Trailer: THE KING'S MAN (2020)

So far each Kingsman trailer has gotten me excited, and then each movie has disappointed me. But now they've done it again! Even after being burnt twice, I'm still on the edge of my seat waiting for director Matthew Vaughn's latest excursion into that world, this time a prequel set in the early 20th century. I'm a real sucker for WWI-era spy stories, and there are altogether too few. So despite my misgivings about the contemporary Kingsman movies, this trailer has me 100% on board for The King's Man!

The King's Man opens on Valentine's Day 2020, having moved into that slot (previously occupied by Bond 25, which then jumped to April) from fall 2019 after the Disney acquisition of Kingsman studio Fox.

Obviously none of the characters from the first two Kingsman movies, set in the present, appear in this one (which will depict the birth of the organization), so there's an all-new cast including Harris Dickinson (Trust) as Conrad, the WWI-era equivalent of Eggsy, Ralph Fiennes (Skyfall), Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), Rhys Ifans (Snowden), Matthew Goode (Cambridge Spies), Daniel Brühl (Captain America: Civil War), Djimon Hounsou (Alias), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), Charles Dance (For Your Eyes Only), and Tom Hollander (The Night Manager) in a triple role as Royal cousins King George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Tradecraft: New Mata Hari Miniseries in the Works with International Cast

French actress Vahina Giocante (Secret défense) will follow in the footsteps of Greta Garbo, Jeanne Moreau and Sylvia Kristel when she takes on the role of one of the most famous (if not particularly successful) spies of all time in a  new Russian-made miniseries Mata Hari. And The Hollywood Reporter reports that she'll be backed up by an impressive international cast including John Malkovich (RED), Rutger Hauer (The Osterman Weekend), Christopher Lambert (Fortress), Fedor Bondarchuk (The Spy), Kseniya Rappoport (The Double Hour) and, according to an IMDb listing, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's Svetlana Khodchenkova (who also memorably embodied Steranko's Madame Hydra in The Wolverine). American director Dennis Berry (The Saint: The Blue Dulac, Counterstrike) will helm the 12-part series, which is set to air on Russian state network First Channel and Ukraine's Inter in 2015. According to the trade, unsurprisingly, "an English-language version for the international market will also be shot, with Lisbon's well-preserved 19th- and 20th-century architecture providing locations along with St. Petersburg." With well-known names like Malkovich and Hauer in the cast, I would think this project will find the American distribution it's seeking. And if it does, I'll be sure to tune in!

Tradecraft: Warner Bros. Options Period Spy Adventure for Bradley Cooper

Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has optioned a forthcoming non-fiction WWI-era spy book by Howard Blum called Dark Invasion as a potential star vehicle for Oscar-nominated actor Bradley Cooper (Alias). Since it covers the first modern attacks on American soil, the book is set to be published on September 11. Here's how the trade blog describes Dark Invasion:

The book is a true spy thriller set in 1915 when Germany, with war raging in Europe and the U.S. still neutral, decides to send their Secret Service to America to wage a covert war to keep this country from helping the Allies. The Kaiser’s spies bomb factories, sabotage ships, shoot J.P. Morgan, Jr. (a financier of the Allies), bomb the U.S. Capitol Building, and set up an anthrax lab six miles from the White House.

According to Deadline, Cooper is attached to play New York Police Captain Tom Tunney, who’s credited with forming America's first Homeland Security task force to track down those German spies. So it sounds kind of like Gangster Squad, but with spy smashing. Which doesn't sound bad at all.