Armie Hammer
Armie Hammer, IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIER is quoted as saying The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie he’ll be doing uses the Scott Z. Burns script from 2011 that Steven Soderbergh was going to direct.
That script, set in the 1960s was based on a real-life 1966 incident that mirrored the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball.
An excerpt that includes Hammer commenting on the Illya Kuryakin role played by David McCallum in the original 1964-68 series:
“I’m also very excited about playing a Russian,” Armie added. “I’m in the middle of my research phase now. I’m studying the political climate during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a fascinating time globally. It’s such a great script (by Scott Z. Burns), and it’s so funny! Guy Ritchie has such a great take on it.”
Hammer is also quoted in the story as saying filming begins in August. That raises the possibility the movie, if it becomes a reality, would be out in time for the television show’s 50th anniversary in 2014.
Soderbergh dropped out of the U.N.C.L.E. projct in late 2011. Warner Bros. assigned the project to Guy Ritchie to direct. Henry Cavill has said he’s playing Napoleon Solo, the character Robert Vaughn played in the television show. Warner Bros. hasn’t made an official announcement about the movie, but there have been reports it’s gearing up to be filmed in the U.K.
Most of the interview concerns The Lone Ranger movie where he plays the title character opposite Johnny Depp’s Tonto.
JUNE 19 POST: U.N.C.L.E. MOVIE SUPPOSEDLY GEARING UP IN THE U.K.
JUNE 8 POST: HENRY CAVILL HINTS THAT U.N.C.L.E. MOVIE WILL BE PERIOD PIECE
Filed under: The Other Spies | Tagged: A movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.?, Armie Hammer, David McCallum, Henry Cavill, Ian Fleming, Norman Felton, Robert Vaughn, Sam Rolfe, Scott Z. Burns, Steven Soderbergh, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, The Other Spies |
The Spy Command 
It sounds promising, as long as it isn’t too funny, as in campy third season. I like that it’s set in the 1960s, but I wouldn’t have minded a time shift. After all, the original show wasn’t a period piece, but that keeps the American and Russian working together dynamic as it was. I always wished the original series had dealt with that more than they did, so this might give us a bit more of something we didn’t get back then. I’m getting hopeful and a bit excited about this movie. Of course my feeling is that some new UNCLE is better than no new UNCLE ever again and if it isn’t revived soon, it never will be.
I do not mind at all having no new UNCLE films. RV as Solo and DM as Illya cannot be replaced. Why do they have to film with these characters? I would have appreciated the remake film if they had decided a new UNCLE film with new agents.
I’m a book guy. Unless they come up with a computer generated Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, I don’t care what kind of flick they make.