Editorial: Stars And Strikes

Last week, Sony celebrated as Paul Haggis turned in a finished draft of Bond 22 ahead of the impending writers’ strike. This week, the writers are on strike, and Haggis is walking the picket line outside Sony. And now he says the script’s not quite done. "They haven't gotten the polish finished yet," Haggis revealed to the Los Angeles Times, going on to call the dispute "another example of corporate greed" [on the part of the studios] and declare, "It's my job as a member of the Guild to be here." [on the picket lines]. So if what Haggis says is true, what does that mean for Bond 22? It means that Daniel Craig’s second Bond film, the all-important follow-up to the most critically-acclaimed entry in the series, the BAFTA-nominated Casino Royale, might go into production this January without the best possible script.

Would Danjaq cross the Writers’ Guild of America and get someone else to finish it? Would Michael G. Wilson (who must be a WGA member, what with all his writing credits on the Bond series) turn scab and polish the script himself? Are Purvis and Wade Guild members, being British? Even if they aren’t, I highly doubt they’d cross picket lines, even proverbial overseas ones. [UPDATE: The Literary 007 spotted an ad in Variety in which Purvis and Wade, along with Goldeneye scribes Bruce Feirstein and Michael France, vow to do no writing "until all writers get a fair and reasonable deal."] So that leaves the option of delaying production until after the end of the strike (which could potentially be a long way off), or going into production with an unpolished screenplay and no writer on set to make last-minute tweaks. Neither option should appeal to fans, but I certainly hope the producers would opt to delay the movie rather than make a potentially sub-par one, especially after everything they did to get the franchise back on track. That seems unlikely, however, as they would risk losing director Marc Forster if the schedule changes drastically, or losing both him and Daniel Craig if the directors and actors strike next summer when their contracts expire. Neither option is a pleasant scenario.

The only good thing for the future of the Bond franchise (and for all the other big movies going into production between now and next summer, for that matter), is for the WGA and the AMPTP (American Association of Movie and Television Producers) to resume talks, come to an agreement on a contract, and end the strike.

Which means that the studios will have to compromise, something they’ve not yet shown any inclination to do.

Paul Haggis is right, and as much as I want a new Bond movie in theaters on time next Christmas, I also believe that the writers’ demands are perfectly reasonable. (Learn more about what the writers want and why here.) The Double O Section whole-heartedly supports Haggis and the Writers Guild of America in their efforts to get a fair contract. Furthermore, I think it’s important for other fan sites to do the same.

Yesterday’s Hollywood Reporter aptly calls the strike "a battle for hearts and minds," and it’s true. A massive work stoppage, especially a long one, will affect the product in theaters and on television, and will ultimately affect every filmgoer and TV watcher in America. Both the WGA and the AMPTP are trying to make that seem like the fault of the other party, and so far the AMPTP seems to be doing a better job with getting timely press releases out. (And it certainly helps that most major newspapers and magazines that report on entertainment just happen to be owned by the same media conglomerates, like Fox and Time-Warner, that the AMPTP represents.) Therefore, it is important for fan sites, especially influential ones with larger readerships than my own, to support the writers, the creators of the very product they’re dedicated to. It’s important that the American public understand the reasons for the strike, and understand that it could all end if the studios would simply agree to pay writers some meager residuals for "new media reuse" of the creative material they create.

I’m really not sure right now how best to convey that stand to the studios (although Aintitcool has linked to a petition, for what it's worth), but the first step is clear to me: the fan community must vocally support the people who write the movies and shows that they are fans of.

In this case, that’s spy movies. So how will the strike affect upcoming spy movies and shows? Here’s a sampling:

Bond 22
Daniel Craig’s next movie is scheduled to begin shooting in January as of now, but writer Paul Haggis, one of the men responsible for the franchise’s successful reboot, claims it’s not ready. I’ve already covered the ramifications of that above.

24
Apparently there are eight episodes of 24 in the can. As the show’s format doesn’t really lend itself to airing just eight episodes and then disappearing for who knows how long, Fox has decided to delay the seventh season (which was set to bow in February) indefinitely. That means the popular spy show might end up skipping a whole season altogether, and we might not see any more of Jack Bauer until sometime during the 2008-09 season, depending on the duration of the strike. Also, with the shooting schedule thrown off by the strike, it’s unclear if star Kiefer Sutherland’s jail time for DUI will still be compatible. That may delay things further.

Burn Notice
USA’s runaway summer hit was supposed to start shooting its second season in January. Obviously, with writers not currently generating scripts, that will have to be delayed at least somewhat, or else rushed, even if the strike is resolved soon. Since it wasn’t set to start airing until next summer, Burn Notice has a little more leeway than 24, but if the strike continues until next June as some pessimists prognosticate, we might not learn who really burned Michael Weston for quite some time. Would USA air it in the fall instead if circumstances so dictated? I hope so. The alternatives (delaying till summer ‘09, or giving up on the series altogether) are not appealing.

Get Smart
Next summer’s tentpole comedy has already wrapped, but star Steve Carrell (a WGA member himself) has refused to cross picket lines on his hit show The Office, effectively shutting down production on the sitcom. Does that mean he would be unavailable for reshoots on Get Smart should they be deemed necessary? Honestly, I’m not sure. But it’s something to consider. It’s not uncommon for big studio comedies to undergo some reshoots, and I hate to think that director Peter Segal might not be able to deliver the best product possible because the studios refuse to throw a little money the writers’ way.

Dollhouse

In the initial Hollywood Reporter story on the new Eliza Dushku show, Joss Whedon said, "I'll hit the ground running, and I'll work until I'm supposed to, then I'll stop dead in my tracks and will pick up my picket signs. I think the issues are extremely serious, and I think the studios are extremely entrenched. No one wants a strike, but it has to happen because (the studios) would not listen. I support it and will do anything to fight for the creative rights that the people deserve." So I guess that means that development of the new series is delayed indefinitely. Luckily, this wasn't supposed to debut until Fall 2008, so there's plenty of time to get things worked out and get the show up and running.

(If you know how the strike is affecting other spy-related entertainment in production, please contact me so I can keep people up to date.)

Tradecraft: The Champions Return!

Variety reports some extremely unexpected, out of the blue - and fantastic! - spy news today: Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro will write and direct a big screen version of the classic Sixties ITC series The Champions for United Artists. The Champions is a terrific (if dated) lesser-known show from the ITC stables that ran from 1968-69 and starred Stuart Damon, William Gaunt and the stunningly beautiful Alexandra Bastedo (The Blood-Spattered Bride). They played secret agents whose plane crashed in the Himalayas, only to be rescued by an advanced civilization who not only healed them but imbued them with super powers. The trio worked for NEMESIS, an elite intelligence unit of the United Nations based in Geneva. They had to keep their powers a secret from everyone, from rival agents and organizations and even from their own boss. Del Toro has traditionally made only horror movies (and once said he had no interest in venturing outside of that genre), including the Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth last year. The fantastic element of The Champions probably appeals to him, and it's great to see him lured into the secret agent genre! Among his horror movies is Blade II, in which he demonstrated a true gift for action scenes. Hellboy successfully blended that talent with the rich characterizations characteristic of his Spanish language work. Hopefully The Champions will provide another such opportunity.

The first half of The Champions' only season (it ran for thirty episodes) is available on DVD in the US from A&E, but it's been available for years and there's still no sign of Volume 2. (Maybe the movie will prove the impetus for them to release the rest, but that's still years away.) In England, Network DVD released the whole series in a lavish special edition complete with actor interviews, commentaries, the Legend of the Champions TV movie which was cobbled out of existing episodes in the early '80s, and a new documentary. The Champions is one of the shows covered in James Chapman's excellent book Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series of the 1960s.

Man From U.N.C.L.E. Movie Marathon

Video WatchBlog points out that TCM is running a marathon today of all the Man From U.N.C.L.E. films, which are not currently available on DVD in the US, and are not all included in TimeLife's eagerly anticipated upcoming DVD set of the TV show. The movies are, of course, cobbled together out of TV episodes, but Tim Lucas reveals that there's more to them than that, and provides an excellent guide as to which movies are airing when and what they have to offer that's different from their TV counterparts. Why not just head on over there and check it out?

New Spy DVDs

Help Is Here!

The Beatles' own Sixties spy spoof is finally available on DVD today! Help! stars the Fab Four along with The Prisoner's Leo McKern and features a groovy spy score by producer George Martin, channelling John Barry and prefiguring his own 1973 Bond score for Live and Let Die. The 2-disc set features some nifty packaging and lots of cool extras, including a documentary, a deleted scene, radio spots, featurettes and more. Snap this one up quick because Beatles DVDs have a nasty habit of going out of print.

James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set

For anyone who hasn't already bought all the James Bond 2-disc Special Editions released by Fox/MGM last fall in four box sets, now is the time to get a great deal on all four. Fox has bundled them all up in a big ugly box, along with Sony's DVD of the 2006 Casino Royale.

Dangerous Deal

Best Buy's early, early Christmas deals include a great price on A&E's recently issued Dangermouse: The Complete Series. Fans of classic spy animation can pick up all ten seasons' worth of adventures of "the world's smallest secret agent" for just $65.

BLOGIVERSARY: The List Revisited
Revisiting a list made one year ago as the inaugural post on this blog.

4. Nick Fury

Marvel has just released a beautiful hardcover collection of Nick Fury’s earliest adventures as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., culled from the pages of Strange Tales. Marvel Milestones: Nick Fury: Vol. 1 reprints classic material by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and the legendary creator who made Fury his own, Jim Steranko. It’s a pricey volume (so I’ll probably hold off until Christmas), but its archival quality makes it essential for any serious Sixties spy collection. Some of the material reprinted here predates the stories that appear in Marvel’s must-have Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. trade paperback, which begins with Steranko’s first issue.

In the modern-day Marvel Universe, the eye-patched superspy is still MIA, as far as I know. I’ve fallen behind on the titles he might pop up in, Captain America and Iron Man (even though both were in the middle of very impressive runs, particularly Cap), but I haven’t heard otherwise. I hope this lengthy absence means he’s poised to make a triumphant return to comics sometime next year. In the meantime, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) has filled his shoes as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Stark enjoys a particularly spy-heavy adventure in this month's Iron Man Annual, which is said to be inspired by early Bond films and Steranko’s run on Nick Fury. Fury may or may not be played Samuel L. Jackson (on whom the "Ultimate Universe" version of the character is modeled in the comics) in next spring’s (awesome-looking) Iron Man movie, and occasionally we hear about possible movement on a solo movie for Nick.

BLOGIVERSARY: The List Revisited
Revisiting a list made one year ago as the inaugural post on this blog.

3. Greg Rucka

A year ago I was excited because issue 31 of Rucka’s phenomenal spy comic book Queen & Country (which at the time I called "the best current, ongoing spy saga in any medium") had just come out after a long delay. I’m sorry to report that since then, only one additional issue has materialized, part three of a four part storyline. That story, "Operation Red Panda," is set to be collected this month, so hopefully that means that the final issue, #33, will be on shelves before that time. As much as I love the series, I’ve actually given up on reading the individual issues because so much time goes by between them that I forget the whole plot up until that point. (They’re often pretty complex plots, too.) So I am looking forward to reading "Operation Red Panda" in its entirety this winter, but sadly don’t foresee any additional Q&C stories for quite some time. Rucka has given some fairly credible reasons for wanting to hold off before the next arc, but the fan in me really can’t wait. Hopefully we’ll at least see Queen & Country heroine Tara Chace in another novel before the next comic appears! In the meantime, Rucka’s slate is pretty full. In addition to writing scads of comics for DC (including the espionage-themed CheckMate which simply requires too much knowledge of the DC universe for me to follow, as much as I’d like to), he’s got another series on tap for Q&C publisher Oni Press called Stumptown. Although he describes it as taking place in the same world as Queen & Country (which is intriguing), he’s switching genres (and continents) on us. Stumptown is an American private detective series which the author describes as being "about as realistic as most private eye stories are going to be, which is to say not at all. Because, frankly, actual investigation work is pretty tedious and undramatic." Just as he’s frequently admitted to (very successfully) modeling Queen & Country on the sublime spy TV series Sandbaggers, Rucka cites The Rockford Files and one of my all-time favorites, Magnum PI, as being the primary influences on Stumptown. I’m sure it will be a great comic book and I look forward to it, but all the while I’ll be yearning for Q&C.

One thing that won't fill that void is the movie of Rucka's graphic novel Whiteout, due in theaters next year. Tara Chace (or Lilly Sharpe as she was known back then) has been cut out of the film version, replaced by a male character. Rucka assured audiences at last summer's San Diego Comic-Con that the movie would still retain an espionage element (personified by this new, male character), and argued that the change better served the plot by making main character Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) the only woman in the all-male world of Antarctica.

Luckily, Oni isn’t leaving Tara Chace out in the cold. They’re replacing the old trade paperback collections with new, longer compendiums of three or four stories per single, affordable volume, as opposed to just one. These new "Definitive Editions" will be a great opportunity for spy fans who haven’t yet done so to discover the amazing world of Queen & Country!

Random Intelligence Dispatches For November 3, 2007

Tradecraft: New Joss Whedon Spy Show!

Just before the writers' strike was called, Fox made public a deal with Buffy the Vampire Slayer mastermind Joss Whedon for a new TV series called The Dollhouse. The Dollhouse stars Buffy alum Eliza Dushku as one of a small group of secret agents who are reprogrammed for each assignment with different memories, abilities and an entirely new personality. "After each assignment," says Variety, "...the characters have their memories wiped clean, and are sent back to a lab (dubbed the 'Dollhouse'). Show centers on Dushku's character, Echo, as she slowly begins to develop some self-awareness, which impacts her missions." The network has given the series a seven episode commitment. I'm a huge fan of Whedon's previous work, and can't wait to see him turn his attention to the (sort of) spy genre! I just hope the strike doesn't seriously impact plans for this show.

Casino Royale 40th Anniversary DVD NOT Out Next Week

Despite some recent excitement over an updated Amazon listing with a November 8, 2007 release date for Fox/MGM's upcoming Casino Royale 40th Anniversary Edition DVD, I'm sorry to report that a Fox spokesman has confirmed that the title is definitely delayed until next year (when it will no longer be the 40th anniversary of the Peter Sellers/David Niven/Woody Allen spoof). My contact didn't provide any details as to why, but it's easy to speculate. Perhaps EON Productions, who've long made clear their desire to have no association between their legitimate series of James Bond movies and those red-headed stepchildren, Casino Royale ('67) and Never Say Never Again, requested that Fox not release the title to coincide with the release of their James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set this Tuesday.

Kaleidoscope Soundtrack Issued On CD

Speaking of Casino Royale, the '67 all-star spoof wasn't the only movie of its time to loosely borrow a plot from Ian Fleming's novel of that name! The 1966 Warren Beatty vehicle Kaleidoscope also takes the book's central device of British Intelligence sending a man in to bankrupt an enemy by beating him at cards... and plays it straighter than the Sellers version. Kaleidoscope is quite a fun little Swinging Sixties spy movie, co-starring Susannah York and the great spy character actor Clive Revill (Fathom, Modesty Blaise). Memorable Prisoner Number 2 Eric Porter plays the Le Chiffre role. It's certainly essential viewing for Ian Fleming fans for its unauthorized use of his famous plot, which was close enough to warrant coverage in the first published study of the Bond films, John Brosnan's James Bond in the Cinema. Unfortunately, I'm not mentioning all this because the movie is coming out on DVD (although it really should, WB!), but at least its soundtrack is officially available. The score by Stanley Myers, who also composed the music for another great Swinging London spy movie, Otley, is a fantastic fusion of Barry and Bacharach sounds, ideal Sixties spy/caper music. FSM recently released it on CD paired with Johnny Keating's music for Hotel. (I'm unfamiliar with that movie, although it starred The Liquidator himself, Rod Taylor.) I burnt my LP of the score onto CD a while ago and have listened to it often enough that I'm certainly eager to upgrade! It's good background sound when you're in a mod spy mood.

BLOGIVERSARY: The List Revisited
Revisiting a list made one year ago as the inaugural post on this blog.

2. Roger Moore

There’s been no lack of Roger Moore coverage here on the Double O Section of late. In October, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (pictures here) days before his 80th birthday. Unlike Sean Connery (three years his junior), he hasn’t retired from acting; in fact, he recently returned to the spy genre by lending his voice to the Thunderbirds-style puppet animation Bond spoof Agent Crush, which is due out... next year, maybe? (There's a full trailer here, along with the news that current Bond composer David Arnold provides the theme, joining other Bond alum on the project.) Best of all, Sir Roger recently announced his autobiography! Anyone who’s heard his witty, self-deprecating, highly amusing audio commentaries on his Bond movies or on The Persuaders! knows what a great raconteur he is, and knows that he still remembers all sorts of fascinating details about his career and co-stars as if they happened yesterday. Hopefully the book, which is being ghost-written by his long-time assistant and author of The Pinewood Story, Gareth Owen, will achieve the same effect. It’s tentatively titled My Word Is My Bond. This won’t be the first time Moore has written about his 007 experiences, however. In 1973 he published Roger Moore's James Bond Diary, written on the set of Live And Let Die.

Additionally, the American Cinema-theque in Los Angeles is planning a celebration of Moore's Bond films at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica this winter to follow up on their success-ful series of Connery and Lazenby Bonds earlier this year.

Happy Birthday, John Barry

John Barry, the man most responsible for "the James Bond sound" and, consequently, the entire "spy sound" that took its lead from his queues, is 74 today. Barry was born on November 3, 1933, in York, England. He scored eleven James Bond films: From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With the Golden Gun, Moonraker, Octopussy, A View To A Kill and The Living Daylights. Other estimable contributions to the spy soundscape include the superb Ipcress File, The Quiller Memorandum, The Tamarind Seed, Raise the Titanic!, Enigma and the memorable themes for such TV series as The Persuaders! and The Adventurer. Sadly, 2001's Enigma remains his last film score to date, spy or otherwise. He's been attached to several high-profile projects since then (including The Incredibles, which ended up with a fantastic Barry tribute score by Alias composer Michael Giacchino), but none of them have come to fruition. Here's hoping he creates another fantastic score in the near future!

The long-awaited new book on the composer, John Barry: The Man With the Midas Touch, by noted Barry experts Geoff Leonard, Pete Walker and Gareth Bramley, is supposed to be out sometime this fall, though past release dates have come and gone. Whenever it finally materializes, I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

BLOGIVERSARY: The List Revisited

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to revisit my spy list from a year ago and look at what's happened to those people or characters in the past twelve months, and maybe touch on some news I haven't previously covered. Naturally, I'll begin at the beginning:

1. Daniel Craig

It’s been a good year for Daniel Craig. Following rave reviews for his 007 performance in Casino Royale, he’s become one of the most in-demand actors out there. Right now he’s living every actor’s dream, alternating between big Hollywood projects like Ed Zwick’s WWII resistance epic Defiance and smaller, more personal independent films like Flashbacks of a Fool (stretching to play a big Hollywood movie star), which he’s currently shooting (alongside Spooks/MI-5 star Keeley Hawes) in South Africa for music video director Baillie Walsh. And, of course, he has Bond 22 on the horizon, slated to start lensing in January. Thanks to the tremendous buzz he generated in his first outing as the superspy, this is probably the most anticipated new Bond film in decades, leading him to an incredibly lucrative contract for three additional Bonds after that. The only film he’s yet had released since Casino Royale was the Body Snatchers remake The Invasion (with Royale co-star Jeffrey Wright and Nicole Kidman), which flopped this past summer. Luckily for him, we can’t really measure his post-Bond success from that one, as it was actually made before he landed the coveted spy role and shelved for nearly a year. The first post-Royale role we’ll see from him will be in New Line’s fantasy epic The Golden Compass, adapted from the beloved bestseller and due out this December. (Coincidentally, Craig plays the same role that Timothy Dalton played on the London stage!) The Golden Compass reunites Craig with Kidman and Bond Girl Eva Green, and looks fantastic from the trailer. It’s also spawned a terrifically detailed action figure line from Corgi, in which the actor’s plastic likeness is captured for the first (but hopefully not last!) time.

Happy
Blog-iversary, Double O Section:
One Year Old Today

Today, the Double O Section has been around for one year. It’s hard to believe! It’s been a good year for spies. When I started this blog, Casino Royale was looming on the horizon, and Daniel Craig was still an unknown quantity. The two-disc special edition Bond DVDs weren’t out yet. No seasons of Mission: Impossible existed on DVD! A lot’s changed, and it’s all been covered here. Many of those things I just mentioned figured heavily in my very first set of posts, a list of the seven top spy-related people or things on my mind a year ago. At the time, I vowed to do more such lists, but never really did. It might be a nice idea to do one a year, a sort of "state of the union of spying," but I don’t have another one prepared right now. Instead, over the next few days, I'll revisit that original list and check in on those people and things one year on...

Random Intelligence Dispatches For October 30, 2007

Tradecraft: Bond 22 Script Done

In a story about the impending Writers' Guild strike on the cover of today's Hollywood Reporter, it's revealed that Paul Haggis has delivered his completed draft of the next James Bond movie to anxious Sony Executives. If the writers strike on Thursday, Haggis won't be able to do any further work on the script. But since he's finished, hopefully the movie will be unaffected by any strike and proceed on schedule. If there's still work to be done, I wonder if producer Michael G. Wilson would do it himself? He's got a number of Bond writing credits under his belt, but I doubt he'd want to piss off the Guild. An interesting prospect to consider, nonetheless.

Poor Pierce Goes Direct To DVD

I hope this isn't indicative of where Pierce Brosnan's post-007 career is headed. His latest movie, which he also produced through his Irish Dreamtime production company, is going direct-to-DVD in the United States, courtesy of Lionsgate. Formerly titled Butterfly On A Wheel, the movie has had its title changed to the infinitely more generic (and more direct-to-DVD sounding) Shattered. It's also been given an awful cover that fails to elevate it above the direct-to-DVD status. See the details at DVDActive. That's really too bad. I can't speak for this film because I haven't seen it, but Brosnan deserves better. Based on his recent performances in Seraphim Falls and, particularly, The Matador, I can't imagine he fails to give it his all as a murderous kidnapper. Furthermore, co-star Gerard Butler should have been able to get this movie theatrical bookings on the success of 300! What a shame. The DVD hits stores Christmas Day, and features a director commentary and some deleted scenes. Retail is $26.98.

The Equalizer Finally Comes To DVD

One of the last 80s action shows still unavailable on DVD will finally be released by Universal on February 12, 2008, reports TVShowsOnDVD.com. Callan star Edward Woodward plays McCall, a former British Intelligence operative who goes to work for "The Company," using his unique skill set to right wrongs and generally equalize things. 24 mastermind Joel Surnow contributed a number of scripts, and got his start as a producer on this show. All twenty-two Season One episodes will be included on Universal's 5-disc set, which will cost $49.98.

Dr. No Gets Limited Theatrical Re-Release

As part of United Artists' 90th Anniversary celebration (aren't they jumping the gun by a decade on the festivities?), there will be part a travelling film festival including Dr. No. It will come to twenty cities around the US, playing in arthouse theaters. Other titles on the bill will be A Fistfull of Dollars, Annie Hall and Rocky. Dr. No also features in a recently issued collection of UA titles including Fistfull and The Pink Panther, and may be included in a massive ninety-film collection released this Christmas.

Moneypenny Diaries Plot Revealed

The Literary 007, a fantastic new blog from the creators of the excellent Young Bond Dossier on all things bookish and Bond, has landed a plot description for Samantha Weinberg's third and final novel in the Moneypenny Diaries series. (Minor SPOILERS follow for people who haven't yet read the first two volumes.) Final Fling is set in 1964 and '65, and some major events impact the Bond universe. Apparently Bond gets sacked, Moneypenny demoted, and M forced to resign! I'm glad to see that Weinberg is taking advantage of not being bound to Fleming texts for those years (the last two entries having been closely tied in with Fleming's You Only Live Twice and The Man With the Golden Gun), but I wonder how this will all work with Sebastian Faulkes' Devil May Care, which is set in 1967. Are the series meant to stand entirely on their own? That would be kind of strange, since The Moneypenny Diaries is already tied in with Charlie Higson's Young Bond series. Maybe everything will return to the status quo by the end of Final Fling, but that seems somewhat unlikely based on the build-up involving present-day events in the first two volumes. Curious! I really can't wait for this book.

Austin Powers 10th Anniversary Edition

DVDActive has pictures of a new Region 2 10th Anniversary Edition of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and Amazon.co.uk has it for sale. The disc comes out December 3. There is no word yet on an American version, but I wouldn't be surprised if Region 1 gets this disc as well. It's strange that New Line hasn't revisited the title earlier. Unfortunately, there's surprisingly not a lot of new material on this release, save for a 17-minute featurette called "Austin Powers: A Shaggadelic Decade," an Interactive Quiz and a snazzy new cover that's extraoridinarily reminiscent of the Region 1 cover of Jason King! Appropriate, since Powers probably owes more to King than any of the many other spies he, um, borrows from. I think Meyers even cites Jason King on the commentary track from the original DVD release, which is still included, along with all the other original features.

New Spy DVDs

Today is a huge day for spy-related DVD releases!

The Company

First, and most directly spy-related, is Sony’s two-disc release of the Ridley Scott-produced TNT miniseries The Company, based on the book by Robert Littell. Chris O’Donnell stars as a young man caught up in the early days of the CIA; the great Alfred Molina plays his mentor, and Michael Keaton plays real-life spy hunter James Jesus Angleton. Angleton is, of course, the historical figure upon whom Matt Damon’s character was based in The Good Shepherd, and based on the special features (I haven’t had a chance to watch the miniseries itself yet), The Company looks to have a lot in common with that film. Not only does it cover many of the same actual events and feature the same characters (whom The Good Shepherd vaguely fictionalized), but it also looks very much the same, art direction-wise, and sounds the same, as Jeff Beal’s music is quite reminiscent of Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos’. Of course, my major complaint about The Good Shepherd was that, as long as it was, it was too short for the story it was trying to tell, so perhaps The Company fares better over three two-hour episodes. In one of the two making-of featurettes, producer Scott mentions some rival stories in production (The Good Shepherd and what else?), but he and John Calley proceeded undaunted, with a script by Black Hawk Down scribe Ken Nolan. Although relatively brief, both featurettes are worth watching, and fans of Littell’s books will be interested in Nolan’s comments on adapting one of them.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume 1

Regular readers certainly know how excited I am about this release, as I’ve written quite a lot about it in the past. I think this show was probably my most anticipated DVD of 2007, and Volume 1 is finally here! Twelve discs of historical Indiana Jones adventure, and dozens of meticulously-produced documentaries on the subjects featured in the episodes. Volume 1 doesn’t actually get into the lengthy espionage stage of Young Indy’s career, but it lays the groundwork for it. Going in chronological order (rather than the order in which they originally aired), this set features five adventures of the 9-year-old Indiana Jones (played by Cory Carrier), and two of the teenage adventurer, played by Sean Patrick Flannery. Each “episode,” however, is really a new movie-length adventure, made up of two actual television episodes put together. The original series, then titled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, ran as hour-long episodes on ABC from 1992-93, and featured wrap-around segments with an elderly Indiana Jones (George Hall) recalling his exploits. These segments are not featured on the DVDs. The movie length seems appropriate, though, since the big name directors and guest stars, exceptionally high production values, and breathtaking location photography (shot in thirty-five countries around the world!) gave the series a very filmic quality.

The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 2

There are no spy movies to be found in Anchor Bay’s second box set of Bava films (the director’s Danger: Diabolik is available as a Special Edition from Paramount, and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs has yet to see a DVD release, although I believe Fox/MGM own the rights), but plenty of other genres are represented, from giallo to gothic to Western to sex comedy. Best of all, this box sees the reissue of two-and-a-half long out-of-print ELKE SOMMER movies, Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil! (The half is accounted for by House of Exorcism, an appalling version of Lisa re-cut by producer Alfredo Leone into an Exorcist knock-off.) Regular readers are no doubt familiar with my feelings on the sexy spy star Sommer, and her co-star in Lisa and the Devil (the Devil himself) is no less than the very best Blofeld, Telly Savalas. Her equally charming Deadlier Than the Male partner, Sylva Koscina, also appears. Ms. Sommer contributes a commentary track to House of Exorcism, and Tim Lucas does to four others.

Executive Action

Finally, Warner Bros. releases a catalog title today long in demand by fans of the Seventies conspiracy breed of spy movie: Executive Action, starring Burt Lancaster. Executive Action offers a believable, documentary-style account of a sinister plot behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Book Review: James Bond Encyclopedia

For a while, Bond fans could always look forward to a new, official, lavish, fully-illustrated coffee table book on their hero to coincide with each new movie. But now, they don’t even have to wait for a new movie; they can pretty much expect one every year! The latest officially-sanctioned offering is James Bond Encyclopedia (no "The," strangely), by John Cork and Collin Stutz. Cork is one of the constants on these books (along with the same assortment of official publicity stills), having co-authored The James Bond Legacy and Bond Girls Are Forever, as well as producing the fantastic special features on all the Special Edition Bond DVDs and publishing Goldeneye, the now defunct official magazine of the Ian Fleming Foundation, during the nineties. After sitting out last year’s Art of James Bond (by Laurent Bouzereau), he’s back on the case with this one. It’s a wonder he has anything left to say on the subject of 007, but his name is a mark of assured quality, and a good indication the book you’re holding will be accurate and as error-free as humanly possible.

Cork and Stutz have put a lot of research into this volume, managing to offer up a few nuggets that will surprise even the most dedicated of fans, and even readers of Cork’s previous books. (Plenty of the information will be familiar, too, but that’s to be expected of a book such as this.) Frustratingly, owing to the nature of the encyclopedia, they don’t provide sources for much of this information. For example, they say that Carter, 007's associate in Madagascar at the beginning of Casino Royale (listed in the "Supporting Cast" section), was bitten by the cobra in the pit and died from the bite. The movie certainly doesn’t make his fate clear, and I’ve always wondered what happened to him. So it’s good to know, but I’m curious as to from where they got that information! Is it stipulated in the screenplay? Is it gleaned from viewing scenes cut from the final film? Some form of sourcing would be appreciated.

In a similar instance, the biography in their entry on James Bond himself is well-written and a great capsule for someone just getting their feet wet in Bondian waters. But again, they don’t reveal where much of the information comes from. I can identify some bits as coming from certain movies (the "First in Oriental languages at Cambridge" bit is obviously from You Only Live Twice, although Raymond Benson did a good job of reconciling it in his novelization of Tomorrow Never Dies with the schooling Fleming provided for Bond... so I guess they’re not using novelizations as sources here...), and a lot from the dossier on Bond that was available on the official website around the release of Casino Royale, but not everything!

Perhaps the authors are simply picking, choosing and embellishing, doing their own reconciling of multiple conflicting sources. If that’s the case, though, I’d like to know. Speaking of reconciling, they come up with a good excuse for the differing birth dates listed for Commander Bond in various places (6 May, 1961 on the medical records in The World Is Not Enough, 13 April, 1968 on the passport in Casino Royale, etc.): As 007 is a spy, the documents are usually cover papers, and it’s hard to say if any actually reflect his true birthday! (They explain that the April 13 date in Casino Royale was chosen because that was the day on which Fleming’s Casino Royale was first published in 1953, one of those nifty facts I hadn’t known.)

As you may have gathered from the birthday example, most of the entries treat the characters (like Bond) as if they were real people, focusing on what Cork and Stutz, in their introduction, call "the world inside the Bond adventures." So the information you find under the entry "Anya Amasova," for example, will be that she "arrives in Moscow after a period of leave with her KGB agent lover..." and not that she was dreamed up by Christopher Wood in the second draft of his screenplay for The Spy Who Loved Me or something. (I’m making up that bit about the second draft, by the way, but I would be interested in knowing the truth.) So, personally, I would have preferred a book that gave production information about all the characters, and treated them as fictional creations rather than real people. But that sort of take has been done many times before (including in Stephen Jay Rubin’s Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia), so perhaps a fresh approach is a good thing.

Confusingly, though, the authors don’t fully embrace even that approach. They sometimes break the "fourth wall" to reveal a behind-the-scenes tidbit, or continuity reboot, and there are also entries on the filmmakers, in their own sidebars. The authors could have had more fun with the conceit, as Andrew Pixley did with his The Avengers Files, a similar alphabetical listing which treated all the characters as if they were real people, but gave extensive information on their creators as "chroniclers" in elaborate footnotes (which also listed the sources for all information provided).

I’ve spent a lot of time detailing shortcomings that amount to personal preference and nitpicking. Of course, when there have been as many books on the subject of the Bond films as there have, that’s really the kind of stuff a reviewer has to tackle! But for someone who hasn’t read loads of other volumes on the topic, James Bond Encyclopedia is a great place to start. It fills a void in the current market as an "introductory" book on Bond movies. If you’re not prepared to delve into as much gloriously obsessive detail as offered in James Bond: The Legacy, but still want broader coverage than found in the more specific Bond Girls Are Forever or The Art of James Bond, then this is the ideal place to start. Furthermore, the same goes for its pictures. It may not offer a lot that dedicated readers haven’t seen before, but it does offer a truly amazing assortment of handsome, color images in one place, as lavishly illustrated as any DK book. The layout, typical of the publisher, is truly beautiful, and helps suck the reader into the page. This aspect is certainly an improvement over Rubin’s volume, which provided only black and white stills.

Even if their choices on how to arrange the book are questionable, Cork and Stutz have been successful in differentiating their book from Rubin’s, which is definitely a good thing. Precisely because it’s arranged differently, reading it is an entirely different experience. The authors are completely successful at the goal they set for themselves in their introduction: "We have tried to have fun with this book and make it somewhat like James Bond’s world. The enjoyment is not in the logic, but in the discovery, the visual sweep, and the intricate details." It’s similar to reading the source books for the 80s James Bond roleplaying game. You can flip through pages and pages of weapons, then browse the fictional biographies of Bond Girls. You don’t read it cover-to-cover, as you might The Legacy, and you don’t necessarily flip to a specific entry as you would with Rubin’s Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia. A different reading experience is definitely enough for me to recommend this book to Bond completists as well as neophytes, especially when it’s so beautifully produced.

The Authorised Biography of 007... And A Long Lost Young Bond Appearance

The Authorised Biography of 007... And A Long Lost Young Bond Appearance

I've only briefly mentioned the recent British reissue of John Pearson’s James Bond: The Authorised Biography (as it's now titled), seeing it as just another edition of the book, hardly worth noticing. True, it’s been out of print for nearly twenty years, but it wasn’t too difficult to track down used copies. (It was issued at least twice in paperback in the US, and once in hardcover; there was also at least one of each in Britain.) However, Century, the publishers of this newest hardback edition, have managed to promote the 1973 book better than Ian Fleming Publications or John Murray have done with the latest official James Bond continuations, Samantha Weinberg’s The Moneypenny Diaries.*

CommanderBond.net has been tracking the reviews in the British press, and there have been at least two prominent ones so far, which is sadly two more than the very deserving first instalment of Weinberg’s series, Guardian Angel. Century seem to be pushing The Authorised Biography as a new novel (no doubt to cash in on the UK success of Charlie Higson’s similarly-themed Young Bond series), and their misleading campaign managed to fool The Daily Mail’s critic at first. Writing for the paper, Marcus Berkmann admits, "It's all really a huge extended gag, but meticulously and lovingly researched," but goes on to conclude, "The problem, curiously, is Bond himself. Pearson writes wonderfully well about the charismatic Fleming, but his 007 is strangely colourless. This is, after all, supposed to be literature's ultimate Alpha Male, but Pearson's Bond comes over as a collection of mannerisms and slightly bufferish attitudes. Even David Niven got closer to the character than that." Ouch!

Sinclair McKay of The Telegraph was far more impressed, praising Pearson’s effort as "a clever, bittersweet disquisition on what becomes of our heroes. But more than this, it is also a shrewd running critical commentary on Fleming, going some way to explain the outbreaks of bleakness and sourness in the original novels, and also ingeniously explaining away a lot of their absurdity. It is an enjoyable exercise in having cake and eating it." That latter review frankly made me want to revisit the book myself! And it makes me think that this new edition is a little bit more important than a simple reissue (even from a collector’s standpoint) if its garnering such attention. I can’t imagine IFP are very pleased about that, since Pearson’s book directly contradicts events in their two current Bond series, Young Bond and The Moneypenny Diaries, and probably in Sebastian Faulkes’ highly-publicized upcoming Bond novel. (At least that one’s sure to get noticed by the critics!)

James Bond: The Authorised Biography by John Pearson (author of The Life of Ian Fleming) is now the only continuation novel in print other than those in the two aforementioned series put out by the new regime at IFP. None of Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner or Raymond Benson’s books are currently available. Personally, while I fully appreciate the focus on Fleming’s own works, I believe all the books should be reprinted. Omnibus editions would be a good idea (since there are so damn many of them!), with markedly different covers from the current Fleming line, so as to avoid confusion with the official, canonical, original product.

It should be noted that James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 (as it was originally published in England by Sidgwick & Jackson, complete with the American spelling) was not the only fictional spy biography published in the Seventies, nor the only one to feature James Bond! In 1977, Weidenfeld & Nicolson published John Steed: An Authorized Biography: Volume I: Jealous in Honour by Tim Held. At Eton, the young Steed encounters not only Patrick Macnee (invoking the same sort of deceptive co-existence of the real and the fictional found in Pearson's book), but also a very different James Bond than the one portrayed in Charlie Higson's books or Pearson's:

One factor which seems to have contributed to John's unhappiness at this time was the bullying which was an unfortunate feature of life in the school - or at least in those circles in which Steed moved. The main bully was a boy called Bond, later to achieve a certain notoriety in a career not totally unlike Steed's. Indeed their paths were to cross several times in adult life, seldom with profitable results. Although Bond was only two or so years older than Steed (a fact which will doubtless be disputed by Bond and his cronies) he was a great deal bigger. One of his fetishes was to make smaller boys stir his evening mug of cocoa for him, just as in later life he was to make a laughable affectation out of his insistence on dry martini cocktails being stirred rather than shaken. One day he demanded that Steed perform this service. Steed refused. Bond again insisted.

'Who the hell do you think you are?' enquired Steed, suggesting at the same time that he should pick on someone his own size.

'Bond, James Bond,' replied the bully, clearly expecting young Steed to fall grovelling at his feet.

'Well, Bond,' said Steed evenly,'If you'd like to present yourself behind the Fives Courts by Jordan in half an hour's time I'll show you in the only language you apparently understand, precisely why I have no intention of stirring your rotten cocoa.'

Alas, poor Bond! He had never heard of the Bodger business at Lydeard Lodge. Thirty minutes later he was waiting behind the fives courts, aglow with cocky truculence. Thirty-five minutes later he was being half dragged home by two of his familiars, his jaw and his ego both equally badly bruised. Yet even this success made little difference to Steed's happiness. He continued to find Eton not to his taste.

John Steed: An Authorized Biography was only published in one edition, never to be reprinted. It is very hard to come by today, and sought by both Avengers and Bond collectors.

*I chalk up the lack of critical interest in The Moneypenny Diaries to an idiotic initial marketing strategy that backfired horribly. For some reason, IFP let John Murray pretend like they had acquired "real" documents, belonging to the "REAL" Miss Moneypenny and telling the "truth" about James Bond. While the literary conceit works in the context of the books (a conceit established by Ian Fleming in a jokey throw-away line in You Only Live Twice, and first exploited by Pearson), attempting to fool mainstream media and the public into believing such a ridiculous story was a grievous error in judgement. I suspect it led instead to critics writing off Ms. Weinberg’s impressive novel as a joke, or something for die-hard Bond fans only (many of whom were also alienated by the lame ploy), and not for general consumption. Both beliefs are fallacies. Weinberg’s Moneypenny Diaries (published under the pseudonym of "Kate Westbrook") are legitimate novels worthy of critical notice, and excellent additions to the Bond canon.

Book Review: HURRICANE GOLD by Charlie Higson (2007)

Book Review: Hurricane Gold

Under a shiny gold cover, Charlie Higson’s third Young Bond novel finds the 14-year-old James Bond far from the safety of Eton, where his adventures usually begin. James is accompanying his aunt Charmian (a Fleming creation mentioned in You Only Live Twice, but fleshed out by Higson to be an anthropologist) on an expedition to Mexico in 1934. A powerful storm forces Charmian to deposit James in the company of two bratty siblings, JJ and Precious Stone (I’m surprised Fleming himself didn’t think of that one!), while she flies off into the jungle with the children’s father, WWI air ace Jack Stone. While James is holed up with the spoiled siblings, a vicious gang of thieves break into their house in the middle of the storm and take Precious and JJ hostage in a Key Largo scenario. And all that happens in just the first few chapters!

Hurricane Gold could be seen as Higson’s homage to Doctor No, with most of the action taking place on the run through the jungle, culminating in a diabolical obstacle course very similar to that of the good doctor. However, it ultimately owes more to Indiana Jones (specifically Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) than to any James Bond book or film. One breathless escape leads directly into another, filling the book with pretty much wall-to-wall action. The plot of Higson’s last Bond novel, Double or Die, was driven by a complex puzzle, a coded message that James and his friends needed to decipher. Clearly, the author wanted to go in the exact opposite direction with his next book, requiring no puzzle-solving–and very little thought whatsoever!–of his young hero, who is whisked along on a breathless thrill ride, primarily driven by external forces. Throughout Hurricane Gold, and in stark contrast to Double or Die, James is required to react far more often than he is to act. That formula makes for a pulse-pounding page turner, as they say, but ultimately a less rewarding read than the previous book.

In one breathtaking sequence, James helps Precious and her little brother escape the storm–and the gang. They try to move inland, away from the ravaged coast, only to be literally thrown backwards by a rising river in another spectacular action scene. In the aftermath of the ensuing flood, they once more run into the gang, which is led by an enigmatic American named Mrs. Glass.

James and Precious are again taken prisoner, again escape (getting separated from third-wheel JJ in the process), and again run into a member of the gang. Eventually they escape from him, only to once more be recaptured. One of Ian Fleming’s more memorable villains once analyzed his recurring run-ins with the adult James Bond thusly: “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but a third time it's enemy action.” Auric Goldfinger understood that only so much could be chalked up to coincidence, as did Fleming, who divided the villain’s eponymous book into three sections, appropriately entitled “Happenstance,” “Coincidence” and “Enemy Action.” There’s only so much coincidence a villain–or a reader–will accept. Higson seriously strains credibility this time out by allowing a third and fourth instance of coincidence before James and Precious finally take some not particularly well thought-out action against their enemy. Their action leads them directly into the clutches of another villainous type, known as El Huracán.

We meet El Huracán in the book’s first chapter, wherein we also get our first glimpse of his deadly, critter-filled obstacle course, La Avenida de la Muerte. El Huracán runs a haven for criminals on the run–provided they have lots of loot and are willing to live out the rest of their days on his island paradise. Throughout the book we occasionally cut back to El Huracán and his island, setting up the inevitable confrontation between El Huracán and James Bond, and young James’ equally inevitable ordeal in La Avenida de la Muerte. Unfortunately, since James and Precious are not on a course that will naturally lead them to El Huracán, we also resign ourselves that this meeting will have to be manufactured, and these “teaser” chapters have the unfortunate effect of making all that leads up to that meeting seem a bit like treading water. (Exciting water, nonetheless!)

All of Higson’s other Young Bond novels have had a clear mission for James, even though it’s not one officially assigned to him by a government agency, as in Anthony Horowitz’s rival teen spy series. In SilverFin, James had to discover what happened to his friend Red Kelly’s missing cousin. In Blood Fever, he had to save the captured sister of a fellow Eton student. And in Double or Die, he had to locate and rescue his kidnapped professor. His only goal in Hurricane Gold is survival, for himself and for Precious. Survival is a perfectly good goal for adventure stories, but it somehow doesn’t feel as Bondian.

Among the many threats to that survival, James encounters every imaginable sort of reptile and disgusting insect. These include scorpions, wasps, mosquitoes (with which James has already tangled in Blood Fever) and army ants. The latter provide that particularly gruesome death scene for a baddie that’s become a staple of the series when a column of the unstoppable fiends cut and bite their way through a paralyzed thug. All of the above-mentioned insects provide plot points, but for good measure Higson also throws in botflies, who provide nothing but some extra grossness that the author seems to believe (correctly, I suppose) that his young male readers crave. I suppose if you’re crafting a boys’ adventure story set in the jungle, you need to include the real-life version of the popular urban legend about insects laying eggs in people’s skin for the maggots to later feed on and burrow out of. Don’t make the mistake of reading the botfly chapter while eating lunch, as I did!

Overall, Higson has really embraced that “boys’ own adventure” mantra this time around. Judging from the popularity of the series in England, he seems to know what boys want, but in Hurricane Gold that mentality unfortunately leads the series away from roots that feel Bondian and steadfastly toward the more gross-out elements of serial-inspired adventures like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Despite my criticisms, there is still plenty to like in Hurricane Gold. Once again, Higson manages to slyly sneak plenty of nearly undetectable education into his action, and it’s all fascinating stuff. (Fleming himself, a professional journalist, was a master of this, but he didn’t have to be quite as sly about it as his intended audience–at the time, anyway–wasn’t young boys.) Kids will learn about pre-war geopolitics, Mexican history and jungle zoology. Even though they’re not specifically designed to educate, like The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, the Young Bond adventures offer far more information than a lot of Young Adult literature.

Readers are also treated to another cavalcade of memorable characters. Even though James’ stable of Eton friends (who we just got to know a lot better in the last book) sit this one out, he encounters a number of memorable allies and enemies. American gangsters Strabo, Whatzat and Manny the Girl are all well-drawn antagonists, and worthy predecessors (or successors, depending on how you look at it) to Fleming’s many gangster types, like Shady Tree, Whisper, Slugsy and Horror. (Fleming always seemed fascinated with eccentric American gangsters.) There’s a Japanese semi-villain named Sakata (in a nice tribute to the Oddjob actor) who teaches James some of his first lessons in hand-to-hand combat, and a proto-Marc-Ange Draco/Kerim Bey figure who straddles the line between good and evil, and makes young James a tempting offer at a very different life than the one he goes on to lead. Finally, Precious Stone is a wonderful creation. Whereas all the other Young Bond Girls have been very (almost anachronistically) capable, self-sufficient, even tomboyish lasses, Precious is a very girly girl. She starts out a lot like Temple of Doom’s Willie Scott, but actually undergoes a more believable transformation over the course of the book, not only growing as a person, but becoming a more likable character.

Hurricane Gold may be Charlie Higson’s weakest entry so far (Blood Fever is his best), but it’s still a fast-paced, action-packed adventure, and certainly not an embarrassment to the James Bond brand. Even at its weakest, the Young Bond series is still first rate YA fiction, and first-rate James Bond. All of Higson’s books so far have managed to rank among the very best of the 007 continuation novels, and even if its target audience is children, I can’t recommend the series highly enough for adult Bond fans.

More pictures of the golden hardcover first edition.

Read my review of Double or Die.

Read my review of the Young Bond Rough Guide To London.

Order Hurricane Gold for half price from Amazon.co.uk.

New Spy Books Available From DK

DK released two new fully-illustrated, large-format hardcover tomes this week of interest to spy fans: the long-awaited James Bond Encyclopedia and 24: The Ultimate Guide. It’s kind of odd to see 24 given the DK treatment, since their Ultimate Guides are usually for more family-friendly franchises like Spider-man or Star Wars. But author Michael Goldman has managed to compile the best guide book to the series yet, fully illustrated in that somewhat incongruous DK style. The book is divided by seasons. John Cork and Collin Stutz’s James Bond Encyclopedia isn’t quite as user-friendly, as it’s organized by categories instead of in the purely alphabetical format one expects of an encyclopedia. It takes some getting used to, but there are advantages to the unusual format. For example, gadget-lovers can entertain themselves by reading that section in its entirety instead of slogging through entries on Girls, Villains and Vehicles to find what they’re looking for. And most of all, the way this book is organized goes a long way towards separating it from Stephen Jay Rubin’s fifteen-year-old tome, The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia. I’m sure that was important to the authors.

Tradecraft For October 12, 2007

Clooney Spies Tourist

George Clooney just can't stop spying. Following his role as an assassin in the Coen Brothers' comic CIA thriller Burn After Reading, he might write, direct and/or star in another espionage role. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he and his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov have picked up the rights to an upcoming novel by Olen Steinhauer entitled The Tourist. The trade reveals: "Picked up in early manuscript form, the story is described as being a contemporary international thriller in the vein of John le Carre and Graham Greene and follows a spy who must risk everything to reveal a conspiracy after he's suspected of a murder he didn't commit."

Roger Moore Makes Bio Official

Roger Moore's agent revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actor is indeed writing an autobiography, as has been rumored all week. The British tabloids first reported the story, but as usual they got it wrong. The Sunday Mirror claimed (in typical sensationalist style) that the "explosive, warts-and-all" memoir would tell of the actor's "colourful sex life" and "his romps with Bond girls." That didn't sound like Moore, who's always been the very picture of class and didn't seem the sort to kiss and tell. Sure enough, the trade reports that "Moore said in a statement that he would like to write 'a warm, amusing, and maybe even slightly emotional volume.'" Doesn't sound very "explosive," but it's sure to be a great read. Moore's biographer and long-time assistant Gareth Owen, who also penned the recently updated Pinewood Story, will ghost-write the book and told Reuters, "He is a great raconteur." Anyone who's heard any of the actor's audio commentaries on the Bond DVDs or The Persuaders knows that's true. Sir Roger's book deal is said to be worth £1 million. Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week, and turns 80 in just a few days.

Van Houten Lies Too

Star of last year's WWII spy thriller Black Book Carice Van Houten, rumored to have been in contention for a Bond Girl role in Bond 22, has joined the cast of another spy movie instead. The Hollywood Reporter reports that she'll play Leonardo Di Caprio's love interest in Body of Lies, "an Iraq-set spy thriller being directed by Ridley Scott." Like all Scott movies, Lies co-stars Russell Crowe. It's written by Oscar-winning Departed screenwriter William Monahan and based on the book by David Ignatius.

Spies For Tots

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Disney Channel has gone into production on a new Playhouse Disney pre-school series titled Special Agent Oso starring Sean Astin as the voice of Oso, a fuzzy, lovable, bumbling special agent-in-training who enlists the help of viewers at home to complete his missions." The show, created by Ford Riley, will debut in fall 2008. Each episode will be comprised of two eleven minute adventures.