Oct 29, 2012

Tradecraft: 007 Teams Up With OSS 117

James Bond is teaming up with Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath... and Charlotte Grey, and, um, the man who knew too little, and Argo's John Chambers and... well, it's too bad George Clooney never ended up playing Napoleon Solo or Matt Helm (both roles he flirted with at one time or another), because none of those other names are really in a league with the first two. If Clooney had been Helm, then Monuments Men really would be an all-star spy team-up. As things stand, it's still a very impressive all-star tream-up, if not all-spy. Deadline reports that Clooney has lined up Daniel Craig, Jean Dujardin (OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies, The Artist), Cate Blanchett (The Good German, Charlotte Grey), Bill Murray (The Limits of Control, The Man Who Knew Too Little), John Goodman (Argo), Hugh Bonneville (Tomorrow Never Dies, Downton Abbey) and Bob Balaban (The Tuxedo, Gosford Park) to star with him in his latest directorial effort, Monuments Men. The stars will play an international assortment of art historians and museum curators who team up to recover art treasures stolen by the Nazis in the final days of WWII, and prevent the destruction of masterpieces. The fact-based drama is penned by Clooney and his regular producing partner Grant Heslov, who previously wrote Goodnight and Good Luck together. (Heslov might be better known to spy fans as the techie in the van with Tom Arnold in True Lies.) The pair will also produce the Sony/Fox co-production, which reunites the entire crew of their most recent spy production, Argo (review here), including composer Alexandre Desplat (Largo Winch, The Ghost Writer). Shooting begins in Europe March 1. Just seeing Craig and Dujardin together would guarantee my ticket sale, but that hugely impressive line-up sweetens the deal all the more. I'm definitely looking forward to this one!

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