
David McCallum, the original Illya Kuryakin, has said the 2015 version of the character was “ridiculous.”
Excerpts from an interview with McCallum about his career were posted this month on YouTube. One excerpt centered on McCallum’s reaction to the 2015 movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
“It’s the Cold War, it’s the Berlin Wall,” McCallum said. “I thought the character of Illya was ridiculous. But he (actor Armie Hammer) did a nice job.”
The 2015 version of Illya, McCallum added, “was uptight, and crazy, and strangling people.”
In 2015, McCallum had a different view in an interview that was telecast on Fox News.
The movie “in no way encroaches into what we did back in the ’60s and at the same time uses a lot of the elements that Norman Felton and Sam Rolfe created within the old Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” McCallum said at that time.
“I think it’s a wonderful success,” McCallum told Fox News in 2015. “My favorite line in the whole movie, the new movie, is the last one delivered by Hugh Grant because clearly it’s going to lead to at least another Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie. I don’t think there’s any question of that.”
The 2015 U.N.C.L.E. movie did not lead to any sequels.
Here’s the excerpt of the interview where McCallum, who turns 89 in September, talked about the 2015 movie:
Filed under: The Other Spies | Tagged: A movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.?, Armie Hammer, David McCallum, Fox News, Hugh Grant, Norman Felton, Robert Vaughn, Sam Rolfe, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. | 1 Comment »