In this episode of Film Stories with Simon Brew, a pair of 2014 releases: one of which sent a movie star grey, the other sending its director to movie jail.

Collateral marks one of the darker leading roles in Tom Cruise's career. But for a while, the film was actually set to feature Russell Crowe and Adam Sandler in its lead roles. Furthermore, the spark for the movie came when its writer was in his late teens.

The idea of bringing the hugely successful TV show Thunderbirds to the screen in a bigger budget movie had been around for a while. But when Spy Kids and the Harry Potter movies went big, so did plans for Thunderbirds - even if it didn't involve the people who created the show in the first place.

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Collateral (2014) and Thunderbirds (2014)