Stan Brooks
speaker
35 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Stan Brooks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I've told this story many times. I've never told it on the record. It's a big story. So if you've got the time, I will tell it to you.
So I'm developing movies and a friend of mine goes and gets the job at TNC. And I make the very first movie for him.
And he calls me, he goes, what do you want to do next? So they said, in a million years, would you ever let me do a remake from the MGM library? Because that's what Ted owned. And he said, yes, just pick one.
And I had known the Barbara Stanwyck movie. And so I said, well, this could be a good one. It was right as Martha Stewart was exploding. I thought, well, what if this is Martha Stewart? What if she's on TV and has an empire and it's all fake? And so they loved that take. And so off we went to the races.
And we turn it in and they go, this is good. This is good. We need a Christmas movie. So now I have and I have a nice little Christmas programmer and nothing more.
Now understand, I'm in the television movie business. These guys are never calling me. So if they do call me, it's never good. And he gets on the phone and he says, do you have a director for your Christmas in Connecticut movie? And I said, well, almost, yeah, we have an offer out. And he said, okay, well, if he doesn't say yes, I want you to consider my client.
And I go, okay, I'm waiting to hear the name. And I go, who? And he goes, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I burst out laughing.
I go, I'm Schwarzenegger's not doing a Christmas movie for TNT.
I go, Lou? Why on earth would Arnold Schwarzenegger? He says, well, here's why.
And so he was kind of tired after T2, and he said to Lou, I would like to direct a movie.
He goes, no, no, no. I want low risk. If I do a terrible job, I don't want anyone to be upset. I don't want a big budget. And I want it to be family friendly because I don't want anything to be controversial. Nothing. I just want something very simple. And the only one that fit the bill was Christmas in Connecticut. So I said, OK, I'll I'll I'll call you if this guy passes. And I have the phone.
Of course, my heart's jumping out. I go, what?
I pick it up and I hear, Stan Brooks, yes, please hold for Arnold Schwarzenegger. And now I'm serious. I can see my heart beating. And he goes, hello. I go, uh, Arnold, are you the guy with this Christmas script? I said, yes. He says, it's fantastic. I'd love to direct. I go, okay. He goes, but I have to shoot in Los Angeles and I have to do it in these days.
And he goes, and I have some notes on the script. I go, okay. Can you be here in an hour? And I go, uh, no. He goes, can you be on Wednesday? I go, yes, I can be there on Wednesday.
So now I'm going to be on Wednesday and you walk in and there's this giant lobby. And the first thing you see is the exoskeleton, the metal thing with the red eyes from the
terminator so there's no doubt i mean the posters are up on the wall but there's no doubt when you walk in and you see this seven foot thing you go oh crap i know where i am my heart's beating and i go in and he's in his office which is massive and it's like you know signs of a football field and he's on one you walk in on this end and he's on the other end so you gotta walk past all the you know the props and stuff and then he's at a big huge desk with a big giant chair and behind him
is a bookshelf, but with all of the Mr. Universe awards, not film stuff. It's all his bodybuilding awards. And I remember we were going through the script and I said, hey, I want to use the restroom. And he pointed to me by putting up his bicep and pointed like this. His bicep comes clean. He goes, it's that way. And I go, was that just to show me your bicep?
And he goes, I have to show the guns whenever I can. And I'm like, okay, so this guy definitely has a sense of humor about himself.
He wanted more humor and a little more jeopardy. And so we added in this sort of big action sequence at the beginning where he rescues the kid.
He wanted more humor. And as it happened, my best friend in the world had written Commando.
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