logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2023
53m 56s

John Wick (2014) and It Follows (2014)

Simon Brew
About this episode

In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, two modestly-costed movies from 2014 that turned out to be really rather successful.


Writer Derek Kolstad had got his first screen credit on a Dolph Lundgren-headlined movie. And he had a plan for a slimmed down action movie, with a 75-year old lead character. Things changed though when a man called Keanu Reeves got interested in it.


With It Follows, writer/director David Robert Mitchell had actually planned to do a different movie, until it became clear that it'd be easier to get his horror project funded. But it was still low budget enough to give him absolute control over how he wanted to shoot it...


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


Support this podcast: www.patreon.com/simonbrew.


Find our print magazines at store.filmstories.co.uk


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

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

Up next
Jul 7
The Godfather Part III (1990) and Clueless (1995)
Nearly 500 episodes in, and the Film Stories podcast finally arrives at a Godfather film. Specifically, The Godfather Part III, a fascinating project whose behind the scenes story went on for over a decade. The number of attempts to get the film made climbed into double figures, ... Show More
1h 10m
Jul 4
In conversation with Ilya Naishuller: Heads Of State, Hardcore Henry, Nobody and more
In a very special episode of the Film Stories podcast, director Ilya Naishuller joins Simon to talk about his new film, Heads Of State. Thing is, they talk about a hell of a lot of other things too before they get there. Nunchuks, sausages, Hardcore Henry, grief, CG on a pint of ... Show More
58m 22s
Jun 30
Aladdin (1992) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze (1991. Includes sausages.
1992's Aladdin is one of Disney's most successful animated films. There have been sequels. There's been a live action remake. A Broadway show. Yet on one point in 1991, a day known during the production as 'Black Friday', things went very wrong. And the creative team had less tha ... Show More
1h 3m
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2020
John Wick with Derek Kolstad
Derek Kolstad is the writer responsible for one of the biggest action franchises in cinema today. 2014’s John Wick was a gripping neo-noir revenge flick that saw Keanu Reeves play a retired assassin grieving the loss of his wife. When a chance encounter with a Russian gangster le ... Show More
1h 9m
Feb 2023
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)
In under 90 minutes, this movie manages to offend, stupefy, and disturb. You’ll laugh, but not for the reasons the writers want you to. Sylvester Stallone stars in this movie, and was supposedly tricked into the role. You can check out the Schwarzenegger-Stallone Rivalry in this ... Show More
1h 14m
Dec 2021
Back To The Future with Bob Gale
Great Scott, it’s the end of season two so we're going out with a 88mph, 1.21 gigawatt bang. Joining us before we make like a tree and get out of here, as Biff Tannen might say, is none other than Bob Gale –writer of the iconic Back To The Future. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, thi ... Show More
1h 6m
Jun 2022
The Cinémathèque Française launches two revolutions
In 1940s France, a little 50-seat cinema opened that would launch one revolution on international movie screens...and arguably a second one in the streets of Paris. Host Rico Gagliano delves into the wild history of the Cinémathèque Française and its legendary founder, Henri Lang ... Show More
42m 20s
Sep 2016
Indie Film Weekly 9.29.16: Hail the Disruptors!
In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, and Emily Buder reveal companies, gear, and filmmakers that are changing the game for indie directors. You’ll learn about a new film incubation model from Pretty Ideas, a new level of financial tra ... Show More
35m 23s
Aug 2022
After Show 03 - Video Vault: Teenager
Do you like low budget movies about the making of low budget movies? On today’s After Show, Gala cracks open the Video Vault once again for a discussion of Gerald Sindell’s 1974 film Teenager, about a deranged director trying to shoot a biker movie in a small town that isn’t havi ... Show More
39m 41s
Mar 2021
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 with Aaron Sorkin
Our guest this week is one of the most celebrated screenwriters in film and TV today. Aaron Sorkin is the storytelling titan behind The Social Network, Steve Jobs, The West Wing, Moneyball, A Few Good Men and Charlie Wilson’s War… the list goes on. Across a glittering three-decad ... Show More
40m 11s
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
Dec 2021
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Shane Black
As the writer of movies like Lethal Weapon, The Nice Guys, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Iron Man 3, Shane Black is a true screenwriting auteur, known for his scripts' pulse-racing action, quippy dialogue and genre-skewing surprises. At the heart of his stories are usually two odd- ... Show More
1h 18m
Nov 2023
An Indie Film Exec Unpacks The Post-Strike World
“As Hollywood changes post-strike, the only surefire way in the door is to have something great people are excited to make.” If you are a writer looking to break into the industry, you need to know how to write a great script that producers actually want to read. In today’s episo ... Show More
45m 50s