Film Stories with Simon Brew

Superhero movies? Oh, go on then. A pair of very different projects take centre stage here, at different ends of the budget spectrum.

2016's Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was a pivotal movie for Warner Bros, and a big screen showdown that it'd first attempted nearly 20 years previously. This time, director Zack Snyder was effectively charged with leading the fightback against Marvel and its cinematic universe - and his Batman/Superman showdown would have plenty of ramifications.

In the case of 1996's The Phantom, here was a lower budget superhero outing, where the price was chopped just weeks ahead of filming. Joe Dante had originally been set to direct, and Simon Wincer would step in. But 10 days away from release, the boss of Paramount was very aware few people had heard of the movie...

Stories of both are told in this episode.

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A very warm welcome to the Film Stories podcast to screenwriter (and producer!) Eric Roth. He joins Simon for a conversation that goes right back through his career: from working on a hit Airport movie, to thinking he picked the wrong ending for the thriller Suspect.

Things turned in the 1990s though with the success of Forrest Gump, and Roth reflects on that, as well as touching on films such as Michael Mann's masterpiece, The Insider. We come right up to date too with Killers Of The Flower Moon, writing for Cher, his thoughts on AI, and his upcoming project that reunites him with Robert Zemeckis...

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Two films with very short titles in this episode, starting with a comedy favourite from the 2010s.

Director Paul Feig broke out of movie jail with 2010's Bridesmaids - and he used his freshly-inked deal with 20th Century Fox to get his own take on a James Bond film to the screen. Thing is: how do you persuade studio executives that Jason Statham can be a comedy lead? And, come to think of it, how do you convince Jason Statham?

As for 1986's F/X, here was a movie written with television originally in mind, until a producer read it and reckoned there was more to it. Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and even George C Scott were linked. But the final cast would lead to a solid hit - albeit one that led to questions over the film's title.

Stories of both in this episode...

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In a special episode of the Film Stories podcast, a pair of guests join Simon to talk about the really, really good indie film American Star, and the ecosystem of independent filmmaking.

A guessable spoiler for the film is dropped by Ian McShane in the conversation.

Director Gonzalo López-Gallego and his star/producer Ian McShane talk about how the film took years to come together, and then was shot in under a month, and edited in under a month. The pair clearly enjoyed working together, and it's a lively chat. The film is out on video on demand and in cinemas now...

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The Fantastic Four take centre stage on the Film Stories podcast, with a pair of films that each had their demands.

The 2015 Fantastic Four was set to reboot the characters on the big screen, and give 20th Century Fox another ongoing superhero franchise. Yet this didn't go to plan at all. Director Josh Trank was hired, and wouldn't get to make the film he wanted. Others were quite happy to point the finger at Trank. Either way, the film would struggle.

Yet at least it'd get a release. In 1994, a $1m version of The Fantastic Four was made, with those making it fully expecting a cinema release. Trailers were released, promotions began - but on the eve of the film's world premiere, everything was stopped: and there's a strong theory about just what happened.

Stories of both are told in this episode.

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In this latest episode of Film Stories, we start with sharks. Very big sharks. A story imagined by a young screenwriter's memory of a childhood incident, that he eventually turned into a script. Then that script would go on to become Deep Blue Sea.

There were challenges, though: should the tone be Jaws-like? Or Jurassic Park? Or Alien? And then the very late need for more footage to be shot too.

In the case of 1984, adapted from George Orwell's novel of the same name, time was a luxury they didn't have. And, for six weeks of shooting, a co-star for John Hurt was missing too. Sean Connery turned the film down, Rod Steiger was rejected. But could they trust Richard Burton?

Stories of both films are told in this episode...

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In a special episode of the Film Stories podcast, Simon is joined by Oscar-nominated director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema for a long chat about his work.

They talk extensively about Hoyte's work with Christopher Nolan, not least on Oppenheimer. But also, there's a bit of Dunkirk and Interstellar in there. Furthermore, a few words on working on the James Bond movie SPECTRE too. Plus: the chances of working with Tomas Aldredson again.

Oppenheimer is available now on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K disc.

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Neither The King Of Comedy nor I Love Trouble were met with strong box office or enthusiastic reviews on their initial releases - but one has fared a lot better since.

1982's The King Of Comedy would be the last time Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese would unite for many years - and for a long time it was a project that appealed more to De Niro than Scorsese. Still, after a damp initial response, the film's reputation has grown. A lot.

Not so with 1994's I Love Trouble, a rare movie star-driven summer film from Disney in the early 1990s. Julia Roberts starred, but didn't sign on the dotted line until he co-star was chosen. That'd be Nick Nolte, and it wouldn't be a particularly successful pairing...

Stories of both movies are told in this episode.

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Was there ever a bigger casting furore in the 1990s than when Tom Cruise landed the role of Lestat in Interview With The Vampire? Based on the book by Anne Rice, the author herself was incandescent, taking out advertising the slam the casting. Meanwhile, there were issues over keeping the rights - and problems that could have been avoided had John Travolta - as was once planned - accepted the role in the 1970s!

The late Tina Turner meanwhile claimed that - for very good reasons - she never watched the 1993 biopic of her life, What's Love Got To Do With It? She was very involved with it, though, not least approving Angela Bassett for the lead role. The challenge? Bassett got the job just 30 days before the start of filming...

Stories of both are told in this episode...

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In a special episode, Simon is joined the writer and director Juan Antonio Bayona for a conversation about his work and his latest film.

That movie is the Oscar-nominated (at the time of writing) Society Of The Snow, an extraordinary drama shot over more than 100 days. Bayona talks about his process and the duty of care involved in telling the story, as well as the importance to him of a long shoot.

They touch on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Impossible, The Orphanage and A Monster Calls as well...

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Two individual filmmakers take centre stage in this episode of Film Stories, starting with Quentin Tarantino. For a decade, he was talking in interviews about making a World War II movie called Inglorious Bastards, but he swerved making it for a long time, in favour of the Kill Bill movies and Death Proof. He argued he didn't have writer's block: he just couldn't stop writing it.

He changed the title to Inglourious Basterds, set himself a firm deadline, and started shooting just eight months before the film was due to debut at the Cannes Film Festival...

In the case of Jim Henson, he had dreams of taking The Muppets to the big screen, and as they were proving to be a sensation on television in the 1970s, he got a handsome budget to do so. The challenge? Production on The Muppet Show was ongoing, and the three month shoot would take The Muppets out of a controlled studio environment for the story for the first time.

Stories of both films are told in this episode...

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In this very special episode of Film Stories, Simon welcomes Oscar-winning writer and director Alexander Payne to chat, in part, about the newly-released The Holdovers.

Yet this is a bit of a different chat, as their conversation not only takes in the film, but also the process of finding the spark for a movie, the process of being interviewed for the release of a feature, and some book recommendations as well. Hope you enjoy the conversation, and The Holdovers is now playing...

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This time on the Film Stories podcast, its 1985 animated feature The Black Cauldron. A film whose budget more than doubled, that arrived five years later, and nearly broke Walt Disney Animation Studios in the process. Plus, its legacy is such that you won't find it anywhere near a Disney theme park. The story of one of the most remarkable chapters in Disney animation history.

Then the second film in this episode is the Oscar-nominated British satirical comedy In The Loop. The directorial debut of Armando Iannucci, it spun out of the TV series The Thick Of It - but the decision was made to not to a straight TV-to-film adaptation.

The stories of both of these films are found in this very episode...

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In a brand new special episode of Film Stories, writer/producer/director David Ayer joins Simon for a chat. It's Ayer's new film The Beekeeper that's their prime focus: an old school action film with some honey in it as well.

It's a tonal shift for Ayer, and also a rare film that he's directed but not written himself. As well as talking about that, a few words too on the media ecosystem following David Ayer's Suicide Squad experiences, and he opens up about the films that he's really keen to make next. Quite surprising choices...

The Beekeeper lands in UK cinemas on January 12th.

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In this episode of Film Stories, a pair of films that enjoyed varying fortunes on their original cinema release - both of which are said to have unreleased alternate cuts.

In the case of 1995's Batman Forever, reports of a longer version of the movie - said to be a lot darker - started surfacing a couple of years after the film's original release. Then came a DVD release added some striking deleted scenes - and director Joel Schumacher's 170-minute version of Batman Forever was starting to gather interest. Right up to 2023, when it actually screened...

2019's Cats meanwhile was up against a ferocious schedule to be finished on time. But finished it was, albeit with an upgrade patch sent to cinemas days after its release (!). Then came the rumours: was there really a cut of the film where digital feline backsides were, well, really rather obvious?

Stories of both are told in this episode...

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In a very special episode of Film Stories, Simon is joined by writer/director Billy Ray, to chat about his career and body of work. Simon quickly gets sidetracked by the fact that Billy started off by writing for The Jetsons, but soon they're into conversation about films as diverse as Captain Phillips, Shattered Glass, Breach, Color Of Night and Hart's War.

They also chat about AI in the film business, and cover a few of the films that Billy had written which never made it to the screen. It's a bit of a packed hour, this, and there's much that's discussed...

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In 1995, Kenneth Branagh - between the giant projects of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and his film version of Hamlet - made an utterly charming low budget comedy called In The Bleak Midwinter. He paid for the film himself, bringing together a bunch of actors to tell the story of, well, a bunch of actors. A company who happened to be putting on a Christmas Eve performance of Hamlet.

In December 2023, after years of trying, we managed to bring them all together for a special screening of the film. And what you're going to hear in this podcast episode is the conversation afterwards. Bear in mind that they'd all sat and watched the film collectively for the first time in over 25 years just before this conversation took place!

The evening was raising funds for Centrepoint, of which you can find more here: https://centrepoint.org.uk/support-us/donate?utm_source=jaagoogleads&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=csarppc23&utm_content=&utm_term=&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4Y-sBhC6ARIsAGXF1g6ofP7eioHgWYRsjB-cDrmSTNDzeegNsuExmtsqt6Ot4jVhAO_4DL4aAipxEALw_wcB

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At the end of a busy year for movies, this episode of Film Stories is saluting some of the films that might just have passed a few people by.

Simon, unusually, isn't by himself for this episode either, as the Film Stories magazine and website team each come along with their picks too. Chaos, as you might expect, is soon the order of the day. Although hopefully you might find a movie or two in all of this to add to your watchlist!

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Ah, It's A Wonderful Life. A Christmas classic, that managed to basically bankrupt the production company of its director, and also lose money at the box office. In fact, were it not for an admin error, there's a good chance it wouldn't be regarded as arguably the best Christmas movie of all time. One that was targeted for original release in January. Lots to chat about here.

A fair amount to talk about with 2013's Saving Mr Banks too, a movie script that Disney reportedly nearly bought simply to stop anyone else making the film. After all, Walt Disney is a key character in the movie - and Disney had hardly been keen to make a Walt Disney biopic before. Had the project been developed in-house, it likely wouldn't have happened at all.

Stories of both are told in this episode...

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In a special episode of the Film Stories podcast, Paul King (director/co-writer) and Simon Farnaby (co-writer) join Simon to talk about their latest movie: Wonka.

The conversation covers the writing process, how they felt after The Bunny & The Bull struggled to find and audience, a bit of Paddington 2, and a tiny dab of The Phantom Of The Open. But also: the challenges of making a Willy Wonka prequel story..

Complete with Paul King's phone going off, and Simon Farnaby trying to give Simon the giggles...

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Writer/director George Miller steps into the spotlight for this episode of Film Stories, as we dig into a pair of his sequels.

The hugely-acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road arrived in 2015, but it had a heck of a journey to get that far. An abandoned attempt to get the film made in 2003, and then the whole production having to be put on ice for a year after weather conditions meant a change of location. And then there was the shoot itself, which came to an end without the beginning or final act of the film shot. It was quite a saga.

1998's Babe: Pig In The City was a film pretty much taken for granted by its parent studio, Universal Pictures. It wasn't until a late preview screening that the studio discovered it hadn't quite got the sequel to 1995's Babe that it was after - and urgent last minute changes were called for.

Stories of both movies are told in this episode...

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In a special episode of Film Stories, writer, director, producer and a whole lot more Reginald Hudlin joins Simon. They're talking as Hudlin's new film, Candy Cane Lane, arrives on Prime Video. And Christmas is very much part of the discussion.

But they also cover a bit of Marshall, why Hudlin put together his own website with quite so much detail, the curiosity of film critics and a whole lot more.

Candy Cane Lane is now playing on Prime Video.

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A pair of late 1990s movies in this episode, both of which are remembered three decades later for differing reasons.

In the case of 1999's Election, the Alexander Payne-directed movie remains one of the most scathing and cleverly dark high school movies of its era. Perhaps that's why Paramount Pictures at the time had problems with it, not least how on Earth do you market the film? 'Not well' was the eventual answer to that. Plus: would Tom Cruise really have been right for the Matthew Broderick role?

Then there was 1998's surprise hit Sliding Doors, a film from a first time writer/director, who spent seven years trying to nail the script, suffering a nervous breakdown in the midst of the process. Turns out too that a Hollywood legend, Sydney Pollack, would turn into the movie's guardian angel.

Stories of both are told in this episode...

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In a very special episode, Simon is joined by the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Jennifer Lee.

Jennifer Lee has also co-written and executive produces Disney's centenary animated feature, Wish, so there's some chat about that. But also, about Lee's journey from being the person brought into the Wreck-It Ralph writing team on an eight week contract, through to writing and co-directing the two Frozen movies, then taking arguably the key job at the studio.

The pair talk about all of this, about the reasons it took so long to make the film Wish, and a slight issue with a character in it who happens to be called Simon...

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In the latest episode of Film Stories, a deeper dig into 1992's Batman Returns, and how 1991's firefighter drama Backdraft suddenly hotted up.

With Batman Returns, director Tim Burton had no original intention of coming back, after the problems he'd been through on 1989's Batman. But promised a freer hand, he signed on the dotted line - and it'd be fair to say didn't quite give Warner Bros the film it expected or wanted.

Backdraft wasn't quite as dramatic a story, but it did go from a relatively small drama to something a whole lot bigger when director Ron Howard expressed interest. And there was also the drive for authenticity - and how just over $1m spent on special effects paid dividends.

Stories of both are told in this episode.

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It's a special episode of the Film Stories podcast, and joining Simon for a chat about her career is writer, director and production designer Catherine Hardwicke.

The pair chat first and foremost about her latest film, the indie comedy Mafia Mamma! that's now available in the UK. They talk logistics, the challenges, and the joy that is Toni Collette. The conversation also covers Hardwicke's breakthrough film, Thirteen, and the independent movie landscape. Plus, a bit of casting, a bit of Twilight, and an insight into how she goes about making her films...

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The impact of Pulp Fiction's success in the mid-1990s meant that ensemble films based on scripts from relatively inexperienced writer/directors were on the radar of Hollywood. Step forward James Mangold's Cop Land, which was a quick beneficiary.

After an attempt to get John Travolta to star in the film failed, and incredible cast - led by Sylvester Stallone - started to come together. But had Pulp Fiction unfairly changed the expectation of what Cop Land was to be? And that's before Mangold and Harvey Weinstein clashed over the film's edit.

1994's Junior was much calmer - and much quicker. Filming began just months before the movie's release, with Arnold Schwarzenegger's box office fortunes dampened following the previous year's Last Action Hero. But others had turned the film down before Arnie got to it - in one case, for religious reasons...

Stories of both films are told in this episode...

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It's a pair of summer movies in this episode of Film Stories, both of which were affected by the pandemic, one of which would fare a lot better than the other.

The journey to 2022's Top Gun: Maverick was over a decade long, a sequel that stopped and started more than once. Tom Cruise eventually agreed to make the film though, with filming underway in 2018: yet circumstances would mean it'd be many years before audiences could clap their eyes on it.

The idea of doing a movie based around the music of Take That looked to be a strong one, and Greatest Days was all set to film in 2020. Yet when the movie had to put the brakes on, it took away most of the lead cast too - and it'd all have to be put back together two years' later. Even then, the weather gods were not with it...

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In this episode of Film Stories, a little bit of a Marvel misfire, and a film that was pitched by the owner of the company that made it.

When Marvel first for into making films, it secured over $500m via a major loan to fund its plans. It was felt that a Hulk movie, The Incredible Hulk, was needed quickly to help pay things off. That and Iron Man thus went into production at the same time - and one would go a lot, lot smoother than the other.

Life meanwhile is an often-overlooked sci-fi hit from 2017. Not only is it a good film, though, but it came together very, very quickly. And for writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Rheese, they were given a one line idea and around a month to work out just what the resultant film would be. Plus: the shadow of the not-dissimilar Alien: Covenant was on the horizon...

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Film Stories print magazines can be found at store.filmstories.co.uk

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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In a special episode of the Film Stories podcast, Simon is chatting to director Joe Stephenson, and actor/producer Scott Chambers. It turns into quite a chat, only temporarily interrupted by a cup of coffee.

Stephenson is the director of Doctor Jekyll, in which Chambers co-stars with Eddie Izzard. He talks about trying to get a sub-£1m film moving in the UK, and how it ended up getting a posh London premiere. He chats too about films such as Chicken and McKellen: Playing The Part.

Scott Chambers chats too about his acting work in the film, but also we dig into his own secret identity, as the producer of over 100 low budget films such as Jurassic Island, Crocodile Vengeance and Darker Shades Of Elise....

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This time in the Film Stories podcast, the fast turnaround of the first Knives Out movie, and a Hugh Grant-headlined comedy drama, where Four Weddings Hugh Grant was absolutely not required.

Writer/director Rian Johnson has admitted in the past that he's not a fast writer. However, when an opportunity arose to bring a murder mystery whodunnit to the screen - long a passion project of Johnson's - he was going to have to move fast. Thanks to his Star Wars commitments, he and producer Ram Bergman had a 12 month window to write Knives Out, cast it, finance it, and shoot it. All in one calendar year.

2002's About A Boy didn't move quite that quickly, but this time the catalyst was a novel from Nick Hornby that got leaked to Hollywood early. A big bidding war led to a big cheque for the rights - but there'd be a change of director, a brief flirtation with Brad Pitt and a change of studio before it ultimately got made.

Stories of both films are told in this episode.

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Film Stories print magazines can be found at store.filmstories.co.uk

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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It's a Kevin Costner double bill in the latest episode of Film Stories - and whilst the films are very different, there is a link between them.

1987's No Way Out is actually a remake, something its director - Roger Donaldson - wasn't actually aware of. One of the very best thrillers of the 1980s - especially if you don't know its twists and turns - its release actually ended up being held back to see if another Costner-headlined movie would prove more successful first.

Yet it was the ultimate success of No Way Out that finally led to Bull Durham getting off the ground, after a hell of a challenge to raise the money for the movie. Not the only challenge, either: an executive at Orion Pictures was causing problems, and there was a casting demand that wasn't going away...

Both films are covered in this episode. Both films are also making their UK Blu-ray debut this month, and you can find details on the releases at store.filmstories.co.uk

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Film Stories print magazines can be found at store.filmstories.co.uk

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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Ah-ha! Two of the most acclaimed British directors of the 2010s take centre stage in this episode, albeit with very, very different films.

Christopher Nolan originally envisaged his dreamy heist movie Inception as a low budget feature. But just after he'd made Insomnia, he got 80 pages into what he felt the film should be and hit a stumbling block. Two Batman movies and The Prestige later and he finally began to crack it - and things built from there.

It was a lengthy journey too to bring the dark British comedy Sightseers to the screen, a road that began when Alice Lowe and Steve Oram started working on the two lead characters in an Ealing comedy club. And - with a helping hand from Edgar Wright - their work would come to the attention of a fast-rising director by the name of Ben Wheatley...

The stories of both films are told in this episode.

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Film Stories print magazines can be found at store.filmstories.co.uk

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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In a special episode of the Film Stories podcast, director Oliver Parker joins Simon for a long chat about his latest film, and his career. The new film is The Great Escaper, starring Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson. They natter about how the film came to be, and the challenges involved in making the film.

They also recall when Parker managed to get Othello down to just over two hours, and running times in general. Plus, in a not entirely expected turn, they end up chatting too about Clive Barker, and the plans once upon a time to bring Hellraiser to the stage!

The Great Escaper is in UK cinemas on October 6th 2023.

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After an unscheduled week break (sorry!), the Film Stories podcast returns with the stories of two superb modern fantasy films.

Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning The Shape Of Water owes a debt to a 1950s horror, and an original idea that came to someone in their teenage years. When it came time to make the film? The budget was always going to be tight, but del Toro faced two different funding options for two different ways to make the film.

Juan Antonio Bayona's A Monster Calls, meanwhile, had a relatively swift journey to the screen, although the push to work with practical effects wherever possible did have an impact on the making of the film. Casting proved a challenge, too...

Stories of both are told in this very episode...

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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R-rated movies from major studios. R-rated comic book movies from major studios. R-rated comic book movies that don't even mention the name of the umbrella franchise in the title. These were not the norm when Hugh Jackman and writer/director James Mangold somehow talked 20th Century Fox into what became Logan. Yet ironically, as the mainline X-Men franchise stumbled, it was the R-rated entries that were delivering...

Also delivering? The revival of Evil Dead on the big screen with Evil Dead Rise. It took ten years and a four season TV show in-between to bring the franchise back to cinemas, even if at one point the plan was to go straight to streaming. And it was an upcoming director who was given the responsibility...

Stories of both are told in this episode. Please don't forget to subscribe and leave a glowing review. You're lovely. Ta.

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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It's been over a decade since the debate first ignited: is Tom Cruise the right person to play the character of Jack Reacher? The answer came originally in the form of a 2012 movie, although the first big screen outing for Lee Child's famous character had been in development for well over a decade by that point.

In the end, Werner Herzog was recruited too. But it was the choice of director that would have a lasting impact on Tom Cruise's career.

The film Once though had barely any expectations on it, even for a cinema release. A few screens in Dublin, maybe? And when Cillian Murphy left the film, it looked like the tiny budget would fall away anyway. What happened next? Well it was that rarest of movie fairytales...

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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For the latest episode of the Film Stories podcast, a war movie, a boxing movie, and a few problems in the making of both.

1963's The Great Escape was a film that director John Sturges couldn't initially get off the ground, and he needed his success with The Magnificent Seven to make it happen. When it did? It wasn't the easiest of productions, with a lot of chopped down trees, and a star who wasn't happy with his part in the film.

Sylvester Stallone wasn't initially chomping at the bit to make Rocky III meanwhile, but when he opted to make the movie, his script would reflect the difficulties he was facing himself at the time. Then there was the small matter of finding the actor to play his opponent: Clubber Lang...

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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The podcast is fully back up and running again, and this time, we turn our attention to the return of Hannibal Lecter.

2001's Hannibal was the long-awaited return of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter to the big screen, following 1991's The Silence Of The Lambs. But the original director didn't return. The original screenwriter didn't return. One of the two Oscar-winning stars didn't return. And a chance meeting in Malta - as Ridley Scott was shooting Gladiator - was what helped push things forward.

The gestation of I, Daniel Blake was a little more straightforward, as writer Paul Laverty and director Ken Loach went about their familiar process: this time, though, they'd be making a film with fairly quick ramifications. What's more, casting a lead actor who was just on the verge of jacking it all in...

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Find Simon on Twitter and Bluesky at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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After a longer than originally planned gap (due to a dodgy voice!), the Film Stories podcast returns from its summer snooze. And what better way to start than with not one T2, but a pair of them.

First up? Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a film that cost its makers $15m just for the rights to. That, and enormous cheques to writer/director James Cameron, and leading man Arnold Schwarzenegger. All well and good: but they didn't actually have a lot of time to make the actual film.

The passing of time was one thing T2 Trainspotting had fewer worries about, arriving over 20 years following the original film. One of the key hold ups? A long-running falling out between director Danny Boyle and leading man Ewan McGregor...

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, two films that were - in the end - turned around to very tight deadlines. One slightly more expensive than the other!

The challenge with 2015's Spectre was to follow up the most successful James Bond film of all time. Skyfall had grossed over $1bn: but its director, Sam Mendes, wasn't keen originally to return for Spectre. And when the film did get filming, star Daniel Craig was covering the fact that he had a broken leg.

Less high profile drama followed 1996's When Saturday Comes, but the Sean Bean-headlined football drama still faced some uphill challenges of its own...

This is the last Film Stories episode before a summer break. In true James Bond style, Film Stories will return...

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, a hugely risky studio movie, and a bit of a breakthrough role for Daniel Craig.

The Insider, from Michael Mann, was telling a story about a piece of modern history just years old when the movie was made. As such, there was a huge risk of litigation, and whichever studio took the movie on was opening itself to huge risks, with no obvious box office upside. Incredibly, Disney said yes.

Matthew Vaughn meanwhile had come to prominence producing Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, that Guy Ritchie had directed. A trip to a football match unlocked the path to a new project, Layer Cake, that he'd planned for Ritchie to direct too. But when Ritchie said no? Vaughn swiftly moved to plan B...

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, we're digging into the story of a much-loved modern classic.

Two films in 1990 arrived based around the story of real-life gangster Henry Hill. Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas though is something very special: Scorsese took a rare co-writing credit on the film, although at one stage, it was being suggested that Tom Cruise and Madonna take lead roles...

In the second half of the episode, we're joined by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, chatting not just Indiana Jones, but also films such as Noises Off, Jurassic Park III and Alive.

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

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In a very special episode of Film Stories, Simon is joined by the co-writer and director of the latest ? and last ? Indiana Jones film, James Mangold.

The pair spend some time chatting about Indiana Jones & The Dial Of Destiny, and also explore parts of the making of Cop Land and Heavy. There?s chat about Le Mans ?66 and Brummie accents, before a chunter too about Mangold?s hugely underappreciated film, Girl, Interrupted.

Hope you enjoy the conversation. As this podcast episode is being released, Indiana Jones & The Dial Of Destiny is playing in cinemas around the world.

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, a pair of films that might just have had a bit of overlap to them!

Olympus Has Fallen began life many years before it got to the screen, but it had an added advantage over its rival in that it had a movie star in place - and Gerard Butler wanted to up the violence quotient a little too.

Sony meanwhile was spending a lot more money on a rival project, White House Down, that started filming last, but tried to release first. Turns out it had a bit of a film story of its own to it, too.

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, a pair of films that both hit problems with one of their lead roles...

2004's Spider-Man 2 is (rightly) regarded as one of the finest superhero films, and that's impressive in itself given the tight turnaround that Sony wanted on the film. However, just weeks before filming was about to begin, there was even sizeable doubt that its leading man would be returning.

2022's The Menu meanwhile did have to change things around, having originally been set up in 2019 with a different director and a different star in one of its lead roles. And when it did come back together, there were serious doubts about whether people were even going out to the cinema to watch films like it too...

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, a massive hit sci-fi movie that came from smaller origins, and a baseball film that, well, hit problems.

The story of I, Robot the movie - in theory based on the work of Isaac Asimov - started with an indie script that was set effectively in one room. But over time, the film escalated, at one stage attracting Arnold Schwarzenegger. Still, when it got made, there was a disagreement ahead...

There was a hell of a disagreement on 1999's baseball movie For Love Of The Game too, regarded as the forgotten Kevin Costner baseball movie. Directed by Sam Raimi, things were going find - right up until very different views on the final cut of the film...

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

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A very special episode of Film Stories, with a very special guest: producer Barbara DeFina.

She tells us what's she currently up to, and takes us through her early work with Sidney Lumet. Then, the many films she produced for Martin Scorsese, including the particular challenges of The Last Temptation Of Christ, Casino, and finding the right house for Cape Fear. There's a bit of Goodfellas in the conversation as well.

It's a far-ranging conversation. Hope you enjoy it.

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, two relatively low budget films that both proved bigger hits than expected.

For writer/director Zach Cregger, he was in 'director jail' following the commercial disappointment of his first couple of films. Still, he managed to get his new film, Barbarian, into place (with a bit of help from a spreadsheet). The problem? Funding fell away just days before filming...

In the case of Superbad, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were teenagers when they first wrote the script. In fact, Rogen at one point was going to star - but it took a little too long to get to the screen for that to happen.

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

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In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, the difficult journey back to Middle Earth, and the first animated film from DreamWorks.

Following the success of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, it seemed straightforward that at some point, The Hobbit would make it back to the screen. But the path there would prove far more difficult than originally thought, thanks to legal issues, financial issues, and a late change of director.

With Antz, the first animated film from DreamWorks had a lot of pathfinding to get through just to get made - and then its release date was moved forward, meaning it was a race against time to get the film completed, before Pixar's A Bug's Life stole its thunder.

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Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstories

Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.

Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.