logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2021
54m 53s

The Rock (1996) and U-571 (2000)

Simon Brew
About this episode

In the new episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, an action favourite with a lot of writers, and a war movie hit that ended up criticised in UK Parliament.

The Rock (1996) utilised lots of writers, and its stars - Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris - all had significant input. Director Michael Bay meanwhile would do a bit of battle with Disney over the film.

Jonathan Mostow first had the inspiration for U-571 when he was developing The Game. But as he lost control of that film, his submarine movie bubbled up - and hit some controversial waters.

Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstoriespod.

Support our work at www.patreon.com/simonbrew.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next
Aug 22
In conversation with Chris Columbus: The Thursday Murder Club, Nine Months, Maiden Voyage, The Beatles and more
Returning to the Film Stories podcast is writer/director/producer Chris Columbus, as his new movie - The Thursday Murder Club - arrives in cinemas, with Netflix release due at the end of August 2025. He talks Simon through the movie, and where it was when he came to it. They also ... Show More
50m 43s
Aug 18
Cruel Intentions (1999), plus Akiva Schafer
Writer/director Roger Kumble had never made a film as he approached the back end of the 1999s, but had two very acclaimed plays under his belt. This, he figures, was his moment, and in under two weeks, he wrote the first draft of what would become Cruel Intentions. And while the ... Show More
59m 3s
Aug 7
In conversation with Mikael Salomon - The Abyss, Hard Rain, Backdraft, Arachnophobia, and a whole lot more
In a very special episode of the Film Stories podcast, Simon chats to cinematographer and director Mikael Salomon. The pair go through Mikael's extraordinary career, that's taken him from Denmark to Hollywood and back again. And Mikael tells his stories: his early years, how he c ... Show More
1h 21m
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2023
CLOSE — Lukas Dhont's Quietly Powerful Coming-of-Age Movie
In his Oscar-nominated CLOSE, filmmaker Lukas Dhont uses the sparest dialogue, the gentlest music, and the most pastoral of images...to tell a shattering story about the brutal ways society turns boys into men. We're taking a mid-season break from our series on movie music t ... Show More
18m 20s
Apr 2016
Zulu (1964)
Special thanks to Glenn Seubert for commissioning this podcast on the 1964 British film "Zulu". Directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker and a very young Michael Caine, it depicts a fictionalized version of a real life stand off between 100 British soldiers and 4,000 Zu ... Show More
55m 56s
Jun 2023
Jurassic Park with David Koepp
Life found a way – Script Apart is back! Season four begins with an episode 65 million years in the making, about a movie lauded as one of the greatest blockbusters of all time. Yes, today on the show, we're venturing into Jurassic Park, with the film’s brilliant screenwriter, Da ... Show More
1h 30m
Jun 2023
#570 — Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston
Wes Anderson's new film, Asteroid City, has so many incredible actors in it that we were able to send John Nugent to the Cannes Film Festival recently, steal three of them away for interview purposes, and put them back before anyone even noticed. So, in this week's episode of the ... Show More
1h 37m
Jul 2021
Almost Famous (2000)
Almost famous is one of those movies that shouldn't feel as real as it does. It's an outrageous story about a teenaged musical critic who goes on tour with an up and coming rock band in the 1970s and accidentally finds himself writing the cover story for Rolling Stone. Totally re ... Show More
1h 26m
Jan 2024
Frankenstein & The Monster From Hell | Episode 395
Jim discusses the last "Frankenstein" film produced by Hammer Films - 1974's "Frankenstein & The Monster From Hell," starring Peter Cushing, Shane Briant, Madeline Smith, David Prowse, John Stratton, Michael Ward, and Patrick Troughton. Directed by Terence Fisher, this film would ... Show More
41m 56s
Jul 2022
Mission: Impossible with David Koepp
Greetings, Script Apart listeners. Your mission today, should you choose to accept it – listen to the one and only David Koepp regale us with fascinating stories and insights from an astonishing three-decade career in Hollywood. Having written movies totalling over $9bn at the bo ... Show More
1h 8m
Jul 2020
Watchmen with David Hayter
In 2009, David Hayter realised a decades-long dream: writing a movie adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal graphic novel, Watchmen. Co-written by Alex Tse, Hayter’s Watchmen told the story of retired superheroes in an alternate 1980s America. It was a gripping, moral ... Show More
58m 45s
Feb 2024
THEM! | Episode 399
Jim dedicates this episode to the memory of his parents, Jim & Phyllis, who would have celebrated their 70th Wedding anniversary the day after this publishes. One of the most-loved "Big Bug" films of the 50's is discussed here with 1954's "THEM!," starring James Whitmore, James A ... Show More
47m 55s
Sep 2020
BlacKkKlansman with Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz
This week, we’re joined by David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel, writers of 2018’s incredible BlacKkKlansman. Directed by the one and only Spike Lee, the film told the true-life tale of Ron Stallworth – a Black police detective working in 1970s Colorado, who attempted to infiltra ... Show More
1h 5m