Zombie of Solace

Stop us if you’ve heard this before.

Vanity Fair has an ONLINE PREVIEW of a cover story involving director Marc Forster, a movie with a huge budget and an underwritten script.

Deja vu all over again? Here’s a preview:

“He took me through how excited he was when he read the book, what was exciting for him, the geopolitical aspect of it,” screenwriter Damon Lindelof tells Vanity Fair contributor Laura M. Holson in the June issue of Vanity Fair of meeting Brad Pitt to discuss the star’s troubled zombie project, World War Z.

(snip)

In her revealing report, Holson also speaks to director Marc Forster and Paramount executives Marc Evans and Adam Goodman about the many problems that plagued the set—which included re-writing and reshooting 40 minutes of the film to find a coherent ending—and, most astonishingly, how the budget ballooned to around $200 million.

Hmmm. Substitute the title Quantum of Solace for World War Z, substitute the figure $230 million for $200 million and substitute multiple writers including Paul Haggis and it sounds like you could be talking about Quantum of Solace, the 2008 James Bond film also directed by Marc Forster. Star Daniel Craig, as Skyfall prepared to start filming, made it sound as if making Quantum wasn’t a very pleasant experience.

If anything, the Vanity Fair story makes it sound like World War Z, despite costing about $30 million less than Quantum, was even more troubled that Forster’s earlier 007 film. One additional excerpt:

When it came time to watch the director’s cut, Holson reports, the room was silent. “It was, like, Wow. The ending of our movie doesn’t work,” says Evans. “I believed in that moment we needed to reshoot the movie.” After 10 minutes of polite discussion, everyone left. “We were going to have long, significant discussions to fix this,” he recalls thinking.

Two spy events of note

–In Southern California, there’s an April 30 showing of Live And Let Die at the Alex Theater in Glendale.

You can read the full details by CLICKING HERE. here’s a preview from the Web site:

Glendale Arts and Prospect House Entertainment present the final film in a James Bond 007 – 50th Anniversary Series: LIVE AND LET DIE.

Roger Moore debuts as suave secret agent James Bond, who’s sent to the United States to go after a master criminal scheming to take over the country by turning the populace into heroin junkies. Paul McCartney provides the Oscar-nominated title tune.

The film features: Roger Moore (James Bond), Yaphet Kotto (Kananga/Mr. Big), Jane Seymour (Solitaire), and Gloria Hendry (Rosie).

Event includes a Q&A with appearances by Gloria Hendry (Rosie).

Special appearance by Danny Biederman author of ‘The Incredible World of Spy-Fi’ Sponsored by Larry Edmunds Bookstore.

Tickets are $15 and there may be additional fees.

UPDATE (April 29): Biederman said on his Facebook page that there have been program changes and his discussion won’t be taking place.

–Michele Brittany, a scholar of popular culture, with an emphasis on the spy and espionage genre, is accepting proposals for an anthology. Some details from an e-mail:

My goal has been to expand the scholarly dialogue regarding the expansive influence the Bond franchise has had on culture in all media forms….I have signed a contract to edit a collection of essays analyzing media inspired by James Bond.

Michelle Brittany has a blog and you’re interested in submitted an essay for her project, you can CLICK HERE. That post includes contact information.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: the long and the short and the tall

“Who’s going to play me?”
“Looks like you’re getting the short end, Napoleon.”

There’s the possibility that 5-foot-7 Tom Cruise may be paired with 6-foot-5 Armie Hammer in a movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., according to a story this week on the DEADLINE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WEB SITE.

You’d think it’d be hard to film the pair together. But it’s actually only the latest twist in a spy property that’s had its ups and downs when it came to the subject of height.

It began with executive producer Norman Felton, who began work on U.N.C.L.E. in 1962. The 1950s and the early 1960s were a period when Westerns, with stars such as 6-foot-7 James Arness and 6-foot-6 Clint Walker, dominated U.S. television. Even in other genres, other stars might be tall. Felton himself had cast 6-foot-1 Richard Chamberlain as the title character in the television version of Dr. Kildare.

Felton, in a 1997 interview (portions of which can be seen on U.N.C.L.E. DVD extras), said he wanted a different type of lead character for U.N.C.L.E. and not “big, ballsy men.” He was looking for heroes who were more average looking.

Eventually, the producer cast 5-foot-10 Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo (who had worked on the Felton-produced The Lieutenant) and 5-foot-8 David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin. They were hardly runts, but definitely not built like Arness’s Matt Dillon.

Supposedly, according to dossiers held by the evil Thrush organization (in The Thrush Roulette Affair in the show’s FOURTH SEASON), Solo the character was 6-foot while Kuryakin was 5-foot-10 1/2.

Thrush clearly had some faulty information. In the FIRST SEASON episode The Never-Never Affair, 5-foot-8 1/2 guest star Barbara Feldon wears flat shoes to appear shorter than the leads. Even wearing the flat shoes, there is an Act II scene where her Mandy Stevenson character is clearly taller than McCallum’s Kuryakin.

That doesn’t mean McCallum was insecure was his height. The late writer-actor Stanley Ralph Ross, in a 1997 INTERVIEW with THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. EPISODE GUIDE said McCallum used his height to his advantage in a scene where Ross played a thug.

Question: What was it like for you a pretty tall fellow, working with a somewhat shorter David McCallum?

Ross: David asked me to stand on a box. I am already 6-6 and said that he would look like a midget but he replied the taller I was, the stronger and more macho he would seem for having beaten me up.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. began almost 50 years ago but even in the 21st Century, height or the lack of it can still create a stir. In 2005, Amy Pascal, a Sony Pictures executive, told THE NEW YORK TIMES that the newly cast 007 Daniel Craig “is tall. He’s the same size as Sean Connery.” Craig is 5-foot-10 while Connery is 6-foot-2 and change. Eight years later, the subject doesn’t come up that much, at least with Craig.

In any case, U.N.C.L.E. fans have been buzzing about the possibility about a new movie, and are getting worked up whether Cruise and Hammer have the right look, etc. For now, we’ll bide our time and have a cocktail — maybe a short one — while we wait for things to develop.

The family model (Eon) vs. the corporate model (Marvel)

Family model: 2012’s Skyfall

In some ways, the Marvel Studios operation of Walt Disney Co. is like a machine. It has a movie coming out early next month in the U.S. (Iron Man 3), has another slated for November (a sequel to 2011’s Thor), has another filming for 2014 (a sequel to 2011’s Captain America) and has the script written for a 2015 sequel to a big hit last year (Marvel’s The Avengers). Marvel is one of the more successful examples of what we’ll call the corporate model.

Last year, was also a triumph for what we’ll call the family model, Eon Productions, owner of half of the James Bond franchise and run by the family of the late Eon co-founder Albert R. Broccoli. Skyfall was by far the biggest financial success (not adjusted for inflation) for the 007 film series ($1.11 billion in worldwide ticket sales) and, by some estimates, even adjusted for inflation.

Yet, for the moment, it’s not known when the next Bond film adventure, Bond 24, will come out. 2014? 2015? Maybe even 2016? Some executives at Sony last year said 2014, while Eon co-boss Barbara Broccoli said not so fast. The latest word from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the other co-owner of the franchise was sometime in the next three years. Not exactly precision scheduling.

OK, just to get this out of the way. If you’re not inclined to like movies based on comic book characters on principle, or you were a DC Comics guy as a kid rather than Marvel fan, the success of the Marvel movies will not impress you. For that matter, if you’re not a James Bond fan (not exactly the target demographic of this blog), Skyfall’s success won’t mean much either.

Corporate model: 2012’s The Avengers

Once upon a time (1962-1965, to be precise), Bond adventures came out like clockwork on an every-year schedule. But that was a much-simpler time. Still, since 1989, the 007 films have been produced with more erratic timing: a six-year gap, followed by three films on an every-other-year schedule. followed by a three-year gap, four years, two years, four years. Not all of that was Eon’s fault (MGM’s financial troubles have contributed), but it hasn’t been something to set your calendars by.

In the early 1990s, there was talk of getting the 007 series back on an yearly schedule but that never developed. With 1995’s GoldenEye, the future of the series was riding on the movie and Eon concentrated its efforts on that film. In later years, Michael G. Wilson, the other Eon co-boss who’s now in his 70s, has spoken of the personal strain of making Bond movies. While Eon has its own organization, it’s still largely driven by the half-siblings, Broccoli and Wilson.

Once upon a time, Marvel was a more family-like company (Smilin’ Stan, King Kirby, Sturdy Steve, Jazzy Johnny, Gene the Dean and all that) but that disappeared a long time ago — and went away entirely once Marvel was acquired by Disney. Kevin Feige, one of the lead bosses at Disney’s Marvel Studios operation, talks about this or that but rarely (if ever) about how hard being a producer is. He has a movie assembly line to keep going and, so far, has been doing it.

The 2012 box office results showed when done well, both models can be successful: The Avengers was No. 1 worldwide while Skyfall was No. 4 in the U.S. But the models are different. The corporate model prefers predictability, especially with schedules. But for fans of the family model, the lesser predictability is a strength, not a weakness. Vive le la difference.

Armie Hammer may join U.N.C.L.E. film, Deadline says

Armie Hammer

Armie Hammer may join the cast of a movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and play Illya Kuryakin, according to A STORY on the Deadline Hollywood Web site.

An excerpt from the story:

EXCLUSIVE: Armie Hammer, who plays the title character opposite Johnny Depp in the Gore Verbinski-directed The Lone Ranger for Disney, is set to star with Tom Cruise in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the remake of the classic TV series that Guy Ritchie will direct for Warner Bros.

(snip)

Hammer would play a version of the role originated by (David) McCallum, an NCIS regular who strangely doesn’t seemed to have aged since the ’60s.

This story raises a few questions. Deadline’s PREVIOUS STORY on the subject said Tom Cruise was in talks but made it sound like nothing had been settled. The new story almost makes it sound like it’s a done deal. Is it? Or are there some more twists in store?

Also, Deadline has never said if Cruise, should he join the project, play Napoleon Solo, the character played by Robert Vaughn in the original television series. The character was co-created by Norman Felton and Ian Fleming with the rest of the series, including the U.N.C.L.E. organization and the Kuryakin character, devised by Sam Rolfe.

A 007 discussion on an Illinois public radio station

Casino Royale’s original cover

WILL, a public radio station in Illinois, had a James Bond discussion on April 11, in connection with the University of Illinois’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of Casino Royale’s publication.

On hand were Michael VanBlaricum, president of the Ian Fleming Foundation, and John Cork, who has directed many of documentaries that accompany James Bond movie DVDs.

Near the start of the program, called Focus, Cork said that Bond was “significantly different” from other characters who had come before because he was part of a “post World War II universe” who could be the “knife that cut the Gordian Knot” of complicated post-war problems. “He can be portrayed as a hero,” Cork said. “He still does that.”

VanBlaricum said newer movies, including the 2006 Casino Royale, “really did follow the James bond style created by Ian Fleming” and there’s “a lot of Fleming in Daniel Craig’s performance.”

Cork, who formerly was involved with the foundation, observes that the various actors have brought things to the 007 role. Regarding original film 007 star Sean Connery, he says: “They wouldn’t have had a job if Connery wasn’t so good at what he did.”

To listen to the entire program, CLICK HERE. When that page comes up, go to the left. There are icons to either listen to the program or to download it.

You Only Live Twice not forgotten in Japan

You Only Live Twice marker in western Japan. Click on the photo to see a larger image.

You Only Live Twice is still remembered in Japan.

In the western part of the country, used as a location in the 1967 James Bond film for the Ama fishing village, there is a stone marker in honor of the movie.

Masatoshi Masuda took a photograph of it and a friend of his let us know. It’s reproduced here with Mr. Masuda’s permission.

“Our James Bond film, You Only Live Twice, was filmed on location here at Akime,” the marker reads. It bears the signatures of producer Albert R. Broccoli, star Sean Connery and co-star Tetsuro Tamba, who played Tiger Tanaka, head of the Japanese Secret Service.

You can look up other You Only Live Twice filming locations BY CLICKING HERE.

TCM includes From Russia With Love in LA film festival

TCM is including From Russia With Love, the second James Bond film, for the opening day of its DESTINATION HOLLYWOOD classic film festival on April 25-28.

TCM promotes the event as a way for “movie lovers from around the world can gather to experience classic movies as they were meant to be experienced: on the big screen, in some of the world’s most iconic venues, with the people who made them.”

With much of the cast and crew of Terence Young-directed From Russia With Love no longer with us, there won’t be a veteran of the Bond movie on hand for the April 25 showing at the Chinese Multiplex 1 in Hollywood at 9 p.m. local time. However, screenwriter Bruce Feirstein, who labored on three 1990s 007 films, will be part of the program, according to TCM.

Here’s part of the TCM DESCRIPTION OF THE MOVIE:

The second James Bond film contained a series of impressive firsts. It was the first of the series to feature Desmond Llewelyn as Q, the first scored entirely by John Barry, the first with a title song and the first to become a huge international success. With a tautly constructed plot, a witty script and two unforgettable villains (Lotte Lenya’s Rosa Klebb and Robert Shaw’s Red Grant), it’s little wonder it’s often hailed as among the best of the Bonds.

Festival passes RANGE FROM $249 TO $1,599 EACH. Individual movies can be seen FOR $20 EACH but tickets won’t be sold until just before show time (pass holders get seated first). According to TCM, “individual ticket seekers should be able to attend many of their desired screenings. We advise that you arrive a minimum of 30 minutes prior to the start time of your desired events to get in the stand-by line.”

You can view the festival schedule BY CLICKING HERE. You’ll first see the Thursday, April 25 schedule. Use the tabs at the top to check each day. You can CLICK HERE to see the list of films being show.

Thanks to Mark Henderson for pointing this out to us.

What if Fleming hadn’t exited U.N.C.L.E.?

The cast of Checkmate

We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of Ian Fleming crying U.N.C.L.E. and opting to end his participation in the television series that would become The Man From U.N.C.L.E. But would have happened if he had stuck around?

It might have been similar to Checkmate, a 1960-62 crime drama on CBS.

Checkmate featured two dashing private detectives (Anthony George and Doug McClure), aided by an academic (Sebastian Cabot). Two things stood out about the show: it was produced by a production company owned by Jack Benny and it was billed as having been created by novelist Eric Ambler (1909-1998), a contemporary of Ian Fleming. In fact, in the novel From Russia, With Love, Fleming’s James Bond has an Ambler novel with him on his journey to Istanbul. Amber in 1958 also married Joan Harrison, an associate of Alfred Hitchcock, who oversaw production of the director’s television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

According to IMDB.com, Ambler never wrote an episode of Checkmate. According to the IMDB.com information, he sometimes got a creator credit and sometimes didn’t during the two seasons of the show. (From a few episodes we’ve seen, the “Created by Eric Ambler” credit appears in the main titles during the first season and shows up in the end titles in the second.)

Ambler’s participation (or lack of it) in Checkmate mirrors what was shaping up with the television project originally named Solo: it was originally to have billed Ian Fleming’s Solo, but the heavy lifting of devising a pilot episode story was done by writer Sam Rolfe. Once Fleming signed away his U.N.C.L.E. rights for 1 British pound, Rolfe still only got a “developed by” credit instead of a “created by” credit for the 1964-68 series.

Based on a sampling of episodes, Checkmate is entertaining. One episode (The Human Touch) featured Peter Lorre as the villain. Also, the series, including its theme music, was an early credit for composer John Williams (who called himself Johnny Williams at the time). Still, Ambler didn’t do the heavy lifting in terms of coming up with stories. That was left to others.

As a result, we suspect had The Man From U.N.C.L.E. come out as Ian Fleming’s Solo, the author would have been a kind of front man (even if he had lived past August 1964) while executive producer Norman Felton, Rolfe (who produced the show’s first season) and others done most of the work of devising story lines.

Hawaii Five-0’s fixation with Die Another Day

Goldfinger said, “Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: `Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.”‘

We’re way beyond coincidence now. Clearly, the makers of CBS’s Hawaii Five-0, a remake of the 1968-80 television series, have a thing for Die Another Day, the 20th James Bond movie, released in 2002.

The April 15 installment featured an episode where the setting, for the second time in consecutive seasons, was set in North Korea. One of the villains was played by Rick Yune, who played Zao, the “physical villain” of Die Another Day.

Well, that could be happenstance, you say. Except, the show previously has had Will Yun Lee, who played North Korean Colonel Moon (who transforms himself into Gustav Graves, played by Toby Stephens), from the same movie. Lee has had a recurring role since the start of the show.

More tellingly, a November 2011 episode borrowed even more from Die Another Day. In that episode, scenes set in North Korea are photographed so they’re all dark while scenes set in other locales have bright colors. Also, there’s a scene where McGarrett 2.0 (Alex O’Loughlin) is tortured much the same way that Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is tortured in the 2002 Bond movie.

We’re definitely passed coincidence. Die Another Day these days tends to get mixed reviews among 007 fans. But it seems clear that it has fans among the Five-0 crew.

EARLIER POSTS:
McGarrett 2.0 clearly has never watched Die Another Day (Nov. 21, 2011)

Compare Die Another Day vs. Hawaii Five-0 (Nov. 24, 2011)