TV Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Pilot (2013)

“What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?” asks S.H.I.E.L.D. honcho Maria Hill (guest star Cobie Smulders, familiar to audiences from playing the role in Marvel’s The Avengers). And this brief exchange isn’t just in there for the sake of exposition. It is a crucial bit of exposition, of course, at the beginning of a show called Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. designed to appeal to far broader audiences than ever picked up an issue of Jim Steranko’s groundbreaking 1960s run on the comic book Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it also serves to brilliantly set the tone for executive producer Joss Whedon’s take on the concept. Whedon, who also directed the Marvel Avengers movie, directs the pilot episode of the series, and co-writes with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

“Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,” replies the vaguely Bondian super-agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), who we’ve just watched retrieve a MacGuffin (a Chitauri neural link, for those who care) from a bad guy’s Parisian apartment while taking enough time to flirt with the villain’s lingerie-clad mistress and dispatch a team of thugs before dangling from a helicopter to make his escape over the rooftops of the City of Lights. There’s the exposition, telling people what, exactly, they’re watching. (And reminding long-term fans that the acronym’s meaning has changed over the years.) Except… well, that’s really no answer, is it? What are audiences to make of that assembly of non sequiturs? Agent Hill presses further.

“And what does that mean to you?”

“It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out S.H.I.E.L.D.,” he responds. pausing before adding more seriously, “It means we’re the line. Between the world… and the much weirder world. We protect people from news they aren’t ready to hear. And when we can’t do that, we keep them safe.” And so the exchange serves to set the tone for the whole series. This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. series, fully subscribing to both the premise of the comics (an U.N.C.L.E.-like espionage agency taken to comic book extremes, tasked with taking on super powers and super science that would be laughable in a Bond movie), but it’s also a Joss Whedon series (he previously created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly), self-aware and referential, with a clear sense of humor even in the face of inevitable tragedy. (Whedon loves tragedy.) It’s a Whedon take on S.H.I.E.L.D. As a fan of both, I found it difficult to reconcile the two based on the somewhat schizophrenic promos for the series, but that one exchange makes it entirely clear to me what that will be like, and that it will work.  

Whedon’s sense of humor (apparently shared with his co-writers) elevates the entire pilot episode, and clearly differentiates this acronym show from the CBS acronym shows like CSI and NCIS in all their iterations. Yes, those shows have humor too, but not the Whedonesque brand of postmodern, self-deprecating humor. Interestingly, rather than distancing the show from the comics, as I feared that style of humor might do, it serves to make the show feel more like a comic book. Everything in this world is heightened—the jokes as well as the action—and that’s exactly as it should be.

Hill is interviewing Agent Ward because he has been selected to be on a new mobile task force whose purview includes all the new superheroics and alien technology popping up around the world after the apocalyptic events of Marvel’s The Avengers (generally referred to as “the Battle of New York”). He’s not happy about it. “Why was I pulled out of Paris?” he demands.

“That you’ll have to ask Agent Coulson,” Hill replies. Coulson, filmgoers will recall, is the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent created specifically for the movies, who first popped up in Iron Man (2008). Since then, the fan-favorite character played by Clark Gregg has gone on to appear in Iron Man 2, Thor, various Marvel short films, and, of course, the Whedon-directed megahit Marvel’s The Avengers. And in the last one (spoiler alert, for the two readers who still haven’t seen that movie), he died. Audiences know that, and so does Grant.

“Uhh, yeah,” he says. “I’m clearance Level 6.  I know that Agent Coulson was killed in action, before the Battle of New York. Got the full report.”

At that point, Coulson himself emerges from the darkness and intones, “Welcome to Level 7.”  Here another show might queue the bombastic music and go to commercial, but Whedon being Whedon adds a comedic zinger, explaining the dramatic entrance. “Sorry, that corner was really dark and I couldn’t help myself,” Coulson explains apologetically. “I think there’s a bulb out.”

The rest of Coulson’s hand-picked unit includes ace pilot Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), who’s clearly no stranger to combat, either, and geeky tech duo “Fitzsimmons,” which really refers to male nerd Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and his inseparable female counterpart Jenna Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge). Their first mission is to track down and hopefully aid a new superhero who’s just popped up in Los Angeles, dubbed by the papers “the Hooded Hero” and played by Angel’s J. August Richards. To do that, they’ll need to enlist the aid of a sexy, sassy-but-slightly-vulnerable female “hacktivist” (oh how I hate that word!) Skye (Chloe Benett). Over the course of the pilot she’ll go from wanting to expose the secret government agency through her one-woman Anonymous-like “organization,” The Rising Tide, to becoming their newest recruit.

The Hooded Hero turns out to have a connection to this summer’s Marvel blockbuster Iron Man Three, and his storyline proves a very effective dress form on which to hang the character interactions that serve as the fabric of the pilot. I was impressed with the relative ease with which Whedon & Co. managed to work an introduction to the world, introductions to a whole slew of characters, seeds for ongoing plotlines, and a mission-of-the-week story into one cohesive narrative. At this they succeed better than many pilots. 

Those characters are clearly meant to be the series’ heart, though, and for the moment they remain its most problematic aspect. From the pilot alone, I’m not sure who’s meant to be the lead. I presume that it will be Skye, but while Bennett is a very appealing actress, she’s probably the most hackneyed character of the batch, a Standard Whedon Type. It also struck me as a bit odd to have two young, white, brunette female geeks on the show, the science geek Simmons and the computer geek Skye. So far they seem quite similar, and of the two, Henstridge’s Simmons scored a much bigger impact.

But perhaps the lead is supposed to be Coulson. He’s the recognizable face right now, and certainly afforded the most on-screen awe in the way he’s shot and talked about—and possibly in screentime too. But what made that character work so well in the movies was, as a friend of mine put it, that he was completely square. He was the quintessential faceless government agent, and the humor came from the fact that as the films proceeded, he was given a face—a very likable face, in fact.  But likable works better in small doses in movies than it does as the agent in charge on a S.H.I.E.L.D. show.  Comics readers are used to having Nick Fury in charge, and though the cigar-chomping, eye-patched “S.H.I.E.L.D. ramrod” (as Stan Lee dubbed him in his inimitable and incessant word-packed caption bubbles) may have started out as more caricature than character, there’s no denying his utter gravitas. Samuel L. Jackson plays a version of Fury more based on Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics from this century (which was in turn based on Jackson himself, making it an easy enough part for him to play) than on the Sixties hero, but there’s no denying his gravitas either. An organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. needs a Nick Fury, and Coulson doesn’t fit the bill. For one thing, Gregg smiles way too much to be a “ramrod!”

Or perhaps Ward is meant to be the lead in this ensemble. He’s the one we’re first introduced to, in a nifty little mini-movie that showcases the heightened espionage action of the S.H.I.E.L.D. world. (I really appreciated that like the David Goyer-penned telefilm of a decade-and-a-half prior, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. really goes for that blend of espionage and super-science, rather than just settling for being an X-Files-style paranormal investigation squad.) And he’s the closest thing to a ramrod in the bunch. (Well, actually Melinda May has that potential, too, but we don’t see enough of her in the pilot to know for sure.) But Dalton seems a bit too unsure of himself in the role, so far, to be leading man material. (He excels, however, when afforded a chance at light comedy thanks to a truth serum. For me, the comedy always worked in this pilot.)

So we’re left with a S.H.I.E.L.D. in need of a Nick Fury, but given the unlikelihood of luring movie star Jackson to television, that was always the challenge. (Though I fully expect him to cameo at some point.) My friend pondered the point of a superspy show without superspies, but I think Whedon and his cohorts have adopted an interesting alternative take. This is the rare spy show that has more Marshalls than Sydneys, more Q’s than 007’s. What are we to make of all these nerds running around? Well, in this geek-chic/Wiki-leak era of nerds as heroes, perhaps that’s precisely the right take for our time. Given how much I like the framework and the humor, I’m certainly willing to go with them on this ride and see how it pans out, though I really would like a clear ramrod for all these geeks to support.

Futuristic, out-there spy-tech has always been a hallmark of S.H.I.E.L.D., since you could get away with a lot more out-there concepts in a comic book than you could on the big screen (Bond) or television (U.N.C.L.E.). With no budgetary constraints, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and especially Jim Steranko were able to create crazy gadgets that Q could only dream of. So how do those gadgets which owe their very existence to “you can’t do this on television” imaginations fare when finally translated, five decades later, to television? Foremost among those incredible creations of the Sixties was the mobile S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, a massive flying aircraft carrier dubbed the helicarrier which hovered high above the earth. Since the helicarrier was superbly realized in Whedon’s Avengers movie, I was hoping we might see it on TV as well. The CG models were already made, and perhaps they’d saved some standing interior sets. Sadly, there’s no sign of the helicarrier in the pilot. Instead, this unit uses a huge black transport plane as its mobile base of operations. (Oddly, it’s emblazoned with a huge S.H.I.E.L.D. logo, as are their Hummers, which seems strangely conspicuous for a secret spy agency!) Logo aside, the plane actually makes a lot of sense, given that it only needs to convey a small group of people, not all of S.H.I.E.L.D. (It’s also pretty impressive in itself for a TV budget.) Other S.H.I.E.L.D. tech fares well, overall. Ward utilizes some cool spy gadgets in his caper at the beginning, and Fitzsimmons have their own array of future-tech they use to investigate the scene of an explosion. But the best of all comes at the episode’s conclusion. [Minor SPOILERS follow!] Agent Coulson drives a red ’62 Corvette convertible. Other characters make fun of him for clinging to an antique, but in the final moments of the pilot, he demonstrates just how cool an antique can be when he pushes a button on the console and (Steranko and Kirby fans will see this coming), the wheels fold horizontally out of the wheel wells, becoming hover platforms, and the car lifts off and zips away toward the camera!

I’ll be honest.  All I really wanted out of a S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series was to see that Kirby concept of a flying spy car realized on screen, and it’s realized beautifully. (Nick Fury’s Sixties hovercar was a Porsche 907, and later hovercars in the comics have paid blatant homage to the vehicle that inspired their forebear by using Aston Martin bodies, but the classic ‘Vette works just fine for me!) I actually clapped out loud, alone in my living room, when that happened. And then I rewatched the scene several more times. I want the toy! Whatever minor quibbles I had with the show up till then, I was completely sold in that moment, and am eagerly on board for the rest of the season. I just hope ABC has the budget to give us an awesome flying car chase during Sweeps.

For a less favorable opinion on the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot from a man who has more right to criticize it than anyone else in the world, you can read a review at The Hollywood Reporter by Jim Steranko himself! I do agree with most of his points, though they didn’t diminish the overall impact of the show for me. In an incredible coup for THR, Steranko (who has recently become a Twitter superstar) will be providing weekly Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. recaps at the trade site. Based on the first one, Marvel should really consider hiring him as a consultant for the series! (He’s given a special thanks at the end, along with Ultimates creators Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are also given credit up front for creating the comic book concept.) Of course thanks to THR, they’ll be able to read his characteristically candid advice for free every week (that must be daunting for the writers!), so maybe they’re better off saving the dough for that flying car chase….

ABC will re-air the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot on Thursday, September 26 at 8pm EST.

Tradecraft: Fox Buys Sheldon Turner Conspiracy Thriller Pilot Frayed

Deadline reports that Fox has bought a conspiracy thriller pilot written by Up In the Air scribe Sheldon Turner. The show is based on a pair of Dutch miniseries Bellicher and Bellicher: Cell, which were in turn based on a popular trilogy of Dutch thrillers by Charles den Tex. (The books have not yet been translated into English.) According to the trade blog, Frayed "centers on an arrogant and entitled corporate consultant who gets embroiled in a grand conspiracy that forces him to go on the run. As his entire life unravels, he’ll come to realize that the only man who can help him is a perpetually paranoid and possibly delusional former NSA agent." Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reports that paranoid Seventies thrillers like The Conversation, The Parallax View and Three Days Of The Condor serve as touchstones for Turner on this project. Good touchstones!

More Intel on the Format of the Reconstituted 24

Fox Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly offered  further information on the exact format of the all-new, back from the dead, reconstituted incarnation of 24 (entitled 24: Live Another Day) returning next year to Fox. We already knew the network's signature real-time action series would be back as a 12-episode miniseries rather than a 24-episode season, but how would that change the one hour of TV equals one hour of real time daylong scenario? Reilly told Crave Online (via Dark Horizons) that the story would still unfold over the course of the day, but certain hours would be skipped. Producer Howard Gordon clarified that scenario for the website previously, saying, "We’ll keep it a 24 hour story but we’ll tell 7-8, 8:15-9:15, 10-11 and then skip 3 hours if we need to. I think it’s going to actually make us not have to do the pretzel logic of some of the stuff." That sounds like an excellent plan to me. Not only did it always take me out of the action a bit whenever Jack Bauer managed to get from one side of L.A. to the other in less than the duration of a single episode in the middle of the day (an impossible feat given this city's traffic), but I felt like the seasons always sagged in the middle as the writers struggled to fill out the day. There would generally be a slam-bang beginning and a terrific conclusion, but in the middle things tended to drag a bit and we were stuck with situations like Kim being menaced by a cougar. Reilly, apparently, felt the same way, explaining that the miniseries format will provide the patented 24 experience we want without stretching the story too thin.

"Howard has always said, he always had 12 great ones, it was the next 12 that used to kill them.” Now that shouldn't be an issue. Not only that, but with the ability to skip hours of travel time, the new format opens up the series to more international locations. "This is going to be set in an international setting," Reilly told Crave. "They’ve got great ideas. I love doing it this way. I have been really heartened by the amount of equity left in the show. I am stopped by fans all the time, thanking me for bringing it back." Great! I can't wait to see Jack Bauer tearing it up overseas! That's what I was hoping for from the 24 movie that never got off the ground. It would be great to see a new 24 "event series" every summer for years to come, with Jack in a different international city each season.

In addition to Kiefer Sutherland, The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Mary Lynn Rajskub will also be back, reprising her fan-favorite role as Chloe, Jack's indispensable CTU support tech, without whom he couldn't have foiled half the terrorist plots he managed to foil, or opened up half the sockets he managed to open. ("Open up a socket, Chloe!" was one of Jack's favorite things to whisper-yell into his cell phone.) So far, those two are the only familiar faces to be cast in 24: Live Another Day, and Reilly says the rest of the cast will probably be filled out with new characters. I don't know; I think they need to bring back Tony Almeida, too...

Tradecraft: Katherine Heigl CIA Show Lands at NBC

Deadline reports that the untitled Katherine Heigl spy show we heard about last month has found a network home at NBC. (NBC had been the expected frontrunner to win a bidding war for the project.) The trade blog reports that the show "stars Heigl as a key CIA analyst whose job it is to debrief and strategize with the president on the most pressing global and national matters. She balances this incredibly high-stakes job and trusted relationship with her complicated personal life." Former CIA officers Henry Curmpton (author of The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service) and Rodney Faraon (who has briefed several presidents himself) lend their expertise as executive producers along with Heigl (Killers) and her mother, Nancy Heigl, and Hollywood vets Alexi Hawley (Castle, The Following) and Robert Simonds (This Means War, The Pink Panther 2). “I have been passionate about, and enthralled by, this project from the moment Hank, Rodney and Bob brought it to me over a year ago,” Heigl said. “The story is not only compelling and intelligent but a look behind the curtain at the CIA we haven’t seen before in film or television.”

Tradecraft: Ellen Page in Talks to Star in Queen & Country Movie!

UNCLE who? While spy fans have been focused on other (admittedly exciting) topics for the past week, Fox has apparently been slowly moving forward once again on a spy project so exciting that it eclipses nearly all others in my own mind: the long-gestating Queen & Country movie, based on Greg Rucka's excellent, excellent series of comic books and novels! We haven't heard any movement on Queen & Country since 2009, when Peter Chernin came on board as a producer. That's a long time to remain dormant, and I'd feared the worst. But today, The Hollywood Reporter reports new movement... major movement! According to the trade, Ellen Page (Inception, Juno) is in negotiations to star as British secret agent Tara Chace. Peter Chernin (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) is still producing, along with Jenno Topping (I Spy, Charlie's Angels). The script of note is by Ryan Condal (Hercules: The Thracian Wars), who joined the project back in 2009 following previous drafts by Rucka, John Moore and Leverage creator Jon Rogers. I'd say it's a good sign that his script is deemed solid enough to last this long in the development process. According to the trade's log line, the film version of Queen & Country "tells of a British SOS [sic] operative named Tara Chace whose identity is compromised after she carries out an assassination." (Tara is actually a "minder" for the SIS, better known as MI6. Minders are roughly the equivalent in Rucka's world of le Carré's scalphunters, Fleming's Double O's, or, most directly, The Sandbaggers' sandbaggers. They're the special section.) This is basically the same log line that we've been hearing for years on this project, and still leads me to believe that the script is culled primarily from the first two arcs of Rucka's comic book, both of which are collected in Queen & Country: The Definitive Edition, Vol. 1 (an absolutely essential read for serious-minded spy fans!).

I unabashedly love Queen & Country. In my third ever post on this blog, way back in 2006, I called it "the best current, ongoing spy saga in any medium." Seven years later, I totally stand by that... except for that fact that with no new entry since 2011's novel The Last Run, I'm not completely sure it can still be called "ongoing." But even in the age of wonderful spy television like Homeland and The Americans and a renaissance for the James Bond moives, I still stand by Q&C as the best in any medium! It's simply great stuff, combining the Desk and Field sides of the serious side of the spy genre as well as past masters like Len Deighton's Samson series or Queen & Country's primary acknolwedged inspiration, Ian Mackintosh's Seventies TV classic The Sandbaggers. The entire run (to date) of the fantastic Oni Press comic book is collected in four oversized "definitive editions." These, along with the novels A Gentleman's Game, Private Wars and The Last Run comprise the entirety of the Tara Chace saga, again to date. In 2007 I came up with my own dream cast for a Queen & Country movie here. Ellen Page was not on my radar at the time, but I think she's an excellent actress and provided she can manage a convincing British accent (I'm guessing she can), she should prove a terrific choice! My other choices are probably a bit too old now to play opposite Page, but I stand by my selection of Hugh Laurie for the crucial role of section head Paul Crocker nonetheless! (Peter Capaldi would also be excellent, if a bit on the nose, but of course he's not tied up for the forseeable future with Doctor Who.) It will be interesting to see who ends up filling those roles, but I hope that Laurie (who made Fox a fortune during his years on House) is on their shortlist.

I really hope that Page signs on, and that her casting paves the way for this movie actually getting made! (And then I hope that inspires Rucka to revive the comic book, as he's been promising to do for many years now.) This is definitely one to keep an eye on. A series of Queen & Country movies could be the best thing to happen in the spy genre since Tinker Tailor!

Tradecraft: CBS Lands Another Potential Spy Series

As usual in the fall, the spy pilots are flying left and right at the networks. It's important to remember that few of these pilot scripts will actually end up being filmed, and even fewer will go to series come next season. But it's still exciting that there are so many spies in the potential mix! The latest to land at CBS is a drama from Bates Motel producer Kerry Ehrin and Revenge writer Nikki Toscano. Deadline reports that "the CBS drama centers on a retired CIA operative who, when a terrorist event rocks Washington, D.C., is pulled back into action, forced to investigate closer to home where the next generation of terrorists are being bred." It's written and executive produced by Toscano, with Ehrin on board as a consultant. The networks' interest in this type of series no doubt has something to do with the success of cable series Homeland (on Showtime) and The Americans (on FX).

Another Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Trailer

Another week, another new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV spot... Boy, between these videos and all those bus stop posters that are blanketing cities right now (well, I can speak for L.A. at least; I assume other cities, too), ABC is sure promoting this upcoming comic book-based spy series! This one doesn't add too much new footage, but there is a cool shot of someone dangling from a helicopter that perhaps hints at some of the wild action the old S.H.I.E.L.D. comics by Jim Steranko and Jack Kirby were known for, and one character refers to the Corvette we've seen in previous spots as "one of Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. collectibles." Being a fan of those comics, I really hope that means its wheels fold out to become "Mach-pressure fans" turning it into a flying spy car! If so, it's too bad it's not a Porsche 905 or Jaguar XKE as Nick Fury was known to drive in those wonderful Sixties issues, but I do like the idea of working elements of those classic comics in as "S.H.I.E.L.D. collectibles." (In Marvel's The Avengers, it was established that Agent Coulson avidly collects memorabilia related to superhero history, so it would be fairly logical to extend that collection to S.H.I.E.L.D. items of historical significance as well.) As I noted when they released the last trailer, I'm fully aware that this show won't be a direct translation of the 1960s Steranko comics I love so much, but I do hope that it finds clever ways like that to embody their spirit! Those comics themselves, products of that decade's spy craze, owed a lot to James Bond and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but Jim Steranko mixed in spandex and superheroics and surrealism and psychedelia to create a really unique, anything-goes take on spy-fi. As previously announced, Steranko's entire run on the series (which started out in the anthology comic Strange Tales before graduating to its own title) will be reprinted in a single volume this fall to tie in with the ABC show. For more background on the comic and the history of the fictional spy organization, read my full S.H.I.E.L.D. primer here.

Tradecraft: Cinemax to Air Original UK Strike Back, Previously Unseen in U.S.

Deadline reports that Cinemax will finally provide American audiences with the opportunity to see the original UK season of the action spy series Strike Back, which aired there on the cable channel B Sky B. Sky's Strike Back (known in Britain as Chris Ryan's Strike Back) starred Richard Armitage (MI-5) and Andrew Lincoln as agents of MI6's elite, ultra-secret paramilitary unit Section 20. Cinemax liked the series and wanted to acquire it, co-producing subsequent seasons and broadcasting them in America. Unfortunately, by that time Armitage had been cast in The Hobbit and Lincoln had moved onto The Walking Dead, so the Cinemax version was recast and rebooted, focusing on two entirely new characters (Philip Winchester and Sullivan Stapleton as Stonebridge and Scott) also recruited to work for Section 20. (Why there was no carryover in the office support staff I don't know.) While the first Stonebridge and Scott season aired as Season 2 of the series in Britain, Americans were introduced to it as a brand new series. On DVD, it was labelled "The First Cinemax Season" and American viewers never had the chance to see the real first season... until now! Starting October 25 in the regular Strike Back timeslot (following the conclusion of the third Cinemax season), the cabler will air the original UK series as Strike Back: Origins, billed as a "prequel." This is great news, because that first season with Armitage is really wonderful television. Seeing it first, in fact, I found it far superior to the Cinemax version (though a direct comparison is somewhat unfair, as the two versions are tonally pretty different). Now American audiences at large can finally be exposed to these six exciting episodes of espionage action. (And finally share the frustration UK viewers felt at Armitage's brief cameo in the first episode of the Cinemax series!) Hopefully this will also lead to a DVD and Blu-ray release for Strike Back: Origins down the road. It would be great if it also led to the current version of the show revisiting some of the characters from that first incarnation and tying up a few loose ends! (Hey, despite what we think we saw, anything can happen... right?)

Read my review of the UK Strike Back here.
Read my review of the US Strike Back here.

And here's Cinemax's trailer for the rebranded Strike Back: Origins:

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Feature Film Officially Set to Begin Filming Next Week With Hugh Grant as Mr. Waverly

We've followed the various twists and turns in the road to make a feature film version of the Sixties TV classic The Man From U.N.C.L.E. for at least three years (when first David Dobkin and then Steven Soderbergh were set to direct, the latter with George Clooney starring), but it's been an even longer road than that. (As far back as the mid Nineties, there were rumors of a Quentin Tarantino version, and later Matthew Vaughn.) Things finally seemed to solidify somewhat in December 2011 when Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) came on board to direct, but even then it wasn't a smooth ride. We've followed the drama in the trades as various stars were approached and in some cases even attached (most famously Tom Cruise) before drifting away. Even as the final cast shaped up over this past summer, there was still no official announcement from Warner Bros. Today that changed. Today, the studio finally issued a press release officially confirming that filming commences September 9 on a Man From U.N.C.L.E. feature film starring Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) as Napoleon Solo, Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) as Illya Kuryakin and Hugh Grant as U.N.C.L.E. boss Alexander Waverly.

We've known for a while about Cavill and Hammer and Grant was announced a few weeks ago, but this is the first confirmation I've seen that Grant will be playing Waverly... and that's the first bit of casting on this project that really excites me! I'm certainly not up in arms or anything about Cavill or Hammer, but neither choice struck me as especially exciting either. This one does. I wouldn't have pictured Grant filling the shoes of the great Leo G. Carroll, but now that it's done I can totally see it. (Especially following Grant's heavily made-up appearance in the Seventies portion of Cloud Atlas.) Best of all, though, the press release also officially confirms that the film will be set in the 1960s. This was the case when Soderbergh was attached (working from a script by The Bourne Ultimatum's Scott Z Burns), but I was afraid no other director would have the chutzpah to set a modern action movie in the Sixties. Still, it looked in recent months like Ritchie was doing just that, and Hammer made allusions to the film being a period piece in interviews, but it's wonderful to have that officially confirmed. The Cold War setting is the aspect that has me most excited about this project. We've seen a comedic recreation of the most fertile period in spy film history in the excellent OSS 117 movies, but I, for one, can't wait to see a straightforward action spy movie set in that era but shot with modern techniques. (Assuming, that is, that this U.N.C.L.E. film is a serious movie and not a comedic take, like Starsky and Hutch.)

Ritchie is not using the Burns script, but rather one that he penned with his producing partner Lionel Wigram. Wigram and Ritchie produce along with John Davis and Steve Clark-Hall; one-time directorial candidate David Dobkin remains attached as executive producer.

Here is the plot description provided in the press release:

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. centers on CIA agent Solo and KGB agent Kuryakin. Forced to put aside longstanding hostilities, the two team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology. The duo’s only lead is the daughter of a vanished German scientist, who is the key to infiltrating the criminal organization, and they must race against time to find him and prevent a worldwide catastrophe.

There are some details in there likely to alarm U.N.C.L.E. TV purists, but I'm thoroughly encouraged, personally. It makes complete sense for the American and Russian agents to come to U.N.C.L.E. from their respective countries' secret services. And as Wigram points out, this is a new take. "Guy and I have long loved these characters," he says, "and wanted to start from scratch with our own take and create a film steeped in the 1960s for today’s audiences." That sounds just fine to me. Beyond the origins, the plot sounds very much like it could come from an actual episode of the show, or from any number of spy movies produced during that decade. And that's as it should be. It sounds like it will involve the traditional U.N.C.L.E. rival THRUSH (the international criminal organization), and it sounds like it will involve an "innocent" (the TV show had a gimmick of teaming Solo and Kuryakin with a civilian - usually a beautiful woman - week after week) in the scientist's daughter.

Also confirmed in the cast are Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) and Jared Harris (Moriarty in Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes sequel). I really liked Debicki in Gatsby, and I've been a fan of Harris ever since his wonderful performance in the criminally underrated 1994 vampire film Nadja (a remake of Dracula's Daugher). Plus, he's now a Hammer star! Presumably Harris will be playing either the missing scientist or the villain... or possibly both, should those characters prove to be one and the same.

Movie Review: Goldsnake aka Suicide Mission to Singapore (1966)

There were certain code words in Sixties movie titles that instantly denoted spy, and the makers of Eurospy movies took full advantage of all of them. “Agent,” of course, along with any number of variations on the numbers “0” and “7.” “Operation.” “Assignment.” Even “Man” (usually when preceded by “Our” or “That”). But at the height of Bondmania, in the wake of Goldfinger, one of the surest ways to look for a spy movie when scanning the marquees on 42nd street was to watch for the word “Gold.” And if it was used in compound word unlikely to be found in any dictionary, then you knew you’d struck, er... gold. Goldginger, Goldwather (whatever that is), Goldseven, Goldvan, Goldman, Golden Men, Golden Boy… the variations were endless, and rarely had anything to do with the film’s plot. Even when they did, that meaning tended to be arbitrary. (Why else, for instance, would Inspector Ginko name his climactic operation "Operation Goldvan" in Danger: Diabolik if it wasn’t being considered as an alternate title for the film?) Imagine my surprise, then, when an actual golden snake turns up in the final minutes of Goldsnake, thus justifying the predictably (and gloriously) Bassey-esque title ballad! (You can hear that for yourself on YouTube.) Yes, there's actually a golden snake in the movie Goldnake! (Eventually.) In some Eurospy movies you have to appreciate the little things, and I appreciated that. And Goldsnake is a movie where you have to appreciate the little things, because big ones don’t tend to happen.

Stelio Candelli (Planet of the Vampires), credited here as “Stanley Kent,” gets his only shot at Eurospy stardom (though he played a supporting role in Secret Agent 777) as agent Kurt Jackson. It becomes clear fairly quickly why he didn’t get another opportunity. He’s fairly cardboard in the role (and honestly a bit weird-looking for a leading man), and totally devoid of the charm necessary to pull off a Eurospy lead. Jackson is a Western Intelligence agent of indeterminate nationality (he seems to report to French masters, but also refers to taking orders from the Pentagon) who pops up in Singapore with an assignment to track down a missing atom scientist and his son. No, that wasn’t a typo. In this singular instance, the missing atom scientist has a young son and not a comely daughter, as missing scientists nearly always have. While daughters tend to be integral to the plot, however, the son is barely mentioned (and indeed eventually disappears altogether from the narrative).

The scientist, Dr. Chang, has invented a nuclear bomb the size and shape and texture of a golf ball. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would suspect that the producers were pinching pennies by just using a golf ball, but we’re assured that it’s a nuke on the inside. Naturally, this is of great interest to competing world powers, all of whom are searching for the scientist. Kent doesn’t get his usual briefing in the customary curtained room in Washington or Paris (a popular cost-cutting measure in Eurospy films was to save the expense of a wall by using a curtain to close off at least one side of a boss’s office), but instead turns up already in action at the airport in Singapore, ready for his Dr. No scene. (Even after Goldfinger had reset the characteristics of a Bondian spy movie, Eurospy imitators still diligently went through that whole Dr. No routine of the spy arriving at an airport and finding that either someone wants to take his picture or someone has sent a car for him that he hasn’t requested. In this case, it’s the latter.) Perhaps this is because director Ferdinando Baldi is challenging narrative conventions and chose to boldly begin in media res… or perhaps it’s because Goldsnake is so low budget it can’t even afford the customary stock footage aerial of Washington and the inevitable curtain-walled office. I’m inclined to believe the latter, though I will say that Baldi makes the most of his shoestring budget by filming entirely on location, which makes the proceedings appear more exotic, and hence more expensive.

Also adding production value is a gorgeous white E-Type Jaguar—always a plus in a Sixties spy film. It’s got some gadgets, but they’re the type that don’t require any special effects. (He pushes a knob on the dash twice and he’s able to talk on the radio… or at least talk at the dashboard.) Locations (the best mansions and docks Singapore has to offer), cars (there’s actually another E-type—a yellow one—later on!), creative gadgets (exploding matches, guaranteed to come in handy when a villain doesn’t have a light to offer you for your last cigarette!) and a strong supporting cast (Juan Cortez is effective in the Kerim Bey role, Jean, and Yoko Tani and Annabella Incontrera lend the requisite beauty and glamor while both proving themselves appropriately ruthless at times as well) all help gloss over the shoestring budget, but unfortunately it shows glaringly when the time comes for action. The most frustrating thing about Goldsnake is that every time things start to get really exciting… it cuts away to another location or another day. If Kurt gets surrounded by thugs with machine guns, he’ll manage to pick off one or two, and then instead of witnessing how he gets out of that situation, we’re treated to a scene of him discussing it later with Jean. Or if he escapes from the villain’s house on foot as armed henchmen prepare to give chase, instead of showing us the ensuing foot chase, we see Kurt waking up the next morning in bed next to his gorgeous assistant Annie Wong (Tani).

Worst of all, any forms of exotic travel are glossed over. At one point Kurt gets Jean to order him a fighter jet so he can get to an island. We’re treated to an actual shot of an actual airport with our actors actually next to the jet, thus proving it’s not stock footage. Kurt climbs into the cockpit in his suit and tie (spies don’t need flight suits!), straps in, and… and we cut to him disembarking from a ferry boat onto the island. What happened, movie?!? Any scenario I can imagine is far too exciting not to be shown. I’m guessing he probably got chased by a bunch of enemy jets, had an awesome dogfight, but ultimately succumbed to superior numbers. So he ejected over the ocean, shot down the final two enemy fighters with his pistol as he parachuted down, then managed to guide himself to land atop that ferry boat. Right? That must be it. But the actual movie, sadly, just cuts from Kurt seating himself in the cockpit to getting off the boat. (And I’m guessing they probably showed us every last centimeter of film stock showing that plane.)

Sex scenes are similarly glossed over, which is par for the course for that era, but so are the seductions. Usually we’re at least treated to the few cheesy lines the agent uses to lure the lovely lady to bed with him. Not here. In one case, Kurt and Annie find themselves fending off gunmen near a beach. Both fall in the water leaving their clothes soaking wet—an untenable predicament which can only be rectified (in Eurospyland, anyway) by sleeping together right away. Not only do we not see how they escape the remaining gunmen; poor Stelio doesn’t even get to suggest, “let’s get out of these wet clothes!” with an arched eyebrow. What we do get is kind of interesting, though. Jean comes to find Kurt, sees the undressed Annie, and connects the dots. This leads to a smug conversation between the two men discussing the role of women in espionage (and, by extension, sadly, in espionage films... or at least Eurospy films). “Just imagine how terrible it would be, spying without women?” Jean asks. “Where else could a spy who fell in the water try to warm up?” Kurt pats his buddy on the shoulder and agrees, “What women mean to our job I don't have to explain to you, do I?” And they share a knowing chuckle. I'm sure all the women who have made sacrifices for their countries in the clandestine services over the years appreciate their consideration.

Overall, Goldsnake ranks pretty low in the Eurospy canon for the things it omits. But that’s no reason to scoff at what it manages to contain. For the most part Goldsnake checks all the boxes expected of low-budget Sixties spy entertainment. We’ve got the cars, the girls, the gadgets, the suave(ish) hero in a dinner jacket. In fact, Kurt Jackson deserves special recognition for the sheer amount of time he spends in his dinner jacket. He dons it for most of the first half of the movie! And that counts for something. In fact, the movie does a good enough job at conveying the spirit of its genre that its poster (admittedly better than the film, as is often the case) became the cover of Matt Blake and David Deal’s genre bible The Eurospy Guide! (The colors were altered on both the Jag and the dinner jacket, presumably because red and black make for more dynamic advertising than a lot of whites.) This is definitely not “first Eurospy movie” material (or even second, eighth or tenth), but seasoned connoisseurs will still find plenty to enjoy here. Goldsnake hasn't got much, but it makes the most of what it does have.

Tradecraft: Christopher McQuarrie Confirmed to Direct Mission: Impossible 5

This is old news, but still important to catch up on around here since I've been eagerly following the progress of the next Mission: Impossible movie. Christopher McQuarrie, the prolific screenwriter who often does polishes on Tom Cruise movies and has previously directed Way of the Gun and Jack Reacher, has been rumored as the frontrunner to direct Mission: Impossible 5 (or whatever they end up calling it; MI5 certainly doesn't work as an abbreviation!) since last November. Earlier this month, according to Deadline, this was officially confirmed when he tweeted, "Mission: Accepted." What, if anything, this means for McQuarrie's remake of Ice Station Zebra is unknown. (McQuarrie has also been rumored at times to be attached to the Tom Clancy adaptation Without Remorse and to the feature adaptation of the Sixties ITC spy series The Champions, which he told Dark Horizons last December might still happen.) As previously reported, Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) is writing the script for Mission: Impossible 5, and Cruise will once again star. J.J. Abrams is again producing.

It will be interesting to see how McQuarrie follows up on Brad Bird's series-best installment Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Personally, I really, really hope that he continues the journey Bird started towards making the films more like huge budget versions of the TV show. I loved that Ghost Protocol was finally a team movie, like the show, as opposed to a one-man operation focusing on Cruise's super-agent Ethan Hunt. I also loved all the little references to the series that Bird packed into his entry, and I was thrilled by the mission briefing we hear at the film's end about a new terrorist organization calling itself "The Syndicate." I really hope McQuarrie and Pearce use the Syndicate! (As a terrorist organization; not as the Mafia, which it was on the show.) I also hope that they retain the same IMF team from Ghost Protocol of Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Paula Patton. They established a good dynamic last time out, and it would be great to see them build on it. (And while you're at it, guys, please restore Ving Rhames to fully-functioning co-star status!) But above all, what I hope for most from the next Mission: Impossible installment is what I hope for from all of them: I hope that they do something to rehabilitate Jim Phelps' good name. At one point, producer J.J. Abrams had teased the idea of a Peter Graves cameo in Ghost Protocol, but the actor sadly passed away before that could happen. But they could still bring in Leonard Nimoy or Peter Lupus or even Sam Elliott to do a quick cameo and explain that the Phelps they worked with was a national hero, and that jerkwad who assumed his name after he retired turned out to be a real loser. Or something along those lines! (But, you know... better.)

Movie Review: Peau d’espion aka To Commit a Murder (1967)

Peau d’espion turns into a pretty decent spy movie in its second half, though to get to that you have to sit through a slow and confusing first half. Characters appear without any real introductions to speak of, and we’re offered no context for their actions. I suspect this is supposed to be artistic, but it comes off as kind of sloppy instead. Still, when these characters we don’t know are played by Senta Berger (The Quiller Memorandum) and Louis Jourdan (Octopussy) in their prime, they’re fun to watch even if we have no idea what they’re up to! Spy movie regular Berger is as lovely as ever—lovelier, actually, as a redhead—and Jourdan oozes a sophisticated Euro-cool in the Marcello Mastrioni/Jean-Louis Trintignant mode armed with hip sunglasses and an ice-cold stare. It’s kind of a treat for Bond fans to see Prince Kamal Khan as a good guy spy. Of course, we don’t know up front that he’s a even a spy, and “good” is a relative term in the Eurospy realm, because the heroes are often fairly loathsome. (I’ll get to that in a minute.)

Jourdan is Charles Beaulieu, an author and a gambler and a bit of a cad. Berger is Gertraud Sphax (talk about an anti-Bond Girl spy name!), a married woman who picks him up twice but goes cold just when things start to get interesting. (All the inconveniences of having an affair without the fun, he complains.) Her husband has a fashion-conscious thug with a Jag following her around, which leads to a somewhat lackluster car chase that still manages to be the highlight of the film’s first half. The sped-up chase through Paris isn’t terribly impressive as car chases go, but it’s still an E-type Jaguar chasing Senta Berger through the streets of Sixties Paris, so that’s something! (Also, the chase leads Jourdan to deliver the immortal line, "The only thing I admire about you is your Jaguar.")

Nearly a half hour in, a plot finally starts to manifest itself when Charles is summoned to see his former commanding officer from his army days, Major Rhome (the excellent Bernard Blier, from The Great Spy Chase). Rhome now works for the SDECE (French Intelligence), and he likes how close Charles has become with Gertraud, because her husband, Harris (Edmond O'Brien), is the editor of a popular leftist magazine and, Rhome suspects, sympathetic to the Red Chinese. He’ll also be accompanying Henri Banck, a French missile scientist with "a degree in crystallography” on a trip to Heidelberg, where Rhome fears Harris will help Banck defect to China.

So it’s finally clear that Charles is a spy (sometimes, at least), and since he’s working against the Communists I guess that makes him a good spy. This being Eurospy territory, however, he’s not necessarily that good a spy-guy. True to the subgenre, in fact, he’s kind of a jerk. In one scene, he goes into a Parisian bar and acts like an asshole for no reason whatsoever, first hitting his boss and friend, Major Rhome (and clearly enjoying it), and then picking a fight with long-haired hippy kids just because they have long hair. (He fights them by slapping them repeatedly, apparently because he doesn’t think them worthy of man-punches.) At one point, he dodges one of their punches intentionally so that it lands on the woman he’s just been dancing with, square in the face. Afterwards, he cringes at her black eye, but still hands her his card and instructs her to, “Call me… when you’re able to read my number.” He also stands by and watches with what appears to be smug satisfaction as his pal gets beaten up by the hippies because of the fight he started. None of that is motivated in any way by his mission or by the story being told; it just happens because he’s a jerk. But at least the pointless bar fight is edited in a dynamic fashion, cutting on each punch or slap to a close-up of abstract Sixties wall art, all to the diagetic strains of a catchy pop instrumental on the bar’s juke box. It’s pointless, but stylish.

Style is something this movie has in excess, starting right off the bat with a fantastic and beautiful title sequence which prefigures Daniel Kleinman’s use of playing card suits in the Casino Royale credits. The cinematography is gorgeous as well, to match all the gorgeous Sixties fashions on display throughout the film. The editing is also stylish. It’s never quite as trendy as it is during that bar fight, but it’s always interesting and highly visible. There are times when visible editing is a bad thing for a film, but in this case it’s a boon rather than a distraction.

There are a lot of agents and double agents playing very complicated games on one another, but none of that is remotely clear to the audience until the final half hour. We don’t even know that it’s happening until then! We’re not given enough information early on to even suspect. By the end of the movie, though, hardly any character turns out to be who you thought they were at first. Everyone’s spying for someone, but to reveal who’s on what side would spoil the fun. It all builds up to quite a compelling moral quandary for Charles, however—one which justifies the film’s somewhat unspyish English language title To Commit a Murder. Ultimately, despite its confusing beginning (and despite a touch more propaganda than this type of film usually boasts), Peau d’Espion is well worth watching for fans of the more serious side of the genre. But it requires patience to get to the interesting stuff. Its artistic ambitions are considerably higher than a lot of Eurospy fluff, though, so even when you’re confused, there are at least plenty of visual treats to behold.

Tradecraft: NBC Developing Drama About NSA Hitman in a Coma... Or Something

Um... I don't understand this well enough to paraphrase, so I'm just going to reprint verbatim what Deadline reports about a new drama series in development at NBC: "Ricochet is a high-concept serialized action/thriller about a professional hitman who is trapped in a coma and forced to serve as a guinea pig for a secret NSA espionage program; a project that uses technology discovered while researching near-death-experiences to send operatives into other people’s bodies." Got it? Wait, what would the NSA want with a hitman? Oh, because he's in a coma! I see; that makes sense now. But...  Hey, wait. Well, Tripp Vinson, one of the producers on CBS's Josh Holloway spy series Intelligence, executive produces, so presumably he knows what all that means.

Tradecraft: Lionsgate to Distribute Le Carre's Most Wanted Man in America

The next John le Carré movie, Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man, has secured a U.S. distributor. Variety reports that Lionsgate will release the picture in the United States, but has not yet set a date for it. I really hope they're able to get it out in time for awards consideration this year, though that seems like a fast turnaround. I'm dying to see this one! As regular readers know, this adaptation of le Carré's 2008 novel stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright and Nina Hoss. A Most Wanted Man is set in Hamburg where the worlds of banking, terrorism, espionage, immigration and extraordinary rendition intersect tragically. Hoffman plays German spymaster Günther Bachmann; Hoss (who was wonderful in the understated 2012 German spy film Barbara) plays his invaluable associate Erna Frey; Dafoe plays Scottish banker Tommy Brue (assuming the character is still Scottish); McAdams plays the idealistic immigration lawyer Annabel Richter, and newcomer (to English language cinema, anyway) Grigoriy Dobrygin has the crucial role of Chechen immigrant Issa Karpov. Wright plays a CIA operative whose methods clash strongly with Bachmann's. I love that we're seeing a whole new wave of le Carré movies, but I was thinking the other day that it's a pity his work is missing from television. There are some wonderful limited series about espionage being produced right now on both sides of the Atlantic, and le Carré's books lend themselves wonderfully to that format! I wish we could have a few le Carré miniseries mixed in with all these films! He's got a large enough catalog to easily fuel both mediums... But perhaps I'm being greedy.

24: India Trailer

Here's something pretty awesome to keep 24 fans going while we anxiously await our first glimpse of Jack Bauer's return in Fox's upcoming 24: Live Another Day. Reader Silent Hunter left a comment on my original 2011 post about the Bollywood version of Fox's classic real-time series alerting me that the trailer for 24: India is now online! It's in Hindi, of course, but you should be able to follow the gist of what's going on and appreciate the distinctive 24 style even if you can't understand the language. I'm a little surprised that it appears (from what I can tell, anyway) to be a fairly direct remake of the first season of the American 24. I was hoping it would be a brand new storyline specifically tailored to the Indian setting. (Though that Season 1 storyline is pretty universal anyway.) If they continue directly remaking the seasons, I hope a tiger terrorizes the Kim character in Season 2! That's automatically cooler than a cougar! 24: India will air on Colors TV and stars Anil Kapoor, who played President Omar Hassan on Season 8 of the American 24, as the Indian Jack Bauer, Jai Singh Rathod. Bollywood megastar Kapoor (who spy fans will also recognize from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) loved his 24 experience and worked closely with producer Howard Gordon to secure the rights to an Indian version. Here's a taste:

Sadly, it seems unlikely that non-Hindi speakers will ever have a chance to see this series in its entirety, but I remain hopeful that maybe there will one day be a DVD set with English subtitles. I'm very curious!

Tradecraft: Katherine Heigl CIA Drama in the Works

Deadline reports that actress Katherine Heigl (Killers) is eyeing a return to television... as a spy. The actress has been actively involved in the development of this spy series along with writer Alexi Hawley (Castle, The Following), producer Robert Simonds (This Means War, The Pink Panther 2), and (this is the really interesting part) "a team of former senior CIA officials." Although Heigl is often associated with romantic comedies (the less said about Killers the better), this would be a serious and realistic look at the day-to-day workings of the CIA. According to the trade blog, "the procedural focuses on how the CIA handles hotspots around the globe, with Heigl playing an adviser/communications liaison for the U.S. president." Deadline reports that the project has been shopped to both broadcast and cable networks, and that NBC "appears a strong contender," though other networks are also interested.

Is Universal Talking to Matt Damon About More Bourne?

Twitchfilm (via AICN) reports that Universal "is in simultaneous negotiations with both Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass for both to return to the Bourne franchise." Variety, however, did their own follow-up on the Twitch story, and reports that "sources with the studio are denying the story saying there is nothing going on between the studio and Damon and Greengrass." So what's true? Who's right? Neither site cites an actual Uni spokesperson, just "sources." Furthermore, Variety has a long history of being a studio mouthpiece, good for this sort of denial when information leaks out before a studio is ready for that to happen, while sites like Twitch pride themselves on getting inside scoops before the trades... but with a predictably shaky track record. So what's really happening? I'm afraid that I have no "sources" of my own inside Universal, but I'm going to give Twitch the benefit of the doubt here. Because Universal would be insane if they weren't always in some sort of negotiation, however informal, with Damon and Greengrass. Damon is the heart of their billion dollar franchise. Damon-less spin-off The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner, didn't live up to the Damon trilogy either critically or at the box office. (Though it wasn't a flop by any means, either.) And the spin-off deliberately left the door open for Damon to return to the series (as the title character) in the future. Damon, for his part, has said many times in the past that he wouldn't do that without Greengrass, who helmed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, as well as Damon's Green Zone. (Green Zone was a flop, but might actually be the best Bourne movie to date despite not actually being a Bourne movie. Fans of the franchise should definitely seek it out.) So it only makes sense that the studio attempt to woo Damon (and Greengrass with him) back into the fold. I'd be willing to bet there are talks going on at some level, however informal.

The question is, what would such talks mean for the future of Jeremy Renner's character, former Outcome agent Aaron Cross? It was recently announced that Anthony Peckham had been hired to pen a follow-up to The Bourne Legacy again focusing on Cross. Frankly, the Damon negotiations don't need to have any effect on that. It would be entirely possible for the studio to simply spin off the Cross character into his own franchise, and call the next one The Cross Continuation or something more serious but suitably Ludlumy in nature. At the same time, they could proceed concurrently with more Bourne titles starring Matt Damon as the actual Jason Bourne. Win/win. Or, it's equally possible that they could manufacture a crossover, featuring both characters (agents of more or less the same top secret government program, whether it's called Treadstone or Outcome) in one film. AICN speculates that Peckham might be the lynch pin behind such an attempt, as he worked with Damon on Invictus. Doing press for The Bourne Legacy, that film's director Tony Gilroy said that such a crossover was his hope. Damon (who has a longstanding feud with Gilroy), however, seemed to dash such hopes last fall when, without having seen Legacy, he said, "from what I understand, it kind of relives [Ultimatum] from a different perspective. What that means, because they use our actors and characters, is that whatever they said [in Legacy] is true and so we'd have to acknowledge it in any Bourne movie that we'd do. And that makes it really tough. I don't think we can do the Dallas it-was-all-a-dream scenario." Perhaps by now he's seen the spin-off and realized that while Legacy does use the same characters, it goes out of its way (to the movie's detriment) not to seriously impact the events of the Damon films! So perhaps with Gilroy apparently not involved in this one, Damon would be amenable to working with Renner? (Surely Ben Affleck, who's worked with both of them, could take a brief break from his Batman training to put the two actors in a room together to hash it out?)

Together or apart, I'd certainly be in line to see more adventures of both characters. (I was disappointed by Legacy as a whole, but liked Renner in it.) But, like most audience members, I think, what I really want is more Bourne, and that means more Damon. I hope the studio does whatever it takes to bring Damon and Greengrass back on board. And while I'm hoping so much, I might as well reiterate what I always say in these Bourne film updates: I also hope they take the opportunity to go back to the Robert Ludlum novels, which Gilroy pretty much abandoned after the first act of the first film. There's all sorts of good material there for future films! (Read my review of The Bourne Supremacy here to get an idea of what I'm talking about.)

And one last Bourne-related hope: I hope someone writes a really good warts-and-all behind the scenes history of the Bourne film franchise one day. From the notorious troubles on the set of Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity to Greengrass and Damon's feud with Gilroy to Gilroy's displeasure with the aborted Treadstone TV series to Damon's displeasure with The Bourne Legacy, there would be loads of juicy material! But the great story in such a book would be how the franchise managed to flourish despite all that friction. It would be a story of overcoming enormous difficulties rather than succumbing to them, setting it apart from other Hollywood tell-alls of that nature.

New Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Trailer

There's a new trailer out for ABC's upcoming comic book-based spy series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Via Dark Horizons.) Unlike the last one we saw, this spot incorporates footage from episodes beyond the pilot. Perhaps it's the choice of music, but to me this looks much more like a Joss Whedon show than a S.H.I.E.L.D. show. Personally, I love both Joss Whedon shows and S.H.I.E.L.D. comics, so that's not any sort of accusation, merely an observation. I'm fully aware that this show won't be a direct translation of the 1960s Steranko comics I love so much, but I do hope that it finds clever ways to embody their spirit! Those comics themselves, products of that decade's spy craze, owed a lot of James Bond and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but Jim Steranko mixed in spandex and superheroics and surrealism and psychedelia to create a really unique, anything-goes take on spy-fi. As previously announced, Steranko's entire run on the series (which started out in the anthology comic Strange Tales before graduating to its own title) will be reprinted in a single volume this fall to tie in with the ABC show. For more background on the comic and the history of the fictional spy organization, read my full S.H.I.E.L.D. primer here.