Argylle generates bad reviews

Argylle, the new spy movie from director Matthew Vaughn, isn’t getting much love from film reviewers. It opened with a 39% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website, which collects reviews. As of this writing, it had slipped to 37%.

The movie concerns an author (Dallas Bryce Howard), whose fanciful spy tales are coming to life in the “real” world. Henry Cavill plays the author’s fictional Argylle character.

What follows are some non-spoiler excerpts of reviews.

RICHARD ROEPER, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: “Filled with casual, PG-13 violence, ‘Argylle’ features some OK scenery and occasionally interesting production design, but director Vaughn pulls out all the stops as if he’s the drummer doing a 15-minute solo that stops a concert dead in its tracks. It’s showmanship for showmanship’s sake.”

PETER BRADFORD, THE GUARDIAN: “The rectangle of the screen itself seems to bend and twist into a giant self-satisfied smirk for this unbearably smug caper from director Matthew Vaughn. It has all the interest of a men’s magazine cover-shoot: thin, flimsy, lumbered with a dull meta-narrative and dodgy acting, and boasting a blank parade of phoned-in cameos from the supporting cast.”

RICHARD LAWSON, VANITY FAIR: “Argylle strains desperately hard to be kicky and twisty and raucous but mostly feels like a chore, a slog through painful gags and canned charisma.”

NICHOLAS BARBER, BBC: “The feeling that we’re seeing a photocopy of a photocopy arises in part from Jason Fuchs’ screenplay, which could have been written by anyone with a hazy memory of a Bond film. Everywhere you look, there are details that need to be added, plot holes that need to be filled, and jokes that need to be improved.”

Vaughn, Cavill discuss Bond while promoting Argylle

Matthew Vaughn and Henry Cavill, director and star of the new Argylle spy film, ended up chatting a bit about James Bond. Vaughn did much of the talking.

The exchange took place on a SiriusXM program. The pair were asked about Bond because Cavill auditioned for the part during pre-production of Casino Royale in 2005 and Vaughn’s name has come up with Bond films before. (Vaughn said last year he had been approached by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about Casino Royale but wasn’t hired by Eon Productions.)

“I know the director preferred your audition,” Vaughn told Cavill, referring to Casino Royale director Martin Campbell. “But Barbara (Broccoli, Eon Productions boss) preferred Layer Cake.” Vaughn had directed Daniel Craig in 2004’s Layer Cake.

“I probably shouldn’t have said that,” Vaughn added. “The Broccolis aren’t that keen on me anyway.” Vaughn also said Cavill, who was in his early 20s at the time, was too young to play Bond.

Cavill avoided commenting on Vaughn’s remarks. “I do think Daniel did do an amazing job,” the actor said of Craig. “He and everyone else involved breathed new life into the franchise.”

Here’s the clip where the discussion arose.

Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare trailer debuts

The trailer for a World War II movie, with Ian Fleming as a character, is out.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare concerns a top-secret British unit formed to strike at the Nazis. The director is Guy Ritchie and the lead actor is Henry Cavill, reuniting after 2015’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. film.

The cast includes Henry Golding, Elza Gonzales, Cary Elwes, and Freddie Fox as Ian Fleming.

The movie is scheduled for release in April. Here is the trailer posted by Lionsgate:

Ian Fleming Publications announces 2024 projects

Ian Fleming Publications on Monday announced a series of projects for release this year:

–An ebook omnibus of Raymond Benson’s six original James Bond continuation novels. The ebook will collect Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, High Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying, and The Man With the Red Tattoo into a single volume. The novels were originally published from 1997 through 2002.

The ebook, James Bond: The Raymond Benson Years, goes on sale on Feb. 26. The U.S. ebook price is $29.99 and can be pre-ordered at this link.

–A paperback edition of His Majesty’s Secret Service by Charlie Higson, scheduled to go on sale on June 6. The paperback “will feature some exclusive new content,” IFP said in a statement.

–A new paperback edition of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Fleming’s children story, scheduled for June 13. It will have new illustrations, IFP said.

–New hardback editions of Fleming’s James Bond novels and stories, scheduled for release on Oct. 5, James Bond Day.

Sam Rolfe’s centenary

Sam Rolfe (with guest star Jill Ireland), making a cameo appearance in the first-season UNCLE episode The Giuoco Piano Affair. Rolfe would take over and do the heavy lifting on devising the series.

Feb. 18 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sam Rolfe, who made his mark as a writer and producer.

He was nominated (with Harold Jack Bloom) for an Oscar for writing the 1953 western movie The Naked Spur.

A few years later, he co-created the western television series Have Gun-Will Travel, an enormously popular show that ran for six years on CBS.

Rolfe and his co-creator Herb Meadow, originally envisioned their hero as a present-day bounty hunter. However, westerns were at or near the peak of their popularity on television. CBS asked if they could convert the concept into a western. The writers, knowing they could make a sale, complied.

Rolfe worked as associate producer toward the end of the first season, produced the second and into the third before departing the series. He’d return to pen an origin story for the start of the sixth season for the mysterious Paladin (Richard Boone).

In the 1960s, he’d be called up to write the pilot for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Executive producer Norman Felton and author Ian Fleming had created the character Napoleon Solo. Rolfe would do the heavy lifting, devising the U.N.C.L.E. organization and creating other characters such as Illya Kuryakin.

Rolfe produced U.N.C.L.E.’s first season. He had a reputation for being tough on writers, according to scribe Dean Hargrove in an interview for a 2008 home video release.

Rolfe proved restless, leaving the show after the first season. While many good episodes followed, U.N.C.L.E. could be erratic at times in later seasons as other producers tried their hand at running the show.

The writer-producer pursued various projects over the years. He created short-lived series such as The Delphi Bureau and The Manhunter, a Quinn Martin show about a 1930s bounty hunter (Ken Howard). He also adapted Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm character for a TV show that only lasted a half-season as well as the book On Wings of Eagles that was made into a 1986 mini-series.

Rolfe kept being drawn back to U.N.C.L.E. He wrote a 1970s script for a proposed TV movie revival. It never went into production. Toward the end of his life, he was working on a proposed cable TV U.N.C.L.E. series. However, his death of a heart attack in 1993, ended that effort.

Below is a video of an appearance Rolfe made in 1992 at an event called Spy Con. He discusses his career. The audio and picture aren’t the best.

Argylle’s hype machine gears up

Argylle’s publicity drive is underway. The Matthew Vaughn-directed spy movie had its world premiere in London this week ahead of its Feb. 1 U.K. release and Feb. 2 U.S. release.

The movie concerns a writer (Dallas Bryce Howard) who has created a book series about a super spy named Argylle (Henry Cavill). The book series has spawned action Argylle action figures. Except, the events of the books end up predicting what’s happening in the spy world. Suddenly, the author is now in peril.

The Collider website gushed about the movie:

This time around, though, the director is using the setup of the Argylle novels and their mysterious writer to play around with the spy movie formula and blur fantasy and reality. At the end, Howard tells viewers to give the film a chance to impress, saying “Wherever you think this movie is going, you are wrong.”

Vaughn said last year that he was in the running to direct Casino Royale (2006) but ended up not getting the gig. Cavill tried out for the role of James Bond but lost out to Daniel Craig.

Argylle is a leading spy movie for this year given the lack of news about Bond 26 and how Mission: Impossible 8 has been delayed to 2025 from this year.

Here’s a video that Universal put out about this week’s Argylle premiere:

Laurie Johnson, composer for Avengers, Strangelove, dies

Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg in a publicity still for The Avengers

Laurie Johnson, a composer whose works included The Avengers TV show and 1964’s Dr. Strangelove, has died at 96, according to the Times Go 24 website.

With Dr. Strangelove (full title: Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned How to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, Johnson delivered a calm instrumental main theme with images of nuclear bomber planes being refueled in midair. The titles suggested the sexual act. You can see the main titles below.

Dr. Strangelove’s story details how a deranged U.S. military officer (Sterling Hayden) sent American nuclear bombers against the Soviet Union. However, the Soviets have a “doomsday” weapon where if the USSR is attacked, more atomic bombs will be unleashed in retaliation. The Soviets were going to announce the existence of the doomsday weapon the following week.

Much of Johnson’s score is based on the song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” While the movie is a dark comedy, it is very tense and dramatic. Peter Sellers played multiple characters and Ken Adam was the movie’s production designer.

Johnson also was enlisted to become the composer for the fourth season of The Avengers television series. This was when Diana Rigg joined the cast with Patrick Macnee. Johnson would provide a new theme that would remain in place for the rest of the show.

Here is Johnson’s initial version of The Avengers theme.

In the 1970s, there was a revival titled The New Avengers. Patrick Macnee was back as John Steed. This time out, he had two assistants played by Gareth Hunt and Joanna Lumbley.

The start of Johnson’s theme for The New Avengers evoked the beginning of his initial Avengers theme. But the composer went off in a new direction.

According to Johnson’s IMDB.COM entry, Johnson had 47 composing credits starting in 1958 and extending to 2011.

About that Mission: Impossible title change

“Part One” we hardly knew ye

Last year’s Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is about to come out on the Paramount + streaming service.

Except, according to Variety, it will be missing one thing — the “Part One” of the title. It’s now just Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning. That means M:I 8, due out in 2025, delayed from this year, won’t be a Part Two.

Before the pandemic, the plan was to make M:I 7 and 8 back to back. The two films would then be shown in consecutive years. Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning even said “End Part One” in the end titles.

The pandemic caused production delays and other disruptions. M:I 7’s budget also rose sharply.

Finally, the first movie came out in July 2023 and it was expected to be an enormous hit.

The film generated $567.5 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo. Quite respectable but below the $791.7 million for 2018’s Mission: Impossible — Fallout.

It was also far behind the almost $1.5 billion for star Tom Cruise’s 2022 movie Top Gun Maverick. That probably fueled anticipation for the 2023 Mission: Impossible movie’s box office.

There has been some fan speculation that putting “Part One” in the title of Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning had an impact. Some theatergoers, under this scenario, skipped Part One and opted to skip it and wait for Part Two.

This blog last year raised the question of whether Dead Reckoning failed to reach out beyond the core M:I audience.

Whatever the case, the title tweak (and presumably a different title for the 2025 adventure) is an attempt to address the issue.

James Bond (again) in comic strip form

I came across another art sample from Paul Baack (1957-2017). It’s his take on a comic strip version of From Russia With Love. It contains a bit more snark from earlier comic adaptations.

Holy Bat-anniversary

Adam West and Burt Ward in a publicity still for Batman

January 12 is the 58th anniversary of the debut of the Batman television series.

You had to be there. It was BIG.

The story goes that ABC had test showings that didn’t go well. But ABC was committed and went ahead.

Context: At the time, ABC was a distant third among U.S. television networks. The start of the 1965-66 season was a disaster, even by ABC standards. The network had planned for Batman to debut in the fall of 1966. It was moved up to January.

More context: ABC assigned the project to William Dozier (1908-1991), a producer and executive. Dozier was given some comic books. Dozier and writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. (1923-2014) opted for a light-hearted approach to the character. Dozier would double as the show’s narrator (nicknamed “Desmond Doomsday”).

In the initial episode, there was a passing reference to how Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed. It never came up again.

Batman, despite the audience test results, was an immediate hit. The show aired on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Both installments had high ratings. 20th Century Fox commissioned a quickly made feature film released in the summer of 1966.

The impact: Other adventure shows on television felt the pressure to go lighter. That’s why The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s third season went campy. Its spinoff, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., was even more campy. Adventure shows produced by Irwin Allen also went light, especially Lost In Space.

Original fans of Batman had this sort of arc: 1)It’s great! 2) Uhh, boy, this has problems; 3 (after becoming adults) Oh, I get it now.

In the 21st century? Well, there have been many, many, many dark takes on Batman. That’s understandable. It’s built into the original creation by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

Still, the 1966-68 Batman is an oasis from the Batman darkness. It also marks the only time that Bill Finger (1914-1974) got a Batman writing credit while he was alive. It was for the episodes The Clock King’s Crazy Crimes and The Clock King Gets Crowned.

Trivia: The series had a James Bond joke. In The Minstrel’s Shakedown and Barbecued Batman?, the Minstrel (Van Johnson) is extorting the Gotham City Stock Exchange. He wants his payments sent to account 007 at the Broccoli Bank in Geneva. Lorenzo Semple Jr. would be the first writer to work on Never Say Never Again (1983). He was the only scribe to receive a credit.