Spy Movie News January 14 2025 edition

James Bond, Christopher Nolan’s new movie, “A Man on the Inside”, BLACK BAG, “The Night Agent”, THE AMATEUR, and “The Secret World of James Bond” are some of the upcoming spy movies and series that we discuss in our Spy Movie News January 14 2025 edition.

Christopher Nolan movie

Let’s start by resolving something we’ve told you was a mystery. In the last few Spy Movie News episodes, we’ve told you about a new movie that Christopher Nolan was helming. We didn’t know if it was a spy movie or not, but we heard it would not be about the future. Well, it isn’t a spy movie, and the story is from the very distant past. Nolan is bringing Homer’s classic poem “The Odyssey” to the big screen. That is a departure for him but those books in Nolan’s hands should produce an excellent treatment.

If you are a fan of “The Odyssey”, while you wait for Nolan’s movie, in April you’ll be able to see Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in the movie THE RETURN. That movie only covers the last three Homer books from “The Odyssey”.

So, sorry spy fans, Nolan isn’t bringing you a spy movie. But, at least this mystery has been resolved. We still don’t know anything about the movie J.J. Abrams is doing.

James Bond’s Amazon problems

In past episodes, we’ve questioned how the Amazon purchase of MGM might impact the James Bond franchise. Well, there appears to be a large impact. This is because Eon Productions still has control of the James Bond franchise.

You may have read that last month The Wall Street Journal published an article called “Where Is James Bond? Trapped in an Ugly Stalemate With Amazon”. It talked about how Barbara Broccoli is not happy with Amazon as Amazon wants to add more to the franchise. In fact, we’ve read that Barbara doesn’t trust Amazon.

The Broccoli quote that went viral from The Wall Street Journal article was her saying “These people are f—ing idiots.” Man, that’s awkward with a capital “awk.” Of course, that was about Amazon. And she doesn’t think James Bond is a fit for Amazon.

So, there appears to be a stalemate and both sides can’t be happy.

This could explain some of the delay in going forward with another James Bond movie. That and Eon Productions have been doing a lot of other projects lately.

Is There Hope?

Now our friends at The Spy Command tell us that maybe there is hope. They quote Matthew Belloni of Puck News as saying that he’s heard that there is another book by Ian Fleming that is being used as a test run for the relationship.

Yes, this is a bit convoluted but stick with us. Besides James Bond, Fleming also brought us the book “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” which was adapted into the 1968 movie. Well, a remake of that movie has been announced being put out by Amazon and Eon Productions. Belloni speculates that if CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG goes well, then the tension between EON and Amazon may ease.

We’ll see. Of course, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Craziness

This one is a bit odd but shares a behind-the-scenes look at the marketing of a blockbuster franchise. It also tells you the control Tom Cruise has on his movie.

For some reason, popcorn buckets have become a big marketing tool. Yes, we’re talking about the buckets they put popcorn in in theme parks and movie theaters. Disney has had to limit the number of specialized popcorn buckets at its parks for many years. The movie industry has hopped on this bandwagon as well with specialized popcorn buckets for their movies.

Now we hear that Tom Cruise is involved in the design of the popcorn buckets for AMC for his upcoming spy movie MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING. It’s not like he has nothing else to do.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING is slated to be released on May 23, 2025. Be ready to buy a Tom Cruise-designed popcorn bucket when you go to see it.

Renewals and Cancellations

Next up, let’s talk about the spy series that have recently been renewed or canceled.

The Old Man

The show “The Old Man” has not been renewed by FX. It was quite successful for season one and season two. The cast included Jeff Bridges, Amy Brenneman, and John Lithgow. It’s hard for us to believe that FX canceled it, although season two was not as well received as season one. “The Old Man” can currently be seen streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus.

A MAN ON THE INSIDE

Not surprisingly, Netflix has picked up season two of the Ted Danson show “A Man on the Inside.” We included a drop-in telling you this in our episode where we decoded this show and the documentary that it was derived from, THE MOLE AGENT.

We don’t know any details of the plot for season two although they teased it at the end. As we said at the time, we hope they bring back Stephen McKinley Henderson to play Calbert again. He and Danson work very well together.

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL

We told you last month that the series “The Day of the Jackal” was picked up for season two. In the U.S., the series debuted on December 30^th on NBC. We’ll keep you posted as we hear more about season two.

MR. AND MRS. SMITH

Back in our October Spy Movie News, we told you that the series ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ had been picked up for season two. We didn’t have any more details at the time. Well, we can give you a bit more information. Mark Eydelshteyn has been cast as the male lead for season two. We’re assuming he will be the new Mr. Smith. Casting hasn’t been announced for the female lead. Although, we had heard that NO TIME TO DIE singer Billie Eilish was being looked at for the role.

If you don’t know Eydelshteyn, he was excellent in his role Ivan in the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner, ANORA. He’s been called “the Russian Timothée Chalamet” because the two actors look somewhat alike.

BLACK DOVES

We told you back in October that “Black Doves” was picked up by Netflix for a second season, even before season one debuted.

We now know that Keira Knightley’s character Helen will be back. So will Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy), Williams (Ella Lily Hyland), and their new friend Ambassador Chen’s daughter Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei).

We’re looking forward to this one. And as usual, we’ll let you know when we hear more.

THE NIGHT AGENT

Also, because this is coming out at the beginning of January 2025, we wanted to remind you that Season 2 of “The Night Agent” premieres on Netflix on January 23rd, 2025.

And to build up the hype, the trailer for Season 2 was shown during the Netflix NFL games on Christmas Day.

“The Night Agent” was already picked up for Season 3 and will add actors David Lyons, Jennifer Morrison, and Stephen Moyer to the cast.

THE AGENCY

The just-released series “The Agency”, based on the French series “Le Bureau des Legendes,” has been renewed for Season 2 by Paramount + with Showtime. Is anyone else starting to hate these streaming services’ names?

Anyway, this is another quick pickup for a spy series. We’re seeing a lot of that.

CITADEL

Variety has an article with Priyanka Chopra Jonas talking about the upcoming season of “Citadel”. This series has been a bit different in how they are releasing seasons. The first season, released in 2023 was just called “Citadel”. Then, last year, they had two more shows “Citadel: Diana” and “Citadel: Hunny Bunny”. These shows took us to different locations.

Well, this year we will get Season 2 of the original “Citadel”, this time with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci, and Lesley Manville all returning.

Chopra Jonas is quoted as saying:

“The new season involves major developments for my character and for the rest of the cast, with new characters,” she explained. “It’s very rooted, very grounded.”

If Season 2 is as good as Season 1, we can’t wait.

THE RECRUIT

As we told you in our January 2023 edition of SPY MOVIE NEWS, the Netflix series “The Recruit” has been picked up for a second season.

Well, that season will premiere on January 20, 2025. It brings back Noah Centineo’s character of CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks. This time he goes to South Korea. Actor Teo Yoo joins him for this one. It is supposed to be a continuation of where things finished in Season One.

One notable change is that, unlike the eight episodes that Season 1 delivered, Season 2 will only have 6 episodes.

UPCOMING AND NEW SPY MOVIES AND SERIES

Ok, so let’s move on to upcoming and new spy movies and series.

BLACK BAG

The upcoming spy movie BLACK BAG, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender has a new trailer. Blanchett and Fassbender play real-life intelligence agents Kathryn and George Woodhouse.

As movieweb.com tells us:

“While the trailer opens with the classic trappings of an action flick, guns, and an exploding vehicle, BLACK BAG looks to be more of a psychological thriller, tracing the story of legendary intelligence agents. When Kathryn draws suspicion of betraying the nation, George has to decide between his country and his wife.”

BLACK BAG is slated to have its theatrical-only release on March 14

THE SECRET WORLD OF JAMES BOND

Our friend John Cork is working with the Ian Fleming Foundation on a podcast/YouTube series that will be both audio episodes and videos hosted on YouTube. You’ve probably seen John’s work in the extra content that was released with the Home Entertainment releases of the James Bond movies through CASINO ROYAL, his three books on the James Bond phenomenon, and his work as editor of GoldenEye Magazine.

As the Ian Fleming Foundation website describes the series,

“[QUOTE]Join John Cork as he takes listeners and viewers on a globe-trotting journey to uncover the amazing stories behind the James Bond adventures, and the remarkable life of Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming. Secrets will be revealed—from the real-life inspiration behind Bond’s greatest villains to the novel that Ian Fleming never read that helped inspire one of the original 007 adventures.[UNQUOTE]”

The Ian Fleming Foundation has set up a fund where you can contribute to help fund the series. You can go to their webpage to donate. The URL is https://ianflemingfoundation.org/secret-world-of-james-bond-podcast.

John is a great guy and we know this will be a fascinating series.

THE AMATEUR

We first told you about the movie THE AMATEUR starring Rami Malik, Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, and Julianne Nicholson almost 2 years ago in our February 2023 SPY MOVIE NEWS.

Well, we now know that this movie has a scheduled release date of April 11, 2025. This is a remake of the 1981 movie of the same name.

The plot of the movie is that a CIA cryptographer manages to blackmail his agency into training him to let him go after a group of terrorists who killed his wife.

G2

The sequel to the 2018 Indian spy thriller, GOODACHARI, will be called G2. We have some casting information on this one. Wamiqa Gabbi will be joining Adivi Sesh as he reprises his role of Gopi from the first movie.

We saw GOODACHARI a few years ago and liked it. We mentioned that movie when we were talking about Season 1 of the series “Citadel” and how Gopi had some similar skills to the character Bernard Olick who was played by Stanley Tucci. Also, we mentioned GOODACHARI in our no-spoiler review of the movie AGENT, which was released in April of 2023. An audience member when I saw AGENT commented how some of the dialogue and scenes in AGENT appeared to come right out of GOODACHARI. And he thought GOODACHARI was a much better movie.

It will be interesting to see where G2 brings the character of GOPI.

G2 will be released in the languages of Telegu, Hindi, Tamil, and a few others. We expect this will be an English-subtitled movie when it is released here. We don’t have a release date but will keep you posted.

Tell us what you think about the SPY MOVIE NEWS January 14 2025 Edition.

Do any of these upcoming shows excite you? If so, let us know which ones. Also, if you have any thoughts about the format of Spy Movie News, we’d love to hear those thoughts.

Let us know your thoughts, ideas for future episodes, and what you thought of this episode. Just drop us a note at info@spymovienavigator.com. The more we hear from you, the better the show will surely be! We’ll give you a shout-out in a future episode!

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