SALAAR, AMATEUR, SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE, MAGGIORE, RED NOTICE 2, and BLINDSPOT are just some of the upcoming spy movies or series that we’ll fill you in on today in our Spy Movie News July 25 2023 edition. 

Upcoming spy movies and series

We’ll start out as usual by looking at some upcoming spy movies and series.

AMATEUR shuts down production

We told you about the movie AMATEUR starring Rami Malik back in our February 2023 Spy Movie News.  At the time we didn’t know any production details.   Well, they started production but have now shut it down due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes. Shutdowns like this are rampant with these strikes. 

AMATEUR isn’t the first, nor will it be the last to shut down until the strikes end.  Last month we mentioned the spy series The Old Man had halted production due to the writer’s strike Let’s hope this mess gets cleared up soon.

Anyway, we’ll keep you posted about AMATEUR as we hear more after the strikes and they start up again. 

Spy X Family Code: White

Here’s another one we’ve been talking about for a while.  Spy X Family is an animated spy series. They are working on a spin-off movie called SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE that is slated to release in December 2023 in Japan. 

The creative team likes to have fun.  For instance, their spy dog is named Bond.

Well, they had fun with the latest Mission: Impossible movie.  In collaboration with Paramount, they created a teaser trailer for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING PART ONE.  It is a combination of Spy X Family with clips from the Dead Reckoning Part One trailer with SPY X Family’s Loid Forger providing commentary.  Next, they created a combined poster that is a take-off of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING PART ONE poster.  You can find that on DigitalSpy.com.

We like it when the studios don’t take each other too seriously and will have fun with marketing.  Great job teams. 

Maggiore

Israeli network Yes TV is behind an upcoming 8-part series called MAGGIORE.  They are the same group that brought us the wonderful spy series FAUDA.

MAGGIORE’s main plotline is that a boat is sunk on Lake Maggiore, which connects Italy and Switzerland.  That boat was filled with intelligence officers from both Israel and Italy. 

Oh yeah, and this is a real event that recently happened on May 29, 2023.  There were at least 13 Mossad and eight Italian intelligence officers onboard. Due to the intelligence passengers, some of who died, there is a lot of speculation about the spies and what they were doing on the boat. 

There is intrigue about what happened. An article about MAGGIORE in Variety.com tells us that the location of the drowning which was between Italian manufacturing plants and the heavily spy-traveled Switzerland has brought about conspiracy theories.  Plus, Israel sent a private plane to evacuate the Israeli victims.  No, nothing to see here (laugh).

We find it fascinating that they already have this designated as an 8-part series.  All of the details behind the boat accident are probably not likely flushed out yet.  So, it will be interesting to see where they take this.

However, that article also points out that the goal is to create a series much like the French spy series “The Bureau”, but this time highlighting Italian intelligence, instead of French.

One possible outcome of MAGGIORE is that the series spins into taking on other mysterious accidents.  We’ll have to see.

As of now, we don’t have an expected release date.

Blindspot

Another upcoming spy series based on reality, albeit much older reality, is called BLINDSPOT.  This one has Maipo Film and Spero Films backing it.   The series will focus on a real Mossad assassination mission in Lillehammer in 1973.   Let’s just say that the mission didn’t go well and the wrong person got killed.   

BLINDSPOT will be a drama trying to tell the story of what happened.  It will dive into the events and examine the people impacted by this mission.

No production details have been released as of press time.

Alia Bhatt Set for YRF Spy Universe

In last month’s Spy Movie News, we talked about the actress Alia Bhatt.

She will be in the Netflix movie HEART OF STONE, which will be released on August 11, 2023.

At the time we told you to pay attention to this British-Indian actress.   We expected her career to soar. She was fantastic in the spy movie RAZZI and also was a lead in the immensely popular RRR  (just say the R three times).

Yash Raj Films delivered what we think was an excellent spy movie PATHAAN, and talked about their YRF Spy Universe when that movie was released this past January.  Well, they have announced that Alia Bhatt will be the first female to have a lead in the YRF Spy Universe.  Sometimes you just get lucky with your timing as we did here.  

The movie, whose title hasn’t been released, is expected to start production next year.   But we know Bhatt will play a “super-agent” in the movie.

Interestingly, she will be joining Gal Gadot in HEART OF STONE as we think that Bhat will have a similar career trajectory.  She is already very popular in India.  We bet she and Gadot end up competing for some female spy roles in the near future.

As usual, we’ll keep you posted as we hear more.

Rainbow Six?

Tom Clancy’s spy novels have been turned into movies, tv-series, and video games.   Of course, we have the Jack Ryan series.   But, one of his novels, “Rainbow Six” was turned into a very successful video game.  The game deviates from the novel,  which is common.

Movieweb.com speculates that “Rainbow Six” as a movie was teased in the Jack Ryan series.  They speculate that a RAINBOW SIX might be a continuation of the WITHOUT REMORSE storyline or be part of the Jack Ryan universe.

Now, we normally don’t talk about movie speculation, but this one seems like it has a realistic chance of happening.  We’ll keep you posted.

RED NOTICE 2

When Netflix released the successful movie RED NOTICE, we told you there were plans for both a RED NOTICE 2 and RED NOTICE 2. That was two years ago. 

Gal Gadot has told Collider that she’s read the script and filming will be underway soon.  That was before the strikes so we don’t have a handle on what “soon” means. 

That said, we’re happy to see this.  Although we had some mixed feelings about RED NOTICE, we thought they did have a chance to make this a series that could work.

So, once we get more notice about RED NOTICE 2, we’ll give you a heads up.

THE MAN FROM ROME

The spy movie THE MAN FROM ROME has a clip giving us the basis of the plot that was put out by Screen Media Films.  In addition, an official trailer has been released that you can find on YouTube.  So, we have two slightly different videos on this movie.

The tagline for THE MAN FROM ROME  is:

THE MAN FROM ROME is based on the novel “The Seville Communion” and stars Richard Armitage.  Armitage is one of the names bandied about as a possible “next actor to play James Bond”.

THE MAN FROM ROME was released last year in Spain and has recently started to be available for streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Google Play.

More John Le Carré in India

In 2016, the English-language series based on John Le Carré’s novel “The Night Manager” was a hit.  The novel has recently been adapted and released as a big hit series in India.  This time it is Hindi-language based.

An article in Variety talks about this Hindi-based adaptation, and the fact that it is not just a remake of the 2016 series.  More importantly, it tells us that future seasons of “The Night Manager” are being looked at.

Plus, it looks like more John Le Carré novels than just “The Night Manager” are expected to be adapted into Indian Hindi-language movies or series.   The Ink Factory manages the Le Carré  novels and has said:

“We are in the process of adapting one, which is in a relatively late stage of adaptation and one, which is at an early stage. We’re very keen to bring more le Carré to India.”

We’re keen to see if any of these Hindi-language releases make their way to English-Language adaptations.

SALAAR

Back in February’s Spy Movie News, we told you about the upcoming pan-Indian movie SALAAR.  At the time we told you that we weren’t sure that this is going to be a spy movie.  We know it is an action movie.  But, the plot has been kept under wraps.

We know that the release will include the Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Hindi languages.

Even though it is supposed to release on September 28, 2023, we still don’t know if it is a spy movie.  That’s even with the movie’s teaser trailer being released.  You can see the trailer on YouTube.

We may have to wait until the SALAAR is released before we know if it is just an action movie or a spy movie.  We’ll let you know.

MR-9-DO OR DIE

Last June we told you about the movie MR-9.  This is a movie based on the Rana series of novels that Bangladeshi writer Qazi Anwar Hussain wrote.

An article in Deadline.com tells us:

We’ve liked Grillo in his past movies and are looking forward to seeing him in this one.

We can now update you and tell you that there will be a U.S. and Canada release on the same day as its release in Bangladesh.  That will be on August 25^th.

Frank Grillo Movie ‘MR-9: Do Or Die’ Gets North American Deal – Deadline

Business News

AMC Theatres drops movie ticket prices based on seat location

We had a rant about the controversial policy AMC implemented at some of its theaters where the price you paid for your seat was based on where in the theater your seat was.  They called it “Sightline at AMC”. It was somewhat like what the airlines do.

However, we didn’t like this policy and enough other theater-goes voiced their negative opinion of the policy. 

Fortunately, AMC Theaters has heard the feedback (and possibly some lost revenue) and is dropping the experiment and won’t roll it out nationally.  Supposedly they found that people would pay for premium seats, but wouldn’t use the front row, even though those seats were less expensive under the experiment.

We are very happy to see this.

Stitcher is Shutting Down

Ok, this one isn’t about spy movies, but it may affect our podcast listeners. SiriusXM is going to shut down their podcase app Stitcher on August 29, 2023.  The goal is to move podcasts to SiriusXM subscriptions.

Their press release says that podcast fans will still be able to listen to ad-supported versions of shows that had been on Stitcher.

If you want to continue to listen to our show via another podcast app, we are virtually everywhere you can listen: Apple, Google, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, etc.

The Strikes

As we mentioned earlier, the actors have joined the writers and are striking in Hollywood.   This has effectively shut down most movie and tv production here. It has also curtailed the amount of movie news coming out.  Therefore, we may not release an August 2023 Spy Movie News episode.  If there isn’t enough to discuss, we’ll wait until the strikes are over.

 In Memoriam

Alan Arkin

Actor Alan Arkin passed at the age of 89.  Arkin was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning in 2007 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.  One of his nominations was for the same category for his performance in the spy movie ARGO. Spy movie fans will also remember him as Dr. Sheldon Kornpett in the spy comedy THE IN-LAWS.

Lawrence Turman

Producer Lawrence Turman passed at the age of 96. Turman is probably best known as the producer of THE GRADUATE.  However, before becoming a producer, Turman worked at a talent agency.  He placed four clients in the espionage classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

Carlin Glynn

Actress Carlin Glynn passed a the age of 83. She won a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway musical “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”.  Spy movie fans will remember her for her role as Mae Barber in THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR.

Manny Coto

Writer and Producer Manny Coto passed at the age of 62. His writing credits include 43 episodes of the tv series 24 and its spin-offs.

Rob Young

Oscar-nominated sound mixer Rob Young passed at the age of 76.  He was nominated for Best Sound for the movie UNFORGIVEN. Spy movie fans will know his work as a sound mixer on the  1990 movie THE RUSSIA HOUSE and the 2002 movie I SPY.

Robert Lieberman

Director, Producer, and writer Robert Lieberman passed at the age of 75.  Spy tv series fans will know his work as the director for the episode “Girl’s Best Friend” of the series NIKITA.

Margia Dean

Actress Margia Dean passed at the age of 101.  Spy tv fans will know her work as Rehab in the “Ancient Spies” episode of the series I SPY.

That wraps up the Spy Movie News July 25 2023 edition. Thanks for spending time with us – we appreciate it!

Citadel, Pathaan, The Bucharest Dossier, Lioness, Mission: Impossible, The Mole Agent, and Ghosted are just some of the upcoming spy movies or series that we’ll fill you in on today in our Spy Movie News – March 28 2023, edition.    

Upcoming Spy Entertainment

Citadel

We’re going to lead things off by discussing the upcoming Prime Video Russo brother’s spy drama, Citadel.    Of all the spy entertainment news we have found this month, Citadel is getting the most press. They released the first trailer which you can watch on YouTube. It looks like we’re going to like this one.

Citadel is a six-episode series starring Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Stanley Tucci.  As for the plot, the tagline from the Amazon press site tells us:

April 28, 2023 is the date on Prime Video for the release of the first two episodes. Through May 26, 2023, we get another another episode weekly.

According to movieweb.com, “The plan is for Citadel to launch a “landmark global franchise” for Prime Video. Each Citadel series will be locally created, produced, and filmed in-region in different parts of the world. Prime Video states that series are already underway in Italy and India, respectively, starring Matilda De Angelis, Varun Dhawan, and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.”

So, once again Amazon is trying to develop a spy franchise.  Are they hedging their bets against James Bond? We’re seeing a lot of these franchise efforts as we think the industry may be seeing weakness in the James Bond franchise and the likely ending of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt character in the Mission: Impossible franchise next year.

Pay Parity

Also, one other comment about Citadel comes from an article on variety.com. Actress Priyanka Chopra Jones told the audience at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival:

“I’ve been working in the entertainment industry for now 22 years and I have done about almost 70-plus features,” she said. “I’ve done two TV shows. But when I did ‘Citadel,’ it was the first time in my career that I had pay parity with my male co-actor. The first time in 22 years. And I wonder that did that happen? “

She was sharing the stage with Amazon Studio’s head, Jennifer Salke.  The suggestion is that she finally got pay parity because a woman is leading the studio.

We don’t know if that is the real reason, but we are happy to see it.   Pay disparity is an ugly issue and it is good to see that, at least in this case it has been addressed. 

The Bucharest Dossier

Ok, so this one is very early in the process.  But, the William Maz novel “The Bucharest Dossier” has had its movie and tv rights acquired by Gifford Media Group.

This appears to be yet another attempt to create a franchise around a CIA Analyst. The novel “The Bucharest Legacy” is due to be released in 2023.  That will be the second novel in the series.

And, a 4.2 rating on barnesandnoble.com and a 4.3 rating on Amazon tell us that this is a well-received novel.  Both of those are out of 5 points so this looks promising.

Physician and author William Maz’s website describes the novel like this:

In December, 1989, Bill Hefflin is a peculiarity in the CIA. Besides being the lead analyst on Eastern Europe, he is also the only analyst running his own mole, code-named Boris, inside the KGB. When Boris demands that Hefflin come to Bucharest to “create” history, Hefflin is forced to confront not only the dangers of a bloody revolution but his own passions for the girl he left behind. … The revolution is obviously controlled by outside forces, and Hefflin must decide whether his own CIA is on the right side of history.

We don’t have any information about the production of The Bucharest Dossier for either a movie or tv.  However, we think this announcement is good news.  We like when novels are brought to the screen.  Especially if they are spy novels.   We’ll keep you up to date as we learn more.

The Mole Agent

The Mole Agent may get a new title.  But, Netflix has ordered eight episodes of an adaptation of the documentary “The Mole Agent”. 

Ted Danson will be the lead.  Mike Schur, who wrote this series also worked with Danson on the tv series “The Good Place”.

An article on Variety.com says that “Danson will star as Charles, ‘a retired man who gets a new lease on life when he answers an ad from a PI and becomes a mole in a secret investigation.’”

The documentary debuted at the 2020 Sundance Festival. And, it was nominated for an Oscar for “Best Documentary Feature”?

We’ll let you know more as details get released.

Ghosted

When we first read about the upcoming Apple TV+ movie, Ghosted, we saw it was a rom-com starring Chris Evans and Ana de Amas. We stopped reading.  We are Cracking the Code of Spy Movies, after all.  Not Cracking The Code of Romantic Comedies.  Well, we’re glad we looked again.  It turns out that Ghosted is a rom-com-spy-thriller.  Ah, this is a spy movie.

The tagline for Ghosted is:

“Salt-of-the-earth Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie – but then makes the shocking discovery that she’s a secret agent.  Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.”

Apple TV+ released a 3-minute trailer for the movie that you can see on YouTube. Based on the trailer, it looks like Ghosted could be worth watching.  That said, we are curious about how long the set-up of this movie will take.  The trailer makes it look like it takes a while for Cole to find out she’s a spy.  The other thing is that the trailer gives up that fact.  Cole is surprised. The trailer and tagline ruin the surprise for us. 

This is the third movie that de Armas and Evans have worked on together and they have a very nice on-screen chemistry.  Interestingly, Scarlett Johansson was originally cast in the lead role.  However, she had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

Apple TV+ will release Ghosted on April 21 on Apple TV+.  Joining Chris Evans and Ana de Armas are Amy Sedaris, Adrien Brody, Tim Blake Nelson, Tate Donovan, and more.

Kandahar

We told you about Kandahar in our January 31^st Spy Movie News.  This is the upcoming movie starring Gerard Butler and Ali Fazal about a CIA operative sent to dismantle a nuclear weapon.  He ends up stuck in Afghanistan and has to get to his extraction point in Kandahar.

Mitchell LaFortune, who was a military intelligence officer, wrote the spec script so hopefully this will have a feel of realism.

The trailer is out and it looks really good.  You can watch it on YouTube.  The scenery in the trailer looks great.  Saudi Arabia was the filming location for Kandahar. So, we’ll be waiting to see what Cinematographer MacGregor does with this one.

Kandahar will release in Russia on May 2023, the United States on May 26, 2023, the Netherlands on June 8^th, and Spain on June 16^th.  – IN THEATERS!!!

Lioness

Also in our January 31 2023 Spy Movie News, we told you about the upcoming Paramount+ series Lioness. 

This month’s news is that Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef will have a guest-starring role.  He’s joining  Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Morgan Freeman, and Nicole Kidman, among others.

And, Variety.com tells us that Youssef will play a character named Amrohi who is “a rags-to-riches billionaire businessman with ties to terrorism, building his own fortune by legitimate means before profiteering off the wars that destroy the Middle East he’s spent decades helping to rebuild.” 

Let’s hope he can be as good in this shady billionaire role as Hugh Grant was as a billionaire arms dealer in Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre.

We still haven’t seen a release date for Lioness but will keep you posted as we find out more.

Kingsman 3

Taron Egerton told Collider.com that he expects there will be a Kingsman 3, rumored to be titled Kingman: The Blue Blood.  Egerton says :

We like this series and hope they do get this one done.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

The hype machine is continuing for the upcoming two-part Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning movies.   Part One has a US release date of July 14, 2023.  We have a few nuggets to pass on about these movies.

A tip of the cap to Top Gun?

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning: Part Two has filmed something on the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier off the coast of Italy. We don’t know what they filmed, but given that the Top Gun: Maverick actors trained on an aircraft carrier, is there going to be a tip of the cap to Top Gun in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning: Part Two?  We’ll have to wait to find out.

Hannah Waddingham joins the cast

Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham has been announced as an addition to Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning: Part Two.  She was reported to have been on the aforementioned aircraft carrier, or a similar one.   We don’t know her role yet, but the never-ending casting and filming of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning continues.

Rolf Saxon is back

In the 1996 Mission: Impossible movie, Rolf Saxon played CIA agent William Donloe.  He was the guy in the vault who got stomach problems after Claire put that stuff in his coffee.

Well, it looks like he’s back in Part Two.  Christopher McQuarrie tells us this in an Instagram post.

So, now we have at least Kittridge and Donloe back.  It will be great to see what they do, some 28 years after we first saw them.

Norway Authorities Cancel a stunt

Even Tom Cruise can’t get everything he wants.   A stunt that was to be done in Norway got squashed by authorities. They were concerned about wildlife in the area. 

“The production was reportedly aiming to film at various locations on Svalbard, a protected archipelago between Norway and the North Pole, but local Norwegian authorities denied requests for a planned 40 helicopter landings due to concerns regarding disruptions to local wildlife..” 

Screenrant.com

So, it looks like there will be at least one thing Cruise wanted to do that he couldn’t with Part 2.

Initial screen tests question length

Movieweb.com tells us that Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning: Part One has started test screening.   Paramount Global’s President, Bob Bakish tells us this about the first screening:

Awards

Slow Horses writers

We’re in the heart of awards season and we want to call out “Slow Horses” screenwriter Will Smith and novelist Mick Herron for winning the episodic TV category at the 35^th annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards.  Thanks to Variety.com for this one. We are big fans of this Apple TV+ series and are happy the writers have been recognized. Congratulations Will and Mick.

Spy x Family

Spy x Family won Best Comedy a the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime awards.  We’ve talked about this series in previous Spy Movie News episodes.   There is a movie in the works from this series that we are eagerly anticipating.  This award heightens this anticipation.

Industry News

Sam Neil

Actor Sam Neil caused quite a stir when an excerpt from his just-released memoir mentioned he was treated for stage three blood cancer.  He has since posted a video on his Instagram account letting us know that he’s in remission and still working on a mini-series with Annette Benning.

James Bond fans may know that he was in the running twice to take on the role of James Bond.  Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan won those parts.

We wish Sam all the best and hope all goes well for him.

Pathaan breaks more box office records

The movie Pathaan continues to shine at the box office.  It has overtaken the Hindi dubbed version of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion in India. Congratulations. 

In our no-spoiler review of Pathaan,  we talked about how we liked this movie and that it was the first sold-out movie we’ve been to in years.

In Memoriam

Chaim Topol

Israeli actor/producer Chaim Topol passed at the age of 87.  Topol is probably best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as Tevye in the 1971 movie Fiddler on the Roof.  The 1990 revival of the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” netted Topol a Tony award nomination.  He played Tevye in over 3,500 stage performances. 

Spy movie fans will remember his great performance as Columbo in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only.

An article on Spy Command tells us that the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog announced Topol’s death on Twitter. A Google translation of the tweet said of Topol

We couldn’t have said it any better. 

Ruben Igielko-Herrlich

Ruben Igielko-Herrlich has passed at 62.  You may never have heard of Ruben, but he was a marketing executive who was instrumental in product placement in movies.  The Nokia flip phone in The Matrix and the BMW used in chase scenes in Mission: Impossible were two examples of his work.

Ricou Browning

Actor, writer, director, underwater director and cinematographer, and stuntman Ricou Browning passed at the age of 93.  Browning played Gill Man when Gill Man was underwater in The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954, Revenge of the Creature in 1955, and The Creature Walks Among Us in 1956.

However, behind the camera, he was known for his direction of underwater camerawork.  “Sea Hunt”, “The Aquanauts”, and “Flipper” all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Browning for his work on those shows.

James Bond fans will know his underwater direction in Thunderball and its remake Never Say Never Again.

And, as it is one of our favorite comedies, we wanted to be sure we pointed out that Browning did the underwater sequence in Caddyshack in 1980.

Tom Sizemore

Actor Tom Sizemore has passed at 61.  Among Sizemore’s 226 IMDB entries are Saving Private Ryan, Blackhawk Down, Pearl Harbor, and Natural Born Killers.

Spy movie fans have seen Sizemore’s work in Radical, Unkillable, The Martyr Maker, Murder 101, and The Acquirer.

Lance Reddick

Actor Lance Reddick passed at the age of 60. The television shows “Oz”, “The Wire”, “Fringe”, and “Bosch” all had Reddick performing in at least 12 of their episodes.  

Reddick also played Charon in all four chapters of the John Wick movie series. Spy entertainment fans will remember Reddick for his roles in the movies Angel Has Fallen and The Seige. He also played DCI Jeffrey Tatazoo in the television series “Intelligence”.

Erik Loomis

Film distribution executive Erik Loomis passed at age 64.  His career included distribution for MGM, United Artists, and the Weinstein Company with many Oscar winners and blockbusters in his portfolio. Some of the James Bond movies Loomis distributed include GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, and No Time To Die.  “A part of the industry has died with him today” said Barbara Broccoli.

That’s a wrap!  We hope you enjoyed this Spy Movie News – March 28 2023 edition. Please help us out and subscribe to our show, Cracking the Code of Spy Movies” through your favorite podcast app! 

In this article, our June 28, 2022 edition of Spy Movie News we discuss the July releases for spy movies (The Gray Man and Code Name Banshee), for both in the theater and streaming, We’ll look at some ongoing projects like Spy Kids,Slow Horses, MR-9, Face/Off 2, and Mission: Impossible. And we’ll throw in some industry news too.

Let’s start this episode by looking at what’s coming in spy entertainment in July 2022. 

And it’s been a while, but we finally have not one, but two spy movies hitting theaters in July. 

July Theatrical Spy Movie Releases 

Code Name Banshee 

The first to hit the theaters in July is on July 1^st and is titled Code Name Banshee.  This movie stars Antonio Banderas, Jaime King, and Tommy Flanagan.  It is one of those assassins vs. assassins vs. the CIA-type of movies.   We’ve seen this type of plot in numerous movies and feels a bit similar to The Protégé at a high level. We’re intrigued to see what they do with it and how they try to make it unique. Code Name Banshee will have a limited theatrical release as well as a streaming/video-on-demand release on the same day. 

The Gray Man 

The second spy movie to hit theaters this July is The Gray Man.   We’ve been talking about this movie with you since at least February 2021.  Well, this Netflix movie is finally here, on July 15 in theaters.  It has a fantastic cast of Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jessica Henwick, Regé-Jean Page, and more.  The official tag for this one is: “When a shadowy CIA agent uncovers damning agency secrets, he’s hunted across the globe by a sociopathic rogue operative who’s put a bounty on this head.”   

The Gray Man is based on a book with the same title from an 11-book series.  The hope is that a series of movies will be created based on the books.   

Netflix, as it has done recently with their more expensive-to-produce movies, will release The Gray Man in theaters a week before it starts streaming.   

This time, however, they are giving us advance notice that there is a theatrical release.   Given that this is the most expensive movie Netflix has ever done (supposedly over $200 million), it makes sense to try to pull in some theatrical revenue. We appreciate that as viewers. We’d rather watch most action-based spy movies in a theater rather than in our home theaters.  

Streaming Spy Movie Releases for July 

Netflix 

On July 1^st, in the US, Netflix will release two spy movies that have been released in the past:  

• A Call to Spy – This 2019 movie tells the story of a real intelligence officer, Vera Atkins, who was a recruiter for Churchill’s secret army.  We’ve seen this movie and recommend it.  Let us know your thoughts. A Call to Spy is also being released on IFC Films Unlimited on July 6th. 
• Catch me If you Can – This 2002 movie stars Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.  It is about a real guy, Frank Abagnale Jr, who was a con man and money forger.  Tom Hanks, is the FBI agent to has to catch Frank. 

Then on July 22^nd, Netflix will stream The Gray Man. 

HULU 

Hulu has one spy movie and one spy series it is releasing in July.   On July 1^st, they will release the 1997 movie The Man Who Knew Too Little. The tag line for this comedy spy movie is “He’s on a mission so secret, even he doesn’t know about it. The movie stars Bill Murray and is a comedy/drama. 

Then on July 29, Hulu is releasing the complete series called “The Americans”.  This series has 75 episodes so it will be quite a binge to watch it all, but this was an excellent spy series.  “The Americans” is about Russian Agents who assimilated into US life for years trying to be a married couple with kids while spying for Russia. It was based on a true story of a spy ring called “The Illegals”.  It stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.  We think this is a series any spy movie fan will enjoy.   

Amazon Prime 

Amazon Prime is adding 4 spy movies in July: 

• The 1988 Debra Winger, Tom Berenger movie Betrayed  
• Two Tom Clancy movies, 1992’s Patriot Games and the 2002 movie The Sum of all Fears.  
• And the 2019 spy movie, The Mongolian Connection 

The Kite Runner 

Finally, although this one isn’t a spy story, we talked about the movie The Kite Runner in our 2-part interview with the director of photography for Quantum of Solace, Roberto Schaefer.  Well, “The Kite Runner” is coming to Broadway.   The play had a 2-season run in London’s West End.   Previews start July 6^th at The Hayes Theater on Broadway and will open at the Hayes Theater in New York on July 21. This is a limited engagement that will run through October 20, 2022.  

Upcoming Spy Movie Projects 

Face/Off 2 

Ok, this is another project we’ve been talking about for a while.  We’ve been asking “Will it be a sequel or a new story”?  Will Nicholas Cage or John Travolta be in it? and what is going on with this thing?’ 

Well, an article on movieweb.com has the following as it’s subheader:  “Face/Off 2 seems to be moving along, but will not go forward until it can live up to the legacy of the original move”.  Um, we say (sarcastically) “Good Luck With That”.  That’s a tall order due to the excellent interplay between Travolta and Cage in the original. 

It appears that the director, Adam Wingard has said that the new film will be an “absolute sequel” to the hit original.   We’ll have to wait to see what happens here.  

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One 

We can never get enough Mission: Impossible 7 news, even though we have to wait until July 14 next year to see it. Oh, wait, the name is now Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One.   That title is almost as long as the wait. 

Anyway, we know that Tom Cruise does many of his own stunts for this character Ethan Hunt.   Well, it looks like Hayley Atwell, who plays a character named Grace had to do some stunts too. 

She gave an interview at the recent Awesome Con.  Most of the 44 minutes were talking about her MCU character, Agent Carter, and other roles.   However, at about 8:00 minutes in, someone asked her about her stunts in the upcoming Mission: Impossible movie. It’s an interesting watch.  She is very complimentary to Tom Cruise and his quest for perfection. 

Although she says more, the highlight that we’ll call out is when she said she:  “Backflipped over a bridge, jumped off backward off a moving train, a lot of running uphill in high heels while handcuffed to Mr. Cruise.”  Given how intense Tom Cruise is while running, that had to be a challenge.  You can find the interview on YouTube by searching for Haley Atwell Peggy Carter Panel.  Choose the one from Awesome Con 2022. 

The Gray Man  

Well, now that the movie is almost here, it’s time for a bit of hype: 

Omaze.com is a website that does charity fundraising and occasionally has celebrities involved.   Well, they recently held a raffle that ended yesterday with a chance to go to The Gray Man premier, stay at a 4-star hotel, and get pictures with Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling.  The winner won’t be announced until July 13.   The goal is to help Christopher’s Haven with homes for kids with cancer.  

Many movies have these types of activities and Omaze is one of the bigger sites that manage them.   If you have an upcoming movie you are interested in, it’s worth taking a look at Omaze.com to see if they have a drawing you might like. We here at SpyMovieNavigator.com and our Cracking the Code of Spy Movies podcast have no affiliation with Omaze, but we have entered and have donated with previous drawings! 

Netflix released a new Exclusive Clip on YouTube. 

In May, Netflix released their trailer for The Gray Man.  Now, Netflix has released an “exclusive clip” of a scene from The Gray Man.  The clip includes Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas.   You can click on these links to see both the trailer and this exclusive clip.   

The Gray Man who is Ryan Gosling playing? 

Well, we’re still a couple of weeks before the first The Gray Man hits the screen, but EmpireOnline talked with Ryan Gosling about his character, Courtland Gentry (codename Sierra Six).   It sounds like Gentry has a similar feel to Harry Palmer in the Len Deighton series in that he was taken from prison and put into a spy organization, here the CIA.  So, he’s a reluctant spy like we often talk about in spy movies. 

Gosling tells Empireonline:  “What I liked about this character is that he wants something that most of us want, which is just to be free,” … “In almost every scene we tried to set it up so that he was at a disadvantage. And it becomes about watching him use whatever is in his environment to gain leverage.” 

Gosling also tells us that he loved making the movie and would love to do another.   We bet that if this first movie is successful, he’ll get a few more spins as Sierra Six. 

Empire’s Summer Preview has Gosling and Evans on the cover.  The Gray Man is set for a limited release on July 15, 2022, followed by its release on Netflix on July 22, 2022. 

Slow Horses 

We mentioned that this Gary Oldman series had been picked up by Apple + for a second season.  Well, according to Variety, it has been picked up for a third and fourth season.  The series is based on the spy books series “Slough House” which was authored by Mick Herron.   Season 1 was called “Slow Horses” and was based on the book of the same name.  Season two is based on the book “Dead Lions.  Season 3 is based on the book “Real Tigers”. And finally season 4 will be based on the book “Spook Street”.  

We are very happy to see that the series has been picked up for 3 more seasons.  We thought that Season 1 was very well done and are looking forward to the next 3 seasons.  

Spy Kids 

We mentioned in our April Spy Movie News that Netflix was rebooting the Spy Kids franchise.  Well, now we know some of the actors for the movie.  An article on deadline.com tells us that Gina Rodriguez, Zachary Levi, Everly Carganilla, and Connor Esterson are signed. 

The article also tells us that “This latest Spy Kids chapter is set after the children of the world’s greatest secret agents unwittingly help a powerful game developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology, leading them to become spies themselves to save their parents and the world.” 

We liked the first Spy Kids movies and hope this reboot takes hold.  We’re big fans of spy movies for kids to help them get excited about the genre.  

MR-9  

Now, this could be a long series if it is successful. We know that James Bond movies are, or were based, on the writings of Ian Fleming.  Fleming wrote 15 novels or short stories that were the inspiration for the movies.   Well, Bangladeshi writer Qazi Anwar Hussain wrote over 500 novels including a series of books on a spy named Masud Rana. They were supposedly influenced by the James Bond series.  

Production has started on a movie based on his first book in the Rana series.   Rana had the code name “MR-9”, which is where the movie gets its title.  

Rana will be played by Bangladeshi actor ABM Sumon.  Frank Grillo has signed on to play Rana’s nemesis.  Joining them will be Michael Jai White, Matt Passmore, and Remy Grillo (yes, he’s Frank’s son).    

For those of you who listened to our interview with Brigitte Millar, who was in Spectre and No Time To Die, we talked about a short movie she did with Matt Passmore called Nox.   Passmore was great in that so it will be fun to see him in MR-9.  

Industry News 

The Wasp Network 

Three years after the movie The Wasp Network (2019) was released, Netflix is being sued for defamation of character.  The Wasp Network was based on the book “The Last Soldiers of the Cold War” and is about a group called Cuban Five that infiltrates Cuban exile groups in Miami.   It had previously been sued by Ana Martinez over her character’s portrayal.   

The defamation suit was brought by Jose Basulto who is the leader of a group called Brothers to the Rescue. “The Film is an obvious attempt to rewrite and whitewash history in favor of the communist Cuban regime and is factually inaccurate,” the complaint states. “The Film portrays the Cuban Five as courageous heroes who were simply defending their homeland. In reality, the Cuban Five were a spy network that produced actionable intelligence enabling the Cuban government to commit extrajudicial killings.”  The suit claims that Netflix portrayed him as a puppet of the United States and as a traitor to Cuba. It adds, “This portrayal of Mr. Basulto, Brothers to the Rescue, and the Cuban exile community was deliberately calculated to create two clear and unmistakable villains for the Film”. 

Basulto is trying to get an injunction either barring Netflix from carrying the espionage movie or to force edits of scenes and have Netflix delete references to this being based on true events.  

You can read the details of the suit on hollywoodreporter.com.  Netflix did not respond to Hollywood reporters’ requests for comment. This could be interesting. 

Glastonbury Festival 

The Glastonbury Festival had its post-COVID restart after a two-year pause.  Although this festival isn’t a spy movie, Glasto, as it is colloquially called,  had a big presence in the movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle.  And at this year’s festival, two singers with a Bond history performed. 

On Friday night Billie Eilish took to the Pyramid Stage.  Eilish won the 2022 Academy Award for Best Original Song for the theme song to No Time To Die.

Then on Saturday night, Sir Paul McCartney took the stage.   McCartney delivered the first James Bond theme song to be nominated for an Academy Award.  Of course, we’re talking about “Live and Let Die”.  So, this music festival has some nice spy movie props to its name. 

In Memoriam 

Today’s In Memoriam, unfortunately, has one actor and four behind-the-camera workers who’ve had an impact on spy movies. 

Philip Baker Hall 

Veteran actor Philip Baker Hall has passed at age 90.  He had a 50-year acting career in both tv and movies.   TV fans will most likely remember him for his roles on Seinfeld and Modern Family.  Spy Movie fans will remember him as Defense Secretary Becker in The Sum of All Fears and US Attorney General Ward in Air Force One. 

Isidoro Raponi 

Mechanical Effects artist Isidoro Raponi passed at the age of 76.  His work on special effects and the art department was seen in Alien, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Running Man, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, and others.  In the spy movie world, he worked on Argo and The Hunt for Red October.  

May Routh 

Costume designer May Routh died at age 87.   Her work is seen in 30 movies and tv shows.  In the spy movie world, she was the costume designer for the 1998 movie, Ronin. 

Duncan Henderson 

Producer/director Duncan Henderson died at the age of 72.  He was nominated for the 2004 Best Picture Academy Award, along with Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and Peter Weir for the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.  In the spy movie world, he was the first assistant director: second unit on the 1985 movie The Man with One Red Shoe. 

Well, that wrap’s our June 28, edition of Spy Movie News. Enjoy some spy movies in July!

Please visit us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too. We have Spy Movie News episodes and other podcasts on your favorite podcast app. The show’s name is Cracking the Code of Spy Movies.

Here’s our Spy Movie News for December 29 2021!   Spy movies coming in 2022, The Kingsman series,  Argylle, Red Notice, Mission: Impossible 7, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, The Duke and more!

Happy New Year!!

Let’s start with a quick Happy 50^th anniversary to the James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever. We have a three podcasts that we’ve done on this movie.  You can hear them on your favorite podcast app on the channel: Cracking the Code of Spy Movies.  Subscribe!

What Spy Movie Fans Have to Look for in January 2022

We only have one spy movie expected to release in January 2022.  That is the movie The 355.  This movie is named a female spy in the American Revolution.  Her name was never identified.

The movie, The 355, is about a team of female spies trying to track down a stolen top-secret weapon.  It stars Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, and Lupita Nyon’go,  and Bingbing Fan.

The other movie that we have been waiting for that was to release in January, Operation Mincemeat has been pushed in the UK and Ireland until April 22^nd.  This is due to the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.  This movie tells the story of the real-World War II spy mission that we have mentioned in many of our podcasts.  And Ian Fleming, in Naval Intelligence at the time, was involved in helping to organize this mission.  In the US it is supposed to stream on Netflix, but we don’t have a release date for that yet.

2022 Movie News

There is a lot of news about upcoming spy movies due after January.  Let’s take a look at these projects.

Kingsman Series

The movie, The King’s Man, was released last week to tepid box office numbers.  We released our no-spoiler, quick-fire review about this movie last week. Although it has received mixed reviews, we liked this movie a lot.

One big problem with this movie was its timing.  It had been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and was released a week after Spider-Man: No Way Home, which hauled in the 3^rd most opening weekend revenue of all time, not just the pandemic.  No Way Home has now eclipsed $1 billion worldwide. It appears that audiences only went to see No Way Home and Sing 2 this holiday season. Almost every other movie had less than stellar box office.

To put the numbers in perspective, according to HollywoodReporter.com, No Way Home had an estimated 5-day holiday North America weekend box office of $138.6 million.  The King’s Man is estimated to have only taken in $10 million during this stretch, barely beating American Underdog.

But the plan for Kingsman movies is massive. According to Matthew Vaughn, in the Mike Reyes article on Cinemablend.com – Vaughn says there are plans to start filming Kingsman 3 in 2022, and maybe even a Statesman –The King’s Man 2, and maybe even a spinoff on streaming services of some Statesman stuff. . .  who knows – but the plans are big!  We are looking forward to this.

As we mentioned in our quick-fire review of The King’s Man, the mid-credit scene at the end of the movie has a nice setup for a The King’s Man sequel. In that article on Cinemablend, Vaughan says “The King’s Man, that’s the experiment.  Can the franchise expand into two different shapes and forms but still have that the world of Kingsman underneath it.  So, if people like it and go see it, then yeah, we’ll keep expanding.” We hope the lackluster box office take for The King’s Man doesn’t scuttle these plans.

We have a podcast for each of the prior Kingsman movies discussing the real-life events and other movies that influenced or were influenced by the movie. (Kingsman: The Secret Service episode, Kingsman: The Golden Circle episode)

Argylle

As if Matthew Vaughan hasn’t been busy enough with the Kingsman movies, he is also doing the upcoming Apple+ movie (and a planned trilogy of movies), Argylle.  According to HollywoodReporter.com, This movie is scheduled to release in 2022.  Although Apple+ is a streaming service Vaughan says “a theatrical release of some kind is still in the cards.” “So we’re discussing how to give it the right cinematic release, not necessarily the normal cinematic release. It’d be a cinematic release that is right for Argylle, and Argylle is quite specific and different. So weirdly, it lends itself to a whole new way of being released.”

Red Notice

We mentioned in the November 30th Spy Movie News episode that Red Notice was likely to become the most-watched movie in Netflix history.   Well, Cinemablend.com’s Dirk Libbey reports that Red Notice has achieved this milestone. It is now the most-watched original movie on the streaming service, and with a solid, positive audience score.

Well, in that same episode we told you that director Rawson Marshal Thurber thinks it is “a real possibility that there will be a sequel.”  With the success of Red Notice, we think it is probably likely, not just a possibility, that we’ll see that sequel.

Mission: Impossible 7

Mission: Impossible 7 has faced lots of issues in its filming, from Covid to Cruise blow-ups and more.   But – Christopher McQuarrie is committed!  The director of the last two and next two  Mission: Impossible movies, had been contact-traced for Covid, and directed some scenes through his computer at home!   He states that this Mission: Impossible is the biggest of them all.     Check out Adreon Patterson’s article on CinemaBlend.com.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre brings us an unlikely pair teaming up for a new spy movie, Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza.  They are kind of like The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s unlikely team of Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin.   As discussed on Cinemablend.com, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is about an arms dealer (played by Hugh Grant) trying to sell weapons.  Statham and Plaza are agents trying to stop this from happening.  Josh Hartnett,  Bugzy Malone, and Cary Elwes round out the cast. Guy Ritchie’s movie is scheduled for release in 2022 and promises to be a good one.

The Duke

Ok, this one isn’t a spy movie so why are we going to talk about the movie The Duke?  Well, first it stars Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent so it’s likely to be good. And second, this movie is about the real-world art heist of the Goya portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London.  This heist is referenced visually in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, as Bond pauses and looks at this painting in Dr. No’s lair.   The painting had been stolen before Dr. No was filmed and the case wasn’t yet solved. So, Eon Productions used this recent heist as a subtle call out in the movie.   We’re looking to see the whole story of the heist in The Duke with its planned March 25^th, 2022 release.

Memory

As seen in Deadline.com, the movie Memory is slated for its US theatrical release on April 29, 2022.  Memory stars Liam Neeson once again playing an assassin, this time named Alex Lewis.  He is being tracked by an FBI agent Vincent Sera played by Guy Pearce.  The title comes from Lewis’ fading memory and its impact on his actions.   The movie, directed by Martin Campbell also stars Monica Belluci.

Kandahar

Kandahar is currently filming in Saudi Arabia. This movie, set in Afghanistan, stars Gerard Butler.  He plays an undercover CIA operative who has to fight his way out of hostile territory in Afghanistan. He has to get out and avoid the special forces trying to catch him.  Deadline.com reports that Nina Toussaint-White and Bahador Foladi have recently joined the cast.

The Gray Man

Joe Russo thinks  The Gray Man shares the pedigree of the 1995 movie Heat.  In an article on MovieWeb.com, Russo points out how in The Gray Man two great actors pitted against each other.  Russo sees this like the Robert De Niro, Al Pacino battle in Heat.

The movie is about a former CIA operative, known as The Gray Man who is hunted by his former CIA partner.  It is based on the 2009 novel with the same name. The novel is the first of a series of 11 novels so sequels are likely if this one is a success.

We’ve been talking about this movie in many Spy Movie News episodes, including discussing its fabulous cast and can’t wait.   Filming wrapped in August 2021 and will be distributed by Netflix. No release date has been set.

James Bond News

The next actor to play Bond

Well, if you have seen No Time To Die, we know that James Bond will return.   But who will play Bond?   Well, according to Cinemablend.com, Tom Hardy is still in the lead. . . . but other potential Bonds are making a comeback!    They base this on the numbers from the betting firm, Coral.

Here are the top 5 ratings, with 3 tied at 8-1 as of now:

• Tom Hardy – 4-1
• Regé-Jean Page – 9-2
• Henry Cavill – 6-1
• Tom Hopper – 7-1
• Idris Elba, Richard Madden and James Norton – 8-1

so who will it be?

Of course, no one knows. And Barbara Broccoli says they will start their search in 2022.  Well, we think they may have a shortlist they will work from – but, what do we know?!

Barbara Broccoli also said in another CinemaBlend.com article, that she thinks it will be a man, should be British, but could be any ethnicity or race, and that more great roles should be created for women so that they can make more movies about women in strong roles for women.

Will No Time To Die make a profit?

We’ve been talking about No Time To Die’s revenue goals and speculated if it would make a profit for awhile now.  Well, as Mike Reyes reports, here is MGM’s response:

“Unnamed and uninformed sources suggesting the film will lose money are categorically unfounded and put more simply, not true. The film has far exceeded our theatrical estimates in this timeframe, becoming the highest-grossing Hollywood film in the international marketplace and passing F9 to become the highest-grossing Hollywood film since the pandemic. With the PVOD release of the film already doing stellar home viewing business, all while continuing to hold well theatrically, No Time To Die will earn a profit for MGM, both as an individual film title and as part of MGM’s incredible library.”

So there.  They will make a profit – but this quote was made before Spider-Man: No Way Home kicked all movies’ butts, as we said earlier.

At least in Chicago, No Time To Die just ended its theatrical run after this last weekend.  It is still available for POVD and on home media so the numbers will continue to go up.   According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, as of this recording, No Time To Die has taken in $774 million in worldwide theatrical revenue.

The Sound of 007

Deadline.com tells us that Apple is planning a documentary looking at the history and origin of the music of the James Bond movies, called The Sound of 007.  This documentary is due in October 2022 as a celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the movie franchise. It will look at the music from Dr. No through No Time To Die.  It will include interviews and show archive material.  This sounds like something for any Bond fan to look forward to.

Bond alumni to be honored as part of the Queen’s New Year’s Honours

Two James Bond alumni will be among those honored as part of the Queen’s New Year’s Honours.

According to DailyMail, Joanna Lumley was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1995.  Now, she will be made a Dame in recognition for her work in support of the Gurkhas well as her work on television and movies.   Bond fans know her as The English Girl, the British Angel of Death in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

And Daniel Craig will be appointed to The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George as a CMG (or Companion). According to the official website www.royal.uk: this order was originally bestowed solely upon those in high positions in the Mediterranean, the Order of St Michael and St George now recognizes service in a foreign country, or in relation to foreign and Commonwealth affairs, for example the work of foreign-service officers and diplomats.

We guess parachuting into the Olympics with the Queen didn’t hurt.

Congratulations to both Joanna Lumley and Daniel Craig.

In Memorium

Tommy Lane

We’re saddened to announce the passing of actor Tommy Lane.  Spy movie fans will remember him as Adam in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die where he played one of Kananga’s henchmen in the speedboat chase.

Jack Hedley

Actor Jack Hedly has died at 92. The majority of his work was on television.  But he also had a movie career. Spy movie fans will remember him as Melina’s father,  Sir Timothy Havelock, in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only.

Richard Conway

Richard Conway has died at 79.  Conway a special effects supervisor was nominated for the Academy Award for The Adventures of Baron Munchausenin 1990.  He worked often with Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame.  In addition, he worked on Battle of Britain, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the spy spoof Johnny English.

Well, that’s a wrap of our Spy Movie News for December 29 2021!  Start the new year off right and Subscribe to our show, Cracking the Code of Spy Movies through your favorite podcast app – that helps us out, and you will know about all the episodes we launch in the new year!   Happy New year to all!

Here’s our Spy Movie News for November 30, 3021!  The King’s Man is coming, Christmas gifts, No Time To Die box office performance, The ROCK as Bond?, More Red Notices?,  Mission: Impossible 8, “The Night Agent”, “A Spy Among Friends”, and more No Time To Die News – Craig wanted what?

What Spy Movie Fans Have to Look for in December 2021

We’ll start this newscast by telling you about two things happening in December 2021:
First, The King’s Man gets released on December 22^nd.  This is the prequel to the first two Kingsman movies.  To help with the hype, another trailer has been released. You can find it here on YouTube.  We’ll have our no-spoiler, quick-fire review of that movie out by Christmas. We’ve been waiting for this movie which was delayed due to the pandemic.

And second, just in time for Christmas, No Time To Die will have its home release on December 20. It will be available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4k Ultra HD.

According to an article on DigitalSpy.com, “The home release comes with more than an hour of bonus content that delves into the action, spectacle, and stunts of Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing, while the 4K release has the Being James Bond documentary and four exclusive featurettes.”

James Bond

No Time To Die Overtakes Fast & Furious 9

No Time To Die has overtaken Fast & Furious 9 for the Hollywood box office lead for 2021.  It has grossed $734 million at the global box office, with 21% of the revenue coming from the domestic (US) markets. We’ve talked about the importance of the non-domestic box office for Bond in the previous podcasts.

It is still behind Chinese movies Hi, Mom and The Battle of Changjin which are at around $882 million for 2021.

If we look at Daniel Craig’s run, according to Box Office Mojo, Spectre hit 22.7%  US/domestic for $200 million from an $880 million worldwide take. Skyfall hit 27% US/ domestic and $304 mill in US/domestic revenue and $1.1 billion worldwide. Quantum of Solace hit 28% US/domestic for $168 million of its $589 million worldwide haul.  Finally, Daniel Craig’s first Bond movie, Casino Royale, had 27% US/Domestic from its worldwide $616 million gross.  We’ve previously talked about the speculation that No Time To Die needs to take in $900 million to break even.

So, domestically here in the US, this movie has slipped a bit in terms of its US percentage.  That was one of the risks of releasing during the pandemic. In fact, an article on Forbes.com says that No Time To Die has broken an odd box office record.  When it crossed $700 million worldwide, it had only pulled in $150 million US/domestically.  It now has the honor of having the lowest domestic gross of any movie that has pulled in at least $700 million worldwide.

Hollywood Music in Media Awards

Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell have a follow-up to winning the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Song Written For Visual Media for “No Time To Die”.  The same song won Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell the “Song- Feature Film” award at the Hollywood Music Awards. You can read more about this on Variety.com. Could this be a foreshadowing of the upcoming Academy Awards? Nominations will be announced on February 8^th.

The Rock as James Bond?

In our February podcast on You Only Live Twice, we mentioned that Dwayne Johnson’s grandfather, Peter Maivia was in that movie.  (He was the guy who carried Bond in from the car into Osato’s office, where a fight ensued).

In an interview with Esquire, Dwayne Johnson talks of his desire to be in a James Bond movie, like his grandfather, although not as a villain.   As Johnson put it: “And I would like to follow in his footsteps… and be the next Bond,” he admitted. “I don’t want to be a villain. Gotta be Bond.”

One More James Bond Item

We have one more James Bond item at the end of this newscast.  If you’ve seen No Time To Die, you’ll want to check it out. We have it at the end in case you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want any spoilers.

Red Notice

Red Notice Sets Netflix Record

An article on Yahoo.com tells us that Red Notice is number 2 on Netflix’s Top 10 Most Popular English Films of all time, just behind Bird Box.  What makes this so impressive, is that while Birdbox had 282 million views in its first 28 days, Red Notice is at 277.0 million views in its first 10 days. By the time you hear this, it likely will have passed Bird Box.

We’re intrigued as this movie is one of those movies that has been panned by critics, but fans supposedly are eating it up.  Red Notice has a 35% TomatoMeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but has a 92% audience score, although only a 72% when including all audience ratings.  The TomatoMeter rating is based on what percentage of verified critics gave a movie a positive review.  The audience score requires a 3.5 or higher rating.

So, why does a movie with these types of reviews, get this good of audience ratings?  Well, having three box office stars has to help a lot. Also, it isn’t a terrible movie, just not a great movie.   If you already have a Netflix subscription there is no additional cost to stream it.  We saw it in the movie theater initially and that was a mistake in our opinion.  While it is fine to watch it at home, we would not subscribe to Netflix just to watch this movie.

Is there a Red Notice Prequel, Or Two, In The Works?

Ok, in looking at these numbers, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.  In an interview on TheHollywoodReporter.com, director Rawson Marshal Thurber comments about a possible sequel to Red Notice.

Red Notice had a price tag approaching $300 million which is why it was the most expensive Netflix movie ever.  Universal jettisoned this project as the costs escalated.  A big part of the high costs is the fact that it has three stars on it.  As Thurber says “The above-the-line number is very, very high. When you make a Mission: Impossible, let’s say, you have one Tom Cruise. We’ve got three Tom Cruises in this movie.”  Additionally, he says that the costs of the masquerade ball escalated quickly due to filming changes due to the pandemic. “we had to shoot it in layers, in plates, and stitch those pieces together. That is why the budget went up. We started the movie with 400 visual effects shots — it wasn’t a visual effects movie at all — and ended with 1,500 or so.”

So, as for a sequel to Red Notice, Thurber says “I think that is a real possibility. If we were to make a sequel, the only responsible thing would be to make two and three back-to-back. It’s such a big production, and if you can mount it one time, it will be better for everyone. Including for my mental health.” So, maybe there will be two.  We’ll see.

Section Eight

The upcoming movie Section Eight has added Mickey Rourke to the cast. He joins Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, Ryan Kwanten, and Dermot Mulroney in the cast.   According to an article on Variety.com: “The movie is the story of a former soldier who, after avenging the murder of his family, is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.”

The Night Agent

Ok, so this technically isn’t a spy MOVIE, but Netflix has cast Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanan in lead roles for the upcoming series “The Night Agent”.  This is a political thriller based on the novel with the same name, written by Matthew Quirk.  Basso plays a low-level FBI agent who mans an emergency hotline for American spies.  Oh yeah, he does this in the basement of the White House.  This could be an interesting series.

A Spy Among Friends

An article on Variety.com takes a first look at the upcoming streaming series, “A Spy Among Friends”. Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce will star as Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby in the series based on the book of the same name.  Elliott and Philby were real spies and good friends at the height of the Cold War.  Sometimes friends betray friends as we’ll find out here.  This show is expected to be available via streaming in the fall of 2022.

Mission: Impossible 8

Tom Cruise did what?

It’s a topsy-turvy world that Cruise lives in.  An article on dailymail.co.uk shows pictures of Tom Cruise filming a scene for Mission: Impossible 8.  In the scene, Cruise hangs upside down from the wing of an airplane.  It was a 1941 biplane. We’ve seen wing walkers before, but never with the star doing the stunt.  Mission: Impossible 8 isn’t set to hit theaters until July 7, 2023, so we have to wait a while to see what this looks like in the movie.

You can wait forever and you’d never see me do this stunt – or most anyone.  Kudos to Cruise for doing this one.

In Memoriam

Gavan O’Herlihy

We’re sad to report the passing of Gavan O’Herlihy. He’s probably best known for playing Richie Cunningham’s brother Chuck on the first season of the tv series “Happy Days”.  James Bond fans will remember Gavan as playing Jack Petachi in the 1983 movie Never Say Never Again. He also appeared in the 1995 spy movie Hidden Assasin.

Jo-Carroll Dennison

1942 Miss America winner, Jo-Carroll Dennison has passed at age 97.  In the spy movie world, Ms. Dennison played Frieda in the 1944 movie Ladies of Washington.

Peter Aykroyd

We also are saddened to hear of the loss of Peter Aykroyd. Best known for his work as a cast member and writer on “Saturday Night Live”.  Yes, he’s Dan’s brother but he showed that talent runs in the family.  In the spy movie world, Peter performed and wrote the song “Rock the house Down” for Spies Like Us.

So, this is why we had the ending in No Time To Die

We’re closing with this topic as it contains a spoiler for No Time To Die.  End the podcast now if you haven’t seen the movie and somehow avoided spoilers. You’ve been warned that this is a spoiler.

An article on digitalspy.com talks about how Daniel Craig asked that when he left the franchise, that Bond would die.   This is according to Paul Duncan’s new book “The James Bond Archives: No Time To Die.”  Craig is quoted as saying “I would like to be killed off when I’m finished”.  If that’s true, that is one hell of an ego on Craig.  It also means we have to apologize to Purvis and Wade.  We’ve been harsh critics of their work. What they did in creating the sappy Bond we saw in this movie is not excusable. However, it looks like the ending wasn’t theirs.  Why Barbara and Michael would go along with this for 15 years is beyond us.

It’s just hard to believe that an actor who was just taking over the role would want the character killed off when he was done. He hadn’t even done Casino Royale at this point.  Plus it makes his comments about not wanting to do another Bond movie after Spectre seem even more shallow.

Here’s our October 26, 2021 edition of Spy Movie News with latest updates on James Bond and No Time To Die , Red Notice , The King’s Man, Wife of a Spy, and more.

James Bond

No Time To Die

As one might expect, there has been a lot of news about No Time To Die.  Most of that news falls into two categories:   How is the movie doing at the box office and explanations of the plot twists. There is a third Bond category that has ramped up considerably since No Time To Die’s release, and that is the speculation as to who will be the next James Bond.   We’ll talk about all of these today. The plot twist news contains spoilers so we will put those topics at the end of this newscast.

How is No Time To Die doing at the box office?

Pretty well worldwide, but not in the US. According to Deadline.com, No Time To Die has crossed $ 525 million in worldwide box office, with $ 400 million of that coming from overseas, making it the second Hollywood movie to hit $ 500 million this year (and really since 2019). This brings it to the number 2 spot for Global box office this year. The other was this year’s F9: The Fast Saga which has taken in over $ 716 million worldwide since its June release.

We’ve talked about the impact of the non-US market on James Bond movies and the lead it has internationally over other spy movie franchises like Mission: Impossible and the Bourne series. That trend seems to be holding with No Time To Die.  We have to also remember that this movie is finally having its release in China this week and Australia on November 11 so there is some upside still to these numbers.

In the UK and Germany, No Time To Die is running in line with Spectre and Skyfall at the same point of release.  In The UK, No Time To Die has become Universal’s biggest movie of all time, overtaking 2008’s Mamma Mia, which happened to star former James Bond actor, Pierce Brosnan.  An article in insidethemagic.net tells us that on Hong Kong, Ukraine, Argentina, Paraguay and Egypt, No Time To Die has become the highest grossing Bond movie of all time.

We also want to point out that Dune, which like No Time To Die has had a rolling worldwide release schedule, just claimed the IMAX biggest global October opening, taking in about 20% of the worldwide Dune total for the weekend. This was the opening US weekend for Dune. With No Time To Die’s theater experience and rollout on IMAX, these big-budget, highly visual movies seem to have found a great partner with IMAX to enhance the cinema-goers experience.  It seems to be working.

Now, let’s talk about US box office. Venom: Let There Be Carnage had a US opening day box office of $ 90 million, releasing in the US a week before No Time To Die.  No Time To Die only had a relatively paltry $56 million opening weekend in comparison, which was 20% lower than Spectre. In fact, this was the worst US opening in the Daniel Craig era.  Some may blame it on the pandemic, but that doesn’t explain the Venom success. The Venom theaters were packed. We think something else is at play.  We couldn’t find anyone to talk to when we first saw No Time To Die for us to record our ‘fan reaction’ podcast.  Honestly. We had to go back to the theater a second time to get those interviews. We think the fact that the movie came out in the US a week after a whole slew of countries saw it hurt sales here. Reviews were talking about the wokeness of No Time To Die and the ending was obviously spoiled for most in the US audience.  We think the US market just said, the hell with it. I don’t need to see that kind of movie, especially I don’t need to see that ending.  We think that wokeness is running its course in the US and No Time To Die has been negatively impacted by that.   People here are fed up with it.

It looks like the decision to keep No Time To Die as a theater-only initial release was a wise one for EON, Universal, and MGM.  However, the decision to release in the US a week after many of the big markets likely cost it a bunch of revenue. The rumor is that they need to take in a worldwide box office of $600 – $900 million to break even. It will be interesting to see what happens with the China release this week and Australia in the middle of November.

Of course, will Eon, MGM and Universal make any money on the movie?   Their break-even numbers reported are all over the map from $600M to $900M.  In general,  the rule is a movie needs to make double its production costs at the box office to make money.  Estimate production costs for No Time to Die about between $250M and a bit over $300M – so, let’s just say they need $600.  So, at $525M already, it is looking good.   Plus Bond movies are notorious for making lots of money on product placement, and licensing agreements  – so more money will come in.

Who will be the next James Bond or James Bond villain?

For a while now, there have been numerous articles speculating about who will take over the reigns of James Bond. It’s fun speculation, as EON doesn’t even know the answer to this question.  In fact, Barbara Broccoli has been quoted as saying that the studio won’t even start looking for the next Bond actor until 2022.

That doesn’t stop us from having some fun by looking at some of the most recent speculation.

Let’s start with a quote from Daniel Craig giving advice to the next Bond actor taken from Kevin Hart’s Straight from the Heart podcast:

“There’s a couple of things I’d say, but I mean, one is don’t be shit. I would say you’ve got to grab it and make it your own. I think that’s the way to go forward. I mean, I just committed myself to it as much as I possibly could and tried to sort of elevate it as much as I could. I hope I’ve left it in a good place and I hope the next person can just make it fly. It’s an amazing franchise, I still think there’s a lot of stories to tell.”

Suggested Actors For The Next James Bond

Esquire’s List

Esquire has published what they call an in-depth analysis for the next Bond. We’ll give you their list as well as add their age and height. We at SpyMovieNavigator.com feel that age will be an important factor in Eon’s choice due to the amount of time between Bond movies. They need someone young enough to be appropriate for multiple movies, thus, multiple years. We’ll also add the actor’s height to the equation. Daniel Craig, at 5’ 10” was the first sub-6’ 1” actor to play Bond so will this have an impact in the decision?

Check out their article for their reasons why each person is on their list:

Ben Whishaw’s two choices

To take a different spin, we’ll look an article from Cinemablend.com. Ben Whishaw, the current Q in the Daniel Craig Bond movies would like to see a gay James Bond. He is suggesting a Bridgerton actor, and not the one everyone is talking about for the role. Instead of Regé-Jean Page, Whishaw suggests 5’ 11” tall, 33-year-old actor Jonathan Bailey, who plays Anthony in Bridgerton. His other choice would be Luke Evans, who was also mentioned in the Esquire article earlier.

Whishaw’s comments come with the following quote which talks about what’s required in taking on the James Bond role.:

“They’re both actors who it seems would be really capable of doing it and would be ideal casting. And it would be thrilling to see either of them do it. I wonder if either of them would want to — because it’s not just the demands of the role, but it’s like the demands of being Bond in the world and what it symbolizes and how it would change your life.”

Suggested Actors For The Next Bond Villain

On the villain front, two names have popped up as suggested villains for the next James Bond movie.

Lady Gaga

Mike Reyes suggests that Lady Gaga should play the next James Bond villain. He bases this suggestion, in part,  based on the trailer for the upcoming House of Gucci which has had its trailer playing in the previews in the cinema before the start of No Time To Die.  Reyes posits that Gaga has shown her acting bona fides with A Star Is Born. Music videos and her role in American Horror Story: Hotel show her villainess capabilities, not to mention the House of Gucci trailer.

He goes on to talk about how the villain used to be where people focused their attention in James Bond movies, even more so than Bond himself. Think of Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, Dr. No, Live and Let Die, and the earlier Bond movies for examples of this. Lady Gaga would likely fit right into this mold.

Reyes even speculates that Lady Gaga landing this role would help ensure that she would get the theme tune to the movie. He points out that the upcoming spy movie Argylle has Dua Lipa both playing a role in the movie and providing the score. Let’s just hope that if Lady Gaga gets the villain role and the title tune that we don’t get a repeat of the last recording artist to do the music and have a role in a Bond movie, namely Madonna in Die Another Day. That didn’t work out too well.

Henry Cavill

Jon Fuge has an interesting article discussing Henry Cavill’s fit in upcoming James Bond movies.   Besides the obvious Cavill-as-James-Bond speculation, there is also speculation that he would be a great villain for Bond to have to deal with.  This all comes about after this quote from Cavill when asked if he’d play a Bond villain:

“If Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [G. Wilson] interested me in any capacity to be a part of their movies, then I will gladly have that discussion, and that would be something I’d be very keen to explore further.”

Now, one problem with Cavill-as-the-villain can best be expressed by a tweet from that article that says: “I think the next James Bond should be Tom Cruise and M is now played by Alex Baldwin and Q is played by Simon Pegg, and the villain could be played by Henry Cavill”. Um didn’t we just see that in Mission: Impossible: Fallout?  That could cause Eon to nix this idea.

Industry News

Red Notice

Netflix will finally be releasing Red Notice on its streaming platform on November 12.  Because it is released only on the streaming platform, there won’t be multiple release dates as No Time To Die had.

To help build the hype, Netflix has released its latest trailer for the movie.  This 3-minute trailer gives us more background on the movie. Let’s just hope it doesn’t give away too much.

The trailer starts out with Ryan Reynolds playing Noah Booth who is an art thief.  He gets confronted by Special Agent John Hartley, FBI, played by Dwayne Johnson who calls Booth the second most wanted art thief in the world. Obviously, there is a play to get the first most wanted art thief in the world.

The trailer shows lots of action, some comedy, and a bit about the plot.

You can check out the trailer either on Netflix or on YouTube, just search for Red Notice trailer.

Scarlett Johansson settles with Disney

We’ve been talking about Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney for a few months. She sued Disney for breach of contract because Disney released Black Widow on streaming and the cinemas on the same date. She claimed this cost her income. It is really no surprise, but Disney has ended up settling the lawsuit although details haven’t been released. With the practice of day-and-date gaining traction with content owned by streaming platforms, we don’t think Disney could have allowed this suit to reach a litigated outcome. The exposure to them would have been too high.

According to an article on DigitalSpy.com, Johansson says: “I am happy to have resolved our differences with Disney. I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team,” she said. “I look forward to continuing our collaboration in years to come.” Disney Studios chairman has a similar quote.

We assume future contracts with talent will spell out different distribution channels’ impact on pay going forward.

Disney pushes more movies out

In keeping with a trend, Disney has delayed the release of a slew of movies. An article on Variety.com goes into the details, but the short look is that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder were pushed 2 months.  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was pushed 4 months.  The Marvels was pushed to early 2023, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has been pushed 5 months to July 2023 and the fifth Indiana Jones movie has been pushed almost a year to June 30, 2023.

Disney is claiming production issues and not pandemic box office returns as the reason behind these delays.

Wife of a Spy

A movie we mentioned back in our September 2020 Spy Movie News won the top prize at the Asian Film Awards. An article on Variety.com tells us that Wife of a Spy took home the awards for Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Costume Design.  We’ve watched this movie and it is a very good spy movie.  It is subtitled for English.  The only place we’ve found this movie available for streaming is at https://www.clevelandartsevents.com/event/wife-of-a-spy/for $12. It is available there through November 4^th.   SpyMovieNavigator.com receives no compensation if you pay to watch this movie.

That same article in Variety says that the movie Cliff Walkers, for which we did a quick-fire review in May of 2021,  took home best editing at these awards.  We haven’t seen the winner for cinematography, The Wasteland, but we are surprised Cliff Walkers didn’t win that award too.

The King’s Man

In a Variety.com article, Daniel Bruhl discusses his upcoming role in the movie The King’s Man. This is the prequel to The Kingsman series. Daniel plays a stage clairvoyant in the movie. Our favorite quote from the article has Bruhl saying about his role:

“It’s not big, but I saw the potential for it to reappear later on, hopefully. That’s the first thing you check: Will they kill me? When will they kill me? How am I going to die?”

Given that there are many more The Kingman movies planned, this is probably a very important question for an actor to ask.

The King’s Man releases on December 22, 2021 in the US, the UK and many other countries.

The Channel

The upcoming crime thriller announces key cast members. An article on deadline.com lists, Clayne Crawford, Max Martini, and Hakeem Kai-Kazim as joining the cast of The Channel.  This movie will be filmed in New Orleans and is about a criminal, his brother, and their crew’s attempt to escape a determined FBI agent. No release date has been given.  We’re not 100% this is an espionage movie, but we’ll keep our eyes on it for you.

Section Eight

Another movie that has announced casting is Section Eight. According to HollywoodReporter.com, Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, and Ryan Kwanten have signed onto this movie.  Section Eight follows a former soldier who is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.

In Memorium

October was a tough month.

Leslie Bricusse

We are sad to announce the passing of Leslie Bricusse.  In the spy movie world he wrote the lyrics for “Goldfinger”(with Anthony Newley), the title song “You Only Live Twice”, and “Your Zowie Face” from In Like Flint.  Leslie was a 9 time Oscar nominee, winning twice. He also had multiple Grammy nominations, winning one. All of that said, he is also known for his extensive work with stage and movie musicals. Leslie turned 90 this past January.

We are also saddened to announce the passing of a man who many in the US wouldn’t know by name but had a large role in the James Bond world.  Jerry Juroe passed at age 98.  He worked for Eon in Europe on publicity campaigns, starting with Dr. No and continuing for 14 James Bond movies.  His memoir “Bond, The Beatles and My Year with Marilyn” was published in 2018.

James Higgins

Eon executive and the UK distributor for Indiana Jones and Top Gun has died at 98. Higgins spent over 30 years at Eon, the James Bond production company. In a 2012 interview he said he’d heard about “the end of cinema” numerous times over the course of his career but suggested it was unlikely. “It always remains that people enjoy seeing a film in the company of an audience and the reaction that you get from an audience,” Higgins said. “It’s a different sensation from just watching it on the television. That’s what keeps it going. And people want to go out.”  How true his words are today

Bob Herron

Stuntman Bob Herron has died a the age of 97.   In his prolific 60-year stunt career, Herron was involved with numerous tv shows, including “I Spy”, “The Man From Uncle”, “Mission: Impossible”, and “Charlie’s Angels” as well as on movies such a Diamonds Are Forever and In Like Flint.

John Ashton Thomas

British composer, arranger, and conductor John Ashton Thomas has passed the age of 60.  He worked on more than 160 movies, including The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Legacy, and the upcoming Operation Mincemeat.

Jean Hale

Actress Jean Hale passed away at age 82. Her career primarily was with roles on tv.  However, spy movie fans may remember her from her role as Lisa in In Like Flint.

James Bond

Ok, we’re going to close out our article by bringing things back to No Time To Die. At the top of this article, we talked about box office and future actors.  Now we will move to topics about the plot. Some of the articles we will reference contain spoilers which is why we’ve moved this to the end of the discussion.  Bail now if you haven’t seen the movie. You’ve been warned.

Key Plot Points With Madeleine Swann and Rami Malek Explained

Mike Reyes has two articles on CinemaBlend.com which discuss specific plot points.   The first is an article which explains Project Heracles, Safin’s evil plot. Safin compares himself as a reflection of James Bond.   Both were orphaned.  Both are in love with Madeleine Swann.  And both will do whatever it takes to win.  Project Heracles is a weapon developed to use people’s DNA to control who lives and who dies.  Safin controls it.  Reyes’ article goes into depth about the weapon, including it’s possible past in the movie Casino Royale (2006).  In order to leave most of the spoilers to the article and out of this newscast, let’s just say that this weapon is not used for the reason it was created and is responsible for the outcome of the movie.

Mike’s other article about Madeleine Swan’s Big Secret looks at how her past helped doom James Bond. Now there were plenty of rumors about it, but Swann bore James Bond’s child who he first learns about in No Time To Die.  The child, her past with Safin, and current conversations with Blofeld have also been kept from Bond.  Although she is under Safin’s thumb and has been the only one Blofeld would talk to, it turns out that she wasn’t an active agent of SPECTRE after all. Bond’s devotion to keeping Madeleine and the daughter, Mathilde alive ends up being fatal.   The article goes into much more depth on the implications of her secret.

Were Additional Endings Filmed?

With the big ending of No Time To Die, it is natural to ask if there were other endings filmed?  Sometimes a studio will do this to keep the ending from getting out.  Sometimes the actors don’t know which ending they shot will make the final cut.  Well, with No Time To Die, that wasn’t the case.  According to an article on DigitalSpy.com, the movie’s editor, Tom Cross, says that the ending we saw was the only one filmed and this was the only ending planned for the movie. He says, “It was never in doubt and there were no alternatives”.  This makes us question what the problem was with the director Danny Boyle.  The rumors at the time about Boyle is that he wanted to kill Bond off.  Was his firing just a big smoke screen?  The article also discusses the movie’s length and how the pre-title sequence may have been influenced by the length.

Well, there are a lot more articles and interviews out there on No Time To Die, but we think these give you a good look as to what is happening.

That wraps up our Spy Movie News for October 26, 2021.  Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@SpyNavigator) and InstaGram too! Subscribe right now to our Cracking the Code of Spy Movies show on your favorite podcast app! And tell your friends about us – thanks!

Here is our Spy Movie News for September 28, 2021.  Today’s we look at No Time To Die, other James Bond news, big Mission: Impossible news, and other upcoming spy movies.

WE’LL START WITH JAMES BOND

No Time To Die

Finally, today is the day of the premiere of the often delayed James Bond movie No Time To Die at the Royale Albert Hall in London. A few minutes after that viewing is over, the Zurich Film Festival will screen the movie.  It’s been a long slog getting here with all of the pandemic delays and we are very happy that we are finally here.  The movie officially opens in 49 countries this week.  Then next week 7 more countries will get have their releases, including the US on October 8^th.   It opens in China on October 29^th and Australia on November 11.

As you may guess, the volume of press stories in advance of the release has been huge. Many of those articles repeat rumors and speculation with a lot of them rehashing stories we’ve already seen.  We aren’t going to talk about those today given that we’ll be able to see the movie soon enough. So why continue to speculate?

Spy Movie Navigator will have 2 correspondents see No Time To Die in England on September 30^th and we’ll release a no-spoiler reaction podcast on that day.  That podcast will have no plot spoilers so we don’t spoil anything for those who haven’t been able to see it yet, including me here in the US.  I’ve told them I don’t want to know what happened until I can see it.

How important is No Time To Die and what is the industry doing to hype it up?

So let’s start by looking at advanced ticket sales the importance of this movie for the movie industry as a whole, how advanced sales are going, and how the industry is hyping the movie.

This article on Hollywoodreporter.com puts the importance of the movie this way: Few would publicly state as much, but the importance of the film in helping the sector get back on its feet cannot be underestimated. As one industry figure tells The Hollywood Reporter:  ‘While it’s not the only film in the world and not the only hope, because it’s become such a major focus of attention, it has to be an enormous success.’”

That article says that since advanced ticket sales started cinema owners are seeing very high demand and “far and away the highest interest seen since before the pandemic”.  That is great news for Bond fans, Eon Productions & Universal, and the movie industry as a whole.

In the UK, No Time To Die is expected to open on more than 700 screens with many multiplexes showing it on every available screen non-stop.  In addition, theaters are doing promotions with ticket purchases, parking Aston Martins in front of their theaters, London’s Burlington Arcade revealed a 007-inspired facelift.

“We’re really hoping that this unlocks everything else and is very much the spark that makes everybody feel safe to return to cinemas,” says one insider, who adds that operators will likely be making sure their sites are absolutely sparkling for the occasion. “The experience that people have when they come and see this film is going to dictate not just their experience on the day, but the next six weeks, six months. It’s going to be what they tell their friends, what they tell their family, whether they come back again.”

So we’re hoping this works out well for the industry.  We’ve all been through a lot the last 18 months and this could be a welcome shot in the arm.

Different Formats To Watch No Time To Die

Mike Reyes has this great article talking about the different formats, some of them new, in which you can potentially see No Time To Die.  Although we’ve seen Bond on IMAX since Skyfall, No Time To Die will be released for the first time on IMAX with scenes specifically filmed for the IMAX release on IMAX cameras. That should be very cool. Also, for the first time for a Bond movie, No Time To Die will release in 3D.  It is also supporting ScreenX, 4DX, and D-Box.  Reyes says “Everything from atmospheric effects to moving seats looks to be on the menu.”  Tom saw Black Widow with the seat shakers and loved it, especially with the avalanche in that movie. That’s only part of what some of these advanced formats will allow.

So, when you are making your decision as to where to see No Time To Die, choosing the format will be a big decision and will help determine which cinema you choose to see it. Not all cinemas support these advanced formats so make sure to take note of what your cinema offers.  We think this is going to enhance the experience and will be searching out cinemas showing these advanced formats.

Other James Bond News

Believe it or not, there has been some other James Bond news.

Commander Craig

The Royal Navy has named Daniel Craig as an Honorary Commander, giving him the same Commander ranks as James Bond.

This article on movieweb.com has a picture of Commander Craig in uniform.  In a quote in the article, Daniel Craig said: “I am truly privileged and honoured to be appointed the rank of Honorary Commander in the senior service,” Daniel Craig said in a statement.”  We at SpyMovieNavigator love it when the British powers-that-be support (Dan, can you come up with a better phrase for this?) James Bond.  Everyone from the Queen on down has shown their support and that is fantastic to see.  Congratulations Daniel.

One other note, the only James Bond actor to have served in the Royal Navy was Able Seaman Sean Connery.  That article has a link to a Twitter picture showing Daniel Craig and Sean Connery in uniform.  Nice!

The Official James Bond Podcast Returns

The Official James Bond Podcast, which had started before the pandemic delays, restarted again this September.  The podcast is a six-part series with interviews from the cast and crew examining different aspects of Bond.  The final podcast was released on September 23 so you can catch up on all of them.

Now, should we be concerned that the official 007.com website when announcing the return of the podcast says “each episode focuses on a different aspect of the James Bond universe”?  “James Bond Universe” is in that quote.  Are they planning to release content on the different characters, ala the Marvel Cinematic Universe?  Oh wait, that’s speculation and we want to stay away from that today.

Anyway it is a good 6-part podcast series and is worth a listen.

Being James Bond on Apple TV

The documentary Being James Bond has been playing all September on Apple tv and is currently scheduled to run until October 7, 2021. So you only have a week to catch it if you haven’t seen it.  This documentary looks at the Daniel Craig era of James Bond with Daniel Craig looking back at all 5 of his movies, including No Time To Die in a conversation with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.  We here at Spy Movie Navigator are waiting until after we see No Time To Die on September 30^th before we watch this as we want to ensure we don’t see any spoilers.  That said, from what we’ve heard about it, this is a good documentary of Craig’s run as 007.

Bond in Motion exhibit opens in Los Angeles

Finally, the Bond In Motion exhibit opened at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles this past weekend.  It is expected to run until October 2022.   Advanced ticket purchases are required.  You can go to www.petersen.org, that’s Petersen with an e at the end, to find out more about the exhibit.

All of us at SpyMovieNavigator visited the Bond in Motion exhibit when it was in London.  If you are a James Bond movie fan, put this on your to-do list.  You will see a large array of vehicles used in the Bond movies.  When we saw it, many of the vehicles were pristine.  However, some of the cars were beaten up. That’s because they had some of the cars after the crashes they were in in the movies. That was very cool to see.  So, if you’re thinking about heading to LA, take in the Bond in Motion exhibit.  You’ll be glad you did.

Spy Movie Navigator has no affiliation with the Bond in Motion exhibit or the Petersen Automotive Museum and we have received no compensation for mentioning them.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE NEWS

Mission: Impossible 7 Delayed until September 30, 2022

The first and biggest news surrounding Mission: Impossible is that Mission: Impossible 7 has been pushed again, now releasing on September 30, 2022, after Tom Cruise turns 60. It was supposed to be Memorial Day 2022.   They pushed Top Gun: Maverick to the Memorial Day spot (May 27, 2022) and moved Mission: Impossible 7 to September.  It appears Paramount executives were concerned about box office, especially of Top Gun: Maverick as we are still dealing with the delta variant.  The hope is that they will be able to get larger audiences if and when the pandemic dies down.

A few months ago, they also disconnected the filming of Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 which were supposed to film back-to-back.  So, we don’t know what this shift means to the filming and release of Mission: Impossible 8.  Only time will tell.

Mission: Impossible 7 Wraps Filming

Well, this would have been the biggest Mission: Impossible news had the Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 delays not been announced.   Well, after about 18 months, filming has wrapped on Mission: Impossible 7. In an article on Cinemablend.Com, photographer/gaffer Martin Smith thanked all involved and called M: I 7 “the hardest movie ever made”.   Given all that we’ve heard about this movie, we aren’t going to call BS on that comment.  This was supposedly a very hard movie to make.  Part of that was COVID, and part was the stunts they did.

Ever-Increasing Stunts

One of the challenges with the Mission: Impossible movies, and to a part James Bond movies, is the need to take the stunts to a new level with each movie.  In an article by Eric Eisenberg, he talks about one of the stunts where Ethan Hunt drives a motorcycle off a cliff and base jumps to the ground.   People attending CinemaCon got a sneak peek of this stunt.  Tom Cruise did 13,000 motocross jumps to prepare for this scene, in addition to jumping out of a helicopter 500 times.  I don’t think I’ll be able to get my peer Tom Pizzato to do one of those (laugh).  Even more amazing is that the cameras they needed to use to capture this stunt didn’t exist two years ago.  There is more about this stunt in that article if you want to learn more.

Finally, in that article, director Christopher McQuarrie is quoted as saying “The only thing that scares me more is what we have planned for Mission: Impossible 8”.  There is a reason these movies cost so much and one wonders how far this stunt work can go.

Tom Cruise Startles Some Hikers

In keeping with the discussion of Tom Cruise and the ever-escalating stunts in the Mission: Impossible movies, an article by Jon Fuge on movieweb.com gives us another.  It appears that two hikers in North West England were on a hike when they were interrupted by a parachuter who turned out to be Tom Cruise.  That had to be a “pinch me” moment.  Let’s see, I’m just hiking here taking in this beautiful scenery and I hear a helicopter.  I look up and see a parachuter.  And then when he lands, it is Tom Cruise.  Unreal.  There is even a nice picture in the article of Cruise posing with the hikers.

Cruise Beaten To Filming a Movie in Space

We mentioned in the past that Tom Cruise was trying to film a feature film in outer space on the International Space Station.  We speculated that this might be for Mission: Impossible 8.  Well, the Cruise movie was announced to be a partnership with NASA, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Tom Cruise with Doug Liman directing.

Well, the Russians are going to beat Cruise and will make part of the movie The Challenge on the International Space Station first.  The Challenge is a story about a doctor who needs to go to the space station to save the life of a cosmonaut.  The production team is supposed to lift off in October 2021 for a 12-day mission to film this.

There has been no word on the status of the Tom Cruise movie in quite a while.  We guess finishing Mission: Impossible 7, Top Gun: Maverick, and getting ready for Mission: Impossible 8 probably took priority.

NEW SPY MOVIE NEWS

Here are some upcoming spy movies that we haven’t mentioned in earlier Spy Movie News episodes.

Huda’s Salon

Huda’s Salon premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.  According to an article on Variety.com, this movie is about a young mother who falls into a trap in a hair salon, run by a woman who works for the Israeli Secret Service.    While IFC has U.S. rights to this movie, no release date has been set.

Blacklight

Liam Neeson has a movie called Blacklight due to release in theaters on February 11, 2022.  In this movie, Neeson plays a fixer who works off the FBI books.  He finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy when one agent questions the people Neeson works for.  Blacklight also boasts actors Aidan Quinn, Emmy Raver-Lampman, and Taylor John Smith as castmates of Neeson.

You can read more about Blacklight in an article on Movieweb.com.

The Fortress

The Bruce Willis Action movie The Fortress has wrapped filming. This story is about a group of criminals who want to take out revenge at a top-secret resort for U.S. Intelligence officers.  No release schedule has been announced.

New Trailers

Both the movie Red Notice and The King’s Man have released new trailers that you can find on YouTube for their upcoming movies. As a reminder, Red Notice releases on Netflix on November 12, 2021.   The King’s Man is due to hit theaters on December 22, 2021.

We will warn you that The King’s Man trailer is for an R-rated movie and has a red banner, instead of the Green banners you usually see.  This means that this trailer is not for kids.  There are f-bombs, s-bombs, a comment about male genitalia, and a lot of violence in the trailer.  On YouTube, the trailer is considered age-restricted content.

IN MEMORIUM

Jean-Paul Belmondo

We’re sad to report on the passing of French actor, Jean-Paul Belmondo at the age of 88.  While he rose to stardom as a thief in the 1960 Jean-Luc Godard movie Breathless, Jean-Paul also appeared in many spy movies, including Casino Royale in 1967,  The 1981 movie The Professional, 1984’s The Vultures, and many others.   Mr. Belmondo received the honorary Palm d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, an honorary Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, and an honorary Cesar in 2017.

Bill Taylor

We also announce the passing of Visual Effects expert Bill Taylor at the age of 77.  Among his over 150 entries for Visual and Special Effects on IMDb are the two spy movies, The Bourne Identity and U-571.  He was presented with the John A. Bonner Medal from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his “outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards” of the organization.

So that’s a wrap on this month’s edition of Spy Movie News.   We hope you enjoy seeing No Time To Die this month, as I’m sure we will.  Thanks for listening, we appreciate it.

Here is our Spy Movie News for August 24, 2021: Amazon and MGM,  Fast and Loose, Argylle, Mission: Impossible 7,  James Bond – say what?,  Martin Campbell, The Gray Man, and industry news!

James Bond

No Time To Die News!

One BIG announcement is the solidification of the official premiere for No Time To Die.   We’ve been watching for this announcement for a while and have been reading different dates, but the Official Bond twitter account has announced that No Time To Die will have its official premiere on September 28th at Royal Albert Hall in London.  Daniel Craig, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and director Cary Joji Fukunaga will attend the premiere. 

Royal Albert Hall was originally going to be the premiere site with the earlier premier dates that had to be delayed to due to the pandemic.  We’d been speculating the 28th at the Royal Albert Hall but thought we were wrong because two other events are scheduled there on September 28th.  So, this surprised us a bit.    Anyway, this is great news!  Confirmed!  

One release date change announced, however, at this point ,only affects Australia – No Time To Die has pushed the release date in Australia from September 30th to November 11th due to the current COVID situation there.  This probably makes sense, but really makes it tough on the James Bond fans there.  Of course, this may open the door to other release date changes as well, as the global Covid situation is assessed. 

Say What? 

Ok, tell us if this makes any sense at all.   You are getting ready to release the last Daniel Craig James Bond movie.  Kids, who couldn’t drive to see Spectre in the US because they were not yet 16 when that movie came out and thus didn’t have a driver’s license, will now be able to stop for a beer on the way home as they will be older than the 21-year-old drinking age here when the go see No Time To Die. And you’re going to make it hard for them to stream all of the Daniel Craig Bond movies in advance of No Time To Die’s release?  Because, that’s what is going on.  Is anyone involved in marketing thinking at all?  Left hand, meet right hand as we slap our forehead with both.   

We usually watch the last few Bond movies before we go see the new one.  That is especially true for this one as it is supposed to tie up the Daniel Craig arc that rebooted the series. Add to that the six-year gap between releases and a refresher could be helpful. 

Mike Reyes has a great article talking about what Daniel Craig Bond movies are available for streaming.  Amazingly, you can’t see them all on one platform.   Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008) are leaving Netflix at the end of August.   What is going on here?  They should be hyping the Daniel Craig movies so that people want to see how the arc ends.  At least that’s our opinion.   That said, read Mike’s article.  It points you to where each of the Daniel’s Bond movies is available for streaming, and they are not all in one place.  Make it hard on us, yikes!

Will Martin Campbell Direct Another James Bond Movie? 

According to an article by Jamil David on Cinemablend.com, Casino Royale, and GoldenEye director, Martin Campbell was asked on a Reddit AMA if he’d consider doing another Bond movie.  His response was: “Yes, I would. I love the franchise, and it would be with a new Bond, which is always interesting, especially given my two Bond movies had different Bonds.”  He had Peirce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in his first two Bond movies.

We’d love to see that. 

Campbell’s current movie, The Protégé,  was just released to US theaters this past weekend.  That movie is about the world’s most skilled contract killer.  We have a quick-fire, no spoilers podcast on The Protégé .  Click here to listen to it.

INDUSTRY NEWS 

AMC Theaters has reached a deal with Warner Bros. to shorten the theatrical window 

Just as Warner Bros. did with Cineworld, they reached a deal to release their slate of movies in 2022 with AMC with a 45-day theatrical window.   We’ve commented on quite a few of these deals as the industry is dealing with COVID-19 and the strong demand for streaming content.  We’re happy to see this as we prefer to see spy movies in a theater first.   That is the best experience in our opinion.   

Labor Unions Oppose Amazon-MGM takeover 

In the last few newscasts, we’ve been talking about the Amazon-MGM takeover.   Well, an article by Todd Spangler on Variety.com tells us that four major labor unions which represent close to 4 million people want the FTC to say “No” to the deal. 

They have sent a letter to the FTC and are asking for the stoppage of the deal because they don’t want Amazon to gain more power and are worried about anti-competitive business practices.  They claim Amazon has a history of gaining market share with unfair and anti-competitive practices. 

The Unions involved are the Service Employees International Union, The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Communications Workers of America, and United Farmworkers.   

This is going to get interesting.  Can the opposition keep Amazon from the takeover? We’ll have to wait and see. 

Scarlett Johansson Lawsuit against Disney

This one is getting interesting.  In our last Spy Movie newscast, we asked if Disney’s decision to stream Black Widow would hurt theater sales.  Well, Scarlett Johansson thinks it did and that it has cost her some income.  In her lawsuit, she claims that the simultaneous streaming and theatrical release hurt her revenue per her contract. And, it says this day-and-date release by Disney was in direct violation of her contract which required an exclusive theatrical release.   Day-and-Date, by the way, is an industry term for movies that simultaneously in theaters and streaming.  In her contract, a large part of her salary is tied to the box office success of the movie.  She claims that she tried to renegotiate her contract once Disney decided to simultaneously distribute the movie, but Disney didn’t respond to her then. 

After the lawsuit was filed, Disney wrote what we think was a nasty response, including letting us know how much Scarlett has made from the movie.  That isn’t the way to endear yourself to talent.   If they keep this up will other talent stay away from Disney?  Disney said the lawsuit was “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic”.  We think that might have been a little out of line.   If this is just a contract dispute and her contract had a theatrical release window, this lawsuit could get interesting.  Especially if she did try to renegotiate.  We’re not lawyers, but wow.

Warner Bros avoided this mess by renegotiating its contracts with its talent.  Disney may be wishing they did too as other talent is looking closely at this case.  

Now we are hearing that Disney wants to move the case to arbitration in New York instead of the current Los Angeles courts. This would keep the proceedings confidential. Johansson and her legal team are asserting that the company’s most recent move is an attempt to “hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration.” 

We’ll keep an eye on this one and let you know what happens. 

If you want to dive deeper into this lawsuit and people’s reactions to it, there have been a lot of articles written about this lawsuit on Cinemablend.com and Hollywood Reporter, with each of them giving numerous people’s reactions to the suit.   

Upcoming Spy Movies 

Fast & Loose 

Will Smith has signed up for a Netflix movie titled Fast & Loose, which sounds like it has some similarities to Bourne Identity.  According to an article on Cinemablend.com, Smith’s character wakes up and can’t remember anything.  He has to piece together what appear to be two different former lives, one as a CIA Agent.  Sound familiar Bourne fans?  Well, the twist here is that his other life was as a crime kingpin.  Which is his real life?   We’ll need to wait for Fast & Loose to be released to find out. 

Argylle 

In last month’s Spy Movie News we told you that the book Argylle is being made into a movie, directed by Matthew Vaughan of The Kingman series.  The star-studded cast includes Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson and more. 

This month we read in an article by Sarah El-Mahmoud, that Apple Original Films has a $200 million deal they are trying to wrap up for Argylle.  So, this one looks like it is going to land on Apple TV+.  We really miss the big screen experience. 

Argylle, like The Gray Man, is supposed to be a series of books creating a spy franchise.   Given that Henry Cavill is one of the names we see bandied about to become the next James Bond, if Argylle takes off, that could be the end of that idea or a very hard call for Cavill to make. 

The Gray Man Wraps Filming 

We’ve been talking about The Gray Man for a while now.  This is the Russo Brothers movie with Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans based on Mark Greaney’s novel of the same name.  Well, Rich Knight has an article that tells us that The Gray Man has wrapped. As everything except Mission: Impossible seems to be doing, this is a Netflix production.   

As we’ve discussed before, so far there are nine books in The Gray Man series, and, assuming the first one is a success, Netflix plans to continue making The Gray Man movies.   

As a reference, 25 James Bond movies, including No Time to Die, have been produced by EON Productions based on Ian Fleming’s 12 James Bond novels and two short story collections.  Following that example might be a good idea.  There might be lots of The Gray Man movies in the future.

All that said, the important thing is that they’ve wrapped the movie but have not set a release date yet. 

Mission: Impossible 7 

Rebecca Ferguson wraps 

Although the movie hasn’t wrapped filming, the seemingly endless filming of Mission: Impossible 7 continues. An article on Cinemablend.com shows an Instagram post from Rebecca Ferguson where she says she’s wrapped her part in Mission: Impossible 7.  There is a nice picture in the article taken by Christopher McQuarrie of her and Tom Cruise.  

Mission: Impossible 7 has been filming for about a year now.  The pandemic has thrown a large monkey wrench into the production schedule.   Remember they are supposed to be filming Mission: Impossible 8 fairly soon after 7 wraps.   Talk about a strain on the cast and crew’s schedule.  We’re certain they will be quite relieved when this is over. 

McQuarrie Thanks The Crew 

In a related article, Christopher McQuarrie posted an Instagram with a shout out to, First AD, Mary Boulding’s hitting her 100th day in that role for Mission: Impossible 7.  The article points out that most movies are done filming in less that 100 days so this is a big deal.  It’s great to see the director call out crew members, especially as the end of filming is in sight. We see so many articles with people talking about the actors, who are important.  But the crew often doesn’t get the same treatment.  So kudo’s to Chris for acknowledging Mary Boulding and kudos to all the cast and crew for sticking with this impossible filming schedule due to the pandemic. 

IN MEMORIAM 

Alex Cord (1933-2021)  

We’re sad to report the passing of actor Alex Cord.   Although probably best known for playing Archangel on the tv show “Airwolf”.  Alex was also one of the leads in the 1992 spy movie CIA Codename: Alexa. 

Mark Tarlov (1952-202) 

We also lost Mark Tarlov. In the spy world, he was a producer on The Man Who Knew Too Little. 

Dan Kneece (1956-2021) 

Cinematographer and Cameraman Dan Kneece also passed this month.   Kneece was a prolific cameraman and cinematographer with more than 180 credits in IMDB.  We like to highlight that Dan was a Steadicam operator on the 1992 Columbo episode titled No Time To Die.