In this article, our Spy Movie News May 31, 2022, edition, we discuss the June streaming releases for spy movies, Sean Connery’s DB5, and the upcoming movies The Gray Man, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One, Freegard, The Good Spy, Hunt, The Black Kaiser, and more!

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

Spy Movies in the theater in June 2022

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of releases of new spy movies in June.  In fact, we have not found any spy movies with a June 2022 theatrical release date in the US.

Spy Movies on streaming platforms in June 2022

However, there are some June 2022 Spy entertainment releases on streaming platform

As for the major streaming platforms in the US, it is more of the same for new releases.  However, there is some spy entertainment coming out in June on the streaming platforms, almost all of it is content that has been already available.

AMC+

On AMC+, the six-part series, “The Ipcress File” continues with the finale landing on June 23.

Apple TV+ continues to stream the excellent 6-part series “Slow Horses”.  If you are a spy movie fan of movies that are more spy stories and not high-action, this series is for you.  Think along the lines of a John le Careé novel and you’ll get the idea.

We liked season one very much.  It stars Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Jack Lowden.  Season two of this series is under development.

Apple TV+ also continues the series “Tehran” which is about a female Mossad agent.   Episodes of Season 2 started airing in May and the season will have its final on June 17, 2022.

Netflix

Netflix has no new spy content releasing in June 2022.  However, they are releasing some Mission: Impossible movies on June 1^st.  Namely, Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible 2, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

In the UK, Netflix is releasing the 2020 movie, My Spy on June 6.  We released our no-spoiler look at this movie when it came out on June 29, 2020.  So, look for our podcast episode Cracking the Code of Spy Movies and find season 2, episode 42 in your favorite podcast app.  Or look for the title “My Spy (2020) – a Quick-Fire Look. You can also find it on our website by clicking here.

Amazon Prime

The James Bond movie No Time To Die hits Amazon Prime on June 10, 2022.  This is followed on June 17 with the Jack Ryan movie: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Sean Connery’s DB5

Do you have a couple of million dollars you don’t know what to do with?   And do you want to feel like James Bond?   If so, August 18, 2022, is a date you won’t want to miss.  Broad Arrow Auctions will put up  Sean Connery’s Aston Martin DB5 for auction on that date. According to the press release from Broad Arrow Auctions, this was Connery’s personal car, not one used in the James Bond movies. They quote his son Jason Connery as saying:

“Dad used to talk about owning his own DB5, for no other reason than he loved the car, and I think in hindsight it did represent something in his life that was unique and captured a moment in time. He did tell me that driving the movie cars, all laden down with the gadgets, especially the machine guns in the front, made the car really front heavy and turning at slow speed was a Herculean task, so driving without gadgets was a joy! He loved how well balanced it was.”

“The Aston Martin DB5 is in highly presentable condition.  In fact, shortly after Sir Sean purchased the car, it went to noted marque specialist RS Williams where it received a mechanical freshening along with a full repaint to the correct Snow Shadow Grey, the correct shade of silver for Mr. Bond’s Aston Martin.”

The release also says that “a significant portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Aston Martin will go to benefit the Sean Connery Philanthropy Fund”.

This car has an auction estimate of $1.4-1.8 million dollars so check your couch cushions to see if you can by this fun piece of nostalgia.

Spy Movies/Series in Development

So that wraps up what’s happening in June.  Let’s look at what’s in development

The Gray Man

We’ll start this discussion with the next spy movie to be released.  Of course, we are talking about the Russo Brother’s movie, The Gray Man.  The hype has taken off and the trailer for this movie has been released and is on our homepage at SpyMovieNavigator.com .

This Netflix movie is one we’ve been talking about for a while and we will finally get a chance to see it when it is released on July 22^nd, if not before.  According to Empireonline.com, The Gray Man will hit UK cinemas on July 15. We assume the same will happen here in the US. Netflix did this same thing of getting the movie out in theaters a week before its streaming release for Red Notice and Operation Mincemeat. And like they did with those prior two movies Netflix we guess that Netflix will likely do a terrible job marketing the big screen availability.

They spent over $200 million on The Gray Man.  You think they would advertise it accordingly.  We understand the need for them to use these movies to get subscribers, but $200 million is a lot to make up without adding big-screen viewers.  Plus, as a $200 million spy movie, there are likely to be big action sequences and the trailer verifies that. In a May 9^th article on empireonline.com, Joe Russo is quoted as saying “This movie almost killed us. There are like nine action sequences, and so it is relentless in that regard.”    Yeah, we’ll try to catch this one in a theater if we get the chance.

We also know that this is a star-studded cast.  When we say star-studded, this movie has Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Rege-Jean Page, Wagner Moura, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfre Woodard, and more.  Wow.

There are 11 books in the Mark Greaney “The Gray Man” series and plans are already in development to make this a franchise.  Movieweb.com tells us that a prequel and sequel are already in development and that the Russo’s are trying

So, we are eagerly awaiting the July 22^nd  official streaming release date, or is the July 15^th theatrical release date that they aren’t talking about?   In any case, we won’t miss this movie.

Other spy movies/series in development

These first three upcoming spy movies are all about real-life people involved in the world of espionage.

Freegard

An espionage movie that will have a theatrical release as well as a streaming release later this summer is called Freegard.  Freegard stars James Norton and Gemma Arterton in a true story about a conman who convinces people he works for MI5.  You can read more about Freegard on Deadline.com.  We’ll let you know more as we learn more about this one. IFC Films and AMC+ have the US distribution rights on this one.

The Good Spy

Here’s another real-life espionage movie. Rocket Science is financing the biopic about real-life CIA Operative Robert Ames who was killed in the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut.  The movie will be based on the Kai Bird novel “The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames.”  According to variety.com, Oscar-nominated director Hany Abu-Assad has been signed on for this one.

We enjoy these espionage movies about real-life people.  We’ll have to see if this is done more like a documentary or a spy story like The Courier or Breach were.  We’re hoping for the latter.

Lives in Secret

Due to be released in 2023, the movie Lives in Secret tells the story of Vera Atkins, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg.  According to an article on hollywoodreporter.com, Atkins was the inspiration for a James Bond character, Miss Moneypenny.  Hugh Bonneville plays an SS Officer in this one. Lives in Secret is based on Sarah Helm’s book “A life in secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII.”

Hunt

Released at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Hunt is a South Korean spy thriller.  The movie takes place four years after South Korean president Park Chung-hee’s assassination by the chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in 1979.  Intelligence agents have to identify a mole from North Korea. Reviews have been mixed on Hunt and we haven’t seen the US release information yet.   We’ll keep you informed when we hear anything about its worldwide distribution.

Our Man From Jersey

Netflix has another spy movie under development, Our Man From Jersey.  Deadline.com tells us that actors Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry, J.K. Simmons, Jackie Earle Haley, Adewale Akinnuoye -Agbaje, Jessica De Gouw, and Alice Lee are signed up for this one.  Mark Wahlberg plays a construction worker whose ex-girlfriend, played by Halle Berry, recruits him into a US intelligence mission.   We often talk about reluctant spies.   This one could be interesting

The Black Kaiser

The actor who played one of the best James Bond villains ever is starring in a new spy movie, The Black Kaiser. Mads Mikkelsen, who Bond fans will remember as Le Chiffre in the 2006 movie Casino Royale, stars in The Black Kaiser.  He plays a hitman who discovers a conspiracy and becomes a target.    Jonas Akerlund will direct the movie.  Additional casting is still to be announced.   You can read more about The Black Kaiser on variety.com.

Canary Black

Kate Beckinsale will star in the upcoming movie Canary Black.   She will play CIA agent Avery Graves.  Her husband is kidnapped, and the kidnappers want intelligence.  Agent Graves has to make some tough decisions as to what to do about that.

Filming is currently scheduled for late 2022.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One

Well, the first trailer for next year’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One was leaked.  So, according to The Spy Command, Paramount has now released the trailer officially. And the action looks great.  There is a link to the trailer in the Spy Command article or on YouTube.

The article also points out four apparent call-backs to James Bond movies.  We like it when these movies tip their caps to their competitors.

Mike Reyes has a fun article on Cinemablend.com titled “The 5 Most Ridiculous Stunts From The Mission: Impossible 7 Trailer, Ranked By How Close It Looks Like Tom Cruise Came To Dying”.  Well, the title pretty much says it all.   We know each Mission: Impossible movie seems to try to out-action the previous installment.   This one is no different.  We also know how meticulous the planning is behind these stunts so even though he looks like he is close to dying, a lot of precautions have been taken to minimize that risk.

We know that the movie isn’t due out until July 2023, so we’ll have to wait to see how this all fits together.

Austin Powers 4?

“I would love to do one. I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of such a project; should it exist or not exist? You know, we’re, you know…”

Those words by Mike Myers on the Jess Cagle Show on SiriusXM should give any Austin Powers fan hope that maybe, … someday, … possibly, … we’ll get an Austin Powers 4 movie.

When pressed, Myers said, “It was a non-confirmed, confirmation confirmation.”

So, who knows we know that we’d love to see it.

You can read more about it on movieweb.com.

In Memoriam

Kenneth Tsang

Hong Kong actor Kenneth Tsang has died at 86.  James Bond fans will remember him as General Moon in Die Another Day.  Tsang started his movie career in 1955 and starred in many kung-fu movies. Besides Die Another Day, you may remember him from The Killer, Rush Hour 2, or The Replacement Killers.

Ray Liotta

Ray Liotta died in the Dominican Republic where he was shooting his latest movie, Dangerous Waters.  He was 67. Liotta is Probably best known for his role as Henry Hill in Goodfellas. Among his numerous films, he had roles in the spy movies Suddenly, The River Murders, The Last Shot, and Hannibal.

Fred Ward

Veteran actor Fred Ward died at the age of 79.  He is probably best known for The Right Stuff, Henry and June, and Tremors.   Ward also was in the spy movies Red Team and Thunderheart.

Jack Kehler

Jack Kehler, probably best known as The Dude’s landlord in The Big Lebowski, has passed at age 75.  Kehler appeared in over 175 movies or tv shows, including Men in Black II and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Mike Hagerty

Character actor Mike Hagerty died at 67.  Like Jack Kehler who we just mentioned, Hagerty appeared in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

So that’s a wrap of our Spy Movie News May 31, 2022 edition.  Please subscribe to our show – Cracking the Code of Spy Movies – in your favorite podcast app and on YouTube.  Tell your friends about us – Share info about our show on your own social media – Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram too!

In our Spy Movie News April 26,2022 edition, we get some updates on upcoming spy movies, James Bond birthday fun, the Slow Horses wind machine, a Spy Kids reboot, more award news, and new and old spy movies coming to streaming services.

We’ll start by looking at the May 2022 spy movie releases and unfortunately, the pickings are slim for us spy movie fans. 

THEATRICAL RELEASES 

The two big cinema releases expected in May don’t hit the US theaters until Memorial Day weekend, May 27th. Unfortunately, neither of them is a spy movie. They are Top Gun: Maverick and The Bob’s Burgers Movie.    

So, the cinema is not the place to go to find spy movies in May, at least here in the US. 

The only movie we are hoping for in the theaters is The Duke, which we’ve talked about before.  It has been released in some countries and is in a limited release in the US.  Unfortunately for us here at Spy Movie Navigator who hail from Chicago, the Chicago market isn’t included in the group of “limited release” locations.  

STREAMING – NEW RELEASES 

Netflix 

Operation Mincemeat 

One movie that will be released on Netflix in May has had a theatrical release in some countries, Operation Mincemeat.  And we’ve been waiting for this one.   

Operation Mincemeat was released by Warner Bros on April 22, 2022, but not everywhere.  Netflix will release this movie on May 11, 2022, in the US, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.  We haven’t seen if Netflix is planning a theatrical release in the US.  They had a theatrical release for Red Notice, so we are hoping to see this one on the big screen too.  

Operation Mincemeat is based on the real WW2 operation by British Intelligence to fake out the Germans by using a corpse and fake documents.  Using a dead person to fake out adversaries has been a plot point in numerous spy movies, including the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice.  These plots were based in part on the real Operation Mincemeat.  

Amazon Prime 

James Bond movies 

In May, Amazon Prime is releasing for Prime customers the following James Bond movies: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, Never Say Never Again, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy.  You can also stream You Only Live Twice and see if you can catch the Operation Mincemeat connection.  

AMC + 

The Ipcress File 

The Ipcress File series finally comes out on AMC+ in May 2022 here in the US.  This is the series that debuted on ITV in the UK at the beginning of March.  We’ve released 3 podcasts on The Ipcress File series when ITV had their release, including an interview with the Executive Producer Steven Saltzman. 

IMDb TV (Soon to be Amazon Freevee)

Troppo 

This 8-part tv series is about an ex-cop who is falsely accused of a crime who has to deal with an investigation agency. 

Troppo debuted in Australia on ABC and hits IMDb TV on May 20, 2022.  

HULU 

Hot Fuzz 

Although not a spy movie, this 2007 movie is a cop comedy starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and that two-time James Bond, Timothy Dalton.  It’s a fun watch. 

Already Released Spy Entertainment 

Slow Horses 

Apple released its spy series Slow Horses at the beginning of April 2022, starring Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, and Kristin Scott Thomas.   This series is about Slough House which is where MI5 dumps its agents who have messed up. 

If you need a good laugh, check out the Mike Reyes interview of Oldman and Lowden on Cinemablend.com.  They have a “very serious” discussion of the role of flatulence in Oldman’s character Jackson Lamb.   In the interview, Oldman tries to keep his answer serious, but Lowden and Reyes won’t let him get away with it.

The last time we saw a discussion about flatulence in the movies was a description of why the characters in The Usual Suspects were laughing during the line-up scene. That time it wasn’t planned flatulence. You can find more on that one on screenrant.com.  

Upcoming Spy Entertainment News 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith 

Amazon has signed Maya Erskine and Donald Glover for its upcoming series “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”.   This series is based on the movie that starred Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit.  Originally, Phoebe Waller-Bridge was to play the role that Erskine now has but left the project last year.  

Spy Kids 

Netflix will reboot the Spy Kids franchise.  Although the movie doesn’t have a title or date yet, we know that Robert Rodriguez will write and direct this.  He was the creator of the original series.   

We’re glad to see this as the original Spy Kids movies were a hit and it’s great to see movies to help excite kids about spy movies. 

Agent Hamilton 

So, here’s another reboot. An article on variety.com tells us that Agent Hamilton – New Missions has obtained territory deals in the US and Northern Europe.  New Missions is based on the series “Agent Hamilton”.  We don’t have details on the casting or release schedule yet.  

Face/Off 2 

Ok, so we don’t know much about Face/Off 2, other than we’ve seen some things that say it is happening, with Adam Wingard as director.   We’ve also told you that Nicolas Cage has said that he hasn’t been asked to do it. Well, we have an update on this. According to an article in ComicBook.com, something might be happening here. He’s quoted as saying “there have been some phone calls with Neal [Moritz], who I enjoyed very much working with on the first Face/Off,” Cage said. “He’s somebody, he’s one of the true, great producers in Hollywood. And, they have been making some calls.” We think this would be fun to see Cage in the sequel. 

Well, maybe it is just a bit of hype coming off the current Nicolas Cage movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.  But, Pedro Pascal, who is in that movie with Cage says that he would love to reunite with Cage in Face/Off 2.  With how well Pascal played Whiskey in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, we think this would be a fun pairing to see. 

It’s Arnold and Monica 

An untitled Netflix spy series has been cast with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Monica Barbaro as the leads. The rest of the cast has been announced and looks very solid. 

The limited plot we’ve seen almost makes the series sound a bit like Mr. and Mrs. Smith meet True Lies. According to variety.com, a father and daughter have each been working as CIA Operatives.  Neither of them knows that the other is a spy as well.  

The Old Man 

FX will premiere its new series “The Old Man” on June 16, 2022. This one should be good.  It stars Jeff Bridges as a former CIA agent.  John Lithgow is one of his adversaries.  The supporting cast looks strong with this one as well. 

Pathaan 

Ok, on to Bollywood. After a four-year hiatus, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan will be back as one of the stars in the January 2023 spy thriller, Pathaan.  Shah Rukh will be starring with Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in this spy movie which will be released in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.  We’re hoping there is an English subtitle version released as well.  

Industry News 

In October, we released a podcast where we discussed the viewing experience of watching No Time To Die in different theater formats. We talked about the differences experiencing it on a standard screen, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, 4DX, and 3D.  

We especially liked the Dolby Cinema experience. One of the reasons for that is the quality of the image that the laser projector can produce. AMC has been using laser projectors in Dolby Cinema at AMC, Prime at AMC, and some IMAX at AMC theaters.  

Well, AMC is upping their game here. According to an article on Deadline.com, AMC will be installing laser projectors at 3,500 U.S. auditoriums through 2026. This is a welcome trend as the image is an improvement at handling darkness and contrast over previous projection. 

James Bond News 

For a movie franchise that is likely still years away from its next release, James Bond keeps itself in the news. 

More Awards for Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli  

You can add another award to Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli’s shelves.   This September, they will receive the 2022 Pioneer of the Year Award from the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation.  The award will be given during the foundation’s gala to support the Pioneers Assistance Fund. The award is given to those with exemplary career achievements and a commitment to excellence.  

You can read more about this on Deadline.com.  

Bond Birthday Fun 

Mike Reyes has an article on CinemaBlend.Com that gives away an easter egg (or two) from a 007 Instagram post which shows Bond’s passport from Casino Royale.   A few fun things pop out here. 

• First, it shows Bond as being born on April 13.  April 13 was the date that Ian Fleming’s first novel, “Casino Royale” was published.
• Second, Bond’s birth year is listed as 1968.  That happens to be the year Daniel Craig was born.
• Ok, now here’s where it really gets fun.  Daniel Craig was born on March 2nd, the same date that the first James Bond movie, Dr. No came out.  

 Ah, numbers and dates, you can have fun with them, and Eon did. Will dates play into who gets cast next as James Bond?  Let the speculation begin.  

He’s more comfortable naked than with his clothes on 

In an interview with The Guardian, Jason Isaacs had this to say about why Daniel Craig was a great James Bond casting: “Daniel was cast just after we’d done a play together.  He’s one of the only people on the planet who is more comfortable naked than with clothes on, which is why he has been – and will be – the perfect Bond for a long time to come.” – Well said. 

Chastity has no place in Bond movies 

In an article on variety.com, director Paul Verhoeven complains about the lack of sex scenes in recent Bond movies.  “There was always sex in Bond!” Verhoeven said. “They did not show a breast, or whatever. But they had some sex.” 

Given that he’s often talked about the importance of sex and his directing CV we are not surprised he thinks this way. And we think he has a point.  If you don’t know Paul’s work, he directed Benedetta, Basic Instinct, and Showgirls, among others.  Sex was very important in those movies. 

Please bring back some of the sexual situations in Bond movies going forward Eon.   That’s who Bond is! 

Upcoming James Bond Location Tours 

There are two big upcoming James Bond location tours that we know about.  Neither of them is affiliated with Eon, MGM, or Danjaq. Also, as of press time, Spy Movie Navigator has no affiliation with either of these tours either.  However, we know the people involved and know they’ve done good tours in the past. 

June 14-17 – Back to the Bahamas 

Onthetracksof007.com is hosting the Back to the Bahamas tour where seven James Bond movies have been partly filmed.  VIP guests will include Luciana Paluzzi, Martine Beswicke, Diane Hartford, and King Errisson, all of whom a Bond fan should know.  You can find out more about this tour on the website onthetracksof007.com.

October 8-16 – Own the Club Deux 

This bondfanevents.com trip will spend bring you to Jamaica to celebrate filming locations for No Time To Die, Dr. No, Live, and Let Die.  And, oh yeah, you’ll see Goldeneye where Ian Fleming wrote the novels.   Check out bondfanevents.com for details of the trip.

In Memoriam 

Nehemiah Persoff 

Character actor Nehemiah Persoff has passed at the age of 102.  Many of his 207 credits are for character roles in TV series.  TV spy fans may remember Persoff from “I Spy”, “The Third Man”, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, “The Wild Wild West, “Mission: Impossible”, “Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident”, and the movie Mrs. Pollifax-Spy. 

Henry Patterson 

Henry Patterson, the novelist who wrote under the pseudonym Jack Higgins passed at the age of 92. He was known for thrillers, crime novels, and spy stories. His works were turned into four theatrical movies and seven television movies or series.  His novel “The Eagle Has Landed” was his first big success, selling more than 50 million copies, and was made into a movie starring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Duvall.   

David M. Jones 

Visual effects artist David M. Jones has passed at 74.   He started his career as a model maker, then moved to become a model shop supervisor.   He finished his career as a visual effects supervisor.  Some of the movies where you have seen his work include Star Wars, Air Force One, Outbreak, The Hunt for Red October, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and others. 

Here’s our March 29, 2022, edition of Spy Movie News! 

Today we will get some spy movie updates, some James Bond award news, more spy movies and old spy movies coming to streaming services, new Bond villains? the MGM and Amazon deal, Agent Game, Red Notice 2 and 3, The Outfit, Faceoff 2 and more! 

 Ok, we should probably start this by saying we don’t know what happened with Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre.   We told you last month that this movie was to be released on March 18.  Well, STX Films moved the movie from the release schedule and now the release date is unset.  So, it obviously didn’t release in March.  We’ll keep you posted as we were looking forward to this one. 

Here are the spy movies coming out in April 2022 

Theatrical Release 

Agent Game 

Releasing in both US theaters and streaming on April 8th is the Dermot Mulroney, Adan Canto, Katie Cassidy, Jason Isaacs, and Mel Gibson spy movie Agent Game.   

The official synopsis for the movie reads, “In this riveting spy thriller, no one is safe. Harris (Dermot Mulroney), a CIA interrogator at an Agency black site, finds himself the target of a rendition operation after being scapegoated for an interrogation gone horribly wrong. As the team tasked to bring Harris in begins to question their orders — and each other —Olsen (Mel Gibson), a senior intelligence officer, and his subordinate, Visser (Annie Ilonzeh), raise the stakes. Now, it’s up to Harris and some newfound allies to uncover the truth and turn the tables.” 

The Duke 

To add to life’s confusion with the pandemic-affected movie release cycle, two movies are being released this year titled The Duke.  The first is the one we’ve been talking about in other podcasts which is about the heist of the Duke of Wellington portrait.  This heist is referenced in the James Bond movie, Dr. No.  

Released in the UK in February.  The US release was pushed to Unfortunately, the movie The Duke has been pushed until April 22, 2022, in New York and Los Angeles. Other cities will get The Duke over the following weeks 

The second The Duke movie is expected to be released in June 2022 and is about a hostage situation.   

Streaming

Amazon Prime Releases and Releases:  

• The 1976 movie Marathon Man will be available on Amazon Prime starting April 1, 2022.   
• All the Old Knives (Tom for Dan: Oddly, this isn’t on any of the amazon April releases that I’ve seen). 

• Olen Steinhauer’s story based on his novel All the Old Knives, is being released on April 8, 2022, in select theaters as well as Amazon Prime Video. 
• Two CIA agents and ex-lovers (Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton) are brought back together years after a failed rescue attempt and forced to blur the lines between profession and passion in this deeply riveting tale of global espionage, moral dilemma, and deadly betrayal. 
• We screened this movie and liked it. We will release our interview with the director, Janus Metz, and screenwriter, Olen Steinhauer who also authored the novel – on Wednesday, April 6th. 

• The trailer is out for All the Old Knives we have a link to it on our home page on SpyMovieNavigator.com. 

Netflix 

Yaksha: Ruthless Operations: This Korean movie will be coming to Netflix on April 8th. Netflix describes this movie this way “On assignment in a perilous city to inspect a Black Ops team and its notorious leader, an upstanding prosecutor steps into a deadly was between spies.” 

Hulu 

Hulu will be adding the 2009 movie The International to its lineup on April 1, 2022. 

AMC +

The Ipcress File series comes out on AMC+ in May 2022.  This is the series that debuted on ITV in the UK at the beginning of March.  We’ve released 3 podcasts on The Ipcress File series when ITV had their release, including an interview with the Executive Producer Steven Saltzman. 

James Bond News 

We have quite a bit of James Bond news for you today. We told you last month about the nominations that James Bond received at the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards.  So, let’s look at what happened. 

BAFTAs 

We’ll start with the BAFTAs as they happened first. James Bond got some love in this ceremony. 

Diamonds are Forever and so is Dame Shirley Bassey 

It started with Dame Shirley Basey with an excellent performance of the theme song for the 1971 movie Diamonds are Forever.   Bassey sang this song for the movie.  While she was singing, clips of Bond movies played on the screens to the side of the stage.   

 Tom Cross and Elliott Graham won BAFTA for Editing on No Time To Die.  Tom cross dedicated his award to the stellar editor Peter Hunt. 

And, Lashana Lynch won the EE Rising Star Award which is voted on by the public.  Technically not a Bond award, her performance in No Time To Die was a major reason for her win.  

As reported in our buddy Bill Koenig’s The Spy Command, “The rising star was a fan vote. Still, on Feb. 3, Eon’s official Twitter feed counted it as a No Time to Die nomination. Former Bond continuation author Raymond Benson writes on Facebook the blog should not have counted it as a win for No Time to Die. His comment: ‘The Lashana Lynch award was not specifically for No Time to Die… she was just “Rising Star,” along with other nominees, not cited for any particular film they were in either. No Time to Die won ONE award.”  So, there you have it. 

Art Directors Guild 

No Time To Die Production Designer Mark Tildesley won the Art Directors Guild award for Best Production Design: Contemporary Feature Film for his work on No Time To Die.  

Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards 

Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell won Outstanding Original Song for a drama or documentary for the theme song to No Time To Die at the Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards.  So, they’ve won a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists.  And Sunday night they added an Academy Award to the collection. 

The Production Guild of Great Britain 

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were the winners of the PGGB Contribution to the Industry Award sponsored by Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden.

So, let’s stay on James Bond for a minute more. 

Liz Carr as a James Bond Villain? 

Liz Carr is pitching herself to be a James Bond Villain in an upcoming James Bond movie.   In an article on Digitalspy.com, Carr, who has arthrogryposis multiplex congenita and has been in a wheelchair since age 7 puts it this way: 

“I just think that over the years the Bond baddies have always had a sort of disability trait to them – they’ve had a scar, they’ve sat in a wheelchair, but very rarely is it a real-life disabled person. Very rarely is it a woman,”  

“In some ways just being myself, I think would be great. But I want guns on my chair, I want things to come out of the side, a bit like Inspector Gadget-wise. If you’ve got the kit, you might as well use it.” 

We like the idea.  Let someone who has had to deal with a real disability play a Bond villain.  You would get a natural performance, not something forced.  At least with this idea, they wouldn’t have to offer a delicatessen made of stainless steel. 

Amazon Closes MGM Acquisition  

In another story we’ve been watching, Amazon has gotten approval for its MGM acquisition.  We’ll be watching to see what that means for the James Bond catalog and future movies and spinoffs.   Eon Productions still owns the creative rights to James Bond.   This could get interesting. 

Let’s talk about how interesting.  Variety has an article saying that the first Bond product with Amazon Prime will be an 8-part television series called “007’s Road to a Million”.  Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are 2 of the producers.  

The article states “The show will see contestants competing in a global adventure to win a £1 million ($1.3 million) cash prize. Filmed in many of the historic locations featured throughout the seminal Bond films, the “cinematic format” will be a test of intelligence and endurance. In addition to passing physical obstacles, the contestants — who will compete in two-person teams — must correctly answer questions hidden in different locations around the world in order to advance to the next challenge.”    

If this article had been released on April 1st, I would have thought it was an April Fool’s joke.  A Bond Gameshow?  Yep, after No Time To Die and now this- wow – we are left stunned.   After a wonderful 60-year run we see this. . . who knows – ,maybe it sill be a stunning success – people like Bon and like winning money . . . so. . .  At least they are going to filming locations, which we like. 

In Memory of James Bond 

Speaking of filming locations; those fans going to the Faroe Islands to see where the climactic scene from No Time To Die was filmed will get a bonus.   The Guide To Faroe Islands Team YouTube channel has a video showing the creation and placement of James Bond’s gravestone.  The inscription reads “In memory of James Bond, 1962-2021”.  This is placed where the Bond was standing when the bombs went off. 

In Other Spy Movie News 

Gal Gadot 

Well, Gal Gadot is sure keeping busy. 

Heart of Stone 

An article on movieweb.com tells us that Rachel Stone will be Gal Gadot’s character in the upcoming Tom Harper-directed movie Heart of Stone.  Joining Gadot will be Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jing Lusi and Paul Ready. The plot is being kept under wraps, but the word is that this will be another attempt to craft a spy-genre franchise, as we’ve seen done with the Kingsman series, The Gray Man, Red Notice, and Argylle.  So, there is a market for spy movie franchises, and this is another entry.  We’d like to see a bunch of them.  They probably won’t all succeed, but it is great to see the action in this space. 

Red Notice 2 & 3 

Gal Gadot is also reprising her role from Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in Red Notice 2 & 3.  Much like the original plans for Mission: Impossible 7 & 8, they are planning to shoot the two movies back-to-back.  

The Outfit 

The just-released movie The Outfit isn’t a spy movie, it’s a crime movie.  In keeping with our goal of explaining where one movie influences another: the lead role, played by Mark Rylance is a cutter who used to work at Huntsman tailors.  This is the tailor shop that Matthew Vaughan’s mother took him to for a bespoke suit.  He later uses the real shop in Kingsman: The Secret Service. 

Face Off 2 

We’ve told you about a potential sequel to the 1997 movie Face Off on our February 16, 2021, Spy Movie News.  Well, we’re a little more than a year later and Nicolas Cage hasn’t heard anything about it.  According to movieweb.com, Cage says “I have not heard hide nor hair about it. So often these things we read about are just conjecture without any base or foundation to it. I feel the same about National Treasure 3. It’s been 14 years. There’s no there, there. So, is it fun to think about? Sure. Would [Face Off 2] be an exciting movie to make? Oh, hell yeah. But John Woo was such a huge voice in that movie. It couldn’t be a remake. I think these filmmakers even said as much — that something like that would have to be a sequel.” 

So, a director was named and the movie was in development.  Maybe they didn’t bring back the character Castor Troy and that’s why he hasn’t heard anything?  Given what happened to him in the original Face Off, that’s possible. We’ll just have to wait to find out. 

Argylle 

Another Spy Movie trying to become a franchise that we’ve talked about on numerous Spy Movie News episodes, Argylle, has released a trailer that you can see on YouTube.  Note that the spelling for Argylle has two “Ls” and an “e” at the end instead of the single L common in the US.  

This is the movie that will be released on Apple + and stars Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa. There is no announced specific release date, apple.com lists a release date of 2023.  Nothing more specific than the year.    

Mission: Impossible 7 Release Window 

We’ve discussed in many Spy Movie News episodes how the theater release window is shrinking.  This window is the amount of time that movie theaters have a lock on a movie.  With the pandemic and the rise of streaming services, this has shrunk to about 45 days from the old window of about 90 days. An article in HollywoodReporter.com tells us that Tom Cruise is lawyering up against Paramount to bring their current 45-day window back to 90 days.  This isn’t too surprising given the now-settled lawsuit between Scarlett Johansson and Disney.  The Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 contracts were signed before COVID hit.   If he can get the window back to 90 days, will other tentpole movies follow suit? 

In Memorium 

William Hurt 

One of the best actors of his era, William Hurt passed away at age 77.   Hurt was probably best known for his roles in Broadcast News, Altered States, The Big Chill, and Body Heat. He had a prolific acting career.  Spy movie fans will remember him from The Good Shepard, his portrayal of Robert Hanssen in the tv movie “Master Spy: The Robert Hansen Story”, and Black Widow. 

Alan Ladd, Jr. 

Legendary movie executive, Alan Ladd Jr has passed a the age of 84.   Ladd was President of 20th Century Fox in the 70s and was involved with Star Wars and Young Frankenstein before starting his own company where he enjoyed more success.  He joined MGM/UA and was involved in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill. 

Veronica Carlson 

Veronica Carlson has passed at the age of 77. Although known for her horror films, her first movie was the 1967 spoof of Casino Royale.  Ms. Carlson also had a role in an episode of the tv series “The Saint”.  

Here is our Spy Movie News for February 22, 2022! We will discuss Operation Fortune:  Ruse de guerre, Awards nominations, upcoming spy movies such as: Heart of Stone, Cold Sun, The Bricklayer, Kompromat, new streaming spy series, The King’s Man’s historical accuracy, and Mission: Impossible 7!

Let’s start with the spy movies coming out in March 2022.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre

The only spy movie being released in US movie theaters in March is Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre hits the US & UK screens on March 18^th, following a 9 country release the day before.

According to the official website: “…Super spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) must track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology wielded by billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant). Reluctantly teamed with some of the world’s best operatives (Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone), Fortune and his crew recruit Hollywood’s biggest movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to help them on their globe-trotting undercover mission to save the world.”

This sounds like a fun spy movie to us.

Amazon Prime Spy Movies for March

Amazon Prime is bringing back a slew of James Bond movies on March 1^st.  You will be able to stream A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, For Your Eyes Only, GoldenEye, Licence to Kill, Moonraker, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Living Daylights, The World is Not Enough, and Tomorrow Never Dies. 

On March 31, Amazon is adding Imperium to their catalog. This 2016 movie stars Daniel Radcliffe, who is an FBI agent who goes undercover as a white supremacist. Toni Collete and Tracy Letts also star in this movie.

The Ipcress File

And of course, while this isn’t a movie, we have the “The Ipcress File” series coming out in March as well.  The six-part ITV series starring Joe Cole.  This is going to be fantastic.

You can listen to our February 8th podcast, THE IPCRESS FILE ITV Briefing with Actors and Directors – where we talk about this series by recapping the press conference, we were invited to attend for the show   We also have this available as a video if you want to also see photos along with the discussion.

The Duke

Unfortunately, the movie The Duke has been pushed until April 22, 2022, in New York and Los Angeles. Other cities will get The Duke over the following weeks. This is the movie about the heist Goya’s Duke of Wellington portrait that prompted the addition of a replica of this painting to be added to the James Bond movie Dr. No.

Award Nominations Are Out

Award season is hitting its stride. So, let’s look at the 2022 nominees.

BAFTA

First, we got the BAFTA nominations.

No Time To Die garnered nominations for:

• Outstanding British Film
• Cinematography (Linus Sandgren)
• Editing (Tom Cross and Elliot Graham)
• Sound (James Harrison, Simon Hayes, Paul Massey, Oliver Tarney, and Mark Taylor)
• Special Visual Effects (Mark Bakowski, Chris Corbould, Joel Green, and Charlie Noble)

In addition, Lashana Lynch from No Time to Die and Harris Dickinson from The King’s Man were nominated for the Rising Star award. The Rising Star award is voted by the public.

Academy Awards

No Time To Die earned 3 Oscar Nominations:

• Best Original Song – music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas
  O’Connell. This is the franchise’s 6^th Best Original Song nomination if you count the 1968 movie Casino Royale.  The previous James Bond winners in this category have come from the last two Bond movies, Spectre and
• Best Visual Effects (Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner, and Chris Corbould)
• Best Sound (Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey, and Mark Taylor)

With these three nominations, James Bond movies have amassed 19 Academy Award nominations.

Upcoming Spy Movies

So, let’s shift gears and look at movies that are in development or upcoming:

Heart of Stone

Someone ought to tell the folks at Netflix that not every spy movie they do needs to star Gal Gadot.  Oh wait, she’s great, she’s box office gold, and she works well with big co-stars – never mind.  Gal will be starring in the upcoming Netflix and Skydance international spy thriller Heart of Stone.  This time, she’ll be starring with Jamie Dornan of Belfast and Fifty Shades of Grey fame.  They are keeping the plot close to the vest, but with these two actors, we can’t wait.

Cold Sun

The espionage thriller Cold Sun will film this summer in the U.K. and Malta.  Malta is always a good location for a spy movie.  Tara Reid has signed on to play MI6 agent, Marsha Ravencourt.   She will be joined by Gabriella Wright, an Interpol agent.   Variety.com tells us that this movie has been billed as “Cagney and Lacey with a difference”.

The Bricklayer

We told you in last month’s Spy Movie News about The Bricklayer. This is the upcoming espionage movie that stars Aaron Eckhart and Nina Dobrev.  Well, according to Deadline.com, another actor has signed on to the cast, Oliver Trevena.  We’re also told that The Bricklayer heads into production next month.

Kompromat

Set to release in French theaters on September 7^th, the espionage thriller Kompromat starring Gilles Lellouche and Joanna Kulig, has been sold to SND for distribution.  Variety.com tells us that the movie is about a French diplomat working in Siberia who discovers he is being framed by the FSB, the Russian Federal Security Service, a successor of the KGB.  The movie has been sold to Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Benelux, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, and the former Yugoslavia. We’ve yet to see a US or UK distribution deal.

Upcoming Spy Series

With the proliferation of streaming platforms, we are seeing more spy series being produced.  Here are three with news this month.

Slow Horses

Let’s start with the spy series that is coming out on April 1, 2022, on Apple TV Plus.   This is the 6-part series starring Gary Oldman which is based on the novel “Slow Horses”.  Oldman has been phenomenal in everything he does from playing Sirius Black in the Harry Potter franchise to Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.  But in the spy world, we must remember him playing George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  Here, Oldman plays an MI5 boss.  He gets all the untalented agents. We can see where that is going.  Other cast members include Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Johnathan Pryce, and Olivia Cooke.  We like this cast.

 The Night Agent

In our November 2021 Spy Movie News, we told you about the 10-episode Netflix series “The Night Agent” and that Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanan were cast as leads.    This is the series with the FBI Agent mans a hotline in the basement of the White House.

Well, the cast is getting further fleshed out and we like what we see.  Joining Basso and Buchanan are Hong Chau, DB Woodside, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Eve Harlow, Phoenix Raei, Enrique Mucriano, and Sara Desjardins.  We won’t go through all the roles, but you can read about them on Deadline.com.

As is pretty normal with Netflix, we have yet to see a release date for The Night Agent.

Rabbit Hole

Paramount + has opened up a bit about the impending spy series called “Rabbit Hole”.  This 8-part series will star Kiefer Sutherland playing a private espionage agent, James Weir.  As we’ve seen Kiefer do in “24” and “Designated Survivor”, he needs to preserve democracy against all odds.  Sutherland was excellent in those shows so “Rabbit Hole” looks like it will be another good show with him in it.

“Rabbit Hole” is expected to release this fall.

You can read more about “Rabbit Hole: on MovieWeb.com.

Other Spy Movie News

Were We Wrong Last Month?

In our January 2022 Spy Movie News, we told you that No Time To Die obliterated an explosion record that had been held by Spectre.  This record was reported on many sites.  Chris Corbould, who is the production special effects supervisor on both Spectre and No Time To Die, talks about this record on the official 007 YouTube channel.

Well, this doesn’t sit well with Michael Bay who was the director and producer for the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor.  He told Empire magazine that the attack sequence in Pearl Harbor was larger than Spectre.  His words “James Bond tried to take the ‘largest explosion in the world’ Bullshit, Ours is.”  “No one knows how hard that is. We had so much big stuff out there. Real boats, 20 real planes. We had 350 events going off. Three months of rigging on seven boats, stopping a freeway that’s three miles away.”

Well, at Spy Movie News, we don’t know.  We aren’t explosives experts. So, we turned to the Guinness World Records.  We just checked the GuinnessWorldRecords.com site.  It lists Spectre as having the record for the ‘largest film stunt explosion’ at 68.47 tonnes of TNT equivalent.  It also has a listing for ‘most high explosives detonated in a single film take’. No Time To Die has this record at126.4kg of TNT equivalent.

So, while we don’t know how much Michael Bay exploded, Guinness doesn’t know about it.   We believe you have to be nominated and you can nominate yourself.  If Michael Bay wants to be recognized and he did set a record Guinness, he needs to let them know.

Of course, if Michael Bay wants to come onto our podcast to discuss this, we’d love to have him.

The King’s Man historical accuracy

An excellent article by Mike Reyes on CinemaBlend.com examines how the historical characters were portrayed in The King’s Man with their makeup, hair, and costumes.  This was a challenge because real historical people were portrayed so some semblance of accuracy was needed.

His article has a clip where the movie’s Makeup and Hair Designer, Jenny Shircore discusses the challenges of getting historical accuracy while taking a few liberties to help the viewer.  For instance, Tom Hollander plays three roles in the movie, and they have given him different eye colors for each. This wasn’t historically accurate but made it easier for us.

Mike’s article even has a link to an article he wrote about the deletion of a scene where Rasputin uses his large man parts. This was loosely based on reality too.

We love getting the behind-the-scenes stuff like this and it’s nice to see how they tried to keep most things accurate.

Mission: Impossible 7

There have been many stories this month about two Mission: Impossible topics.

The first topic being discussed is the cost overruns of Mission: Impossible 7.   Variety is reporting that Mission: Impossible 7 cost $290 million to produce, and that’s counting tax incentives.  Just as a point of reference, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which was the last Mission: Impossible movie released, cost $190 million.  Daily Mail has said that Cruise is in crisis talks with Mission: Impossible bosses.

The constant opening and shutting down production, moving to a different location, and paying salaries and lodging for the cast and crew added up quickly due to the pandemic, blowing out the budget.   That doesn’t even count the interest that has to be carried during the delay.  We talked in our February 2021 Spy Movie News about how No Time To Die had over $1 million in interest a month for that movie.  Some articles are speculating that the cost overruns could affect Mission: Impossible 8’s budget.  We’ll have to see about that.

The other topic we are seeing is that the Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 movies will ‘serve as a sendoff to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt character.’ They aren’t saying that this is the end of the franchise, just Ethan Hunt’s role as the big-time spy for the movies.   In the past, we’ve seen quotes from Cruise saying that they will never kill off Ethan.   Let’s hope that’s true and they don’t try the same crap No Time To Die did.

In Memoriam

Monica Vitti

Monica Vitti, the Italian actress known for her work with director Michelangelo Antonioni has passed was at the age of 90.  Her big break came in the 1960 movie L’Avventura in which she starred with Gabriele Ferzetti who played Draco in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.  Spy movie fans may remember her for the campy spy movie Modesty Blaise where she played the title character.

Dina Eaton

We also lost Dina Eaton who passed away at 70.   She was a music editor with 51 movie credits.  Five of those were the James Bond movies, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale (2006), and Quantum of Solace.

Judd Bernard

Judd Bernand who was the screenwriter and producer on the movies Point Blank and Double Trouble has died.  He was 94.  Spy movie fans may remember him as the writer/producer of the 1974 movie The Marseille Contract which is also known as The Destructors.

Kenneth Wannberg

And finally, we lost composer and music editor Kenneth Wannberg at 91.  Wannberg worked closely with John Williams.  They worked together on almost half of Williams’ movies. His music editing is found in the first six Star Wars movies, the first three Indiana Jones movies, and over 115 other movies.  Spy movie fans will recognize him as the composer for the 1982 movie The Amateur and the music editor on Catch Me if You Can, Minority Report, and Munich.

So, that’s a wrap of our February 22, 2022, Spy Movie News, brought to you by SpyMovieNavigator.com. Please Subscribe to our show, Cracking the Code of Spy Movies, right now on your favorite podcast app, and know when new episodes come out and more – Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram too!