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.

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:

Alex Rider's Final Mission

The clock runs out today for teen spy Alex Rider. Anthony Horowitz's bestselling series comes to an end with today's publication of Scorpia Rising, the last Rider novel. In a rare occurence, the American edition from Philomel actually precedes the British edition from Walker, which isn't due out until March 31. (But the Brits get the superior cover art, so it all evens out in the end!) Will Alex survive his last mission? Legions of fans (well, American ones, anyway) will soon know the answer. But whether he does or not, Horowitz told NPR in an interview last August that "there is no way forward. The book is without any question the end of a very long journey that I have been taking." Scorpia Rising may well be the end of the road for Alex Rider, but certainly not for Horowitz. The Foyle's War creator was recently tapped to pen the first ever officially licensed Sherlock Holmes continuation novel, which is due out this fall. It's a move designed to further perpetuate the copyright holders' claim on the character, but despite their motivations, I have no doubt that Horowitz will deliver a fantastic and faithful adventure for the master detective.

Scorpia Rising, a $17.99 hardcover, is currently available at 40% off from Amazon.

Read my review of the previous Rider novel, 2009's Crocodile Tears, here.
Read my review of Eagle Strike (2004) here.

Hanna Poster

Dark Horizons has revealed the visually striking poster for Joe Wright's upcoming teen assassin spy movie, Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Olivia Williams, Tom Hollander and Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery.  Hanna opens this April in the United States. Watch the exciting Bourne-meets-Nikita (meets Modesty Blaise) trailer here.

Final Alex Rider Cover Art Revealed

Here's the second Anthony Horowitz news item of the day. I'm a little behind on this, but the cover artwork for the final Alex Rider novel, Scorpia Rising, popped up last month on the official Alex Rider website and on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.  As usual, the British artwork (left) is better (though I don't think it's final), and the American one (right) is too busy.  Writer Anthony Horowitz swears up and down that Scorpia Rising really is the end of his hugely popular Young Adult teen spy series–and a very definitive end at that.  Spy fans can discover exactly what he means by that this March.  Scorpia Rising comes out in hardcover in the United States from Philomel on March 22, and (surprisingly) a week later in the UK when Walker Books releases the paperback original on March 31. Previously, these books have debuted first in Britain.  It's also curious that this one's back to being a paperback original in the UK, like the early books, since the last one, Crocodile Tears (review here), came out in hardcover.  Here's the intriguing UK description for Scorpia Rising:

This gripping final mission brings together Alex Rider's old enemies to frame the teenage superspy in an unstoppable plot of revenge, from which he can never return. Pursued from Europe to North Africa and Cairo's city of the dead - this is the twistiest and most deadly plot of any Alex Rider mission yet, and will reveal Smithers' ultimate gadget and see the shock death of a major character.

The American description is less revealing:

Scorpia has dogged Alex Rider for most of his life. They killed his parents, they did their best to con Alex into turning traitor, and they just keep coming back with more power. Now the world's most dangerous terrorist organization is playing with fire in the world's most combustible land: the Middle East. No one knows Scorpia like Alex. And no one knows how best to get to Alex like Scorpia. Until now.


The chases have never been more intense, the fights more treacherous, or the risks so perilous to mankind. And this time, Alex won't get away.

Horowitz himself revealed far more about the book in his interview with NPR last year.  Read all about that here. If you pre-order now, you can save 50% on the British version of Scorpia Rising (making it a dirt-cheap £3.49) and nearly as much on the American one.

Another Twilight Star Turns to Spying

Ready for it? Deadline reports that ubiquitous werewolf teen heartthrob Taylor Lautner will receive eight figures to star in "an as-yet-unnamed international spy thriller set up at New Regency" described as “The Bourne Identity for the next generation.” (Of course it is! You can't pitch a spy movie in this day and age without putting the word "Bourne" in there somewhere.) Upon reading that much, I was hoping it would be a remake of If Looks Could Kill (that would be pretty cool, wouldn't it?), but according to the trade blog, "the story is loosely"–and I bet that "loosely" is the operative word!–"based on the exploits of Juval Aviv, a former Israeli Mossad agent who was the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-nominated Munich." Presumably, this will be a Mossad agent with a penchant for cut-off jeans–or at least an aversion to shirts. Not only will he star; Lautner (who will be 19 next month) will also produce, along with New Regency's Alexandra Milchan.

Last year we learned that Lautner's Twilight co-star Jackson Rathbone was starring in a McG-produced web series about a spy school called Aim High. (I guess that seems kind of small potatoes compared to an eight-figure payday for a big international spy thriller. Oh well; I'm excited about Aim High.) Now Robert Pattinson (who starred opposite Pierce Brosnan in Remember Me) just needs to get himself a spy movie for a Spylight trifecta! I know that would actually get my sister into the theater for a spy movie on opening day. Maybe this Lautner vehicle will have the same effect, broadening the spy audience to giddy fangirls...

Adam Berry's Kim Possible Score Music Online

This is probably really old news (after all, the show's been off the air for a few years now), but I just discovered it and wanted to share.  Television composer Adam Berry has made a lot of his awesome score music from Disney's Kim Possible available streaming on his website.  I was thrilled to discover this because I've long wanted a soundtrack CD from this series.  Berry references all sorts of classic spy sounds from James Bond to Mission: Impossible to Alias in his electronic score for this whipsmart spy parody cartoon that ran from 2002-2007.  (Full-season Region 1 Kim Possible DVD sets remain an elusive Holy Grail for me.)

Jackson Rathbone Aims For McG's Teen Spy Series Aim High

Ace Showbiz reports that McG's high school spy web series we first heard about a few months ago, Aim High, has been cast.  The Twilight Saga's Jackson Rathbone (who actually might have been the best thing about the Twilight movie that my sister forced me to see, though I was sad to learn he's not actually related to Basil) stars as student spy Nick Green.  According to the website, "Nick is one of the US government's 64 trained teenage operatives and just blew a hit he had on a Russian mercenary named Boris the Bear (Clancy Brown). He's juggling the ripple effects of that with his secret love for Amanda Miles (Friday Night Lights' Aimee Teegarden). The girl takes the chance to flirt with him but problem is, she's got a jealous and overprotective boyfriend (Jonathan McDaniel) who just so happens to be the swim team captain."  I love the convergence of the spy and teen soap genres!  This sounds great to me.  Lost's Rebecca Mader and Ally McBeal's Greg Germann play two of the school's faculty members.  While this "digital series" will debut online in 2011, WB also has plans to compile all the episodes into a feature film and release that on DVD.

Grown-Up Spy Kids And Jessica Alba In A Catsuit

The website What Would Tyler Durden Do? (via AICN) has scored some pictures from the Austin set of Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World.  They include some images of the original spy kids, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara (who was pretty hilarious in Rodriguez's Machete) all grown up, as well as sexy new spy kid handler (whoah, that sounds really bad; hopefully they won't actually call her that...) Jessica Alba in a pretty authentic Emma Peel-style catsuit.  I suspect the latter will be of more interest to most readers than the former.  Read more about Spy Kids 4 (part sequel, part reboot) here.

Tradecraft: Finally, A Series About High School Spies

Today's Second New Spy Show: I'm not kidding with that "finally."  I can't believe it's taken this long for a series to materialize about high school secret agents!  The clock's really been ticking since Buffy the Vampire Slayer took off in 1997.  A friend of mine developed a really cool series about teen spies that was basically The OC meets Alias at the height of those shows' popularity, and frankly I couldn't believe it didn't sell.  It was a great premise, as clearly evidenced by the popularity of Alex Rider and the slew of teen spy and spy school related Young Adult book series that followed in his wake.  "Spies in high school" just seems like such a no-brainer premise that I can't believe it's taken this long for such a series to materialize.  And now, it's not really a TV show, unfortunately, but a "multi-platform digital series."  To be honest, I'm not really sure what that even means.  I can't keep up with the platforms available for digital content.  But, basically, I think it amounts to a web series, although it's coming from Warner Premiere, who I know mainly as Warner's direct-to-DVD division, so I guess eventually we'll see it on that format as well. 

Deadline reports that Warner Premiere has committed to co-finance and co-distribute Aim High, a digital series about a high school secret agent. According to the press release, "Aim High is the story of a young man leading a double life - juggling his studies by day and serving as a government agent by night. This series chronicles the life of Nick Green, a sophomore who’s just starting a new school year as one of the country’s 64 highly trained teenage operatives. When he’s not handling international spies, Nick is dreaming of Amanda Meyers, the most popular girl in school who’s cool, intelligent and very alluring." McG produces (with Lance Sloane), which is good news as far as I'm concerned.  Who better to produce a series about spies in high school than the man who produced The OC and Human Target - not to mention Chuck? (Er, and Nikita.) The series is written by Heath Corson and Richie Keen, who will executive produce along with Peter Murrieta.  Thor Freudenthal (Hotel for Dogs) directs. Aim High is already in pre-production will start shooting in Los Angeles next month.

More Kiddie Spies

Bish has a look on his Beat at a new series of kids' spy books by Jill Marshall being published in the UK about the adventures of Jane Blond, Sensational Spylet.  (And her spy-cat, Trouble.) He calls her a "British Kim Possible," which sounds good to me, but the descriptions make it sound like this series might skew even younger - and the in the illustration she looks more like a Powerpuff Girl than KP.  Head on over to Bish's Beat to learn more about the series.

Tradecraft: All The Time In The World

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Robert Rodriguez's previously announced reboot of the Spy Kids franchise (the one he compared to Casino Royale) has undergone a title change that should either please or infuriate James Bond fans: instead of the lame Spy Kids 4: Armageddon, it will now be known by the much more awesome title Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World.  But the question is: is that On Her Majesty's Secret Service-derived moniker too awesome for Spy Kids?  It would make a pretty awesome proper Bond title, in the vein of The World is Not Enough, would it not?  Oh well.  It's Spy Kids now.  Unsurprisingly (given the kiddie franchise's history of wild sci-fi villains from outside the genre), in these hands that title means that the bad guy ("the Time Keeper") is out to stop time.  Also, Jessica Alba will star as the new spy kids' step mom.  The $30 million 3D movie starts shooting in Austin next month.

Tradecraft: European Female Trouble

Deadline reports that Paramount has won a bidding war to acquire the forthcoming young adult novel Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by screenwriter Joe Schreiber.  According to the trade blog, "The protagonist is a high school kid whose parents take in an Eastern European exchange student. Though she seems homely and ordinary at first, he realizes he misjudged her. After they leave the prom at her suggestion to go clubbing in New York City, she reveals herself to be a beautiful assassin after 5 targets. He is pressed to help and has to figure out if her motives are righteous."  I like it!  Sounds like Gotcha! meets Collateral.  (Or that Simpsons episode where Bart is exchanged for that spy kid, "Sparrow.") I'm pleased to see the return of the PG-13 (or maybe even R? Doubt it) teen-mixed-up-with-spies formula.  Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are in talks to produce through their Paramount-based shingle Fake Empire.  Schwartz, of course, has some experience in this territory, as he produces Chuck.  From Chuck to Chick.

Anthony Horowitz Reveals Final Alex Rider Novel, Scropia Rising

I was surprised to hear Anthony Horowitz pop up on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" today, discussing the next and final Alex Rider novel, Scorpia Rising.  Things don't sound so good for poor, beleaguered teen spy Alex Rider! 

Horowitz noted that his books have gotten much darker and more challenging since Stormbreaker and Point Blanc, and he makes Scorpia Rising, which he declares definitively is "the very last one in the series," sound like the darkest of all. 

"I can tell you without any doubt at all," he says to host Michelle Norris, "that there is no way forward.  The book is without any question the end of a very long journey that I have been taking.  I have to tell you that I, that it makes me very sad to think that I wrote the last words, a few nights ago in fact, and, uh, sat there looking at it and thought, 'Goodness, have you really done this?'  That makes nine in the series and then that is it, and it makes me sad, but I really believe this: it's best to quit while you're ahead.  Don't go on writing formulaic books simply to make money for your publishers and yourself....  I like to think that each book in its own way has been as good as or better than the one before, and I'm happy to quit on a high note with a body of work which I will look on it and feel is about as perfect as it could have been, and not write that one book that sort of spoils it."

The whole tone of the conversation, and the definitiveness that he emphasizes so strongly, makes it seem like poor Alex might not survive the book.  But when pressed for more details about the denoument, Horowitz did offer that "it ends with hope.  A children's author has one duty in life, I believe, and that is always to write with hope.  If you're young and you have, you know, everything in front of you, it is not the job of somebody like me to come along and say, 'actually life is awful and, you know, get used to it.'  It is a dark book and is in many ways a sad book, but I think it ends with hope."  Listen to the whole conversation on NPR's website, where you can also read Horowitz's tribute to Ian Fleming's Goldfinger, which he picks as his favorite thriller.  (It struck me as an odd choice.  It's actually one of my least favorite Fleming novels.) 

The author revealed even more details about Scorpia Rising on his blog, including locations ranging from London to Paris to Gibralter to Egypt, a surprisingly real-world grounded villain named Kalid Aziz Al-Kazim who has worked for both Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and even the overall structure of the book.  (Alex doesn't make an entrance until Chapter 7, conjuring shades of Ian Fleming's From Russia With Love.)  He actually reveals a surprising amount of plot details (including that at least one major character dies), so fans should be sure to head to his site and read the full post.  (Oh, yes, and he's also hidden the entire first chapter somewhere on his site, in case you needed even more incentive!)

The final Alex Rider novel isn't actually due out until 2011.

Read my review of the most recent Rider book, Crocodile Tears, here.

Rodriguez Reboots Spy Kids
Makes Comparisons To James Bond

While out doing press for Predators, which he produced, Robert Rodriguez has told various outlets (including Movieweb) that he plans to make his next film Spy Kids 4: Armageddon.  He went into more detail on the project in an interview with Ain't It Cool, revealing that the new film would be a reboot.  "It would be 10 years [since the first Spy Kids movie] when this next one comes out," the director told the website. "Getting to reboot your own series is pretty interesting. It’s pretty fun and it doesn’t feel like we are going back to the well again, and the idea is doing it again with new kids and making this one… The first three are the Roger Moore Bond movies; this is the Casino Royale. That’s kind of where are going with it. It’s good." I like the analogy, but I can't quite picture the Spy Kids films going that dark!  It would be interesting though.  Perhaps a bit more like Alex Rider?  While the new movie will star new kids, Rodriguez goes on to reveal that original Spy Kid Alexa Vega, now nearly 22, will return in a mentor capacity.  "She’s now an older spy," he says, "who wants to revitalize the Spy Kids division, which got shot down seven years ago for budget reasons."