Ritchie may direct live-action Aladdin, THR says

Armie Hammer with U.N.C.L.E. movie director Guy Ritchie in 2013

Guy Ritchie, mentioned as a possible 007 director, is in talks to direct a live-action version of Aladdin, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER said.

The film would be an adaptation of the 1992 animated movie and “will keep many of the musical elements of the original,” according to the entertainment publication/website.

Normally, this wouldn’t be fodder for this blog. However, THE TABLOID MIRROR said last month that Ritchie was “the front runner” to direct Bond 25.

None of this has been officially announced, The Hollywood Reporter has more “street cred” than the Mirror. At the very least, the notion of a Ritchie-directed 007 film is in doubt.

Ritchie was the director and co-screenwriter of 2015’s movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

As far as Bond 25 is concerned, there is no director, script or confirmed leading man. Daniel Craig, the current 007, said in New York on Friday that not much is happening on Bond 25 because “genuinely everybody is just a bit tired.”

A peek behind U.N.C.L.E.’s visual effects

RISE, a visual effects studio, has released a video showing some of its work on 2015’s movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The film opened in 1963 Berlin. RISE’s video shows how that era was recreated for the movie. Stars Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander mix with green screens and models.

In the sequence, CIA agent Napoleon Solo moves to get Gaby, daughter of a nuclear scientist, out of East Berlin, with KGB operative Illya Kuryakin.

The video RISE released shows how even a relatively modest production (U.N.C.L.E.’s production budget was a reported $75 million) utilizes visual effects. In this case, it’s trying to disguise that visual effects are even being used. RISE has also worked on Marvel Studios movies.

The video is embedded below. Thanks to Robert Short of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Inner Circle page on Facebook for the heads up.

RISE REEL – The Man from U.N.C.L.E. from RISE on Vimeo.