All About Al: The Pacino podcast

88 Minutes is a real-time thriller that saw Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) receive a phone call from a mysterious serial killer informing him that Gramm has just 88 minutes left to live. Directed by Jon Avnet and starring Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman, Deborah Kara Unger, Benjamin McKenzie, Stephen Moyer and Neal McDonough.

British actor Stephen Moyer joins the podcast to discuss appearing in the film. Moyer talks abou...

Donnie Brasco is based on the true story of Joe Pistone aka Donnie Brasco, who goes undercover in a New York mafia gang but finds himself being drawn more into their world thanks to his friendship with enforcer Left Ruggerio. A two-hander between Johnny Depp and Al Pacino ensures this quiet and unassuming mobster flick deserves huge praise. But is it all too often overlooked when talking about New York mafia movies?

British film...

Nobody was ready for a film about Artifical Intelligence in Hollywood back in 2002. Simone tells the story of film director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) who creates a new female lead actress from a computer programme for his new film because the real lead actress has quit. But Taransky is being blackmailed by two reporters who know the truth. The film flopped at the box office and has, over the years, been forgotten about. But now w...

Al Pacino and his producing partner Barry Navidi have been trying to make a biopic of the Italian painter & sculptor Amedeo Modigliani for decades. Either Pacino was too busy or they couldn't get the financing or the script wasn't right. To the point where they both almost gave up. That is until Pacino told his friend Johnny Depp that he should direct the film. Depp stepped up and made Modigliani: Three Days on the Wing of Madn...

Warren Beatty's adaptation of Dick Tracy was a huge success at the box office when it was releases in 1990. It had an all-star cast including Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, Catherine O'Hara, Dick Van Dyke and many more. It also went on to win three Oscars including one for best make-up.

To celebrate the film's 35th anniversary, Doug Drexler recalls his time working on the film as a make-up artist. He talks about working d...

Based on True Events. The Ritual is the harrowing true story of the exorcism of Emma Schmidt, and the two priests (Al Pacino, Dan Stevens) who went to war with Satan to save her soul.

Director David Midell and Producer Enrico Natale (they also co-wrote the film) join the podcast to discuss making an exorcism film based on the most well documented cases in North American history. They talk about how they spent time with Pacino, a...

Now recognised as one of the great crime films of all time, Scarface had a struggle getting to the big screen initially. And even upon release it never found an audience and disappeared without a trace pretty quickly. However, over time it has grown into the now legendary film about the immigrant Tony Montana coming to America to seek his fortune.

Scarface producer Peter Saphier discusses what it was like trying to get the film ...

Al Pacino loves Chinese Coffee. Not coffee imported from China. Instead he loves the play by Ira Lewis. So much so that he performed it many times on stage. Then decided to make a film of it starring himself and Jerry Orbach (Dirty Dancing). That's when Pacino started to struggle. Chinese Coffee is a film with an unusual road to release.

To talk about the film actor Sarah Lynn Dawson (I Lost My Body) joins the podcast to discuss...

To celebrate Al Pacino's 85th birthday on 25th April 2025, writer Lawrence Grobel joins All About Al: The Pacino Podcast to discuss his book Al Pacino: In Conversation with Lawrence Grobel. He talks about their first meeting, how their friendship developed over the decades, why he bet Al money about some cookies in a jar and what really happened when Pacino went to meet William Friedkin during the editing of Cruising.

All A...

Michael Mann's Heat is, arguably, one of the all-time great crime movies. It's a film that constantly invites new discussions and criticism. Bringing together two of the greatest actors of any generation - Al Pacino and Robert De Niro - for the first time ever on-screen. Heat is a triumph of realism. The film is as well known for its actors and story as it is its location, right in the heart of Los Angeles.

Film Critic, moderat...

Heathcote Williams' play The Local Stigmatic was made into a feature film by Al Pacino. However, it took over five years for it to be finished and then was only shown in a handful of select screenings including it's first showing at New York's Museum of Modern Art in March 1990.

The play is about two British sociopaths wo spend their days wander the dog tracks of London while also being obsessed with celebrity culture. The film see...

Danny Collins is a comedy with a real family drama at the heart of it. It see's Pacino's Danny Collins, a one-hit wonder from decades previous, try to rekindle his relationship with his estranged son while also playing to sold-out crowds. You'll laugh and cry at it. But sadly it is an underseen Pacino film.

Now, on it's 10th anniversary (it was released March 2015), the inspiration behind the initial story of Danny Collins joins...

Upon release in 2011, Jack And Jill was reviled by most film critics. However, it did exceptional business at the box office. Starring Adam Sandler (in both titles), Al Pacino, Katie Holmes and Eugenio Derbez, this comedy has become the stuff of internet memes thanks to one segment of the film - the Dunkaccino advert.

Dancing alongside Pacino in that advert was comedian/writer/actor Andy Goldenberg, who joins the podcast to dis...

Cruising was a notorious movie upon release. It stoked up a lot of controversy over its footage and themes of homosexuality and violence. It also bombed at the box office and started Pacino's slump for the next few years. It derailed director William Friedkin's career for a couple of years too. However, over the past decade it has started to be re-assessed by film critic and cinephiles.

Joining the podcast to discuss the film an...

When Al Pacino became obsessed with Oscar Wilde's Salome, he didn't make it easy on himself when trying to put it on camera. Salome is a filmed version of the stage production that featured Pacino as King Herod and Jessica Chastain (Interstellar, Zero Dark Thirty, IT Chapter Two) as Salome. Wilde Salome is a behind the scenes look at trying to stage the production. While also trying to make a feature film, or at least scenes from t...

Author! Author! was released in 1982. It is an autobiographical film written by playwright Israel Horovitz (The Indian Wants the Bronx) and directed by Arthur Hiller (The Out-of-Towners). It starred Al Pacino as Ivan Trevalian, a playwright trying to fix his play on Broadway while also looking after his five children after his girlfriend leaves him. It's a comedy of errors mixed with a bit of romance that saw Pacino finally do some...

Any Given Sunday is a huge, bombastic movie about the world of American Football, and specifically the fortunes of the Miami Sharks. It features an all-star cast including Cameron Diaz, LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx, Matthew Modine, John C. McGinley, Ann-Margaret, James Woods and many ex-football stars. It also features Al Pacino, and see's him deliver one of this greatest speeches in film history. It's a drama that even non-sports fans ca...

The Godfather Part II is unquestionably one of the greatest film sequels ever made. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, it continues to be lauded as one of the greatest crime films ever.

Actor Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather Part I and II, joins the podcast to discuss what it was like working on the legendary films, how Al made him cry in a scene fifteen times and what Mafia family helped him get the job ...

In 2004 Al Pacino lead a big screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino, 1984, Flawless), it featured a star-studded mainly British cast and was a respectable hit at the worldwide box office.

Lecturer in English, ex-BBC producer and authoritative voice on Shakespeare's work, Dr. Andrea Smith joins the podcast to discuss this adaptation, Pacino's performance and whet...