More Alex Rider Comics

Good news for fans of Anthony Horowitz's teen spy series! Even though the first movie based on his bestselling books tanked at the U.S. box office (thanks mainly to a non-existent marketing campaign from The Weinstein Company), the series of graphic novel adaptations will continue. Why would there have even been a question of its not happening? Because the first one, Stormbreaker, was based on the movie Stormbreaker, not the book. (There were some key differences between the two.) Adapter Antony Johnson, no stranger to the world of spy comics (having written the only Queen & Country mini-series not penned by creator Greg Rucka), said in an interview last year that the second graphic novel, Point Blank, would be adapted from the novel and not the film. But then there was no sign of it. Amazon now lists a December 27 release date in America and England. Both countries are going with the far less clever American title, Point Blank, instead of the British Point Blanc. (It's a pun, see? "Point Blanc" is a French location in the book.)

I'm really glad that we'll see Point Blanc adapted into some visual medium. I haven't read all the Alex Rider books, but of the ones that I have, it's my favorite. I think it would actually make a much better movie than Stormbreaker, so I still hope we see one eventually. In the mean time, I'll happily take the comic. As Stormbreaker more or less followed the plot of Ian Fleming's Moonraker (the book, mind you, not the film), Point Blanc is rather cavalierly adapted from the Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. James Bond himself, in his Alex Rider-inspired young incarnation (confused?), will star in a comic adaptation of the Charlie Higson's first Young Bond novel, Silverfin, next year. That graphic novel will be illustrated by Kev Walker.

Tradecraft For September 21, 2007

FX Spies Uhls

The FX network has first-rate cop shows (The Shield is hands-down the best drama on television), crook shows, con-man shows and lawyer shows; isn't it time for a spy show? Fight Club writer Jim Uhls seems to think yes! According to Variety, Uhls is developing Paranoid, "an edgy thriller with themes of privacy and spying" for the cable network. The trade goes on to describe the series as "a modern-day The Parallax View centering on a surveillance agent who himself may be spied upon, all set against Patriot Act-America" and quote sources as saying, "a pilot deal is likely but has not officially been ordered."

Agent Zigzag

Variety also reports that New Line has won a bidding war for the screen rights to the Ben Macintyre book Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal. Tom Hanks will produce. According to the trade, "it's the true story of Edward Arnold Chapman, a career criminal who spied on the Germans for the British in WWII."

The Horowitz Project

The Hollywood Reporter reveals the title of Alex Rider author Anthony Horowitz's previously reported American TV project: Raffik. The trade calls it "a character-driven one-hour" about "an Albanian detective sent to the US whose enthusiasm for everything American inspires and baffles his new Los Angeles police partners." Darren Star co-produces.

Mini Review: Bava Book

The weekend before last, I was delighted to receive my copy of Tim Lucas’s long-awaited and highly anticipated magnum opus, Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. The book, clearly the definitive work on the great Italian director, pleasantly ate up most of my weekend, but I still can’t help but feeling I’ve barely scratched the surface. That’s because it’s more than eleven hundred pages, and two and a half inches thick! It’s also nearly a foot tall and almost as wide, so that makes for a lot of words per page. Every time I walk through the living room and catch sight of it, I think, "Holy shit, that is one big book!"

Mario Bava is most famous for his horror movies, so what does all this have to do with spies? Plenty! Even though the better part of the book is obviously devoted to Bava’s revered horror output, it also covers the many other genres he worked in in extensive detail. (In fact, I had no idea just how much work he’d done in peplum prior to reading Mr. Lucas’s account!) One of those genres, of course, is spy.

For starters, there is an entire chapter on Bava’s pop masterpiece, Danger: Diabolik. (Yes, I consider that a spy movie through and through, though some may argue. True, it’s about a super-criminal instead of a super-spy, but it plays as a checklist of everything I look for in a great Eurospy caper: dashing hero, beautiful women, fast sports cars, wild action, underground lairs, amazing setpieces, bizarre deaths, and Emilio Largo himself, Adolfo Celi, as the villain!) Next, there is a very lengthy chapter on the making of what I’ve always considered to be Bava’s worst movie, and among the worst of the Eurospy genre, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. What I had never realized, though, and what Mr. Lucas sets the record straight about, is that there are two very different versions of this film... because it was shot so that it could be cut into a sequel to both Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine for American audiences, and to Due Mafiosi Contro Goldginger, for Italian audiences! That explains a lot. While the author admits neither version works particularly well, apparently the Italian one (which I’ve never seen) is far superior. Irregardless of the final product, the story of its making is absolutely fascinating, and the most detailed account I’ve ever read of a Eurospy production. I suspect that some of the problems Bava’s film encountered were not unique to it, but rather exemplary of how Eurospy movies were produced. Mr. Lucas also reveals that Bava was briefly attached to come aboard (and, it was hoped, to save) another troubled Eurospy production, Dick Smart 2.007, but ultimately opted out of it to make Girl Bombs.

Throughout these chapters and the whole book, we meet a succession of familiar faces from both behind and in front of the cameras in the Eurospy genre. Lucas takes the time to go off on welcome tangents and give mini-bios of varying depth on just about everyone Bava ever worked with, including Celi, Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina, Tony Kendall, John Phillip Law, Christopher Lee, Telly Savalas, Antonio Margheriti, Daiah Lavi and many more! In some cases, these mini-bios are actually the most detailed accounts I’ve ever read on these people. He’s also found some amazing quotes from nearly all of them. Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark is not just a biography of one man, but ultimately functions as a cultural biography of the entire European film industry in the Sixties and Seventies. (It’s very fortunate for us, the readers, that the industry was so insular, and Bava’s career caused him to cross paths with so many people!) In fact, even though Bava officially directed only two straight-forward spy movies, there is probably enough information sprinkled throughout this massive tome to have filled a small volume on Eurospy stars alone... as well as several other genres! This book is a must-have not only for fans of the director, but for all serious students of film of that era.

If I have one complaint about the book, it would only be that it’s rather difficult to read comfortably. The text sucks you in, and hours pass while reading it, but as they do you really start to feel that twelve pound weight on your lap! This tome would probably be best read at a table or desk, but it’s so engrossing that I’d rather be able to curl up with it. Oh well, with all this information, that small problem was obviously unavoidable.

It’s a good time now for me to mention Mr. Lucas’s other work. The man is an extremely prolific writer, yet manages to remain devoutly factual and highly entertaining to read. In addition to spending the last thirty-two years working on Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, he’s found time to publish an excellent bi-monthly magazine, Video Watchdog (for which he writes much of the content himself) and blog almost daily without overlapping content! I don’t know how he does it. On top of all that, he also manages to record audio commentaries for lots of Bava DVDs, including an enormously entertaining dialogue with John Phillip Law for Paramount's Danger: Diabolik special edition and an equally informative track for Dark Sky's sadly withdrawn Kill, Baby, Kill, which may never officially see the light of day (but is worth seeking out!). It bears mentioning that the last several issues of the magazine have all, coincidentally, been at least tangentially spy-related. Warner Oland’s Charlie Chan featured on the most recent issue, Wild Wild West graced the cover of the one before that, and Daniel Craig in Casino Royale on the one before that! The articles on all three subjects are typically in-depth and well worth seeking out. The blog also occasionally touches on spy-related topics, as it really runs the gamut on everything from Bava to Bob Dylan.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Bourne and Mission

TVShowsOnDVD.com has the box art for CBS/Paramount's upcoming Mission: Impossible: The Third TV Season, which streets November 20, as previously reported. They also run down an impressive list of guest stars for the season, including Robert Conrad, Joan Collins, Sid Haig, Charles Napier, Lee Meriweather and Martin Sheen. The Wild Wild West: The Third Season comes out the same day, making it quite an exciting (and expensive!) day for fans of classic spy TV.

DVDActive has the rather nifty cover art for The Jason Bourne Collection, which will street December 11, 2007, the same day as the individual disc for The Bourne Ultimatum. Retail for the collection will be $49.98 (although it will, of course, be available much cheaper from most online retailers); pricing has not yet been announced for Ultimatum, which will also be available on HD-DVD. This news is sure to come as a blow to anyone who purchased The Bourne Files this summer, which included the first two films in the series plus a bonus disc. DVDActive says the new set is four discs, so presumably it also includes that bonus disc.

Gilt Edged Bond

My copy of Charlie Higson’s newest Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold, finally arrived yesterday from Amazon.co.uk (much later than their shipping estimate). I know a lot of others have already been showing up on US shores, but I haven’t seen a detailed description anywhere yet, so for those who still haven’t gotten hold of it, here are some pictures of the shiny gold book that hopefully offer a better sense of how cool it looks than Amazon’s cover image. The book itself is a shiny, mirrored gold surface all over. (Luckily, the glistening surface didn’t get too scratched in the shipment from England.) The boards are gold, and the gilt edges of the pages are the same color. The whole thing is the literal realization of the title of that old Ian Fleming anthology, Gilt Edged Bonds! (Unfortunately, its reflective qualities also make it remarkably hard to photograph accurately, so I’m afraid these dreary images still fail to capture its magnif-icence...)

This volume would look set to store in Fort Knox were it not for the scant dust jacket, a narrow strip of paper covering about 1/4 of the book with the title (which is also embossed on the book itself) and the crucial bar code. It would look so much cooler without the dust jacket (and I never thought I’d be saying that about a Bond book!), but the collector in me couldn’t possibly discard it. Creating even more of a dilemma for collectors, the jacket is taped into place inside the cover on each side. I haven’t tried removing the tape yet, for fear of damaging the endpapers, which are emblazoned with the recurring Young Bond logo. It doesn’t look like the sort of tape that would tear, but of course removing the tape would also alter the book from its original state and thus reduce its potential value. The true first state of this first edition technically (and unfortunately) includes the tape.

The pages seem to be printed on the same low-quality paper that the previous English paperback first editions were printed on, an odd choice for a hardcover. But the really good news is... the binding is sewn! (In gold, of course.) I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it’s been an unfortunate trend in UK publishing of late to bind hardcovers with glue, like a paperback, instead of stitching. Both the Moneypenny Diaries books and the Young Bond limited editions (the only way the previous volumes were available in hardback in England) sadly suffered this fate. Books may be cheaper to produce like this, but they’re also much less durable. So it’s very nice to see that Hurricane Gold is well bound, and actually of a higher quality than the more expensive, slip-cased, limited editions!

Now for the reading! I can’t wait to dig in... (Carefully, of course!)

Haggis Progresses On Bond 22

Paul Haggis spoke at a screening of his new movie, In the Valley of Elah, in Los Angeles last night. He didn't reveal any details about his script for Bond 22 other than to say that he's up to page 30. So apparently the first act of the new Bond is done or nearly done! When the moderator asked if it was intimidating to write Casino Royale, seeing how there was a lot of pressure with the Bond franchise to always make them bigger and better, Haggis honestly said "No. Bond was just fun. Every other project has been intimidating in some sense, but Bond is just fun to write." CommanderBond.net, meanwhile, reports that call sheets for Bond 22 have gone out seeking "a Latina actress in her late twenties, preferably with South American roots" for a Bond Girl role in the movie. Head on over there for more details...
(Thanks to T-Bone for the Haggis report.)

Images From Black Tight Killers
Yasuharu Hasebe, 1966

Shoot ‘Em Up Offers Hints Of What Owen’s Bond Might Have Been

Action movie Shoot ‘Em Up, which opened in the U.S. rather dismally last weekend, gives some hints of what Clive Owen might have been like as 007. True, his character here is purposely an anti-Bond, but some scenes in the movie might as well be Owen’s screen tests for Eon. (The actor denies actually doing any real screen tests for the role, or even being approached. There have been reports to the contrary, but I tend to believe him.)

In one scene, audiences are treated to one of the most unpleasant Fleming scenarios never filmed, with Owen sitting in for James Bond in the finger-breaking torture from Live And Let Die. (Roger Moore managed to escape that treatment in the movie.) Owen handles it well, but the scene lacks the intensity that Daniel Craig was subjected to in the filmed version of Bond’s even more brutal punishment from Casino Royale. In another scene, the actor recreates the pre-credits sequence from Moonraker, only upping the ante. In the film’s most spectacular setpiece, Owen jumps out of an airplane followed by parachuting baddies. Shoot ‘Em Up goes one up on Moonraker’s midair wrestling, though, with a whole midair gunfight! Still, the ‘79 version managed to seem more real, despite the unconvincing close-ups of Moore. CGI has just made it impossible to believe that stuntmen are actually doing what you’re seeing today.

Owen also delivers a succession of one-liners so groan-worthy they could have come from one of the recent Pierce Brosnan scripts. Granted, they’re supposed to be bad in Shoot ‘Em Up (I think!), but as with Brosnan it’s a little disappointing to see such a good actor saddled with such lines! Still, the movie is 80 minutes of pure, wild, nonstop action, and Bond fans will likely get a kick out of the ridiculously over-the-top shootouts. Plus, they get a glimpse at a Bond who might have been.... Personally, I'm 100% happy with Craig, but I'll always wonder what Owen would have made of the role.

DVD Review: The Charlie Chan Collection, Volume 3

Unlike the previous volume, there are no spies per se to be found in any of the movies in Fox’s third collection of Charlie Chan films starring Warner Oland. But the series remains an undeniable prototype for the spy series to follow in later decades, and thus merits Double O Section coverage.

The notion of the "series spy," or even of the spy as hero, wouldn’t really come along until James Bond (or at least Hammer’s Dick Barton, Special Agent) and is a purely postwar phenomenon, cinematically speaking. In the 30s and 40s, series heroes tended to be detectives or, in the serials, masked avengers. But whereas the detectives of literature tended to stick to a single haunt (Marlowe had LA and Sam Spade San Francisco; Charlie Chan had Honolulu), their early cinematic counterparts quickly drifted farther afield. When you’re delivering a succession of B pictures that all basically offer variations on the same plot, it’s a lot more appealing to audiences (especially depression-era audiences seeking escapism from their own bleak, urban surroundings) if you change the location, and offer them some exotic scenery. Thus the Chan of the movies, while remaining a detective on the Honolulu police force, began to venture out around the world and append destinations like "In Paris," "In London," "In Shanghai," and "In Monte Carlo" to his name for a succession of successful programmers. An argument could certainly be made that these films led directly to the postwar secret agent hero, who had much better reason to travel abroad than a flatfoot, anyway.

Of course, the Chan crew didn’t actually travel the globe. A Charlie Chan movie typically begins with the credits appearing over establishing stock footage of the locale in question, then moves into studio sets and the occasional Southern California exterior dressed to look like wherever. But that, combined with an appropriate cast of accented "locals" (usually including a local police chief), is generally enough. One exception to the rule, however, is The Black Camel, which really was shot on location... in Hawaii. (Black Camel was only Oland’s second performance in the role, and the series was still young enough that Chan’s home turf was exotic enough in and of itself.)

The Black Camel finds the detective investigating the murder of an actress who was shooting a movie in Hawaii, and also that of an actor killed three years earlier in Los Angeles. (As Nancy Drew would sometimes speculate, there just might be a connection!) Bela Lugosi shows up (fresh off his success as Dracula) as a psychic, and Chan wastes no time in debunking his methods. Lugosi’s character, however, sees through Chan’s as well, making their initial confrontation a highlight of the film. Some of the supporting performances are definitely better than others, and there’s a major flaw in the solution if one puts too much thought into it, but this is certainly a fun way to pass seventy minutes. In fact, the location photography and impressive camera movements (atypical for the era), make the picture look more expensive than it no doubt was, and combine to make this one of the better entries in the series. (And probably the best from a purely visual standpoint.)

On the other end of the spectrum, Charlie Chan In Monte Carlo was Oland’s last completed Chan picture. The actor is certainly comfortable in the role, and a joy to watch. But the series has fallen, for better or worse, into a predictable formula by this point, and the direction is a lot more formulaic, too. Still, it’s a formula by which anyone who’s bought and enjoyed Fox’s previous volumes will no doubt be entertained, and the supporting cast is especially good this time out. Harold Huber, who plays a proto-Clouseau police chief (the sort of French caricature who actually exclaims, "Sacrebleu!"), deserves particular mention. Monte Carlo (as portrayed primarily by a casino interior) is always a favorite setting of mine, and Bond fans will probably get a kick out of the (admittedly few) gambling scenes. Maybe it was the stagy casino sets, but I was pleasantly reminded of the Barry Nelson Casino Royale while watching this.

Charlie Chan’s Secret brings the detective to San Francisco, where he unravels an "old, dark house mystery," a staple of 30s and 40s B movies, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. The house itself is a marvel of production design (which the commentators credit to the director, a former art director himself), with oddly-sized doors and crooked angles reminiscent of German expressionism. It’s also loaded with secret passages and hidden panels, and this is exactly the sort of movie that served as the model for classic Avengers episodes like "The Joker" and "The House That Jack Built." Chan debunks a seance by exposing some nifty trickery, and some of the ingenious killing methods also involve inspired gadgetry, making this entry especially appealing to spy fans.

Finally, Charlie Chan On Broadway proves a curious title, for the movie doesn’t involve actors or showgirls (of the big-time variety, anyway) or any of the things one associates with the Great White Way. Instead the tale revolves around newspapermen, gangsters and the goings on at a small nightclub that really could be anywhere. It's another one of those "missing diary" plots, but at least Keye Luke gets some time to shine as Chan's famous #1 Son, Lee. (The only other movie in this set that Luke appears in is Monte Carlo.)

As with all of Fox’s Cinema Classics, there is an abundance of quality bonus material on this set. (The only noticeable omission is original theatrical trailers, but I assume that’s because none survive.) These DVDs are produced by John Cork, and James Bond fans especially know that his association is generally a mark of quality on any DVD release. A half-hour featurette called "The World of Charlie Chan" lends credence to my argument for the Chan movies as a proto-spy series, and also serves as a great primer on the Oland cycle of Chans. A succession of experts in various fields pop up to contribute comments on the historical or sociological significance the locations and events dealt with in all the Oland Chan movies (not just the ones in this set). The best part concerns Charlie Chan At the Olympics, which appeared in the last volume and bursts at the seams with historical curiosities! (Chan flies to Germany on the Hindenberg mere months before its destruction, and stock footage shows brief glimpses of both Adolf Hitler and the man who put his "master race" in its place in ‘36, African-American Olympic great Jesse Owens.)

Equally fascinating is the documentary on Oland himself, "Charlie Chan is Missing." While it never delivers a satisfactory answer to the startling mystery it begins with (why did Oland excuse himself for a drink of water on set one day and then disappear?), it paints a portrait of a very complex and emotionally unbalanced actor. Did you know that Oland and his wife translated the first editions of their friend August Strindberg’s plays into English? Or that he became so enmeshed in his famous character that he would conduct interviews as Chan late in his life, referring to Warner Oland in the third person? These are only a few of the fascinating bits of information to be gleaned from this featurette.

I expected "Chanograms: The Aphorisms of Charlie Chan" to be nothing more than a compilation reel of Chan’s various pithy epithets ("Tongue often hang man quicker than rope!"), but it’s actually more than that, and begs reconsideration of a hallmark of the series which some dismiss as unfortunate, racist "Confucius say" humor at the expense of the Chinese. One film historian points out that these biting remarks are generally terrible insults disguised as polite wisdom, and enable Chan to establish his intellectual dominance over hapless, xenophobic Caucasians in a socially acceptable manner. Perhaps he’s over-thinking it, but the notion appeals to me. I must admit that I have trouble seeing why the series is considered so politically incorrect to begin with. True, the lead Asian character is played by a white man, but is that really so bad? The character is portrayed with great reverence and intelligence. Chan is no bumbler; he is smarter than everyone else and always outwits the white local police and suspects alike.

"Charlie Chan and the Rise of the Modern Detective" firmly establishes the character’s place in the pantheon of crime-fighters. Scholars of the genre compare the detective to Sherlock Holmes. Like Holmes, Chan relies on deductive reasoning and forensic investigation to solve cases. They point out that this was in direct opposition to the prevailing trend in the genre at the time, that of the "hard boiled" detective, who relied more on his fists and his gun. Famed forensic investigator Dr. Henry Lee reveals that Chan’s methods are surprisingly accurate, and often prefigured actual investigative techniques that wouldn’t be perfected until much later in the 20th century. Lee, who, like Chan, is Chinese, also stars in the final featurette, "Dr. Henry Lee: The Modern Day Charlie Chan." Based on the title, I was expecting this to be a throw-away feature, drawing a tenuous comparison between the forensic expert and the fictional gumshoe with very broad strokes. It isn’t; it’s merely mis-titled. The documentary doesn’t present Lee as a "real life" Chan, but gives him the opportunity to discuss his own love for the Chan movies and their influence on his life and career, which is interesting and unexpected.

Cork and film historian/Chan expert Ken Hanke contribute informative commentaries to two of the titles; both are worthwhile listens, and information doesn’t overlap. Their track for The Black Camel offers a lot of insight on why it’s so visually superior to the others, giving most of the credit to director Hamilton MacFadden. The track for Charlie Chan’s Secret gives plenty of background on the character and the series, along with an interesting explanation for Chan’s famous broken English. "It isn’t pigeon English," Hanke asserts. (That’s something different, and very specific.) The delivery, he says, came about because Oland wanted it to seem that a non-native speaker was thinking, formulating his sentences in Chinese and then translating them (roughly) to English as he spoke. Cork also throws in a good nugget for Bond fans, revealing that the look for Oddjob was modeled on Oland’s Chan.

But the best special feature of all is the inclusion of two entire bonus movies... almost. One of them, Charlie Chan's Chance, has been lost (apparently destroyed in a fire), but it’s been re-created for DVD via production stills and script pages, read by actors. Bear in mind, the production is mounted with the budget of a DVD feature, and not of a radio play, so it’s not particularly impressive. But it admirably serves its purpose, giving us an idea of what that lost film might have been. The other bonus movie, Behind That Curtain, fortunately survives, but proves a bit disappointing. The 1929 talkie is the first appearance of Charlie Chan in a Fox movie, but the character, played by E.L. Park, barely appears! Still, the transfer on this film is impressive, despite Fox’s dire caveats that it was made from the best vault materials at their disposal, and the studio deserves major credit for including the film. It will prove a curiosity to most, but a treasure to dedicated followers of the series.

The Charlie Chan Collection, Volume 3 is another impressive set in the Fox Cinema Classics line. Because of the way the movies are distributed between the boxes, you’re guaranteed some really good ones in any of the sets, but this latest one (concluding the Warner Oland cycle) definitely offers the best extras of the batch.

Exclusive Interview With Moneypenny Diaries Cover Artist Stina Persson

Exclusive Interview With Moneypenny Diaries Cover Artist Stina Persson

After issuing Volume 1 of Samantha Weinberg’s “Moneypenny Diaries” trilogy of James Bond novels with a bland and misleading cover and more or less repeating that mistake with the hardcover edition of Vol. 2 (despite a half-hearted attempt to recall Richard Chopping's series of "gun still life" jackets for Fleming's originals), John Murray Publishers finally got creative with the paperback edition of the second book, Secret Servant. This time around they brought on designer Madeline Meckiffe and artist Stina Persson to create a vibrant and eye-catching illustrated cover. The result is both retro and modern at the same time: a Sixties throwback that sets the perfect tone for the story within, but stands out on the shelf. Whereas the initial covers made the books look like straight “chick lit," the paperback cover for Secret Servant perfectly captures the spirit of Ms. Weinberg’s books. Its combination of glamour and sophistication with a hint of sexy, Modesty Blaise-style danger should appeal to old and new readers, male and female alike. Ms. Persson, whose glam, Sixties-infused artwork has graced book covers, fashion magazines and galleries the world over, graciously took some time out of her busy schedule last month to chat with the Double O Section about her work on The Moneypenny Diaries.

00: How did you come to be involved with the cover to The Moneypenny Diaries Vol. 2 paperback?

SP: I was contacted by John Murray Publishers in [the] UK through my agent in New York.

00: What was the nature of your collaboration with designer Madeline Meckiffe? Were you involved in the decision to make this cover so radically different from the (much less attractive) cover to the paperback of Vol. 1?

SP: My first brief said that they looked for an illustration of a glam woman. And wanted me to capture classy 60s mood but also feel fresh and modern. Later I made sketches, and from then on I worked with Madeline Meckliffe, which was enjoyable. She wanted my ink style and the colors of her dress to be what stood out. Later it ended up being background and beaded necklace that were in color. I am doing the second cover this fall too, by the way.

00: Is that one for a new paperback edition of Vol. 1 (to make them match) or for the hardcover of next year's Vol. 3?

SP: I only know it as "the Next Moneypenny."

00: Prior to publication, another cover design appeared online depicting a woman with a gun and a prominent handbag. (You can see it here.) Were you involved in that? If so, why was the decision made to change it? (Good decision, by the way!)

SP: I have not seen this cover before.

00: Did you read Secret Servant, and had you ever read any other James Bond novels? Were you at all inspired by the artwork on the Sixties paperback covers or movie posters?

SP: I haven't been given the book, only “tear sheets” of the cover. (A reminder though that I should ask for a few samples.) I haven't read any James Bond novels either, but have seen the earlier movies many times and I really like the 60's esthetics in everything from hairdos to furniture and movie posters to music.

00: Have you had any conversations with Moneypenny Diaries author Samantha Weinberg?

SP: The book I've illustrated is by Kate Westbrook. And I have not have any contact with her. [Ed. Note: “Kate Westbrook” is the pseudonym of Samantha Weinberg. The publishers obviously didn’t feel the need to share this information with the design team!]

00: What's on the horizon for you? Where can fans see more of your artwork?

SP: I had a show with original art in New York this May, and the art work can be viewed at http://www.juniemoon.jp/eng/shop/artwork.cgi?c=2 (scroll down). I'm planning a second show at Gallery Hanahou in NY this coming May. And then I am working on a couple of different assignments ranging from CD covers to construction cladding!

And for updates and more work, please check out
http://www.agentbauer.com/
http://www.cwc-i.com/
http://www.stinapersson.com/ (is to be updated and fixed this fall).

00: Thanks for your time, Stina. I and a lot of other Bond fans look forward to seeing your next cover, and I’ll definitely be following your other work as well. I love your style.

Read my exclusive interview with Moneypenny Diaries author Samantha Weinberg (aka Kate Westbrook) here.

Upcoming Spy DVDs

Sony has finally re-announced the long-awaited Hudson Hawk special edition for November 20, according to DVDActive. That's right, I said "long-awaited!" By me anyway. Surely someone else out there has been waiting too, right? Because the movie (while far from perfect) frankly wasn't the disaster it's made out to be. It was silly and it was pretty funny. In middle school, I loved it. I caught it recently on TV and I thought it still held up pretty well. Of most interest for spy fans, it contains a terrific performance by Our Man Flint himself, James Coburn, as a tough-guy CIA mastermind. The special edition will feature deleted scenes, featurettes with Bruce Willis and Sandra Bernhard, and a commentary with director Michael Lehman. The disc had originally been announced for last year as a "15th Anniversary Edition," and that's the artwork pictured. Presumably they'll change it, but you never know...

Meanwhile, TVShowsOnDVD.com has revealed the cover art for Mystery Science Theater Vol. 12, and (in a break with tradition), it contains actual poster art for Secret Agent Super Dragon. That set is due Oct. 30.

Movie Review: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007)

Movie Review: The Bourne Ultimatum

The third movie in Universal’s Jason Bourne cycle bears no resemblance whatsoever to the third book in Robert Ludlum’s trilogy of eponymous novels, upon which it is ostensibly based, but that should come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen the first two movies and read the books. Then again, The Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore’s best Bond film, bears no resemblance to the Ian Fleming novel of that name, either.* Fidelity to a book has never been a prerequisite for a good spy movie. And it’s just as well, because The Bourne Ultimatum is easily the best entry in the Matt Damon series, and quite possibly the best action spy movie in years. (The Lives of Others isn’t action.)

Unlike the rather convoluted plot of the last movie, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum is incredibly straightforward in its storytelling. The story of amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne’s search for the truth about his past doesn’t have many plot beats, but each one there is develops into a lengthy action setpiece. This isn’t a criticism of the movie, but praise. An action-based spy thriller doesn’t need to be labyrinthine; it just needs to justify its action sequences (as opposed to The World Is Not Enough, for example, which shoehorns them into the story so obtrusively it seems like you’re suddenly watching another movie altogether) and to make sense. On both counts, The Bourne Ultimatum succeeds better than any recent entry in the Mission: Impossible or Bond franchises. And the action sequences in question are uniformly spectacular.

As Bourne travels from one exciting location to another and gets involved in elaborate chases, director Paul Greengrass (co-writer of the infamous British espionage tell-all, Spycatcher) immerses the viewer in the midst of the action. His reckless, hand-held camera techniques were often a little too confusing in Supremacy, but he’s perfected them in Ultimatum. You can always tell what’s going on, but the camera work is still unhinged enough to make you feel like you’re in the middle of it. In one spectacular shot, the hand-held camera leaps after Bourne from one upper storey window into another in the middle of a foot chase!

One of the highlights of the first two Bourne movies for fans of Cold War spy movies was the excellent use of locations. Even though espionage has become much more global since the fall of the Iron Curtain, and even though Europe is no longer its central playing field, there is something about European cities that makes them ideal settings for international intrigue. The Bourne Ultimatum continues that tradition, setting key sequences in Madrid and London. Bourne then ventures off the Continent for the first time, traveling first to North Africa (another classic spy location) and then New York.

Tangier is a perfect city for spies, and Greengrass and Director of Photog-raphy Oliver Wood make the city look beautiful and romantic. Its narrow, hilly streets, crowded rooftops and Europe-meets-Africa architecture all lend immensely to the movie’s most satisfying chase scene. The city looks just as good as it did in the heyday of the Eurospy genre, as captured in Espionage In Tangiers, but the modern day action in Bourne is far more exciting than anything that happened in that movie. The city is put to much better use.

Bourne pursues an assassin named Desh through the crowded streets of Tangier, first on motorcycle (which he rides not only down but up some of the city’s bustling stairways!), and then on foot. The foot chase is especially spectacular, a perfect blend of action and setting. (To me, this is one of the key ingredients of a good spy movie: a symbiotic relationship between elaborate action and exotic setting, and it’s very rarely achieved!) Bourne manages to keep pace with Desh from afar, following the street-bound assassin from the city’s iconic rooftops, which bristle with inconvenient antennas. After making the aforementioned jump into the building where Desh is about to kill Bourne’s only friend, the two killers engage in some of the most intense hand-to-hand combat ever filmed. This sequence is truly the modern-day equivalent of Sean Connery’s close-quarters fight with Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love. It seems to last forever (in a good way), and I found myself holding my breath. Bourne incorporates every makeshift weapon at his disposal, improvising with things as innocuous as a hand towel and even a book. Each time I’ve seen this movie so far, the audience has cheered at this fight’s conclusion. The action in The Bourne Ultimatum is amazing across the board, and there were multiple moments that elicited such a response.

Matt Damon has really learned to move like a man who can master any situation, and imbue Bourne with an unrivaled sense of "badassery." Take, for example, the scene in London’s Charing Cross Station wherein Bourne encounters two members of a CIA hit squad (who are after him and his contact) in a stairwell. Bourne moves so fast and with such decisiveness that the men don’t even know what hit them, and the burst of action is over almost as soon as it’s begun. But apparently length isn’t everything! As soon as they’ve digested what’s just occurred, this is another scene which sends the audience into spontaneous applause. Part of what makes the fight so cool is how quickly it’s over, in contrast to the lengthy fight with Desh which draws mileage from its duration.

David Straithairn makes an excellent villain, keeping a safe distance from the man he’s tracking while entrenched behind a bank of computer screens in New York. Of course, that doesn’t stop Bourne from taking the fight to him, which he does, culminating a not-quite face-to-face confrontation in which it seems like Damon speaks more dialogue than in the entire rest of the movie! (And it’s still not that much.) Bourne gets a rare punchline in here, and once more the audience applauded, with not a single punch thrown.

There are enough oblique references to real world politics and the war in Iraq to make Matt Damon believe he’s doing something smarter than Bond (a topic he won’t shut up about!) and lead a few critics to give the marketers that "thinking man’s action movie" quote they’ve been throwing around, but for the most part Bourne remains action-packed, escapist entertainment and nothing more. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, Matt Damon! Audiences love action-packed escapism! (This audience member enough so to devote a blog to the subject, more or less.) Damon and Greengrass should be proud to have made such an excellent action movie, and I really hope that Universal is able to convince the star to return for a fourth outing, even though he’s been pretty vocal in his aversion to such a prospect.

The Bourne Ultimatum is the perfect 21st century equivalent to the best of the Sixties Eurospy genre. It offers everything you could want out of a Eurospy movie (breathtaking action, exotic locations, a stoic, ass-kicking hero, and even a beautiful woman–though it could honestly use a few more of those...), and it does so at a breakneck, modern-day pace with state of the art, modern-day technology. (And, like the Eurospy flicks of old, it owes it all to 007, even in the instances where Bourne outperforms his progenitor. I wish the filmmakers and the critics at large would remember that!) There’s something for every spy fan in The Bourne Ultimatum, and it’s definitely worth repeat viewings in the theater.

*Granted, this was a contractual obligation to Fleming.

Read my review of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Ultimatum here.

Cinebeats

One of my favorite blogs has recently undergone a redesign, blossoming into an entire website. If you've never checked out Cinebeats from the links on the right, now's the time to do it! Kimberly occasionally covers spy movies, but she also covers all those other genres I love, from gialli to Hammer to general Sixties glamor, and all from the greatest era of cinema ever, the 1960s and 70s! Start with the "Spies and Secret Agents" section, and explore from there. It all makes for great reading for any cinephile.

UPDATED: Help! Comes To DVD At Last!

Britain's two biggest exports of the 1960s crossed paths on several occasions: among them when one rather rudely commented that the other should never be listened to without earmuffs whilst lecturing a lovely lady on the correct temperature at which to drink Dom Perignon '53, and when a member of the other composed and sang the theme song for a 1973 entry in the one's popular film series. But the ultimate synthesis of Bond and Beatles had to be the fab four's own 1965 film Help!, which sent up the whole spy craze going on around them (among other things). Help! featured The Prisoner's most famous Number 2, Leo McKern, as a Bondian baddie named Clang, leader of a vicious cult after the Beatles. Also chasing them were Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear, as mad scientists. (Naturally.) Regular Beatles producer George Martin composed the score, crafting a nice Beatley take on John Barry-like spy themes, and prefiguring his own score to Live And Let Die.

Director Richard Lester's follow-up to A Hard Day's Night is scheduled to be released November 6, 2007 (NOTE NEW DATE) from EMI Music as a two-disc set. Bonus features include a deleted scene, a 30-minute documentary on the making of Help! with "exclusive behind the scenes footage of the Beatles on set," "The Restoration of Help!," "Memories of Help!," trailers, radio spots, a written introduction by Lester, and an "appreciation" by Martin Scorcese. The press release goes on to reveal that "there will be 2 editions of the DVD - a standard digipack and a deluxe boxed set that will contain a reproduction of Richard Lester’s original annotated script, 8 lobby cards and a poster, plus a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie." Sounds like a great edition of a pop culture classic long sought after by music fans and spy fans alike!

Hurricane Gold Out Today In UK!

Today sees the UK release of the newest James Bond novel, the eagerly-awaited Hurricane Gold by Charlie Higson, latest in his series of "Young Bond" adventures. And its release is a good occasion for me to once again shamelessly plug this series for anyone who will listen! I’ve said it before, but I know that it needs to be said again and again (because I still hear Bond fans who haven’t read them complain that these aren’t "real" Bond books): these are among the very best of the post-Fleming continuation novels. In my opinion, they are as "real" as Amis or Gardner or Benson. And unlike those latter two, who updated 007 to the eras in which they were writing, the Young Bond stories actually take place in Fleming’s continuity; they’re set in the 1930s, the boyhood era of the famous Cold Warrior who was in his prime in the Fifties and Sixties.

I can understand the argument that the basic premise (young James stumbling upon various fantastic adventures around the world) is a little hard to swallow, but is there any reader who actually swallows all of Fleming’s premises? Of course not! You accept them at face value (easy enough to do in the context of Bond’s world) and enjoy the ride. And that’s what you have to do with Higson’s books as well. Furthermore, he goes to great lengths to make the scenarios as believable as possible. The young James is not a junior secret agent like Alex Rider; he’s an Eton student (strictly adhering to what little Fleming established about his creation’s boyhood in You Only Live Twice; yes, he's due to be kicked out for "trouble with one of the other boys' maids" in the final volume!) who becomes embroiled in scenarios of large and small-scale intrigue rooted in the historical era.

And the novels are well-written. Very well-written. Higson is a gifted novelist who can both tell a story and turn a phrase. Sebastian Faulks, in fact, will find him a hard act to follow when his new "adult" Bond novel, Devil May Care (also set in the continuity of the original Fleming adventures) comes out next spring! Just as Samantha Weinberg’s Moneypenny Diaries series turned out to be so much more than "007 for the Bridget Jones set," Higson’s books succeed far beyond their "James Bond by way of Harry Potter" premise. Ian Fleming Publications may have raised eyebrows with their rather transparent publishing schemes, but they deserve a lot of credit for picking the right authors to pull off such potentially disastrous set-ups. If you’re a Bond fan and you haven’t yet read his adventures as a young man, now is the time to start.

It’s also a good time to re-examine past coverage of Young Bond on the Double O Section:

An Introduction to Young Bond, and a Comparison to Alex Rider
A Review of Double Or Die, Higson’s Last Book
A Review of The Young Bond Rough Guide To London
Various Young Bond News Items

And for up-to-the-minute coverage of all things Young Bond, look no further than the excellent Young Bond Dossier. YBD offers the most extensive reportage on the web about Hurricane Gold. Head on over there for news about the shiny gold, gilt-edged cover design, the spiral-bound proof edition that’s already selling for insane prices on Ebay, the signed, numbered copies available exclusively from independent bookstores in the UK, the audio book, the eventual American publication date, and an exclusive, in-depth interview with Charlie Higson covering the series’ past, present and future!

Kim Possible Marathon

Disney Channel is currently running a three-day marathon of its animated spy parody Kim Possible. Kim Possible is an incredibly witty, smartly-written and well-animated send-up of the genre starring a plucky teen heroine. Really. Check out a few episodes of the marathon and see if you don't agree. It's especially on the nose with regards to Bond villains, their Ken Adam-like lairs, and their hench-people. The marathon runs round the clock (except for the channel's morning block of little-kid programming) through Friday evening, culminating in the new series finale.

Links:
Save Kim Possible

Director Steve Loter's Blog

Lives Of Others Remake News

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck recently appeared on NPR and gave some details about the upcoming American remake of his Foreign Language Oscar-winning Iron Curtain spy opus The Lives of Others. The original German film was set in 1980s East Germany when the Stasi (the East German secret police) were spying on everyone, particularly artists and writers suspected of promoting dangerous, pro-Western ideas. The director revealed that the Hollywood version (which he has nothing to do with) will change the setting to the near-future United States, where, apparently, the same thing happens. To me, that is one of those awful, awful, "only in Hollywood" ideas that gives the American film industry a bad name. By changing the setting to a speculative future, the politics will automatically take center stage. In the original movie, the very particular political landscape of the time serves as the background against which a very human story unfolds. It could already be read as a subtle allegory for our ever more security-conscious times if one were so inclined, but changing the setting will hit viewers over the head with that notion, turning subtext into text, and most likely drowning out the amazing, moving human drama at the movie's core.

Or maybe Hollywood will do a great job with it despite a lousy premise, but I somehow doubt it.

In the meantime, I encourage curious American viewers who have not yet done so to check out the amazing original film (which just came out on DVD), and not wait for the remake.

Upcoming Spy TV On DVD

TVShowsOnDVD has done it again, posting exciting news about two eagerly anticipated new season sets of spy shows. First come full specs on 24: Season Six, and it looks to be the most loaded season yet in terms of extras! Highlights include more commentaries than ever before, loads of deleted scenes including (weirdly) a deleted cameo from the great Ricky Gervais (who made his first post-Office appearance and dramatic debut on another spy show, Alias), mobisodes, a whole slew of featurettes on pretty much every aspect of production, a Season 7 Preview, and the icing on the cake, the entire 24 parody episode of The Simpsons, to which Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub lent their voices! What's not included, however, is a "prequel" to the next season, a feature that's proven popular on the last couple of DVD sets, even if it usually amounts to nothing more than an extended car commercial. This is probably due to all the delays on shooting Season 7. But, hey, we get that Simpsons episode! Which is awesome. (Even if it is billed as an Easter Egg.)

Next up is the long-awaited American debut of the fifth season of MI-5, or Spooks, as it's known in England. MI-5 started out as a superior British alternative to 24, but has become more and more like 24 as it's progressed. Still, it's a terrific, engaging espionage show, and I continue to find it more enjoyable than its American counterpart. Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger (as most seasons do), and the wait for Americans to find out what happens has seemed interminable. Indeed, when Season 5 finally does debut on DVD on January 8, 2008, it will have been a whole year! This DVD release also comes prior to the season's Stateside broadcast premiere, which is just as well as the broadcast versions of the hour-long show are severely cut. It initially aired on A&E in the US, but now appears on BBC America. More good news is that the five-disc set will be considerably cheaper than previous installments at just $35.98.

Tradecraft: Bond Goes Bourne

The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Jason Bourne's second unit director (on the last two movies) is switching spies. Dan Bradley, who served also served as stunt co-ordinator on the Paul Greengrass-directed films, will direct second unit on the next James Bond movie. Bradley is famous for his "put you in the middle of it" action style. He's also directed second unit on Spider-man 2 and Spider-man 3, as well as Steven Spielberg's currently-shooting Indiana Jones 4. Hopefully his style is adaptable, and he'll come up with a unique look for Bond that's just as intense (and... awesome) as the Bourne, but uniquely 007, because I'm sick and tired of seeing Bond accused of ripping off Bourne. Yes, The Bourne Ultimatum is fantastic. But no matter what Matt Damon or Paul Greengrass says, there would be no Jason Bourne without James Bond, and Bond will never be replaced! Still, it's definitely good news to have the best action man out there shooting Bond's fights, especially with an unproven action director at the helm.

New Spy DVD Art From Fox

Well, Bond fans don't need to buy the discs all over again to get cool art, that's for sure. They just boxed up the existing sets along with Casino Royale! And Jack Bauer gets patriotic for Season 6.

James Bond Action Figures On The Way At Last?

Last month it was announced (and widely reported) that toymaker Corgi had renewed their license to produce toys based on the James Bond films. I paid little attention to these reports, because it was pretty much old news. I mean, Corgi is one of the very oldest Bond licensees out there; the relationship between 007 and the toymaker goes all the way back to Goldfinger! It would be terrible news if the license weren't being renewed, but it was hardly worth mentioning that it was, right? Apparently not.

Luckily, the folks at action-figure.com were reading the press release a lot more carefully than I was, and it contains some potentially exciting information. I'd assumed the agreement simply extended the company's deal to manufacture die-cast cars based on the series, as they've been doing such a good job of that for forty years. But it goes further:

This worldwide agreement will allow Corgi International to release both mass market product ranges as well as core collectibles on innovative product lines that include, Action Figures, Vehicles, Electronic Roleplay, Die Cast, High Specification Remote Control released under the Popco brand and High end Replicas released under the world renowned Master Replicas branding, amongst other items in varying scales and formats.

Action figures, huh? That's very exciting! The editors of action-figure.com points out that it's Corgi who will release the line of Golden Compass action figures this fall, to tie in with that movie, and their Daniel Craig sculpt (pictured) is very impressive! I'll second their thoughts and also hope that this is indicative of a line of 3.75 inch James Bond figures to come. After all, we've (for some unfathomable reason!) never had a line of true Bond action figures. Various companies from Mego to Sideshow have produced dolls in the 12-inch range of varying quality, and there have been lots of molded figurines over the years, from Gilbert in the Sixties (whose toys were actually billed as "action figures") to Little Lead Soldiers in the Eighties to Corgi's own stunning "Icons" line. But none of those were articulated or poseable. I don't care if they just put that Golden Compass figure in a tux (or even a tiny blue bathing suit if that's their prerogative!); it would be great to have an actual James Bond action figure!

Of course, the term in the press release is somewhat unclear. It could refer to another Icons-like line of figurines, or even just to the tiny figurines that come with some of the cars, but here's hoping not!

Spy DVD News Roundup

New James Bond Discs On The Way

Readers who frequent the various big James Bond websites will probably already be aware of some exciting new releases coming this fall from MGM and Fox, but they're certainly worth mentioning here as well... and perhaps I can even add a few small details.

Amazon recently added listings for two new items, "The James Bond Monster Box" and a "Casino Royale 40th Anniversary Edition," both due out (according to the site) on November 6. Fan site MI6.co.uk has reported that the new Casino Royale (that's the '67 version, of course)has been delayed until early 2008, but the truth is there has still been no official press release on either of these products and the studio won't yet confirm a release date, so for now all we have to go by is what Amazon says. And Amazon has been wrong before!

A complete Region 1 set of all the Bond movies has been in the offing for a while from Fox, but has gone through several iterations. A prototype was created this past summer for an attache case containing the two-disc versions of all twenty movies that were released from MGM in the four individual sets last fall in the main portion, and Sony's two-disc release of the 2006 Casino Royale on the flip side. This packaging would have been similar to Australia's well-received attache case collection. But when the Amazon listing went up, a different design was originally pictured, which was basically just a big box. (The box art said something like "The Complete Collection" and nothing about "Monster Box," which seems to be a term only being used by Amazon.) That art has since been removed from the retail site, however, so maybe things are in flux once again. Personally, I hope Fox (who release MGM's DVDs) will re-evaluate the attache case design, as that sounds pretty cool! What is known for sure about the set is that it will contain 42 discs, so it would seem that it's still set to include the two-disc special editions of the movies, which with the exception of Casino Royale, are currently available only in four collections. The individual editions contain just one disc and omit most of the special features.

While the 40th Anniversary Edition of the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale, the famously troubled production starring David Niven, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen (among many, many others), also has yet to be confirmed, there is a little more information available for it. The disc will again be produced by well-known Bond expert and former chairman of the Ian Fleming Foundation, John Cork, whose Cloverland Productions also produced the last, non-special edition of the film for MGM, as well as all of the excellent Special Editions of the legit Bond movies. (Cork also co-authored a number of officially licensed books on 007, the latest of which, The James Bond Encyclopedia, is due out next month.) According to CommanderBond.net, Cork will team up with fellow Bond expert and author of the first encyclopedia on the subject, Steven Jay Rubin, for a commentary track. The site lists the following special features:

“Bond James Bond” featurette
“A 3 Ring Circus” featurette
“More Directors, More Stars” featurette
“The Big Climax” featurette
“It’s a Wrap!” featurette

Hopefully all of these featurettes will come together to form as definitive a documentary on the making of this film as all of Cork's other impressive James Bond making-of docus! I'd argue that Casino Royale actually has the most fascinating production history of any Bond film, and a well-done documentary on the subject could easily be more entertaining than the film itself, especially if the producers were able to get interviews with any of the surviving participants. Speaking of interviews, the one with co-director (among at least five) Val Guest that was included on the last DVD of Casino Royale is not listed among the extras for the new one, but it may well have been re-purposed and used in the featurettes. Also not yet announced is the best special feature on that last release, the black and white 1954 TV version of Casino Royale, starring Barry Nelson. I really hope this is included, although I suppose it's possible that copyright issues could preclude it. The other possibility, of course, is that Fox/MGM is planning a separate release down the road, giving this version its own special edition! Wouldn't that be great? If they are, I hope they managed to record a commentary with Nelson prior to his passing last spring. Genre specialists Spy Guise planned to put out a special edition DVD of the '54 version several years ago, but were forestalled in their efforts by EON and MGM.

Anyway, Amazon lists the retail price for Casino Royale: The 40th Anniversary Edition at $19.99. Thankfully, the packaging seems more in keeping with Fox's last wave of "Classic Spy Films" rather than the ugly artwork found on the current editions of the Bond DVDs. CBN points out that "James Bond" is mentioned nowhere on the cover, no doubt to keep the Broccolis pleased! Furthermore, Fox impressively managed to dig up a version of Robert McGinnis' iconic "tattooed girl" artwork for the movie that I've never seen before anywhere! Usually, she has the words "Casino Royale" tattooed onto her back, obscuring the many characters and scenes from the movie depicted on this version! None of the international variations on the poster artwork included in Tony Nourmand's fairly comprehensive book James Bond Movie Posters show these details, and the original painting included in McGinnis' own Tapestry contains the words. I suppose Fox could have commissioned new artwork, but since the trend in new DVD artwork is toward bad Photoshopping and not painting, that seems highly unlikely. If anyone knows the origins of this cover artwork, please let me know!

New Edition Of Hot Fuzz

No sooner did I complain about the lack of extras on the single disc American release compared to the two-disc British release of Hot Fuzz (co-starring Timothy Dalton) than Universal trumps even the Brits and announces a three-disc special edition coming to America this fall! DVDActive has a list of all the impressive features, which seems to cover everything on the UK edition (including the much-missed commentary track with Dalton!), everything on the existent American version, and more, including an extended version of "Fuzzball Rally," the featurette documenting the filmmakers' US press tour! The new edition is due out November 27, and retails for $34.99. I can see why some consumers who already purchased the single disc edition might be upset, but I've come to accept double-dipping as a necessity of the market, and I'm just glad we're getting the best edition possible without having to import from Region 2. So save your money, and don't get one of those Wal-Mart exclusives that are now going for $50 or more on Ebay!

Young Indy Press Release

LucasFilm has issued a press release with further details on the upcoming first volume of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (or The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, as they're now calling it). It won't actually contain any of the espionage episodes I mentioned before, and it won't contain the Daniel Craig episode that Zencat pointed out in a comment on that post, but it will contain some great episodes! Going chronologically, this set focuses primarily on Indy as a young boy, as played by Corey Carrier. I was never as into those episodes when the series initially aired, but there are quite a few of them I haven't seen, so I'm looking forward to them. The Carrier episodes included in this set are:

"My First Adventure," set and shot in Egypt
"Passion For Life," in Kenya and Paris
"The Perils of Cupid," in Vienna and Florence
"Travels With Father," in Russia and Greece
"Journey of Radiance," in China

Bear in mind that each "episode" here is actually two hour-long episodes from the original run on ABC, combined into one feature-length adventure. So we also get four episodes starring Sean Patrick Flannery as a teenaged Indy (some of my very favorites, in fact), combined into two features:

"Spring Break Adventure," in Princeton and Mexico
"Love's Sweet Song," in Ireland and London

Each adventure gets at least one disc to itself, and some get two. The whole set is 12 discs. Each adventure has a slew of documentaries on the historical situations or locations featured therein, with topics as varied as "Easter Rising—The Poets’ Rebellion," "The Mystery of Edward Stratemeyer [creator of Nancy Drew]," "Powder Keg—Europe 1900 to 1914," "Theodore Roosevelt and The American Century," "Braque + Picasso: A Collaboration Cubed," "Howard Carter and the Tomb of Tutankhamun," "Colonel Lawrence’s War: T.E. Lawrence and Arabia" and "The Passions of William Butler Yeats," among many others. And each of those is actually topical and relevant to the series! I have very high expectations for these documentaries, as they've been a passion project for George Lucas and he's had his people working on them for years, since before there was a format capable of containing them all! There's also a twelfth disco of additional bonus features.

Unfortunately, with all this space devoted to the history involved, there are no featurettes on the making of the series itself. Since the press release touts the fact that the series shot in thirty-five countries over four years, and "was the first television series to use digital production, pioneering processes that would pave the way for Lucas' own Star Wars prequels," I know there's a fascinating behind-the-scenes story to be told! In fact, I've read about it in other places, and producer Rick McCallum even claims, "Young Indiana Jones was one of the most ambitious and complex projects that had ever been attempted for television." So some making-of featurettes would be welcome companions to the historical documentaries. Hopefully, that will be covered in Volume 2 or 3.