Movies In Focus

#36. Daphné Baiwir On The Stephen King Documentary KING ON SCREEN

Belgian filmmaker Daphné Baiwir's King On Screen is an excellent documentary that puts the focus on the many film and television adaptations that have been based on the work of Stephen King. A must-see for King fans, Baiwir looks at these adaptations from the perspective of people who made them - and the film features interviews with the likes of Frank Darabont, Mick Garris, Mike Flanagan, Tom Holland and many more.

Daphné Baiwir joins the Movies In Focus to talk about the acclaimed author and detail how her documentary came together as well as discussing how she managed to score the film's many illustrious talking heads.

#35. Yuval Adler On SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL & Carter Smith Talks THE PASSENGER

On this episode of the Movies In Focus podcast, director Yuval Adler talks about his latest film, Sympathy For The Devilstarring Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman. Carter Smith also joins the show to talk about his latest Blumhouse release, The Passenger.

Sympathy For The Devil is a Las Vegas set modern noir. It features an exceptional turn from Nicolas Cage - a performances which is one of his best in years. Yuval Adler talks about casting the film, taking Cage back to Vegas - the setting for his oscar-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas and a host of other great details about making his dark thriller.

Later in the podcast Carter Smith talks about his off-beat thriller The Passenger, starring Kyle Gallner and Johnny Berchtold. It’s a film which is reminiscent of the 1980s cult classic Heathers and Smith talks about trying to subvert genre expectations when making his off-beat film.

#34. Filmmaker Joe Russo Gives Insight Into The WGA Strike

Writer, producer, director and podcaster Joe Russo joins the Movies In Focus podcast to discuss the current strike by the Writer’s Guild of America. An up and coming genre filmmaker, Russo has written a host of well regarded screenplays with his partner Chris LaMont, as well as directing the thriller, The Au Pair Nightmare. He also produced the horror anthology film, Nightmare Cinema, Peter Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever, as well as the fantastic podcast - Post Mortem With Mick Garris.

Russo is a member of the WGA and a very vocal supporter of the current writer’s strike - and his insights into the reasons for it are a real eye opener. The rise of streaming and Artificial Intelligence means that the world of entertainment is changing and artists face a whole new set of challenges both commercially and artistically.

In this fascinating conversation, Joe Russo talks passionately and concisely about these challenges as well as giving surprising details on how Netflix’s mysterious algorithm impacts creative decisions every stage of film production.

#33.THE BLACK DEMON Director Adrian Grunberg

Get The Gringo and Rambo: Last Blood director, Adrian Grünberg joins the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about his new film,The Black Demon. The killer shark movie stars Josh Lucas as an oil company employee struggling to protect his family from a megalodon shark after they become stranded on a disused oil rig. An entertaining horror-thriller, The Black Demon plays around with the genre's tropes, as well as adding a little bit of mysticism into the plot.

Films like Get The Gringo (also known as How I Spent My Summer Vacation) and Rambo: Last Blood show that Adrian Grünberg is a very earthbound director and during this episode he talks about how The Black Demon was a change of pace due to its special effects and aquatic location. He also discusses what it's like making a genre film, facing the looming shadow of Jaws during production - and burgundy shirts!

#32. Film Historian James Kenney On DAUGHTER OF GOD With Keanu Reeves & Ana De Armas

City University of New York lecturer and film historian James Kenney once again joins the Movies In Focus podcast. The last time he was on the show he talked about discovering the original cut of Peter Bogdanovich’s Squirrels To The Nuts - and this time round he discusses Gee Malik Linton’s surrealist religious drama, Daughter Of God.

Starring Keanu Reeves and Ana De Armas, Daughter Of God was recut by producers - who removed almost forty minutes - and released it under the generic title of Exposed. This gutted release, diluted the performances of Reeves and De Armas and turned the film into a plodding and rudderless thriller that came and went with little fanfare. 

In this episode, James Kenney reveals how he discovered this director’s cut of Daughter Of God and how he’s attempting to bring this ‘lost’ film to audiences.

#31. A L Katz Talks The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast & Tales From The Crypt

Running on HBO for seven seasons and 93 episodes from 1989 to 1996, Tales From The Crypt was a wonderfully ghoulish show that was based on Bill Gaines’ EC Comics imprint of the same name.

Executive produced by Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill and David Giler, the show was a huge success due to its dark tales and even darker humour. From the second season onwards, Tales From The Crypt was produced by Gil Adler and A L Katz, a duo who oversaw the show's production and its rise glory - or as the Crypt Keeper would say, ‘rise to gory’.

As the show was winding down on television, it made the leap to the big screen with Tales From The Crypt Presents: Demon Knight in 1995 and Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood in 1996. The later film’s troubled production is what made A L Katz create the How Not To Make A Movie Podcast - essential listening for those who like Tales From The Crypt or have an interest in juicy stories on the making of movies and television.

A L Katz joined the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about the making of Tales From The Crypt, how the How Not To Make A Movie Podcast came about as well as the new series that he hopes to make with Gil Adler.

#30. Director Yoko Okumura Talks About Her Comedy-Thriller UNSEEN

Japanese-American director Yoko Okumura makes a punchy feature film debut with Unseen, a new genre-bending comedy-thriller from Blumhouse Productions.

Running a tight eighty minutes, Unseen stars Midori Francis as Emily, a woman escaping from a boyfriend who wants to kill her. Lost in the woods, and without her prescription glasses, she relies on the help of Jolene Purdy’s put-upon cashier, Sam to guide her to freedom by video call.

Funny when it needs to be and brutal when you least expect it, Unseen is an assured debut from Okumura. At the centre of the film is the great chemistry between Midori Francis and Jolene Purdy - no mean feat when they don’t even share the screen!

Yoko Okumura joins the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about Unseen, the complexities of making a film where the leads are in different locations. as well as what it’s like working for the biggest horror producer in Hollywood.

#29. Writer/Director Corey Deshon Talks About His New Thriller DAUGHTER

Corey Deshon, the talented multi-hyphenate writer-director joins the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about his new film, Daughter.

Daughter is an intense psychological thriller that stars Vivien Ngô as a young woman who is abducted and then inducted into a family as their new daughter. Casper Van Dien plays the mysterious Father, the man who will stop at nothing to keep his family unit intact.

A small film with great performances, Daughter is a piece which plays with genre and expectations. It’s an incredibly well acted film with standout performances from Ngô and a career best Van Dien.

Writer/director Corey Deshon discusses how Daughter came to be and how he made this unexpected dramatic thriller.

#28. ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES Writers Pen Densham & John Watson

Released in the summer of 1991, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves was a monster success that grossed over $165 million at the US box office and more than $390 million globally - a number which made it one of the biggest hits of the year.

The success of the film, along with the massive Bryan Adams hit, (Everything I Do) I Do It for You means that it still resonates today. 

The classic Kevin Reyndolds directed adventure gives Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood plenty of swash and buckle alongside Morgan Freeman's Merry Man, while a villainous Alan Rickman chews the scenery as the Sheriff of Nottingham.   

Hot on the heels of a fantastic new release by the aptly named Arrow Films, Pen Densham and John Watson, the writers of Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves join the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about how the film came to be, its enduring legacy  - and the sequel that never happened.

#27. Writing-Directing Duo Joe Dietsch & Louis Gibson Discuss MANIFEST WEST

Manifest West is a coming of age survival drama starring Milo Gibson, Annet Mahendru and Lexi Kolker. A film about a family ditching civilisation and seeking a new life in the American wilderness, Manifest West is an incredibly timely movie which looks at family values, the broken economy and the search for a better way of life.

The film’s writer-directors Joe Dietsch and Louis Gibson joined Niall Browne on the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about how the film came to be and the struggles of making such a close-knit drama. Louis Gibson (the son of actor Mel Gibson) also talked about what it was like making the film which stars his wife Annet and his brother Milo in the lead roles.