Upcoming Brian Clemens Screenings In London

The Avengers Declassified tips its bowler in the direction of the BFI website, announcing a Brian Clemens retrospective ("Brian Clemens: Auteur of the Avengers") running in London all next month, beginning July 2.  Clemens (who was just awarded a much deserved OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honors) was, of course, the prevailing creative force behind The Avengers (especially in its color years), but he also contributed to just about every British spy show of the Sixties and Seventies, including Danger Man, Invisible Man, Man From Interpol, Man of the World, The Sentimental Agent, Adam Adamant Lives!, The Baron, The Champions, The Persuaders!, The Protectors, The Adventurer, The New Avengers, The Professionals, Thriller and Quiller.  The incredibly prolific Clemens also wrote a number of films including The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, And Soon the Darkness (which is currently being remade) and a pair of fantastic Hammer movies, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter.  In my book, you can't really have a more impressive resume.  I am a huge fan, and if I lived in London I would be at every screening!  BFI will screen a great number of those works, including both rarely-screened movies and TV episodes, and Clemens himself will make a couple of personal appearance throughout the festival. 

Some of the many highlights include a screening of the Danger Man episode "View From the Villa" (which was shot in The Prisoner's future home, Portmeiron) paired with an episode of the rare detective show Mark Saber guest-starring Patrick McGoohan, an episode of the Seventies spy series Quiller (based on the Adam Hall books and unavailable on DVD) that was originally written for Mission: Impossible (can you imagine a Clemens-penned Mission?! I wish it had been so!) paired with an episode of Thriller starring TV's Quiller, Michael Jayston (who later voiced James Bond in a radio adaptation of You Only Live Twice), and an evening of The Avengers (the great Cathy Gale episode "Don't Look Behind You") and Adam Adamant Lives!, neither of which are particularly rare or unavailable, but both of which are so fantastically entertaining that I can't imagine passing it up.  Clemens will appear for "A Conversation With Brian Clemens" (following Captain Kronos) on Jully 28 and a separate discussion entirely devoted to The Avengers following a screening of the Emma Peel classic "A Touch of Brimstone" on July 22. Tickets to all events are available on the BFI website.  I'm jealous, lucky Londoners!

Tradecraft: ABC Family Emerges From Shadows

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "ABC Family is developing a new series titled Shadows, about a secret program at Harvard designed to train a new generation of spies.... The show revolves around faculty and students involved in the spy program."  That's pretty much all the information the trade has to offer.  Spy schools are a fascinating premise, but I wonder what the tone is?  Is this going to be a realistic drama about Ivy Leaguers bound for covert careers, or is it going to be more like Alias Jr. with romantically-entangled co-eds sent on weekly missions exploding things?  Honestly, I'd be good with either one, but I'm curious.  I want to know!  The series was created by Jesse Peyronel, who will executive produce.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: The Four Just Men

Network is on a roll!  The UK outfit has announced a DVD release of the ITC series that really put contemporary adventure series on the map for the company, paving the way for two decades' worth of shows the likes of The Saint, Danger Man, The Baron, The Champions, The Adventurer and Jason King (among many others). The Four Just Men, ostensibly based (like so many things of its era) on a 1905 Edgar Wallace novel, featured Jack Hawkins, Richard Conte, Vittorio de Sica (yes, that Vittorio de Sica) and Dan Dailey as, well, four more or less just men. The quartet banded together at the behest of their recently deceased commanding officer from WWII and made a pact to fullfill his dying wish by fighting injustice on their own terms (and with his money) in Europe and throughout the world.  After all appearing together in the pilot, the stars became rotating leads, each episode focusing on only one of them at a time.  Other recurring regulars included Andrew Kier and Honor Blackman, just on the verge of her Avengers fame.  Among the many notable guest stars were Judi Dench, Alan Bates, Jane Asher and Patrick Troughton.  Even though these adventurers were privately motivated (foreshadowing The Persuaders!), of course they got involved in plenty of espionage antics.  Plots ran the gamut of the usual ITC fare: protecting diplomats from assassination, exposing blackmailers of ambassadors, saving brilliant metallurgists from nefarious Eastern Bloc powers, etc. The series ran from 1959-1960; Network collects all 39 half-hour, black and white episodes on The Four Just Men: The Complete Series, a 5-disc PAL Region 2 release due out on August 2.  Retail is £49.99, but it can currently be pre-ordered from Network's website for just £39.99.  And so another key piece of British TV history falls into place courtesy of Network!

A Look At Unproduced I Spy Episodes

The Spy Report's Wes Britton reports that I Spy fans have something to be excited about!  Apparently I Spy superfan Debbie Lazar has gotten access to two unproduced scripts for the classic Robert Culp/Bill Cosby show written by Ernest Frankel.  For obvious copyright reasons, she can't post the scripts themselves (which currently reside in the collection of the University of North Carolina along with Frankel's other works), but she is summarizing each one in meticulous detail at the I Spy Forum.  The detail is so meticulous, in fact, that she's serializing her summaries, but the first part of the first script, "The Day They Gave the Bride Away," is up now.  It provides an interesting insight into what might have been had I Spy returned for a fourth season. Frankel specialized in the more serious, gritty episodes (I think people often forget just how gritty and downright dark I Spy could be), and apparently this one is no exception.  The setting is Oxford, England, which would have been cool to see.  Check it out! 

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Edward Woodward In Codename: Kyril

Wow, this is a very pleasant surprise!  I only ever happened upon the existence of Codename: Kyril while researching Edward Woodward for my obituary of the great Callan actor.  From the title, it was clear that it was a spy movie, so I read about it on the IMDb and immediately wanted to see it, but that wasn't possible as it's not currently on DVD anywhere, apparently.  Well, that changes on July 26 when the spy fan's savior Network releases it on Region 2 DVD in Britain!  But that's not the surprise.  The surprise for me was learning that Codename: Kyril was not merely a TV movie, as stated on the IMDb, but a four-part miniseries!  And that is the version that Network is releasing, Codename: Kyril: The Compete Series, not the truncated movie version.  Which means that there is now a whole other Edward Woodward spy series to look forward to, one whose existence I never even knew about!  (It originally aired in 1989, while he was still The Equalizer.) Regular readers will know that I've long loved Network for their uncanny ability to resuscitate even the most obscure long-dead spy series on DVD.  But I had no idea that it was within their power to actually create new old spy shows out of the ether, as they appear to have done here!  I know next to nothing about Codename: Kyril, but I'm suddenly over the moon anticipating it!  Since I've confessed such ignorance, however, I'll let Network's own copy do the talking in describing the show: 

The KGB has a particularly evasive spy to eliminate: a high-ranking Kremlin traitor who has been leaking crucial secrets to London. Bucharensky, code-name Kyril, is ordered to defect to catch the attention of the intelligence services of both East and West, setting himself up as a target and drawing fi re from all sides as he makes his way across Europe to London; the object of his mission is to panic the traitor into making a mistake. But waiting in London is Kyril’s deadliest enemy: Royston, a KGB mole whose life now depends upon silencing Kyril before he can disclose Royston’s identity as a Soviet double agent...

Now check out the cast: besides Woodward, we have such spy stalwarts and pillars of British television as Joss Ackland, Denholm Elliott, Peter Vaughn, Hugh Fraser, Ian Charleson and Richard E. Grant!  It's written by John Hopkins (based on a novel by John Trenhaile), who also adapted Smiley's People and The Holcroft Covenant, and directed by Ian Sharp, second unit director on GoldenEye.  Yesterday I had only a vague notion of the existance of Codename: Kyril, and today it is suddenly one of my most eagerly-anticipated DVD releases of the summer.

Codename: Kyril, a Region 2 PAL DVD, is a Network web exclusive.  It retails for £14.99 but can currently be pre-ordered at a discount.

Tradecraft: Is Aishwarya Rai A Spy Princess?

Wow, this is unusual: a spy-related rumor about Bollywood megastar Aishwarya Rai (considered by many the most beautiful woman in the world) that does not tout her as the next Bond Girl! (And it's from a source more reputable than the tabloids who have ceaselessly touted her for every "next Bond movie" since the late Pierce Brosnan era.) Instead, Deadline is reporting that Rai is circling the role of real-life WWII-era spy Noor Inayat Khan aka Nora Baker, "a Muslim Sufi female agent who was awarded both the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre," in The Spy Princess (great title!).  Khan was an operative of Britain's SOE who heroically maintained radio contact with London from occupied France even as her entire spy network was decimated by the Germans. The $15 million British film comes from producers Mike Downy and Sam Taylor, from a script by Judy Morris (Happy Feet.) 

Upcoming Spy DVDs

Spy Vibe reports that The Criterion Collection will release Stanley Donen's Sixties spy classic Charade on Blu-ray this September.  According to Criterion's website, the extras appear to be the same as those on their DVD edition, but the idea of a high-def transfer of this '63 classic alone is enough to make the mouth water.  (As is that awesome cover art!)  Those aforementioned extras include an audio commentary with Stanley Donen and screenwriter Peter Stone, "The Films of Stanley Donen: A Selected Filmography," with an introduction by Donen biographer Stephen M. Silverman, Peter Stone’s career highlights and the original theatrical trailer.  Obviously Charade is a must-own for any spy fan, and whether you get the existing DVD or the new Blu-ray, the Criterion edition is the way to go.  Avoid all the public domain cheapie versions.  Criterion's Blu-ray comes out September 21 with an SRP of $39.99, but obviously it will be available more cheaply through the usual venues (including the Criterion store, where it can currently be pre-ordered.)

While poking around the Criterion site, I also happened upon some great news that had somehow passed me by sooner.  One of the terrific spy films of the Forties long absent from DVD is finally coming out on that format courtesy of The Criterion Collection: Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich, starring Rex Harrison and The Lady Vanish's Margaret Lockwood.  And it comes out next week!  Lockwood isn't all that this decidely Hitchcockian comedic thriller has in common with The Lady Vanishes, either.  Besides a train setting, the two movies also share a couple of screenwriters (Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat) and the cricket-loving comic relief characters Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, who also played the roles in a second feature included on Criterion's Lady Vanishes DVD).  Night Train to Munich (1940) follows Harrison as a dashing British secret agent accompanying a Czech scientist and his daughter across war-torn Europe as they attempt to evade Nazi spies.  Besides the first-rate transfer Criterion is known or, DVD features include a "new video conversation between film scholars Peter Evans and Bruce Babington about director Carol Reed, screenwriters Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and the social and political climate in which Night Train to Munich was made" and a booklet with an essay by film critic Philip Kemp. SRP is $29.95, but as usual it can be found cheaper on Amazon and even from Criterion's store.

TV Shows On DVD reports that Warner Bros. has announced Chuck: The Complete Third Season for release on DVD and Blu-ray this fall. (Too bad they based the artwork on this campaign instead of this one.) The third season finds everyone's favorite nerdy spy becoming a master spy, as an upgrade in the Intersect imbues him with all sorts of untapped superspy skills. Extras include deleted scenes, a gag reel and the featurettes "Chuck-Fu... and Dim Sum: Becoming a Spy Guy" and "The Jeffster Revolution: the Definitive Mockumentary."  The DVD retails for $59.98 and the Blu-ray for $69.98. (As usual, you shouldn't actually have to pay that much if you know where to shop.)  Both hit stores September 7. 

Jeremy Duns' Free Agent Optioned By BBC

Jeremy Duns has shared on Facebook that his Sixties-set Paul Dark spy trilogy (which began with last year's very impressive Free Agent, and continues this summer with Free Country) has been optioned for television by the BBC!  Duns revealed to his Facebook followers that "the project is still in its early stages," but apparently moving along. I'm thrilled by this news.  Given a proper length, Free Agent will make terrific television. I'd almost rather see a BBC adaptation than a movie, in fact.  (I'd also love to see Stella Rimington's spy novels adapted for British television.) Duns also linked to the UK cover art for Free Country.  As you can see, it's a classic spy image and a great cover.  Personally, I preferred the stark simplicity of the Free Agent UK hardcover, but there's no denying this one sets the appropriate mood!

Free Agent comes out in paperback in the US at the end of the month.

Free Country can be pre-ordered now from Amazon.co.uk.

Tradecraft: De Niro Still Intent On Good Shepherd Follow-Ups

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Robert De Niro still hopes to direct two follow-ups (sequels may be the wrong word) to his 2006 Matt Damon CIA epic The Good Shepherd, despite that film's failure to set the box office alight.  The trade reports that the actor discussed these projects at a master class that was part of an Italian film festival earlier this week:

Asked about his taste for directing more films in the future, the 66-year-old De Niro said he'd likely only direct "two or three" more films in his lifetime, including one or two sequels to The Good Shepherd, an intellectual spy thriller set during the early years of the Cold War. De Niro said he envisioned a second film starting in 1961, when "The Good Shepherd" ends and spanning until the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. A third installment, he said, would start after the fall of the Berlin Wall and go forward to the present time.

He basically reiterates what we already knew, but it's good to hear that he's still thinking about it, and not dissuaded by the first film's underperformance. Personally, I am all for this.  The Good Shepherd was definitely flawed (in its theatrical form anyway; I'm still waiting to see the much longer cut that writer Eric Roth talked about and hoping Universal one day releases it on DVD), but still fascinating entertainment for spy buffs. Two more such films set during equally rich periods of the Agency's history would be most welcome. Fingers crossed that De Niro gets his wish!

Read my initial review of The Good Shepherd here.

Read my re-appraisal of The Good Shepherd on DVD here.

Bond Girl Joins New Spy Thriller

Former Bond Girl Stana Katic (the compromised Canadian secret service agent from the end of Quantum of Solace) has joined the cast of that new Richard Gere/Topher Grace spy thriller we heard about a little while ago, The Double.  Gere plays a Cold War CIA operative called out of retirement to help Grace, a young FBI agent, track a Russian assassin.  Reuters (via Dark Horizons) reports that Katic will play "a feisty Russian prostitute who fiercely protects key information."  Odette Yustman (Cloverfield) has also been cast, as Grace's wife.  A blink-and-you'll-miss-her Bond Girl, Katic is probably better known for starring as Detective Kate Beckett opposite Nathan Fillion on ABC's entertaining mystery series Castle.  The Double marks the directing debut of screenwriter Michael Brandt, who co-wrote the script with his regular partner Derek Haas.  Regular readers will be aware that Brandt and Haas are no strangers to the spy genre; the pair have contributed to such anxiously awaited in-development spy fare as Matt Helm and Robert Ludlum's The Matarese Circle.

Crazy Brazilian "Live and Let Die" Cover With Toy Instruments

Crazy Brazilian "Live And Let Die" Cover With Toy Instruments

I heard a story today on Public Radio's The World about a popular Brazilian band called Pato Fu who have recorded a very unusual - and very cool - cover of Paul McCartney and Wings' 1973 James Bond theme song "Live and Let Die." The cover involves vocal contributions from children (wailing the title line) and a number of unusual instruments.  The broadcast describes them thusly: "A toy piano, tiny drum kit, a baby-scale electric guitar, a plastic synth-keyboard with two octaves."  And they don't even mention the child's moo noise toy! "It’s part of a music video genre loosely known as VideoSong. The rules for videosongs can be summed up as what you hear is what you get: the sounds must be seen in the video, no lip-syncing allowed." It's probably best just to take a look yourself.  This is really pretty cool!  You can listen to the whole story on The World's website (although I'd recommend watching the video first), as well as read the transcript and download an MP3 of the song.

New Ian Dickerson Saint Book On The Way (Updated!)

The Tainted Archive has a contribution to their "TV Cops Week" by Saint expert Ian Dickerson. His article (after raising the obvious question of how exactly The Saint might qualify as a TV cop) reveals that he has written a new book on–and called–The Saint On TV, due for publication early next year from Hirst Books.  I can't wait!  Anyone familiar with The Saint is probably also familiar with Dickerson, who not only keeps fans apprised of the latest efforts to bring Simon Templar to the small screen at the CommanderBond.net forums, but happens to be the Honorary Secretary of the Saint Club, which operates several Saint websites. He also compiled the recent Hodder "Best of the Saint" volumes.  In short, he knows his stuff! Dickerson has written a very compelling and very condensed abstract of that history for The Tainted Archive, so be sure to head over there and take a look.  You'll get a tantalizing preview of what we'll learn from his book next year!  The book will evidently cover a lot more ground than simply the most famous incarnation of Templar (starring Roger Moore).  Apparently the Saint's history with television begins more than a decade earlier, in the late 1940s. Dickerson's article, and book, trace the character from there through the height of his popularity in the Sixties to the Ian Ogilvy Seventies revival Return of the Saint, the two produced versions of the character from the late Eighties (as well as some unproduced ones) right up through the latest attempts to revive the character today!  Here's hoping there's another chapter to be written by the time the book comes out...

UPDATE: You can pre-order the book now from the publisher, who actually list an October 2010 release date. If you pre-order, you not only support the project, but also guarantee yourself a personally signed copy before it hits store shelves!

Tradecraft: Tony Gilroy's Bourne Again
UPDATED!

Deadline Hollywood and Variety are both reporting that Tony Gilroy, who worked on the scripts for all three Bourne movies before going on to critical but not commercial success directing Michael Clayton and Duplicity, is now back in the Bourne fold.  Following drafts by Bourne Ultimatum co-writer George Nolfi and uncredited Quantum of Solace contributor Josh Zetumer, Universal has now turned to the man they rightfully recognize as the cinematic Bourne mastermind to pen a fourth film in the franchise.  (Presumably he was unavailable earlier.)  Following the pattern with Robert Ludlum's second and third novels, they are currently using the title of Eric van Lustbader's continuation novel The Bourne Legacy (which is a good title!) but not the story.  Gilroy is also working on a "Bourne bible" for the studio, presumably a guide to the universe for future writers and directors.  Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass are not attached right now.  We all know how much Damon likes talking about not returning to the series, but then again Sean Connery said the same thing after You Only Live Twice. Perhaps Damon should follow Connery's example and never say never.  Greengrass has also declared his intention not to return (and his involvement is critical to Damon's), but since then he's left the project he was going to helm, a remake of Fantastic Voyage, so he does seem to be available again.  A commentor at Deadline Hollywood makes a provocative reference to a feud between Greengrass and Gilroy, but I have no knowldege to substantiate or deny his claim.  Personally, I remain hopeful that at least Damon and possibly Greengrass too will return to the series.  For now, though, I'm glad that Gilroy is on board.  Universal is being aggressive and targeting a 2012 release.

UPDATE: Read Jeremy's comment below for some fascinating further information!

Rare Early Diana Rigg Performance Included On New UK Special Edition Avengers DVDs

The Avengers Declassified has all the details on extras on the newest set of remastered Special Edition Avengers DVDs due out in the UK from Optimum.  These sets are absolutely mouthwatering.  I really hope that some US company picks up the rights, and puts out these Optimum versions on Blu-ray here.  Anyway, the crown jewel among many fantastic-sounding extras on The Avengers DVD Set 3 (Season 4, the first Diana Rigg season) is an early Rigg performance on Armchair Theatre–supposedly the role that got her the Avengers gig.  Now that we've finally got her episode of The Sentimental Agent on Network's release of that series, the inclusion of "The Hothouse" from Armchair Theatre makes this a banner year for Rigg fans!  All we need now is the ITV Play of the Week "Women Beware Women" for a complete picture of Dame Diana's early, pre-Avengers television career!  However, that's only one of many, many special features (over six hours' worth!) on this set, including multiple audio commentaries (contributors include Brian Clemens and Roger Marshall), an interview with the original Mrs. Peel, Elizabeth Shepherd, alternate tag scenes, alternate credits sequences, various test footage, promotional pieces, trailers, newsreel footage, script PDFs and more of the Series 1 episode reconstructions that have been sprinkled throughout Optimum's output, giving fans an idea of what we're missing in the infamous wiped episodes.  That's just an overview, though!  For the full details, hit The Avengers Declassified.  The site also has some amazing screen captures clearly comparing these new Optimum digital restorations with the murkier transfers on the old DVDs.  You'll find the difference plainly visible!  The 8-disc PAL Region 2 set containing all the black and white Emma Peel episodes comes out on July 5 in England.  It retails for £59.99, but can currently be pre-ordered on Amazon.co.uk for £42.99.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week

Pierre Morel's latest neo-Eurospy movie, From Paris With Love, is out today on DVD and Blu-ray from Lionsgate.  And it boasts plenty of extras tailor-made for spy fans! Besides a commentary with Morel (whose previous neo-Eurospy effort was Taken) and a making-of featurettes ("The Making-of From Paris With Love"), we also get the intriguing "Spooks, Spies and Special Ops: Life Under Cover" and "Secrets of Spy Craft: Inside the International Spy Museum." Those both sound pretty cool! A look at "Charlie Wax's Gun Locker," the theatrical trailer and a trivia game called "Friend or Foe" (Huh? From Paris With Love trivia?  Really?) round out the special features. Oh, and the Blu-ray also includes that idiotic but ubiquitous digital copy of the film, for those of you who care about that. (Anyone? Really?) From Paris With Love isn't as good as Taken or the Transporter movies (previous neo-Eurospy efforts from producer Luc Besson), but it's pretty fun nonetheless.  From the trailers, I thought I was going to hate Travolta and his Charlie Wax persona, and for the first twenty minutes I did.  But then suddenly I went from cringing at his bad one-liners and miles-over-the-top delivery to laughing at them.  And in the end, he kind of made the movie rather than ruining it!

From Charlie Wax to Charlie Chan...  Fox and MGM have both had their turns with the classic Earl Derr Biggers' Chinese-American detective; now Warner Home Video releases three of the remaining Sidney Toler Charlie Chan movies made for Monogram in the 1940s, as well as the first of the Roland Winters Chan films, in the boxed set TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection.  The Forties Chan movies featured even more espionage plots than the Thirties ones, and this set is no exception.  Dangerous Money (1946) is the most obvious spy film in the collection, as Chan investigates the death of an American agent who was searching for money and artwork stolen during World War II on a South Seas cruise to Samoa.  Charlie (Toler) and his well intentioned but bumbling assistants, Number Two Son Jimmy (Victor Sen Young) and chauffeur Chattanooga Brown (Willie Best, stepping in for Mantan Moreland) even use spy gadgets in their investigation of a boatload of suspects.  Other titles in the set include Dark Alibi, The Trap and Winters' debut The Chinese Ring. TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection, a 4-disc set, retails for $39.98; naturally it's available for pre-order much cheaper on Amazon.  Furthermore, since Deep Discount is in the midst of its annual summer sale, the set can actually be had for just $22 there using the coupon code 25MORE.

Finally, on the other side of the pond, we have the DVD debut of Saracen: The Complete Series from that champion of spy series, Network. Saracen was a 1989 British action show, touted at the time as an updated take on The Professionals. Saracen follows the exploits of former SAS and Delta Force commandos, respectively, David Barber (Christian Burgess) and Tom Duffy (Jimmy Clarke), now serving as the top operatives for the global private security firm Saracen Systems, whose clients include governments, industry and individual contractors worldwide.  According to Network's blurb, "under Saracen’s founder and director, retired army officer Colonel Patrick Ansell, the agents take on high-risk tasks too sensitive or unpredictable for other agencies to handle."  Saracen: The Complete Series, a Region 2 PAL release, includes the 1988 pilot The Zero Option (with different lead actors) and all thirteen episodes of the 1989 series. The fan buzz about this show was pretty bad, but while it's clearly no masterpiece, I'm enjoying it so far.  It's set against the backdrop of the very real geopolitics of the late Eighties, which is interesting, and it combines the exciting action of the James Bond side of the spy genre with the moral ambiguity and lack of tidy endings of the Callan school.  The retails for £29.99, but is currently available on Network's website for just £16.99.

Fun trivia: According to a thread on the Commander Bond.net forums, Christian Burgess was once considered as a possible 007 for one of Kevin McClory's many attempts to make another rogue Bond movie in the 1990s.

Christopher Nolan: Inception Is My Bond Film

Dark Horizons has some quotes from a recent interview director Christopher Nolan gave to Empire Magazine in which the director discusses the (obvious) influence of James Bond movies on his work.  Nolan says that his new film, Inception (which looks absolutely awesome!) is "absolutely my Bond film. I've been plundering ruthlessly from the Bond movies in everything I've done, forever. They're a huge influence on me." Clearly! Despite their decidedly different tones, both of Nolan's Batman films remind me of Roger Moore Bonds. (Which is fantastic!) The Dark Knight contained many overt references to 007, which you can read about here. Nolan further demonstrates his impeccable taste when he tells Empire that his favourite Bond movie is On Her Majesty's Secret Service because "it's by far the most emotional." He says he tried to achieve a similar "balance of action, scale, and romanticism and tragedy and emotion" in Inception.  The recent trailer (and its incredible music) had already caused this movie to edge out a pair of good-looking spy movies (Salt and Knight and Day) as my most anticipated movie of the summer, and this interview ups that anticipation even more!  Will Christopher Nolan (who once flirted with a Prisoner film) ever direct an actual Bond movie? I kind of doubt it, but I'd sure love to see it.  It seems a bit more likely on EON's end now that they are hiring more maverick directors, but for some reason I'm not sure Nolan would go for it.  For one thing, he's certainly busy.  And for another, he already does all the Bond stuff he wants to in his Batman movies--and, apparently, in Inception.  But I think he'd be at the top of my list of Bond dream directors, just ahead of Tom Tykwer.

Smiley Cast: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier... Oldman!

According to The Playlist (via Cinematical), Gary Oldman will play George Smiley in the new film version of John Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  I was still pulling for Broadbent, but I have to admit, I never even considered Oldman, and he's pretty perfect for the part.  Smiley is notable for his utter lack of notable traits.  He's a man who disappears into the background.  I think Oldman has shown himself capable of that in numerous parts, himself disappearing completely to suit the role.  He rarely looks the same or even sounds the same, yet he's always excellent.  It's been a while since we've seen him in the lead role in a major movie, and I think he'll be great.  Alec Guinness left such an indelible mark on the part with his performances in the TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People that it would be daunting for any actor to follow him (although Denholm Elliott and James Mason* have both taken admirable turns), but I'm confident that Oldman is more than up to the challenge.  Le Carré's Circus is full of other memorable roles (also played by excellent actors in the miniseries), and apparently those too will be filled by top-tier talent.  The Playlist reports that Colin Firth, David Thewlis and Michael Fassbender are all in talks to come aboard.  As previously reported, this version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is being directed by Let the Right One In's Tomas Alfredson from a script by Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen), who is also writing the next (indefinitely delayed) Bond movie.  I am really looking forward to this movie!  And as long as we're talking remakes of David Cornwall's sacred cows, have I ever mentioned how much I'd love to see a Daniel Craig/Keira Knightly version of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold?

*Mason's turn as Smiley-in-all-but-name in The Deadly Affair, based on Le Carré's Call For the Dead, will air on TCM this Friday. It's a rare opportunity for Americans to see this rare but excellent film, as it's not on DVD here.

Tradecraft: Chaos Pickup Chaos

Amidst all the spy series set to debut on American television in the coming season (off the top of my head, Undercovers, Nikita, Covert Affairs... and I think I'm leaving some out), here's one that may not happen.  Nellie Andreeva at Deadline has filed a fascinating report on all the behind-the-scenes chaos going on with CBS's potential mid-season CIA series Chaos.  Despite the network's initial order for eight episodes, it looks like the show is in jeopardy because an inability to come to terms financially acceptable by both CBS and producer 20th TV (Fox).  Brett Ratner directed the pilot; Tim Blake Nelson and Freddy Rodriguez star(red?).

Network Announces Zoo Gang Soundtrack

Well, we're getting closer... but it's still not The Persuaders!  Network's latest music release is, however (just like The Persuaders!), a soundtrack to a colorful Seventies ITC show with incidental music composed by the terrific (and sadly underrated) Ken Thorne and a theme by a former James Bond composer. The Bond composer - or composers, I suppose - in question is not John Barry but Paul and Linda McCartney, who of course wrote the great theme song for Live And Let Die the previous year.  The show is The Zoo Gang, a short-lived 1974 adaptation of a Paul Gallico novel starring pensioners Brian Keith, John Mills, Lilli Palmer and The Adventurer's Mr. Parminter himself Barry Morse as a quartet of former French resistance fighters reunited to take revenge on the man who betrayed them to the Nazis thirty years earlier.  They like working together again and stick around the South of France long enough to take on the usual sort of ITC foes: extortionists, counterfeiters and the like.  It's not a spy show, but like any ITC show there are plenty of spy elements to it nonetheless.  It's entertaining, and one day I'll have to write more about the series.  (My favorite episode guest stars the great Peter Cushing.)  I don't recall the Thorne music included on The Best of ITC making too much of an impression on me, but the multiple versions of the fantastic theme song were impressive.  I'm sure this 2-disc set will be well worth listening to.  It may be the closest thing we ever get to a Persuaders! soundtrack (which regular readers will be aware I long for)... or it may be another sign (following the recent Saint release) that Network is slowly working their way toward such a release!  (I refuse to believe the tapes are all lost!)  Like all of Network's ITC soundtrack releases, this one will feature "extensive liner notes" by British television expert Andrew Pixley.  Retail is £19.99 (currently on sale for £15.99) and The Zoo Gang: Original Soundtrack will be available from Network's website on June 28.

New Interview With Jeffrey Deaver Reveals More About Next Bond Novel

The James Bond website Dr. Shatterhand's Botanical Garden has scored a major scoop: the first revealing interview with new 007 author Jeffrey Deaver! I say first revealing interview because there were a couple of fluff pieces done for UK radio in which the DJs failed to ask any interesting questions. Needless to say, Dr. Shatterhand does… and, surprisingly, Deaver answers them! Watch the video interview here to learn more about the contemporary setting (and slight changes made to accommodate it), supporting characters who might turn up, and more. I won't reveal too much about what's said, but I will say that (while it makes obvious sense for a contemporary story) I find the idea of a James Bond born in the early 1980s (too young to have even seen Octopussy!) a bit disconcerting--just because that makes 007 younger than me! Which is a weird feeling. The issue there, of course, is with me and not with James Bond.

As for a milieu of post-9/11 terrorism, well that's only to be expected. In the modern world, terrorism is the number one threat that spy agencies contend with. Of course it will be a concern, whether it drives the plot or merely comprises the background. It's the present-day equivalent of the Cold War that formed the backdrop (but not always main plotlines) for Ian Fleming's Bond novels.  Let me be clear: I hate terrorism and it scares the hell out of me and I wish it could just go away, but one side-effect of this horrible evil (as I just posted in a comment on the CBn Forums and will reprint here) has been to reinvigorate the spy genre in books and films and television. After the end of the Cold War, authors didn't really know what to do with spies. We got a few short-lived TV shows (like Sam Raimi's Spy Game) about rogue agents who were out of work and causing trouble after the end of the Cold War, but there really wasn't much out there. Even the Brosnan-era Bond movies felt like they were treading water, not really sure what to do with the character. And then suddenly spies had a clear purpose in the world again, a clear enemy. Alias, 24 and Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity all happened to come along in the year after 9/11, and frankly I think that their success can partially be attributed to people's sudden fear (similar to the fear they felt in the Cold War) and need for heroes of that sort, for secret protectors. None of those series were purposely tied into that kind of terrorism (although they all ended up incorporating it to some degree), but all filled the same void in the public psyche. Suddenly, audiences needed spies again. It's completely logical that both Daniel Craig's Bond and Jeffrey Deaver's would fit into this world.

Tradecraft: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Dum Dum Dugan Cast

Variety reports that actor Neal McDonough (Traitor, Desperate Housewives) is in talks to play Nick Fury's Number 2 man, "Dum Dum" Dugan, in Marvel's primarily WWII-set Captain America movie.  What's not totally clear is whether he'll be Dum Dum Dugan, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (as seen in Jim Steranko's classic Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. comics and plenty of other Marvel titles up until today), or Dum Dum Dugan, soldier, as seen in Stan Lee's classic war comic Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Just like Fury, Dugan began his career fighting in WWII, but became a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. during the Cold War.  Like most decades-spanning characters in the Marvel Universe, that history becomes a bit tough to sell today, as Dugan hasn't really aged.  I suppose he must be taking the same Infinity Serum that keeps Nick Fury ageless.  Anyway, as such hokum is unlikly to go over in the more real world-based movies, I suspect that it's a case of either/or.  Which would be too bad, because I love Dum Dum as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and it seems more likely he turn up as a Howling Commando.  But who will lead the Howling Commandos, with Nick Fury (as played by Samuel L. Jackson) clearly established as a modern day character too young to have fought in WWII?  McDonough has wartime experience, having already served one tour of duty on HBO's Band of Brothers.  Whichever era he ends up in, I think the actor is a good choice for the role.  And if he grows a mustache, he'll certainly look more like Steranko's Dugan than Jackson does like his Fury! 

"As is the case with other characters that appear in Marvel's pics," says the trade, "they may also return for multiple films in other superhero outings the company makes."

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog reports that The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner is close to a deal to play another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Hawkeye, in another Marvel film, The Avengers (based on the comic book of that name and no relation to the real Avengers, sadly).  In the original comics, Hawkeye started out as a bow-and-arrow-wielding villain who succombed to the allures of sexy Russian superspy Black Widow. When she fell in love with her target, she ended up switching sides as well, defecting and forging an uneasy alliance with The Avengers.  Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, was portrayed by Scarlett Johanson in Iron Man 2, a role she's expected to reprise in Joss Whedon's Avengers movie, which will also feature Samuel L. Jackson returning as Nick Fury. 

Tradecraft: Mendes Committed To Bond

Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead) was previously attached to the next James Bond movie as a "consultant" (for legal reasons) but expected to fill the director's chair as soon as the MGM financial mess was resolved. Now Deadline reports that he's moved on to other projects... but, according to the trade blog, "remains committed to the Bond film and intends to direct it once the MGM ownership situation gets sorted out."  Despite the negative context, this seems like the firmest news we've heard yet about Mendes' intention to actually direct. Deadline's Mike Fleming doesn't site his source, but has proven reliable in the past. (I believe Deadline was the first to report the exact nature of Mendes' involvement to begin with.) I'm glad to hear that at least one of the key players remains attached while the film was in limbo.  I was beginning to fear that the third Daniel Craig Bond film might meet the same fate as the third Timothy Dalton Bond film, and never see fruition thanks to delays due to troubles at the studio!  Mendes' new film and theater commitments tie him up until the end of 2011, though, so that doesn't bode well for production beginning any time soon, even if the financial mess is sorted out before then.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week

Wow, it's another busy week for spy DVD releases! 

First up, Burn Notice: Season 3 is available today from Fox Home Video–just in time for this week's debut of the fourth season!  While Season 2 was available on both DVD and Blu-Ray, Season 3 is only coming out (so far, anyway) on DVD.  When the disc was first announced, TV Shows On DVD speculated that that might be due to the negative reaction in the fan and critical communities to the Blu-ray transfer of Season 2.  Since the show is shot on 16mm, it doesn't really benefit from a high-definitition transfer, and therefore we may not ever see Season 3 on Blu.  Personally, I haven't seen the Blu-ray of Season 2, but judging by the user reviews on Amazon that might not be a bad thing!  Anyway, I've certainly got no gripes about the transfers on either of the two previous DVD releases.  And, of course, we are talking about the best spy show currently airing, so it's worth getting no matter what!  That said, I did think that Season 3 showed a bit of a drop in quality after the excellent Season 2 (just a bit), possibly owing to series creator Matt Nix's split focus between Burn Notice and his new Fox cop show The Good Guys (whose recently-aired first episode I liked a lot) but I'll still take Burn Notice over most other shows on TV!  Special features on Burn Notice: Season 3 include last year's San Diego Comic-Con panel (a must-see for Bruce Campbell fans, as he stole the show) and the featurette "Smash, Crash, Boom: Inside the Burn Notice Stunt Unit."

From Acorn, we have Foyle's War: Set 6. Even though the series seemed to wrap up with the conclusion of WWII (as seen in the epic box set Foyle's War: From Dunkirk to VE Day), Christopher Foyle is back again for another go in an immediate post-war setting. One could be forgiven for thinking that this British wartime mystery series (masterminded by Alex Rider creator Anthony Horowitz) was just that--a police procedural.  And it is that, but it's also so much more... including a spy show!  I suppose the very nature of police work in wartime dictates that DCI Foyle (played sublimely by the screen's best Bill Tanner, Michael Kitchen) routinely encounters foreign agents and saboteurs–and just as routinely crosses paths with (or steps on the toes of) MI-5, the SOE and other British spy agencies. And now that the war is over, there are also Soviet spies to contend with, including James Bond's real-life arch enemy SMERSH in this set's first episode, "The Russian House."  Another thing that Foyle's War is beyond a period procedural is an engrossing, character-driven drama.  This is a remarkable series, where the mysteries play second fiddle to the fabulous characters and the rich period setting.  Television doesn't get much better than Foyle's War.

Another classic wartime spy saga, Where Eagles Dare, makes its Blu-ray debut this week as part of a Warner double feature with another Clint Eastwood men-on-a-mission war film from the same era, Kelly's Heroes.  Written by thriller novelist Alistair Maclean, Where Eagles Dare tracks a covert commando unit including Eastwood and Richard Burton on a secret mission deep behind enemy lines in the fantastic setting of the Bavarian Alps.  It's a benchmark for the war/espionage hybrid genre. I understand that Kelly's Heroes, co-starring Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland, also has some espionage aspects... but I've never actually seen it, so I can't comment further. 

Apparently Universal is reissuing the classic 80s teen spy movie Gotcha!, starring a young Anthony Edwards, today as well.  I can't find much information about this reissue, though.  It appears to just be the same as the old DVD with a slightly altered cover.  I don't think there are any new special features, and there is no Blu-ray.  It seems like an odd time to revisit this particular title, but I remember it being a really fun take on the teen spy genre.  It was certainly a favorite of mine back in the actual Eighties.  I've got  the old disc and don't see any reason to upgrade, but this does remind me that I've been meaning to re-watch Gotcha! lately anyway...
Finally, though this isn't actually a DVD, there is an essential new release from the UK's Network this week as well: The Saint: Original Soundtrack.  This fabulous 4-disc set contains a wide selection of Edwin Astley's score music from the classic Sixties Roger Moore ITC series.  Read all about it in my full review here.

CD Review: The Saint: Original Soundtrack

In the liner notes for their sublime Music of ITC compilation, Network suggested that most of the music for The Saint other than the suite included on that release was lost. And yet, here is enough of it to fill a four-disc set from the company. Praise be! Hopefully this clearly un-lost music bodes well for a Persuaders! soundtrack in the future, since that too was said to be lost in the same source. But back to the matter at hand: this isn’t just a collection of mere scraps that survive, like the New Avengers soundtrack was (and in that case I am happy to have whatever is available, even if it’s nothing terrific); this is the real deal. This is the meat of Edwin Astley’s score for the color seasons of The Saint, not scraps! And it makes for great listening.

While I am a huge fan of the show, I’m no Saint expert, so without the aid of Andrew Pixley’s liner notes (which sadly weren’t included with the review copy I received, but are sure to be excellent, judging from the hefty and informative booklets included with every other Network ITC soundtrack release), I’m not able to pinpoint which cues come from which episodes. But while I’m sure the tracks are probably organized by episode, they actually break down nicely into four discs each with their own individual flavor, yet still clearly part of a satisfying whole.

Disc 1, unsurprisingly, starts with a classic bit of that instantly recognizable pre-title setting music that inevitably establishes Roger Moore in some wonderful exotic location as he offers a bit of pithy voice-over while waiting for someone to identify him as “the infamous Simon Templar” (or famous, or notorious, depending on their opinion of him). Then we get the great, original color-era TV version of the Saint theme (not a re-recording such as appears on so many cult TV theme compilations), a theme that instantly conjures jet-age mystery and adventure in far-off cities and a suave, urbane, inimitable hero in a dinner jacket. It’s a really great theme, one so identifiable with the show it represents that it becomes impossible to imagine one without the other. But it’s music that brings to mind the romance and intrigue of the series rather than the action. This isn’t driving, action-oriented music like the themes for Mission: Impossible or Danger Man. Like most ITC themes, it’s about ambiance. That’s typical of the first disc in this collection, most of which seems to emphasize the exotic and romantic flavor of the series rather than the danger or the scrapes that Simon constantly gets into–and out of. Sweeping, location-establishing cues are each embellished with the musical flavor of the country in which a given episode takes place. It’s exotic music for exotic places–and great mood music.

Disc 2, on the other hand, is much more action-oriented. It even offers up a really fantastic sped-up version of the theme that transforms it into an action track–and one that would fit in nicely alongside the aforementioned music from Danger Man and Mission: Impossible. There’s no question that this version–like most of the tracks here, never before available on any previous Saint CD–will be joining those themes right away in the spy theme playlist on my iPod. The whole disc showcases some of Astley’s very best action cues. Some of them evoke Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther music, and others are downright Bondian, but despite those allusions they are all unmistakably Saint. Unlike ITC’s Prisoner soundtrack set, which accurately represents the series with disparate cues in disparate styles by multiple composers, the Saint soundtrack is a very cohesive collection. Like Astley’s Danger Man music, all of the cues are of a whole, and most of them readily recognizable as Saint cues whether through snippets of the theme or other distinctive touches.

Disc 3 contains more fantastic score cues of both varieties–ambiance and action. Then, into the mix sneak some songs. The mixture of instrumental and vocal tracks makes this my favorite individual disc of the collection. Only a few of the songs are truly great (by far the best is Disc 4's fiery female-sung torch song “Out to Get You,” which was also included on The Music of ITC and could fit in easily amidst spy classics like Vicky Carr’s rendition of “The Silencers” and Shirley Bassey’s “The Liquidator”), but all of them work in conjunction with the incidental tracks to paint an accurate portrait of The Saint and its era. It's the overall effect that I love. The vocals come from the nightclubs Simon Templar frequents in London, France, Germany and the Caribbean, and each reflects its setting in accent and style. Just as every ITC series requires some Spanish flamenco music on a solo guitar (mercifully there is only one such track included here, as opposed to the unlistenable twenty or so endlessly repeated on the Man in a Suitcase set!), so does every ITC series seem to demand at least one calypso number. Personally I prefer the one from Danger Man to the one here, but in its broadcast version this one’s not bad. Innumerable vocal-only demo versions of it included on the final disc, however, quickly wear out their welcome!

Disc 4 has more songs, more score, and a lot of alternate takes and demos like that calypso number. The first half of it is eminently listenable (and even boasts that great “Out to Get You” song I mentioned earlier), but the alternate takes and stings are the sort of stuff you’re only likely to ever listen to once. Personally, I have little use for the bare-bones, vocal-only a capella versions of the songs, stripped of their instruments–with one exception. The a capella scat version of the Saint theme itself (just one individual element of the usual version of the theme–and one I’d never picked out on its own before, amidst all the reverb and instruments), performed by a female vocalist with truly impressive range, definitely makes for an interesting listen. As for the others, the completist in me is grateful for their inclusion, but happy that they were relegated to the final disc. Other multi-disc ITC soundtrack sets from Network have mixed multiple takes in throughout, and that sometimes makes for more academic than entertaining listening. I’m happy to report that The Saint soundtrack is much more listenable in its entirety than those ones, unencumbered in its body by a lot of aborted takes or brief stings. Those that are included at the end feel like bonus tracks, and that’s the way it should be. Network’s The Saint: Original Soundtrack is a godsend for fans of the show and a worthy addition to any spy fan’s music library. Let’s hope that more thought-lost ITC music turns up, and that we might eventually get similar unexpected releases for the monochrome Saint seasons and, of course, The Persuaders!, my own personal soundtrack Holy Grail. (Well, now that we've finally got a CD for Dracula AD 1972, anyway!)

The Saint: Original Soundtrack is available exclusively through Network's website. It retails for £34.99, but is currently on sale for £29.99. You can listen to a suite of sample music from this release here.