Film Stories with Simon Brew Simon Brew

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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Two films in this episode that for different reasons needed a fair amount of time to come to the screen.
Dungeons And Dragons: Honor Among Thieves didn't turn up until 2023, yet for many years, there was a rights battle over which studio could make a D&D movie. Even when the rights were sorted, challenges still lay ahead.
With The Phantom Of The Opera meanwhile, the plan had originally been to have the movie filming by 1990. Yet a separation delayed the movie, and when it returned, an actor by the name of Gerard Butler was all set for his singing lessons...
Stories of both are told in this episode.
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In a special episode of the podcast, Fiona Shaw CBE is the guest, as she joins to chat about her career, and her latest movie, IF.
Topics of conversation in this chat? The problem with her bathroom, plus working on films such as Super Mario Bros and The Avengers. Then there's her time working with Terrence Malick, her work with Brian De Palma, and a very special film too that's on the horizon for her.
IF is in UK cinemas now.
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The Halloween franchise was at a crossroads after Rob Zombie's 2009 movie, Halloween II. There was only one logical thing to do next: er, Halloween 3D, which was set for the early 2010s. The first in a line of false starts, that'd eventually take us to 2018's wildly-successful reboot/reimagining.
Some reshoot work on that was done for the ending too, and the ending of Rocky V (1990) was an area of much disagreement. Sylvester Stallone had wanted to take the Rocky films back to basics, bringing back director John G Avildsen too. Yet what was expected to be one of 1990's big tickets didn't go to plan.
Stories of both are told in this episode...
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With his new film, Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, now out in cinemas, director Wes Ball joins the Film Stories podcast for a long chat about the new film, and his career to date.
From his early shorts, to his fast work on Celebrity Apprentice (and boy, is there a story there), we then move through to The Maze Runner, The Mouse Guard, and right the way through to Apes...
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