Mission: Impossible Trailer Breakdown

Empire Online has a really good frame-by-frame(ish) breakdown of the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol trailer with some good screengrabs and snarky analysis.  It's worth a look.  You might catch some things you missed in the quickly-edited teaser!

Mission: Impossible Trailer Leaked

The trailer for Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (aka Mission: Impossible 4) will debut later this week on prints of Transformers 3. No doubt it will also be officially posted on the web even sooner - maybe even tonight or tomorrow - in a pristine high-def English language version. But if you're anything like me and you absolutely can't wait for that to happen, then head on over right away (before it gets removed) to the French language WhiteBlog (via AICN) and check out a low quality, cammed version of the French trailer for "Mission: Impossibel: Protocole Fantôme." Tom Cruise and Tom Wilkinson (I don't think I even realized he was in it) and Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg and that cool BMW hybrid are all dubbed in French, so unless you speak the language, you won't know what's going on, but the good news is... it does look cool! Like all the movies in the series (as opposed to the TV show that spawned them), the emphasis is definitely on action over intrigue, but it looks like Brad Bird has captured the same spy atmosphere that Brian DePalma tapped into in the first film. There's some wretched music, but overall it looks very good. I can't wait to see the official English language version, which you can bet I'll post here as soon as it goes up.

Logos Revealed For Spy Sequels

Early posters were revealed at last week's big Licensing International Expo for two of the biggest spy sequels on the horizon: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (aka Mission: Impossible IV) and The Bourne Legacy, both (oddly enough) starring Jeremy Renner.  The Daily Blam was there and snapped pictures of the posters hanging at the expo promoting both films.  Posters at the Licensing Expo are often slapped together well before the film in question has a real marketing plan, just to give it a presence on the floor, so these should not be taken for the official one-sheets.  When those finally appear, they'll presumably look much cooler.  But these banners do give us our first look at the title treatments the studios are currently using for these movies.  Interestingly, there is no colon, dash, or anything delineating the latest Mission: Impossible picture's awkward subtitle, "Ghost Protocol." It's just there, underneath the usual M:I logo. (On this blog, I will continue using the dash, because another colon would be one colon too many, and following the studio's lead and using nothing doesn't really work if you don't have different font styles on different lines like they do!) There's not much more to the posters than the logos you see here, but you can behold them in all their shabby glory at The Daily Blam. Meanwhile, the same expo also afforded fans a more revealing first look at the suddenly ubiquitous Renner's other big spy franchise movie, The Avengers (based on the Marvel comic, not the awesome TV show). That poster (viewable at AICN) shows his costume, and also gives us another look at Scarlett Johansson's sexy superspy Black Widow, a role she reprises from Iron Man 2.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is set to open on December 16, 2011... though Box Office Mojo has an interesting editorial advocating that the film switch dates to avoid directly competing with the Robert Downey Jr. sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  It does seem odd that two big action tentpoles after the same audience would go up against each other on the same day like that, and I have to concede that BOM is probably correct in their supposition that the Sherlock Holmes franchise has more momentum at the moment, with the sequel coming just two years after a hit predecessor as opposed to five years after the weakest performer in the Mission: Impossible series (though the best movie to date). Of the dates they propose, personally I'd like to see it move up a week to December 9, because I'm dying to see this film and don't want to see it put off until next year! But the editorial does make a good case for April 2012. Read it and see what you think. Tony Gilroy's spin-off from the popular Matt Damon series, The Bourne Legacy, meanwhile, has been set by Universal for an August 3, 2012 debut, as you can see on the poster at The Daily Blam. As previously reported, the film follows an original story conceived by Gilroy (co-writer of the first three movies), and is not based on a Robert Ludlum novel nor the Eric Van Lustbader continuation novel whose title it shares.

Spy Kids 4 Poster

The one-sheet for Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (the fourth film in the series) has popped up online... and it looks an awful lot like all the other Spy Kids posters. Despite Robert Rodriguez's initial comments that this project would be a reboot akin to what Casino Royale was for James Bond, it's looking more and more like more of the same. (Just with different kids.) Watch the trailer here.

Tradecraft: More Salt For Jolie

Though it seemed inevitable from the film’s ending that wasn’t an ending at all (and from its box office success), Deadline reports that a sequel to Salt is finally officially underway. Kurt Wimmer, who penned the first film (originally written for a man—at one point, Tom Cruise), has been hired to write a follow-up for Sony Pictures. As long as she’s happy with the script he comes up with, Angelina Jolie is reportedly keen to do another Salt movie. One key creative force unlikely to be involved, however, is director Phillip Noyce, who revealed last December that he felt that between the three (radically) different cuts available on the DVD and Blu-ray, he’s said everything he has to say on the subject of Evelyn Salt. That’s too bad, because I thought Noyce’s low-key, old-school action direction was the most appealing aspect of Salt. Personally, I hope the sequel feels more like the relatively grounded, action-heavy first half of the original film, and less like the way over-the-top conspiracy-laden second half.

Read my review of Salt (2010) here.

New Spy Kids Trailer

The trailer is out for Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, and it looks... like a Spy Kids movie.  Sigh.  I have to admit that though I'm generally a fan of Rodriguez and I'm definitely a fan of spies—even kid spies (Alex Rider, CHERUB, etc.)—I'm not really a fan of the Spy Kids movies.  I had hope for this one based on the director's comments last year to the effect that if the original trilogy was the Roger Moore equivalent, the new "reboot" would be more akin to Daniel Craig's Casino Royale.  That intrigued me.  But based on this trailer, which includes more than one vomit joke, a talking robot ninja dog voiced by Ricky Gervais and as much over-the-top CGI as all the others, it's just more of the same old stuff.  Oh well.  Jessica Alba looks hot as a spy mom, and I did like the original spy kid's cameo...  Judge for yourself:

New Cars 2 Trailer

I still haven't seen Pixar's first Cars movie (even though I vowed to last time I reported on this sequel), but the new one looks pretty darn good.  Judging from this new trailer, it's the classic story of an innocent abroad mistaken for a spy that we've seen in everything from The Man Who Knew Too Much to Gotcha! to If Looks Could Kill... but with cars.  That part still strikes me as kind of odd (they just don't seem to have the relatability of Pixar's toys and monsters and creatures and people), but some of those cars are spy cars loaded with gadgets and, in one case, voiced by Michael Caine!  And that's awesome.  Burn Notice's Bruce Campbell also lends his voice, which is also awesome.  I wish this had come out when I was a kid; I would have gone nuts for it.

Tradecraft: Rachel Weisz Sought For Bourne Role

Uh-oh.  Will James Bond's girlfriend leave him for rival spy Jason Bourne?  Could be.  Deadline reports that Daniel Craig's real-life squeeze Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) is in talks to co-star with Jeremy Renner in Tony Gilroy's Bourne spin-off movie, The Bourne Legacy.  Sounds good to me!  Weisz is an excellent actress and a good match for Renner, and I've always wanted to see her in a spy movie.  (Though I would have preferred Bond.)  Unfortunately, she's also in talks to star in Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful, and the shooting schedules overlap, so she might not be able to do both movies.  She'd make a good wicked witch, too, so I hope she's able to make it all work out.

Tradecraft: The Bourne Mantle Goes To Jeremy Renner

The Hollywood Reporter reports what Latino Review scooped everybody on a few weeks ago: Jeremy Renner will star in Tony Gilroy's The Bourne Legacy, a spinoff from the popular Matt Damon series based on Robert Ludlum's novels.  For those keeping count, yes, that means that the Hurt Locker actor will be starring in three potential spy franchises at once.  Is he the new Michael Caine (who must have more spy roles to his credit than almost any other actor), or is he over-extending himself in a mad grab for every franchise dangled in front of him?  Besides The Bourne Legacy, Renner also stars alongside Tom Cruise (another actor with a number of espionage roles under his belt) in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (for which he's been widely touted as a potential successor to Cruise in future installments of the series) and The Avengers.  The latter is not based on the real Avengers of Sixties TV, but on the unrelated Marvel comic book series of the same name.  Yet Renner's role is still a spy one.  He plays Hawkeye, a super-agent of Nick Fury's spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and just the other day Marvel prexy Kevin Feige stated the company's hopes that Hawkeye will prove popular enough in Joss Whedon's movie to spin off into his own series.  So that's a lot of spying for Jeremy Renner.  I don't begrudge the guy taking all the starring roles he's offered (I mean, he's not even a proven star yet!), but as a spy fan I do kind of wish we had more variety to look forward to in our spy heroes.  It seems like Renner, Robert Downey Jr. and Daniel Craig now control a small monopoly on all franchises... so get used to them!

By the way: the guy behind Renner in that picture from The Hurt Locker is Anthony Mackie, who was supposedly also in contention for the new Bourne role.  He might have been a more interesting choice.

Anthony Horowitz To Pen Tintin Sequel

/Film reports that Alex Rider and Foyle's War creator Anthony Horowitz will pen the second movie in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's projected Tintin trilogy. The film will be based on Hergé’s classic graphic novel Prisoners of the Sun, an Incan adventure. I guess that puts to rest the previous rumors that Jackson would choose one of the more spyish Tintin adventures, like King Ottokar's Sceptre or The Calculus Affair, for the film he's supposed to direct to follow up Spielberg's first entry. So spy fans lose a spy story but gain a spy writer on the sequel. "I’m writing a feature film even as we speak. I’ve been hired to write Tintin," he told BBC Radio 5 according to the website. "The Secret of the Unicorn is being directed by Steven Spielberg and was written originally by Steven Moffat, of course the writer of Doctor Who in this country. He did a couple of drafts, then it was taken over by Edgar Wright." Joe Cornish also contributed to the final script. "They’ve got [that] coming out at Christmas and if that film is a success and works and gets an audience, I’m writing the sequel to it, Prisoners of the Sun, which Peter Jackson is going to direct." Of course with Jackson tied up on The Hobbit for the next few years, that puts the sequel a long way off.

Horowitz is certainly keeping busy following the end of his lucrative Young Adult spy series earlier this month.  Besides Tintin, he's already been announced as the first ever officially sanctioned Sherlock Holmes continuation novelist, with a book due this fall. Personally, what I'd like to see from him more than anything is another season of Foyle's War, though there's a sticky rights situation making that difficult.

Nigel Small-Fawcett Reborn!
First Trailer For Johnny English Sequel

Here's our first real look at Rowan Atkinson's eight-years-after-the-fact spy parody sequel, Johnny English Reborn... and I like what I see!  I was a big fan of the first film, which I enjoy more than any of the Austin Powers movies as far as spy spoofs go.  Bond regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade co-wrote that one.  They're not back for Reborn (though their original collaborator William Davies is), but there are still plenty of Bond alumni involved.  Die Another Day's Rosamund Pike goes from Bond Girl to English Girl, and various websites (including the IMDb) list Pierce Brosnan as cameoing as a character named "Ambrose" (though there's been no official announcement to that effect).  He doesn't turn up in the trailer, but it has plenty of other things to offer (I love that gag with the chair in the briefing!) including our first glimpse at Johnny English's new wheels.  He kept up with 007 in the first movie by driving an Aston Martin; this time he's got a Rolls Royce.  Johnny English Reborn opens in Britain on October 7.  As far as I know the US release date hasn't been announced yet, but hopefully we won't have to wait too long... 

Tradecraft: The Bourne Contenders, Part 2

Deadline has another story about possible stars for Tony Gilroy's The Bourne Legacy, a Matt Damon-less spinoff from the Bourne franchise—and this one has slightly more actual information in it than the last one. The trade blog reports that Dominic Cooper, Joel Edgerton, Garrett Hedlund and Luke Evans are all scheduled to read for the lead role in the first week of April.  Now, that doesn't mean that any of them will end up getting the job, but they're all definitely testing for it.  Interestingly, it seems that one of the primary qualifications for playing this American agent (assuming the new spy hero hails from the same Treadstone spy factory as Jason Bourne/David Webb, which drew from the ranks of the US armed forces) is not being American.  Hedlund is the only candidate of the bunch born in the States.  (Yet also the least exciting of the bunch, I think.) Oddly, I don't really care about that, but considering how up in arms we'd all be were so many Americans ever in contention for James Bond, it's an interesting observation.  Another interesting observation is that the three candidates from the British Commonwealth are also potential successors to the Bond mantle whenever Daniel Craig decides to turn in his PPK. (For my money, Cooper's the most likely to be in the running in that sweepstakes—and he has some interesting Bond connections already, having starred opposite Bond Girl Rosamund Pike in An Education and opposite former 007 Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia!) That in itself represents a shift in direction for the Bourne series, casting-wise, since Matt Damon seemed to have been selected largely because he's such a vigorous anti-Bond type. His non-Bondness, in fact, was probably in part responsible for the franchise's remarkable success to date. It certainly tricked people into believing the filmmakers' line that the Bourne movies were something entirely fresh, and not in fact very well-made imitations of the Bond films. (For the record, I love the Bourne movies, and fully recognize that they in turn have influenced Bond and all action films in general, but that doesn't alter the fact that without James Bond there would be no Jason Bourne, literary or cinematic.) Read the full Deadline story for the names of other possible contenders not currently scheduled to test for the part.

Tradecraft: Taken 2 Set in Istanbul

Deadline reveals that the city Liam Neeson will tear apart in the eagerly awaited Taken sequel will be a classic spy location: Istanbul.  I love that!  Their proximity to Europe made Istanbul and Beirut the most common "exotic" cities frequented by Eurospy heroes in the Sixties, and through my love of those movies (as well, of course, as Ian Fleming's novel From Russia With Love and the subsequent film adaptation), it's become one of my very favorite spy locations.  (Though I've never been there, alas.)  Therefore it's more than appropriate that the sequel to the most successful film of the neo-Eurospy movement (original review here) should take place there.  I look forward to seeing Liam Neeson threaten to tear down the Hagia Sophia if he has to. 

There was apparently a brief possibility that Neeson wouldn't return, which was the thrust of the Deadline article, but fortunately the scheduling issues have been worked out and the actor is now set to reprise his role as badass ex-spy Bryan Mills.  According to the trade blog, producer Luc Besson was briefly considering replacing him with Ralf Fiennes, Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, Sean Bean or Jason Isaacs.  While I'd love to see Fiennes or Bean topline one of these neo-Eurospy actioners, there would have been no point in proceeding with this franchise without Neeson, so I'm glad the issues were worked out.  Filming is now set to begin at the tail end of this year or the beginning of next, so we won't be seeing Taken 2 in theaters before Fall 2012 at the earliest.  (And I'd bet February 2013 is more likely. Oh well, at least we've got ABC's Missing to tide us over! The pilot script is very Taken-ish and very good.) Transporter 3 helmer Olivier Megaton is reportedly in talks to direct this one.  Original writers Besson and Robert Mark Kamen have penned the script, and Fox is expected to once again distribute in the US.  Still no word on who will be taken this time around, but I really hope it's not Mills' daughter again...

Tradecraft: Who Will Accept The Bourne Legacy? 

This isn't really news, but I guess any traction on a new Bourne film is worth reporting. According to Deadline, pretty much every good-looking actor between the ages of 21 and 35 is being considered as the lead in the next Bourne movie. You probably assumed that already, right?  Of course you did.  Remember, as we've heard many times before, this new lead actor won't actually be playing the same character Matt Damon played; he'll be playing another character, making this film a spinoff rather than a sequel.  Which seems really stupid to me, but I guess I should wait and see where writer/director Tony Gilroy goes with this; he has a good track record.  But can you imagine if EON had said that George Lazenby would be playing 009 or 0011 instead of 007 after Sean Connery left the franchise, in hopes that Connery would come back later? History might have played out more or less the same with Connery returning once more, but the best film in the series would have been ruined! The point is, you don't need to change the character to change the actor. Just give us another Jason Bourne (by which I mean the David Webb Jason Bourne) instead of another character who's clearly treading water while the studio prays for Damon to return. Anyway. Deadline's Mike Fleming offers a laundry list of hot young actors on Universal's wish list here. I'm not going to repeat the whole list because you can probably guess them all anyway, and it doesn't mean anything till someone's actually cast. Two interesting (non-Gemini) contenders on opposite ends of the age spectrum with previous movie spy experience include Alex Pettyfer and Michael Fassbender. I admit, there's something amusing about the idea of Alex Rider stepping into Robert Ludlum's world... but not that amusing.

BMW Concept Car Debuts in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

The next Mission: Impossible movie, directed by The Incredibles' Brad Bird and produced by J.J. Abrams, already boasts a pretty impressive cast including Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Josh Holloway, Michael Nyqvist, Lea Seydoux, Anil Kapoor and of course Tom Cruise.  Now the BMW Blog reveals another intriguing new star in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol: the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics hybrid concept car.  BMW describes the exotic looking car as a "near-production-ready vehicle ... combining the performance of a BMW M model with the fuel consumption and emissions of a modern small car."  While you'd think that a jacknife doored space car that's not even on the roads yet (and may well never be) would be a tad inconspicuous as a spy car, when the car in question is that cool looking, I'm sure not going to complain!  (And we're not even sure it will be Ethan Hunt driving this thing.)  There's precedent for it, anyway: when Casino Royale was made in 2006, the Aston Martin DBS wasn't on the market yet, but that didn't stop Her Majesty's Secret Service from getting their hands on one.  The blog reports that the prototype car has been spotted on the film's set in Vancouver (and has the picture to prove it) and was also seen in Abu Dhabi around the time the production was filming there late last year.  Perhaps self-confessed gearhead Tom Cruise has a particular agenda to promote hybrid sports cars in his film; Knight and Day featured a memorable chase sequence involving Smart Roadsters (and bulls).

The BMW Blog also reports that the fourth Mission: Impossible film will also feature some of the company's latest 6-series models.

Read more about the BMW Vision EfficientDynamic concept car here, and watch a nifty 3D animation of it.

First Look at Rowan Atkinson in Johnny English Sequel

Looks like I missed this one a few weeks ago!  Ace Showbiz has the first picture I've seen from the Rowan Atkinson spy parody sequel Johnny English Reborn.  So... there's snow.  Always a good thing in a spy movie–comedy or otherwise!  Sadly the picture doesn't offer us any glimpses of the impressive duo of previously announced "English Girls" Rosamund Pike and Gillian Anderson.  The website also has a synopsis that sounds official offering some plot details I hadn't read before:

In the years since MI-7's top spy vanished off the grid, he has been honing his unique skills in a remote region of Asia. But when his agency superiors learn of an attempt against the Chinese premier's life, they must hunt down the highly unorthodox agent. Now that the world needs him once again, Johnny English is back in action. With one shot at redemption, he must employ the latest in hi-tech gadgets to unravel a web of conspiracy that runs throughout the KGB, CIA and even MI-7.

Johnny English Reborn opens September 16, 2011 in the UK, which means Brits will have to choose between two very diffent spy movies that weekend! I think that's the same date that Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy opens.

Hoebers See RED Again

Collider (via AICN) reports that Summit has hired Erich and Jon Hoeber, who penned last year's fun retired spy comedy RED, to write a sequel script.  The movie was a hit and even earned a Golden Globe nomination (which is honestly kind of weird), so a sequel definitely doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility.  The ending certainly introduced the prospect before the credits even rolled on the first film.  I really enjoyed RED (review here) and I'd love to see more of those actors accomplishing more Mission: Impossible-style heists and cons.  I certainly hope there's room for Karl Urban to return as well as higher-profile stars Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich.  Collider's story doesn't provide any specifics, but it seems unlikely that the sequel will be based on Cully Hammer's sequel to the comic book he and Warren Ellis originated.  And why should it?  The first film certainly didn't hew very closely to the source material and it turned out just fine. 

RED hits DVD and Blu-ray next week.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Has a Carnival

Speaking of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (which we were earlier today), some more set photos have turned up! I don't know about you, but I love spy movies with carnivals in them. I think Thunderball started the trend with the Junkanoo, but the tradition lived on healthily not only in Eurospy imitators (any spy movie that takes place in Rio takes place during Carnival!), but also in the Bond series itself (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, even the New Orleans funeral in Live and Let Die).  And now the Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible film series gets its first street carnival, judging from these on-set pictures at Italian movie site Film.it (via Dark Horizons). Filming is taking place in Vancouver, but it's unclear at this time whether or not Vancouver is playing itself or not. I'm not sure what carnival this is, but a little Googling reveals that Vancouver has a Winter Solstice Festival celebrating the return of the light in December. That timing would seem to work out. Either way, looks like a cool scene.  I wonder if its an IMAX one?

Tradecraft: Mission: Impossible - IMAX Protocol

Who says Tom Cruise isn't big anymore?  He'll be bigger than ever this fall, thanks to a deal announced today between Paramount and IMAX, who will debut Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol on their enormous screens (and their annoying not-so-enormous-but-equally-expensive ones, presumably) day-and-date with its regular release on December 16, 2011.  But this isn't just a regular movie playing on a big screen, which is fairly common these days.  No, like Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible sequel will boast sequences specifically shot for the larger-than-life format. Here's the pertinant bit from a press release reprinted on Deadline: "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol continues the legacy of The Dark Knight and its revolutionary integration of IMAX original footage as this fourth chapter in the Mission: Impossible franchise will feature scenes shot with IMAX cameras. These specific sequences, exclusively in IMAX, will expand on the screen and further immerse the audience in the explosive action and vast scope of the film."  Cool!  I don't generally like traveling the extra distance and paying the extra price just to see regular movies in IMAX (even 3D ones), but if it's got scenes specifically shot for it, that's a different story! I loved watching the picture open up for the big action sequences in The Dark Knight, and I'll definitely be lining up and shelling out to see Ethan Hunt and his cronies on the super-big screen. With filming nearly wrapped, I'm surprised this is the first we're hearing of the use of IMAX cameras.

For more on Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, click here.

No More Salt For Noyce

Director Goes Low Sodium

The theatrical cut of Salt (no longer definitive, apparently, but since I haven't seen either of the alternate cuts on the DVD and Blu-ray, still my only point of reference) ended with such a blatant sequel set-up that I'm not even sure it can really be considered an ending. (As I said in my original review, the credits started to roll just as the film seemed to be heading into its third act.) But Dark Horizons reports that frequent spy director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Quiet American) won't be a part of any follow-up, should it ever happen.  "Those three Blu-ray cuts represent just about everything I have to offer on Evelyn Salt. If there ever is a sequel, better it's directed by someone with a completely fresh take on what I believe could be a totally entertaining and complex series of stories," Noyce told Moviehole. Too bad. Personally, I found Noyce's refreshingly lo-fi style to be my favorite aspect of the film.  But as we've seen with the Bourne franchise, it's definitely possible for one director to solidly lay the groundwork for this sort of character and another to take it and run with it.  Even though (the first?) Salt didn't satisfy me, I'd still line up for sequels.  It seems that with all the ludicrous exposition out of the way, this character could just be getting started. However, before speculating about sequels, it would be good to note that star Angelina Jolie doesn't seem to be a big fan of them.  The only live-action role that she's ever reprised to date is that of Lara Croft.