Timothy Dalton Action Figure Announced!

Also a Peter Wyngarde Figure

Toymaker Bif Bang Pow! has announced action figures of spy stars Timothy Dalton and Peter Wyngarde... for their roles in the 1980 sci-fi epic Flash Gordon. Unfortunately for Wyngarde fans, that means that the figure doesn't bare the Jason King actor's likeness. His role of Klytus wears a Dr. Doom-like metal face mask the entire time. Dalton's Prince Barin figure, however, is a fantastic representation of the star at that age. His mustache will make James Bond customization difficult, but then again there are certainly Dalton fans (Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright among them) who would prefer a mustached Dalton figure anyway. (Wright believes strongly in the power of Dalton's 'stache, and insisted he grow one for Fuzz.) I know that I can't wait to have a Timothy Dalton Prince Barin figure on my shelf! You can see more pictures (including comic book artist extraordinaire Alex Ross's designs for the Dalton Figure) on Bif Bang Pow!'s blog. Sideshow previously produced a high-quality 12-inch Dalton doll, but as far as I know this is the first Dalton action figure.

DVD Review: Hot Fuzz

Watching Hot Fuzz again on DVD planted a very obvious question in my mind: why the hell isn’t Timothy Dalton the villain in everything??? He’s so good in villainous roles (generally distinguishable from his heroic roles by the addition of a mustache) that he really, really should be on that go-to list of Euro-villains that used to be dominated by Alan Rickman. (Come to think of it, why wasn’t Dalton the villain in this summer’s Live Free Or Die Hard? He’s much more in the lineage of Rickman and Jeremy Irons than that other Timothy who did get the role!) He’s so good at it that Shaun of the Dead creators Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg cast him in the role of the Obvious Villain in this cop movie send-up. Whether or not Dalton’s improbably sinister grocery store owner is actually the big baddie of the movie, I won’t reveal, but the former James Bond certainly does his best to convince us that he is. He has all sorts of fun with the role, chewing up every visible bit of scenery with relish as only the best Shakespearean actors can. People always talk about how much they’d like to see Sean Connery play a Bond villain. Personally, I can’t really see that, but I could definitely see Dalton stepping in as an adversary to Daniel Craig. His presence wouldn’t be as distracting as Sir Sean’s (owing to his far too brief two film tenure as 007), and frankly, he does evil better. (See: The Avengers movie.)

While Dalton gets the showiest role in the film, there’s no question that the true stars are the trio of quickly (but rightfully) hailed comedy gods Wright, Pegg and Nick Frost. Wright directs; he and Pegg write, and Pegg and Frost star. With Hot Fuzz they’ve truly perfected the unique brand of humor they tested in Shaun of the Dead and cult TV series Spaced. Hot Fuzz is unlike most other send-ups in that, for the most part, it doesn’t directly parody recognizable scenes out of other movies, but skillfully spoofs the conventions of the genre. Wright and Pegg discuss that on the top-notch commentary track; they say Roger Ebert’s book of Hollywood cliches was a bible to them in constructing the movie. And they go after every cliche in mysteries and action movies.

Hot Fuzz starts off as an Agatha Christie-type, polite, ever-so-British small-town whodunit, with splashes of giallo in the mysterious hooded killer and moments of (hilariously) excessive gore. The village of Sandford, to which Pegg’s London super-cop Nicholas Angel is reassigned because his department brass (Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Bill Nighy) feel he’s making them look bad, is populated by Britain’s best character actors, including Dalton, Jim Broadbent, Edward Woodward, Bill Baily and Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Belloq, Paul Freeman. And at least one of them is bumping the others off. Urged on by his Point Break-obsessed sidekick, Danny Butterman (Frost), Angel eventually turns the scenario into an American action movie, unloading enough rounds in Sandford to make John Woo swoon. The contrast between drawing room mystery and Bad Boys II plays brilliantly, and the filmmakers show remarkable restraint (or possibly budget constraint; either way, it works) in holding off on the promised action movie tropes (including not just car chases, but also ample doses of the requisite buddy cop homoeroticism) until the final act, when they have the most impact.

Universal’s new DVD would appear loaded were it not for the knowledge that the UK two-disc affair had even more extras. (So does a limited edition US version that was available only at Wal-Mart the first week it went on sale.) But if you don’t let yourself dwell on that, you’ll find plenty to keep you occupied here. There are lots of deleted scenes (which for some reason don’t all play when you hit "play all," at least on my player) with optional commentary and a slew of outtakes sure to please any spy fan who’s always wanted to hear Timothy Dalton blow a line and then yell "Motherfuckit!" (For similar spy star amusements, see the Connery outtakes on the Criterion edition of The Rock and the Patrick Macnee ones on The Howling. Until I see proof otherwise, I won’t believe that Roger Moore ever uttered any variations on "motherfucker" outside of his role in–and possibly pertaining to his decision to appear in–Boat Trip!) There’s an amusing documentary following the main trio on their publicity tour of the United States, which offers humorous glimpses of Dalton at a Santa Monica screening (that I’ll never forgive myself for missing by half an hour due to calendar error) but sadly omits their truly hilarious visit to L.A. radio show Jonesey’s Jukebox.

Best of all the bonuses, though, is the feature audio commentary with Wright and Pegg. Edgar Wright gives Quentin Tarantino a run for his money in terms of pure movie geekdom, and he shares a lot of his influences. This is a wall-to-wall commentary track, with no dead air whatsoever. In fact, you’ll have to rewind a few times because facts come so fast and furious. The infuriating thing about the commentary, however, is that it’s apparently only one of four available on the UK release! And just to drive that point home, to make you feel your loss, the participants refer fairly frequently to the other, absent tracks! One of the UK ones apparently even features Timothy Dalton, who turned down offers to record commentaries for his Bond movies, and didn’t even do new interviews for the recent special editions. (That one also features Edward Woodward, whom Pegg teases may tell some Christopher Lee stories on the track. Sigh. I guess I’ll have to buy the import after all...) Still, the track you do get here is one of the better commentaries I’ve ever heard, and may even bear repeat listening. Of particular interest to Bond fans (besides some choice Dalton anecdotes) is their discussion of David Arnold’s score for the movie. Given their limited budget, Arnold told the filmmakers to choose what scenes they wanted to have the most impact, and recorded only those ones with a full orchestra.

If it weren’t for the references to what we’re missing here in America, I’d probably have no complaints about this fairly-loaded special edition DVD of a terrific movie. It's a must-watch for any fan of action films or comedy.

DVD Review: Agatha Christie's Marple: The Geraldine McEwan Collection
Featuring one of Timothy Dalton's best TV roles!

Miss Marple is in the news right now thanks to a new project at Disney that apparently recasts the famous spinster detective as, well, Jennifer Garner. I’m not sure if the message to take from that is that 38 is actually Hollywood’s current idea of “old,” or that Disney is shelling out a huge amount of money to the Christie estate in order to buy a brand that younger audiences have zero awareness of and then alter it in such a significant way so as to completely alienate the older audiences who do know the character. The former is depressing and the latter seems just ludicrous, yet it’s still the more logical conclusion. Personally, I’m kind of curious. I’ve been a big fan of Garner since Alias and of screenwriter Mark Frost since his fantastic novel The List of 7 back in the 90s, so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and at least see where this goes, even if I’m scratching my head as to why they didn’t just set Garner up with a different female investigator more appropriate to her age and image. (Honey West, perhaps?) Anyway, in the face of a contemporary, thirty-something American version of the character, surely Christie purists must be reconsidering their outcry over the comparatively subtle changes enacted upon Miss Marple for the current ITV series!

ITV’s latest take on Agatha Christie’s evergreen sleuth might annoy such purists with the way it shakes things up a bit, but if you’ve always responded to Christie’s pulpier sensibilities, as I have, then you’ll probably enjoy it. Marple (as its simply called), starring Geraldine McEwan (in its 2004-2007 seasons anyway; she was later replaced by Julia McKenzie), takes Christie’s least pulpy detective, the aged Jane Marple, plays up the most lurid and sensational aspects of her cases and then (and here’s the genius bit) doesn’t have Miss Marple bat an eye at any of it. In any version, Miss Marple was always pretty unflappable when it came to the dead bodies that always seemed to pop up in her life (even when they were charred beyond recognition), so why should she raise an eyebrow at some of the more lurid liberties this series takes? The murderous pair of illicit lovers from one story, for example, are transformed from heterosexual adulterers into lusty lesbians. Would the Grand Dame of mystery fiction have written it that way? No (not at the time when she was writing, anyway), but that doesn’t mean that such a twist isn’t right at home within the plot of her novel!

Miss Marple herself remains the prim and proper picture of post-war British class and manners, yet she still gets her hands dirty by investigating murders–an act in itself a most inappropriate breach of accepted behavior. Likewise, Christie’s mid-century readership could satisfy their own literary bloodlust by tucking into the adventures of such a lady in pages written by a bona fide Dame! Yet all this lip service to decorum hid a thirst for the macabre and the sensational just as insatiable as that of American readers devouring the works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, which didn’t bother to disguise their lurid, pulpy roots. Indeed, Christie’s books barely disguised them themselves. The covers may not share the spattered blood, drawn guns and heaving breasts of American pulp magazines, but they did share the fonts–and at least the hint of blood. Each episode of this 21st Century Marple series also shares those fonts. The 1950s typefaces (ripped straight off a paperback!) that open each feature-length mystery set the tone for the adaptations to follow. They may change the details and they may sex things up, but they’re true to one aspect of Christie: they appeal to their audience’s basest instincts.

As in any British mystery series, espionage elements are bound to pop up in the odd episode of Marple. But more of what makes this series of interest to spy fans will be the guest stars. Practically every episode is packed full of familiar faces from the worlds of James Bond, The Avengers, Spooks, The Saint and other series well known to readers of this site. The debut episode in Acorn’s box set, “Murder At the Vicarage,” offers both spy stars and spy plot elements. (Though with Christie, it’s always possible such elements could prove red herrings.) Herbert Lom, for example (certainly no stranger to Sixties spy fans; he even issues a very Drefuss-like wheeze at one point that you expect to be accompanied by an eye tick and the exclamation, “Clouseau!”) plays a character named Augustin Dufosse who was a French resistance fighter during WWII, as was his grandson. (Unlike the eternal pre-war setting of Poirot, Marple is situated to great effect in post-war Britain.) Furthermore, another character turns out to have been an SOE operative engaged to that grandson. The Colonel who gets killed (and that’s no spoiler; Colonels are always getting killed in this sort of thing) commanded a desk in London during the war and saw to it that a supply drop meant for them went instead to his confederate so they could split the proceeds after the war. That background provides Lom and his confederate with suitable motives to murder him, but of course the intrepid Miss Marple (more frequently referred to in this series as "Jane") soon discovers that practically everyone had a motive for murder, so that’s really not much help. I’m just illustrating some of the spy connections. Other spy celebrities in the cast include Lucifer Box creator Mark Gatiss as a suspect assistant vicar, Saint veteran Jane Asher, Hannay star Robert Powell as a doctor, Spooks’ Tim McInnerny as the head vicar and Diana Rigg’s daughter, Rachael Stirling, as his wife.

I like the way director Charles Palmer (Doctor Who) handles the reveal as Miss Marple pieces together what actually happened at the episode’s conclusion: a montage of pans against a great, swelling bit of score as all the right images whirl around in her head. This sequence sets the tone for the very stylish series to follow. Every aspect of the production, from the direction to the opulent set design to the sweeping score to the lush cinematography is flashy, which might at first seem inappropriate for Miss Marple, but which really livens things up for modern audiences while at the same time serving to accentuate her overriding ordinariness amidst all this flash. And, similar to George Smiley, it is this apparent ordinariness, this unassuming quality, that enables Jane Marple to quietly unravel the most tangled murder mysteries to everyone else’s amazement.

“The Body in the Library” introduces former Avenger Joanna Lumley as Dolly Bantry, Miss Marple’s Watsonish sidekick. She returns to the series much later (after Julia McKenzie has inherited the role from McEwan), but her repartee with Jane is so good that I found myself wishing she were in all of them. As long as you’re shaking things up from the books this much, why not introduce a permanent television sidekick, like Captain Hastings in the early seasons of Poirot?

Here, Lumley is decidedly more Edina than Purdey, but she’s fantastic, and her New Avengers fans will enjoy her nonetheless. James Fox and Ian Richardson lend further gravitas to the formidable guest cast, and the tight Christie mystery plot (complete with her signature misdirection) remains intact even if the culprit or culprits themselves are slightly altered. McEwan’s Miss Marple is shown to be more knowingly worldly than the usual portrayal (wherein she at least pretends to be less so, for the sake of propriety), and things that might have shocked more classic incarnations of this sleuth roll right off of the Teflon-coated McEwan. (Um, but she’s still not a thirty-something American!)

There really isn’t a bad episode in the lot here, but far and away the highlight for spy fans has to be “The Sittaford Mystery.” (Despite the fact that Christie’s novel of that name didn’t even feature Miss Marple as a character, she’s been worked into the plot reasonably enough for the sake of television.) Personally, I was sold from the very beginning when we’re treated to a title reading “Egypt, 1927” over an image of Timothy Dalton in khakis and a pith helmet. And a mustache! In an Egyptian tomb! Even if you’re not a fan of Agatha Christie (in fact, possibly moreso if you’re not), if that’s the sort of thing that excites you, you need to track down this episode!

After some thoroughly satisfying archeological shenanigans, we cut to twenty-five years later, when Dalton’s character, Clive Trevelyan, is a successful politician meeting in consultation with none other than Winston Churchill (not a character in Christie’s novel, but played here by Robert Hardy… of course). We learn that Trevelyan is very likely his successor as Prime Minister… so long as nobody murders him, of course. Lots of newspaper headlines and newsreel footage stylishly fill us in on the character’s career in the interceding years as an Olympic skiier, adventurer, war hero and now politician.

As you might surmise from its sensational tomb-raiding beginning, “The Sittaford Mystery” plays up the pulpiness of the story more than any other. The direction goes overboard (in the best possible way) right from the start with canted angles galore. I honestly don’t think there’s a single level camera shot in the entire episode. It might get a little annoying, but at the same time it serves to appropriately sensationalize the proceedings and up the pulp ante that comes automatically with a story that begins with a mustachioed Timothy Dalton in an ancient tomb! The same gleefully over-the-top approach goes for the art direction and costumes and cinematography. We’re treated to great pulpy colors and purposefully studio-bound sets, like a taxi that Dalton and McEwan share in a snowstorm which doesn’t actually move. Only the camera does (canted, of course), in a motion to suggest movement of the stationary, studio-bound cab as artificial snow whirls all around.

Even though it’s stylized in a BBC-style, digital sort of stylized, “The Sittaford Mystery” still resembles nothing so much as a Hammer Gothic. And if Hammer and Miss Marple previously didn’t go together and still don’t sit well with some fans, well I’m sorry; I never knew it, but apparently that’s exactly what I wanted to see! (Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll say the same thing about Jennifer Garner playing Miss Marple.) Director Paul Unwin plays up the Gothic side of the story further by having Dalton brood alone in his study in his castle (Oh yes! Dalton lives in a castle. A snowbound castle, no less! How cool!), haunted very literally by the ghosts of his past, presented in the flesh (so to speak) in stark white video effects. The implication is certainly there, even, that these ghosts are literal, but Christie purists can easily choose to view them as figments of Trevelyan’s imagination, too. Besides living in a castle and talking to ghosts, Dalton goes for walks “out on the moor” to think (even Christie’s novel, which also features an escaped convict, owed a debt to The Hound of the Baskervilles—a connection the filmmakers waste no opportunity to drive home) and keeps a falcon.

If you’re thinking al this (plus a golden scorpion purloined from that Egyptian tomb said to carry a curse) surely foretells a bad death in a mystery of this ilk, then you’re right… but the good news for Dalton fans is that it doesn’t come until more than halfway through the story, and even then Trevelyan is still very much a presence via flashbacks. Despite a reliable ensemble (including a pre-Education Carey Mulligan), this is truly Dalton’s show here, and he makes the most of it!

If “The Sittaford Mystery” has a downside, it’s just that Miss Marple herself doesn’t really have that much to do in it—certainly not until the second half, at least. Instead, beautiful potential couple Charles Burnaby (Chaos' James Murray) and Emily Trefusis (Sherlock’s Zoe Telford, who is excellent) lead the on-site investigation, belying this story’s origin as a non-Marple novel. (The couple are the only detectives in the book.) But what it lacks in Marple herself, it makes up for in trains, castles, snowstorms, Lagondas, deaths foretold on Ouija Boards, Evil Dead-style zoom-ins on creepy cuckoo clocks at canted angles and Winston Churchill to boot! It’s all more Hammer than Christie (driven home by the controversial final shot), which might drive the great Dame’s fans a bit nuts, but is frankly fine with me. (And maybe after contemplating Jennifer Garner as their heroine, it will seem fine to them in retrospect, too.) I’ve seen and read enough Christie in my time to appreciate a slightly atypical take on the material, and for Timothy Dalton fans like myself, “The Sittaford Mystery” really can’t be beat.

While nobody can beat T-Dalt, there are still more spy stars to turn up in Marple. Other episodes include Live and Let Die’s Jane Seymour (in a meaty role), Keeley Hawes, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Richard Armitage. All in all, there’s a lot to like in Marple: The Complete Geraldine McEwan Collection, and it certainly proves that you don’t have to be entirely faithful to the text to make good entertainment. With that in mind, I think I’ll remain cautiously optimistic about the next incarnation of the character to feature a TV spy—Ms. Garner.

TRADECRAFT: TIMOTHY DALTON SPIES AGAIN!!!

TRADECRAFT: TIMOTHY DALTON SPIES AGAIN!!!

So you know that movie The Tourist that I keep blogging about, and that I'm pretty darned excited for already?  The one with the long and winding road to production?  Various writers have worked on the script; various directors have been attached at various times before one of the most exciting directors working today, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director of the supurb Oscar-winning spy movie The Lives of Others, landed the gig.  And, of course, various stars have been attached, including, at one time or another, Tom Cruise, Charlize Theron and that guy from Avatar, before ending up with the two biggest stars in the world, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.  How could this romantic spy thriller become any more exciting?  Well, I'm sure the huge title of this post tells you how: Variety reports that Timothy Dalton has now joined the cast!  That's right, the former James Bond (one of the best) will be in another spy movie–and one with an illustrious pedigree.  I always root for Dalton (who just celebrated his 64th birthday this week), and always hope to see him in more bigscreen roles.  (With the very notable exception of his scene-stealing turn in Hot Fuzz, he's been frustratingly absent from cinemas for a long while.)  And now he looks set to be making a very big return this year, with a role opposite these two huge box-office draws and his voice in this year's Pixar release.  (He'll be Mr. Pricklypants, a stuffed hedgehog thespian, in Toy Story 3.) 

Along with Dalton, another Bond veteran is also joining the cast of The Tourist.  Steven Berkoff, who played the villainous General Orlov in Octopussy (and toured with an excellent one-man stage show of Shakespeare's greatest villains), will have a role as well.  The two Bond alum join Paul Bettany and Rufus Sewell as well as Depp and Jolie.  According to the trade, "The Tourist, penned by Julian Fellowes & Christopher McQuarrie and Jeffrey Nachmanoff, centers on an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart who pursues a romance with a woman who deliberately crosses his path. The couple's then caught in a whirlwind of intrigue and danger."

Tradecraft: T-Dalt Joins Chuck

According to Deadline Hollywood, the great Timothy Dalton will continue his 2010 career resurgence (begun in Toy Story 3 and continuing this winter in The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie) by appearing on the NBC spy series Chuck.  The trade blog reports that Dalton will play "a mysterious stranger who has a history with Chuck’s mom (Linda Hamilton)." Wow, this is great news!  As cool as when Roger Moore turned up on Alias! I'm definitely going to have to start watching Chuck again.  (I confess, I fell behind and eventually gave up during this last season.)  Not only was Timothy Dalton one of the very best Bonds, but he's also one of the best actors working today (just watch Hot Fuzz if you need any further proof!), and it's a shame he hasn't gotten more high profile roles these past few years.  Hopefully this year marks a full-on comeback.  I want to see T-Dalt everywhere come 2011!  (Watching The Expendables, I felt like he would have been a good addition to the cast as a wrongly overlooked Eighties action star.)  Deadline adds that this is Dalton's first TV series role since a guest spot on Charlie's Angels way back in 1979.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week: Chuck: The Complete Fourth Season

This week sees the release from Warner Home Video of the Timothy Dalton-enhanced Chuck: The Complete Fourth Season on DVD and Blu-ray.  The penultimate season of the NBC spy comedy was reinvigorated with a very effective injection of Dalton. (Every flagging series could use that pick-me-up in its fourth season!)  The former James Bond star was a delight to watch in all six episodes he guest-starred in, but his presence as season-long villain Alexei Volkoff was felt even in those he didn't.  It was a great role for him, and he clearly relished it; the multi-faceted, tailor-made part afforded him the opportunities to play villainous and heroic, comedic and psychotic, to be by turns both quietly subtle (like his Bond) and scenery-chewingly over-the-top (like his Doctor Who role or his scene-stealing turn in Hot Fuzz).  Overall, the season is well worth watching for Dalton fans, even if they've never seen Chuck before.  And it's well worth watching for Chuck fans, too!  I suppose that goes without saying, but I thought this year marked a real improvement over the previous season.  Besides taking on Timothy Dalton, Chuck reunites with his possibly villainous/possibly good/definitely estranged mother (played by Linda Hamilton), proposes to his longtime love and spy handler, Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski), and loses and regains the powers of the Intersect a couple of times.  And Casey (Adam Baldwin) is Casey, which is always worth watching. 

Chuck: The Complete Fourth Season includes all twenty-four Season 4 episodes as well as the usual plethora of bonus features Chuck fans have become accustomed to. Extras on the DVD will include deleted scenes (sorry, "declassified scenes"), a gag reel, the featurettes "Chuck Versus Directing: Zachary Levi Takes Charge on 'Chuck Versus the Leftovers'" and "Operation Gomez: Spying on the Cast: Joshua Gomez Shows Off His Newfound Spy Skills," and "Chuck Versus the Webisodes: The Chronicles of Jeff and Lester's Quest for an Elusive Video Game." The Blu-ray will include all that as well as the exclusive "Top Secret Chuckapedia Interactive Experience," whatever that is. Retail for the Blu-ray is set at $69.97; the DVD is $59.98. (Of course, both are available for far less on Amazon.)

Tradecraft: The Echelon Vendetta

Just say it: "The Echelon Vendetta!" I don't even need to know what it's about to get excited by a title like that. It's sort of the ultimate Ludlumesque three word spy title. It's terrific because it means absolutely nothing (outside the context of the story, at least), but sounds awesome and tells any seasoned spy reader/viewer exactly what to expect. Furthermore, the last two words could just as easily be interchanged, which goes a step beyond The Ludlum Formula, which generally requires a proper name up front. You couldn't have a book titled "The Inheritance Scarlatti," but you could just as easily have "The Vendetta Echelon," although it doesn't have quite the same ring. But I digress. Please forgive me; as regular readers of this blog are sure to know, I just love titles like this. I'll be saying it all day. "The Echelon Vendetta." So what is it?

Reader Bish88 gave me the heads up on this story I'd missed in last week's Hollywood Reporter, then filled in some more details. According to the trade, The Wackness director (that's a movie, by the way) "is penning the screenplay for The Echelon Vendetta, an espionage thriller based on David Stone's novel; the project has been set up at Sony." They go on to say the story "centers on a 'cleaner,' a CIA operative in charge of keeping dirty laundry from being aired in public, who after the death of a friend begins to investigate the mysterious deaths of several agents."

Bish supplies this further plot description:

Micha Dalton is not paid to ask questions. He's the man the CIA sends to clean up the mess when something goes wrong-an agent gets in trouble, or worse. But when his colleague and friend Porter Nauman turns up dead in an idyllic Tuscan hill town as a result of an apparent and unimaginably gruesome suicide, Dalton can't help but ask questions. And when Nauman's family is subsequently slaughtered back home in London, Dalton can sit back no longer.

Moving from Venice to London to Washington, D.C., to the unbearably beautiful mountains of the American West, Dalton tracks the specter who, with a penchant for intricate knifework influenced by Native American mysticism, is killing a disparate group of agents, former agents, and contract men-all of whom seem to have a connection to ECHELON, a mysterious company operation. The murders appear to be acts of retribution, but for what?

David Stone is a pseudonym for a former military man who has worked in intelligence and law enforcement around the world.

Sounds good, and with a title like that, you know I'm there!

Timothy Dalton Interview In EW

Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch blog has an interview with Timothy Dalton in honor of his debut as a recurring character on tonight's Chuck. I definitely recommend checking it out.  Dalton opens up more about his tenure as Bond–and specifically about comparisons between his gritty, character-driven take on playing the superspy and Daniel Craig's–than I've seen him do in the past.  He also talks about his Chuck role as cardigan-wearing MI6 paper pusher Gregory Tuttle (who may prove to be more than meets the eye) and his upcoming part in The Tourist as a policeman.  That's the first I've heard about the nature of his role in the Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie thriller. Unsurprisingly, he reveals that it was admiration for director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck that led him to take the job!  The EW interviewer, Christian Blauvelt, seems to be a Bond geek after my own heart, barely containing his inner fanboy as he reminds Dalton how The Living Daylights begins, reciting the yacht girl's line about wanting to meet a "real man."  It's very funy–and informative.  Check it out. 
(Via CBn Forums)

Dalton's Hot Fuzz On DVD Next Month

Universal has announced a July 31 release date for Hot Fuzz, this spring's action movie spoof from the creators of Shaun of the Dead which co-starred Timothy Dalton. A mustachioed Dalton has a great time making the audience believe he's a villain, whether he is or isn't in actuality. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost lead a truly fantastic cast including Jim Broadbent, Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman and Callan himself, Edward Woodward. Special features are a little bit different from the Region 2 disc, and they sound great. There's a commentary with director Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, twenty minutes of deleted scenes (hopefully with more Dalton!), a documentary on the stars' U.S. promotional tour and, strangest of all, a feature called "The Man Who Would Be Fuzz." Let's go to the press release for details on that one: "Simon Pegg and Nick Frost hit their marks as Sean Connery and Michael Caine playing out a scene from the movie." Wow! Odd, but... I can't wait to see it!

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Chuck: The Complete Fourth Season

TV Shows On DVD reports that Warner Home Video will release the Timothy Dalton-enhanced Chuck: The Complete Fourth Season on DVD and Blu-ray on September 6.  The penultimate season of the NBC spy comedy was reinvigorated with a very effective injection of Dalton. (Every flagging series could use that pick-me-up in its fourth season!)  The former James Bond star was a delight to watch in all six episodes he guest-starred in, but his presence as season-long villain Alexei Volkoff was felt even in those he didn't.  It was a great role for him, and he clearly relished it; the multi-faceted, tailor-made part afforded him the opportunities to play villainous and heroic, comedic and psychotic, to be by turns both quietly subtle (like his Bond) and scenery-chewingly over-the-top (like his Doctor Who role or his scene-stealing turn in Hot Fuzz).  Overall, the season is well worth watching for Dalton fans, even if they've never seen Chuck before.  And it's well worth watching for Chuck fans, too... but that goes without saying.  Besides taking on Timothy Dalton, Chuck reunites with his possibly villainous/possibly good/definitely estranged mother (played by Linda Hamilton), proposes to his longtime love and spy handler, Sarah, and loses an regains the powers of the Intersect a couple of times.  And Casey (Adam Baldwin) is Casey, which is always worth watching. 

Chuck: The Complete Fourth Season includes all twenty-four Season 4 episodes as well as the usual plethora of bonus features Chuck fans have become accustomed to. Extras on the DVD will include deleted scenes (sorry, "declassified scenes"), a gag reel, the featurettes "Chuck Versus Directing: Zachary Levi Takes Charge on 'Chuck Versus the Leftovers'" and "Operation Gomez: Spying on the Cast: Joshua Gomez Shows Off His Newfound Spy Skills," and "Chuck Versus the Webisodes: The Chronicles of Jeff and Lester's Quest for an Elusive Video Game." The Blu-ray will include all that as well as the exclusive "Top Secret Chuckapedia Interactive Experience," whatever that is. Retail for the Blu-ray is set at $69.97; the DVD is $59.98. (Of course, both are already available to pre-order more cheaply on Amazon.)

Random Surveillance/Intelligence For May 5, 2007

(Because these bits are as much observations as news bits...)

James Bond & Indiana Jones Action Figures
I had pre-ordered this book (yes, that's the title) from Amazon last fall, but it was delayed and they weren't able to fill the order and then my Amazon Prime trial membership expired, and I kind of forgot about it. I recently noticed it was now listed as "in stock," and I ordered it mainly out of that weird cumpulsion that drives me to acquire every book ever written on James Bond, and not really expecting much from it. (To be honest, I expected it to be a self-published pamphlet more checklist than book.) Boy was I wrong! This is a really great book. It's handsome and glossy and lavishly illustrated throughout in full color. It provides a complete history of James Bond figures and dolls from the Sixties Gilbert line through the latest releases from Sideshow, including such oddities as Mattel's early '80s Bond toys available only in Mexico and the early nineties phenomenon that was James Bond Jr. Moreover, it uses the Bond and Indy licences to explore the history of action figures themselves over the last several decades, and presents a case for them being an art form. Weirdest of all, the book has been translated from French! I haven't been able to stop flipping through it since I got it. I'll post a full review once I've had time to study it in more detail, but it looks like it makes a great companion piece to Dave Worrall's book on Bond Corgi cars, and is a must-have for 007 memorabilia collectors.

Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich
John Malkovich, last seen spying against Rowan Atkinson in much-maligned Johnny English (a very funny spy spoof from the screenwriters of The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, and a better movie than either of those ones--not to mention the two last Austin Powers entries) will star in the Coen Brothers' upcoming spy movie Burn After Reading. Already cast are Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt and Coen regular George Clooney, the latter as an assassin.

Dalton In Hot Fuzz
I saw this a few weeks ago and have been remiss in not yet mentioning the excellent comic performance Timothy Dalton turns in. Fans of his should definitely check it out. Critics accused Dalton's Bond of lacking humor, but the rare occasions on which he makes a comedy without the words "Beautician" or "Beast" in the title always prove that he's a very gifted comic actor. And anyone who's seen The Rocketeer knows he also makes a great villain, especially when he has a mustache. He may or may not be a villain in Hot Fuzz, but he certainly enjoys making us suspect him. Dalton recently described the movie as "Bad Boys II meets Agatha Christie," and that's a very apt description. Since the advertising only played up the bits spoofing American action movies, I was surprised at the remarkable restraint director Edgar Wright excercised in holding off on that stuff until the appropriate moment. Until it gets there, it has a lot of fun sending up traditional British small-town whodunits and, oddly, plays as a bit of a giallo. It's as good, and as funny, as Shaun of the Dead, and it's got lots of great cameos.

Contest
The Double O Section contest I mentioned the other day will begin on Monday night. Please check back then to see how to enter.

New Spy-Related DVDs And Games Out This Week

No straight-shooting spy titles out this week, but quite a few spy-ish DVDs.  Plus, of course, a few videogames that have a lot of Bond fans excited. 

First up, from MGM Home Entertainment, is the1968 film musical adaptation of Ian Fleming's children's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, on Blu-ray/DVD and DVD/Blu-ray combo packs.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was produced by 007 producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, scripted by You Only Live Twice screenwriter Roald Dahl and counts Bond alums Desmond Llewelyn and Gert Frobe among its cast. Dick Van Dyke stars as inventor Caractacus Potts, and Sally Ann Howes plays the Bond Girlishly-named Truly Scrumptuous. The new combo release comes in two configurations: a BD/DVD combo pack in a Blu-ray size case, and a DVD/BD combo in a more kids' section-friendly standard DVD Amray case.  All of the special features are on the Blu-ray.  The only new ones (besides the high-def transfer, of course, and newly upgraded 7.1 audio) are kid-oriented (“Toot Sweet Symphony melody maker – the Toot Sweet Toots Musical Maestro" and “Chitty's Bang Bang Driving Game”), but happily all of the interviews and vintage promotional material from the last DVD edition is ported over, including "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Dick Van Dyke," the featurette “A Fantasmagorical Motorcar” (about the actual car used in the film and its current owner, if memory serves), the original Sherman Brothers demos of the film’s most popular songs, vintage featurettes including “The Ditchling Tinkerer,” “Dick Van Dyke Press Interview,” and “The Potts Children's Featurette,” a photo gallery and a vintage advertising gallery including English and French versions of the theatrical trailer and several television spots. There's also a sing-a-long version of the film for the tots. Both combo variations retail for $34.99, but are available considerably cheaper from Amazon and other online vendors.

An old woman detective may not seem very spy-like at all, but there's actually plenty in Agatha Christie's Marple: The Geraldine McEwan Collection, from Acorn Media, to interest spy fans.  First and foremost, there's Timothy Dalton (in The Sittaford Mystery), who leads a pack of spy-friendly guest stars that also includes Joanna Lumley, Jane Seymour, Keeley Hawes, Herbert Lom, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Richard Armitage, Jane Asher, Robert Powell, Tim McInnerny, Mark Gatiss and many, many more.  (Besides being an actor, Gatiss is the co-creator of the BBC's new Sherlock series and author of the wonderful Lucifer Box spy novels.) This set includes all 12 feature-length mysteries that McEwan starred in on 12 DVDs, plus plentiful extras including an hour-long "backstage" documentary with cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes featurettes, a history of Miss Marple adaptations (that sounds fun!), photo galleries, an Agatha Christie biography, and cast filmographies. Retail is $99.99.

It's a good week for Timothy Dalton fans, because in addition to his debut on Chuck, we also get the aforementioned Marple DVD set and Toy Story 3, in which he voiced the adorable stuffed hedgehog with delusions of Shakespearean grandeur, Mr. Pricklepants.  It's not a huge part, but it's great to hear a hedgehog talking like Timothy Dalton.  Plus, Toy Story 3 is an amazing movie.  I think it's my favorite of the Pixar trilogy, and one of my favorite movies of the year.  It's available on standard DVD, Blu-ray and a 4-disc Blu-ray/DVD Special Edition Combo pack. For the huge Disney fans out there, it's also available as part of the massive, 10-disc Toy Story Trilogy Blu-ray/DVD combo set. That one will cost you dearly, though, so you might want to save it for Santa.

There are also two new James Bond videogames out today: James Bond 007: Bloodstone and GoldenEye 007, the latter a remake of the classic N64 first-person shooter of over a decade ago (though not from the same makers).  I don't really cover videogames here simply because I don't play them.  I'm no good at them.  I kind of wish I was, though (and that I had the hours required to devote to them, but I'm afraid this blog takes up all of those!), because these games both look pretty neat based on the trailers.  Both star Daniel Craig, which in the case of GoldenEye is pretty weird, since Pierce Brosnan, of course, starred in the movie. 

The new GoldenEye 007 should actually hold interest for Bond music fans as well as Bond gamers, because David Arnold composed the score.  I'm really curious to hear it.  The movie GoldenEye has one of the worst Bond scores, by Eric Serra, and I've often fantasized about what an Arnold score might have been like for it since he did all the other Brosnan Bonds.  Now I guess we can find out!  I really hope that the score is released in some format, be it on CD (unlikely, I guess) or at least as a digital download.  The one part we can hear so far struck me as a tad disappointing.  Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger steps in for Tina Turner to cover the movie's original title song, penned by U2's Bono and the Edge.  With David Arnold producing the cover, I was hoping for something along the lines of his fantastic 1997 Bond covers CD, Shaken and Stirred, which paired classic songs with unexpected performers for uniformly impressive results.  Unfortunately, instead of an indie artist of the caliber of Aimee Mann or Natacha Atlas, we get a Pussycat Doll.  And Scherzinger simply doesn't have the vocal chops to deliver an interesting or worthy rendition.  Too bad.  I did like the orchestration, but was a bit taken aback at how familiar it sounded.  Based on Shaken and Stirred, I'd expected a more radical reinvention.  Oh well.  I hope the score is good, and for people who are into first person shooters, I hope the game is good too!  Let me know. 

GoldenEye 007 retails for $49.99 for the Wii, $29.99 for the Nintendo DS and $69.99 for a special edition of the Wii version that comes with a special Golden Gun controller.  James Bond 007: Bloodstone retails for $59.99 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, and $49.99 for PC.

Reminder: Timothy Dalton Appearance, Diabolik Screening In LA TONIGHT!

Los Angeles spy fans, clear your calenders for tonight if you haven't already! As I previously reported, Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright hosts his "Wright Stuff" film festival at the New Beverly Theater, and tonight's double feature is Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon (1980, co-starring future James Bond Timothy Dalton) and Mario Bava's pop-art Sixties spy masterpiece Danger: Diabolik (1968). Dalton will appear in person to discuss his role in Flash Gordon at 7:30, and director/Bava fan Joe Dante will join Wright to introduce Diabolik at 9:40. Both films are archival prints that come directly from the studios, so this is an event not to be missed.

Dalton Spies Again On The Big Screen: First Photos Of T-Dalt In The Tourist

It's a good year for Timothy Dalton.  Following a small screen return to the world of spies on Chuck, the former James Bond actor makes a big screen return to that genre in Florian von Henckel Donnersmarck's The Tourist. (Watch the trailer here.) I've been very excited for this role since it was announced, and now AllMoviePhotos.com (via Dark Horizons) has our first pictures of Dalton in action (as well as lots of other cool new stills from the film), playing Interpol agent "Jones."  Awesome!  Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, the director of The Lives of Others, and one of the screen's best James Bonds all together.  I can't wait for this movie!  And after a long and twisted production history, it's finally almost here.  The Touist opens December December 11.

Upcoming Spy (And Dalton) DVDs: Eighties Miniseries Madness

TV Shows On DVD reports that Olive Films will release the Joan Collins WWII spy miniseries Monte Carlo on DVD this June. Based on the novel by Stephen Sheppard, Monte Carlo follows the rich and famous as they mingle with international spies in the glamorous titular city during the months leading up to the second World War. Joan Collins stars as a cabaret singer who moonlights for British Intelligence; Peter Vaughn plays her German rival (rival spy, that is; not rival cabaret performer), Malcolm McDowell is no doubt someone shady, and George Hamilton is the American playboy novelist mixed up in the middle of it all. I have a secret soft spot for Eighties miniseries and an even more secret (and guilty) soft spot for the ageless Joan Collins, so I'm intrigued by this one. Retail for the 2-disc set is $39.99, but of course it can be pre-ordered for less on Amazon.

Monte Carlo isn't the only Joan Collins miniseries coming from Olive on June 21. That same day, the company will also put out another miniseries of the same vintage which might also interest spy fans. 1986's Sins, based on a Judith Gould novel, is not a spy story, but it does co-star Timothy Dalton (immediately pre-Bond) as Collins' unstable brother who's spent half his life in mental institutions. Lauren Hutton (who's also in Monte Carlo) and Gene Kelly (yes, Gene Kelly) also appear. Sins is also a 2-disc set with the same SRP.

Paul Rudd: License To Sell

It turns out Duplicity (good as it is) isn’t the only movie of interest to spy fans opening this weekend. The Paul Rudd/Jason Segel comedy I Love You, Man contains a lengthy James Bond reference that pays off later in the film. While it’s just one joke in a very funny movie, it will be a big laugh-getter for Bond fans, so if you plan to see I Love You, Man, you may not want to read any further. For those who weren’t planning on seeing it or don’t mind spoiling the joke, read on for a summary. Rudd’s character, Peter Klaven (who has only had female friends all his life), is searching for a male best friend to be the best man at his impending wedding. Segel’s Sydney Fife seems like just the guy. Sydney accompanies him to shop for tuxes, and when Peter emerges from the dressing room wearing one, he pulls out his camera phone and tells him to strike an "action pose." Peter takes a vague running stance, which Sidney makes fun of. How is that a tuxedo action pose? The only time he’s ever seen someone in a tuxedo in that pose was on the posters for Runaway Bride. Peter still doesn’t know what he means, so Sydney exclaims, "You’re in a tux? What kind of action do you think I mean? Think James Bond." Peter attempts some awkward Bond poses, including a full pantomime of his version of the gun barrel twist. Sydney doesn’t like what he’s seeing, so he directs him to "think Timothy Dalton." That does the trick. "Ah, T-Dalt," says Peter, gripping his imaginary gun with two hands and assuming an approximation of Dalton’s Living Daylights/Licence To Kill teaser poster stance. A lot of attempts at Bondian lines delivered in a bad Sean Connery accent (that Sydney says sounds more like a leprechaun) ensue. The picture posing comes back to haunt (or reward) Peter later in the film when he finds that image of him used without his knowledge on a billboard with the slogan "License to sell."

Upcoming Los Angeles Spy Star Appearances: Timothy Dalton In Person!

Timothy Dalton will join his Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright for one night of Wright's upcoming "Right Stuff" film festival at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. On December 5, the James Bond star will discuss his role as Prince Barin in Mike Hodges' cult classic Flash Gordon. Second on the bill that night is Mario Bava's pop art masterpiece Danger: Diabolik, a must-see for any Sixties spy fan. Joe Dante will help Wright introduce that one. The New Beverly does not sell tickets in advance.

On Wednesday, November 28, ubiquitous spy star Chris Cooper will attend a screening of Breach at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. He will discuss his role as real-life spy Robert Hanssen. Presumably this appearance is the first salvo in an Oscar campaign, and I hope it works. Breach came out so long ago that Academy voters are likely to have forgotten about it, but Cooper's performance was definitely one of my favorites so far this year.