Wild Wild West (1999), plus how it affected The Matrix and The Iron Giant

Film Stories with Simon Brew

Simon Brew

Film History, Tv & Film

4.9 • 813 Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The summer of 1999 brought with it some huge successes, and also the combination of Will Smith, Salma Hayek and Kevin Kline in Wild Wild West. Based on the TV show from the 1960s, this became a hugely expensive Warner Bros blockbuster, one that George Clooney saw the problem with and duly dropped out of fairly late in the day. In this episode of Film Stories, Simon digs into the story of the movie, and how Will Smith faced a choice: does it take the lead role in this, or does he make The Matrix instead...?! Please subscribe and leave nice reviews! Thank you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Simon from Film Stories. I'm delighted to tell you that this podcast is brought to you
0:05.5	in association with Prop Store. Our friends at Prop Store are putting on a new entertainment memorabilia
0:11.9	live auction, which is kicking off on March the 25th, 2026. You can view the catalogue and start bidding now.
0:21.4	Some choice lots that I've found.
0:23.7	Right, don't bid against me for any of these.
0:26.6	So, 1989's Batman, there is a full size of the Gotham City Cathedral Bell is going up for auction.
0:35.3	Staying on the Batman theme, meanwhile, I mean, the mightiest of all Batman films is clearly
0:40.6	1997's Batman and Robin.
0:43.3	Right, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, his light-up freeze gun is also going up for
0:49.9	auction.
0:50.7	And then if you want some of it particularly niche, any fans out there of 1995's Crimson Tide from the late great Tony Scott?
0:58.2	Yep, you can have the launch key with a pair of nuclear launch codes.
1:03.6	That prop from the film is included in the auction.
1:07.8	It's a four-day auction. You can bid on it online.
1:10.6	You just need to get yourself to www.propstore auction. It's a four-day auction. You can bid on it online. You just need to get yourself to
1:12.0	www.propstore auction.com and sign up there and there's lots across film, TV and animation
1:20.0	just waiting for you. The golden rule of all of this, the biggest rule of all, when you're at
1:25.5	propstore auction.com, don't bid against me.
1:29.3	Hello, this is Simon Brew.
1:31.6	I'm the founder of Film Stories magazine and...
1:35.1	Gordy, that's a clip.
1:36.3	Very well welcome to the film stories podcast.
	...

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