In a very special episode of Film Stories, Simon is joined by writer/director Billy Ray, to chat about his career and body of work. Simon quickly gets sidetracked by the fact that Billy started off by writing for The Jetsons, but soon they're into conversation about films as diverse as Captain Phillips, Shattered Glass, Breach, Color Of Night and Hart's War. ... Show More
Yesterday
Film Stories Live: with Mark Kermode in Cornwall
Up front, you can find Simon's tour dates at www.filmstories.co.uk/live. Simon Brew has been touring the UK with Film Stories in 2026, and in June 2026, he landed at the lovely Plaza Cinema in Truro. There, for an hour and half, he and Mark Kermode talked movies. And lots of them ... Show More
1h 38m
Jul 22
Carlito's Way, a film it took ten attempts to make
Brian De Palma's 1993 movie Carlito's Way was not a box office success. De Palma managed to predict the critical reaction to the film, reacted to studio notes saying it was too long by making it longer, and had to retool the finale action sequence very late in the day. Even getti ... Show More
59m 3s
Jul 13
Dances With Wolves (1990), plus its three different cuts...
Kevin Costner gambled hard on making a three hour western, a third of which wasn't in the English language. He turned down roles in The Hunt For Red October and Presumed Innocent to take the risk of making Dances With Wolves. And while history tells it as a masterstroke, in the m ... Show More
59m 39s
Jan 2024
Introducing: Talking Pictures from TCM and Max
Our first guest on Talking Pictures is writer director Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, It’s Complicated, The Holiday). Recorded at her home, host Ben Mankiewicz talks with Meyers about casting Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, getting script advice from Sunset Boulevard dire ... Show More
49m 40s
Jan 2021
#447 — Johnny Flynn, Kingsley Ben-Adir
This week's Empire Podcast features two interviews with fast-rising British stars, both of whom play icons in films released this week. First off, Chris Hewitt has a chat with actor-musician Johnny Flynn about his experiences playing David Bowie in Stardust, and later has a natte ... Show More
2h 3m
Oct 2025
Vendrak The Vertical, Scáthach, And The Kamino Kid (ft. guests Benny Safdie, Malcolm McDowell, Harris Dickinson)
This week's Empire Podcast sees us welcome another hat-trick of wonderful guests, as Chris Hewitt has lovely chats with The Smashing Machine writer-director (and Happy Gilmore 2 villain), Benny Safdie, [24:13 - 40:39 approx] and bona fide acting legend, Malcolm McDowell, star of ... Show More
1h 55m
May 2021
#464 — Mike Rianda, Alexandre Aja, Darius Marder
This week's episode of the Empire Podcast is one of those jam-packed, bumper-sized affairs. Largely because we have three incredible directors guesting on the show. First up is Mike Rianda, whose animated marvel The Mitchells Vs The Machines, is one of our favourite movies of the ... Show More
2h 11m
Apr 2017
'Free Fire’ Director Ben Wheatley | The Big Picture (Ep. 10)
Ringer Editor-in-chief Sean Fennessey sits down with director Ben Wheatley to discuss his latest film, Free Fire (0:10), getting sought out by star actors and directors like Armie Hammer and Martin Scorsese (6:40), and striking a balance between entertaining and traumatizing an a ... Show More
30m 23s