210 replies to this topic

[Napoleon Solo]

Another 11 questions about the UNCLE movie project:

http://bit.ly/t0iVBm

[killkenny kid]

From bad to......

http://hmssweblog.wo...ergh-drops-out/

[Napoleon Solo]

From bad to......

http://hmssweblog.wo...ergh-drops-out/

I'd like to quote a line uttered by the Mayor in the 1974 version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Except the CBn software would stop it. :-)

[killkenny kid]

I know what you mean!

[Napoleon Solo]

The 11 things that went wrong: http://bit.ly/rUx5hG

[Napoleon Solo]

HMSS Weblog's tribute to Robert Vaughn on his 79th birthday:

http://bit.ly/s94AWD

[delfloria]

Well, this closes this chapter but we shall just have to see what's next.



The Playlist has an impressive rundown of the entire process, but here’s the list of important details.

* Soderbergh suggests Michael Fassbender and Joel Kinnaman as leads after Clooney leaves. WB doesn’t want them for U.N.C.L.E., but does work deals with them for other films, Londongrad and Arthur & Lancelot. Cue Soderbergh irritation.
* Johnny Depp gets interested in U.N.C.L.E. when Lone Ranger is temporarily benched, but can never commit due to the weird process of getting the green light for Ranger. WB waits for him, stalling this project.
* Young leading men are considered, but no consensus is reached.
* Bradley Cooper and Joel Edgerton enter the mix, perhaps more through the machinations of agents than anything else. The roles might never have really been offered to them. Channing Tatum wants to play one of the leads after doing Magic Mike with Soderbergh, but by this point it is pretty much too late.
* Based on screenwriter Scott Z. Burns‘ draft, Warner Bros. offers a budget proposal in the low $60m range. Soderbergh thinks that isn’t enough to properly make a film meant to launch a three-film period-piece spy franchise with locations around the world. But WB wants it on the cheap, even if ‘on the cheap’ here happens to be a for few million more than was spent on the director’s location-hopping Contagion. And so Soderbergh moves on.

The director’s timeline over the next year looks like this: Haywire is released in January. There’s room to shoot a movie before Behind the Candelabra, his film about Liberace (starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon) will shoot in summer 2012, just as Magic Mike is released. That’s where U.N.C.L.E. was going to go. After that, it’s ‘adios, directors chair!’ for Soderbergh, at least until he gets the itch once more.

(WB picked up Magic Mike not long ago, and I wonder if buying that cheap film was part of a strategy to keep Soderbergh on U.N.C.L.E. when he was obviously waffling. And if that was the case, what will the studio do with the film now? It has such obvious counter-programming summer beefcake appeal that I don’t see WB dumping it.)

The good news is there’s now a big empty spot on his schedule where The Man From U.N.C.L.E. used to rent space. Will Soderbergh come up with another film to shoot there?

And what of U.N.C.L.E.? WB has the Soderbergh and Scott Z. Burns script to work with, but as the Playlist says, that is probably so tuned to Soderbergh’s specific style that much would have to be rewritten for another creative team. The movie will probably happen eventually, and maybe it will even mange to shoot next year. But for now nothing is set.

[MajorB]

I wonder if the project would've had any hope at all if Soderbergh hadn't gotten interested. It's hard not to think that it's buried deep, deep in Development Hell with this turn of events. I can't say I share your optimism about this thing going forward next year. But that's just my gut feeling, not an informed opinion.

*Sigh*

[stamper]

This movie should be about Napoleon Solo and April Dancer. Not Solo and Kuryakin.

[Napoleon Solo]

WB plans to open "Magic Mike" "wide" in the summer (i.e. do a lot of advertising, put it in a lot of theaters).

Anyway, re: UNCLE project. Soderbergh has been quoted more than once to the effect he likes to do one commercial movie, followed up by a more personal movie. Magic Mike and the Liberace HBO movie fall under the latter. UNCLE was going to be the former. I think once Clooney was out, Soderbergh's enthusiasm decreased.

Warner Bros. also couldn't make up its mind. I can understand why they'd want to be conservative about budgets (that's happening quite a lot). But on the one hand, they wanted Soderbergh, yet were indifferent to his choices (Fassbender and Kinnaman), but then turnaround and hire the actors for other movies.

[delfloria]

Yeah..... Makes your head spin trying to figure out the logic behind it all.

[delfloria]

The Affair continues....................


Despite Steven Soderbergh's exit as director of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." last week, Warner Bros. still remains committed to developing it.

"This is a movie the studio was trying to make before Soderbergh was involved," an individual close to "U.N.C.L.E." told TheWrap. "If he is truly off, it's hard to believe the studio won't want to make it with someone else."

Indeed, Warner's has wanted to adapt the '60s television show as a movie for nearly 20 years. Over the years, Quentin Tarantino, Matthew Vaughn ("X-Men: First Class") and David Dobkin ("Wedding Crashers") have been tied to the film -- and Dobkin remains on board as a producer.

Also read: Steven Soderbergh Departs 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The studio "doesn't think there's millions and millions of rabid 'U.N.C.L.E' fans out there, but they do recognize that the brand has some mythology to it," the individual said. "It's a major franchise they have wanted for over a decade now and a script they're very happy with."

For a short time, the espionage thriller set in the 1960s seemed to be moving at a quick clip. Soderbergh, who has delivered Warner Bros. hits including "Ocean's Eleven," "Ocean's Twelve," "Ocean's Thirteen" and "Contagion," brought a new level of excitement to the movie. There was talk that "Oceans" actor George Clooney -- who also worked with Soderbergh on the 1998 "Out of Sight," the 2002 "Solaris" and the 2006 "The Good German" -- would play the lead role of Napoleon Solo.

But then Clooney decided against it.

The studio acknowledged this fall that it wanted Bradley Cooper to take the part, but talks with the actor fizzled.

An individual close to the studio said that Warner's and Soderbergh couldn't agree on some casting issues and were at odds over budget.

The individual said that the studio continues to look for another director to take on the project -- and noted that despite the buzz, "U.N.C.L.E." hadn't yet been greenlit.

That individual compared "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." to "Akira," another Warner's project that has gone through a succession of directors and writers. Before Jaume Collet-Serra became attached this past July, Ruairi Robinson and Albert Hughes were attached to direct.

[Napoleon Solo]

After Le Affaire Soderbergh, color me skeptical. Regarding the story in The Wrap, we're told this is from "an individual close to U.N.C.L.E." (Mr. Waverly, perhaps?) Yet this individual doesn't seem to *know* whether Soderbergh is out or not. ("If he is truly off...") I don't see a lot of hard information.

[stamper]

Hi Warner, I'm a good director and on the dole. i can make this happen, huge hit, Vaughn style. Please PM me.

[Yellow Pinky]

And now Guy Ritchie is in the mix:

http://www.deadline....from-u-n-c-l-e/

Could be an interesting marriage of director and material.

[delfloria]

Could mean Downey Jr. for Solo as a possibility.

[killkenny kid]

Big fan of Downey Jr. these days, but I hope not.

[Napoleon Solo]

Downey is trying to develop a Perry Mason movie (also at Warner Bros.) and he's on the hook for Iron Man III. Way too early to speculate. Ritchie is just in talks at this point.

On the other hand, Downey is a lot closer physically to Robert Vaughn's Solo than some of the actors mentioned in the now-defunct Soderbergh project.

However, after feeling burned by getting interested in Soderbergh, I'm going to be much more reserved this time around.

[delfloria]

The casting could go in all kinds of directions now. After all one of the reasons Soderbergh departed was that Warner Bros wanted to push the start date back to 2013 with Matt Damon starring. This only feels like a roller coaster because we know so much information so early. Usually all these ups and downs happen behind the scenes and when a project finally gets green lit it feels like it all happened overnight.

[Napoleon Solo]

The casting could go in all kinds of directions now. After all one of the reasons Soderbergh departed was that Warner Bros wanted to push the start date back to 2013 with Matt Damon starring. This only feels like a roller coaster because we know so much information so early. Usually all these ups and downs happen behind the scenes and when a project finally gets green lit it feels like it all happened overnight.

That's true to a point (the Soderbergh saga seemed to have play-by-play announcers and analysts). At the same time, this has been doing on in various forms for almost four decades: The Malthusian Affair aborted TV movie, The Short-Biederman project, Sam Rolfe attempted cable TV movie, John Davis, Ember Entertainment, Back to Warner Bros. and John Davis, Soderbergh-Burns, and some I've no doubt overlooked.

[MajorB]

Downey is trying to develop a Perry Mason movie (also at Warner Bros.) and he's on the hook for Iron Man III. Way too early to speculate. Ritchie is just in talks at this point.

On the other hand, Downey is a lot closer physically to Robert Vaughn's Solo than some of the actors mentioned in the now-defunct Soderbergh project.

However, after feeling burned by getting interested in Soderbergh, I'm going to be much more reserved this time around.

I like Downey, but I don't want him to play every single genre hero in the universe, and I'd rather Solo didn't get turned into another Downey-style character. There are other actors in America, for heaven's sake.

[Napoleon Solo]

Downey is trying to develop a Perry Mason movie (also at Warner Bros.) and he's on the hook for Iron Man III. Way too early to speculate. Ritchie is just in talks at this point.

On the other hand, Downey is a lot closer physically to Robert Vaughn's Solo than some of the actors mentioned in the now-defunct Soderbergh project.

However, after feeling burned by getting interested in Soderbergh, I'm going to be much more reserved this time around.

I like Downey, but I don't want him to play every single genre hero in the universe, and I'd rather Solo didn't get turned into another Downey-style character. There are other actors in America, for heaven's sake.

Good point. Also, one of the knocks on George Clooney, when his name was attached to the Soderbergh project, was his age (50). Downey isn't that much younger.

[delfloria]

Agree with you guys in regards to Downey as Solo.

BTW the Soderbergh/Burns and Ritchie versions are part of the Davis project. He has retained the UNCLE option since 1994. (Ember was a misunderstanding).

Right or wrong, we are also we are going to be seeing a lot more of the Ian Fleming connection as touted in this internet blurb:

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' has been in some stage of development for a while now, with Clooney and Soderbergh attaching themselves last November. Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon and Channing Tatum are among the names who have been discussed at one point or another for the lead role, Napoleon Solo, a sauve spy created for television by Ian Fleming.

[Napoleon Solo]

Agree with you guys in regards to Downey as Solo.

BTW the Soderbergh/Burns and Ritchie versions are part of the Davis project. He has retained the UNCLE option since 1994. (Ember was a misunderstanding).

Right or wrong, we are also we are going to be seeing a lot more of the Ian Fleming connection as touted in this internet blurb:

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' has been in some stage of development for a while now, with Clooney and Soderbergh attaching themselves last November. Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon and Channing Tatum are among the names who have been discussed at one point or another for the lead role, Napoleon Solo, a sauve spy created for television by Ian Fleming.

A couple of observations/questions:

1) I actually think it's smart to mention the Ian Fleming connection in a marketing sense. While not many of Fleming's ideas made it, just having the lead character's name changed to Napoleon Solo from Edgar Solo actually is pretty meaningful. Let's face, anybody named Napoleon Solo has to have a sense of "dash." I just hope mentioning Fleming doesn't bury Sam Rolfe and Norman Felton. I've said in the past that a credit that reads, "Based on the television series developed by Sam Rolfe, Napoleon Solo created by Norman Felton and Ian Fleming," would be more accurate (particularly if Rolfe's credit was in bigger letters).

Of course, if no movie is ever made, that's a moot point.

2) Ember and the misunderstanding...That was a BIG misunderstanding, if true. I'm not privy to whatever papers were signed or not signed. I do remember was claimed at one point, i.e. that Felton signed over all his rights to Ember.

[Napoleon Solo]

Soderbergh has done a couple of interviews to promote Haywire (No. 5 at the box office last weekend). In both he made some comments about the now-aborted UNCLE project. Here's one of them, with The Playlist Web site.

http://blogs.indiewi...ylist-interview

In that interview, Soderbergh talks some about how he and writer Scott Z. Burns turned to Harry Palmer for inspiration and how the two watched the Palmer films while the script was being done. Now, to be fair, Soderbergh also watched something like 27 first-season Man From UNCLE episodes. But Harry Palmer? Napoleon Solo is a romantic hero, not an antihero. There aren't enough details to make a definitive judgment, but I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Soderbergh wasn't the right man for the job.

[MajorB]

It sounds like they weren't watching the Palmer films for the character but for the denser plotting. Which was never U.N.C.L.E.'s strong suit, of course--but if he were going to preserve the tone of the series (especially the first season) and add more sophisticated storytelling, that might've worked.

[delfloria]

New update:

 

Guy Ritchie is still developing UNCLE. This is a completely new article with new info.

 

http://www.sneakpeek...from-uncle.html

[delfloria]

Here some new info, for better or worse.

 

 

http://blogs.indiewi...-crash-20130131

[Napoleon Solo]

The Playlist story is a rewrite of this Collider story, which has more details:    
http://collider.com/...-scott-z-burns/

 

 

[delfloria]

Yep, but the playlist article feedback section indicates the new script is done and is going out to actors as we speak. The quality of the script is subjective at best.