Episódios
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1993 was a banner year for Sylvester Stallone, thanks to two films that gave him quite the comeback. First up was Cliffhanger. Not far behind? That'd be the much-loved Demolition Man. Ahead of its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray debut, let's take a look at a movie that one of its co-stars loathed making. And also try to work out why its director moved away from feature films straight after.
Then there's Hundreds Of Beavers, a 2022 film that for reasons explained, most could only get to see in 2024. It involved a long shoot, lots of beaver costumes, and a fair amount of expertise in Adobe After Affects too...
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Vicky Jenson's directorial career got off to a hell of a start. As co-director of Shrek, she went to the Cannes Film Festival, she won an Oscar, scored a massive box office hit. Then Shark Tale followed, another hit. Then a live action movie, Post-Grad - but that didn't hit. And she paid a career price.
This story gets better though, as Jenson's now made the animated feature Spellbound, which is available on Netflix. And she's chatting to us for this special episode of Film Stories. Hers is quite the story...
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It was following the success of The Fugitive that Hollywood started plundering (again) the archives of television for its movie ideas. Sony wanted a Charlie's Angels film, and was looking for pitches. Drew Barrymore, then making Never Been Kissed, was interested.
The film she'd help steer to the screen though wasn't without behind the scenes incidents, though.
Sylvester Stallone was all set to earn $60m for three movies in the mid-1990s meanwhile, he just had to make sure he picked the right projects. He committed to filming D-Tox in the late 1990s. But years after it was finished, it'd been through three titles, assorted cuts, and Hollywood smelt trouble.
Stories of both films are told in this episode...
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In a Film Stories podcast special, producers Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick - the latter an Oscar-winner for the original Gladiator - join Simon to talk about their work.
A lot of the chat is taken up with Gladiator II, working with Ridley Scott, and trying to get an epic production off the ground. There is a very odd left turn when Stuart Little comes into the conversation, and a cat's bottom is discussed...
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Two twisty behind the scenes stories here. Originally, 1980's Superman II was being shot alongside the original Superman, with Richard Donner directing both. But frictions behind the scenes led to an eventual parting of the ways, a retooling of Superman II, and an eventual emergence of a second cut of the film.
Toys meanwhile? From the director of Rain Man and starring Robin Williams? It should have been huge, not least because its script had been revered for over a decade. In fact, the film was supposed to have been made nearly a decade before. And when it did eventually happen? The challenge turned out to be how to sell it...
The behind the scenes stories of both are told in this episode...
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The new film from director Jake Kasdan is Red One, now playing in cinemas, and itself a massive, expensive Christmas blockbuster film. On the flip side, he started his directorial career with a microbudget indie by the name of Zero Effect back in 1998. In this special episode of Film Stories, he takes his through his work.
He and Simon talk about his blockbuster movies (Jake's, not Simon's), but also the indie film that got lost a little, The TV Set. Plus there's chat about the physical side of filmmaking, and a whole lot more...
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Ah, Tombstone. The 1993 western with a cast led by Kurt Russell, and basically co-starring everyone else who wasn't in the rival project - Wyatt Earp - telling a similar story. But heck, behind the scenes, there were all sorts of problems.
Examples? A director who got fired. A release date that couldn't move. A script that needed urgently hacking to hit the production deadline. A star who was rumoured to be ghost directing the movie.
Meanwhile, following the success of 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol, director Brian Henson liked the idea of taking another classic tale and adding The Muppets to it. But the first announced version of what became Muppet Treasure Island would slightly differ from the actual movie...
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Paul Reiser first came on my radar, as he did for many, with 1986's Aliens. We touch on that very briefly here, as we chat independent film, The Problem With People, a bit of Diner, and the challenges of getting films made.
Plus! Colm Meaney going to the wrong bar, a date set for 19 years into the future, and a whole lot more...
The Problem With People is in UK cinemas from 8th November.
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When the script for Passengers turned up on the famous Hollywood black list of the best unproduced screenplays, it seemed it'd be just a matter of time before it got made. Keanu Reeves and Reece Witherspoon were attached, a director was in place - what could go wrong?
Well, a few things. And when the movie did get made? More problems weren't far behind.
The 1983 hit Flashdance meanwhile launched numerous careers - but also had its fair share of behind the scenes dramas. That, and some Hollywood executives watching a hosepipe...
Stories of both are told in this episode....
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None of the Hollywood studios wanted to make 2010's Kick-Ass, a comic book movie with an R-rated edge. All of them turned it down, and so the film came to life in tandem with the comics, exploding into cinemas in 2010. It would be fair to say that not everyone in the media was pleased about it, as quite a backlash bubbled up.
There were problems with 1999's Payback too, but they came down to a different of opinion between star Mel Gibson and writer/director Brian Helgeland. It got to a point where just days after Helgeland won an Oscar for L.A. Confidential, he was, er, 'removed' from Payback.
The behind the scenes 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-nominee Chris Sanders, for a conversation and his latest film and career.
The latest film? The Wild Robot, a box office smash and a break in style for DreamWorks Animation. It's now in UK cinemas and we go through the journey of the movie.
Plus! Gene Kelly pops up in conversation, as does Lilo & Stitch and a few other moments from Chris' career...
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The Terrifier movie franchise has now led to a number one box office hit - but the story behind the first film involves short films, a crowdfunding campaign that missed its target, a shoot that went on longer than originally planned and financiers dropping out. And then there was the battle to get the film noticed in the first place. Plus, how a tiny team gave the impression of a crew of 100.
Writer/direcotr Osgood Perkins meanwhile had been mulling about a possibe character who would become Longlegs long before he embarked on an unusual serial killer film. Made on a budget of around $10m, and marketed for roughly the same amount - so how did Longlegs become the box office surprise of 2024?
Stories of both are told in this episode...
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2016 marked the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, and not unreasonably, Paramount Pictures wanted a movie. But far from being a straightforward production, Star Trek Beyond would go through different directors, and eventually find itself without a script just months ahead of filming. It made for a tense situation, and that's explored in this episode.
Also explored: the moment when Quentin Tarantino was suddenly announced as the potential writer/director of a new Star Trek movie. It involved a writers' room coming together, a move into R-rated territory - and Tarantino deciding whether he wanted it to be his final film...
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The film Rain Man became a huge box office hit at the end if 1988, and an Oscar-winner in 1989. Yet here was a movie that went through the hands of at least three directors who didn't make it, including Steven Spielberg, who was attached for nearly half a year.
But Barry Levinson did make the film - and he was able to take advantage of a situation that gave him a surprising amount of control.
Michael Flatley meanwhile had seemingly total control over his passion project, Blackbird. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in the movie, which debuted in 2018 - but then seemed to disappear.
The stories of both films are told in this episode...
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An article published back in 1992 would spark a bidding war in Hollywood. Nothing unusual there. That article would lead to Ridley Scott, Jodie Foster and Robert Redford signing up for a big, expensive movie - a movie that never got made. And it never got made because of 1995's Outbreak.
Three movies meanwhile had failed to come together in a row for filmmakers the Spierig brothers after they scored a hit with Daybreakers. But they had a project in mind, based on a Robert A Heinlein (Starship Troopers) short story. It'd lead to Predestination - but there was the small matter of starting work without securing the rights to the story...
The stories of both are told in this episode...
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Headlined by James McAvoy, Speak No Evil is a taut suspence film that's the latest from director James Watkins. Previously responsible for Eden Lake and The Woman In Black, amongst others, he joins Simon for a special episode of Film Stories.
They chat about Speak No Evil, and the confidence of holding tension. Plus, editing with Jon Harris, a bit of Rolling Thunder, and a whole lot more...
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It's not uncommon for films to get through a director or two on their way to the screen. In this episode, that's certainly the case. American Gangster might have ended up on the slate of Ridley Scott, but he was the third or fourth name involved. At one stage, Universal was said to have spent $30m on the film in fact, with no hope of getting a single frame of footage shot.
Shooting footage wasn't a problem with the low budget Piranha II: The Spawning, nominally the directorial debut of James Cameron. But Cameron was ejected from the film a week or two into shooting - even if the story goes he managed to sneak into the edit suite...
Stories of both are told in this episode...
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Director Anand Tucker began in the world of documentaries, before switching into dramatic features. His most recent film, The Critic, is arriving in UK cinemas with Ian McKellen in its lead, having had to change casts following the pandemic.
Before that, Tucker had briefly been attached to The Golden Compass, had worked on films such as Girl With A Pearl Earring and Shopgirl, and has no shortage too of stories to tell. Which he does on this very podcast...
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Two films looooong in the making in this episode of Film Stories: one's been made at the time of recording, one hasn't.
Talk first surfaced of The Flash movie back in the 1980s, but it wasn't until 2023 that a film was finally released. By then, an under-fire Warner Bros was hoping for great things from the film, and confidence appeared to be high: but there were problems, and no shortage of them.
The idea of taking the smash-hit TV show 24 and turning it into a movie seemed fairly logical, and the production budget was going to be on the modest side. Yet delay after delay hit the project - but not before an audacious Die Hard spin-off had been proposed...
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Producer Tommy Harper joins Simon for a Film Stories podcast special, to talk through a career that's taken him from not being allowed on the set of Showgirls, to producing Star Wars, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek films. Oh, and the brand new release, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
It's quite a story, with the likes of JJ Abrams, Paul Verhoeven, Tim Burton and more popping up.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is in cinemas now.
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