New AMERCIAN ASSASSIN Red Band Trailer and Poster

Lionsgate and CBS Films have released a new poster and two new trailers - one a restricted red band, the other approved for all audiences - for the first Mitch Rapp movie, American Assassin, which opens September 15 amidst a spy-packed month that also sees the releases of the Tom Cruise Iran-Contra movie American Made and Matthew Vaughn's eagerly anticipated sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Mitch Rapp has taken a long, winding road to get to the screen, and it's unfortunate that author Vince Flynn didn't live to see the results. (Though like Bourne and Bond, Rapp has outlived his creator with new books still being published by continuation authors.) First set up at CBS Films for producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura way back in early 2008, actors like Gerrard Butler, Matthew Fox and Chris Hemsworth all at one time or another flirted with playing Flynn's counter-terror hero, and Bruce Willis was at one point up for the mentor role that eventually went to Michael Keaton. Legends' Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Legends of the Fall's Ed Zwick (who ultimately earned a writing credit on the final product) were both linked to direct at one time or another, before the job eventually went to Homeland veteran Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger), working from a script by The Americans' Stephen Schiff. Originally it was CBS Films' plan to adapt Flynn's 2005 novel Consent to Kill first. But at some point they shifted gears to tackle Flynn's prequel novel telling Rapp's origin story, and now American Assassin is a reality!

Trailer: AMERICAN ASSASSIN

After an infinite development process including many false starts, Mitch Rapp is finally that much closer to the big screen with a trailer! And a release Deadline reports that Lionsgate and CBS Films have set a September 15 release date for the first Vince Flynn adaptation, American Assassin, starring Dylan O'Brien and Michael Keaton. September is shaping up to be a spy-heavy month, with Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle and Bourne Identity director Doug Liman's Iran-Contra movie with Tom Cruise, American Made (formerly Mena), both set to bow on September 29. (Expect trailers for those ones soon.)

Mitch Rapp has taken a long, winding road to get to the screen, and it's unfortunate that his creator didn't live to see the results. (Though like Bourne and Bond, Rapp has outlived his creator with new books still being published by continuation authors.) First set up at CBS Films for producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura way back in early 2008, actors like Gerrard Butler, Matthew Fox and Chris Hemsworth all at one time or another flirted with playing Flynn's counter-terror hero, and Bruce Willis was at one point up for the role that eventually went to Keaton. Legends' Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Legends of the Fall's Ed Zwick were both linked to direct at one time or another, before the job eventually went to Homeland veteran Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger), working from a script by The Americans' Stephen Schiff. Originally it was CBS Films' plan to adapt Flynn's 2005 novel Consent to Kill first. But now American Assassin is a reality, and here's the trailer to prove it:

New Photos from the Mitch Rapp Movie American Assassin

We got our first look at Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner) as Mitch Rapp last month; now CBS Films and Lionsgate have released a bunch of new photos through USA Today (via Dark Horizons) of O'Brian and Michael Keaton in American Assassin. The studio hopes the film will kick off a new spy franchise based on Vince Flynn's Rapp novels. (The series has continued in the hands of other authors since Flynn's death.) Head over to USA Today to see more pictures.

Though it wasn't the first novel in the series, Flynn's American Assassin was a prequel and served as Rapp's origin story, in which the young CIA Black Ops recruit (O'Brian), hungry for revenge after losing his fiance in a terrorist attack, is mentored by Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). Per the studio's synopsis, "The pair are enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Teaming up with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar), they must stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East."

Mitch Rapp has taken a long, winding road to get to the screen, and it's unfortunate that his creator didn't live to see the results. First set up at CBS Films for producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura way back in early 2008, actors like Gerrard Butler, Matthew Fox and Chris Hemsworth all at one time or another flirted with playing Vince Flynn's counterterror hero. Legends' Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Legends of the Fall's Ed Zwick were both linked to direct at one time or another, before the job eventually went to Homeland veteran Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger), working from a script by The Americans' Stephen Schiff. Originally it was CBS Films' plan to adapt Flynn's 2005 novel Consent to Kill first, and at one point Bruce Willis was attached to the Hurly role Keaton eventually filled. Whew!

First Look at Dylan O'Brian as Mitch Rapp in American Assassin

Summit/Lionsgate have released (via Dark Horizons) a synopsis and the first still of Dylan O'Brian (Teen Wolf, The Maze Runner) as Vince Flynn's CIA assassin Mitch Rapp in American Assassin. The studio hopes the film will kick off a new spy franchise based on Flynn's Mitch Rapp books. (The series has continued in the hands of other authors since Flynn's death.)

Though it wasn't the first novel in the series, Flynn's American Assassin was a prequel and served as Rapp's origin story, in which the young CIA Black Ops recruit (O'Brian), hungry for revenge after losing his fiance in a terrorist attack, is mentored by Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). Per the studio's synopsis, "The pair are enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Teaming up with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar), they must stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East."

Mitch Rapp has taken a long, winding road to get to the screen, and it's unfortunate that his creator didn't live to see the results. First set up at CBS Films for producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura way back in early 2008, actors like Gerrard Butler, Matthew Fox and Chris Hemsworth all at one time or another flirted with playing Vince Flynn's counterterror hero. Legends' Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Legends of the Fall's Ed Zwick were both linked to direct at one time or another, before the job eventually went to Homeland veteran Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger). Originally it was CBS Films' plan to adapt Flynn's 2005 novel Consent to Kill first, and at one point Bruce Willis was attached to the Hurly role Keaton eventually filled. Whew!

Tradecraft: Michael Keaton to Costar in Flynn's American Assassin

The long, long gestating Mitch Rapp movie seems to finally be gaining some traction and moving towards production. First set up at CBS Films for producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura way back in early 2008, actors like Gerrard Butler, Matthew Fox and Chris Hemsworth have all at one time or another flirted with playing Vince Flynn's counterterror hero in what's hoped to be a franshise based on the late author's 13 novel series. It was reported a while ago that Homeland veteran Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger) would direct, but we haven't heard anything new since then and I wondered if he was even still involved. (Legends' Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Legends of the Fall's Ed Zwick had previously been linked to the project in that capacity.) Evidently he is. In the first casting announcement of this particular incarnation, Deadline reports that Michael Keaton (The Company) will play the supporting role of Stan Hurley in American Assassin, Rapp's CIA mentor, a shadowy veteran of Cold War Black Ops. Bruce Willis had been attached to this role in a previous incarnation of the Rapp movie. American Assassin isn't based on Flynn's first book, but on the chronological first story in the series. (Originally it was CBS Films' plan to adapt Flynn's Consent to Kill first.) Published in 2010, the novel was a prequel telling the origins of the fearless Rapp, who joined the CIA hungry for revenge after his fiance was killed in a terrorist attack and came under the tutelege of Hurley.

Tradecraft: Chris Hemsworth In Talks to Play Mitch Rapp

You know the spy genre is hot when all the rising stars attach themselves to potential spy franchises. Chris Pine is the new Jack Ryan, Tom Hardy is the new John Clark, Jeremy Renner is all the other spies. Well, not quite all of them, apparently; Deadline reports that my favorite of the up and coming male stars, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), is in talks to play Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp in CBS Films' American Assassin, the inaugural film in their long-gestating potential franchise. I haven't read any of the Mitch Rapp books, so I can't comment on his appropriateness for the part, but I do think that Chris Hemsworth has what it takes to be a real-deal action hero, and I've been hoping he would topline a spy movie sooner or later. He's certainly seems more appealing to me than some of the other names bandied about for this role, like Matthew Fox or Gerard Butler. Although American Assassin is the eleventh Mitch Rapp novel, it makes an ideal introduction to the character on film because the novel is, as the trade blog puts it, "a prequel that explains how tragedy transformed Rapp from a college scholar and athlete into a ruthless hunter of terrorists for the CIA." As previously reported, Bruce Willis is in talks to play Rapp's Agency mentor, and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (Traitor, Homeland, Legends) is directing. Mike Finch wrote the latest draft of the screenplay, polishing a version Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz worked on when Zwick was attached to helm.

Tradecraft: Bruce Willis to Mentor Mitch Rapp?

Variety reports that Bruce Willis is in talks to join the cast of CBS Films' inaugural Mitch Rapp thriller, American Assassin. The studio has been trying to bring Vince Flynn's CIA hero to the big screen for quite a while now, initially aiming to adapt Consent to Kill, but later opting to begin with the prequel novel American Assassin, which tells Rapp's origin story. That's similar to Paramount's strategy with Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, a character the studio plans to reintroduce to the viewing public via an original origin tale. In that movie, Kevin Costner will play Jack Ryan's CIA mentor; in this one, that's the role Willis is circling: Rapp's CIA mentor. Rapp himself has yet to be cast. As previously reported, Traitor's Jeffrey Nachmanoff will direct. Mike Finch penned the script, which, according to the trade, "revolves around Mitch Rapp, a former Syracuse grad student who joins the CIA after his girlfriend his killed by a terrorist attack. Willis will play a CIA operative who serves as a mentor to Rapp."

Tradecraft: Jeffrey Nachmanoff to Helm American Assassin

Deadline reports that director Jeffrey Nachmanoff has come aboard to helm CBS Films' American Assassin, an attempt to launch a franchise based on Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp character. I've never read any of Flynn's books, but Nachmanoff seems like a good match to the material to me. In his previous stab at directing a spy movie, 2008's Traitor, he delivered a smart, taut espionage thriller with all the requisite twists and turns, and even made it look impressive on a limited budget. He also directed episodes of Homeland and contributed to the script for The Tourist. (That reminds me, as I search for a post to link to that doesn't exist, I think I have a review of that sitting around somewhere that I never got around to posting. I should dig that up...) I'm certainly curious to see what he does with a big budget action spy movie.

Mitch Rapp's journey to the big screen has been long and slow so far. CBS Films acquired the screen rights to the character in February of 2008 with an eye to creating a franchise, and by January of 2010 had set Antoine Fuqua (Shooter) to direct an adaptation of Flynn's Consent to Kill. That got as far as casting (with Matthew Fox, Gerrard Butler and Colin Farrell all being considered by March of that year), but seems to have fallen apart by June of last year, when it was announced that Edward Zwick (Legends of the Fall) would instead helm the Rapp prequel American Assassin, based on Flynn's 2010 series entry. Now Zwick is out and Nachmanoff is in, but the studio is still keen on beginning with that novel, a prequel which features the hero as a younger man and thus enables CBS Films to kick off their film series with a younger star.

Tradecraft: CBS Films Casting Mitch Rapp

Mike Fleming at Deadline New York reports that CBS Films have reached the casting stage on their film adaptation of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp novel Consent to Kill.  Apparently, the frontrunners to play Flynn's tough CIA counter-terrorism agent are Gerard Butler, Colin Farrell and Lost's Matthew Fox.  The trade blog also reports that Keanu Reeves and Mad Men's Jon Hamm are longshot contenders.  Hollywood seems determined to cast Hamm in a potential spy franchise; he was seriously considered for Matt Helm at one point, as well.  (Personally, I think he'd be better for a period spy vehicle, along the lines of the recent French OSS 117 films.  His hair only works when slicked back in a Sixties style!)  According to Fleming, Consent to Kill (which isn't the first book in the Rapp series, by the way) finds Rapp contending with "a German spy and a husband and wife assassin team who've been hired to kill him, along with bureaucrats in the government who want to do Rapp harm" as the agent takes on a Saudi Arabian terrorist hellbent on revenge.  Personally, I thought they would go after bigger movie stars for this role.  I like Colin Farrell (he really proved himself in In Bruges), but he's had his shot at Hollywood leading man stardom and it didn't really pay off.  Butler was charming as a Saturday Night Live host and compelling in 300, but that film was a number of rom-com flops ago.  He's never proven himself as a contemporary action star.  And Fox, Vantage Point aside, is a TV actor, and not the most commanding presence on Lost.  But Fleming asserts that Fox feels passionately about the project and has been actively chasing the role, so maybe passion would make up for movie experience.

Tradecraft: Catching Up

No sooner did I return from my snowy travels than I was (unsurprisingly, I suppose) felled by illness.  I thought the resulting days off work would at least give me a chance to catch up on blogging and watch a few Eurospy movies, but alas neither was to happen.  It was more of a flop down on the couch and watch whatever happens to be on TV sort of illness than a productive one.  So now I'm even more behind than I was, and I think the last month has probably been the lightest period of posting in the history of this blog.  Mostly recovered now, I'll start catching up with a look at all the spy stuff that's been going on in the trades for the last week.  There's a lot of stuff here, and the best isn't all at the top, so dig in!

Deadlier Than The Male: Knockout and Hanna

Female assassins are big these days.  Two films centering on them are moving forward from big indy directors, and we have casting news from the trades on both Steven Soderbergh's Knockout (first reported here) and Joe Wright's Hanna (first reported here). 

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe) and and Michael Angarano (Snow Angels) are in talks to join Knockout, Soderbergh's revenge-oriented spy movie.  "The script by Lem Dobbs centers on a spy (mixed martial artist Gina Carano) who works for a Blackwater-style security contractor and is betrayed by one of her teammates. Tatum, who will train with a Mossad agent in preparation for the part, will play one of the agents in her spy cell. Angarano plays a teen who sees Carano in trouble and decides to help, unwittingly ending up as her partner." Soderbergh appears intent on surrounding his non-actress lead with as many top-notch thespians as possible, so far including Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds), Ewan McGregor and Dennis Quaid.  The truly amazing thing about this film is that the helmer is making it for just $25 million and even so still shooting in suitably spy-like locales, taking advantage of tax incentives in Spain and Ireland. I'm really looking forward to this one; I just hope Carano has the chops to carry it.  If Soderbergh can get a great performance out of a porn star (as he's said to have in The Girlfriend Experience), perhaps he can do it with an MMA fighter as well...

Joe Wright's Hanna is going the other direction.  Wright is looking to cast an Oscar-nominated actress in the lead role: fifteen-year-old Saoirse Ronan.  Ronan was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Wright's Atonement, and seems likely to receive another nomination this year for her performance in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones.  Hanna sounds a lot like a combination of two Luc Besson movies: La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hanna "follows a 14-year-old Eastern European girl who has been raised by her father to be a cold-blooded killer.  She connects with a french family, forms a friendship with their daughter and goes through the pangs of adolescence.  When the girl is dragged back to her father's world and discovers she was bred as a killing machine in a CIA prison camp, she must fight her way to a free life."  The studio's logline, of course, also invokes Bourne (as does the one for the Soderbergh film), an apparent requisite for any spy movie in this day and age.  But Bourne-style action with a fifteen-year-old?  Count me in! 

Covert Affairs - Plural

Also according to The Hollywood Reporter, USA has picked up their new spy pilot Covert Affairs for a whole season: "Cable's top network has picked up the 90-minute pilot starring Piper Perabo to series with an 11-episode order. The spy drama, from Universal Cable Prods., centers on Annie Walker (Perabo), a multilingual CIA trainee unexpectedly promoted to field operative while reeling over a mysterious ex-boyfriend who appears to be of particular interest to her agency bosses."  At least one of those bosses is played by Peter Gallagher (which is awesome). The rest of the pilot's cast includes Christopher Gorham, Anne Dudek and Kari Matchett (who was great on 24 and especially Leverage), all of whom will remain aboard for the series. Eion Bailey, who plays her ex in the pilot, "is expected to at least be a recurring on the show."

USA's president of original programming Jeff Wachtel told the Reporter, "This in some ways is the most ambitious show that we've undertaken. The story is bigger, the production values are bigger, and the ensemble too is a little bigger than our other shows."  It hasn't been decided whether Covert Affairs will debut in the summer or the fall, but it will likely be paired with another USA hit.  Spy trendsetter Burn Notice would seem like an obvious choice. Covert Affairs is created and co-executive produced by Matt Corman and Chris Ord and executive produced by Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman.

Malkovich Joins Red

The Hollywood Reporter reports that John Malkovich has replaced John C. Reilly in the all-star Bruce Willis spy thriller Red, based on the Warren Ellis comic book.  Willis plays a retired operative contending with younger, more high-tech assassins out to get him.  "The role will allow Malkovich to exercise his comic sensibilities as he plays a retired CIA agent, a contemporary of Willis', who is erratic and paranoid that everyone is out to kill him and joins Willis in a quest to find out wha wants them dead."  Red starts shooting in Toronto this week under the direction of Robert Schwentke.

Consent to Kill

We've had Licence to Kill, Permission to Kill... now director Antoine Fuqua gives spy fans his Consent to Kill!  Variety reports that Shooter director Fuqua "will direct spy thriller Consent to Kill for CBS Films with Lorenzo DiBonaventura and Nick Wechsler producing." The trade reports that the script by Fuqua's Shooter collaborator Jonathan Lemkin is adapted from a 2005 novel by Vince Flynn about counterterrorism agent Mitch Rapp.  While the studio is reportedly keeping the logline under wraps, Variety says "in Flynn's story, Rapp battled a vengeful Saudi billionaire, an ex - East German Stasi spy and a husband-and-wife team of assassins -- all while dealing with a knee injury."

Female Star Gets Under Covers

J.J. Abrams has found his new female spy star.  According to The Hollywood Reporter , the actress poised to become the next Jennifer Garner is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who will star opposite the previously announced Boris Kodjoe.  The trade reminds us of the essentials on Abrams' first spy series since Alias: "Undercovers, which Abrams co-wrote with Josh Reims, revolves around a domesticated husband (Kodjoe) and wife (Mbatha-Raw) who are re-activated as CIA agents after years of retirement. Abrams also will direct, marking the first pilot he has helmed since Lost in 2004."  (Deadline Hollywood adds, "as they work together for the first time on new cases, they discover new aspects from their past - even as they re-ignite their passion for each other.") The Hollywood Reporter says that "Mbatha-Raw, a graduate of London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, broke through during the summer when she was cast as Ophelia opposite Jude Law in the Donmar Warehouse production of 'Hamlet,' which had successful runs in London's West End and on Broadway," but spy fans will likely better know the actress from the fifth season of MI-5 (Spooks) , in which she played Jenny.  She's certainly paid her dues on British television, having also played a companion on Doctor Who and starred on the archeological adventure series Bonekickers. 

Von Donnersmarck Back on Tourist

The ongoing saga of The Tourist, which has had even more twists and turns than that other spy movie discarded by Tom Cruise, Salt, has taken another turn for the better.  Former Variety columnist Mike Fleming, now reporting for Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog, reports that The Lives of Others  director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck who was at one point attached to direct and then wasn't , is now back on board as the director of The Tourist!  This is wonderful, wonderful news.  The Lives of Others was probably my second favorite spy movie of this past decade (after Casino Royale and just ahead of The Bourne Ultimatum), and I've been eager to see whatever the director did next ever since that film won the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.  I'm especially glad it's another spy movie!  And intrigued that it seems to be a more action-intensive one than The Lives of Others.  For those playing the Home Version, let me remind you that after going through cast iterations that included Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron, Charlize Theron and Sam Worthington and Sam Worthington and Angelina Jolie now teams the two biggest movie stars in the world, Jolie and Johnny Depp.  I can't wait to see those two spying for Von Donnersmarck.