Screenwriter says U.N.C.L.E. movie can be `cool stuff’

The ComingSoon.net Web site published a portion of an interview with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, the scribe for the planned movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He described why he thought a film based on the 1964-1968 television seriies can be “cool stuff.” An excerpt:

“When you think about the world in the 1960’s just in terms of cars and fashion and the aesthetic, to be able to go and shoot that world with today’s cameras and today’s technology, I think we could do some really cool stuff. Then also, the thing that was so cool about ‘U.N.C.L.E.’ that people don’t realize–and this is why I like it more than ‘Mission: Impossible’–the initial conceit of ‘U.N.C.L.E.’ was amazing. It was really about an organization that didn’t have an affiliation with a country and Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin were guys who should’ve been sworn enemies. One was Russian and one was American and they worked together. In that way, it was a really incredibly progressive, hopeful kind of show.”

Actually, that’s something fans of the show have long realized. It was a post-Cold War show set in the midst of the Cold War. However, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. never had the syndication success of shows such as Star Trek or other programs. It dropped out of sight not long after going off the air on Jan. 15, 1968.

Occasionally, a few of the eight movies re-edited from episodes would show up (The Spy With My Face once was run on The CBS Late Movie, after the network unsuccessfully ran Merv Griffin up against Johnny Carson on NBC). It wasn’t until Labor Day 1985 when CBN (now ABC Family) ran the show that a decent number of people could view the show.

Anyway, to read the entire ComingSoon story, JUST CLICK HERE. The U.N.C.L.E. movie, if it materializes, would be directed by Steven Soderbergh. Napoleon Solo was created by Norman Felton and Ian Fleming (we keep mentioning this to keep the attention of 007 fans) and was developed by Sam Rolfe.