TCM to have an evening of the Other Spies on Jan. 24

Turner Classic Movies is having an evening of the “other” spies on Jan. 24, emphasizing lighter fare.

The evening starts at 8 p.m. New York time with In Like Flint (1967), the second of two James Coburn outings as Derek Flint. The intrepid adventurer shows off his ability to talk to porpoises, infiltrates the Kremlin and ends up in outer space.

Next up at 10 p.m. is Where The Spies Are (1966) with David Niven, once Ian Fleming’s preferred choice to play James Bond in what amounts to a warmup for the 1967 Casino Royale spoof. Midnight brings Agent 8 3/4 (1964) with Dirk Bogarde. At 2 a.m. (actually on Jan. 25, of course), TCM is scheduled to telecast 1966’s The Silencers, the first of four films with Dean Martin performing a spoof version <a.of Donald Hamilton’s counter assassin, Matt Helm.

TCM’s final spy entry at 4 a.m. is Salt and Pepper (1968), with Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. The duo had done an episode of The Wild, Wild West together (The Night of the Returning Dead) and liked how director Richard Donner operated. Thus, Donner was hired to direct Salt and Pepper, one of Donner’s first theatrical films.

Soderbergh confirms U.N.C.L.E. exit concerned budget

Director Steven Soderbergh is making the rounds to publicize his new movie Haywire. In an interview with the Star-Ledger of Newark, he also confirmed he departed a planned movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in a disagreement with Warner Bros. about the project’s budget.

“(W)e were going back and forth and, in the end, I pushed them …and the studio said, ‘Well, if you’re really going to push us to answer now, the answer is no.’”

(snip)
“Frankly, I think there’s a piece of the narrative missing here, on their side, because the difference between their number and my number was not that big.”

No additional details were mentioned. Last year, The Playlist Web site reported that Warner Bros. offered a $60 million budget for the movie, and the director and studio had disagreements over casting.

Haywire, which hit theaters on Jan. 20, has a cast that includes Michael Fassbender, reportedly Soderbergh’s choice for Napoleon Solo after George Clooney turned it down, and Channing Tatum, who had been mentioned as a possible Solo but didn’t really strike us as a great choice.

UPDATE: Haywire finished No. 5 at the U.S. box office this week. CLICK HERE for more details.

What 007 and Batman have in common

When following debates among James Bond fans — whether on Internet bulletin boards, Facebook or in person — people sometimes say “try reading Fleming” (or a variation thereof) as if it were a trump card that shows they’re right and the other person is wrong.

Read Fleming. That shows Bond is supposed to be a “blunt instrument.” Therefore, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace are really true to Fleming.

“Read Fleming!” = “I’m right, you’re wrong!”

Read Fleming. That shows Bond is a romantic hero, not a neurotic antihero, therefore, (INSERT BOND ACTOR HERE) was true to Fleming. Meanwhile, (INSERT BOND ACTOR HERE) meant the 007 film series had reached a nadir.

In reality, over a half-century, the Bond films have passed through multiple eras. To some, Connery can never be surpassed and Moore was a joke. Except, the Connery films have more humor than Fleming employed (on the “banned” Criterion laser disc commentaries, Terence Young chortles about how Fleming asking why the films had more humor than his novels). The Moore films, for all their humor, do have serious moments (Bond admitting to Anya he killed her KGB lover in The Spy Who Loved Me or Bond being hurt but not wanting to admit it after getting out of the centrifuge in Moonraker). Other comments heard frequently: Brosnan tried to split the difference between Connery and Moore, Craig plays the role seriously, the way it should be, etc., etc.

Lots of different opinions, all concerning the same character, dealing with different eras and the contributions of multiple directors and screenwriters. Which reminded of us another character, who’s been around even longer than the film 007: Batman, who made his debut in Detective Comics No. 27 in 1939.

Early Batman stories: definitely dark. “There is a sickening snap as the cossack’s neck breaks under the mighty pressure of the Batman’s foot,” reads a caption in Detective Comics No. 30.

Then, things lightened up after Batman picked up Robin as a sidekick. Eventually, there was Science Fiction Batman in the 1950s (during a period when superhero comics almost disappeared), followed by “New Look” Batman in 1964 (which could also be called Return of the Detective), followed by Campy Batman in 1966 (because of popularity of the Batman television show), followed by Classic Batman is Back, circa 1969 or ’70, etc., etc. All different interpretations of the same character.

In the 1990s, there was a Batman cartoon that captured all this. A group of kids are talking. Two claim to have seen Batman. The first provides a description and we see a sequence resembling Dick Sprang-drawn comics of the 1940s, with Gary Owens providing the voice of Batman. The second describes something much different, and the sequence is drawn to resemble Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns comic of the 1980s, with Michael Ironside voicing Batman.

Eventually, the group of kids gets into trouble and we see the 1990s cartoon Batman, voiced by Kevin Conroy, in a sequence that evokes elements of both visions.

With the Bond film series, something similar has occurred. In various media, you’ll see fans on different sides of an argument claiming Fleming as supporting their view. Search hard enough, and you can find bits of Fleming or Fleming-inspired elements in almost any Bond film. The thing is, the different eras aren’t the result of long-term planning. They’re based on choices, the best guess among filmmakers of what is popular at a given time, what makes a good Bond story, etc.

In effect, both the film 007 and the comic book Batman have had to adapt or die. Fans today can’t imagine a world without either character. But each has had crisis moments. For Bond, the Broccoli-Saltzman separation of the mid-1970s and the 1989-95 hiatus in Bond films raised major questions about 007’s future. Batman, meanwhile, faced the prospect of cancellation by DC Comics (one reason for the 1964 revamp that ended the science fiction era) but managed to avoid it.

None of this, of course, will stop the arguments. Truth be told, things might become dull if the debates ceased. Still things might go over better if participants looked at them as an opportunity. An opposing viewpoint that’s well argued keeps you sharp and might cause you to consider ideas you overlooked.

Skyfall: try reading the press release

This past week, at least two news outlets made it sound like there was a fresh disclosure about the plot of Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film. Depends on your definition of fresh.

Daniel Craig and his Skyfall co-stars on Nov. 3 -- when a press release was first issued with a brief description of the movie's plot

On Jan. 16, The Wrap ran a story (CLICK HERE to read the entire piece) that began:

Daniel Craig is back as James Bond, and though details of his next adventure, “Skyfall,” are being kept closely under wraps, Sony did reveal a few tantalizing clues in an official plot summary released this week.

(snip)
“In ‘Skyfall,’ Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her,” the summary reads. “As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.”

The Irish Examiner on Jan. 17 ALSO RAN A STORY, also quoting from the summary.

“In ‘Skyfall’, Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.”

All of this is well and good, except the summary being quoted from wasn’t exactly new and the plot details involved weren’t under wraps. Back on Nov. 3, more than two months earlier, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures and Eon Productions put out a press release (which you can read by CLICKING HERE).

Here’s the third paragraph of the Nov. 3 release:

In SKYFALL, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

This reminds us of a slogan that NBC used about a decade ago during the summer when it had a prime-time lineup of reruns. “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.”

Skyfall is economizing, the Mirror says

Skyfall is cutting back on filming at actual locations to reduce its budget, according to the U.K. newspaper the Mirror.

In a story YOU CAN READ BY CLICKING HERE, the newspaper says the only actual location for the 23rd James Bond movie is Turkey. Here’s an excerpt:

"What do you mean, I have to fly coach?"

James Bond producers have had to slash their budget and are shooting in Bognor Regis after scrapping plans to head for six different exotic countries to make the next 007 film Skyfall.

Instead of distant locations such as India, China and Bali, they are using various UK beaches. Skyfall will also rely heavily on special effects and advanced sets at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

A source said: “To say some of the cast and crew are a bit gutted is an understatement.

“Originally six different countries were selected to film certain scenes but after several technical and financial problems, it was decided to scale back and just use Turkey as the sole foreign location.”

Back in November, the bosses of Eon Productions, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, denied there had been any financial cutbacks during a news conference. Later that month, according to the MI6 James Bond fan Web site, Ascot Racecourse was being used as a location, doubling for the airport in Shanghai. The same fan site had a story saying that sequences of Daniel Craig swimming in a pool were filmed in the U.K. but in the film’s story are supposed to occur in Shanghai as well. If the Mirror is to be believed, that trend will continue.

However, it’s not like Eon hasn’t done this sort of thing before. You Only Live Twice’s first unit went to Japan and did the rest of its work at Pinewood. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service did location work in Switzerland and Portugal. From Russia With Love went to Turkey and Dr. No went to Jamaica. Few fans of those films complain about the lack of location shooting. Eon sent a skeleton crew to the U.S. but the exterior of Fort Knox was built at Pinewood and the interior was, of course, a Ken Adam-designed set.

UPDATE: The Daily Mail HAS A STORY but it seems to mostly repeat what the Mirror reported without adding much, if anything, new. The MI6 Web site summarized the Mirror story while accusing the Mirror of fabricating the main quote.

UPDATE II: The Guardian published an essay ON JAN. 19 essentially saying trimming Skyfall’s budget would be a good thing. But the story does nothing to verify the original Mirror story.

Two minor observations about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

We caught up with the new movie version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s well worth your time. But, in our own fashion, we wanted to make a couple of tangent observations about the adaptation of the John Le Carre novel. Minor spoilers follow.

1. Anti-Bond George Smiley meets 007 knock off Charles Vine (sort of). In the 1960s, the success of James Bond films helped create a demand for an “anti Bond,” somebody who wasn’t a romantic hero and who dealt in a morally ambiguous world, just like real spies. The novels of John Le Carre (real name David Cornwell) provided the perfect fodder. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold starring Richard Burton came out in 1965, with George Smiley a secondary character, Bernard Lee (the M of Eon Productions’s 007 series) in the cast and Paul Dehn, co-screenwriter of Goldfinger, part of the crew.

The ’60s Bond films also generated 007 takeoffs, including The Second Best Secret Agent in The Whole Wide World, starring Tom Adams as Charles Vine, a Sean Connery-esque, British agent.

Well, in the new Tinker, Tailor, these two trends from the past are merged. The 2011 film has repeated flashbacks to an MI6 Christmas party. At one point, the theme song to Second Best Secret Agent is played. (Le Carre has a cameo, as well.) This is part of an effort by the filmmakers to tie into cultural references of the past, given that Tinker, Tailor is done as a 1970s period piece. Which leads us to:

2. The temptation to overdo past cultural references. This is a minor quibble. But when movies are done as period pieces — especially of a story that has been made before (Tinker, Tailor was made as a television miniseries more than 30 years ago) — there is a temptation to load up on past cultural references. In this case, hairstyles and music. In the new film, Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) sports a haircut more appropriate for ’70s high school students rather than an experienced MI6 operative. And the film sometimes overdoes it with providing ’70s songs.

It’s always interesting to compare remakes done as period pieces with earlier versions made during the same era. Another example: Farewell My Lovely (1975) was done as a 1940s period piece and sometimes over does the culture references compared with Murder My Sweet (1944), both based off the same Raymond Chandler novel.

We want to stress all of these observations are minor. The new Tinker, Tailor is worth the time of any spy fan and Gary Oldman is a wonderful successor to Alec Guiness (star of two television miniseries) as Smiley. Oldman did an NPR interview last year where he said he’d love to play Smiley again if the opportunity presents itself. We’ll second that thought.

Questionable clothing choices by 007 and other heroes

Being a hero is tough. You have to save the world, or an important part of it. People are trying to kill you. And when you develop a large following, your wardrobe gets critiqued.

Still, when heroes, including James Bond, make questionable clothing choices, people notice. This list is by no means a comprehensive list and it’s definitely subjective. With that in mind, here we go:

Q is in disbelief about 007’s choice of neckwear.

1. James Bond’s pink power tie (Diamonds Are Forever). When 007’s popularity peaked in the mid-1960s, the Bond image was that of Saville Row suits. Anthony Sinclair, who made Sean Connery’s suits for the film series produced by Eon Productions, even became a minor celebrity and was interviewed by newsmen (a clip of one of those interviews appears on the John Cork-directed documentary Inside Dr. No).

At the start of the 1970s, the world was changing in all sorts of ways. That included how men, 007 included, dresssed. The first hint of this was in Diamonds Are Forever. Bond (Sean Connery) is trying to find captured billionaire Willard Whyte and investigates a house out in the desert near Las Vegas. He wears a white suit (two-piece as opposed to the three-piece white suit Steve Martin would wear a few years later), presumably because of the heat. And he wears a wide, pink power tie.

Pink? Yes. That wasn’t part of the ’60s Bond wardrobe. As the decade progressed, and Roger Moore was hired to take over the role, Eon’s costumers put Bond in flared trousers (even with his tux) and a greater variety of colors. Arguably, the pink tie was the start of moving away from the Anthony Sinclair suit look.

2. Napoleon Solo’s clogs (publicity stills for The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) When you’re the star of a popular television series, as Robert Vaughn was during the 1964-68 run of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., you maintain a busy schedule that includes posing for publicity stills. One day, the star showed up for such a shoot wearing clogs and white socks. While he changed into his Napoleon Solo suit, he didn’t bother to change his footwear. Nobody was supposed to notice. The attention wasn’t supposed be on Solo’s feet, after all.

Illya Kuryakin is stunned to discover Napoleon Solo is wearing clogs.

One of those shots was used in the end titles of the show in the third and fourth seasons. It was cropped before you could see the clogs. Even if the full shot was used, Vaughn’s pose was at such an angle you’d really have to look hard to spot the clogs. (It would also show up in the 1983 television movie The Return of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. as a photograph on the wall of Solo’s apartment. We present a thumbnail version of the full image with this post.) A second still from the shoot, though, was used for the cover of the Ace paperback The Monster Wheel Affiar. The negative was flipped so both Vaughn and David McCallum appeared to be left handed. And Vaughn’s clogs were in full view. Decades later, The Solo Clogs Affair is still something of a running joke among fans, particularly among women fans of McCallum ribbing women fans of Vaughn.

3. Steve McGarrett’s leisure suits (later Hawaii Five-O seasons). In the original Hawaii Five-O, Jack Lord’s Steve McGarrett was a tough, shrewd no-nonsense leader of a Hawaiian State Police unit that dealt with crime bosses and enemy spies with equal efficiency. His wardrobe reflected that: simple, classic looking suits.

McGarrett in his preferred dark blue leisure suit

As the show progressed, and mens fashions took a turn for the worse with polyester suits, that look changed. By the 11th season, McGarrett was alternating regular suits (which didn’t look as classic as in earlier seasons) with that bane of 1970s mens fashion, the leisure suit. McGarrett wore two of them. The one he wore the most often was a very dark, Navy blue version. It was so dark a viewer could overlook it to a certain degree. But McG sometimes donned a light gray version, that exposed the flaws of the leisure suit for all to see.

In the 11th and 12th seasons of the show, McGarrett sometimes wears the leisure suits almost as he does his regular suits. In the 11th season episode The Skyline Killer (which featured excellent stunt work, staged by Beau Van Den Ecker, the show’s stunt arranger who graduated to director), Lord’s McGarrett and his stunt double wear the Navy blue leisure suit while pursuing a killer on a construction crane about 20 stories above the ground (not unlike a similar sequence in Casino Royale 27 years later). Meanwhile, in real life, one of the blue leisure suits was part of a 2008 auction.

Hawaii Five-0 appears to be ready for `sweeps’

The new Hawaii Five-0 series seems to be ready for the February and May “sweeps,” where ratings are used to set television advertising rates.

CBS said this week that James Caan, father of series regular Scott Caan, will appear on the show next month. The original Five-O series did the same thing, where that program’s Danno, James MacArthur, got to work with adoptive mother, Helen Hayes, in an eighth-season episode.

Meanwhile, for May, CBS is planning a two-night Five-0/NCIS: Los Angeles crossover, according to a Jan. 11 post on the TVline Web site.

And, at some point, CBS is bringing back Edward Asner to reprise a role he played in the original Five-O series for multiple episodes. That, of course, creates all sorts of continuity issues because new Five-0 is a “reboot” (i.e. starting all over again), rather than a continuation of the original. But nobody is worrying too much about that.

UPDATE: We missed this one. Dennis Miller is also going to appear in a February episode, according to a post on the Digital Spy Web site.

Will Sam Mendes get a `vanity credit’ for Skyfall?

On Nov. 3, Skyfall director Sam Mendes said, “Every decision is mine,” regarding the creative choices for the 23rd James Bond film. We were skeptical because Eon Productions isn’t known for granting directors complete autonomy. But this week’s news that Mendes was responsible for bringing in Thomas Newman as Skyfall’s composer, bumping David Arnold, is an indicator Mendes does have that kind of clout.

That got us to thinking about another question: will Mendes be the first director to get a “vanity credit” in an Eon-produced 007 film?

A vanity credit is essentially a way for a director to get his or her name in the titles twice: the normal “directed by” credit, plus another indicating it’s his or her film. A NAME HERE Film. A Film by NAME HERE. Sometimes they get more creative such as A Spike Lee Joint. Vanity credits have been around for decades, but since at least the 1960s have grown pretty common. The Writers Guild of America dislikes them strongly because, in the view of the union, vanity credits create “the false impression that the director is solely responsible for the film, this credit denigrates the contribution of writers and all others who contributed to the picture.”

One exception has been Eon’s 007 series, started in 1962. On the first 17 films, there was a vanity credit of either “Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman present” (first billing varying according to market) or “Albert R. Broccoli presents.” You could argue that for two of those films they weren’t vanity credits. Thunderball also had a Broccoli-Saltzman presents credit but they took no producer’s credit, yielding that to Kevin McClory. For GoldenEye, there was there was a Broccoli presents credit but, for health reasons, he had yielded the major producer duties to Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. In any event, on an Eon film, directors had to get by with their “Directed by” credit and that was it.

Never Say Never Again, the 1983 Bond film not part of Eon’s series, had a vanity credit for director Irvin Kershner. Meanwhile, Eon series veterans Terence Young, Guy Hamilton and John Glen all got at least one vanity credit each on post-007 films.

Mendes got “A Sam Mendes Film” credit with his two most feature films, Revolutionary Road and Away We Go. He also came on board Skyfall with an Oscar for best director for 1999’s American Beauty on his resume. Given Mendes’s clout (five-time 007 composer Arnold said on Twitter that Newman was Mendes’s choice), maybe Eon adjusts its credits to say Skyfall is “A Sam Mendes Film.” We’ll find out, probably when the first teaser trailer goes public.

Thomas Newman to score Skyfall, Eon says

Thomas Newman will score Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, Eon Productions said on an official Web site.

You can read the announcement BY CLICKING HERE. It reads in part:

Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli today announced that composer Thomas Newman will score the 23rd James Bond film, SKYFALL. “We are delighted to confirm that Thomas Newman will score SKYFALL. Thomas is one of the most respected and successful composers, he has a long history of working with Sam Mendes and we look forward to welcoming him into the Bond family,” commented Michael. G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

Said Newman today, “I’m incredibly excited to be working with Sam again. It’s a real thrill to be able to collaborate on something as special as a Bond movie.”

(snip)

Newman takes over musical duties from David Arnold who is currently Music Director of the London Olympic and Paralympic closing ceremonies. David will continue to be involved with the 50th anniversary of Bond and recently produced the John Barry Memorial Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Said Arnold of the news: “I’m a huge fan of Thomas Newman so I am as excited as anyone to see where Sam Mendes and his team take James Bond on his 50th anniversary.”

Thus, the Bond series will have its first new composer since Arnold composed the score for 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies. The move ends a streat of five straight 007 films with Arnold as composer.

Arnold commented on his Twitter feed, saying the move had nothing to do with Arnold’s commitment for composing music for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London:

DavidGArnold
@
@friskywhiska directors choice,,,he’s worked with Tom on all his films
4 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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@tenpig I agree.but I didn’t turn it down to do the Olympics….it’s Sams choice and I think the right choice for him.
4 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DavidGArnold
@
@Belles_Aunty I always said I would do them as long as they ask.if they ask for next one I will do it.