13 h. ago ‘We’re all connected – but it’s not the connection I imagined’: Hideo Kojima on Death Stranding 2

The legendary video game designer discusses directing actors in Mexico from Japan, how Mad Max inspired his career and the unique reason why he wants to go to spaceHideo Kojima – the acclaimed video game director who helmed the stealth-action Metal Gear series for decades before founding his own company to make Death Stranding, a supernatural post-apocalyptic delivery game this publication described as “2019’s most interesting blockbuster” – is still starstruck, or perhaps awestruck. “George [Miller] is my sensei, my God,” he proclaims gleefully.Kojima is visiting Australia for a sold-out chat with Miller, the creator of the Mad Max film franchise, at the Sydney film festival. The two struck up an unlikely but fierce friendship nearly a decade ago, and Kojima says that, as a teenager, the first two Mad Max films inspired him to become a movie director and thus, eventually, a video game maker. At the panel later, Miller is equally effusive, calling Kojima “almost my brother”; the Aus...

Events

14 h. ago Jurassic World: Rebirth director Gareth Edwards reveals surprise Ridley Scott movie inspiration

The 50-year-old filmmaker is helming the next era in the Jurassic era

Events

3 d. ago Red Path review – Tunisian drama tells traumatic story of Islamic State’s horrific cruelty

Based on the true story of the brutal murder of a teenage shepherd, Lotfi Achour’s sombre film honestly attempts to encompass the unbearable grief suffered by the familyA low cloud of misery and horror settles on this sombre movie from Tunisian writer-director Lotfi Achour, inspired by a brutal event in his country from 2015. A teenage shepherd called Mabrouk Soltani was murdered and beheaded on Mount Mghila in central Tunisia by members of Jund al-Khilafah (“soldiers of the caliphate”), the Tunisian branch of Islamic State, which habitually hides out in that remote, rugged region. They videoed their grotesque homicide, claiming the boy was an army spy and ordered his terrified 14-year-old cousin, who was with him, to carry the severed head back to his village as a brutal “message” – and this boy obeyed, in a stricken state of trauma that can only be guessed at. This horrifying event was to assume the status of national scandal in Tunisia two years later when the victim’s elder brot...

Events

8 d. ago Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's relationship with 'stern' psychotherapist who was once in will

The story of Brian Wilson and Eugene Landy inspired a Hollywood movie – with Wilson opening up about the affects of the manipulation before his death after a battle with a neurocognative disorder

Science

8 d. ago Mel Gibson movie Ransom inspires family to put up £1million reward for information which helps them find murdered mum's remains

Muriel McKay, 55, was abducted in 1969 after she was mistaken for media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's wife. Two men were jailed but her body have never been found.

Economics

1 week ago Florence Pugh’s most ‘inspiring’ movie is leaving Netflix in just a couple of weeks

You'd better be quick if you want to watch it as it will only be on Netflix for another two weeks

Politics

2 w. ago Norway’s Lofoten islands: an Arctic wonderland that will blow your holiday expectations out of the water

When Nick Howells visited historic village resort Nusfjord, he discovered a wild landscape that inspired Frozen and drama as breathtaking as any Disney movie

Politics

3 w. ago The stunning Portuguese escape that's just 3 hours from London and inspired hit movie Casino Royale

The weekender: Sintra, Portugal

Events