"You’re a Timex watch in a digital age." Making a sequel is always a challenge, but making the fourth film in a franchise after a twelve-year hiatus seems like a recipe for disaster. Luckily, the team behind Live Free or Die Hard found a director who was a huge fan of the franchise and worked hard with his team to not just make a great film but to really make a sequel to the original film that was better than the others. Some people disagree but the box office shows that Len Wiseman’s take on th...
Jan 18, 2018•1 hr 24 min•Season 7Ep. 26
"We let you all down, didn’t we?"The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of their favorite movies to talk about. In this month’s episode, cinematographer Toby Oliver joins us to talk about one of his favorite films, Christopher Nolan’s 2017 film Dunkirk.We talk about Nolan’s decision to shoot on IMAX 65mm largely and how this affected the overall tone of the film and informed some of their decisions as to how it w...
Jan 16, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 1
"Simon says." When Jonathan Hensleigh’s spec script ‘Simon Says’ was bought by Twentieth Century Fox to be turned into a Die Hard sequel, he was thrilled. After all, his deal with Warner Bros. to turn it into a Lethal Weapon sequel had collapsed. What it meant, though, is finding a way to rework half of the script to make it fit something that would happen in John McClane’s world. For the most part, things work well, and with John McTiernan returning to the franchise, it’s a solid entry. But cou...
Jan 11, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Season 7Ep. 25
"We are just up to our neck in terrorists again, John!" Joel Silver was never a producer to shy away from giving the audience more of what they wanted. For the sequel to his 1988 action hit Die Hard, he tapped into director Renny Harlin and together, they pushed for more action, more humor, more stunts and… more of everything else the audiences got in the first film. But does that make a good sequel? Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we continue our Die Hard series with Harlin’s 1990 fi...
Jan 04, 2018•1 hr 21 min•Season 7Ep. 24
"Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho." ‘Tis the holiday season, and what better way to kick it off than with everybody’s favorite Christmas action classic, Die Hard. John McTiernan had done Predator beforehand and proved he was the perfect person to helm this action thriller. But would an adaptation from a book about terrorism make for entertaining summer fare? Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we kick off our Die Hard series with McTiernan’s 1988 blockbuster Die Hard. We talk about the ...
Dec 28, 2017•1 hr 29 min•Season 7Ep. 23
"I’m a survivor, as you should know by now." Stieg Larsson had plans to write an entire series of Millennium novels, but unfortunately died having only written three of them. Because of this, they’re often referred to as the Millennium trilogy. Sure, they have the same characters largely and are centered around the Millennium magazine, but it’s not really a trilogy per se. That being said, when making the three films, it didn’t stop the team from shooting them all back to back to keep the story ...
Dec 21, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Season 7Ep. 22
"Hello, Papa." Stieg Larsson’s second novel in the Millennium trilogy, “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” saw the continuation of the story of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomqvist while they try to stop a sex trafficking ring in Sweden. The whole trilogy of books was a massive success, but the film version was given half the budget of the first film for some reason, while also being paired with a different director. Perhaps the producers knew the book wasn’t quite as good as the first one? Perhap...
Dec 14, 2017•1 hr 8 min•Season 7Ep. 21
As part of our ongoing series on the people behind the sites and services that serve the film-loving community, today we’re talking to Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for comScore. You may not be familiar with comScore but you’re likely familiar with reports on how well any particular movie did on any given weekend. comScore is the company that gathers all of that information from the movie theatres, organizes the statistics into useful information, and gets it back to the studios s...
Dec 10, 2017•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 5
"Whatever it is that you’ve been through, you don’t have to tell me. I’m just glad you’re here." With the international success of Stieg Larsson’s novel “Men Who Hate Women” and its sequels, it was inevitable that a cinematic version would be made. The three films that make up Larsson’s ‘Millennium Trilogy’ were made back to back and were all released in Sweden in 2009 before making their way around the world to financial and critical success. The first film, Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl With th...
Dec 07, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Season 7Ep. 20
"Turn back, Sarah. Turn back before it’s too late!" After working on The Dark Crystal together, Jim Henson and Brian Froud wanted to do another project together, but they had a few stipulations. One, they didn’t want to tell a story that was so dark. Two, they didn’t want it to be all puppets – they wanted to include people as well. After locking those in, they came up with a concept that included goblins stealing a baby, and away they went. Steal away with us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as ...
Nov 30, 2017•1 hr 40 min•Season 7Ep. 19
What’s this? More Trek? We can’t get enough of it! This week, Ethan Siegel joins Pete to talk about the science of Star Trek, talking through those questions that stumped us during our film series. From space propulsion to transporters, energy fields to sliding doors, Ethan builds a bridge connecting the fantastic technology that provides the foundation for the Trek future, back to the practical science of today. Who is Ethan Siegel? He’s a Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator,...
Nov 28, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Season 7Ep. 18
"I’m submitting a complaint, exercising my rights as a citizen. That makes me a criminal?" Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon! — https://patreon.com/thenextreel There are many anthology films out in the universe, some better than others. It’s the better ones that have strong connective tissues tying the various short stories together. Sometimes, those ones are directed by many people, sometimes by the same person. When Damián Szifron realized he’d written a bunch of s...
Nov 23, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Season 7Ep. 17
"Memories are all we end up with." Anyone who has seen a Ricardo Darín film knows he has very expressive eyes. The actors in the 2009 film El Secreto de Sus Ojos, or The Secret in Their Eyes, had to have more than just expressive eyes, though. They had to be able to carry heavy amounts of subtext in their eyes. And while director Juan José Campanella’s film is largely a detective story as Darín and his team work to solve a cold case, it’s also a story about unrequited love. Luckily, Campanella h...
Nov 16, 2017•1 hr 16 min•Season 7Ep. 16
"When nothing can be worse than what happened, you feel powerful." Juan José Campanella had developed a career bouncing back and forth between the US, where he would direct episodes of TV shows, and Argentina, where he was starting his feature film directing career. After his Argentinean feature film debut in 1999, he tapped his leading man – Ricardo Darín – to star in his next feature, El Hijo de la Novia, or The Son of the Bride, before he headed back to the States for more TV work. With a tou...
Nov 09, 2017•1 hr 8 min•Season 7Ep. 15
"Of course I can buy it, but I can also not buy it as everybody else would do if they could." Ricardo Darín was pretty much born into acting. Coming from a pair of actor parents, he started on Argentine television when he was just a boy and grew up in the industry, finding lots of success in TV, film, and theatre. But it was his role as con artist Marcos in Fabián Bielinsky’s film Nueve Reinas – or Nine Queens – that really cemented his role as one of Argentina’s key leading men. Join us – Pete ...
Nov 02, 2017•1 hr 4 min•Season 7Ep. 14
"This is where the frontier pushes back." With JJ Abrams busy working on that other space franchise, the new Trek film needed a new director. And who better to bring on board than Justin Lin, the man who rejuvenated the Fast & Furious franchise. Yes, it meant he was going to bring his big action directing to this franchise. But was that a bad thing? It also meant there would be fewer lens flares. Was that a good thing? More importantly, it was Paramount’s opportunity to celebrate 50 years si...
Oct 26, 2017•1 hr 34 min•Season 7Ep. 13
Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon! — https://patreon.com/thenextreel "My name is Khan." When Paramount asked JJ Abrams and his team behind the 2009 Star Trek reboot to get started on a sequel, they took a while trying to break the story. From interviews, it sounded like they had well over 50 iterations of the story before they finally came up with the idea they went with. With all that time and those iterations, though, it struck many people as odd that they ended up...
Oct 19, 2017•1 hr 15 min•Season 7Ep. 12
Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon! — https://patreon.com/thenextreel "Your father was the captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother’s and yours. I dare you to do better." With the financial disappointment of Star Trek: Nemesis, Paramount wasn’t so sure they would return to the well again. But in 2005, when Viacom/Paramount split from CBS, they had to get a movie in the works or risk losing rights to the property. Hence, Star ...
Oct 12, 2017•1 hr 27 min•Season 7Ep. 11
Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon! — https://patreon.com/thenextreel "I’m afraid you won’t survive to witness the victory of the echo over the voice." Star Trek: Insurrection was a success at the box office, but not so much that the studio felt the need to get another Star Trek film into production right away. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much motivation to make one. That is until John Logan met Brent Spiner and the two not only hit it off but also became intent ...
Oct 05, 2017•1 hr 26 min•Season 7Ep. 10
”How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong?" With the success of Star Trek: First Contact, a more action-oriented Star Trek film, the team behind it wanted their next film to be lighter in tone and more character-driven. To a certain extent, that’s exactly what audiences got, and a lot of people were disappointed because they were expecting so much more. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we continue our Star Trek series with Jonathan Frakes’s 1998 film: Star Trek: I...
Sep 29, 2017•1 hr 19 min•Season 7Ep. 9
Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon! — https://patreon.com/thenextreel "The line must be drawn here!" The introduction of the Borg as an antagonist on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” gave the crew of the Enterprise – and the teams on subsequent shows – one of their greatest villains. Not only are they a terrifying collective, assimilating everyone they come into contact with, but they thematically are the antithesis of everything the franchise has come to represent ab...
Sep 21, 2017•1 hr 29 min•Season 7Ep. 8
"Who am I to argue with the captain of the Enterprise?" After seven successful seasons of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” it was time for their voyage to the big screen. For the first foray into the cinemas, the TNG team pulled several key crew from the show – notably the writers and director. Unfortunately, it made for a film that felt a bit like an expanded episode of the TV series, albeit made with a bigger budget. It also is mired by one of the more convoluted elements in any of the franch...
Sep 14, 2017•1 hr 25 min•Season 7Ep. 7
"We will not be the instigators of full scale war on the eve of universal peace!" Even though “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was entering its fifth season and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier had underperformed, Paramount wanted to bring back the original crew of the Enterprise for one last hurrah to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise. To write and helm the film, they turned to the man who arguably made the best film thus far, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Nicholas Meyer co-wrot...
Sep 07, 2017•1 hr 32 min•Season 7Ep. 6
"I don’t want my pain taken away! I need my pain!" Leonard Nimoy had directed two Star Trek films so naturally, William Shatner wanted to give it a go. He even had a great concept for a story – the crew of the Enterprise goes on a quest to find God. Unfortunately, with a writers strike hitting Hollywood at the time, with an effects company that couldn’t deliver, and with a studio demanding as much humor as they could cram into the script, Shatner’s vision was muddled and became what many conside...
Aug 31, 2017•1 hr 19 min•Season 7Ep. 5
"Who would send a probe hundreds of light years to talk to a whale?" With the success of their pair of Star Trek films under their belt, director Leonard Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett were asked once again to return to the well and bring forth yet another Star Trek story. This time, Nimoy had more free reign to make the film he wanted to make, and he and Bennett thought it would be nice to make something a bit lighter. Also? They wanted to feature time travel. So they put their heads together...
Aug 24, 2017•1 hr 33 min•Season 7Ep. 4
"My God, Bones, what have I done?" Because of the critical and financial success of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Paramount quickly put plans into action for part three, telling Harve Bennett to get them a script as quickly as he could. And he did. Soon, they had brought Leonard Nimoy on to direct, feeling okay that he could handle it since his part of Spock had such a diminished role in the film. And two years later, they had a film in theatres. But does it work? Join us – Pete Wright and An...
Aug 17, 2017•1 hr 18 min•Season 7Ep. 3
"You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been, and always shall be, yours." The ‘failure’ of the first Star Trek film put Paramount in the frame of mind where they needed to do a few things if they were to keep the franchise moving forward. 1) Drop the budget to something much more meager. 2) Add some action to the story. 3) Get rid of the needy creator and producer Gene Roddenberry. They did all three and luckily, the pieces fell into place in a way where they truly ended up...
Aug 10, 2017•1 hr 12 min•Season 7Ep. 2
"The creator has not answered." It wasn’t until syndication that Paramount realized that it had a property they could continue milking in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek TV series. Even then, however, they struggled to get a film adaptation made. After dropping the idea and settling for a new TV series called Star Trek: Phase II which they began developing, the theatrical releases of Star Wars and Close Encounters made them realize that science fiction movies could work. So back to the drawing boar...
Aug 03, 2017•1 hr 13 min•Season 7Ep. 1
"Prepare to feel the wrath of the League of Evil Exes!" After making Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright signed on to direct the adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life” but due to project delays, it would be another six years before his film would hit the screen. In the interim, Wright would continue his Cornetto trilogy with Hot Fuzz and O’Malley would nearly finish writing the other five volumes of his “Scott Pilgrim” series. That time also allowed W...
Jun 29, 2017•1 hr 19 min•Season 6Ep. 52
"He dared to be born right on the border with China." Regardless of whether you are a Buddhist or not, the story of Tenzin Gyatso is an interesting one that certainly provides drama that can draw you in. Born as the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, Gyatso grew up as the leader of Tibet. China, however, had other plans and eventually took Tibet, leaving the Dalai Lama no choice but to flee China in 1959. Still hoping to return one day, the Dalai Lama’s life story was one of interest to scree...
Jun 22, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 51
