"That man’s an imposter, and if he came here to be buried in our cellar, he’s mistaken!” Cary Grant was cast and ready to play the lead in the film adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner, but people were so upset that Monty Wooley wouldn’t be continuing the part he had created that the studio ousted Grant for Wooley. That left a hole in Grant’s schedule. He knew Frank Capra was busy casting for his new film, an adaptation of the Broadway hit Arsenic and Old Lace, and he knew that Ronald Reagan...
Jun 11, 2020•52 min•Season 9Ep. 46
"Maybe you're a penguin, Tim, but Julie's not a penguin. She's a lioness. Don't try to mate a lioness with a penguin. Ever.” Aside from a few dips onto other genres, Jay Roach generally sticks with comedies, and seems to fare well when he's doing big, broad ones. Take the Austin Power films, or perhaps Meet the Fockers. With such a strong curriculum vitae in comedy films, having him direct a remake of Francis Veber's Le Dîner de Cons looks great on paper. But when it comes time to write, make, a...
Jun 04, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 9Ep. 45
"I don't have an idiot yet! I'm panicked!” Francis Veber had written plays, TV shows, and films. He had also directed plenty of well by the time he decided to adapt his hit play "Le Dîner de Cons" for the big screen. Luckily, his brand of farcical humor worked brilliantly with the film version, and it became a huge hit in his home country of France. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we continue our Francis Veber & His Remakes series with his 1998 film Le Dîner de Cons . We talk abou...
May 28, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 9Ep. 44
When Mike Nichols and Elaine May teamed up again for the first time in over thirty years, it was to adapt Francis Veber's most famous and celebrated works, the 1978 film La Cage aux Folles . Veber's films had been remade in English before — in fact, he'd directed a number of them — but this one was the big one so it needed to be big. But would it work with an American audience in the 90s? Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we continue our Francis Veber and his remakes series with Nichols...
May 21, 2020•58 min•Season 9Ep. 43
When asked to adapt the hit stage show "La Cage Aux Folles" to the big screen, director Édouard Molinaro knew he had to get comedy writer/director Francis Veber involved to not only get the story out of the one-set show and open up the world, but also — and more importantly — to flesh out the core relationship so the film wasn't just all stereotypes. Veber did his work, and with Molinaro's direction, became a huge hit in France. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we kick off a short seri...
May 14, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 9Ep. 42
When Agnieszka Holland described her film Spoor at the New York Film Festival, she said it was, "an anarchistic, feminist, ecological crime story with elements of black comedy and magic realism." That statement, paired with comments from a correspondent at Poland's state media outlet, calling the film "a pagan film promoting ecoterrorism," speaks exactly to what likely drew Holland to the original source material. It's not a story that is easily definable by Hollywood's genre boxes. But how well...
May 07, 2020•1 hr•Season 9Ep. 41
For Agnieszka Holland's third and final (she says) film about the Holocaust, she landed on a unique story that has shades of others before and after detailing gentiles saving Jews, but that's set in a very unique location – the sewers below the city. That meant a lot of dark scenes, but Holland didn't shy away from them. She worked with Jolanta Dylewska, her cinematographer, and together, they created a beautifully dark palette that feels authentic and not like The Third Man. Join us – Pete Wrig...
Apr 30, 2020•57 min•Season 9Ep. 40
When Agnieszka Holland was given early pages from Solomon Perel's unfinished memoirs about surviving the Holocaust, she was immediately taken by it. The fact that it was about a young Jewish boy who stayed alive by hiding out as one of the Hitler Youth among other things was fascinating to her, but it was his lack of embellishing and complete honesty that drew her in. Thus began her journey in making a film based on his experiences. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we kick off a series...
Apr 23, 2020•57 min•Season 9Ep. 39
Many consider the 1979 mini-series adaptation of John le Carré's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" to be not only the definitive le Carré adaptation but also that Alec Guinness to be the definitive George Smiley. Because of that, tackling the story again can be seen as a tricky task. Luckily, the team behind the film adaptation in 2011 found the right people to adapt the script, the right director to helm it, and the perfect actor to fill Guinness' shoes. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we ...
Apr 16, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Season 9Ep. 38
John le Carré's book "The Little Drummer Girl" was somewhat controversial as it managed to offend both the Israelis and the Palestinians in its depiction of its terrorism story. Controversy, however, can often be seen as a moneymaker, at least that's what the team at Warner Bros. must've thought when they set to work right away of optioning the book, adapting it, and having George Roy Hill direct it. Unfortunately, Hill didn't seem to be the right guy for the job as the film ended up fairly flat...
Apr 09, 2020•59 min•Season 9Ep. 37
When John le Carré wrote his third novel "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold," it was such a success and brought him so much acclaim that it essentially outed him as a spy for MI6. He'd been doing it for only five years, but in that time, he learned a great deal about how the machine worked (or the 'circus' as he calls it in his books) and was able to bring that world to life with greater accuracy than had been seen before. Because of that, it was inevitable that the story would be adapted to fil...
Apr 02, 2020•59 min•Season 9Ep. 36
Ron Stallworth's story seems ridiculous and unbelievable, but it's true – as an African American undercover cop with the Colorado Springs Police Department, Ron infiltrated the local KKK group with one of his fellow detectives and managed to bring them down. It's the sort of story that Spike Lee seems perfect for, so who better to direct it than Lee himself? Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we wrap up our brief Spike Lee series with his 2018 film BlacKkKlansman. We talk about Lee's mes...
Mar 26, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Season 9Ep. 35
“Everybody wants to be black.” By the time year 2000 rolled around, Spike Lee had made 13 feature films (if you count his 60-minute student film Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads as a feature) and had been celebrated, denigrated, disparaged, praised, and sometimes ignored. Regardless of the reactions, Lee showed himself to be a straight-up artist – always pushing to make noise with his cinematic art, whether people ended up listening or not. And then along comes his 2000 film Bamboozled , ...
Mar 19, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 9Ep. 34
“Wake up!” For Spike Lee’s third feature film, he blended an idea he got from an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode where the characters talk about the theory that hot weather increases violent tendencies with stories of police violence against African Americans that ended in their deaths. He created a film that speaks to family and neighborhood as much as it speaks to violence and anger. It’s a film chock full of flawed characters who feel lived in as much as the streets of this fantastical vers...
Mar 12, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 9Ep. 33
“What kind of man are you?” Jean-Pierre Melville wrote the script for Le Samouraï for Alain Delon. When he started telling Delon about the script, Delon stopped him after ten minutes, commenting on how there was no dialogue yet. Melville said that was correct, and Delon’s immediate reaction was to say, “I’ll do it.” He then brought Melville to his bedroom where he revealed that it was decorated in a very sparse Japanese style with a samurai sword hanging over his bed. It seemed it was meant to b...
Mar 05, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 9Ep. 32
“I liked you. I really liked you, Macaroni, but you knew the rules.” After Jules Dassin was blacklisted from Hollywood, he went to Europe to see if he could find anyone willing to hire him. Even there, it took some time but eventually, producer Henri Bérard asked him if he would write and direct the adaptation of Auguste Le Breton’s novel “Rififi.” Jean-Pierre Melville had been asked prior but gave Dassin his blessing to take it on, and Dassin made the film, now hailed as one of the great crime ...
Feb 27, 2020•59 min•Season 9Ep. 31
With a passion for American films noir, French filmmakers in the 50s started making their own takes on crime stories and created an entire new subgenre of crime films, the policiers, which in turn inspired many American filmmakers. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we kick off our new series on French crime films with Jacques Becker’s 1960 prison breakout movie, Le Trou . We look at the nature of prison break movies and what filmmakers do to get us to side with these criminals as our pr...
Feb 20, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 9Ep. 30
“They’re probably just looking at my smock. It tends to catch the light.” After collaborating on Tammy and The Boss , husband and wife team Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone proved that the third time’s a charm with Life of the Party . Of course, ‘charm’ may not be the most accurate word as the film was reviewed fairly poorly, but if it hadn’t been reviewed poorly, it wouldn’t fit into our current guilty pleasure series! Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we wrap up this year’s Guilty Ple...
Feb 13, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 9Ep. 29
Bruce Willis’ star power rose quite a bit with the release of Die Hard , but strangely it was his supporting role in Bonfire of the Vanities that seemed to give him the clout he needed to do his own rewrites on the action thriller he was working on at the time, Hudson Hawk . Through his vision, this film became goofier and very Looney Tunes-esque. Unfortunately, the marketing stuck with the action side of Willis and the film flopped in the States. But it’s a quirky film that found its audience o...
Feb 06, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Season 9Ep. 28
“It’s just a lil’ ole bitty pissant country place. Nothing much to see.” After Nine to Five , Colin Higgins had been working on a few ideas of his own when he was asked by his recent collaborator Dolly Parton to direct her next film, the adaptation of the Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas . While coming on board a relatively put together story may not have allowed Higgins to craft the story his way, the project still did fit with the types of stories about outsiders that he wa...
Jan 30, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 9Ep. 27
When Jane Fonda and her producing partner Bruce Gilbert brought Colin Higgins on to rewrite Patricia Resnick’s workplace drama, they knew they were going to shift the story to a comedy instead. They also knew that Higgins would flesh out the three female protagonists at the core of the story. What they also got was an incredibly well-structured script that was full of wild humor while also keeping the characters honest and grounded. Considering these were features that Higgins consistently wrote...
Jan 23, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 9Ep. 26
“People just don’t drop dead in cinemas watching horror movies and whispering, 'Look out for the elf!'” Even if his first screenplay was for a film that was a box office flop at the time, the success of the second film he wrote gave Colin Higgins enough clout to finally direct. As a clear fan of Hitchcock’s work, he delivered his second comedy thriller that felt very much an homage to Hitchcock in Foul Play , and he delivered another box office hit. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we ...
Jan 16, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Season 9Ep. 25
“If there’s ever anything that you need, don’t call me.” For Colin Higgins’ second film, he wanted to write something that had a Hitchcockian flair, and he was partial to the thrillers on trains. What we got – and what Arthur Hiller deftly directed – was Silver Streak . What we also got was the legendary comedy pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, two comedians who would end up making three more films together after this. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we continue our Colin Higg...
Jan 09, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 9Ep. 24
“You can’t let the world judge you too much.” Colin Higgins had one of those incredibly lucky starts to his career in motion pictures – knowing the right people at the right time while still in school. Of course, he also proved right out of the gate that he was incredibly talented, which always helps. His first script, Harold and Maude , was written as his thesis project while at UCLA, and even if he didn’t end up getting to direct it, with Hal Ashby on board, he was able to be involved from sta...
Jan 02, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 9Ep. 23
By the time Steve Martin came around to act in All of Me , his film career was in full bloom and he could be counted on to make a movie work (albeit not always make money). He had proven that he could do over-the-top goofball comedy, more serious roles, and more straight-forward comedy in which he plays a regular person. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we conclude our series on Martin’s early career with Carl Reiner’s final film with him, 1984’s All of Me .We talk about Martin and his...
Dec 26, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Season 9Ep. 22
By 1984, Steve Martin had played an idiot, a down-on-his-luck sheet music salesman in 30s Chicago, a noir detective, and a mad scientist – quite a variety of characters, though all very specific in their characterizations. Because of that, seeing him play a pretty normal, non-affected straight guy in Arthur Hiller’s comedy The Lonely Guy almost seemed a bit of a surprise. Surely, Martin was looking for a variety of parts so he could show off what we could do, so it makes sense. The film didn’t e...
Dec 19, 2019•57 min•Season 9Ep. 21
"I’ve had the top of her head off, but that’s as far as it went.” When Steve Martin and Carl Reiner reunited for a third time, they took some of the parody comedy joy the found in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and the absurd comedy from The Jerk , to make The Man With Two Brains . There is a clear sense here that they enjoy playing with conventions from mad scientist films, but it’s not as much an homage like their last film. It also feels like they’ve grown quite a bit in their comedy writing, as t...
Dec 12, 2019•55 min•Season 9Ep. 20
“You know how to dial, don’t you? You just put your finger in the hole and make a tiny little circle.” When Steve Martin and Carl Reiner latched onto the idea of acting in a scene opposite characters in other movies, they thought it was pretty funny and thought it would be even funnier if they could do an entire movie that way. It took some work to get there, but they managed to pull off a pretty clever film in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid , even if they devolve into dumb comedy at times. Join us –...
Dec 05, 2019•57 min•Season 9Ep. 19
“I want to live in a world where the songs come true.” It may have seemed more strange at the time than it does now, but after his success of his comedy film The Jerk , comedian Steve Martin used his career momentum to next make… a depressing musical in which he’s a completely unlikeable character. In context of the career path that Martin has taken and the variety of projects he’s been a part of, it’s clear that it was a smart decision, but he’s lucky the flop of Pennies From Heaven didn’t kill...
Nov 28, 2019•1 hr•Season 9Ep. 18
“I don’t need anything… except this. This ashtray, and that’s the only thing I need is this. I don’t need this or this. Just this ashtray… and this paddle game.” Steve Martin was having great success as a comedian, but felt like he was at his peak and wouldn’t last very much longer if he didn’t push into another avenue. That other avenue, as it turned out, was film. Of course, that wasn’t as easy to get into as he had hoped and it took him some time, but eventually, one of the studios latched on...
Nov 21, 2019•58 min•Season 9Ep. 17
