Films Not Made

Backlot: Adam Schartoff of Filmwax Radio

Adam Schartoff of Filmwax Radio is a veteran nearing 900 episodes interviewing everyone from Gus Van Sant to Werner Herzog. Filmwax began in 2011 as a small film series in a Brooklyn bar, quickly evolving into a podcast by 2012. Adam, Avi and Amy discuss the biggest challenges in getting a film seen, changes in distribution, incorporation of AI, and working from the heart. We asked his dream guest: Jim Jarmusch, the ultimate New York indie filmmaker he’s been "orbiting" for 15 years. Put that wish out there! Find Adam’s terrific archive at FilmwaxRadio.com [http://FilmwaxRadio.com].

Stamp & Deliver with Dan MIrvish

Dan Mirvish, co-founder of Slamdance, comes on to talk about the unmade film that haunted him for years. Stamp & Deliver was a darkly comic postal western — think No Country for Old Men meets Office Space — and it got closer than most. Sets were built in Austin. Brittany Murphy auditioned. Ed Asner and Peter Fonda were in. Neil Young was going to produce and score it. Then 9/11 happened. We go through the whole story, run the original script through our AI pipeline, and give Stamp & Deliver the trailer it never got and still deserves. Our film executive Meredith also stops by with notes — and sounds exactly like every development meeting you've ever sat through. If you love indie film, hollywood stories, development hell, and the ones that got away — this one's for you. https://linktr.ee/atomicfondue [https://linktr.ee/atomicfondue] https://substack.com/@danmirvish [https://substack.com/@danmirvish] https://www.danmirvish.com/Stamp-Deliver [https://www.danmirvish.com/Stamp-Deliver] next film, Atomic Fondue (still raising money!) https://www.danmirvish.com/Atomic-Fondue [https://www.danmirvish.com/Atomic-Fondue]" Go to https://filmsnotmade.com/ [https://filmsnotmade.com/] for info on the show, transcripts and more. Follow the show on https://www.youtube.com/@FilmsNotMade [https://www.youtube.com/@FilmsNotMade] Subscribe to our https://substack.com/@filmsnotmade [https://substack.com/@filmsnotmade] #FilmsNotMade #UnmadeFilms #DevelopmentHell #StampAndDeliver #PostalWestern #Slamdance #IndieFilmHistory #DanMirvish #IndieFilm #IndependentFilm #FilmHistory #AIFilmmaking #GenerativeAI #AITrailer #FilmPodcast #HollywoodStories #Screenwriting #MakingMovies #MovieTrailer

Backlot—The Amateur Pornographer Table Read

It's been over 25 years since Matthew Rhys first read the script of The Amateur Pornographer. This project broke the heart of writer-director Christopher Monger. In this special Backlot episode, actor Matthew Rhys, along with Ian McNiece and Meryn Williams Davies, share and read two scenes from the original screenplay. Chris and producer Ted Hope are in the room, reinvigorating the passion behind the script and desire to bring this Welsh film to life. Christopher said, "Seeing Matthew Rhys and Ian McNeice and Meryn Williams Davies read a couple of scenes made me both happy and sad.  Happy in that, yes, I think it is a good script; and sad because, no, it did not get made. When I re-read Amateur Pornographer I was filled with the excitement I had when writing it." Go to https://filmsnotmade.com/ [https://filmsnotmade.com/] for info on the show, transcripts and more. Follow the show on https://www.youtube.com/@FilmsNotMade [https://www.youtube.com/@FilmsNotMade] Subscribe to our https://substack.com/@filmsnotmade [https://substack.com/@filmsnotmade]

The Amateur Pornographer with Chris Monger and Ted Hope

Christopher Monger, a Welsh native, was fresh off the Miramax release of his film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain [https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-englishman-who-went-up-a-hill-but-came-down-a-mountain/umc.cmc.4g6bywqqp7hudv24wwh8d18h9?action=play] starring Hugh Grant. His next project was to shoot in a small town in Wales, and producer Ted Hope felt it was a sure thing. The Amateur Pornographer was nearly made with a young Matthew Rhys [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0722629/] and later got traction at HBO, with one note: Could the film be set in the United States instead of Wales? Christopher Monger IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003355/] Ted Hope’s Substack “Hope for Film [https://tedhope.substack.com/]” Check out our curated Letterboxd List [https://letterboxd.com/filmsnotmade/list/films-not-made-episode-6-amateur-photographer/edit/]for some New York mid 90s indie classics to go with our Ted Hope-Good Machine vibe. We have merch! Buy our awesome Films Not Made signature mug [https://cutawaymerch.store/products/films-not-made-signature-mug] or 100% cotton t-shirt [https://cutawaymerch.store/products/films-not-made-vintage-white-t-shirt]. Go to FilmsNotMade [https://filmsnotmade.com/] for the all transcripts and more. Follow the show on YouTube@filmsnotemade [https://www.youtube.com/@FilmsNotMade] Subscribe to our Substack@filmsnotmade [https://substack.com/@filmsnotmade]

The Sisterhood: The Conspiracy Thriller That Was 15 Years Ahead of Hollywood

In 2007, producer Effie Brown and novelist Nichol Bradford put together a 40-page pitch deck for The Sisterhood — a global conspiracy thriller about a secret network of women of color who build an alternative system of wealth, protection, and care, and get targeted for it. The deck built an entire world around the project — a transmedia universe of community, content, and activism — before that phrase existed. Hollywood still said no. In this episode of Films Not Made, Effie Brown (producer of Dear White People and Real Women Have Curves, CEO of Gamechanger Films, Academy Board of Governors) and Nichol Bradford (author, technologist, Singularity University faculty, Executive in Residence for AI and the Future of Work at SHRM) join Amy and Avi to finally open the drawer on The Sisterhood — a project that hasn't been pitched in over a decade and somehow feels more urgent right now than ever. Effie's pitch: "Bourne Ultimatum meets House of Cards — but with sisters." A vaccine that could collapse the global drug economy. A murder. A reckoning. And the question underneath all of it: who actually runs the world, and what happens when someone tries to build outside the system? We run the full project through our AI pipeline: pitch deck, casting board (Angela Bassett, Danielle Deadwyler, Regina King, Lashana Lynch, Mads Mikkelsen with a satellite phone in a museum), a full trailer — and a live pitch to our AI film executive, who has opinions. Effie's verdict on whether this could be made now: 1,000%. Guests: Effie Brown https://www.linkedin.com/in/effie-brown-81443826Gamechanger Films [https://www.gamechanger-films.com/] Nichol Bradford [https://www.nicholbradford.com/] Films Not Made resurrects Hollywood's wildest unmade films. Subscribe: YouTube@filmsnotmade [https://www.youtube.com/@FilmsNotMade] filmsnotmade.com [http://filmsnotmade.com] Substack@filmsnotmade [https://substack.com/@filmsnotmade] Letterboxd@filmsnotmade [https://letterboxd.com/filmsnotmade/] #EffieBrown #NicholBradford #AIFilmmaking #TheSisterhood #FilmsNotMade #BlackWomenInFilm #DevelopmentHell #FilmPodcast #HollywoodStories #UnmadeFiles #Screenwriting #WomenProducers #BlackDirectors #BlackStorytelling