Robert Zemeckis' 1997 film of Carl Sagan's Contact is a remarkably grown-up science fiction movie for a summer blockbuster. Starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, it took nearly 20 years to bring the story to the screen - and along the way, Mad Max director George Miller was hired and fired too. It's quite a story, told by Simon Brew in this latest episode.

Plus! Oscar-winning filmmaker David Frankel chats to James about The Devil Wears Prada 2, and the short film that earned him an Academy Award...

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It's pretty well known that originally, Steven Spielberg was interested in directing a remake of Cape Fear, and that Martin Scorsese held the rights to what became Schindler's List. That the two then swapped projects. Yet that's just part of the story.

In this episode of Film Stories, Simon Brew digs into Scorsese's dislike of the project when he first came to it. Of Robert De Niro's tattoos. Of Nick Nolte not being recognised at the premiere of Goodfellas. And he uncovers a useful lesson in booking your location right near an airport...

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June 1990 saw Disney spend big on a summer movie, at a point when that was the last thing it was inclined to do. But 1990's Dick Tracy - specifically the way it was promoted - was hugely influenced by Warner Bros' success with Batman the year before.

Dick Tracy though by that time had already taken around 15 years to come to the screen - and the aftermath of it would lead, bizarrely, to the creation of the film Jerry Maguire.

If you like this podcast, please do like and subscribe. Simon Brew is on tour with Film Stories too. Go to www.filmstories.co.uk/live-events for more information.

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The summer of 1999 brought with it some huge successes, and also the combination of Will Smith, Salma Hayek and Kevin Kline in Wild Wild West. Based on the TV show from the 1960s, this became a hugely expensive Warner Bros blockbuster, one that George Clooney saw the problem with and duly dropped out of fairly late in the day.

In this episode of Film Stories, Simon digs into the story of the movie, and how Will Smith faced a choice: does it take the lead role in this, or does he make The Matrix instead...?!

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Paul Feig returns to the Film Stories podcast, to chat with Simon about a whole bunch of stuff. There's The Housemaid - with a clearly marked spoiler! - and The Housemaid 2. There's also Bridesmaids at the Oscars, an attempt get Spy 2 moving, the long-lost idea of a Play-doh movie, and a whole lot more.

Bit sweary this one. Please like and subscribe and stuff!

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Director David Mackenzie stops by to chat about his new film, Fuze, in the latest episode of the Film Stories podcast. Ryan Lambie steps in to to chat to David about his work, and films such as Young Adam, Starred Up, the mighty Hell Or High Water (which Mackenzie chats about revisiting recently) and Relay.

Plus a whole lot on Fuze, in cinemas now, and his plans for future projects...

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In 1980, an option was taken out on Judge Dredd with a view of getting a movie of Mega City One's legendary law enforcer to the big screen. In the years that followed, it looked like Tony Scott might direct a film based on 2000AD comics' most famous character, with Arnold Schwarzenegger sniffing around.

In the end, 1995 saw a seasoned movie star in Sylvester Stallone and a twentysomething British film director called Danny Cannon realising the film. Turned out to be quite a story...

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Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett work as filmmakers under the collective name of Radio Silence, and they've been out and about promoting their new film, Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come.

The poor pair had to suffer a conversation with Simon for their sins, that touched on the new movie, on films such as Abigail and Devil's Due, plus tips of the hat to very expensive chairs and the Sega Dreamcast console...

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No two ways about it, 2000's X-Men movie was a massive gamble. At a time when studios needed movie star vehicles, 20th Century Fox found itself without a summer blockbuster due to a delay on a Tom Cruise film. It'd already greenlit and backtracked on X-Men once.

When the film finally got going? Well, there'd be well-reported behind the scenes problems. A star who wasn't cast until shooting began. And a story that requires a fair amount of use of the word 'allegedly'...

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In person, Simon got to meet - after years of interviewing them remotely - writers/producers/directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord. Chaos absolutely ensued.

In this Film Stories special, they talk about Project Hail Mary, the second best Rocky film, choosing to do a project because it's a good idea for a change, and a whole lot more...

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At the end of 1997, Kevin Costner's second film as director - The Postman - made its way into cinemas, at the end of a difficult year for Warner Bros. The $80m, three hour movie would be savaged by critics, and fail to find an audience - but there was quite the story behind the film, before and after.

There's quite a story too to Wag The Dog, a movie that could fit into the schedules when a far more expensive project was hit by a delay. And the political satire that followed made headlines for unexpected reasons within months of its release.

Stories of both are told in this episode...

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