Can Warner Bros and Guy Ritchie revive a brand...that
pretty much nobody has ever heard of?
You're watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of
The Man from UNCLE!
Hollywood loves an established property, be
it a novel, a Broadway play, a toy, a comic
book OR...a TV show! There are probably more
recent TV series adapted for the big screen
than you even realize. The Equalizer with
Denzel Washington, Dark Shadows with Johnny
Depp, the Jump Street movies and, of course,
Mission Impossible. So one can understand
Warner Bros interest in reviving the 1960s
TV series The Man from UNCLE which was actually
pretty popular! There were The Man from UNCLE
novels, comic books and toys, the spin-off
series The Girl from UNCLE - although that
only lasted one season - and some episodes
of the show were even super-sized with extra
footage and released in theaters! For those
of you unfamiliar with The Man from UNCLE,
which is likely most of you, the premise is
an American spy teaming up with a Russian
spy - at the height of the Cold War! To give
you some perspective, that would be like a
TV show today where an American spy teams
up with an Iranian spy - which, apparently,
is a little TOO bold for Hollywood as they’re
making The Man from UNCLE as a period piece
rather than updating it to current times.
Now, interestingly, Warner Bros took so long
putting this film together - and were so stingy
on the budget - that they lost big name talents
Steven Soderbergh, Michael Fassbender and
Channing Tatum. So instead they turned to
one of their company men, Guy Ritchie, who’s
done very nice work for the studio with his
Sherlock Holmes films, and after this will
try and reinvent King Arthur for Warner Bros
as well. And of course starring is another
company man, Superman, although it would seem
the studio treats him as poorly outside of
that franchise as they do within. But then
again, it’s unlikely Armie Hammer will be
able to upstage Cavill ala Ben Affleck’s
Batman, although ironically George Miller
had cast Hammer as his Batman for his 2007
Justice League film that never came to fruition.
The real talent to watch here is most likely
Alicia Vikander, hot off of Ex Machina and
just cast in the fifth Bourne film where Matt
Damon will return. It’s also worth noting
that the film’s villain, Elizabeth Debicki,
is that Australian actress who got so much
attention for her supporting turn in Baz Luhrman’s
The Great Gatsby - and this is the best she
could get out of all that buzz. Hollywood
is a tough business. Just ask Hugh Grant,
who once upon a time would star in a picture
like this but now has just a comedic cameo.
So, even with Mad Men over and this being the fourth spy film of the year,
will The Man from UNCLE be able to complete its box office mission successfully?
