Tradecraft For February 21, 2008

The Return Of Doctor Mabuse

Rat Pack, the German production company behind the revival of classic German pulp cinema like Edgar Wallace thrillers and Jerry Cotton (forthcoming), has struck again. This time they're making a new Dr. Mabuse film. The Hollywood Reporter doesn't say that this will be a comedy, but presumably Rat Pack will follow the successfull formula behind their Wallace spoofs The Trixxer (2004) and The Vexxer (2007), which were comedic interpretations of material that was taken seriously in the Sixties, much along the same lines as the recent French OSS 117 film. Fritz Lang directed a silent Mabuse film in 1922, then revisited the character in his classic Testament of Dr. Mabuse in 1933 and The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse in 1960. The "thousand eyes" refer to the spies employed by the criminal mastermind, Mabuse. Lang's 1960 film starred Goldfinger himself, Gert Frobe, in a heroic role. Frobe also appeared in at least one of the follow-up films made in the Sixties, collected on DVD last year by Retromedia.

New Potential Spy Franchise Optioned

Variety reports that CBS Films (who actually make theatrical films, not TV movies) has acquired the rights to author Vince Flynn's series of novels about CIA operative Mitch Rapp for Lorenzo Di Bonaventura to produce. Flynn has written nine books in the series so far. Says the trade, "The studio and producers haven't decided yet which novel to use as the basis for the first film. Most involve Rapp defusing a global crisis in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq or the U.S."