Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruise

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

They should run with that. The tagline could be: HAMM-er time!

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

"Get HAMMered by UNCLE!"

Edit to add: Deadline reports that Henry Cavill is in early talks to star in The Man from UNCLE.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

^That would be pretty cool. I did think he might be a possibility but, as with Hammer, I thought he might be as yet an unproven draw in his own right (in MOS it's the title character who will be the draw). It would be interesting to see how a movie fares where the two leads have each played the title in a big franchise/tentpole movie but are themselves fairly new to the world of leading men.

And of course, with Armie having been lined up to play Batman in George Miller's Justice League and still cropping up in wishlists for the inevitable reboot, this might be our first glimpse at Batman and Superman onscreen together!

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

Yeah, I think it'd be easy not to be vain about hair color when one looks, sounds, and looks as good with gray hair as Clooney.

Anyone else without pre-existing fondness for the property think The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is kind of a lame name, though? I didn't grow up with the show, but I have a hard time picturing something with that title doing as well with the unwashed teen-demo masses as something shorter and punchier a la Get Smart.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

His father Nick Clooney (who was a local news anchor when I was growing up, and whom I got to meet once) always looked good with silver hair, and I'm struck by how much more George resembles his father as he gets older.

On the other hand, it's been an inspiration for other titles continuing to the present day -- there are upcoming Marvel Comics-based TV shows called Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in live action and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. in animation. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created S.H.I.E.L.D. in the comics just a year after TMFU premiered, and were drawing on it as an influence (as well as James Bond organizations like SPECTRE -- and keep in mind that Ian Fleming had a hand in the creation of TMFU).

The name U.N.C.L.E. was chosen because it evoked both the United Nations and Uncle Sam, but was ambiguous about the organization's actual affiliation.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

^ I get and give you all that, but my question was about the under-25 demo remains: SHIELD is an inherently cool name for an organization, and UNCLE is not. Maybe it wouldn't really matter. We'll see?

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

Perhaps that depends on how patriotic you are. Or has "Uncle Sam" fallen out of use as a meme? There are certainly some segments of the population that would react negatively to the hint of a United Nations connection... but then, those are the same segments that would tend to react more positively to the Uncle Sam connotation.

Then again, maybe it just depends on how cool an uncle you have. Let's see, my uncles include two physicists, one of whom worked on some of the earliest computers and studied under one of the guys who thought up wormholes, and a classical scholar who was a cryptographer in WWII and played a key role in deciphering the Greek Linear B alphabet, going on to become the world's leading authority on Mycenaean texts. So I guess I can't really sympathize with your view that uncles aren't cool.

Anyway, for a while, the name of the series was going to be just Solo, or Ian Fleming's Solo. (The extended color version of the pilot on the DVD set is under the title Solo.) They changed it because there was a character named Solo in Goldfinger. Fleming sent the producers a letter ceding the rights to the character name Napoleon Solo and all the ideas he'd developed in exchange for one dollar (or was it one pound?), but they still had to change the name of the show to something that wouldn't be seen as infringing on the Bond franchise.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

They could always used the series title as a subtitle if someone thinks it will be a problem.

SOLO: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Just as long as they don't go the "John Carter of Mars" route and shorten it to:

SOLO: The Man.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

^Though if the actor playing Kuryakin is just as famous as the one playing Solo (and it's about a tie at this point and will probably remain so after Man of Steel and Lone Ranger are released) that could be a problem.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

^Yeah but let's be honest most people love Kuryakin just as much as Solo

As for U.N.C.L.E, I guess it depends how they play it, not every organisation wants to call itself K.I.L.L, in particular one that isn't that, as far as I recall, top secret.

In fact if it were up to me (which it never will be) the trailer would start out a homesy tale with people in quiet rural parts talking about their problems and that maybe their uncle can help out...

Cue the music and cue the explosions

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

Also, Hammer has been a name that's been strongly rumored for the new Batman.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

^Yeah, I mentioned that a few posts ago. Wonder if this film will be a trial run for World's Finest or Justice League?!

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

I've only seen the first season so far, but it's been very inconsistent about how secret (the) U.N.C.L.E. is. In the early episodes, Solo & Kuryakin are often openly telling civilians about their agency and what it does, and generally people have heard of it. There's one episode where Illya is trying to recruit Jill Ireland to help him out with a mission during a crowded party scene while there are multiple civilians (mostly members of the show's staff) well within earshot. Yet at the same time, they comport themselves like a highly secret spy agency, hiding their HQ behind the facade of a tailor shop -- yet their archenemies are perfectly well aware that that's where their HQ is located! Yet later in the season, they're playing U.N.C.L.E.'s existence much more secretly; in one episode, when they need to recruit Kathryn Hays to get close to a villain who's an old flame of hers (exactly the same reason they openly recruited Pat Crowley's character in the piot), Solo essentially kidnaps her and won't even tell her the name of the organization that's holding her captive and demanding her cooperation.

Well, there was a running gag in the show involving characters talking about getting help from a kindly uncle, or having a message for their uncle, or whatever. I suppose that was inevitable, really.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

This is a bit of a surprise but could bode well for a tongue-in-cheek tone; Hugh Grant is to join the cast as the head of British Naval Intelligence.

http://m.rte.ie/ten/touch/news/2013/0809/467222-hugh-grant-for-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

Don't know if anyone but me is still interested but production has started. Grant is confirmed as Waverly and Richie's Sherlock Holmes 2 villain has joined the cast. And - best of all - it's set in the early 1960s!

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompson...ill-armie-hammer-and-newly-added-jared-harris

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

From the description, it sounds like they're playing up the Cold War tensions that were barely mentioned in the original show. But the mention of their lead being a missing scientist's daughter suggests that they're sticking with the original formula of having an "innocent" in every episode.

I expected that Hugh Grant would end up playing Mr. Waverly. He seems a bit young for the part, but has the right kind of slightly dotty upper-class Britishness.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

looking forward to it. though, i would have liked if Robert Vaughn could have played Mr. Waverly. hopefully he and David McCallum get a cameo or something.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

^^ I hope so, too.

So it's set in the early 60s and Cruise is out. Great news on both fronts. I hope they plan to go for the right tone.

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

Sounds very promising. I'd have liked to see either Vaughn or McCallum as Waverly and maybe if this had been done ten/fifteen years ago that would have been likely but they are both, sadly, getting on a bit now. I do hope we get a cameo.

Grant seems young, but he is 52 now so he's two decades+ older than Solo and Kuryakin! When we have an M only 5 years older than 007 that doesn't seem so outrageous!

And my old nemesis Jared Harris as well...

Looking good...

 

Re: Guy Ritchie To Direct 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Starring Tom Cruis

Leo G. Carroll was 72 when he debuted as Waverly. Robert Vaughn is currently 80 and David McCallum is 79. So they're both around the right age -- certainly closer to it than Hugh Grant is. I wouldn't mind seeing McCallum in the role.

Then again, I suppose the studio is thinking franchise, so they want a Waverly that's likely to be around for a few sequels.