Trailer: Zoolander 2

After 15 years, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are back as world-saving male supermodels Derek Zoolander and Hansel, respectively, and once again they're up to their meticulously manscaped eyebrows in international intrigue. Will Farrell and Christine Taylor also return, and they're joined by newcomers Benedict Cumberbatch (as the new "It" male model, All), Kristen Wiig (as villainess Alexanya Atoz) and Penelope Cruz (as Interpol agent Montana Grosso). The worlds of high fashion and global espionage collide once again in February 2016.

New Spy DVDs: Warner Archive Releases Sol Madrid (1968)

Wow, the hits just keep coming from the Warner Archive Collection for spy fans! On top of last week's release of The Scorpio Letters and last month's Where the Spies Are, WAC today (finally!) released the long-awaited Sol Madrid (1968)! So apparently the recent TCM broadcasts were indeed a hint of things to come. Just as Robert Vaughn made The Venetian Affair (also available from WAC) to capitalize on his Man From U.N.C.L.E. stardom while at the same time broadening his horizons to grittier spy far, so his co-star McCallum made Sol Madrid (along with a bunch of U.N.C.L.E. guest stars!). Sol Madrid found McCallum starring as an agent tasked by Interpol to take down a drug kingpin (On Her Majesty's Secret Service's Telly Savalas, of "The Five Daughters Affair") hiding out in Acapulco. To accomplish the task, he goes undercover as a heroin smuggler and finds himself trapped with a beautiful woman (Stella Stevens, The Silencers) between Savalas's drug kingpin and the Mafia, in the person of Rip Torn ("The Alexander the Greater Affair"). Ricardo Montalban ("The Dove Affair"), Paul Lukas ("The Test Tube Killer Affair"), Michael Ansara ("The Arabian Affair") and Pat Hingle (The Ugly American) also star. Where Eagles Dare's Brian G. Hutton directed, and, as with The Venetian Affair, Lalo Schifrin provided the fantastic soundtrack. Sol Madrid is available as a made-on-demand (MOD) DVD from The Warner Archive Collection for $21.99, though it's currently on sale at a discount.

Tradecraft: Sony Buys Interpol Comedy

Variety reports that Sony has bought a comedy pitch called Interpol from writers Jonathan Keasey and Brant Bolvin for Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment to produce. According to the trade, Interpol follows a group of desk jockey analysts who normally turn over their research to seasoned field agents who do the actual arresting of criminals. When a leak outs the field agents, the groups are forced to switch roles. Presumably, hilarity ensues. Overbrook was also behind the recent spy comedy This Means War.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Interpol Calling

Network will unearth another early spy(ish) gem from the ITC vaults next month, the complete 1959-60 series Interpol Calling.  I see Interpol shows like this and The Man From Interpol (and I think there were others, too) as the not-so-missing link between the detective shows popular in the Fifties and the spy shows that dominated in the Sixties.  A jetsetting detective, who, in this case, covers ground from London to Paris to Mexico to Sweden to the Himelayas to Swiss ski resorts, is basically a spy in all but the particulars of the cases he handles.  And at the height of the Cold War, it was inevitable that even those sometimes veer into the realm of international intrigue. Spy plots on Interpol Calling ranged from dead NATO couriers found in sleeping compartments on the Orient Express to South American coups d'etat to political assassination to the usual (for that era) escaped Nazi war criminal plotlines. But for me, the jetsetting is one of the most important aspects of a spy show, and Interpol Calling had that in spades–in the stages-and-stock-footage ITC manner, anyway. Network describes the series thusly:

World crime is his target. Intelligence and style are his most deadly weapons. When Interpol’s Inspector Paul Duval is on the case, international criminals are on the run. Tracking his targets from searing sand dunes near the equator to icy peaks at the ends of the earth, the unstoppable investigator risks his life daily in a global race against time. He has the persistence of Columbo and the style of Holmes – and not even the most elusive fugitive can hide when he is on the hunt. Hungarian-born Charles Korvin stars as the intrepid Paul Duval, while Edwin Richfield is fellow Interpol investigator Mornay in this classic ITC series.

All the usual ITC suspects show up as guest stars, indluding Donald Pleasence, Walter Gotell, Cec Linder, Douglas Wilmer, Hazel Court, Alfred Burke, Barbara Shelley and the ubiquitous Walter Gotell, among many others.

This release contains all 39 half-hour, black-and-white episodes, which originally aired in 1959 and 1960. Special features include Network's usual "extensive image galleries" and PDF material, the latter of which can sometimes prove much more interesting than it sounds. 

Interpol Calling: The Complete Series will retail for £49.99 but will be available to pre-order for £10 less from Network's website beginning tomorrow (December 1).  It starts shipping the following week (December 8).

Random Intelligence Dispatches For February 11, 2008

Agent 077 Covered At Cinema Retro

Cinema Retro, the excellent glossy publication whose fabulous current issue showcases Deadlier Than the Male and its star, Elke Sommer, has another great Sixties spy write-up--this time on its website. Dean Brierly looks at the trio of official "Agent 077" Eurospy movies--specifically at the wonderful DVD releases from Dorado Films. I say "official," because the popular codename (itself a ripoff of something, I'm sure!) spawned a whole slew of imitations, all covered in The Eurospy Guide. The Guide lists nine films (including Espionage In Tangiers) that qualify as 077 movies for one reason or another, whether they actually call their hero by that number, were just marketed as such, or even just feature the numbers scrawled on a napkin! My favorite of these attempts to cash in on the popular series was perpetrated by Piege pour un espions, which the Guide says was "marketed as an 'OSS 77' film to confuse fans of both the 077 films and the OSS 117 films!" Eurospy promoters were nothing if not shameless. Anyway, go ahead and check out Dean's teriffic article on the series!

R.I.P. Barry Morse

Cinema Retro also reports some sad spy news: Barry Morse, the actor who played Mr. Parminter on the ITC series The Adventurer, has passed away at the age of 89. Fortunately for Mr. Morse, he's better remembered for playing the relentless Lt. Gerard on the vastly superior show The Fugitive! Still, Morse was by far the best part of the hilariously awful Adventurer, and his contributions to the bonus features on Network UK's recent DVDs of the show are priceless. Morse also costarred on the ITC adventure series The Zoo Gang. He will be missed.

Another Interpol Movie

In a sign that the world might be sick of British and American agents as their heroes, and hungry for more international-friendly agents, there is yet another Interpol movie in the works(following Hitman and the forthcoming The International, among others). Variety reports that Thomas Jane has signed on to star in Run for action maestro John McTiernan. Run will shoot in Argentina and, according to the trade, "has an American Interpol agent happening upon a conspiracy during a thrills-and-spills high-speed pursuit across the country." BMW has signed on to provide cars for the chase, which will also feature a supercharged Mustang. Presumably Jane is replacing Karl Urban, who was originally attached when the movie was set to shoot in Europe. That's too bad. I think The Bourne Supremacy's Urban has what it takes to be an action star and I'd like to see him get the chance. Jane, on the other hand, didn't convince me of this in The Punisher, but he is a good actor so maybe given the right, ahem, vehicle, he will break out.

More Burn This Summer; No More Chuck Till Fall

With the Hollywood writers' strike finally drawing to an end, TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports that we sadly still won't see any new episodes of NBC's Chuck until the fall. The good news, however, is that last year's best new spy show, Burn Notice, will return as early as July! The second season was originally scheduled to air on USA beginning early this summer, and shouldn't arrive too much later than that now. Ausiello claims shooting is slated to begin in late April.

The Bourne Conclusion?

Matt Damon has said The Bourne Ultimatum will be his final Bourne movie. According to Variety, he told a press conference in Cannes, "We have ridden that horse as far as we can," when asked about the prospects for a fourth Bourne. He went on to say that he felt like "a bit of a prostitute for putting out two number threes in one year" (referring to Ocean's 13, whose out-of-competition screening was the occasion for the conference). So maybe he's just fed up with sequels right now, but will change his mind in a few years when presented with a decent script and suitcase full of cash? After all, Sean Connery hemmed and hawed about doing another Bond film all the way back in 1966...

Robert Ludlum only wrote the three Bourne novels, but since the filmmakers have totally eschewed his plots anyway, that shouldn't really stop them from continuing the series. Eric Van Lustbader wrote a poorly-received continuation novel a few years ago entitled The Bourne Legacy (which would make a fine movie title if they continue to generate their own plotlines), and has another one due next month called The Bourne Betrayal. Publishers Weekly says: "Lustbader is less successful than Ludlum in dramatizing Bourne's inner torment—a feature that distinguished the character from many similar thriller heroes." For those still curious, though, the book is due June 5 for a list price of $25.99.

And even if Matt Damon doesn't want to spy anymore, that's not stopping his Bourne Supremacy co-star, Karl Urban (Eomer in The Lord of the Rings). Urban has signed on to play the lead in John McTiernan's next action movie, Run. Urban will play an Interpol agent in a movie whose script, Variety says, "reportedly has 100 pages of car chases." Wow! That's, um... a lot of chasing. With Clive Owen playing an Interpol agent for Tom Tykwer in The International, Interpol seems to be the new NSA. That is to say, the new agency all movie spies work for as an alternative to the increasingly less popular CIA.

Clive Owen To Spy For Tom Tykwer

Two potentially interesting new spy projects broke in the trades today. The first one, The International, really has me excited.

Variety reports that Tom Tykwer, the always-impressive director of Run Lola Run, Winter Sleepers and last year's Perfume, will direct Clive Owen in an “action-thriller” produced by John Woo. Let me repeat that to let it sink in: Tom Tykwer will direct Clive Owen in an action-thriller produced by John Woo!!!

I’ve always wanted to see what would happen if Tykwer turned his considerable talents toward an action movie. Granted, I’m sure he won’t deliver a straight-forward action movie; it will probably turn out to be much more than that. But to me he’s one of the most interesting directors in the world (who I’d love to see do a Bond, not that that would ever happen), and he’s got a great leading man in Owen. Variety goes on to undercut the excitement of the talent announced by blandly stating that Owen plays “an Interpol agent who investigates corruption at powerful banking institutions.”

Luckily The Hollywood Reporter manages to make the plot sound a lot better: “The story centers on an obsessive Interpol agent (Owen) who spearheads an investigation into one of the world’s most high-profile and powerful banking institutions in a n attempt to expose its role in worldwide arms brokering, corruption and murder. His efforts quickly turn into a deeper obsession when he comes up against more resistance by the law enforcement system he serves.” Count me in!

The International is scheduled to shoot in September in Europe, with a script by Eric Singer.

In other spy news today, Ridley Scott has lined up yet another espionage-related project. Fox 2000 has optioned a new novel by Rob Smith called Child 44 for him to direct. The novel, due in 2008, is set in Stalinist Russia and, according to Variety, “revolves around an officer in the secret police who is framed by a colleague for treason. On the run with his emotionally estranged wife, he stumbles upon a series of child killings and launches his own rogue investigation, even though it means risking his own capture.” Should Scott actually make Child 44, it won’t be until after he finishes Body of Lies, which Variety now claims is still titled Penetration in its movie version.