Film Stories with Simon Brew Simon Brew

When Tim Burton's first film, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, proved a surprise hit for Warner Bros, the studio was keen to get a second picture off him. Yet Burton wasn't enamoured with the scripts he was being offered - until an unusual one landed on his desk. Just lacking a bit of an ending. Enter: Beetlejuice.
Rye Lane was a much smaller production, a directorial debut for Raine Allen Miller. A British romcom, it had to negotiate Covid restrictions - but then, after strong reviews, there was its release strategy to negotiate.
Stories of both are told in this episode...
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Originally set to be released by Disney in 2023, Jeff Nichols' new film - The Bikeriders - was dropped by the studio at the last minute, before finally landing a new home with Focus Features and Universal.
Nichols joins us for a special podcast to discuss the film, with the conversation also taking in Take Shelter, Michael Shannon, and making a movie without too much money...
The Bikeriders finally arrives in cinemas on 21st June 2024.
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On the one hand in this episode, we've got a comic book movie that should in theory have launched further films. 2022's Morbius was designed to follow Venom into Sony's universe of Spider-Man spin-off characters. Yet so keen was the studio to join it up to the ongoing Spider-Man films, that problems ensued. And Jared Leto, in the lead role, was going method again.
The Gift, the directorial debut of Joel Edgerton, was originally called Weirdo. He designed it to be a slim film, that he knew would be up against some tough competition at the box office. Yet he had quite a special film up his sleeve...

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After enjoying success with the TV series Servant, for which she wrote and directed several episodes, Ishana Night Shyamalan was on the lookout for a story to turn into her feature directorial debut.
The tale she found involved a pet store, a creepy forest, a trip to Ireland and some people watching. And in this Film Stories podcast special, she tells us about why she made The Watched (or The Watcher in the US) and tells us more of her story.
The Watched is in UK cinemas now...

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Sam Mendes didn't want to make another James Bond film after completing 2015's Spectre. As we discover in this episode, he had another film lined up that he backed away form. He decided to gamble on 1917, a movie that he had a plan to shoot in a really rather unconventional way.
When Gone Girl hit, meanwhile, Hollywood went looking for more books that it felt might be along the same lines. It didn't take long to find The Girl On The Train, and it took seemingly even less time to get a film of it moving.
Stories of both are told in this episode...
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After the release of 2008's Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, Harrison Ford declared that he'd be happy to make Indiana Jones 5, as long as it didn't take another 20 years.
It wasn't that far off before we got Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny. And in the interim, two of the three key creatives had changes roles.
Steve Martin should have got Oscar recognition for 1984's All Of Me meanwhile, but even by that point, he had an idea for a fresh take on the classic Cyrano De Bergerac story. When he couldn't find a screenwriter to tackle it for him? He took the plunge himself....

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