In the new episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, an ensemble film with a reluctant director, and a Shakespeare take that made its studio nervous. Sneakers took years to simply write - and then when it came to finding a director, the man who took the job on had suggested John Badham first. Romeo + Juliet meanwhile needed Leonardo DiCaprio to fly himself to Australia just to keep the studio interested - and then the shoot itself was rocked by a kidnapping. Stories of both are told in this episode. Find Simon on Twitter at @simonbrew, and the podcast can be found at @filmstoriespod. Support our work at www.patreon.com/simonbrew. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.