Danny Graydon

Far and away my favourite era of cinema is “The New Hollywood”, generally perceived to have run from 1968 to 1983 and which I was born in the middle of (1974). It was a period of tectonic change in Hollywood, with 1975′s Jaws generating the commercial paradigm of” the blockbuster” which remains to this day Hollywood’s dominant mode. [...]

Clearly, the casting of Kevin Costner as our beloved folk-hero Robin Hood twenty years ago continues to vigorously afflict our national consciousness: our vengeful response knows no bounds. First, Welshman Christian Bale  becomes the latest Batman, then Englishman Andrew Garfield becomes the latest Spider-Man and now, another dashing Englishman, Henry Cavill,  is set to take on [...]

I think it’s an admirable quality to be able to roll with the changes – especially in this instance! As far as anyone knew, Sir Ridley Scott was currently hard at work on a prequel to Alien, the ground-breaking and hugely-iconic fusion of Science Fiction and Horror that made his name. Except, as it turns [...]

Devotees of Bondage – ahem – the world over breathed a deep sigh of relief last week when – finally! - the happy news emerged that the Hollywood studio MGM had successfully negotiated their way beyond their bankruptcy-threatening financial woes. Crucially, this meant that  production on the 23rd James Bond film, actively suspended in April last year, [...]

For months, it has been common knowledge that the excellent British actor Tom Hardy (Star Trek Nemesis, Layer Cake, Inception) has been cast in Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming third Batman film, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES – although, as entirely expected, who he’s playing has been kept firmly secret. Now, rumours are starting to buzz that Hardy will [...]

Battle for Britain is a beautiful and penetrating example of how a short film can achieve so much in so little time. The 13-minute short, elegantly crafted by husband-and-wife filmmakers Jorg Tittel and Alex Helfrecht (writer and director respectively), is a poignant paean to a sorely-undervalued and often-unrecognised element of British history: the contribution of [...]

There was a measure of wearisome predictability about the recent announcement of Zack Snyder as the director of the next Superman movie (provisionally-titled “The Man of Steel”). The man behind comic book adapations  ”300″ and “Watchmen” beat out an array of idiosyncratic contenders including old hand Tony Scott (Spy Game), new hand Duncan Jones (Moon), Matt [...]

Today, I started work as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, where I  am teaching on various Film-related modules for the School of Creative Arts. I am starting off by supporting the Media Histories & Culture module, which is anchored on Special Effects and Digital Animation for first year undergraduates. Following the module’s [...]

Great Scott! Has it really been twenty-five years…? Last week, Robert Zemeckis’ 80′s classic Back To The Future  went on a limited cinema re-release here in the UK and which – happy, happy day – will be released on Blu-Ray on October 25th, along with its two sequels. Watching a press screening of the film last month [...]

As a film journalist, one of my particular areas of coverage has been Film Music. I’ve reviewed soundtracks and interviewed composers for EMPIRE for the last decade and written on the subject for the likes of Variety, the BBC and Amazon. It’s an area which I possess a huge degree of passion for – and [...]