Film Stories with Simon Brew

After the $1bn+ grossing The Dark Knight, Warner Bros needed Christopher Nolan more than Christopher Nolan really needed Warner Bros. And whilst Warners wanted a Batman 3 off Nolan, the writer/director himself was concerned: how many good third films in franchises could he really remember?

Still, even as he headed off to make Inception, Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, had an idea which way they wanted a third Dark Knight adventure to go: and this time, it'd be a swing away from what was expected, and what Warner Bros perhaps wanted. Over time, Nolan would reflect that The Dark Knight Rises would be his most underrated film - and Simon gets into the story of it here...
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BAFTA and Emmy-winner Hannah Walter joins Simon for a special episode of the Film Stories podcast.

She's starring in the terrific new independent drama Amazing Grace, that's now playing in UK cinemas. It's her first lead movie role, and came as a result of a direct message in her social media feed!

But then exploring opportunity has always been key to Hannah, right through her work producing Adolescence. In this extensive chat, she talks about producing, acting, whether her driving is up to a Fast & Furious movie, and a whole lot more...
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It was on the set of The Last Boy Scout that director Tony Scott first encountered an upcoming writer by the name of Quentin Tarantino. A few weeks later, Scott had a pair of Tarantino's scripts in his hand: True Romance and Reservoir Dogs. He would, of course, direct the former.

But still, as Simon explores in this new episode, Scott actually wasn't the original director of True Romance. Another director had a different cast ready to go. Furthermore, even when Tony Scott did come aboard, there was a 'debate' over the ending, a permissions problem with a piece of music he wanted to use, two leads whose romance was looking as true off screen and off, and a battle and a half over the movie's violence.

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After the success of Superman: The Movie and Superman II, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind were quick to promote Superman III - or Superman vs Superman as they originally wanted to call it. But this time around, there'd be problems again, and no shortage of them. Christopher Reeve was rumoured to have had enough, Gene Hackman was outraged at the treatment of director Richard Donner on the previous movies, and a possible plot involving the character of Brainiac was nixed too.

The turning point? An appearance by Richard Pryor on a television show, that led to Superman III being a very different beast to the first two - and a film not without a childhood nightmare with it.

For the second part of this episode, Simon is joined by legendary actor James Spader. He's reprising his role of Ultron from Avengers: Age Of Ultron in Marvel's now-streaming VisionQuest series. And they get into a bit of Crash and Wolf as well...

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Oscar-winning producer Roy Conli is a veteran of Disney animation, having produced or being involved with the likes of Big Hero 6, Strange World, Treasure Planet, Tangled and more. Sporting the finest facial hair in Hollywood, he headed to London to present footage from Disney's upcoming animated feature Hexed.

He's appeared on the podcast before, and he's back for a special episode as he looks forward to Hexed, reflects on Strange World, and fails to repay Simon the £3 he owes him.

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