Here’s our January 26 2021 edition of Spy Movie News – a new spy thriller starts production, more Bond rumors and No Time to Die release date, Mission: Impossible robots, The Kings Man, Black Widow, Five Eyes, Red Notice, Industry News, and more!…… Let’s go!
NO TIME TO DIE
No Time to Wait for April – No Time To Die Slips again
Well, amidst lots of worry and drama, it appears, at this time, No Time to Die is scheduled for release now in October 2021. Check out @007 on Twitter for the official announcement.
Our Opinion: We think Eon and the studios are right. The world is not ready for a theatrical release. Too much risk – health wise for viewers, financially for Eon and the studios.
James Bond Replacement – more rumors!
Well, the IrishPost.com suggests that Irish star of Peaky Blinders, Cillian Murphy could be the next James Bond!
The article of January 20, 2021 suggests that his odds of playing Bond has been slashed from 16 – 1 to 10-1! Of course, he is Irish, and if selected he would be the second Irishman to play Bond – Pierce Brosnan of course being the first.
The same article says that the other Peaky Blinders star, Tom Hardy, still holds a promising 2-1 odds on favorite to play Bond. See all the details on IrishPost.com/news!
Additional potential Bond’s are mentioned in a January 2021 GQ Magazine article – like Michael B. Jordan (an American), Sam Heughan, Michael Fassbender and others! Read about it here on GQ-MAgazine.co.uk.
Well, Eon Productions and the studios might have more time to decide as No Time to Die slips to October 2021, and most certainly no announcement of the next Bond will take place before its release.
DOUG LIMAN THINKS DANIEL CRAIG’S BOND COPIED THE BOURNE IDENTITY
In an article on CinemaBlend.com, Bourne Identity director, Doug Liman says “After the Bourne Identity came out, the next James Bond to come out was Casino Royale, which totally copied the tone of Bourne. I had a very surreal thing where I was sort of making Bourne because I really wanted to make Bond, and then Bond copied Bourne.”
Also for those who don’t remember, Liman will be directing the upcoming Tom Cruise movie in space.
You can read the whole article here on CinemaBlend.com.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
OK, we all know that Tom Cruise got upset last month on the set when he felt some of the staff were not adhering to their stick Covid safety protocols – it is reported he saw a couple of people close together at a computer screen.
Well, his rant is well-known. So, is he trusting the crew now? Well, in this January 20th article on SpotBoye.com it is reported that Cruise how has robots watching the crew, and these robots can also scan the crew for Covid – 19. Wow.
Ah, but this SlashFilm.com article set the record straight and says basically there are automated Covid testing machine robots on site.
Our opinion: They are state-in-the-art on safety and cruise wants to keep it that way. We give him a lot of credit for driving the safety issue so consistently – it means lives and continuation of production saved. All good.
Mission Impossible 7 is scheduled for release November 19 2021 in the US.
THE KING’S MAN
The King’s Man release date, having slipped from September 2020 to February 2021, to March 2021 and now to August 20 2021 according to CinemaBlend.com.
Like so many other movies scheduled to 2020, then rescheduled many times., The King’s Man joins suit.
Let’s hope the second half of 2021 sees a rejuvenation of the theater release of so many movies we have been waiting for.
See this CinemaBlend.com article for the details.
Speaking of The King’s Man . . .
ScreenRant also reports that seven Kingsman movies are currently in the works with Marv Group and director Matthew Vaughn!
See this article on ScreenRant.com for the details!
BLACK WIDOW
In this short article at DeSecret.com, by Herb Schribner, he talks about the Marvel CEO hinting that Black Widow could possibly debut on Disney+
Of course the CEO says he basically doesn’t have a crystal ball – so we will wait for more news.
INDUSTRY NEWS
Streaming Through Hollywood
Speaking of streaming, a January 21st 2021 article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that streaming has hit Hollywood fast. Changes in the management ranks are in the works, as they look for execs with business development, technology and strategy backgrounds to basically deal with the new world of movie watching. They are keeping an eye on Apple, Amazon (Prime) and Netflix to see how much they are investing in their movies and shows and how many subscribers they, HBO, Disney+ and others are capturing – and how long exclusive releases in theaters might continue.
Nice read – check it out here at the WSJ.com.
Wow – the world is changing.
Has the COVID-19 pandemic brought out a new use for theaters?
With the dearth of movies that are able to be shown in theaters or them being shut by decree, one movie theater in North Carolina here in the US is being used as a vaccine distribution center, allowing the local administration from a few hundred vaccines a day to about 1,300 a day. The theater is bearing the costs of operating. While we applaud this, let’s hope that this will be a short-term use of theaters and that we can go to them to watch movies soon.
You can read more about this in this article on Variety.com.
FIVE EYES WILL BE GETTING A NEW NAME AND IT LOOKS LIKE HUGH GRANT TOO
In our September 15th edition, we mentioned that the rights to the spy action thriller, Five Eyes had been awarded to Leonine. Back then we announced that Jason Statham would be starring in this Guy Ritchie directed movie. Well, here’s an update: According to this article on DigitalSpy.com, it looks like Hugh Grant will be joining this movie. Hugh’s deal isn’t done yet, but work is being done to land him.
According to this article on prnewswire.com, this movie is officially untitled, meaning that it is not going to be called Five Eyes. Production of the movie has started in Qatar. Joining Jason Stratham, who will play MI6 agent Orson Fortune, will be teaming with has Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, and Bugzy Malone. We’ll keep a watch on this one, especially with that cast.
WHAT’S UP WITH RED NOTICE?
CinemaBlend.com has an article which talks about what we know about the upcoming movie, Red Notice. Although a release date hasn’t been announced, it is expected this Netflix movie will release in 2021 as filming has been completed. Dwayne Johnson’s character is an FBI Profiler, hunting a pair of thieves. Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot are a conman and art thief. There is at least on big chase sequence.
Check out this article on CinemaBlend.com for the details.
NETFLIX HAS A HEART OF STONE
Variety.com reports that Netflix has obtained the rights to the Gal Gadot espionage thriller, Heart of Stone. Gal is really making her way in the espionage movie game. We mentioned her as being in Red Notice and now Heart of Stone.
This movie hasn’t started filming yet and we haven’t seen a scheduled release date. They are keeping the plot quiet too. So, we’ll just have to wait to find out.
You can read about this here on Variety.com.
IN MEMORIAM:
Michael Apted
Michael Apted has passed away January 7th at the age of 79. He was a British director who, in the Bond world, directed The World is Not Enough. He also directed the Up series, and Coal Miner’s Daughter. @007 on Twitter posted: “He was a director of enormous talent and range and unique in his ability to move effortlessly and successfully between all genres. He was beloved by all those who worked with him.”
Rémy Julienne
Top French auto-stunt coordinator who worked on six James Bond movies and has over 1,400 movie credits has passed. He was 90 years old. His work on James Bond movies started with For Your Eyes Only where he created the Citroen Deux Cheveux chase and motorbike fight in Cortina d’Ampezzo Italy and continued through GoldenEye.
You can read more about Julienne in our SPYmdb on our website by clicking here.
You can read stories on 007.com and Deadline.com as well.
We hope you liked our January 26, 2021 edition of Spy Movie News. 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!