Terry Gross

Actor John C. Reilly and director Jake Kasdan talk about their new film, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Kasdan woke up in the middle of the night with the concept and even the title for the spoof of music biopics. This interview was initially broadcast on Dec. 3, 2007.

Songwriter Hugh Martin, now 95, collaborated with Ralph Blaine on a holiday classic: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." The song was made famous by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. Since then, many different versions have been recorded with changes in lyrics. This interview first aired on Dec. 22, 2006.

The book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen has become a reference tool for many cooks. Now author Harold McGee has revised and updated the book. It's an exposition of food and cooking techniques, delving into technology and history. McGee diagrams the stages of making mayonnaise under a microscope, explains why peppers are hot, and why seafood gets mushy if you cook it improperly. McGee is a world-renowned authority on the chemistry of cooking.

Viggo Mortensen stars in the David Cronenberg Eastern Promises. Set in London, in the dangerous underworld of sex trafficking, the film is due out on DVD Dec. 23. The film was written by Steve Knight, who wrote the screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things. Cronenberg and Mortensen's previous collaboration was the acclaimed 2005 film A History of Violence. (REBROADCAST. ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 9/13/07).

Twenty-five years after its debut, the dystopian-future classic Blade Runner has been released on DVD in a re-edited version called Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Director Ridley Scott talks about that release, as well as about his most recent film, American Gangster.

A Baptist deacon, R&B drummer and former gospel-music editor for Billboard magazine, Robert Darden is also a journalism professor at Baylor University, where he runs the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project . He'll play some rare recordings for us.

Bettye LaVette recorded her first hit, "My Man — He's a Lovin' Man," at the age of 16. She toured with Ben E. King, Barbara Lynn and Otis Redding. And now she's being crowned the Comeback Queen for her recent albums, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, which came out in 2005, and her recent The Scene of the Crime. LaVette recorded The Scene of the Crime at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., with the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers and the legendary session musician and songwriter Spooner Oldham.

The late George Crile, a producer for CBS' 60 Minutes, wrote the book that inspired the new film Charlie Wilson's War. It's the story of an East Texas congressman who, with help from a CIA operative, steered money and arms to Afghan mujahedeen fighting against the Soviet invasion. Later in this segment: A chat with Charlie Wilson, who's since retired and gone to work as a lobbyist.

Richard Zanuck grew up on movies — literally. The son of legendary producer Darryl F. Zanuck, who founded and ran Twentieth Century Fox studios in Hollywood's golden era, he became an Oscar-winning producer himself. His latest project: Sweeney Todd, the big-screen version of the legendary Stephen Sondheim musical. Zanuck's credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Jaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict Rules of Engagement, and many more. Besides which, "I can mention a lot of pictures I'm unhappy about," he tells Terry Gross.