Random Intelligence Dispatches For April 20, 2007

A Coen Brothers Spy Movie
Ocean pals George Clooney and Brad Pitt are reuniting for a Coen Brothers spy movie called Burn After Reading. Hollywood Reporter says the plot is veiled in secrecy and states only that "the black comedy, which also stars Frances McDormand, centers on a CIA agent who loses the disc of the book he is writing." Who cares! I don't need to know plot details. Knowing it's Coen Brothers is always enough for me, and knowing it's a spy movie with Clooney and Pitt and McDormand also helps.

New Bourne Trailer
Speaking of Ocean's 11 alums, Universal is making up for lost time in getting the word out about their new Jason Bourne movie opening this summer. Yet another new trailer for The Bourne Ultimatum has gone up on Yahoo, and in high quality to boot. This one offers a few more plot points than the last one, and it looks good! Despite my bitching about how little the movies have in common with the books that share their titles, it actually looks like the third chapter, while bearing no resemblence to Ludlum's Ultimatum, may indeed borrow from the final, New York-set chapters of his Bourne Identity, which went unused in the film.

Stopover Tokyo On DVD
On July 10, Fox Home Entertainment will release the 1957 Robert Wagner/Joan Collins spy thriller Stopover Tokyo on DVD. The only special features announced so far are a theatrical trailer, restoration comparison and still gallery, but I wouldn't be surprised if there turn out to be more, based on previous Fox Cinema Classics releases. Stopover Tokyo is actually based on one of J.P. Marquand's Mr. Moto novels, but features Wagner as an American Intelligence officer instead of the Moto character. The film will be released as part of The Joan Collins: Superstar Collection.

Young Bond Lost In Translation
Finally, CommanderBond.Net has a really interesting story about a particularly glaring translation error in the recently published German edition of Charlie Higson's Double Or Die (titled GoldenBoy over there). Not only will it make a nice point of interest for collectors of international Bond first editions, but the error reveals some of the intricacies of translating that I've never paused to think about before.