Variety reports that George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smokehouse Pictures has acquired the film rights to a forthcoming non-fiction book by Joe Navarro and Howard Means called Three Minutes to Doomsday. According to the trade, "the book follows the FBI’s leading body language expert Navarro, who was sent to track down Rod Ramsey to report on his knowledge or association with Clyde Lee Conrad, an U.S. Army officer who sold top-secret classified information to the People’s Republic of Hungary. It documents Navarro and Ramsey’s relationship and interviews against the backdrop of the Cold War." I find that description a little frustrating because it neither tells who Ramsey was nor when during the Cold War all this went down. So for some more background, according to SpyMuseum.com (a very cool online resource on espionage history), Conrad was an NCO stationed in West Germany and "tasked with maintaining and protecting top secret documents related to the military plans in case of a war with the Soviet bloc." In 1975 he was recruited by Zoltan Szabo, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Hungary and Sergeant in the U.S. Army who was really a Colonel in the Hungarian Military intelligence, to pass along the documents he was charged with protecting. Over a ten year period, he passed along more than 30,000 documents, among them NATO strategies, troop positions and nuclear weapon sites. In 1983, he recruited his then assistant, Sgt. Roderick Ramsey, to assist him in his treason as well as his army work. A CIA asset tipped off the Americans that they had a leak, and Conrad was finally arrested in 1988 and convicted in 1990. So presumably Navarro's investigation happened during the mid-Eighties.
According to Navarro's website, he was recruited by the FBI at the tender age of 23 as one of their youngest agents ever (this would be 1976 or '77), and "spent the next 25 years at the FBI, working both as an agent and supervisor in the areas of counterintelligence and counterterrorism. Through his work he was able to study, refine and apply the science of non-verbal communications. His acumen in this field, and his success as a spy-catcher, led Joe to begin training FBI agents and the intelligence community." He retired in 2003.
Means previously collaborated with former CIA agent Robert Baer on the books See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil, which served as the basis for the Clooney movie Syriana. Scribner recently acquired U.S. publication rights for Three Minutes to Doomsday.
Showing posts with label George Clooney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Clooney. Show all posts
Dec 5, 2012
Tradecraft: Jason Bourne Joins James Bond and OSS 117
Deadline reports that Matt Damon has joined the cast of The Monuments Men, possibly making that movie the greatest spy star team-up of all time. (Why wasn't Sean Connery in Bullseye!... or Roger Moore in The Man Who Would Be King?) With Daniel Craig and Jean Dujardin already cast, that means this WWII-set reverse caper movie will unite James Bond, Jason Bourne and OSS 117 on one screen! George Clooney also brings a lot of spy gravitas to the proceedings, though sadly he's not known as one iconic role. (Too bad he had to pass on Napoleon Solo.) Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban round out the stellar cast, with Clooney directing and producing with his partner and co-writer Grant Heslov. The fact-based adventure follows a team of art historians and museum curators as they race to recover priceless artwork plundered by the Nazis at the end of WWII.
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!
Aug 29, 2011
Clooney Ankles U.N.C.L.E.; U.N.C.L.E. Incorporates Real World Events
Clooney Ankles U.N.C.L.E.; U.N.C.L.E. Incorporates Real World Events
As previously reported, George Clooney was expected to star in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming big-screen version of the classic Sixties spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.–presumably as ace U.N.C.L.E. agent Napoleon Solo, the character originated by Robert Vaughn. As fit as Clooney undeniably is, by the time filming starts next year he will be the same age that Vaughn was when he reprised the role in the reunion telefilm The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair (review here)! So perhaps it's for the better that Deadline is reporting today that Clooney "is in the process of withdrawing as the star of Steven Soderbergh’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Of course, the big danger in losing Clooney is the risk that the film will fall apart without a bankable lead. Luckily, Soderbergh has good relationships with a lot of actors, so hopefully he can line up someone just as good and maybe a little more age-appropriate. So who else could be Napoleon Solo? Matt Damon? Michael Fassbender? Both have recently worked with Soderbergh. Then there are the stars of Soderbergh's current movie to consider, Channing Tatum and Alex Rider star Alex Pettyfer. They'd sort of fit as Napoleon and Illya... if the script were rewritten to accommodate much younger stars. (Who are actually closer age matches for Vaughn and David McCallum.)
Meanwhile, Cinema Blend reports that this version of U.N.C.L.E. will utilise its previously revealed Sixties setting to incorporate actual historical events into the story. Writer Scott Z. Burns told the website, "All those shows are called, like, 'The Terbuf Affair' or whatever." (Other good examples include "The Moonglow Affair," "The Iowa Scuba Affair" and of course "The My Friend the Gorilla Affair.") "Our affair comes from something that was actually going on in the world at the time." That's intriguing, but I sure hope it's not the Cuban missile crisis, yet again, so soon after it was done in the excellent period spy movie X-Men: First Class! (Also, I would hope that a Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie would be set a few years later than that.) When asked if the film version would pay homage to specific episodes of the series, all Burns could promise was, "I think if people know the show they’ll recognize tiny little things." He also said that the script is done, and was hopeful that casting will begin soon and production could start in the spring. (That was before Clooney dropped his bombshell, though.)
As previously reported, George Clooney was expected to star in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming big-screen version of the classic Sixties spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.–presumably as ace U.N.C.L.E. agent Napoleon Solo, the character originated by Robert Vaughn. As fit as Clooney undeniably is, by the time filming starts next year he will be the same age that Vaughn was when he reprised the role in the reunion telefilm The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair (review here)! So perhaps it's for the better that Deadline is reporting today that Clooney "is in the process of withdrawing as the star of Steven Soderbergh’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Of course, the big danger in losing Clooney is the risk that the film will fall apart without a bankable lead. Luckily, Soderbergh has good relationships with a lot of actors, so hopefully he can line up someone just as good and maybe a little more age-appropriate. So who else could be Napoleon Solo? Matt Damon? Michael Fassbender? Both have recently worked with Soderbergh. Then there are the stars of Soderbergh's current movie to consider, Channing Tatum and Alex Rider star Alex Pettyfer. They'd sort of fit as Napoleon and Illya... if the script were rewritten to accommodate much younger stars. (Who are actually closer age matches for Vaughn and David McCallum.)
Meanwhile, Cinema Blend reports that this version of U.N.C.L.E. will utilise its previously revealed Sixties setting to incorporate actual historical events into the story. Writer Scott Z. Burns told the website, "All those shows are called, like, 'The Terbuf Affair' or whatever." (Other good examples include "The Moonglow Affair," "The Iowa Scuba Affair" and of course "The My Friend the Gorilla Affair.") "Our affair comes from something that was actually going on in the world at the time." That's intriguing, but I sure hope it's not the Cuban missile crisis, yet again, so soon after it was done in the excellent period spy movie X-Men: First Class! (Also, I would hope that a Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie would be set a few years later than that.) When asked if the film version would pay homage to specific episodes of the series, all Burns could promise was, "I think if people know the show they’ll recognize tiny little things." He also said that the script is done, and was hopeful that casting will begin soon and production could start in the spring. (That was before Clooney dropped his bombshell, though.)
Mar 11, 2011
While talking to the radio show Studio 360 (via Hollywood Reporter), director Steven Soderbergh appeared to confirm his involvement in the feature film version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. "Liberace [a biopic with Matt Damon] and Man From U.N.C.L.E. are the only two things I'm obligated to do," the director said in a discussion of his much-mooted impending retirement. (He confirmed that rumor, too... but only up to a point, claiming that "the tyranny of narrative is just starting to really wear on me." It seems like he's burnt out right now, but he doesn't rule out returning to Hollywood in the future, and it sounds like he might continue to make more artistic independents anyway.) Soderbergh's involvement with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. has been whispered about since a Hollywood Reporter story last November reported that the director was "in talks" for the project. But this is the first time I've seen it confirmed from the horse's mouth, so to speak. He also confirms George Clooney's involvement (which has been widely rumored for nearly as long), and doesn't contradict host Kurt Anderson when Anderson surmises that Clooney will be playing Napoleon Solo, the titular spy originated on the Sixties TV show by Robert Vaughn. Even in the stories about Clooney's attachment, I hadn't seen it actually said by anyone official that he would definitely be playing Solo, though that's what most people assumed. He could have conceivably been boss Mr. Waverly or an entirely new character.
Soderbergh's next spy movie, Haywire, starring MMA fighter Gina Carano, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor and Michael Fassbender (among many others) is currently scheduled to open in August, after bouncing around quite a lot. Filming was completed some time ago. A few set photos from Haywire (showing Carano in a wetsuit beating up McGregor on a beach) leaked today, and you can see them on Collider.
Jan 5, 2011
New Spy DVDs Out Last Week: Archer and The AmericanI don't think there are any major new spy releases this week, but there were two last week that I didn't get a chance to post about. And one of them is a must-have, in my book. Last Tuesday was my birthday (thank you, thank you) and Fox Home Entertainment decided to honor that by releasing my favorite new spy series of last year on DVD: Archer: The Complete Season One. A workplace comedy about a Bond-like (or, more accurately, Eurospy-like) superspy who's also a huge jerk and his dysfunctional family (some of them literally, some only figuratively) who all work at the spy agency, Archer is a show that lends itself to rewatching. It's not for all tastes, though. While the amazing Bond-inspired retro look of the FX series will appeal to Sixties spy fans, the sense of humor is more appropriate for fans of South Park or people not easily offended by the ribald. Personally, I think it's hilarious.
Fox's 2-disc set boasts plenty of extras. Among them: the original unaired Archer pilot (I'm really looking forward to seeing that!), an unaired network promo, deleted scenes, a six-part "The Making Of Archer" featurette ("3D", "Animation", "Art Direction", "Backgrounds", "Illustration" and "Storyboards"), and bonus episodes from unrelated FX sitcoms The League and Louie (the latter of which is quite funny, if not at all spy-related).
I'm particularly excited about all of that behind-the-scenes material. Archer is a great looking show, and I'm eager to see more about what goes into it. It's so good looking, in fact, that I'm sorry this release is DVD only, and not on Blu-ray as well. I rarely care about that, but this is one series that would look great in HD. Oh well. At this year's Comic-Con panel, the creators of Archer went into a bit of detail about creating the look of Archer's perpetual Cold War world, which incorporates Bondian elements of every era from the Sixties to the Eighties to now (including suits that could have come off of Sean Connery's shoulders, stylish Sixties office furnature and a Living Daylights Aston Martin Volante). They said that the design team was constantly flipping through Sixties style and design and fashion magazines, picking what they liked. I hope that's in the documentary. It's a shame that the Comic-Con panel itself isn't included, but it's hard to complain when there's so much else. Archer: The Complete Season 1 retails for $29.98, but naturally it's significantly less on Amazon.
Meanwhile, that same day Universal released director Anton Corbijn's George Clooney assassin Nov 17, 2010
George Clooney Looking To Be Soderbergh's Man From U.N.C.L.E.?Film to be set in the Sixties!
The Playlist reports (via AICN) that George Clooney is (unsurprisingly, I guess, given their history of collaboration) circling the Steven Soderbergh-helmed incarnation of Warners' long-in-development Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie that we first heard about yesterday. And, more excitingly, the website also reports that Soderbergh plans to retain the TV show's 1960s setting! The Playlist seems like a fairly reliable source when it comes to Soderbergh; they were the ones who first reported that his upcoming spy movie had changed its title from Knockout to Haywire and that it had been delayed until next spring. The Sixties setting really, really excites me! I hope this movie is serious(ish) and not a parody, because I would love to see a modern action movie set in that period. We've already had great parodies in the form of the two recent OSS 117 films, but could Matthew Vaughn's upcoming Sixties-set (and Avengers-inspired) X-Men prequel foretell a new trend of period action movies? I sure hope so!
George Clooney's potential attachment excites me less than the time period. Don't get me wrong; I love Clooney, and I'd love to see him play a superspy. But he's really too old to be Napoleon Solo. (He's almost as old as Robert Vaughn was in the reunion movie The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair!) I'd much rather see Clooney play Matt Helm. Of course, just because he's planning to star in the movie doesn't necessarily mean that he'll be playing Napoleon Solo. After all, Tom Cruise starred in Mission: Impossible, but he wasn't Jim Phelps. I doubt that Clooney is signing up to be Mr. Waverly, but I suppose it's possible that he could be another U.N.C.L.E. agent or, if this movie really is, as The Playlist asserts, taking U.N.C.L.E. back to "its roots," perhaps a mentor to a younger Solo and Kuryakin. Anything is possible at this point. What I do like about a potential Clooney/Soderbergh team-up is that it would seem to indicate a tone along the lines of their Ocean's 11 remake, which I think would be pretty appropriate for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And if Clooney really is playing a fifty-year-old Solo, well, that's not that bad. There are much worse choices out there! (And he certainly proved in The American that he's in top physical shape for his age.)
Previous Clooney/Soderbergh spy collaborations include The Good German (which I remember liking quite a lot, but needed to re-read my review to remember anything that actually happened in it!), Syriana and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. (Soderbergh didn't direct the latter two, but they were produced through his and Clooney's Section 8 Films.) At one point, they had hoped to team up on a Matt Helm movie more in keeping with the Dean Martin movies than the serious Donald Hamilton novels, and I believe that was also meant to be Sixties-set. Clooney's most recent spyish movie was The American (review here). Bear in mind that while a script is being written by Scott Z. Burns based on Soderbergh's take, nothing is yet set in stone about this Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie, and plenty of other incarnations over the years have fallen by the wayside.
Nov 5, 2010
Movie Review: THE AMERICAN (2010)
Movie Review: The American (2010)It’s amazing how many elements The American (based on the book A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth) shares in common with the 1969 James Coburn movie Hard Contract. Both are slow-paced, existential assassin movies that generally eschew action in favor of philosophy and beautiful scenery. Both star iconoclastic leading men with famous smiles, liberal attitudes and a taste for quirkier roles. Both feature washed-up assassins (and what other variety of movie assassins are there?) who seek their sexual gratification from prostitutes in order to avoid forming any lasting connections, and who go off to Italy, meet a priest and a girl and discuss good and evil with the former and fall in love with the latter and eventually need to protect either or both from their assassin bosses, who naturally come after them in the end. That’s a remarkable set of similarities between the two films, but the same elements ultimately add up to entirely different wholes. Both obviously showcase the emptiness of a life dedicated to death and champion the importance of human connection, but then what assassin movie doesn’t? (The Matador still does that the best.) But the plots of the two films (such as The American has one, anyway) are different, as are their overall tones. The American doesn’t really break new ground in the plaintive assassin genre, but director Anton Corbijn still manages to tell the story as if it’s fresh, and he’s aided immeasurably by good performances, strikingly gorgeous locations and equally attractive stars.
Nov 1, 2010
DVDActive reports that Universal Home Video has announced DVD and Blu-ray releases of the George Clooney assassin
Aug 11, 2010
Poster For The AmericanI like this new poster for the George Clooney assassin movie The American. Frankly, I'm dubious that any movie in this genre can top Pierce Brosnan's awesome turn in The Matador, but I think both trailers look good nonetheless. Beautiful European locations, beautiful women, international intrigue, a priest with a gun and Clooney as an assassin... I'm in. And that stark one-sheet is really great. You can watch both trailers on Yahoo's page for the movie. The American opens September 1.
Mar 23, 2010
New Spy DVDs Out This Week: Prisoners, Goats And Spies Like UsOK, I jumped the gun last Tuesday when I included the 2009 AMC miniseries remake of The Prisoner
among last week's new releases. It actually comes out today, from Warner Home Video. You can read more about it in last week's post (or read my original review of the miniseries here), but I will say that the physical DVD has a lot in common with the miniseries itself: it sure looks nice. The case (a three disc flipper the size of a single DVD), the slipcase (classy!), the booklet and even the discs themselves are all very well designed. If you're at all like me and you still respond to tangible, old-school media, if you're quick to judge a book by it's cover, this release is satisfying on those counts. As for the content, well, you know... you can dress up a cow, but she'll still be a cow. Is that the saying? I do find myself enjoying dipping into it more than when it first aired, though, and taking pleasure in the purely aesthetic side of the undertaking. The story is just as infuriating as ever, and just as inferior to Patrick McGoohan's brilliant original
. I'll have a full review soon.The other spy release of note this week comes from Anchor Bay: The Men Who Stare at Goats, available on DVD
and Blu-ray
. The directing debut of George Clooney's producing partner Grant Heslov (better known as an actor, whose spy credits include True Lies
), this enjoyable comedy inspired by true events follows the U.S. Army's attempts to create a squad of "psychic spies." Or "Jedi warriors," as Clooney's character insists on being called by Ewan McGregor's journalist, happily banking on McGregor's own extra-textual Jedi status for a laugh. Extras on both versions include "Goats Declassified: The Real Men of the First Earth Battalion" (about the actual "psychic spies"), "Project 'Hollywood': A Classified Report from the Set" (a making-of featurette), two audio commentaries (one by Heslov and one by Jon Ronson, author of the book upon which the film is based), deleted scenes, character bios, and the dreaded but ubiquitous "Digital Copy of the Film." (Seriously! Who's going to watch The Men Who Stare at Goats on their damn iPhone?) Except for the latter, that sounds like an intriguing assortment of extras. The film will definitely make you wonder what parts are actually true, so hopefully one of those documentaries goes into that. It's not a great film, but it sure is a lot of fun, and Clooney and Jeff Bridges are both excellent.
, and it can be ordered new from the Canadian Amazon, as it's not a Best Buy exclusive north of the border.
Dec 18, 2008
DVD Review: Burn After Reading (2008)
DVD Review: Burn After Reading (2008)Rewatching the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading on DVD, I think I enjoyed it even more than I did when I saw it in the theater and reviewed the film this past fall. Like many of the Coens’ comedies, it’s one of those movies that gets better with repeated viewings. Little throwaway phrases suddenly become hilarious because of their absurdity, or because of their delivery. The brothers wrote these parts specifically for the actors who play them, and that collaboration clearly shows. Often times, their lines are ones that would be hilarious only in those specific hands. For example, a cocktail party conversation about goat cheese and acid reflux has could be very boring... but in the hands of John Malkovich and George Clooney, it becomes absolutely hilarious, purely thanks to their specific line deliveries. They’re not delivering jokes; they’re just having an average, boring cocktail party conversation. But the combination of the Coens’ dialogue and those particular actors’ deliveries somehow form the perfect comedic nexus. Every performance is perfectly nuanced, and every character ideally conceived.
Since I’ve already reviewed the movie itself, I’m going to focus my DVD review primarily on the disc. The extras on Focus Features’ new DVD of Burn After Reading are minimal–but what’s there is actually really good for these EPK sorts of featurettes! Amazingly, Joel and Ethan Coen themselves actually share some interesting tidbits on the genesis of the project, the making of the film, and their way of working with actors–without turning glib. (Usually, the pair refuse to take anything seriously. The results can be hilarious–like the entire joke commentary track on Blood Simple–or incredibly frustrating.)
On the twelve-minute featurette "Washington Insiders," the co-directors and co-writers discuss how they achieve that perfect comedy nexus with their stars. I expected this to be one of those flimsy fluff pieces where everyone just says nice things about each other, but it actually proved very interesting. The brothers reveal that they wrote this movie for the specific actors they ended up casting–in many cases, their friends who they had worked with before. That meant the shooting schedule was dictated by when those stars’ busy schedules could come together, so they ended up shooting it after No Country For Old Men even thought the movies were written at the same time. (That in itself is interesting to learn, as the stark, Oscar-winning drama and the breezy spy comedy have more in common than might appear at first glimpse. Besides the similar endings–played for totally different effect–they even feature some similar scenes. As I pointed out in my initial review, the scene with Clooney and Brad Pitt in a bedroom plays like the comedic equivalent the the suspense scene in No Country where Josh Brolin finds himself holed up in a dark hotel room. And in both films, main characters seek approval from aged father figures for decisions to retire or quit–with interestingly different results.) The brothers hadn’t worked with Pitt or Malkovich before, but had their voices very much in mind writing the script. They were anxious for Pitt to, as Joel puts it, "embrace his inner knucklehead." 
Cosutme designer Mary Zophres has some interesting comments as well, many pertaining to that knucklehead. "How do you make Brad Pitt look like a dork?" she asks, highlighting one of the main challenges of her job. And for people who believe that costume designers don’t have much to do on modern-day pictures, she also provides some pointed insight on the importance of her craft, tracing the arc of Malkovich’s character via his clothes. "It’s the complete demise of a character through his wardrobe," she says, referring to his journey from prim and proper three-piece suits with bowties when he works at the CIA to drunkenly, angrily storming around in his bathrobe and underwear by the end of the movie. "He just lets himself go."
It’s not just the clothes, of course, that make the man in a Coen Brothers movie; the hair always plays a key role as well. "We frequently give actors haircuts that they have to somehow disguise during their off-camera moments for the duration of the show," Joel proudly reveals, referring to Pitt’s hideous frosted pompadour. Finally, Frances McDormand answers the question that everybody wonders about seeing this movie: what did she think when her husband, Joel Coen, first showed her the script and she saw that the part he’d written for her begins: "Close up on a woman’s ass. Bare. White. Middle-aged." You’ll have to check out the feature for that reaction, though...
It’s unclear why George Clooney warrants his own featurette rather than being packed in with the other actors in "Washington Insiders," but he gets it, in the form of the two-minute tribute "Welcome Back George." The Coens discuss their relationship with him, and reveal that there are certain actors who just inspire them to write parts for them again and again. "In George’s case, they all happen to be morons." Zophres returns to discuss her similar challenge to making Brad Pitt look dorky in doing the same thing for former "sexiest man alive" Clooney. Hint: it mostly involves hiking his pants a few inches too high.
The brothers (always interviewed in tandem) address the spy angle of the movie more in the disc’s third featurette, the five-minute "Finding the Burn." Ethan describes their film as being about "the CIA and physical fitness, and what happens when the two intersect." Joel, the older brother, adds, "That’s really what makes it a Washington story."
"Yeah," chimes Ethan. "Spy stuff and intrigue. That we really haven’t done before. You know, it’s our Tony Scott/Bourne Identity kind of movie, without the explosions." That’s an excellent description of Burn After Reading. It’s a comedy of Washington manners with a Tony Scott spy plot infused on top of it, accentuated by clever details like the cliched "beepy text" titles I discussed at length in my initial review, and a terrific score by Carter Burwell that manages to perfectly parody the familiar chords of a Scott epic, especially in the films’s opening moments, accompanying the beepy text.
Malkovich disagrees slightly, explaining that "the character I play is not a spy; he’s an analyst. So I wouldn’t really say it’s a spy movie. It’s just more about the real world colliding with some tiny part of that world." The collision, of course, is where the real humor comes from. (Well, that and Pitt’s wonderfully exaggerated idiocy!) And that’s what the Coen Brothers thrive on. It’s great to have an intelligent spy comedy from these filmmakers, and even better that it turned out to be so good. I’d rank Burn After Reading among the brothers’ top three films... and among my own favorites of 2008.
Nov 5, 2008
Upcoming Spy DVDs: Burn After ReadingThe Coen Brothers' recent spy comedy Burn After Reading hits DVD and Blu-Ray this December. That's a pretty quick turnaround. This was a hilarious send-up of the Intelligence Community, Tony Scott movies (and beepy text titles) and Washington culture starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand and a whole cast of big stars and faces you'll recognize. It's Coen Light, but it's definitely good Coen Brothers, nonetheless. Extras are traditionally pretty minimal on Coen Brothers DVDs (since they generally refuse to participate in any serious way), and that's the case here as well, but at least Universal offers up a few features: "Finding the Burn" (the making of Burn After Reading from inspiration to the big screen), "DC Insiders Run Amuck" (creating the insular world of Washington, DC insiders), and "Welcome Back George" (a comedic piece focusing on Clooney's ongoing collaboration with the directors). The disc hits stores just in time for last-minute Christmas shoppers on December 21. [NOTE: The release date has been moved up to December 21.] Unfortunately (and as per usual), the studio has swapped out some of the best poster art of the year for a blander, more generic DVD cover plastered with pictures of the stars. Sigh.
Read my full review of the movie here.
Oct 19, 2008
Persuaders News BitesThe October issue of Total Film Magazine (on newsstands now in the US and featuring a reversible poster of both Quantum of Solace teasers on pack; Britain's already got the November issue with Daniel Craig on the cover) features an interview with Steve Coogan ("The Confessions of Steve Coogan") in which they ask him about the status of film version of The Persuaders, set to star Coogan and Ben Stiller in the roles originated by Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. Coogan first says it's in development hell, then, when they follow up and ask if that means the project is dead, he says no. The actor seems confident that The Persuaders will still find its time; that time just hasn't come yet. He says you've always got to have lots of different projects in development. I'm glad Total Film asked about that, because there's been very little news on The Persuaders movie of late. Last we heard, it was rumored to star Hugh Grant and George Clooney, but from what Coogan says it seems pretty clear that the movie is still in development with himself and Stiller as Lord Brett Sinclair and Danny Wild.
The original Wilde, meanwhile, has just written a new book (as has the original Sinclair, of course). Tony Curtis's brand new autobiography, American Prince: A Memoir, devotes just a few pages to The Persuaders, but does pack a few good stories into those pages. Among them are the oft-told tale of how he was detained at Heathrow for having marijuana and a handgun in his luggage (funny to hear from the actor's own perspective) and an amusing anecdote about filming the episode "Five Miles To Midnight" in which Curtis himself doesn't come out in the best light. Apparently while filming a scene with guest star Joan Collins, Curtis became frustrated with her and called her an extremely unkind word that starts with a "C." (Which, by his account, she was being.) When they finally did the shot, instead of playing her part Collins jumped out of the truck they were in and announced to everyone what he had called her, then ran off to her trailer. Curtis had to apologize in order to get the temperamental actress back on set. He still had to get the last word in, of course, and it's worth picking up the book to see what that last word was...
Sep 27, 2008
Movie Review: BURN AFTER READING (2008)
Movie Review: Burn After Reading
The Coen Brothers begin their assault on the spy genre and the intelligence community itself before a single character has even appeared in Burn After Reading. The first joke is a font. As we zoom in from space, getting closer on satellite images of the earth and eventually Langley, VA and CIA headquarters, the titles are typed across the screen in a perfectly-chosen, slightly tech-y font. It looks just like the titles you might see in a 90s spy movie–maybe the Harrison Ford Jack Ryan entries. Even better, it makes the noise that such fonts inevitably make, a sort of squeaky beeping noise as each individual letter is input that sounds like it might come from a computer–although if you really had a computer that beeped like that at every keystroke, you’d probably end up smashing it after hammering out just a few sentences. By the time the camera zooms inside the CIA building, I was already laughing. The mere idea of a Coen Brothers movie beginning like a Scott Brother’s movie was hilarious to me–as I’m sure it was to the brothers. The biggest joke in the movie is really the mere fact that the Coen Brothers have made a spy movie.
As you might expect from such a venture, there’s not much actual spying in this film, if any. It’s a movie about spies, and would be spies, and the stupid things that they do. Like most Coen Brothers movies–the outright comedies and the so-called "serious" ones alike–it’s about people with very little intelligence of their own getting into something way over their heads–in this case in Intelligence itself.
From the satellite zoom, we finally end up inside a dull, unassuming office at CIA headquarters. Prim, proper, bow-tied analyst Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) takes a seat opposite his boss, surprised by the presence of the others in the room. "Olson?" he inquires. "Isn’t he in–?"
"Yes," his boss assures him with a nod of his head, further perplexing Cox, before proceeding to strip him of his duty as head of the Balkan section. "You have a drinking problem," he explains, and Cox goes apoplectic. He feels that this move is political. Whether it is or isn’t is entirely beside the point for the rest of the movie, but it and his subsequent quitting set into motion a hilarious, coincidence-laden chain of events involving Cox, his "cold hearted bitch" of a wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), her Secret Service agent lover Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) and her divorce lawyer’s assistant’s trainer Chad (Brad Pitt), his colleague Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand)–who is also Clooney’s mistress–and their boss Ted (Richard Jenkins). I’m surprised I was able to summarize these relationships so succinctly! They’re all part of an insular, incestuous Beltway culture, and they’re all either screwing each other or spying on each other–and the Coens don’t seem to detect much difference between the two. Furthermore, they’re all being spied on from without as well, either by the CIA or by agents of various divorce lawyers.
J.K. Simmons plays an Agency section chief who receives regular reports on these characters’ doings from an underling (David Rasche) who never knows what to make of the intelligence he’s reporting. Without any sort of helpful analysis, Simmons’ automatic reaction to each shocking report (which quickly escalate from sex to blackmail to murder) is either to cover it up or "see what happens."
What happens, in short, is that gym workers McDormand and Pitt (who steals the show with his hilarious squinty-eyed stupidity) come into possession of Malkovich’s tell-all memoirs and try to blackmail him for the intel. When he refuses to acquiesce to the demands of morons (he sees Pitt as part of a "league of morons"), they decide to go to the Russians (one of whom is actually named "Krapotkin"), seeking higher remuneration from them. ("The Russians?" asks the perpetually flummoxed Simmons when he hears this. "Why would they go to the Russians?") All McDormand wants is enough money for several "cosmetic procedures" that her insurance won’t cover. Pitt has no idea what he wants, but he’s clueless enough to go along with her scheme.
The blackmail plot and a parallel plot about infidelity involving Clooney, Malkovich, Swinton and McDormand play out as classic farce until, this being a Coen Brothers movie, things get very suddenly violent halfway through. And then–again, this being a Coen Brothers movie–they continue to play out as a farce, albeit one with the occasional grisly shooting or axe murder.
Burn After Reading is a fascinating follow-up to No Country For Old Men, and one that ends up shedding new light on that masterpiece as well. It’s almost a companion piece, even though the two movies are complete opposites in tone and pacing. There’s a scene in Burn After Reading with Brad Pitt hiding in a closet, observing someone through the crack in the door. It’s a slow-build comedic sequence that had the audience in stitches, but the sequence was constructed almost identically to the one in No Country For Old Men where Josh Brolin sits in a dark motel room, watching Javier Bardem’s feet through the illuminated crack at the foot of his door. The brothers construct their suspense and their comedy the same way, and for them, there may be little difference. They often punctuate unbearable suspense with moments of levity (as in the excruciating climax of Blood Simple), or, as in one particularly memorable scene in Burn After Reading, punctuate an elaborate comedic setpiece with a burst of graphic violence.
The end of Burn After Reading also vaguely recalls the end of No Country For Old Men, which many viewers found frustrating. Viewers might find this ending frustrating as well, but most of them will probably find it more funny. This time, the joke is clear, and it’s on the intelligence community ("What have we learned?" asks J.K. Simmons. "Nothing?" replies his underling, probably summing up the brothers’ views on the CIA and Washington in general), but it’s also on us. In that light, I think it’s clearer that to some extent (and even though it came directly from the novel), the end of No Country For Old Men was a joke as well. A hilarious joke for the Coen Brothers on their characters, on their critics, and on their audience. But also for the benefit of all those parties, should they choose to view it as such. Life as it often turns out for their characters is so bleak, it must be a joke. The Coens use their "serious" movies, like No Country For Old Men, to comment on the absurdity of life and their madcap, absurdist ones (like Burn After Reading) to comment on its seriousness. Of course, as much as it’s a joke about politics and current events, it’s also a joke about spy movies in general. Most movies that begin with beepy text scrawled across satellite images could end with a question like "What have we learned?" and an answer like "Nothing?" (Not that that usually bothers me.)
It’s a funny ending to a supremely funny movie, and I don’t mean to distract from that with my digression into the brothers' larger oeuvre. Whether you care to laugh at real spies, at movie spies, at stupid people, or just at movie stars pulling funny faces, there are gags for everyone in Burn After Reading.
Read my review of the Burn After Reading DVD here, including a (positive) reappraisal of the film and discussion of the DVD extras.
Jan 21, 2008
Random Intelligence Dispatches For January 21, 2008Stiller Persuades Clooney and Grant?
This one's ollllllld news, but somehow I missed it last May, so I better play catch-up! Last I heard, Ben Stiller was developing a movie remake of the classic Tony Curtis/Roger Moore television series The Persuaders (my second-favorite British spy series, after The Avengers) to star himself and Steve Coogan as playboy adventurers Danny Wilde and Lord Brett Sinclair. But apparently news emerged from last year's Cannes Film Festival that George Clooney and Hugh Grant are in talks to take over the roles, with Stiller still on board to produce. I still believe that the Stiller/Coogan pairing could have worked (and it would have been cool to see Coogan realize his ongoing Roger Moore fixation by stepping into his shoes), but there was certainly a lot more potential for that version to go horribly awry, too, and turn into Starsky and Hutch 2. To me, Clooney and Grant leave a lot less room for error. (My dream cast for such a remake has always been Grant and Bruce Campbell.) Clooney is actually perfect for Danny Wilde, and an Ocean's 11 tone is just the right thing for The Persuaders, which despite its share of more dramatic episodes, was always first and foremost about fun. It would be great to see this version happen, become a hit, and spawn a whole series of glamorous spy action on the French Riviera! (And I can't wait to see a red Ferrari 599 GTB square off against a gold Aston Martin DBS to a pulsing remix of John Barry's sublime theme music.) Of course, it all really depends on what kind of chemistry Clooney and Grant have together...
More Jack Ryan On The Horizon?
Moviehole runs the rumor today that Paramount is reviving its Jack Ryan spy franchise with Ryan Gosling as the fourth actor to step into the role of Tom Clancy's action-prone CIA analyst(following Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck) . The new movie, they claim, won't be based on a Clancy novel at all, but will be an original Jack Ryan film adventure titled By Any Means Necessary. This is a little bit surprising as, unlike the Bond series (whose producers have-with the obvious exception of Casino Royale-been creating original plotlines since Licence To Kill, having basically exhausted the Ian Fleming source material), there are still unfilmed Jack Ryan novels. Some of those are unsuitable for a younger actor (taking place after Ryan implausibly became President), but Clancy wrote Red Rabbit, about a younger Ryan, specifically with the goal of continuing the Ben Affleck-led series reboot. Oh well. This Gosling rumor comes on the heels of far more tantalizing rumors about either Alec Baldwin or Harrison Ford returning to the role.
Defiance Trailer
The first trailer is out now for Daniel Craig's next star vehicle, the Ed Zwick-directed Defiance. Frankly, I'm underwhelmed. Hopefully it's not too indicative of the actual film...
New Transporter Director
Not quite spy news, but as I've made the case before, essentially so: Dark Horizons reports that a director has been selected to helm the Jason Statham sequel Transporter 3. Olivier Megaton, director of the 2002 Asia Argento thriller The Red Siren will take the reins. I hope he manages to capture the same ideal "Roger Moore Bond movie" feel that Louis Leterrier found for Transporter 2. There aren't enough action movies in that tone these days, and while I wouldn't advocate Bond himself heading back in that direction, I like the idea of someone else doing it. And Statham's perfect for it. I haven't seen The Red Siren (though it sounds pretty cool), but I have seen Hitman, for which Megaton directed second unit. And I wasn't impressed by the second unit stuff. I didn't find any of the action scenes particularly memorable. So I really hope that Transporter [1] co-director Cory Yuen returns to his Transporter 2 positi
on of "action choreographer" to ensure that doesn't happen here! On the plus side, maybe Megaton will bring along Argento to co-star. She'd fit right into the Transporter world!
on of "action choreographer" to ensure that doesn't happen here! On the plus side, maybe Megaton will bring along Argento to co-star. She'd fit right into the Transporter world! Shooting on Transporter 3 is expected to begin this summer. If you need a Jason Statham fix in the meantime, be sure to check out the awesome trailer for The Bank Job. Again, not a spy movie (why doesn't he do a straight-out spy movie?), but something that looks like it will appeal to fans of The Italian Job and other great Sixties and Seventies heist flicks!
Oct 12, 2007
Tradecraft For October 12, 2007
Clooney Spies Tourist
George Clooney just can't stop spying. Following his role as an assassin in the Coen Brothers' comic CIA thriller Burn After Reading, he might write, direct and/or star in another espionage role. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he and his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov have picked up the rights to an upcoming novel by Olen Steinhauer entitled The Tourist. The trade reveals: "Picked up in early manuscript form, the story is described as being a contemporary international thriller in the vein of John le Carre and Graham Greene and follows a spy who must risk everything to reveal a conspiracy after he's suspected of a murder he didn't commit."
Clooney Spies Tourist
George Clooney just can't stop spying. Following his role as an assassin in the Coen Brothers' comic CIA thriller Burn After Reading, he might write, direct and/or star in another espionage role. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he and his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov have picked up the rights to an upcoming novel by Olen Steinhauer entitled The Tourist. The trade reveals: "Picked up in early manuscript form, the story is described as being a contemporary international thriller in the vein of John le Carre and Graham Greene and follows a spy who must risk everything to reveal a conspiracy after he's suspected of a murder he didn't commit."
Roger Moore Makes Bio Official
Roger Moore's agent revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actor is indeed writing an autobiography, as has been rumored all week. The British tabloids first reported the story, but as usual they got it wrong. The Sunday Mirror claimed (in typical sensationalist style) that the "explosive, warts-and-all" memoir would tell of the actor's "colourful sex life" and "his romps with Bond girls." That didn't sound like Moore, who's always been the very picture of class and didn't seem the sort to kiss and tell. Sure enough, the trade reports that "Moore said in a statement that he would like to write 'a warm, amusing, and maybe even slightly emotional volume.'" Doesn't sound very "explosive," but it's sure to be a great read. Moore's biographer and long-time assistant Gareth Owen, who also penned the recently updated Pinewood Story, will ghost-write the book and told Reuters, "He is a great raconteur." Anyone who's heard any of the actor's audio commentaries on the Bond DVDs or The Persuaders knows that's true. Sir Roger's book deal is said to be worth £1 million. Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week, and turns 80 in just a few days.
Van Houten Lies Too
Star of last year's WWII spy thriller Black Book Carice Van Houten, rumored to have been in contention for a Bond Girl role in Bond 22, has joined the cast of another spy movie instead. The Hollywood Reporter reports that she'll play Leonardo Di Caprio's love interest in Body of Lies, "an Iraq-set spy thriller being directed by Ridley Scott." Like all Scott movies, Lies co-stars Russell Crowe. It's written by Oscar-winning Departed screenwriter William Monahan and based on the book by David Ignatius.
Spies For Tots
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Disney Channel has gone into production on a new Playhouse Disney pre-school series titled Special Agent Oso starring Sean Astin as the voice of Oso, a fuzzy, lovable, bumbling special agent-in-training who enlists the help of viewers at home to complete his missions." The show, created by Ford Riley, will debut in fall 2008. Each episode will be comprised of two eleven minute adventures.
Apr 20, 2007
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.
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.
Dec 1, 2006
Movie Review: The Good German (2006)
Review: The Good GermanNow that Casino Royale has opened, we have two big spy movies remaining to look forward to this year, with very similar titles: The Good German and The Good Shepherd. (Put them together and one might say you’ve got a damn good pooch, but not even Groucho would stoop so low.) I’ve yet to see the latter, but the former is quite a treat, and one of the best films of 2006.
The Good German is Steven Soderberg’s best movie in years, probably since The Limey. Some might balk at calling it a spy movie, since none of the main characters are actually spies, but that’s exactly what it is. It’s about the origins of the Cold War, it features suspenseful intrigue and double-crosses and betrayals, and it takes place in that favorite spy movie city, Berlin. George Clooney stars as an American military journalist assigned to cover the Potsdam Peace Conference after Germany’s surrender in 1945. Toby Maguire is his driver, and the incomparable Cate Blanchett is the woman they’re both obsessed with. And so are American and Russian Intelligence, for some reason. Clooney tries to discover why–and who’s pulling the strings–and finds himself caught between Nazis, Nazi hunters, atom scientists, and the American and Russian armies.
The movie deals with subject matter I’m hesitant to reveal, because each new revelation is part of the enjoyment. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t very familiar with the subject, and I found it fascinating.
Equally fascinating is Soderbergh’s directorial style. He chooses to shoot it in black and white, emulating movies of its period, most obviously Casablanca. (Just take a look at the wonderfully evocative poster!) At a Q&A following the screening I saw, he revealed that he forced himself to shoot it as Casablanca director Michael Curtiz would have. For one thing, that meant not leaving LA (Potsdam is in Pasadena!), which certainly surprised me. Even though there’s evident stock footage of the bombed-out city, I assumed they had done at least some location work in Berlin. For another, it meant using only the five camera lenses that Curtiz used, according to his continuity scripts in the Warner Bros. archives. Evidently Soderbergh is used to using a lot more. Finally, it meant a different acting style than we’re used to seeing today.
Soderbergh said he had his actors study films like Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and Mildred Pierce to get an idea of the style he wanted. He forced them to "externalize" their performances, as opposed to the "internalized" performances prevalent today. No method acting allowed. The results are somewhat mixed, but fascinating to observe. Tobey Maguire is the least successful of the three leads, though he appears to be channeling a young James Cagney. George Clooney is basically George Clooney, and that’s exactly what the role calls for. I can’t imaging he changed his usual performance style too much; he already emulates Carey Grant. Clooney is in some ways the last genuine, Golden Age movie star, two generations removed from his time. That’s perfect for this film. But the movie belongs to Cate Blanchett, in a tour-de-force performance (and a black wig) containing more than a hint of Marlene Dietrich. Her character is the most complex, and she conveys more with a single look than most actors manage in a monologue. The Good German should easily earn her another Oscar nomination.
But the movie is no mere pastiche. It’s power lies in the one way (actually, there are two ways*) in which it deviates from Soderbergh’s "shoot like Michael Curtiz" ground rules. Unlike Curtiz, Soderbergh is not bound by the Hayes Code, the censor of the time.
This means that Soderbergh is able to deliver a modern, R-rated adult drama in the trappings of a more innocent era of film. The "of film" is important, because the era itself was far from innocent. Since my generation’s main frame of reference for the 1940s is black and white Hollywood product, that tends to color my perception of the era. Sure, I know it wasn’t really like that, but logic won’t stop me from picturing it that way. Therefore, strong language and brutal, bloody violence have more impact in a black and white film that lulls your expectations into Casablanca territory. Soderbergh and screenwriter Paul Attanasio are also able to be more frank about the atrocities of the Holocaust than an actual 1945 movie could have been, and that too gives the film more impact. The decision to shoot in the style of that period isn’t just to be cute (although it does make it more fun for movie buffs); I don’t think The Good German would be nearly as powerful were it presented as just another modern, color film set in the past.
*Even though Soderbergh had intended to use old-fashioned rear screen projection for the driving scenes, he abandoned that idea when he found out how complicated and time-consuming the process was. Therefore, the rear projection is faked with modern greenscreen technology instead. In order to key the green, that meant shooting in color. The color was de-saturated in post and printed on black and white stock, but looks just as rich as the most high contrast film noir. Even though Soderbergh didn’t discuss it, it was also clear that he’d primarily used greenscreen instead of matte painting, most notably in a direct homage to Casablanca’s most famous matte.
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