Episodes
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...
Published 01/22/24
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... Hosted on...
Published 01/19/24
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...
Published 01/15/24
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...
Published 01/12/24
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...
Published 01/08/24
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....
Published 01/05/24
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...
Published 12/22/23
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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Published 12/18/23
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...
Published 12/11/23
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...
Published 12/08/23
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...
Published 12/04/23
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
Published 12/01/23
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...
Published 11/27/23
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...
Published 11/23/23
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...
Published 11/20/23
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...
Published 11/17/23
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...
Published 11/13/23
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...
Published 11/06/23
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...
Published 10/30/23
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...
Published 10/27/23
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...
Published 10/23/23
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...
Published 10/16/23
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...
Published 10/09/23
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...
Published 10/06/23
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,...
Published 10/02/23