Future of EuropaCorp's Neo-Eurospy Movies

After the disappointing box office of Luc Besson's sci-fi epic Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, EuropaCorp is in trouble. Deadline reported in January that several suitors are lining up with aims to buy Besson's French studio, or at least its library of titles, with Lionsgate at the time chief among them. (Lionsgate itself has also been the subject of buyout rumors, with Amazon a potential buyer.) According to the trade, the company was "expected to discuss the sale of its assets, which includes its film library — consisting of movies such as Taken and The Transporter — with buyers at a Paris-based presentation" to be held in February.

According to a later Variety story, Netflix also entered the fray as a potential partner. The trade reports that when discussions between the streaming giant and Besson began, they were just about him directing several movies for Netflix, who have made a major push into original features in the past year. But apparently the scope of the conversations broadened, and now "as part of the deal, Netflix could also buy into EuropaCorp’s library, which has an estimated value of €150 million ($186 million) and includes such franchises as Taken, Taxi and Transporter."

This week, The Hollywood Reporter reported that EuropaCorp shares jumped 30% following French news reports that Netflix was closing in on a deal. According to a report originating in the French financial paper Les Echos, "the deal would see Netflix take over control and operation of EuropaCorp, but Besson would stay on as creative head of the company." The paper foresaw a deal being announced as early as next month's Cannes Film Festival. Deadline chimed in with a story that EuropaCorp itself is downplaying the coverage, confirming only that "indeed discussions are taking place with several potential industrial and/or financial partners," but neglecting to name Netflix or any other entities specifically. (The trade reports that Warner Bros, Sony, TF1, Vivendi and current EuropaCorp investor Fundamental Films, from China, are all in the mix as well.)

How does all this affect spy fans? Well, it could actually mean revivals of some of EuropaCorp's popular neo-Eurospy franchises, like the Transporter or Taken movies. (EuropaCorp probably ranks as the number one purveyor of neo-Eurospy content in the past decade, with other titles including From Paris With Love, 3 Days to Kill, Columbiana, and Lockout.) These intellectual properties are among the more appealing elements of the EuropaCorp catalog, and while the current regime at EuropaCorp has chosen to forgo further Liam Neeson Taken movies or Jason Statham Transporter movies in favor of an NBC television series (in the former case) and an under-performing prequel starring Deadpool's Ed Skrein (in the latter), a new owner might not feel the same way. It's possible, for instance, that Netflix might recognize the value in luring Statham back to the Transporter franchise. (The Skrein reboot, which was supposed to be the first in a new trilogy, reportedly happened because the studio refused to meet Statham's asking price.) Liam Neeson has publicly stated that he wouldn't reprise his Taken role of former CIA agent Bryan Mills again... but as another aging spy star once learned, never say never. (Neeson has also repeatedly forsworn further action movies in general, yet keeps coming back to them.)

Luke Evans appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers earlier this year and revealed a few details about Besson's own next directorial effort, Anna. The project has been shrouded in secrecy besides the fact that, like Besson's hit Lucy (and the brilliant spy movie that put him on the map, La Femme Nikita), it will be a female-driven action movie. Evans confirmed that it's also a spy movie, saying it's about Russian assassins and he plays a KGB agent. (I don't know if this means it's a Cold War period piece, or if he's using "KGB" interchangeably with SVR or FSB.) Cillian Murphy and Helen Mirren also star, while Russian model Sasha Luss (pictured, who also appeared in Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) plays the title role. Lionsgate will distribute the English-language thriller. It seems possible that Anna could launch yet another lucrative EuropaCorp neo-Eurospy franchise.

Tradecraft: Munn Replaces Saldana on Assassin Pic HUMMINGBIRD

We heard back in February that Columbiana's Zoe Saldana would be taking another crack at the assassin genre with John Tyler McClain's Black List script Hummingbird. But now Deadline reports that due to a scheduling conflict with the Avatar sequels, Saldana has had to bail out. Now Olivia Munn (Mortdecai) will replace Saldana as a "black-ops assassin whose latest mark forces her to confront her true identity." Videogame veterans Marcus Kryler and Fredrik Akerström will direct.

Tradecraft: Zoe Saldana to Star in Assassin Thriller Hummingbird

According to Deadline, Zoe Saldana (Colombiana) has signed on to star in the assassin thriller Hummingbird, based on a 2016 Black List screenplay by John Tyler McClain. (That's Black List as in the annual list of best unproduced scripts, as chosen by Hollywood assistants, not as in the one word NBC TV series.) Here's the official Black List logline for the movie: "A black-ops assassin’s latest mark forces her to question the truth of her identity and ultimately confront the unsettling fact that she’s more than a hired gun, she’s an entirely new breed of weapon." So... The Bourne Identity meets Hitman? Just a guess. Fundamental Films acquired the script last year and will finance and produce with Broken Road Productions.

Tradecraft: Dates for 2016 Spy Movies

We're only a little more than halfway through the unbelievably spy movie-packed 2015, in which we've gotten at least one every month, but Studios are already locking down their spy films for next year. Adding to Universal's next Matt Damon Bourne movie (the fifth total), which has July 16 staked down, Sony's Sacha Baron Cohen/Mark Strong comedy Grimsby (directed by Transporter 2 helmer Louis Leterrier), set for February 26, and Millennium's London Has Fallen on January 22 (both the latter two were originally slated for 2015, but fled the stiff spy competition), Deadline reports two more dates have been set. Summit's Criminal, starring Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Kevin Costner (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), Ryan Reynolds (Safe House), Tommy Lee Jones (Bourne 5) and Gal Gadot (Fast Five) will open on April 15, displacing the studio's Jason Statham assassin sequel Mechanic: Resurrection all the way to August 26. The sequel is already better than the original remake, as Statham is supported by the ubiquitous Tommy Lee Jones (Criminal) as well as Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) and Jessica Alba (Barely Lethal). Two main takeaways: 1) we've already got five months covered for next year in terms of spy releases, and 2) Tommy Lee Jones is in almost all of them.

Tradecraft: New Regency Makes Second Attempt at a Mr. & Mrs. Smith TV Show... This Time as a Reality Series

Back in 2007, ABC ordered a one-hour drama pilot from New Regency based on Doug Liman's blockbuster 2005 Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The successful team behind the movie was also behind that TV version, with Liman (The Bourne Identity, Fair Game) directing and Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, X-Men: Days of Future Past) scripting. Married assassins Mr. and Mrs. Smith were reinterpreted as married spies (not difficult, since the movie traded heavily on classic spy iconography), with Jordanna Brewster (The Fast and the Furious) playing the Jolie part and Martin Henderson (Secrets & Lies) stepping into Pitt's shoes. The network ended up passing on the series, and it was shopped elsewhere, but ultimately failed to find a home.

Now, according to Deadline, New Regency is trying again at adapting the movie to television, but with a major twist. This time, teaming with unscripted production company 3 Ball Entertainment, they are doing it as a reality series. According to the trade, the competition show "will feature married couples that compete in a high-octane, high-stakes game, with the producers offering no further details." In the film, Pitt and Jolie each discover that their spouse is, like them, a professional assassin, and that they have each been tasked with eliminating the other, sparking a fierce, over-the-top battle of the sexes. A reality gameshow based on that concept just might work, if it's done properly.

New Regency has been eager to reactivate this brand for a long time. Besides the failed scripted series, they've also attempted to get a movie sequel off the ground (in which the Smiths were to have a child), and failing that, a theatrical reboot just five years after the first movie, which would have focused on a different couple, in their twenties, set up as a fake married couple straight out of spy school. Personally, I'd still love to see Pitt and Jolie reunite for a proper sequel under Liman's direction. It could actually be even more fun ten years later.

Tradecraft: Gaumont Plots CIA Assassin Series Crosshair

Gaumont TV Europe will produce a 13-episode season of a CIA thriller entitled Crosshair, Deadline reports. Gaumont announced an aggressive plan last year to produce two new English language series a year, starting with William Boyd's Cold War Berlin-set Spy City. Now they've got another spy show in the pipeline, with the contemporary action thriller procedural Crosshair, following a CIA assassin and shot on location throughout Europe. Crosshair was created by Ken Sanzel, whose producing credits include Numb3rs, Blue Bloods and the Ironside remake. Here's the trade's rather clunky description:

The procedural aspect of Crosshair will see each episode focus on the circumstances and implications of a single rifle shot. The story of the globetrotting thriller centers on John, a freelance sniper with a CIA blessing to go anywhere and shoot for almost anyone. After discovering he has a 16-year-old daughter with the only woman he nearly loved, and realizing that his partner tried to kill him, he drifts into a mid-life crisis. Questioning everything he’s seen and done, he begins to develop a mercurial moral code. There’s also a throughline which sees John attempt to untangle a large conspiracy while at the same time trying to protect his career status and life.

Deadline adds that European broadcasters have lamented the lack of weekly procedurals, designed to be tuned into with no knowledge of what's happened before, as the U.S. becomes more and more focused on highly serialized event programming. Gaumont hopes to fill this void with Crosshair.

Barely Lethal Trailer

The trailer has dropped for the brilliantly titled Barely Lethal, starring Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) as a teen spy trying to fit in at a ordinary American high school. An orphan raised in Samuel L. Jackson's assassin school, Steinfeld's character fakes her own death to leave her secret spy agency and attempt to enjoy a normal teenage life. Her plans are thwarted, however, when her old life catches up with her in the form of enemy agent Jessica Alba (Spy Kids: All the Time in the World) and rival spy Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones). Fanboys' Kyle Newman directs. I'm a sucker for the teen spy subgenre, and this looks like fun to me. While we've seen plenty of movies about ordinary kids becoming spies (If Looks Could Kill, Kingsman, Alex Rider), I can't recall one about a trained teen spy trying to become an ordinary kid before. Barely Lethal premieres April 30 on DirecTV, then opens in limited theatrical release and comes to VOD May 29.

Support Assassin 9 on IndieGoGo

My friend Chad Jones has created what promises to be a really cool spy comedy web series, Assassin 9, and he and his partners have turned to Indiegogo to raise finishing funds. I've read the script, and personally I can't wait to see Chad's somewhat warped vision realized. The five-part series follows Agent J9, Janine, an "offensive security specialist" in the SPECTRE-like S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Corporation, a multinational conglomerate whose business model happens to include world domination. Janine is an expert when it comes to killing, but never lands the big assignments because she doesn't have the seduction skills necessary for more delicate missions. She's got to get her act together or face termination—literally. To overcome her shaky relationships with HR director Gladys and sociopathic CEO the Komodo, Janine will have to seek help from her chief rival, Bogdana, an Eastern-European vixen with nothing but contempt for J9. Assassin 9 has something for just about everyone who's ever toiled as a corporate drone to relate to: disagreeable coworkers, nondisclosure agreements, insurmountable corporate bureaucracy, lasers, ninjas, sexy spy babes, evil acronyms... you know, the daily grind. Think of it as The Office set inside Hydra. Go poke around the project site, check out the videos, read the pitch, peruse the premiums, take seduction tips from Bogdana, and if you like what you see, please support Assassin 9 on Indiegogo! After all, global domination is always a good cause, right?

Trailer and Poster for Pierce Brosnan's Survivor

At last! We've been hearing about this movie for what seems like years, and now we've finally got our first look at Pierce Brosnan and Milla Jovovich in the new espionage thriller Survivor, directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin). It's interesting that even though Jovovich is top-billed, the poster clearly makes Brosnan the main attraction. I think Brosnan is always great playing bad guys, going back as far as his turn as a cold-blooded KGB assassin opposite Michael Caine in The Fourth Protocol. It looks like Survivor affords the former Bond the opportunity to put his own spin on the Edward Fox role from another Frederick Forsyth-based movie, The Day of the Jackal. I can't wait to see the results! Robert Forster (Jackie Brown), Angela Bassett (Alias), James D'Arcy (Agent Carter), Roger Rees (If Looks Could Kill) and Dylan McDermott (Olympus Has Fallen) round out the cast. When the movie was first announced, Emma Thompson was also listed as part of the cast, but I see no sign of her here, so perhaps that didn't work out. Survivor is written by Phillip Shelby and is apparently quite similar to, if not actually based on, his 1998 novel Gatekeeper. As reported last month, Survivor will be receive a multi-platform release later this year from Alchemy (formerly Millennium Entertainment), in partnership with Lionsgate.

Tradecraft: Pierre Morel to Adapt Victor the Assassin

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Taken and From Paris With Love director Pierre Morel will follow up his forthcoming Sean Penn assassin movie, The Gunman, with another assassin movie. Morel will reunite with two of his Gunman producers, Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman from The Picture Company, to launch a potential franchise for Studiocanal based on Tom Wood's "Victor the Assassin" novels. Morel plans to helm a movie based on the first book in the series, The Killer (no relation to the classic John Woo movie). The trade humorously acknowledges that the plot "is something spy-thriller fans may have seen before," their tongue-in-cheek description still sounds alright to me: "a hitman on the run, chased and double-crossed by many parties." Yeah, that's what I like.... The publisher's description offers more details. Victor, "a man with no past and no surname," pulls off a kill for hire in Paris in order to retrieve a flashdrive with details about a sunken Russian submarine carrying a payload of next generation missiles. But when he returns to his hotel, he's set upon by a cadre of international hitmen, propelling him on a chase across Europe and eventually to CIA headquarters pursued by the world's intelligence agencies. In a capsule, that sounds kind of similar to Mark Greaney's The Gray Man (currently in development as a film at Sony)... but then it was hardly an original one there, either. It's all in the execution, and I haven't read the book so I don't know how Wood handles it. But I'll watch that movie every time someone makes it, whether it's based on a book by Robert Ludlum, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Mark Greaney or anyone else. Especially when it's directed by Pierre Morel, grandmaster of the neo-Eurospy genre! There are four Victor novels to date (the most recent being No Tomorrow), so if the movie is a hit, it certainly has franchise potential... which is clearly Studiocanal's hope.

Trailer: The Gunman

Sean Penn (Fair Game) throws his hat quite aggressively into the "over-the-hill-actor-reinvents-himself-as-an-action-hero" sweepstakes in the trailer for the latest neo-Eurospy movie from Taken director Pierre Morel, The Gunman. And the results look pretty stunning to me! Almost as stunning as the heavy-hitting cast, which also includes Javier Bardem (Skyfall), Idris Elba (Luther), Ray Winstone (Edge of Darkness) and Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall). Morel (who also directed From Paris With Love) is a master of this genre, and I cannot wait to see this movie! It seems like we've been hearing about it forever, but I guess it's really only been about two years. The Gunman (based on the Jean-Patrick Manchette novel Prone Gunman) hits theaters in March.

Tradecraft: Javier Bardem Signs Up for More Spy Villainy

Javier Bardem is following in the footsteps of Adolfo Celi, going from Bond Villain to (neo-) Eurospy villain. Deadline reports that the Skyfall heavy has signed on to butt heads with Sean Penn in Taken director Piere Morel's international assassin thriller The Gunman (formerly known as Prone Gunman, and based on the existential French novel of that name). Penn vs. Bardem? Cool! Yet another reason to be excited for this movie, which comes from the producing team behind Unknown.

Tradecraft: Pierce Brosnan Signs Onto IRA Assassin Thriller

More than a decade after his James Bond tenure came to an end, Pierce Brosnan keeps signing onto spyish international thrillers. I will happily watch him in any one of these that actually gets made; I just hope some of them manage to come to fruition! The Hollywood Reporter reports that Brosnan is now attached to a new assassin thriller co-scripted (somewhat oddly) by talk show host Craig Ferguson (along with Ted Mulkerin). Although Ferguson is the funniest guy in late night these days, the film is not a comedy. Last Man Out is based on the novel The Ghosts of Belfast (which, confusingly, is also known as The Twelve) by Stuart Neville. According to the trade, Brosnan will play Gerry Fegan, a former IRA hitman freshly released after serving 20 years in prison. Fegan finds himself haunted by the ghosts of his innocent victims, and decides that the only way to appease them, and to redeem himself, is to systematically assassinate the men who gave him his orders. It will be cool to see Brosnan actually play an Irishman, which he rarely gets to do! But he has played an IRA hitman before, very effectively. If only he'd been serving 30 years instead of 20, it would be tempting to view Last Man Out as an unofficial follow-up to The Long Good Friday, revisiting his assassin character from that film all this time later. The trade reports that U.K.-based "sales and finance banner" Ealing Metro is trying to sell the film (which has not been shot) at the Berlin Film Market this week. I hope they find a buyer, because it definitely sounds like something I'd like to see! Newcomer Terry Loan is on board to direct, with shooting hoped to commence at the end of this year.

Last Man Out isn't the only Brosnan thriller seeking distribution in Berlin. Additionally, Variety reports that The Solution Entertainment Group is hoping to sell the Roger Donaldson spy thriller The November Man (based on the novel There Are No Spies by Bill Granger) with Brosnan attached to star. We first heard about this one almost a year ago, and I'm very excited to see it happen, so I really hope SEG is successful as well! Meanwhile, there's at least one Brosnan thriller on the horizon that we'll definitely see: he's finished shooting The Coup, alongside Owen Wilson.

Tradecraft: Pierre Morel Circles Sean Penn Neo-Eurospy Flick

Late last year, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Sean Penn was circling the assassin thriller Prone Gunman, based on what the trade called an "existential" novel of the same name by French noir specialist Jean-Patrick Manchette. (Existential enough for the current edition of the book to be published by San Francisco's highbrow City Lights Press.) The Oscar-winning actor was apparently hoping to find the same after-50 action stardom that Liam Neeson achieved with Taken. According to the trade, the novel (and the script by Peter Travis) "centers on an international operative named Martin Terrier (Penn) who is betrayed by the organization he works for and must go on the run in a relentless game of cat-and-mouse across Europe." So, basically, it's the plot of every assassin story ever (in recent memory The American springs readily to mind), but in the hands of the right director that could still feel fresh and original with a leading man with the chops of Sean Penn. And now... it looks like the right director has been found! If you're going for a Taken vibe, who better than the director of Taken? This week, the trade reports that Pierre Morel is in negotiations to helm the movie. Morel has carved a niche for himself as something of a neo-Eurospy specialist, having served as cinematographer on The Transporter and Transporter 2 and directed Taken (review here) and From Paris With Love (review here), both of which also starred aging Hollywood leading men in action roles. Action veterans Joel Silver and Andrew Rona are producing, so if Morel signs on, this should indeed be the right team to turn Penn into an action star. According to the trade, "Silver and Studio Canal, which is fully financing the picture, are looking at a spring 2013 production start in several locales across Europe."

Tradecraft: Focus Features Explores 1970s Assassination in A Man Must Die

Deadline reports that Peter Buchman, who scripted the two-part Che for Steven Soderbergh, will return to the subject of late 20th Century South American politics to do a rewrite on Miss Bala director Gerardo Naranjo's A Man Must Die. According to the trade blog, the fact-based thriller centers on "the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean diplomat in the 1970s who was targeted and killed in Washington D.C. by agents of the Pinochet regime. This story focuses on the FBI investigator who starts to suspect a government conspiracy surrounding the murder." It's a pretty fascinating story involving the Stasi, the CIA and its then-director George H. W. Bush that, weirdly, I had just been reading about the day before seeing this trade article. Good material for a film! Naranjo wrote the previous script draft, and will helm the movie. Perhaps in the wake of Argo's success we'll see more fact-based, Seventies-set spy thrillers.

Tradecraft: USA Developing Pierce Brosnan Assassin Show

USA unveiled their latest development slate at the cable network's upfront presentation this week, and Deadline reports that it includes a hitman drama from Pierce Brosnan's Irish DreamTime Productions. Here's the plot description for Bang Bang: "An unlikely partnership is formed when veteran hitman Danny is saved by rival novice hired gun Marco, while executing a target. This dynamic duo pair up to execute contracts, if they don’t kill each other first. Based on the French television series, Doom Doom." I can't quite picture assassins working in the lighthearted USA buddy formula, but then again Brosnan has had his own success in exactly that area in The Matador (which he produced as well as starred in), so hopefully his know-how will translate to TV. The former 007 will executive produce Bang Bang along with his regular producing partner Beau St. Clair. With this announcement coming hot on the heels of the recent news that the actor's years-in-development passion project November Man is finally getting underway, it looks like lots of birthday wishes are coming true for Brosnan this week! (He turned 59 on Wednesday.)

Movie Review: Killer Elite (2011)

Movie Review: Killer Elite (2011)

Killer Elite tells the supposedly true story of a 1981 showdown between a team of professional assassins (led by Jason Statham's Danny) and a team of ex-SAS officers (led by Clive Owen's Spike) known as the Feathermen (so named for their light touch), all elite killers. (It's loosely based on Ranulph Fiennes' "non-fiction novel" The Feather Men.) The circumstances that lead these groups to battle each other are rewardingly convoluted, but the overall gist is that a wealthy sheik exiled from Oman wants revenge for the deaths of his three sons in a conflict in which the British weren’t officially involved. He’s somehow gotten the names of the SAS soldiers he thinks killed them. Danny is the best assassin in the world, but he’s inconveniently retired, having sworn off killing after a child got in the crossfire during a botched Mexican assignment. So to lure him out, the Omani sheik kidnaps his former mentor, Hunter (Robert De Niro—surprisingly not just phoning it in!) and uses Hunter's liberty as leverage to force Danny to track down and kill each of the men on his list. However, the sheik doesn’t want to incur retribution, so he must make each death look like an accident. Spike, however, isn’t fooled. He’s the operational leader of a secret society of ex-SAS soldiers sworn to protect their own. So when he hears about strangers asking questions about Special Forces soldiers who were all on the same Omani mission, he gets suspicious and activates his network. Spike and his men attempt to protect the Oman veterans, while Danny and his men attempt to take them out, setting the two British action heroes on a collision course.

It may seem like an odd choice, given this scenario, to focus on the assassin (Statham) rather than the former soldier (Owen) as the protagonist, since Owen seems like the ostensible good guy here. But upon reflection, it’s a very good choice. Assassin movies generally focus on the proverbial “one last job,” and show their heroes trying to get out of the business in order to make them relatable. Danny is already out, but he’s forced back into the game in order to protect the people he cares about: first Hunter, and then his young fiancé, Anne (played by Chuck’s Yvonne Strahovski, using her own Australian accent for once). Thereby, the assassin gets our sympathies, while at the same time the nobility of the SAS in that undeclared war in Oman is called into question. The result is a film without any clear “good guy” (“Some good guy,” Owen says of himself after behaving in an un-good-guy-like manner), but opposing killing machines in shades of gray, both of whom you want to root for—not in the least because of the appealing stars playing the roles. Other characters operating in the same gray area include Danny’s and Hunter’s untrustworthy boss (Lost's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who brokers hits, and a mysterious MI6 man who just might be pulling everybody’s strings to achieve his own dubious ends. The latter character gets a great entrance, especially for spy fans. He lands in an unmarked helicopter to meet Feathermen boss Commander B (The Man From S*E*X baddie Nick Tate, driving a Silverbirch Aston Martin DB6) and, when asked his identity, snidely explains, “I’m the guy they let fly around in an unmarked helicopter with a gun in his pocket, but you can call me Mifwig—Motherf#cker What’s In Charge.” (I know, the acronym doesn’t quite work, but it’s fun!)

Those expecting a straight-up Statham action-fest along the lines of his neo-Eurospy Transporter movies or Crank may be disappointed. This is a rather sprawling tale of intrigue that has more in common with The Bank Job or Steven Spielberg's Munich—though it’s not quite on the level of either of those films. (In fact, it reminded me quite a lot of Spielberg’s story of a team of assassins set in the same general period—even if the motives for this team aren’t nearly as noble.) For me, that made it all the better. The Cold War setting is well-realized for the limited budget, and Australia does an ample job standing in for far-flung locations like Oman, Dubai, Wales, Paris and London.

That’s not to say, however, that there isn’t some typically awesome Statham-style action as well. In one early scene, Statham gets to demonstrate some patented lightning-fast moves when he attacks a guard with a teacup. In one of the most badass (if not entirely plausible) moments of in-the-field ingenuity I’ve seen this side of Bourne, he then proceeds to grab a loaf of French bread and tear it in half. What’s he doing? Is he hungry, in the middle of a battle? No, he’s improvising a silencer! Statham sticks his small-caliber pistol entirely inside the loaf of bread (along with his hand) and uses it to muffle his next shot at close range! (Actually, maybe that’s not so far-fetched as other movie silencer moments. I suppose the bread would effectively diminish the sound of escaping gasses, and at such close range it wouldn’t seriously affect his accuracy.) Later on, we get two different versions of the Statham-vs-Owen showdown we’ve been waiting for (their first go is interrupted), with the second one resulting in that shot you’ve no doubt seen in the trailers where Statham manages to disarm his opponent and then flip backwards out of a window all wile tied to a chair! I’ll grant that moments like this awkwardly stand apart from the more serious ones and make it rather difficult to believe the film’s claims of being “based on a true story,” but Jason Statham is one star who can actually pull that off. We expect that kind of move from him, and therefore adjust our sense of disbelief accordingly.

Director Gary McKendry struggles a bit with the pace. All that globe-trotting seems to slow things down a little rather than speed them up. Still, the film is drenched in the atmosphere of its era, and that—coupled with three very compelling leads—goes a long way. It’s no masterpiece, but Killer Elite is still a rewarding viewing experience for spy fans and Statham fans, occupying a middle ground somewhere between the sublime excess of Transporter 2 and the grounded speculative history of The Bank Job.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Colombiana

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Colombiana

Is Zoe Saldana the perfect stocking stuffer? Clearly Sony think so. DVD Active reports that the studio will release Luc Besson's latest neo-Eurospy effort, Colombiana, on DVD and Blu-ray on December 20. Written by Besson and his Taken cohort Robert Mark Kamen and directed by future Taken 2 director Olivier Megaton, Colombiana stars Zoe Saldana as a waifish assassin with a penchant for very large guns in the tradition of Besson's Nikita. And it's a lot of fun. (Read my review here.) The DVD, set to retail for $30.99, will feature deleted scenes and two featurettes ("Colombiana: The Making Of" and "Cataleya's Journey"); the Blu-ray ($35.99) will include all that as well as three additional featurettes ("Assassins," "Training A Killer," "Take The Ride") and a Colombiana PS3 Wallpaper/Theme. (Does that really count as a feature?)

New Spy(ish) BDs Out This Week: The 10th Victim (1965)

New Spy(ish) BDs Out This Week: The 10th Victim (1965)

Elio Petri's The 10th Victim isn't really a spy movie, but it does exude the same awesome Sixties spy style that characterized Modesty Blaise, Danger: Diabolik, Casino Royale, The Prisoner and later seasons of The Avengers. Which is to say, it's awesome. If you like Sixties spies, you will like The 10th Victim. It even stars the first Bond Girl, the luscious Ursula Andress, as a sexy assassin with ballistic bosoms. Yes, her character here was the inspiration for the fembots in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. The sharp, satirical plot of the movie is more The Running Man than Goldfinger, but The 10th Victim isn't really about plot as much as it is about style. And what style! The movie boasts all the fashions and set design that we like to believe characterized the decade, but in fact were probably as removed from day-to-day living as runway looks are today. But I don't want the real Sixties. I want this Sixties! And now I can live it in high-definition for the first time, as Blue Underground have released the film on Blu-ray this week! Special features (some previously included on the DVD, some new to this release) include a 2006 feature-length documentary about star Marcello Mastroianni entitled Marcello: A Sweet Life, the US trailer, the Italian trailer, a Mastroianni still gallery and, perhaps most excitingly of all, a poster and still gallery featuring images from the collection of fellow COBRAS blogger Jason Whiton, curator of the essential Sixties spy lifestyle blog Spy Vibe! Jason is even running a contest right now to win this Blu-ray. Head on over and enter to win. Otherwise, retail will set you back $29.98, though of course the disc is cheaper on Amazon and other online retailers.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week: X-Men: First Class and Hanna

New Spy DVDs Out This Week: X-Men: First Class and Hanna

It might seem like I'm a few days late with this post, which I usually try to get up on Tuesdays, but the biggest spy release of the week didn't come out on Tuesday. Weirdly, it comes out today, on Friday. As far as I'm concerned, X-Men: First Class is still the spy movie to beat so far this year. (Read my full review here.) Matthew Vaughn's Sixties-set superhero epic is a paen to the spy movies and TV shows of that era as much as it is a terrific origin story for the mutant film franchise. (Read about some of The Avengers' influence on Vaughn's film here.) This week, Fox Home Entertainment releases X-Men: First Class on DVD and Blu-ray, the latter with copious special features.

Special features on the X-Men: First Class Blu-ray include ten Marvel X-Men Digital Comics with exclusive X-Men: First Class backstory (which is particularly cool, since Marvel didn't release any direct comic book tie-ins when the movie was in theaters!), an eight-part behind-the-scenes featurette called "Children of the Atom" charting the film from pre-production through post-production (including visual effects techniques and cataloging X-Men transformations through prosthetic make up and costume design), extended and deleted scenes (including one of Michael Fassbender in drag... which is kind of weird), an interactive feature allowing viewers the opportunity to learn more about specific scenes with talent interviews and behind-the-scenes footage called "X Marks the Spot," an isolated score track(!) showcasing composer Henry Jackman's Sixties spy-saturated soundtrack, the theatrical trailer and some gimmicky interactive thing called the "Cerebro Mutant Tracker," billed as "the complete interactive Mutant Database with interactive videos giving fans the [interactive, surely?] ability to learn about their favorite mutants in the X-Men film franchise," plus a BD-Live Portal with additional Cerebro Mutant Tracker profiles. All that adds up to more than two hours of bonus material! You'll be able to choose between heroes and villains with two separate collectible O-rings in stores. (They're the same cover underneath.) Retail is $39.99 for the Blu-ray and $29.99 for the DVD, but both are currently substantially discounted on Amazon and other online retailers.

Making this a big week for major mainstream spy releases, on Tuesday Universal Studios Home Entertainment put out Joe Wright's hard-edged teen assassin movie Hanna on DVD and Blu-ray. Extras on both versions include an alternate ending (that I'm particularly keen to see; the ending was the only part I didn't really like about the movie), deleted scenes, "Anatomy of a Scene: The Escape From Camp G" (undoubtedly the coolest scene in the movie) and an audio commentary with director Wright. Further exclusive bonus features on the Blu-ray (don't you hate that?) include "Adapt or Die," a featurette on training, a making-of documentary cleverly titled "Central Intelligence Allegory," a featurette on the Chemical Brothers' awesome score called "Chemical Reaction" and "The Wide World of Hanna," a featurette about the film's impressive European locations. This La Femme Nikita-meets-Bourne with a teenage girl spy movie/fairy tale starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana is another one of my favorites so far this year, and I'm looking forward to adding the Blu-ray to my collection. And look! They even kept the cool poster art rather than slapping together a Photoshop montage for the DVD cover! Nicely done, Universal. Retail is $34.98 for the Blu-ray and $29.98 for the DVD, but both are available considerably cheaper on Amazon.