Random Intelligence Dispatches For January 25

Smart New Trailer

The new Get Smart trailer is now online here. I've gotta say, I think it looks really good. I know there's been some negative buzz about the movie, but I like Carrell, I like the rest of the cast, and I like everything I've seen from it so far. Here's hoping the final product is good!

From Le Carré To Clancy?

AICN ran a rumor that originated on Moviehole that Paramount is seeking Fernando Meirelles to direct that new Jack Ryan movie, By Any Means Necessary. Meirelles will be familiar to spy fans for his superb Le Carré adaptation The Constant Gardner, but even that wasn't as impressive as the movie that put him in the international spotlight, the Brazilian gangster epic City of God. He's an excellent director. I'd love to see him direct a real spy movie. (The Constant Gardner was more of a diplomatic story.) However, he and supposed star Ryan Gosling seem an odd match for a Jack Ryan movie. It sounds like Paramount is eager to give the Ryan franchise a Casino Royale-like reboot, shape it more in the Bourne mold. But Jack Ryan isn't really that rich a character, honestly. He doesn't have the dark soul to explore that Craig uncovered in Bond, or the haunted past that drives Damon's Bourne. He's always played second fiddle to the technology, both in Tom Clancy's books and in the previous movies. That's the rap that Bond always gets, but it was never really the case in Fleming. It is the case in Clancy. It's not a bad thing; some of the Jack Ryan books are very enjoyable. But not really because of a compelling lead character. The whole idea strikes me as weird, but if Fernando Meirelles directs a spy movie, I will undoubtedly be there to watch it.

Tanner In Quantum

Finally, in a bit of casting it doesn't seem appropriate to ignore on this blog, CommanderBond.Net reports that Rory Kinnear, son of the great British character actor Roy Kinnear, will portray Bill Tanner in Quantum of Solace. Tanner is, of course, M's Chief of Staff and (in the books) Bond's best friend in the Service. He's been portrayed blandly by Michael Goodliffe in The Man With the Golden Gun, entirely inappropriately by an exasperated James Villiers in For Your Eyes Only, and rather perfectly by Michael Kitchen in two Pierce Brosnan movies. Based on the BBC report that CBN cites as its source, it sounds as if Tanner may have been reimagined as more of a Personal Assistant to M than a Chief of Staff. In Casino Royale, Tobias Menzies did a great job as a character named Villiers (perhaps in tribute to FYEO's Tanner), who was a sort of combination of Tanner and Moneypenny. He's not returning in QOS, so Kinnear's Tanner is probably filling a similar role. I liked the way M's support staff were developed in the Brosnan movies, but I don't like the idea of giving M random PAs! That position is Miss Moneypenny's! I really don't understand the producers' reluctance to bring her back. According to MI6.co.uk, Michael G. Wilson said at yesterday's press conference that in order for Moneypenny and Q to have appeared in the new film, moments would have to be carved out for them which would not have felt "organic." I don't know about Q, but to me, if there's a role for M's Personal Assistant, then that is quite organically Moneypenny! I don't understand the reluctance to reintroduce her.