Expanded DIE ANOTHER DAY Soundtrack

La-La Land Records, the company behind such spy fan favorites as the Mission: Impossible television soundtrack box set and this year's fantastic Wild Wild West TV soundtrack, has announced the first authorized, expanded release in fifteen years of any James Bond score that isn't called Casino Royale. And it might seem at first like a surprising title to get that treatment: the 2002 Pierce Brosnan movie Die Another Day, scored by David Arnold. While relatively few fans would put forth Die Another Day as one of the series' best entries, I've always enjoyed Arnold's score in the film. The original soundtrack album, however (issued on the Warner label), was disappointing, as it left off many of my favorite pieces, instead squandering precious data space on "enhanced CD" frills like two music videos, a music video making-of, and a "James Bond Poster Gallery." So, personally, I welcome an expanded Die Another Day score! Especially since this one contains the track I've most wanted ever since crashing the movie's Los Angeles premiere: "Cuban Car," Arnold's spectacular, Cuban-tinged take on the James Bond Theme that plays when 007 drives a 1957 Ford Fairlane out of Havana. But La-La Land's 2-disc release contains a lot more new music than just that track.

Featuring more than an hour of never-before-released score music, the whole album runs over 148 minutes (48 tracks compared to the original release's 15)--longer than the run time of the film itself. This is because it includes alternate versions and different mixes, and even orchestra-only versions of tracks that were originally fortified with a lot of 2002-appropriate electronica. The mixture of "the time-honored romance and swagger of classic Bond," as the press release puts it, and "cutting-edge electronics" (a mixture first brought to the series by John Barry on his final Bond score, The Living Daylights) was a particular specialty of Arnold's at this time, and for those of us steeped in the electronica of the era (the sound of my college years!), it was thrilling. He first tantalized us with the Propellerheads collaboration "Backseat Driver" in the largely traditional Tomorrow Never Dies, then fully committed to the electronica sound in his second score, The World Is Not Enough and its signature instrumental "Ice Bandits." Die Another Day was probably his most even balance of traditional and electronic, before (appropriately) taking the series back to its more classic sound with the 2006 Daniel Craig reboot Casino Royale. One of Arnold's particular skills is the ability to create a score that completely captures its time (in this case 2002), but in a timeless manner that doesn't sound instantly dated (like the aural cocaine of Bill Conti's disco-infused For Your Eyes Only).

Produced by David Arnold and Neil S. Bulk (a dyed-in-the-wool Bond fan as well an expert in his field), and mastered by Doug Schwartz from new transfers of analog stereo tapes provided by the composer, La-La Land promises, "this 2-CD deluxe presentation showcases Arnold’s score in a revelatory fashion that’s sure to leave listeners shaken and stirred in the best possible way!" It also features in-depth liner notes by Tim Greiving, "including new comments by the composer." Strictly limited to 5,000 units and retailing for $29.98, the double-disc album will be available to order from the La-La Land website as of noon Pacific Time on Monday, November 28--just in time for the holidays and making the perfect stocking stuffer for the Bond fan in your life. ("I thought Christmas only comes once a year!" Sorry; wrong Brosnan movie.)

Here's the full track listing for La-La Land's 2-disc, expanded Die Another Day:

Disc 1 (Score Presentation)
1. On the Beach (extended version)**† 3:56
2. Bond Meets Moon* / Hovercrafts* 2:16
3. How Do You Intend to Kill Me Now, Mr. Bond?* 2:02
4. Hovercraft Chase† 3:48
5. Bond to Jail* :49
6. Some Kind of Hero? 4:32
7. Kiss of Life*† 4:46
8. Peaceful Fountains of Desire* 1:05
9. What’s In it For You?* / Cuba* 1:21
10. Cuban Car*† :50
11. Jinx Jordan 1:28
12. Jinx & James 2:03
13. Wheelchair Access*† 2:22
14. Jinx, James and Genes* 5:14
15. Gustav Graves’ Grand Entrance*† 1:34
16. Blades*† 3:12
17. Bond Gets the Key* / Virtual Reality*† 2:01
18. The Vanish* / Bond Goes to Iceland*† 2:10
19. The Explanation* 1:36
20. Icarus 1:23
21. Ice Spy*† 3:00
22. A Touch of Frost 1:50
23. Laser Fight 4:36
24. It Belongs to His Boss* / Double Agent* 2:34
25. Whiteout† 4:55
26. Bond Kidnaps Skidoo*† 2:29
27. Iced Inc.† 3:08
28. Ice Palace Car Chase*† 4:57
Total disc 1 time = 76:47

Disc 2 (Score Presentation Continued)
1. Switchblades*† 3:23
2. Antonov 11:51
3. Antonov Gets It*† 3:20
4. Moneypenny Gets It* 1:11
5. Going Down Together 1:32
Total score time = 98:04

Additional Music
6. On the Beach† 2:50
7. Hovercraft Chase (film version)**† 3:47
8. Some Kind of Hero? (film version)** 4:32
9. Peaceful Fountains of Desire (alternate ending)* 1:06
10. What’s In it For You? (orchestra only)* :41
11. Welcome to Cuba 2:07
12. Jinx Jordan (orchestra only)** 1:28
13. Jinx & James (film version)** 2:07
14. Wheelchair Access (original version)*† 2:22
15. Party Trick (source)* 1:37
16. A Touch of Frost (film version)** 1:50
17. Laser Fight (film version)** 4:38
18. Whiteout (full mix)**† 4:55
19. Antonov (film version)** 11:51
20. James Bond Will Return*† 3:54
Total additional music = 49:45
Total disc 2 time = 71:43
Total album running time = 148:30

* Previously unreleased
** Contains previously unreleased material
† Contains “James Bond Theme” written by Monty Norman

Not included, you'll notice, are the dreadful title song by Madonna (my personal least favorite of the series... which isn't to say I don't own the single, with its six club remixes!) or "Bond Vs. Oakenfold," Paul Oakenfold's remix of The James Bond Theme (somewhat lacking in comparison to the awesome Moby "re-version" of just five years earlier), so you completists may want to hang onto your original Warner Bros. soundtrack album as well. (The music video making-of is actually pretty good, too, as much as I disapprove of such content on CDs, and I don't believe it's included on the Die Another Day Blu-ray.)

Trailer: Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan in Martin Campbell's THE FOREIGNER

STX have released a trailer for GoldenEye and Casino Royale director Martin Campbell's The Foreigner, starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. And it looks great! I love seeing Chan (who, like Brosnan, has aged well) in a grittier, more serious action movie than we're used to. The terrorism drama based on Stephen Leather's 1992 novel The Chinaman opens October 13 in the United States.

Donald E. Westlake's Sort-of James Bond Book Coming Out Next Year

Hard Case Crime announced recently (via Birth. Movies. Death.) that they will release a "lost" novel by the late, prolific crime writer Donald E. Westlake next year entitled Forever and a Death. And it's sort of a James Bond novel. But not really. After GoldenEye, EON Productions hired Westlake, who was probably most famous for his Parker novels (written under the pseudonym of Richard Stark) to develop a script for the next Pierce Brosnan 007 movie. In addition to having had many of his books filmed (most famously John Boorman's Point Blank with Lee Marvin), Westlake himself was also an accomplished screenwriter, and received an Oscar nomination for his script for Stephen Frears' 1990 film The Grifters, adapted from the Jim Thompson novel. (Frears would have his own brush with Bond at the end of Brosnan's tenure, when he almost directed Jinx, a spinoff about Halle Berry's Die Another Day character... but that's neither here nor there.) No actual Bond script emerged from Westlake's efforts, but he did produce two different treatments along with 007 producer and frequent screenwriter Michael G. Wilson. While it's likely that some of their ideas ended up in some form shaping the film that became Tomorrow Never Dies (that's just how the development process works), the final film written by Bruce Feirstein was a totally different animal, and Westlake did not receive a story credit. Since Westlake's passing in 2008, the magazine MI6 Confidential reported that the author (never one to let a good idea go to waste, according to Hard Case) had turned one of these treatments into a novel, never published. In 2017, that will no longer be the case when Hard Case releases it as Forever and a Death (words you can even sing to the tune of Sheryl Crow's "Tomorrow Never Dies" theme song!).

Obviously, the protagonist of this novel will not be James Bond, but I think it's probably a decent assumption that he will share some traits with Ian Fleming's secret agent. I suppose Westlake's estate could have gone with a Canadian publisher, as Bond is in the public domain in that country, and published it as a Bond novel, but then they probably couldn't have gotten Wilson to pen the afterward. (Birth. Movies. Death. indicates that "one of the Bond producers" has done just that, and I would assume that producer is Wilson.) According to Hard Case's synopsis, "the plot Westlake dreamed up—about a British businessman seeking to destroy Hong Kong after being kicked out when the island was returned to Chinese sovereignty—had all the action and excitement, the danger and the sex appeal, of a classic Bond film—but for whatever reason, the Bond folks decided not to use it." So next year Bond fans will get a taste of a Bond film that might have been, and collectors will acquire an interesting oddity to shelve adjacent to their legit 007 titles.

Tomorrow Never Dies has already inspired two great theme songs. (David Arnold's brilliant, rejected title track, performed by k.d. lang, ended up playing over the end credits as "Surrender.") Could it now, in a sort of circuitous fashion, also inspire two great novels? (Raymond Benson's official novelization of Feirstein's screenplay is one of the best Bond novelizations.) We'll find out next June! In the meantime, you can read a sample chapter on the Hard Case Crime website.

The cool, decidedly Bondian, McGinnis-inspired cover artwork is by Paul Mann.

Poster For Pierce Brosnan's No Escape

We've seen a couple of posters for Pierce Brosnan's upcoming spy thriller Survivor with Milla Jovovich; now here's a 1-sheet for his upcoming spy thriller with Owen Wilson, No Escape. It's good to see Brosnan so back in the spy game! In No Escape, Wilson plays a father trying to get his family to safety when a violent coup breaks out in the Southeast Asian country they're living in. Lake Bell plays his wife, and Brosnan plays a government agent named Hammond. No Escape, formerly titled The Coup, opens September 2 in the United States. Watch the trailer here.

UK Release Date, Poster for Brosnan's Survivor

DIY reports that the Pierce Brosnan/Milla Jovovich espionage thriller Survivor will open in the UK on June 5. The site also debuted the UK quad poster, which has the U.S. 1-sheet beat. The movie, directed by James McTeigue, is slated for a multi-platform release in America on May 29. Brosnan plays the baddie. Robert Forster (Jackie Brown), Angela Bassett (Alias), James D'Arcy (Agent Carter), Roger Rees (If Looks Could Kill) and Dylan McDermott (Olympus Has Fallen) co-star.

Watch the trailer here.

Trailer and Poster for Pierce Brosnan's Survivor

At last! We've been hearing about this movie for what seems like years, and now we've finally got our first look at Pierce Brosnan and Milla Jovovich in the new espionage thriller Survivor, directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin). It's interesting that even though Jovovich is top-billed, the poster clearly makes Brosnan the main attraction. I think Brosnan is always great playing bad guys, going back as far as his turn as a cold-blooded KGB assassin opposite Michael Caine in The Fourth Protocol. It looks like Survivor affords the former Bond the opportunity to put his own spin on the Edward Fox role from another Frederick Forsyth-based movie, The Day of the Jackal. I can't wait to see the results! Robert Forster (Jackie Brown), Angela Bassett (Alias), James D'Arcy (Agent Carter), Roger Rees (If Looks Could Kill) and Dylan McDermott (Olympus Has Fallen) round out the cast. When the movie was first announced, Emma Thompson was also listed as part of the cast, but I see no sign of her here, so perhaps that didn't work out. Survivor is written by Phillip Shelby and is apparently quite similar to, if not actually based on, his 1998 novel Gatekeeper. As reported last month, Survivor will be receive a multi-platform release later this year from Alchemy (formerly Millennium Entertainment), in partnership with Lionsgate.

Tradecraft: Pierce Brosnan Movie Update

Deadline offered updates today on two eagerly anticipated Pierce Brosnan movies. First, the trade reports that The Moon and the Sun, in which the former 007 plays King Louis XIV of France, has been removed from Paramount's release schedule for the time being. Hopefully this is just because they're still working on the effects or something, and not because the studio has lost faith in the film. Personally, I'm very excited for this period fantasy film based on the Vonda McIntyre novel, so I hope it reappears on the studio's fall slate. It's just as well that it won't be coming out on its original release date of April 10, as there has been no advertising so far. A delayed release will give the studio time to properly market the movie.

Of more direct interest to spy fans is the news that Survivor, James McTeigue's (V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin) all-star espionage thriller with Milla Jovovich, Emma Thompson, Robert Forster, Angela Bassett, James D'Arcy, Dylan McDermott and Brosnan as the baddie, has a U.S. distributor. According to the trade, Alchemy Entertainment (formerly Millennium Entertainment, distributor of my own horror movie Dead Within which everyone should of course buy!) has acquired the U.S. rights, and the film "will get a multi-platform release this year." It would be nice to know when this year and on which platforms, but at least fans now have a ballpark notion. Deadline reports that Phil Shelby’s screenplay (the plot of which bears an uncanny resemblance to his 1998 novel Gatekeeper) "centers on a Foreign Service officer [Jovovich] in London who tries to prevent a terrorist attack set in New York but is forced to go on the run after she is framed for crimes she didn't commit."

Trailer: Pierce Brosnan in No Escape

Only a few weeks ago we learned that the long-in-the-works Owen Wilson/Pierce Brosnan action movie The Coup had undergone a title change to No Escape, and now, at long last... there's a trailer! Behold the former 007 in action alongside Wilson (I Spy) and Lake Bell (In a World). It was initially reported in the trades that Brosnan would play some sort of government agent in this movie, but that is not clear from the trailer. Still, it looks like a good, intense thriller! The Busy Brosnan also has another international thriller on his plate, Survivor, which remains undated as of now, as well as the historical fantasy The Moon and the Sun (in which he stars as King Louis XIV of France), the romantic comedy How to Make Love Like an Englishman (opposite Salma Hayak and Jessica Alba) and the trippy drug thriller Urge. The Weinstein Company's No Escape opens September 2 in the United States.

Tradecraft: Pierce Brosnan's The Coup Re-titled No Escape and Delayed Six Months

The Hollywood Reporter (via Dark Horizons) reports that the Pierce Brosnan action movie The Coup (in which the actor again plays a secret agent, apparently named Hammond) has been re-titled and delayed until September 2. The new date is good news, since there's been no advertising whatsoever yet, and it would have been pretty hard to build word of mouth between now and the original March 6 release date! The title change... maybe not so much. The new title is No Escape, which not only isn't a very good title, but also one likely already familiar to Brosnan fans, as it was the name of the Ray Liotta film that Martin Campbell directed immediately prior to GoldenEye. (I remember seeing that in the theater with some high school friends back in '94 specifically so we could get a bead on this new Bond director. We weren't too impressed, but luckily history proved Campbell to be considerably better than that flick demonstrated!) Apparently dwindling educational standards are to blame for the title change. According to the trade, the old title tested poorly because Americans didn't know what a coup was. (Not part of the Common Core?) The new No Escape (the former Coup) stars Owen Wilson (I Spy) as a father trying to get his family to safety when the Southeast Asian country they're living in erupts in a violent... coup. From which there is presumably no escape. Lake Bell plays his wife. We first learned that Brosnan would star in this movie way back in May of 2012; cameras eventually rolled in late 2013, and now it seems to finally have a release date. Oddly (and unhelpfully), the THR story doesn't mention the distributor, but according to the IMDb it will be put out in North America by The Weinstein Company.

Pierce Brosnan Pokes Fun at His James Bond Image in Kia Sorento Super Bowl Spot

Well, Kia has managed to get me to give them free advertising by reposting their commercial by casting Pierce Brosnan in it. And I'll happily do so for any commercial with Brosnan! That's a good way to get my attention during Super Bowl advertising breaks. I found this pretty amusing.

First Footage of Pierce Brosnan in November Man

The Solution Entertainment Group, who's handling international sales on the film, has offered us our first look at Pierce Brosnan's return to spying in the eagerly awaited November Man, based on the Bill Granger novel There Are No Spies. Bear in mind that this is a sizzle reel and not a trailer or a teaser, so it highlights action rather than story. Despite the terrible choice of music (I recommend watching on mute; there's no dialogue so you won't miss anything), the action looks pretty great. I can't wait to see a real trailer! That should be pretty soon, because, as previously reported, Relativity releases November Man in the United States on August 27. Olga Kurylenko, Luke Bracey and Will Patton costar. And speaking of music, Marco Beltrami provides the real score, and I look forward to hearing him do spy music!

Thanks to Jack Christian for the alert and MI6-HQ for the video!

Trailer: Pierce Brosnan in The Love Punch

Pierce Brosnan in a wetsuit? Leading a team in scaling a cliff? (Still in that wetsuit, no less!) In a car chase through an exotic European capital? And a Pink Panther reference to boot? I'm so in! Here's the trailer for Brosnan's latest, The Love Punch, starring the former 007 and the always fantastic Emma Thompson as a divorced couple who reunite to pull off a jewel heist when their retirement savings are stolen. The Love Punch opens in the United States on May 23. We'll next see the busy Brosnan a few months later, returning to all-out spy action in November Man (with Olga Kurylenko), on August 27. After that he's got two more high-profile spy roles already in the can; we're still awaiting release dates for Survivor (with Milla Jovovich) and The Coup (with Owen Wilson).

GoldenEye Returns to the Big Screen in Los Angeles Next Month

Wow, it's a really good season for Bond on the big screen in Los Angeles right now! Hot on the heels of these two rare Never Say Never Again screenings (and a Goldfinger/Thunderball double bill at the Egyptian earlier this year) comes a chance to see Pierce Brosnan's 1995 Bond debut GoldenEye projected in 35mm at the Arclight in Hollywood. While the classic Connery movies play the revival circuit quite frequently, the other Bond actors get considerably less exposure. Lazenby is getting screened more and more lately (a great thing), and occasionally you'll get a Moore. But unless someone is doing a whole retrospective of multiple Bond movies, Dalton and Brosnan are hard to come by in theatrical showings. Which is why I'm quite pleased that the Arclight will be playing GoldenEye as part of their Arclight Presents series on Tuesday, May 20 at 8:00pm. Tickets are available for pre-order from the theater's website at a cost of $14 for non-members. Wow, it's hard to believe that GoldenEye is almost twenty years old! I still remember the exhilaration of seeing that trailer for the first time in '95. (Before Species... and long before trailers debuted online instead of in theaters.) After six years away from cinemas (unfortunately my formative years as a Bond fan, in middle school and high school), it was so exciting to see Brosnan step out and address the audience. "You were expecting somebody else?"

Thanks to Neil for alerting me to this one!

Tradecraft: Pierce Brosnan's November Man Due in Theaters This August!

Here's some very exciting news! The Pierce Brosnan spy thriller November Man, recently acquired for U.S. distribution by Relativity Media, at long last has a release date. According to Variety, it will hit American theaters on August 27. With U.S./Russian tensions ratcheting up lately, it's a timely release for an espionage story involving Russian politics. Brosnan plays Bill Granger's ex-CIA operative Devereaux in an adaptation of Granger's novel There Are No Spies. In the movie, the trade reports, Devereaux is brought out of retirement to track down his former pupil (Luke Bracey) in a complex spy plot involving the Russian president-elect and high-level CIA officers. Former Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko co-stars, and Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, The Bank Job) directs. November Man has taken a very long road to the screen. Brosnan spent years trying to get it off the ground, and it looked finally set to start shooting back in 2012, but didn't end up going before cameras until 2013. Even then fans still wondered when they'd get to see it, since it was produced independently and didn't have a distributor lined up. But last month it got that distributor, and now it has a release date! And come August, we'll be seeing a film with the potential to launch a second Brosnan spy franchise.

The Muppets Go Spying

The new Muppet movie, Muppets Most Wanted, has a distinctly spyish flavor. Not only does this UK trailer feature fake James Bond music, but Sam the Eagle plays a CIA agent! (Of course the film is also tipping its hat to the best Muppets movie ever, 1981's The Great Muppet Caper, which featured Diana Rigg.) While we're on the subject of Muppets and spies, it's worth remember than Roger Moore appeared on the original Muppet Show (which was, of course, an ITC series like The Saint and The Persuaders!) and Pierce Brosnan appeared on the Nineties revival Muppets Tonight. In 1999, Brosnan was even attached to a Muppet movie that sadly never came to be. Frequent Kevin Smith collaborator Brian Lynch sold a spec script to The Jim Henson Company which would have seen the Muppets lured to solo Hollywood careers. Gonzo was to replace Brosnan as James Bond, and Brosnan would have played himself. It's a pity that film didn't happen.

Steve Coogan Shows Off His Bond Impressions on The Jonathan Ross Show

In The Trip, we saw Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden attempt to outdo each other with their hilarious Michael Caine impressions, and we saw Coogan do a terrific Roger Moore. On The Jonathan Ross Show last week, the British actor/comedian showed off his impressive impressions of other Bond actors. Coogan's Dalton leaves a lot to be desired (and sadly he doesn't do a Lazenby even though he claims to have every Bond actor but Craig in his repertoire), but his Moore and Brosnan are particularly spot-on. Check it out:



Coogan can currently be seen starring opposite former M actress Judi Dench in the Oscar-touted dramady Philomena. At one time he was linked (along with Ben Stiller) to play the Roger Moore role in a feature film remake of The Persuaders!, but sadly that never came to be. Coogan's career is littered with Bond reverence and references. His signature character Alan Partridge is obsessed with Roger Moore, and it's a running joke on the premiere of Coogan's first Partridge-centric series Knowing Me, Knowing You, that Moore fails to show up for an interview on Alan's chat show. In one of the most memorable episodes of the subsequent series, I'm Alan Partridge, Alan hilariously re-enacts the entirety of The Spy Who Loved Me for his friends when the VCR breaks.

Tradecraft: Busy Pierce Brosnan Spies Another Day

It looks like there will be more espionage in Pierce Brosnan's future after The November Man! Deadline reports that the former Bond star is among the impressive ensemble cast of Survivor, a new spy thriller directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin). Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element) stars as "a State Department employee newly posted to the American embassy in London where she is charged with stopping terrorists from getting into the U.S." She quickly finds herself at the center of an international conspiracy. Discredited and framed for crimes she didn't commit, and pursued by assassins, she's forced to go on the run and attempt to clear her name while preventing a large-scale terrorist attack on New York's Times Square New Year's Eve celebration. I love it! The plot sounds very, very Ludlumy. (Particularly similar to The Aquitaine Progression.) Hm, perhaps that's no coincidence. Irwin Winkler, who is currently adapting Ludlum's The Sigma Protocol, produces, with Charles Winkler, and Phil Shelby wrote the script. Could this be the same Philip Shelby who penned some of the Ludlum-inspired Covert One novels? (That's a paperback series published under the Ludlum brand with his name splashed across the cover in huge letters even over a decade after his death, but written, obviously, by other authors.) I wonder. Brosnan and his Love Punch co-star Emma Thompson round out the cast, along with Angela Bassett (Alias). I absolutely loved one McTeigue movie so far, V for Vendetta, but felt quite the opposite way about his follow-up, Ninja Assassin (review here). Hopefully he'll be in V form for Survivor! Shooting is scheduled to get underway January 20 in London.

Before then, Brosnan will shoot The Coup in Thailand, with cameras scheduled to finally roll later this month on a project we first heard about over a year ago which was originally supposed to film last fall. Owen Wilson stars in that one, as a father trying to get his family to safety when the Southeast Asian country they're living in erupts in a violent coup. Brosnan plays some sort of mysterious government operative... and you know I love it when Brosnan plays government operatives! Lake Bell joined the cast this week as well, according to The Hollywood Reporter. At some point between those two movies, Brosnan will also find time to squeeze in the dark comedy How to Make Love Like an Englishman, in which he plays a womanizing professor who finally meets his match. His After the Sunset co-star Salma Hayak just signed on this week to play that match (according to Deadline); Jessica Alba and Kristen Scott-Thomas also star. And some time in the future (presumably after Survivor), Brosnan will also star (Deadline reported last week) in I.T., a thriller he's co-producing through his company Irish DreamTime for Voltage Pictures. In that one, Pierce plays a successful book publisher who finds himself the target of a young disgruntled I.T. consultant who uses his tech savvy to ruin the publisher's life. Meanwhile, the busy Brosnan has two other films already wrapped and awaiting release (the aforementioned Love Punch and A Long Way Down, which reunites him with his Die Another Day co-star Rosamund Pike), made a scene-stealing surprise appearance in one of this summer's best comedies (due out on DVD this fall), and starred in the really wonderful Swedish romantic dramady Love Is All You Need, which just came out in America on DVD and Blu-ray. (Seriously, check this one out. It's surprisingly good.) And he found time to star in a Bondian pictorial (pictured) promoting fall 2013 menswear for Hackett of London shot by frequent 007 photographer Terry O'Neill! (That's also worth checking out, as it finally pairs a modern Bond with a modern Bentley, a match I've wanted to see for years.) Whew! That's quite an active schedule. Go Pierce!

Olga Kurylenko Signs on for Pierce Brosnan Spy Movie November Man (Updated)

The November Man (or possibly just "November Man" with no "The," depending on what source you trust), Pierce Brosnan's return to the world of spying (and potential second spy franchise in a perfect world!) is one of the projects on the horizon that I'm most excited about. But because it's being financed independently, I live in fear that it will fall through, and the longer we go without hearing any substantial news on the project, the more I start to fear. Luckily, my fears are pretty much allayed today! Because the project has an actual start date... and it's next week! According to Deadline, "shooting starts May 20 on the story of an ex-CIA operative who’s pitted against his former pupil in a race to find a woman who holds the key to an international conspiracy." Furthermore, the trade blog confirms what Contact Music first reported a few weeks ago: that former Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko is teaming up with the former Bond star. That's pretty cool! The November Man has long been a passion project for Brosnan (he's been trying to make it since at least 2005), so the solid start date must have made a great birthday present for the actor, who turned 60 this week.

The November Man, better known as Devereaux, is the hero of 13 books by Bill Granger. Strangely enough, this movie is not based on Granger’s 1979 novel of that title (the first in the Deveraux series), but on his 1986 entry (the seventh in the series), There Are No Spies. Roger Donaldson (no stranger to spies, having previously helmed The Bank Job and The Recruit) directs, and screenwriters Michael Finch (Predators) and Karl Gajdusek (Last Resort) penned the adaptation. Donaldson and Brosnan previously collaborated on Dante's Peak. I've never read any of Granger's books (which are sadly out of print), and I definitely need to rectify that before this movie comes out!

Brosnan, for his part, seems quite keen to return to the genre for which he's most famous. "I shall jump back into that arena," he excitedly told WENN (via Contact Music) while doing publicity for his latest movie, Love is All You Need. "I think there's ... room on the stage for another spy! Daniel [Craig] can't have it all to himself. My co-star is a lovely actress called Olga Kurylenko, who seems to be going through leading men like hot dinners. She started with Daniel Craig and she's gonna end up with Brosnan! She's a gorgeous actress, beautiful woman. She's in and it's the older spy, younger spy."

Dominic Cooper, who's playing Ian Fleming in the upcoming miniseries Fleming, was previously attached to this film as well, but it's unclear if he's still involved at this point. [UPDATE: It looks like he's out. Variety reports that the role he was set to play has been filled by Luke Bracey, an Australian actor who played Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.) Brosnan will next be seen spying in The Coup, opposite Owen Wilson.

Tradecraft: Pierce Brosnan Signs Onto IRA Assassin Thriller

More than a decade after his James Bond tenure came to an end, Pierce Brosnan keeps signing onto spyish international thrillers. I will happily watch him in any one of these that actually gets made; I just hope some of them manage to come to fruition! The Hollywood Reporter reports that Brosnan is now attached to a new assassin thriller co-scripted (somewhat oddly) by talk show host Craig Ferguson (along with Ted Mulkerin). Although Ferguson is the funniest guy in late night these days, the film is not a comedy. Last Man Out is based on the novel The Ghosts of Belfast (which, confusingly, is also known as The Twelve) by Stuart Neville. According to the trade, Brosnan will play Gerry Fegan, a former IRA hitman freshly released after serving 20 years in prison. Fegan finds himself haunted by the ghosts of his innocent victims, and decides that the only way to appease them, and to redeem himself, is to systematically assassinate the men who gave him his orders. It will be cool to see Brosnan actually play an Irishman, which he rarely gets to do! But he has played an IRA hitman before, very effectively. If only he'd been serving 30 years instead of 20, it would be tempting to view Last Man Out as an unofficial follow-up to The Long Good Friday, revisiting his assassin character from that film all this time later. The trade reports that U.K.-based "sales and finance banner" Ealing Metro is trying to sell the film (which has not been shot) at the Berlin Film Market this week. I hope they find a buyer, because it definitely sounds like something I'd like to see! Newcomer Terry Loan is on board to direct, with shooting hoped to commence at the end of this year.

Last Man Out isn't the only Brosnan thriller seeking distribution in Berlin. Additionally, Variety reports that The Solution Entertainment Group is hoping to sell the Roger Donaldson spy thriller The November Man (based on the novel There Are No Spies by Bill Granger) with Brosnan attached to star. We first heard about this one almost a year ago, and I'm very excited to see it happen, so I really hope SEG is successful as well! Meanwhile, there's at least one Brosnan thriller on the horizon that we'll definitely see: he's finished shooting The Coup, alongside Owen Wilson.

See Bond Pitted Against Bond

Brad Hansen, co-host of that epic Bondathon last year and creator of the excellent time-lapse video chronicling it, has edited a very clever new video pitting all the Bond actors against one another. It's quickly gone viral (including hitting the front page of Yahoo!), and deservedly so. Take a look, and be sure to watch all the way to the end, which might be the most brilliant bit.