Making it in Movie Making

Today's guest is Ellen Belden - showrunner screenwriter of Hobo for Mayor.

This episode's guest is Stuart Brennan, actor, writer, director, producer and studio head.

He has established himself and his studio Stronghold with over twenty production credits including his latest film, Warlord, which is out now in the US and the UK (as well as Germany and Russia) and which stars Billy Boyd of Lord of the Rings. As well as this film, we discuss his whole career, from an early BAFTA win as an actor to working with Martin Scorsese. For the indie filmmaker, we get into how to get name actors into your film (he's worked with many established talents including Sophie Skelton, Jonathan Rhys-Davies and Rutger Hauer), and how he's developed his own studio in the model of old Hollywood. We also talk about distribution, marketing, the perils of piracy, and the importance of showing independent films some love on IMDb and other review sites.

Merchandise:

You can buy screen accurate costumes and other goodies from Stronghold on Etsy.

Stuart also recommends this Elven Mead and Elven Rum both of which are official tie-ins with Warlord.

Joining me on this episode is Alicia Dell'Aria, professional voice actor and vocal guide, developing film actor, DJ, hypnotherapist and lots more besides. Also my co-star in an upcoming short (originally named Warrior's Prayer, now retitled Expectations). We talk about her adventures in travel and creativity and her journey so far.

Official Website

IMDb

Instagram

Facebook

This is a special one. A 90-minute plus talk with Andreas Wisniewski on Bond, Buddhism, (his) Boys and Berlin.

We discuss his early success in Hollywood with The Living Daylights (James Bond), Die Hard and a couple of Mission: Impossible movies, but also get into a much deeper and more interesting conversation about life.

Andreas shares his experiences major and minor detailing the events that have affected his personal and professional developments. We go from geopolitics to inner peace, then finally back to movie making where we discuss Andreas' endeavours as a director.

I learned a lot from this one. A rich and meaningful talk.

Some links from our conversation:

Giovanni Sollima

H3N Productions (Andreas' Youtube)

HereNowNeverNowhere Trailer

La musica è la mia casa Excerpt

The Undernet Trailer

The Big Mind Process

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Bavarian State Opera

Johann "Hans" Kresnik

In this episode, I'm joined by Jennifer O'Callaghan, classic movie lover, reporter, Canadian and author of the upcoming book:

Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Hollywood Golden Age

This episode is a Hitchcock love fest. Learn all about her new book and enjoy our geek out.

You can buy the book from September 30, 2025 with all the links and information you might need on Jennifer's website, or you can follow her on Instagram here.

I talk to Chris Cronin, celebrated shorts director, former university mate, and now Total Film & Mark Kermode celebrated feature filmmaker. His debut feature "The Moor" is out now for just £7.99 to own in the UK and has racked up multiple glowing reviews. This is one indie horror that's definitely worth your time. It's also (slightly annoyingly) made by someone I used to know AND it's set in Yorkshire. What more could you want? I chat to Chris as a filmmaker to get all the nuggets of advice I can as well as big up his film (it's genuinely great) and have a bit of a general catchup. This was a great one for me, and I think it's full of really useful information for you guys, the listeners, trying to do what we're all trying to do: Make it in Movie Making.

www.chriscronin.co.uk

Today I talk to Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi - Italian/Australian actress who made an impact as the antagonist in the Sydney Sweeney film Immaculate - we talk about getting there, and where she's going next. Hint: She's just signed with a top UK agency representing major talent.

In this episode I talk to Jay Vinitsky, former post-production supervisor in Hollywood! He's worked on some of the biggest films I grew up with. From Lost in Space to Tenacious D via 2 Horrible Bosses and 4 Final Destinations. He also helped Samuel L. Jackson replace one of cinema's greatest lines for the TV safe version of Snakes on a Plane. In the episode we hear all about how Jay upped sticks to LA to make it big, and actually pulled it off. Along the way there's advice for any aspiring creative person. This is what this podcast is all about. Enjoy!

Pedro Flores Maldonado had a smash hit in 2020, right before the pandemic with his first feature film "Sí, Mi Amor" being the most successful film in cinemas in Peru that year. He has since produced 2 sequels and another original film - all of which are on Netflix. He's recently completed a documentary, Orígena, that's freely available and he just keeps going with more projects to come. We had a chat about finding that success and his continuing journey. This episode is in Spanish, so I've included the link to Pedro's English Wikipedia page which lists his work for you to explore if you don't speak Spanish (and you can watch the films subtitled on Netflix). Back to English next time with another exciting guest.

Pedro Flores Maldonado - Wikipedia

This week I speak to long time friend and sometimes collaborator Tony Coughlan about his career, the road from amateur to professional actor and the range of projects he's involved with from the Batman/film noir inspired Mr. Justice, to IRA drama Awaken: The Patrick O'Connor Story right up to his role in the recent smash hit Paramount+ series Knuckles. We also go all the way back down to earth (and into space) with our collaboration, the James Bond parody, Dr. No-Means-Yes. This is a great episode for any aspiring actor to listen to. Full of insights, and only occasionally do we meander into things like Goldfinger in 4K (ok, film fans talk about films sometimes!)

You can find all of Tony's links here: https://linktr.ee/tonycoughlan

Mr. Justice trailer

Dr.No-Means-Yes

Also mentioned in the episode, Tony's director friend Matthew Cooper and his trilogy of HP Lovecraft films.