The Next Reel Film Podcast

“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...

“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 m...

“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...

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...

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 lookin...

"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 hom...

“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...

“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,...

“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...

Making a film about identical twin gynecologists after having two successful Hollywood films may seem like folly, or it may seem like exactly what a filmmaker like David Cronenberg would do. Cronenberg used the boost of success to get a complex, psychological drama made, and while it may not have paid off at the box office, it’s become an essential work of the director that pulls elements from his...

“Television is reality, and reality is less than television.” There’s a film critic who called David Cronenberg ‘the thinking man’s genre filmmaker.’ If you look at the body horror films Cronenberg puts together, you will find that there is often a lot to unpack. They’re more artistic and have a lot more to chew on than most horror films. To that end, this reviewer’s comment about Cronenberg makes...

David Cronenberg took a bit more of a science fiction route rather than straight-up body horror with his 1981 film Scanners . It didn’t have a personal connection like The Brood , his previous effort, either, so it stands out a bit in his work. That being said, the body horror elements certainly crop up in the gruesome effects he uses. But is he hiding a nonsense story in atmosphere? Join us – Pet...

“Raglan encouraged my body to revolt against me… and it did.” After going through a difficult divorce and custody battle, David Cronenberg decided to integrate elements of that part of his life into his screenplay for The Brood . It’s not an obvious parallel to his life, but when you know it’s there, it’s easy to see. Does that integration of his own life’s battles into the film help make it a str...

When people familiar with the works of David Cronenberg view his 1979 film Fast Company , many are taken aback because it feels like an anomaly in his oeuvre. There is no body horror. It’s a straight up carsploitation movie. But to Cronenberg, he views it as one of his many children, and like kids, they each are their own unique being. For fans of his films and those who study them, however, does...

“I have to have blood. It’s all I can eat.” David Cronenberg seemed to continue from where he left off with his first theatrical feature film, Shivers , when he wrote his script for his next film. Certainly, there are differences, but largely, the stories have a lot of similarities. That being said, there are definite signs of growth for this storyteller, and as far as his body horror films, there...

“Why not breed a parasite that can do something useful?” David Cronenberg has long been called the ‘king of body horror,’ which is a title that he came to early in his career. When looking at his first theatrical feature, Shivers , it’s perhaps easy to see why he was dubbed with this moniker, and also easy to see why it stuck. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we kick off our David Cronen...

“Rise and rise again until lambs become lions.” When Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott signed on to make Nottingham , a revisionist take on the Robin Hood myth that pitted a Sherlock Holmes-like Sheriff of Nottingham against the villainous Robin, little did anyone realize where it would end up. After years of rewrites, Scott had the version of the myth that he wanted to make, taking on a much more hi...

Pulling off a good parody can be quite difficult. Mel Brooks has done it a few times, but he’s also made some lesser parody films that don’t quite hold up. So where did his sendup of the Robin Hood myths end up? Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we continue our Robin Hood series with Brooks’ 1993 film Robin Hood: Men in Tights .We talk about parody films and look at why a parody film of t...

Every few years it seems, two films telling the same (or similar) story start production near the same time and inevitably, it turns into a race to see who gets to the box office first and who ends up the victor. Armageddon vs. Deep Impact. Antz vs. A Bug’s Life. Snow White and the Huntsman vs. Mirror Mirror. So when John Irvin’s film was set to release opposite Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince...

Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds had been buddies from early in their careers before Reynolds directed Fandango, which starred Costner. Their friendship lasted for a decade before temporarily being waylaid by the production problems on Waterworld, but before their rift, they were called upon to make an update of the Robin Hood tale. The film received mixed reviews but audiences loved it and it bec...

When Sean Connery agreed to star in The Death of Robin Hood, the James Bond star was thrilled to play a character where they wouldn’t ask him to come back for a sequel. But when the film was renamed Robin and Marian to be more marketable, did that affect the way the film was perceived? Or was the script reworked to try and capture the romance? It’s hard to say, but it does make for interesting dis...

Walt Disney had long been interested in telling the story of Reynard the Fox, but never could find the way to tell it that he thought would be palatable to kids. Because of that, it kept getting shelved. After Disney’s death, they finally found a way to integrate the anthropomorphic characters into an animated film. It wasn’t Reynard the Fox as it turned out but the story of Robin Hood. For people...

It seemed fitting for Jack Warner and Warner Bros. to stick with a gangster picture for their big 60s musical. The fact that they tied the Robin Hood character into it was a pretty clever way to put a twist on it and make it stand out. And, of course, bringing Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack on board made perfect sense – Frank, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. were all amazing singers. But how well...

Tasmanian Errol Flynn had already proven himself a solid action star for Warner Bros. in films like Captain Blood, so when the dealings with James Cagney to play Robin Hood fell through, Flynn seemed like a logical choice. And it’s lucky for all of us that things went this way because Flynn created one of the most iconic portrayals of Robin Hood that has graced the silver screen. Join us – Pete Wr...

Stories of Robin Hood, the nobleman who stole from the rich to give to the poor, go back for centuries, with tales as far back as the 1300s. The story has been told in countless ways, and when cinema was invented, filmmakers began telling this story on film. The first version was made in 1908, but the first one that really created an iconic character of Robin Hood was Allan Dwan’s 1922 tale starri...