Happy Halloween from The HMSS Weblog

Happy Halloween, everyone. Meanwhile, Illya Kuryakin has to deal with Thrush agent Count Zark. (For details, read the review for The Bat Cave Affair that ran during THE SECOND SEASON of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.)

Bond reflects on his life

The agent, long since retired, couldn’t help but remember the women of his past. Pussy, Honey, Tracy and, of course, Vesper.

(Actually the photo is FROM PIERCE BRONSNAN’S FACEBOOK PAGE.)

Still, we couldn’t resist.

Cavill says U.N.C.L.E. movie has ‘comedic element’

Henry Cavill

Actor Henry Cavill was interviewed by the fan site Henry Cavill.org. He provided the barest preview of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie that’s scheduled to be released in August 2015.

Cavill was asked if he’d ever want to do a comedy.

“Comedy? Maybe,” Cavill responded. “Man from U.N.C.L.E. has a very comedic element. So, you’ll see a bit of comedy in that.”

That was it, U.N.C.L.E. wise. The site talked to Cavill and his brother Nik, a Royal Marine, after both participated in a charity run up the Rock of Gibraltar last weekend.

It’s not the first time there have been hints that the movie contains humor. In April, the movie’s director of photography, John Mathieson, said that Cavill played the part of Napoleon Solo “quite humorously, everything’s slightly quirky, slightly sharp. It was very comic strip in some ways, I mean that in a good way.”

Henry Cavill.org uploaded its interview to YouTube in two segments. Here’s the second part, which contains the U.N.C.L.E. comment, starting a little after the 1:00 mark.

When is it time for 007 actors, or fans, to ‘move on’?

John Cleese and Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day

John Cleese, who appeared in two James Bond movies, has let it be known he doesn’t think that highly of 007 films since he departed the series.

Cleese is promoting a new book, but his association with Bond (in 1999’s The World Is Not Enough and 2002’s Die Another Day) keeps coming up in stories run by DIGITAL SPY SHORTLIST.COM and DEN OF GEEK among other websites.

Here’s an example of what Cleese has said. It’s from ShortList.com, and these comments have been picked up by other sites.

I didn’t see [Skyfall], because I have criticisms of the new Bond movies. Two things went wrong: the plots became so impossibly obscure that even professional writers couldn’t figure out what they were about; and the action scenes, which are supposed to make the adrenaline run, go on far too long. They discovered these movies were popular in places such as the Philippines and South Korea, and so they dropped the humour because no one there is going to understand jokes about the English class system. They’re financially incredibly clever, as the take goes up by $100m every movie, but one of the great things I’ve learnt in the last few years is just how much money spoils everything.

Cleese made some similar comments in June in a RADIO TIMES interview.

In turn, some 007 fans on social media have reacted by saying Cleese is bitter because he wasn’t included in the Daniel Craig reboot, starting with 2006’s Casino Royale, he should “just move on,” or simply “shut up.” Skyfall was a billion-dollar blockbuster, Casino Royale and Skyfall got some of the best reviews of the series, etc.

Of course, if you spend enough time on social media or 007 message boards or other spots on the Internet, you’ll see fans debate things going back 30, 40, almost 50 years. For example, many still don’t like how 1967’s You Only Live Twice jettisoned the plot of Ian Fleming’s novel. Some still strongly criticize the performances of Roger Moore, who hasn’t made a Bond movie since 1985. Some feel the movies went wrong in the early 1970s when the humor element increased. And so on and so forth.

A few questions: When is it time to move on? Ten years? Twenty? Longer? If Cleese should move on, should fans do so as well? Are Cleese’s complaints substantially different than the complaints fan air on the Internet? Where’s the line between being a devoted fan and taking things too seriously?

The answers are going to vary from fan to fan, of course. But Cleese has, probably unintentionally, given something for fans to think about.

Bond 24: The calm before….

It’s a little more than a month before Bond 24 is supposed to start production. Yet, compared to 2011, as Skyfall was gearing up to start principal photography, there’s a bit of a vacuum.

In 2011, some of the major casting had become known: Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Berenice Marhloe had all been reported.

For that matter, there were (correct) reports what the title would be. One major plot twist — that Judi Dench’s M was being killed off — was reported IN THE SPRING OF 2011. By this time in 2011, it had also been reported that Harris would be revealed to be the new Miss Moneypenny.

Bond 24? Not nearly as much has come out. The last big Bond 24 scoop was that scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were summoned to do a rewrite of John Logan’s script. Since then, there have been reports about the casting of a secondary Bond woman and some reports about locations.

Even Baz Bamigboye, the Daily Mail scribe who gets a lot of 007 scoops, has been quiet of late.

For a lot of fans, all of this is just fine. They don’t want spoilers. Still, for a movie that’s going to be the followup to a billion-dollar blockbuster, there’s not as much buzz as you might expect.

That will probably change shortly. Still, it’s an oddly quiet time.

Bruce Lee working on The Wrecking Crew

There’s really not much to be said here. During production of The Wrecking Crew, the fourth and final Matt Helm movie, Bruce Lee was credited as “karate adviser.” In reality, he was the fight arranger.

This photo popped up Facebook. Here, Lee (1940-1973) works with Sharon Tate (1943-1969) and Nancy Kwan (b. 1939) on a fight sequence toward the end of The Wrecking Crew.

Even though Lee didn’t appear on camera, his stunt work/fight arranging made The Wrecking Crew a unique entry in the four-film series starring Dean Martin and produced by Irving Allen, Albert R. Broccoli’s former producing partner.

Bruce Lee supervises Sharon Tate (left) and Nancy Kwan

Chris Corbould confirms he’s on Bond 24 crew

Chris Corbould, who’s worked special effects on a number of James Bond films, confirmed on Twitter he’ll be part of Bond 24’s crew.

Corbould has Bond special effects credits going back at least as far as 1987’s The Living Daylights and ACCORDING TO HIS IMDB.COM ENTRY did uncredited work on some Bond movies before that.

He’s also worked with director Christopher Nolan (winning an Oscar on Nolan’s 2010 film Inception) and is part of the crew of Star Wars: Episode VII.

Here’s what Corbould’s Tweet looked like. It was only his third post on the social media network.

I am thrilled to be starting Bond24! Biggest challenge ever! Watch this space! @007

— Chris Corbould OBE (@Chriscorbould1) October 18, 2014

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode guide returns

“Yes, the website is back up, sir.”

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. EPISODE GUIDE, one of the first U.N.C.L.E. fan sites, is back online.

The site, which debuted on Dec. 1, 1996 and provides detailed reviews of all 105 episodes of the 1964-68 series, originally had a home at AOL. When AOL ceased providing that service in 2008, the episode guide moved to the now-defunct Her Majesty’s Secret Servant website. But that website ceased operations earlier this year.

The U.N.C.L.E. episode guide went back online on Oct. 18. It’s now housed at WordPress.com, which also hosts this blog. The site is still being reconstructed but all of the episode reviews are online, as are reviews for The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. and The Return of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The site also includes an updated page for major connections between U.N.C.L.E. and James Bond, running from Ian Fleming to Henry Cavill.

There’s additional work to be done, including trying to recover other pages on the episode guide site. Still, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode guide is back.

New U.N.C.L.E. book coming out in 2015

The original U.N.C.L.E.s

A new book about The Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series is due out next year.

“Solo and Illya: The Secret History of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” by Craig Henderson is to be published by Bear Manor Publishers, according to the Facebook page of THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY AFFAIR, the two-day event held in the Los Angeles area last month in connection with the show’s 50th anniversary.

Henderson created the File Forty fanzine in 1970, according to a Jon Burlingame response to the post. Henderson also assisted Burlingame when the latter produced a series of U.N.C.L.E. soundtracks in the 2000s.

“He’s uncovered a lot of information about the show no one else has,” Burlingame wrote.

Finally, Henderson produced A CENTURY OF U.N.C.L.E., which details how the worlds of U.N.C.L.E. and James Bond intersected for more than a century, beginning with the birth of Ian Fleming in 1908 until the death of U.N.C.L.E. executive producer Norman Felton in 2012. It’s a resource this blog has cited numerous times.

U.N.C.L.E. ‘teaser’ shown in Australia

Henry Cavill

A Twitter user in Australia, @aaronkaj, posted that he’s seen a trailer for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie.

The original post went out on Oct. 14. @aaronkaj was then peppered with questions seeking details. “It was more of a teaser,” @aaronkaj responded. “Showing Henry & Arnie trying to work together as a team.”

That was a reference to actors Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, who have the roles of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, portrayed by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum in the original 1964-68 television series.

The rest of the exchange (which contains minor spoilers): can be viewed BY CLICKING HERE.

Another spoiler, based on the description from @aaronkaj, it sounds a bit like a scene in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, where Bond (Roger Moore) works with a Russian agent (Barbara Bach). Specifically, it sounds like an exchange during the underwater car sequence of the 10th 007 movie.

In any case, the original Oct. 14 posting (re-Tweeted by Laney Boggs on Twitter, who has followed developments concerning the movie closely) looks like this:

Watched the trailer for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Henry Cavill should be the next James Bond.

— AK (@aaronkaj) October 15, 2014