ROGUE COMMENTARY

Hello! Welcome to a very special edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. 

For this 'minisode', I’m excited to bring you a special preview of the brand new, exclusive audio commentary recorded by writer-director Luna Carmoon for her exquisite, critically-acclaimed film Hoard.

The full commentary will be available only on Plumeria Pictures’ forthcoming Blu-ray of the film, which is available for pre-order now only at PlumeriaPics.co.uk and released on February 14, 2025.

If you can’t wait til then, you can listen to the first 20-odd minutes of the audio commentary here, as a podcast, or you can cue it up to the film if you own or rent a digital copy, so, you know, risk it for the biscuit!

 Thanks to Plumeria Pictures for the sneak peek, and to Luna for providing such an illuminating audio commentary for one of the best films of 2024.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. 

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome critic John Bleasdale, author of The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick for an informed and informative walk through Malick’s 1973 masterpiece Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. 

This episode is a bit different: ever mindful of the plight of the environment, it’s actually a recycled episode of the politics podcast Podcasting in Praxis with David, Jamie, Alasdair, Rob and James working out some issues with Alex Garland’s 2024 movie Civil War.

The film was too much of a mess for me to coalesce many of my own thoughts about it – other than “Jesse Plemons good” – and although I read many reviews, I felt that only the Podcasting is Praxis team fully articulated my manifold problems with Garland’s film. So I reached out to them and asked if I could recycle their no-holds-barred critique for a very special guest episode of Rogue Commentary.

Regular listeners will know that you can usually cue up our commentaries with the film, but since the Podcasting is Praxis discussion was not an audio commentary in the traditional sense, there’s absolutely no need to subject yourself to the film again.

Massive thanks to David, Jamie, Alasdair, Rob and James for permission to re-use their content for my own nefarious purposes. If you like their style, do subscribe to the Podcasting is Praxis on whichever podcasting platform floats your boat.

We’ll be back to the usual format next time, but in the meantime – enjoy!

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. 

This episode is really personal for me, not only because Rupert Wainwright has been a good friend of mine for 25 years, but because Stigmata is the reason we met. While working on Divine Rites: The Story of Stigmata, a documentary about the film and the phenomenon, I wrote and pitched to Rupert a pilot script designed to be a spin-off of the film, using the Congregation of the Causes of Saints as a kind of X-Files show in which our hero would travel the world investigating mysteries and miracles.

Although we didn’t end up making the show, Rupert liked the script enough to give me a shot at writing a film for him, based on his own idea, which we almost got to make with Matthew McConaughey about 20 years ago, and we’ve been working on projects together ever since – and more importantly, we’ve enjoyed an enduring friendship which has outlasted our Dante-esque trudges through Development Hell.

Revisiting Stigmata for its 25th anniversary, I was delighted to discover that the film really holds up, which is a testament both to Rupert’s skill as a director and the casting of some very talented and committed actors, including Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce and our mutual friend Rade Serbedzija.

Massive thanks to Rupert for lending his time and his memories to our 40th episode.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by David Hughes. 

For this episode, I’m joined by Damien Lewis, author of the non-fiction book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, the first third of which is now a major motion picture directed by Guy Ritchie.

I read – no, devoured the book before I saw the film, but if I hadn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered how many ‘based on a true story’ captions came up before the film started, I wouldn’t have believed a word of it – the story was just too deliciously outrageous to be true. But it is. Surely no human could possibly be as larger-than-life as Anders Lassen? Surely Operation Pitchfork, the truth about which was only declassified in 2016, couldn’t possibly have happened? It was like something out of James Bond, except Churchill was behind it, with both M and Ian Fleming in the room.

It took me a minute to vibe with the Commando comic/boys’ own adventure tone of the film, but once I’d tuned in to its wavelength, I had what can only be described as an outrageously good time with the film, and I’m sure, if you’re listening, you did too. Thanks to Damien’s page-burner – a page-turner where you turn the pages so fast they risk igniting – I already knew the background of the story, but I still wanted to dig deeper, and although time constraints meant Damien couldn’t go the full two-hour film commentary, much less what would have been a reductive and redundant scene-by-scene breakdown, he did give us 90 minutes of gold, smuggled out not of Fernando Po or even Lisbon – that’ll make sense when you listen to the commentary – but from his study in Dorset, where he’s working on a new book, based – if you can believe this – on an even more unbelievable yet true story from the Second World War.

Enormous thanks to Damien, of course, but also Sophie Ransom and Poppy Delingpole for helping to set it up.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. 

For this episode, we’re joined by Swiss director Peter Luisi for a fascinating discussion about his new film The Last Screenwriter, the first film scripted entirely by A.I. – specifically ChatGPT4.0

Now, before you grab your pitchforks and burning torches and lay siege to Rogue Commentary HQ, hear me out: I’m staunchly, even militantly anti-A.I. in the arts. But when I heard that London’s beloved Prince Charles Cinema had called off what was to be the world premiere of The Last Screenwriter because of blowback it receive online, I was disheartened, because it seemed that Peter’s film was a genuine attempt to engage with the question of A.I. in film specifically, and that we desperately needed to have the kind of conversation the film should have, and would have, provoked. Instead, by shelving the screening, conversation as shut down. As I said in my subsequent piece for Time Out, I don’t think the screening would have been cancelled if the film was being presented as an experimental film by a known quantity such as a Michael Winterbottom, a Steven Soderbergh or Mike Figgis.

While not exactly a household name in his native Switzerland, Peter co-wrote his country’s excellent Oscar entry for 2007, Vitus, and is the writer, director and producer of last year’s Bonjour Switzerland, the 8th most successful Swiss film of all time, and the biggest-grossing film in Switzerland since the advent of streaming.

The Last Screenwriter is now available online, for free, at lastscreenwriter.com and there’s no need to have seen it before listening to Peter’s commentary, but whether or not you’ve seen the film – and I would urge you to give it a watch – I think you’ll find Peter’s commentary as fascinating as I did.

Thanks Peter!

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by David Hughes. 

For this episode, I’m delighted to be joined by director Alberto Corredor for a peek under the hood of his terrific 2023 horror movie BAGHEAD.

When I first saw the film, reviewing it for Time Out, it had a very late embargo, which normally means you can expect the worst. But even though I didn’t go in with low expectations – because I like to give every film a fair shot – I was still mightily impressed, not only by Freya Allen’s terrifically spiky performance, but also by the way Corredor understood what audiences wanted, and was determined to give it to them, without ever condescending to them with a knowing wink.

Now that I’ve seen the 2017 short on which Baghead was based, I’m also impressed by how far the screenwriters went to build on not only the idea at the heart of the short, but also deeper themes of grief, inherited trauma and determinism.

Massive thanks are due to Alberto for jumping on board, but also to Studio Canal, especially Mubanga Mweemba, for connecting us.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes. 

For this episode, I’m thrilled to welcome Jen Johans, award-winning writer, film critics, essayist and historian, and host of the excellent Watch With Jen podcast. Now, that has really good guests, but Jen must be short for Jenerous because she always gives her guests more of the floor than she uses herself, so I thought it’d be perfect to invite her to record a solo commentary, and choose any film she wanted, and I’m super excited she chose Norman Jewison's timeless 1987 romantic comedy-drama Moonstruck, starring Cher and Olympia Dukakis – both of whom won Oscars for their performances – Nicolas Cage and Danny Aiello, from an Oscar-winning original screenplay by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley.

I’m a huge fan of Moonstruck, and I’m really excited to bring you this exclusive audio commentary, which I’m sure you’re going to love. Even though, as we all know, "love don’t make things nice. It ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess.”

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠⁠ production, conceived and presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, ⁠⁠⁠David Hughes.⁠⁠⁠

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome Gonzalo López-Gallego and José David Montero, director and cinematographer respectively of the terrific neo-noir American Star, in which Ian McShane plays an ex-soldier-turned-hitman who travels to Fuertaventura, one of the Canary Islands, to do a job, and finds himself on a journey into his soul.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, we’re doing a second episode covering the splendid neo-noir American Star, in which Ian McShane plays an ex-soldier-turned-hitman who travels to Fuertaventura, one of the Canary Islands, to do a job, and finds himself on a journey into his soul.

This time, our guest is screenwriter Nacho Faerna, and not just because he wasn’t able to make the first recording we did for this film, but also because he really gave birth to the story, and I thought his insights into the development of the film could offer a broader inspiration for aspiring screenwriters.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠⁠ production. Conceived, written and presented by ⁠⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, ⁠⁠David Hughes.⁠⁠

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome Gonzalo López-Gallego and José David Montero, director and cinematographer respectively of the terrific neo-noir American Star, in which Ian McShane plays an ex-soldier-turned-hitman who travels to Fuertaventura, one of the Canary Islands, to do a job, and finds himself on a journey into his soul. It’s an elegiac, ruminative and surprisingly affecting film, with a captivating performance by McShane. He’s so good, in fact, so mesmerizing, that you almost miss the incredible work Nora Arnezeder is doing. For me, this was the film many critics thought they were watching when they raved about David Fincher’s The Killer, another film that deals a hitman’s ennui. Can you imagine how diminished American Star would be if it was slathered in voiceover, or if Ian McShane’s character played The Smiths on an endless loop?

I really appreciate Gonzalo and José-David coming on to talk about one of my favourite films of the year so far, but I also have to thank screenwriter Nacho Faerna, who put us in touch. He wasn’t able to make the recording, but don’t worry – we’re going to record a separate Rogue Commentary with Nacho that will uncover all the screenwriting secrets of the film’s development, including how it was inspired by a conversation much like the one Wilson has with Max in American Star. Keep an eye out for that episode, which will be dropping soon.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠⁠tweet⁠⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠⁠Synchronicity⁠⁠ production. Conceived, written and presented by ⁠⁠David Hughes⁠⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, ⁠David Hughes.⁠

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome Lee Roy Kunz, co-writer, co-director and star of the impressive horror movie Deliver Us (2023), which – as you know, because you wouldn’t listen to an audio commentary without seeing the film first – concerns a priest sent to investigate a nun who believes that the immaculately-conceived twins she is carrying are destined to be the messiah and the antichrist.

Filmed during the pandemic, mostly in Estonia, it’s an extraordinarily accomplished film, with a scope and production value that belies its low budget, and I particularly wanted to ask Lee Roy to give tips on how to stretch a budget as far as it can go.

Despite the fact that his ten-month-old son had kept him up most of the previous night, Lee Roy was generous with his time and gracious and open with his answers to my questions, and I’m really grateful for him for guesting on the pod.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠tweet⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠Twitter⁠ and/or ⁠Instagram⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠Synchronicity⁠ production. Conceived, written and presented by ⁠David Hughes⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, ⁠David Hughes.⁠ 

This is a bittersweet episode; basically an edited and extended version of the audio commentary I recorded with director David Leland eighteen months before his death on Christmas Eve at the age of 82.

The commentary was ostensibly for his 1990 drama The Big Man, starring Liam Neeson, Billy Connolly, Ian Bannen, Joanne Whalley – then Joanne Whalley-Kilmer – Hugh Grant and Peter Mullan, but David was so generous with his time we ended up talking about other films, including Mona Lisa, Personal Services, and Wish You Were Here, with sidebars about Harvey Weinstein, Ennio Morricone, Jeremy Irons, Pierce Brosnan and Tennesse Williams.

It doesn’t really cue up with the film, but if you haven’t seen The Big Man, I urge you to check out Plumeria Pictures’ extras-packed Blu-ray, available from PlumeriaPics.co.uk

I feel so privileged to have been able to meet David to discuss his incredible body of work, and hope you enjoy this look back at a brilliant career.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠tweet⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠Twitter⁠ and/or ⁠Instagram⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠Synchronicity⁠ production. Conceived, written and presented by ⁠David Hughes⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2024 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, ⁠David Hughes.⁠

For this episode, I’m delighted to be joined by John Walsh, author of the exceptionally detailed, exhaustively researched and endlessly entertaining The Wicker Man: The Official Story of the Film, just out from Titan Books.

We’re going to be watching the version of The Wicker Man known as The Final Cut, which has slightly different running times depending on the frame rate, but should stay in sync throughout our chat. John has spoken to almost literally everyone for the book, anyone who had anything to do with the making of the 1973 masterpiece, which happens to be my favourite horror film, and be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. By the end of the commentary, you’ll think you know everything there is to know about the making of The Wicker Man, but I promise you, John has only scratch the surface: to dig deeper, you’ll really need to pick up that book – ideally a physical copy, as it’s a beautiful thing in its own right, packed with archive material, rare and previously unseen photographs and all kinds of other buried treasures. I’m really grateful to John for walking through the film with me, and for unearthing so much incredible background for the book and the commentary.

Apologies for the slight quality degredation in the opening 20 minutes or so, likely due to dark magic by the people of Summerisle.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a ⁠tweet⁠.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on ⁠Twitter⁠ and/or ⁠Instagram⁠ to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A ⁠Synchronicity⁠ production. Conceived, written and presented by ⁠David Hughes⁠. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes.

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome the legendary Daniel Waters, screenwriter of Heathers, Demolition Man, Batman Returns and the film we’re here to talk about today: Hudson Hawk.

It's well known that Hudson Hawk went wildly off the rails during production, but whether you love it or loathe it – for me it’s a little from column 'A', a little from column 'B' – it was fascinating to hear Steven De Souza’s exclusive Hudson Hawk commentary right here on Rogue Commentary back in March, and to re-examine the film here with Daniel Waters, who inherited the project from De Souza in 1990, and substantially rewrote it, for director Michael Lehmann, producer Joel Silver and star Bruce Willis.

Hudson Hawk was arguably the victim of a perfect storm of a troubled production, poor marketing, anti-Bruce Willis sentiment, and ahead-of-its-timeism, and all four of those things are discussed here. I’d like to thank Daniel Waters for his time, and for revisiting the film with me, and for former Rogue Commentary guest Josh Olson for putting us in touch.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes.

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome esteemed critic and essayist Priscilla Page for a walk through Phil Alden Robinson’s unimprovable 1992 classic Sneakers.

The commentary was recorded for Plumeria Pictures’ formidable 30th anniversary Blu-ray release, which also includes two other commentaries and a brilliant 45-minute video interview with the writer and director. It's available more or less exclusively from PlumeriaPics.co.uk with worldwide shipping available.

Huge thanks to Priscilla and Plumeria for allowing us to air this super informative commentary from not only one of the leading voices in film criticism, by which I mean analysis and knowledgeable enhancement, but arguably the world’s biggest Sneakers fan.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear, please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes.

On this episode, we take a deep dive into Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake of J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 thriller Cape Fear, itself based on John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners, in which lawyer Sam Bowden and his family are terrorised by Max Cady, a violent rapist whom Sam testified against in a trial that helped put him in prison for more than a decade. In crafting his own exceptional take on the source materials, screenwriter Wesley Strick twists the knife still further, by making Sam Bowden the lawyer who defended Cady, rather than merely testifying against him, burying testimony that could potentially have exonerated Cady, despite his guilt. In addition, Strick added marital infidelity into the mix, muddying the moral and ethical waters of the story and enhancing the female roles of Sam’s wife and daughter, played here by Academy Award® winner Jessica Lange and newcomer Juliette Lewis, as well as adding a brand new character, Lori, played by Scorsese’s then girlfriend Illeana Douglas.

Leading the cast are Nick Nolte as Sam and Robert De Niro as Max Cady, while three members of Thompson’s cast – Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam – make cameo appearances, Elmer Bernstein retools Bernard Herrmann’s original score for the new production, and the whole thing is shot by veteran British cinematographer Freddie Francis. Even on paper, it’s quite a heady mix.

Everything in Scorsese’s remake, originally intended to be directed by Steven Spielberg, is turned up to 11, but although many assume that this was Scorsese’s influence, much of what we see in the film was present in Strick’s very first draft, and I’ve always been fascinated by the evolution of the story from its relatively straightforward dual source material as straight thriller to grand guignol monster movie, so I was thrilled when Wes kindly agreed to join me for his first full audio commentary for the 1991 film, now that, as he points out, more time has passed since his version was released than the 29 years that passed between the original and remake.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear, please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes.

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome author Paul Tremblay for a walk through M. Night Shyamalan’s film Knock at the Cabin, adapted from Paul’s novel The Cabin at the End of the World. Being a fan of the book before I saw the film, I was fascinated by the story divergences between the source and the adaptation, and was absurdly excited when Paul agreed to record a commentary discussing the ideas behind the book and his thoughts about the film. I was even more thrilled when Paul told me he’d be joined on his commentary by friend and fellow horror writer John Langan, award-winning author of The Fisherman (currently unavailable on hive in the UK). I would always recommend you taking the trouble to cue the commentary up to the film, but this works brilliantly as a stand-alone listen, and – if you haven't read the book, which you should – you'll be pleased to hear there are no book spoilers here (but plenty of film ones, for obvious reasons).

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear, please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes.

This is our first episode to feature a documentary, which is not surprising because documentaries normally speak for themselves. But I think Electric Malady is such a unique presentation, I was really keen to discover the story of how it came to be, and some of the techniques that were used to film it so sensitively. I assume you’ve seen the BAFTA nominated film if you’ve made it this far, but if you haven’t, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Like most people, I hadn’t really heard of electrosensitivity until I saw the storyline about Michael McKean’s character in Better Call Saul, and Electric Malady came along at just the right time to explore the condition through the eyes of someone with first hand experience. So huge thanks to Marie and Michael for talking us through their experiences making Electric Malady, which – if you haven’t seen yet – is now hitting streaming services, starting with Curzon Home Cinema.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes.

For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome back my screenwriting hero and mentor Steven de Souza, who not only wrote some of our all-time favourite action movies – Die Hard, 48 Hours, Commando and, yes, The Running Man – but also several early, formative drafts of the infamous 1991 action-romantic-comedy-trainwreck Hudson Hawk, subsequently rewritten by Daniel Waters and an ad-libbing Bruce Willis.

It's well known that Hudson Hawk went wildly off the rails during production, but whether you love it or loathe it – for me it’s a little from column 'A', a little from column 'B' – it’s fascinating to unpick the story of how Steven’s drafts devolved into the film that crash-landed in cinemas in the summer of 1991.

Steven was an early guest on Rogue Commentary, for our Die Hard episode back in Christmas 2021, and it remains, as you’d expect, our biggest hit. I’m thrilled that he’s come back to join me for a walk through one of cinema’s greatest examples of a curate’s egg.

Thanks to Paul Randles for dedicated research!

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the exclusive audio commentary podcast hosted by me, David Hughes.

This episode is sponsored by boutique Blu-ray label Plumeria Pictures, whose latest release is The Big Man, aka Crossing the Line, an underrated 1990 drama with a blistering lead performance by Liam Neeson, and a cast that includes Joanne Whalley, Ian Bannen, Billy Connolly, Hugh Grant, Peter Mullan and more. The Blu-ray contains not one but three new audio commentaries, from producer Stephen Woolley, director David Leland and screenwriter Don Macpherson. Check out this and other Plumeria exclusives at PlumeriaPics.co.uk and use code ROGUE10 at checkout to get 10% off storewide.

For this, our 25th episode, I’m delighted to welcome Academy Award® nominated screenwriter, director, podcaster and famous non-reader of scripts Josh Olson, for a walk through A History of Violence, David Cronenberg’s 2005 adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke.

Olson received his first Oscar® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, and if you’ve read the source material, it's easy to see why, as he distilled the essence from Wagner and Locke’s neo-noir page-turner – which is almost impossible not to read in a single sitting – into a film that goes fathoms deeper in its exploration of how violence infects ordinary people, as insidiously, inescapably and devastatingly as any of the physiological effects in Cronenberg’s body-horror oeuvre.

I’m immensely grateful to Josh for joining me on this journey, not least because his episode-by-episode deconstruction of The West Wing in his and Dave Anthony’s podcast The West Wing Thing, was key to making lockdown bearable. I’m also a long time fan of his other podcast, The Movies That Made Me, and I’m now juggling episodes of that with episodes of his brilliant audio drama podcast Bronzeville, starring Laurence Fishburne, Lorenz Tate, Mekhi Pfeiffer, Lance Reddick and many more, with his new politics podcast The Audit. In short, it’s all Josh all the time on my podcast player.

Comments? Feedback? Suggestions? Email David *at * Rogue-Commentary *dot* com or send us a tweet.

We have lots of exciting episodes in the works, so if you like what you hear – or just the idea – please subscribe, and remember to rate us wherever you hear this podcast – it'll really help us to keep going. Oh, and follow us on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay up-to-date on our forthcoming releases.

Thanks for listening!

A Synchronicity production. Conceived, written and presented by David Hughes. Produced by Sam Ibrahim. Music by Olli Oja.

All content © 2023 Synchronicity II Ltd. All rights reserved.