHT
We’re not saying we’d die for Marc Spector,
but we’re not not saying that either…
120 DOCTOR STRANGE 2
The multiverse is a concept about which we
know, well, quite a lot actually.
128 MS. MARVEL
Nice of Kevin Feige to give the world’s biggest
Marvel fan a job as the world’s biggest Captain
Marvel fan. Got a role for us, Kevin?
134 THOR: LOVE AND
THUNDER
Alternative title ideas: The God Couple, Gorr
Blimey, Portman Begins…
146 MORBIUS
It’s Morbin’ time… and hopefully for the last time.
TOTALFILM.COM ANNUAL 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 5

SCARY MOVIES
What’s the movie that
terrified you witless?
The one that you’re almost
too scared to return to?
Join the Total Film team
as we reignite some
nightmare fuel and single
out the scariest films
we’ve ever seen.
TF LIST
MATTHEW LEYLAND Reviews Editor
JAWS
(1975)
The date is etched in my mind,
especially now I’ve Googled it:
8 October, 1981. The network TV
premiere of Jaws. My nerves had
already been battle-hardened by
Spielberg’s snake pits, melty Nazis and soul-sucking
angels of death. So I knew there was little to fear from
one big dumb fish with a snout that had nothing on
Mr. Noseybonk’s.
Instead, I had a whale of a time with the film:
thrilling to all the blood and harpoons; giggling with my
parents at the jokes I didn’t understand; and helping
them get through the talky bits by tunelessly humming
Meco’s ‘Star Wars Theme’ while spinning á la Lynda
Carter in front of the TV.
And then, in the dead of night, I became utterly
convinced there was a school of Great Whites circling
at the foot of my bed. Neither my parents’ attempt to
soothe me (“Bloody hell, it’s 2am”) nor my talismanic
Six Million Dollar Man pyjamas could save me from a fate
worse than Chrissie the skinny-dipper’s. She was the
first; Bruce had saved me for last.
FEAR NO MORE Folding cinema seats. Until the
age of eight, they were deadly bear traps waiting to
concertina me to the pa-pah, pa-pah, pa-pah of the
Pearl & Dean music.
JANE CROWTHER Editor-in-Chief
THE THING
(1982)

Like all ’80s children, my
brother and I enjoyed a
weekly trip to our local video
shop – a dank, unwelcoming
corridor of a store that
displayed those puffy VHS boxes of child-
friendly fare (sometimes not rewound, grrr)
and, at the back, a darker selection for the
adults. Our parents never allowed a choice
from those shelves but Grandma wasn’t up
on the rules of engagement. So when she
came to babysit one weekend we conned
her into renting John Carpenter’s The Thing
and she let us watch it alone.
We soon regretted our duplicity when
Charles Hallahan’s Norris required CPR
– only for his chest to turn into an open
maw before his head stretched off, sprouted
legs and scuttled off. You had to be fucking
kidding. We were saucer-eyed with
revulsion, terror and the creeping suspicion
that nothing was safe. The grossest, most
febrile disquiet could be found in anyone,
anywhere… and though we watched the
film to completion, nothing seared quite
like that scene. Disgusting, unstoppable,
rapacious, haunting – it still prompts a bile
burp on watching.
FEAR NO MORE Ghostbusters’ pre-title
library ghost jump (bookish phantom
to screaming skull) made me spill my
Maltesers all over the cinema floor as a kid.
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SCARY MOVIES
MATT MAYTUM Deputy Editor
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
(1999)
I was just the right age when The Blair Witch Project landed. As a
15-year-old, I was obsessed with movies, often daydreamed about
shooting a lo-fi effort on a camcorder, and slept in tents a fair bit.
I was aware of the viral marketing campaign – blurring the fact/
fiction boundary as it established the Burkittsville mythology and left
a breadcrumb trail to the ‘missing’ filmmakers – but I wasn’t internet-savvy enough
to debunk it (we never had a PC in my house). By the time the film actually opened
in the UK my anticipation was off the scale.
It was a perfect storm of gut-churning terror. Cinema hadn’t yet been inured
to found-footage fears, so there was a grimly realistic snuff-movie vibe to the
reclaimed tapes. The unknown actors (using their real names) were entirely
believable. And for me, horror films are always at their scariest before you see the
ghost/creature/crone, so The Blair Witch Project’s standing-in-the-corner final shot
was the worst/best ending I could’ve hoped for. There’s probably not a week that’s
gone by where I haven’t shuddered to recall it.
FEAR NO MORE My burgeoning passion for movies was nearly stopped dead by
the Harry And The Hendersons trailer; I dreaded trips to the cinema for months after.
PAUL BRADSHAW Contributor
THE SHINING
(1980)

Yes it’s a cliché, but everyone’s favourite horror movie
is also one of the few films that I’m still genuinely
frightened of, even when I’m not watching it. It’s not
crazy Jack wielding an axe and it’s not the ghastly ghost
in the bath. It’s not even the creepy twins or the lift full
of blood so much as the distant, depthless feeling of dread that hasn’t
really left me since my parents first showed me Kubrick’s classic as a
teenager. The brilliant Room 237 (2012) helped a bit in unmasking some
the psychological tricks at play in the film’s obsessive attention to detail,
but certain images and sounds of The Shining always seem to be trundling
through the carpeted corridors of my imagination. Sometimes it’s the
emptiness of the huge, brightly lit frames; a camera floating through a
low doorway; Danny Lloyd’s quick-cut silent scream; the opening notes
of the Berlioz score. I watch the film once a year to try and exorcise it,
but it’s always there – just around that next corner.
FEAR NO MORE The Wheelers in Return To Oz (the darkest kids’ movie
of the ’80s) made me briefly terrified of anyone on roller skates.
LEILA LATIF Contributing Editor
THREADS
(1984)

At university I had a terrible boyfriend with an incredible DVD
collection. In retrospect the only thing scarier than my taste in men
was the evening he introduced me to Threads. Now, as a person who
rewatches The Exorcist to relax, the prospect of some 1980s BBC movie
wasn’t daunting. But Threads remains the most bone-chillingly bleak
viewing experience of my life.
The film asks what would happen if the threat of nuclear war came to pass in the
UK, and the answer is unrelentingly grim, made scarier still by the gritty and furious
filmmaking. Cities crumble, bureaucrats suffocate in bunkers and a woman gives
birth alone, screaming and chewing through the baby’s umbilical cord. Decades pass
in nuclear winter but the film always feels grounded in reality, that just a few poor
political choices could make this world a reality. And true to form, Threads ends on
the darkest of notes.
Unless someone gives Michael Myers the nuclear codes I doubt any slasher flick
could ever scare me more.
FEAR NO MORE Kid me found Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka creepy, but adult me
knows that nothing is more attractive than a stylish man with a boat.
TOTALFILM.COM ANNUAL 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 9
TF LIST
JOSH WINNING Contributor
BLACK CHRISTMAS
(1974)
In 1998, I was 14 years old and just getting into horror
movies. I voraciously taped them off TV, and I’ll never
forget the night I crawled into bed to watch Black
Christmas, having recorded a late-night showing on
Channel 4. With the film playing at the foot of my bed,
I barely moved under the covers, paralysed with fear as the likes of
Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder were stalked and slashed by a killer
hiding in the attic of their doomed sorority house.
Steeped in ’70s dread, the film was shockingly different to the glossy
teen horrors of the 1990s. Its sorority setting is as claustrophobic as a
bag over the head, all dark wood panelling and winding staircases, and
the ending, which hints the real killer remains at large, still chills me to
the bone. That night in 1998, Black Christmas left me so scared, I had to
sleep with the lights on – and even now, its grubby atmosphere has me
sleeping with one eye open in case Billy climbs down from the attic.
FEAR NO MORE The Haunting (1999) had teen me cowering in the
cinema. I know, what an idiot.
JAMIE GRAHAM Editor-at-Large
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE
(1974)
A horror fan since the age of eight, when my sister sat
me down to watch Friday The 13th: Part 2, I didn’t see
Tobe Hooper’s infamous shocker until I was 24. It was
banned in the UK, and while a dodgy copy of A Clockwork
Orange did the rounds at school, The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre stayed hidden.
It was the stuff of myth by the time I saw it, and could never live
up to its reputation – or, indeed, the few grainy stills of Leatherface
and his cannibalistic clan I’d poured over in magazines and books.
Only it did, its grubby 16mm images and deafeningly discordant sound
design slicing me to the bone. Most of my favourite movies I return to
regularly; Chain Saw I’ve seen only four times, though its every frame
is burned in my psyche, and I have a recurring nightmare in which
Leatherface cuts off each of my limbs in turn and leaves my torso to
bleed out in the mud. You might say the film left a mark.
FEAR NO MORE As a kid, I had a phobia of burlap sacks after seeing
Jason Voorhees kill teens with one on his head.
JORDAN FARLEY News Editor
THE MIST
(2007)
At the risk of sounding like the playground blowhard,
films generally don’t scare me; I know too much about
how the sausage is made. But Frank Darabont’s sublime
adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist scared me half
to death. In fact, it might be the most existentially
horrifying film ever committed to screens.
The Mist doesn’t have a shred of hope in its DNA. Sure, the bug
monsters are pretty freaky, but what’s truly unshakable is the film’s
notorious ending – a soul crusher pulled from the deepest depths of
human horror. The irreversible nightmare of euthanising your own child
when salvation was literally just out of sight is a fate far worse than
death. In The Mist, even victory is defeat. Darabont reportedly turned
down a bigger budget to retain his despairing ending. In doing so he
ensured his film’s place in horror movie legend.
FEAR NO MORE Aged eight, I cowered at the sight of Peter Greene’s
transformation into a superpowered Dorian in The Mask. By 11, I thought
he looked like a C-tier pro-wrestler.
10 | TOTAL FILM | ANNUAL 2023 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS