Tradecraft: THE IRREGULARS TV Series Explores Wartime Espionage Exploits of Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl

Buried in an exciting Deadline article about Paramount's latest attempt to reboot the venerable Matt Helm spy franchise was another item of note to spy fans. The writer who will be tackling the Donald Hamilton spy series, Tom Shepherd, has already adapted another great spy tome—this one non-fiction. Giving background on Shepherd, the trade mentioned that along with an upcoming Dr. Dolittle movie with Robert Downey Jr. and a period action-adventure spec script teaming up a young Agatha Christie with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to solve a baffling mystery, Shepherd has already written an adaptation of Jennet Conant's terrific Roald Dahl biography The Irregulars for Anonymous Content and Paramount TV. No further information is provided, but I would assume the format would be a limited series. (Or miniseries, as we used to call them.) The Irregulars focuses on Dahl's period as a British spy operating in Washington D.C. during WWII. The future Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author and You Only Live Twice screenwriter worked for Sir William Stephenson's BSC (British Security Coordination) after he was shot down early in the war and unable to continue as an aviator due to his injuries. In Washington, he was basically a gigolo for England ("the things I do for England," as 007 would quip in You Only Live Twice), seducing society wives with the goal of getting them to convince their powerful husbands that America should join the war and come to the aid of Great Britain. Ian Fleming and his friend Ivar Bryce also figure prominently in the narrative, Fleming having worked for British Naval Intelligence at the time and Bryce, eventually, for the American OSS. There's an amusing account of Dahl and Fleming competing for the affections of the same woman, and the revelation that Fleming gave Dahl the idea for one of his more famous short stories that would later be adapted into an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The Irregulars is essential reading for anyone interested in Dahl, Fleming, James Bond, or wartime espionage (and a great companion piece to William Stevenson's famous Stephenson biography A Man Called Intrepid, or William Boyd's fabulous BSC novel Restless), and should make for great viewing as well. I'll definitely have my eyes open for more information on this project.

Tradecraft: Paul Rudd to Play Moe Berg

Variety reports that Paul Rudd (Captain America: Civil War) will play the legendary baseball player/spy (more legendary as the former than the latter) Moe Berg in The Catcher Was a Spy for Palmstar Media. Since it has the same title, I'm assuming this film will be based on Nicholas Davidoff's 1995 book, and I honestly can't believe it's taken so long for that to make it to the screen. There have been many books on Berg, however (ESPN calls him "the only utility player to be the subject of three biographies"), so it's possible that the movie has other source material. Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) wrote the screenplay and Ben Lewin (The Sessions) will direct.

Berg was perhaps the ultimate Renaissance man. With degrees from Princeton and Columbia Law (as well as studying at the Sorbonne), he was a polyglot and an athlete. During a fifteen-year career in the major league he bounced around between multiple teams including the Chicago White Sox, the Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox. An undistinguished record didn't stop him from accompanying the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to Japan in the years before WWII, where he covertly photographed Tokyo for the U.S. government, taking films that were supposedly used in planning the Doolittle raid. He went on to serve in the OSS and the CIA, taking on numerous perilous wartime assignments.

John le Carré to Publish Memoir in 2016

According to an announcement on his official website, spy novelist extraordinaire John le Carré will publish his memoirs in September of next year. The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life will be le Carré's first non-fiction book, though he has dabbled in that field with articles, opinion pieces, numerous forwards and introductions, and an enthralling afterward to Ben Macintyre's A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. Le Carré's life, of course, has comprised not only an astonishing writing career, but also an earlier career in espionage. Whatever he can reveal will no doubt make for fascinating reading!

According to the publisher's copy, The Pigeon Tunnel "opens up this extraordinary writing life for the first time. It is an exhilarating journey into the worlds of his ‘secret sharers’ – the men and women who inspired some of his most enthralling novels – and a testament to the author’s unique and personal engagement with the last half-century."

Beyond that, the author's literary agent Jonny Gellar of Curtis Brown promises "insights into the creative mind, tales of adventures in the movie trade, encounters with the great and the not-so-good, [and] intensely moving stories drawn from over 50 years of observing the world – told in prose other writers would envy," while Penguin Random House UK CEO Tom Weldon says, "The Pigeon Tunnel is the story of our times as seen through the eyes of one of this country’s greatest novelists."

The Pigeon Tunnel will be published in September 2016 in the UK in Viking Hardback and simultaneously in the USA and Canada by Penguin Random House. The audiobook will come out at the same time and be read by the author, which should be good. Le Carré is a gifted narrator, having demonstrated as much with abridged recordings of some of his novels and the unabridged audiobook of his most recent one, A Delicate Truth (which The Telegraph auspiciously selected earlier this year as the best audiobook of all time).

The timing of this announcement is somewhat curious, as it would seem to deliberately steal the thunder of Adam Sisman's John le Carré: The Biography, a nearly 700-page tome due out next month from Harper which had previously received the fiercely private author's official blessing. (Le Carré has famously sued to prevent other such publications in the past.) Le Carré has said before that the semi-autobiographical elements of A Perfect Spy were the closest he would ever come to penning a memoir (though The Naive and Sentimental Lover has also been described as a fictionalized accounts of events from the author's own life), so this decision is clearly a fairly recent one. I wonder if it was inspired by Sisman's manuscript – either because the author liked it and felt encouraged to go further, or didn't like it and felt the need to set the record straight himself?

First Fleming Teaser

Sky Atlantic has released the first teaser trailer for their upcoming miniseries Fleming, starring Dominic West as James Bond creator Ian Fleming. They've also released some images. The stills look good. The teaser... well, it's not really fair to draw to many conclusions from a 30 second teaser, but I'm going to go ahead and do it nonetheless. The imagery will look awfully familiar if you've seen Skyfall, and that's hardly surprising. They'd be crazy not to capitalize on the biggest Bond film ever! But I'm hoping this is some sort of fantasy sequence. Because if there's actually a scene like this in the miniseries, then it looks like it will be another along the lines of the 90s TV movies about Fleming, presenting the author as a stand-in for 007 himself allowing the filmmakers to tell a Bond-style story. And of course there's really nothing wrong with that. Except that it wouldn't be accurate, and Fleming's real life story is far more interesting, I think, than that approach. I'm still hoping this miniseries will attempt to tell the true story. Anyway, here's the teaser:

Tradecraft: Duncan Jones' Ian Fleming Biopic Gathers Steam

It's been a while since we heard any updates on Moon director Duncan Jones' Ian Fleming biopic, Fleming. In the interim, Jones has signed on to direct the mega-budget videogame adaptation World of Warcraft, and Sky Atlantic has commissioned a four-part miniseries about the James Bond creator also titled Fleming. (That one stars Dominic Cooper.) I'd feared that either one of those developments might have meant that the Jones feature was dead in the water, but apparently not! Deadline reports that French production company Le Pacte has come on board to co-finance the film, which has the official blessing of the Ian Fleming estate. According to the trade blog, "casting has begun with a plan to start production this year." This year? Wow! So I guess Jones will fit it in before he embarks on World of Warcraft! And fans will get two glossy Fleming-based productions in the span of a year--one theatrical, and one on television! It's all very exciting. Jones is writing the script with Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction), based on Andrew Lycett’s excellent 1997 biography Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond (which is apparently getting an update this October).

Tradecraft: Dominic Cooper to Play Ian Fleming in New Miniseries

James Bond's creator remains a fertile source for biopics. After the recent spat of miniseries and movies featuring Ian Fleming as a supporting character (Any Human Heart, Age of Heroes) and before either of the two rival theatrical features get underway, UK cable channel Sky Atlantic has booked its own miniseries about the life of Ian Fleming. Variety reports that Dominic Cooper (whose weird Die Another Day connections include starring in The Devil's Double for that film's director Lee Tamahori, and opposite Bond Girl Rosamund Pike in An Education) will play Fleming in a four-part miniseries tentatively titled.... Fleming. (That's also the title of note for at least one of the feature biopics in development—the one being directed by Duncan Jones.) This take on Fleming's life is written by John Brownlow (who previously chronicled the life of another famous 20th century author in Sylvia, which co-starred Daniel Craig) and Don Macpherson (who penned the 1998 feature film version of The Avengers, but shouldn't be blamed for the end result, as his original script was, in my opinion, quite a good tribute to that classic spy series), directed by Mat Whitecross (who helmed the odd Spooks/MI-5 spinoff Spooks: Code 9) and produced by UK company Ecosse Films. The take sounds a bit similar to the two 1990s TV movies about the author, Goldeneye (starring a perfectly cast Charles Dance) and Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (starring Jason Connery), in that it plays up Fleming's wartime intelligence exploits and will likely give them a more Bondian twist than they actually had. ("Ian Fleming's story is as dramatic and entertaining as any of the Bond films," executive producer Douglas Rae told the trade.) But Cooper is an inspired choice to play Fleming, and ably demonstrated in An Education and Captain America that he's a great actor who looks good in period suits! So I'm excited. Here's Variety's description of the project:

[Fleming] is set during WWII when the maverick and hedonistic Fleming was hired by British Naval intelligence as part of its undercover campaign against the Nazis, after his careers as a banker and stockbroker failed.

It was these wartime experiences that provided the inspiration for British spy 007, who first appeared in print in Casino Royale, published in 1953. Like his character, Fleming was well known in English society for his womanizing and taste for alcohol.

Tradecraft: Duncan Jones to Direct Ian Fleming Biopic

Deadline reports that Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones (who, as a child, played the part of Bill Roach in the BBC version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) will next helm a big screen biopic of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. The still untitled film will be based on Andrew Lycett's 1997 biography Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, with a script by Matthew Brown.

There have been so many Fleming projects in the works these last several years (including two that came to fruition on TV: Age of Heroes and Any Human Heart) that it's hard to tell, but as best I can figure out this is the same one that caused a brief flurry of press a few years ago when James McAvoy was erroneously connected to the lead, and not the one that Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and Andrw Lazar's Mad Chance production companies have been developing on and off since

I think Jones is a pretty amazing director and, if the quotes he gave to Empire are anything to go by, he's quite passionate about the project! So I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

Tradecraft: Leo to Play Alan Turing?

Tradecraft: Leo to Play Alan Turing?

Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has spent seven figures to acquire a red-hot script by first-time screenwriter Graham Moore about the life of genius codebreaker Alan Turing called The Imitation Game. The script is based on the definitive 1983 biography of Turing by Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma, and the trade blog reports that Leonardo DiCaprio "has the inside track" to star, with Ron Howard interested in directing. (Though the project would undoubtedly take him close to the familiar ground of math geniuses and codebreaking that he covered in A Beautiful Mind.) DiCaprio seems drawn to biopics (he was even once rumored to be considering playing Ian Fleming in a film his production company is developing), and at least he's the right age for this one (his baby face never works for me in old age makeup), even if he'd have to pull off an English accent.

Besides his crucial role in creating the modern computer, Turing is best known now for his secret work during WWII at Bletchley Park, where he and his colleagues successfully cracked the supposedly un-crackable German Enigma codes, striking a huge blow for Allied intelligence and turning the tide of the war. Despite his heroic service, Turing suffered an ignoble fate after the war when he was prosecuted for homosexuality at a time when it was still illegal in Britain. Horrifically, he was sentenced to a form of chemical castration and chose to commit suicide by eating a cyanide-laced apple—widely believed (though perhaps apocryphally) to be the inspiration for the name and logo of Steve Jobs' computer company. The Enigma machines (there were several different ones, with different numbers of rotors creating totally different codes) have inspired a lot of spy fiction and movies already, most notably Michael Apted's superb 2001 Robert Harris adaptation Enigma, written by Tom Stoppard and produced by Mick Jagger, for which John Barry provided his final score, capping his career in the spy genre that launched it.

Each Enigma machine the allies captured has a thrilling story behind it, but the story likely best known to readers of this blog is one that never occurred. Ian Fleming, working for Naval Intelligence during WWII, proposed a plan (with the full support of Bletchley Park) to capture a 3-rotor naval Enigma in an operation dubbed "Ruthless." According to a Fleming memo published in Craig Cabell's Ian Fleming's Secret War, Operation Ruthless entailed sending a "tough crew" of German-speaking British airmen out in a captured Heinkel 111 bomber and crashing it in the English Channel to attract a German rescue boat (ideally a minesweeper). When the crew was pulled out of the water, they would overpower the German sailors, capture the craft and sail it and its precious code machine back to Britain. Sadly, the operation was cancelled. (There are varying accounts of the precise reason for this, but the one most commonly cited it bad weather.) This frustrated Turing, who was very keen indeed to get his hands on this particular prize. Frank Birch, head of the Naval Section at Bletchley Park, wrote a memo to Fleming that's reprinted in Cabell's book in which he complained that "Turing and [his colleague] Twinn came to me like undertakers cheated of a nice corpse two days ago, all in a stew about the cancellation of Operation Ruthless." Needless to say, Fleming was none too happy about it himself.

I merely mention this anecdote, of course, because it's likely to be of interest to readers here. Operation Ruthless was but a footnote in the history of Bletchley Park; it's highly doubtful it will feature at all in The Imitation Game. Alan Turing's contribution to the British war effort was far, far more significant than Ian Fleming's, and his is a fascinating story that I can't wait to see unfold on the big screen.

New Spy Documentary: The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby

New Spy Documentary: The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby

A story in Variety that manages the neat trick of being neither a review nor a news item at least served to alert me to the existence of a new spy documentary. I hadn't previously been aware of The Man Nobody Knew, despite the fact that it's currently rolling out in limited release around the country and about a subject that's interested me since seventh grade. Despite a relatively brief (if tumultuous) tenure as DCI, William Colby is one of the more famous Directors of Central Intelligence in the history of the CIA, largely because he became the Agency's face during the Church Committee Congressional hearings in the mid-Seventies, when many of its darkest secrets came to light. But who was the man himself? That's the subject of his son Carl Colby's new documentary, the full title of which is The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby. Here's distributor First Run Features' official synopsis:

A son's riveting look at a father whose life seemed straight out of a spy thriller, THE MAN NOBODY KNEW: IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER, CIA SPYMASTER WILLIAM COLBY uncovers the secret world of a legendary CIA spymaster. Told by William Colby’s son Carl, the story is at once a probing history of the CIA, a personal memoir of a family living in clandestine shadows, and an inquiry into the hard costs of a nation's most cloaked actions.

From the beginning of his career as an OSS officer parachuting into Nazi-occupied Europe, William Colby rose through the ranks of "The Company," and soon was involved in covert operations in hot spots around the globe. He swayed elections against the Communists in Italy, oversaw the coup against President Diem in Saigon, and ran the controversial Phoenix Program in Vietnam, which sparked today's legacy of counter-insurgency. But after decades of obediently taking on the White House's toughest and dirtiest assignments, and rising to become Director of CIA, Colby defied the President. Braving intense controversy, he opened up to Congress some of the agency's darkest, most tightly held secrets and extra-legal operations.

Now, his son asks a series of powerful and relevant questions about the father who was a ghost-like presence in the family home – and the intelligence officer who became a major force in American history, paving the way for today’s provocative questions about security and secrecy vs. liberty and morality. The film forges a fascinating mix of rare archival footage, never-before-seen photos, and interviews with the "who's who" of American intelligence, including former National Security Advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense and Director of CIA James Schlesinger, as well Pulitzer Prize journalists Bob Woodward, Seymour Hersh and Tim Weiner. Through it all, Carl Colby searches for an authentic portrait of the man who remained masked even to those who loved him most.

If that description still doesn't fascinate you, check out this great trailer:



Despite telling a tale more than a quarter of a century old, this documentary seems especially timely. Senator  Bob Kerrey's recollection of his time spent on the CIA's controversial Vietnam anti-insurgency initiative the Phoenix Program particularly resonates today. "By the time I got there in 1969, it felt more like an assassination program," he reveals. That carries a new resonance in the wake of a recent Washington Post story that levels the same claim against the Agency of today.

"In the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks," write journalists Greg Miller and Julie Tate, "the agency has undergone a fundamental transformation. Although the CIA continues to gather intelligence and furnish analysis on a vast array of subjects, its focus and resources are increasingly centered on the cold counterterrorism objective of finding targets to capture or kill.

"The shift has been gradual enough that its magnitude can be difficult to grasp. Drone strikes that once seemed impossibly futuristic are so routine that they rarely attract public attention unless a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure is killed." In that light, Colby's story takes on a new relevance today. While I'm not sure if it's really fair to compare today's Agency's primary ongoing mission against terrorism to Vietnam-era intervention, the CIA is always going to provoke debate, and in order to understand its place in today's world it's crucial to understand its past. Personally, I find the real-life histories of the CIA, MI6, the KGB, the Mossad and other intelligence agencies every bit as engrossing as a great spy novel, and I'm eager to see The Man Nobody Knew.

Further connecting the worlds of spy fact and spy fiction, is it just me or does Gary Oldman's George Smiley bear an uncanny resemblance to Colby? I'm not sure John Le Carré would appreciate the comparison, but I wonder if the makers of the new Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy examined a number of real-life spy chiefs of that era to create their Smiley's look?

The Man Nobody Knew opened in New York last week and expands to other markets this weekend and over the next few months. (The Los Angeles run begins October 14 at the Nuart.) Visit the film's official website for more details and play dates in your area. Next year, the movie's DVD release will be accompanied by a companion book by Carl Colby of the same name.

Age of Heroes Trailer

With a big tip of the hat to The Book Bond (the foremost site out there for news on the literary 007, by the way, and an absolutely required daily visit for me as we enter the home stretch toward the publication of Carte Blanche), here's the official trailer for that movie about Ian Fleming's 30 Assault Unit we've been following here since its initial announcement last year.  I have to say, I think it looks fantastic. It may not look particularly big budget, and it might use a questionable font, but that trailer pushes all my movie buttons--from its Ian Fleming-meets-The A-Team opening to the awesome action of a snowbound commandos in white camoflage.  Evidentally, it will receive theatrical release in Britain on May 20--though it's bound to be a limited engagement, since it's already been announced for DVD release in June. Neither venue seems particularly likely right now in America, which is too bad, because I am dying to see it! Age of Heroes stars former Bond villain Sean Bean, and James D'Arcy plays Commander Fleming.

More Bond Memoirs From Roger Moore

The Book Bond points the way to a very exciting news item on 007 Magazine Online revealing that Sir Roger Moore is writing a follow-up to his fantastic 2008 autobiography My Word Is My Bond. Whereas that one covered his whole life to date (and comes highly recommended!), the new volume will focus specifically on his tenure as James Bond. Since the actor's years in Bondage only amounted to three chapters in his autobiography, it seems reasonable to expect that he's got plenty more anecdotes worth reading on the subject. The new book, Bond on Bond, will be published in September 2012 by Michael O'Mara (publisher of My Word Is My Bond) to celebrate the cinematic 007's 50th anniversary.  In addition to Sir Roger's recollections, Bond on Bond (and I personally love that a Roger Moore book about James Bond references Bob Dylan) will also feature lots of color photographs (many presumably never before seen) from the actor's personal collection. Said the inimitable Sir Roger: "I'm greatly looking forward to delving into my memory box again and rummaging through the photo albums to admire my great physique, dashing good looks and full set of teeth." Go read all about it on 007 Magazine Online.

Between this and George Lazenby's autobiography, 2012 is shaping up to be a very promising year for books on and by Bond actors! In other Roger Moore book news, the actor recently revealed on his website that there is also a new book in the works on his classic TV series The Persuaders! to celebrate that show's 40th anniversary later this year.

Paul Revere, Spy

The LA Times' 24 Frames movie blog (via Dark Horizons) reports that the production company behind Robert Redford's new Lincoln assassination movie, The Conspirator, is developing a Paul Revere movie next.  Why is that news on a spy blog?  Well... Paul Revere was essentially a spy, and according to the blog, this movie "will concentrate on the espionage elements of the event; while almost any schoolchild can tell you about Revere's ride, few of us know how he knew what he did, and the challenges he and [fellow rider William] Dawes faced in obtaining that information. 'For people who grew up mainly with the [Longfellow] poem, it's a far more interesting story,' said the [producer] Rob Stone."  The production company's mission statement is to make movies about American history, and to that end they've optioned the book Paul Revere’s Ride by Pulitzer Prize winner David Hackett Fischer. Intolerable Cruelty screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone will pen the script, but change the title to Midnight Riders. Producer Brian Falk describes the film project to the LA Times as "a historically accurate swashbuckler about the spark of the American Revolution, with horses, gunfights, swords and a little bawdiness." Sounds good to me! I've long been interested in Paul Revere's spy career, and even wrote a script on the subject myself quite a while ago. (Obviously, this project is entirely unrelated to that one, which, needless to say, went nowhere.)

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Age of Heroes

Age of Heroes, the movie we first heard about last year about "Ian Fleming's Red Indians," the 30 Assault Unit created by the future Bond author while he served in Naval Intelligence during WWII, will come out on Region 2 PAL DVD and Blu-ray this June from Metrodome Distribution. The film stars former Bond baddie Sean Bean, and James D'Arcy plays Commander Fleming. If the film proves at all historically accurate, then Fleming himself will remain deskbound, since as much as he may have wanted to, he did not go on missions with the 30AU. (That hasn't dissuaded other movies, though, like Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming with Jason Connery, from portraying him in the field.) 

According to the official copy, "Age of Heroes is inspired by this incredible true story, the little told story of how James Bond creator Ian Fleming oversaw the activities of an elite and supremely well-trained commando unit during World War II, and about the danger and adventure that the 30 Assault Unit faced in their brave efforts to extract the most crucial Nazi-Axis secrets with their pioneering stealth techniques." Age of Heroes was supposed to have a theatrical run in Britain last month, but I don't know if that actually happened. There is still no US release date. For more on Fleming's involvement with 30AU, check out Craig Cabell's books Ian Fleming's Secret War and The History of 30 Assault Unit: Ian Fleming's Red Indians.

John Le Carré Gives His Blessing To Official Biography

John Le Carré has given his blessing to the first ever authorized biography of the acclaimed spy author and former spy.  The Daily Telegraph reports that biographer Adam Sisman will be given full access to le Carré’s personal archive for a book expected to be published in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. It's notable that the notoriously reclusive Le Carré, whose real name is David Cornwell, is not only allowing such a book, but cooperating, because two decades ago he waged a fierce legal campaign to prevent such a work from being published.  Journalist Graham Lord promised what the newspaper calls "salacious details about a famous author’s personal life" and "a thrilling romp through his mistresses, wives, loves and losses – and his work for the secret service." Le Carré successfully blocked the book's publication, but now he'll apparently allow such matters to be discussed. Novelist Robert Harris (who penned The Ghost, which was turned into the Pierce Brosnan movie The Ghost Writer) was previously tapped to pen Le Carré's official chronicle under the condition that he not publish until after the author's death, but confessed to The Telegraph that "I got distracted by writing my own novels, so I am happy for Adam to write [Le Carré's biography]. I might do a more impressionistic portrait, but I have a legal agreement with David that anything I know is not to be divulged before his death."

New Play About Patrick McGoohan

UK theatrical outfit Tip Top Productions presents a new play about the life of Patrick McGoohan, Everyman.  Everyman plays one night only in Chester at the Forum Studio Theatre next Thursday, January 13 at 8PM. Tickets are just £6.00 and can be booked through the theater's website. Here's the official synopsis:

"EVERYMAN: The Story Of Patrick McGoohan - The Prisoner" is a new play detailing the life of the theatre, television, and film star (who sadly died last year). Writer Brian Gorman believes that a theatrical tribute to the star of such cult tv favourites as DANGER MAN and THE PRISONER is long overdue.

Thanks to sambullus on the Eurospy Forum for the tip on this.

Movie Review: Fair Game (2010)

Movie Review: Fair Game (2010)

It’s interesting that both Bourne directors decided to make movies about the search for Iraqi WMD that was going on at about the time that the first Bourne movie hit theaters–and that both, though featuring very different approaches to the subject matter–turned out to be excellent spy movies. Whereas Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone (reviewed here) focused on thrilling, Bourne-like action, Doug Liman delivers an equally thrilling entry in the more realistic, serious side of the spy genre sometimes referred to as the “Desk Spy” sub-genre. (In this case, that moniker is a bit of a misnomer, though, as the protagonist does indeed go into the field. But the film’s most exciting moments are those in Langley conference rooms.) And refreshingly, in stark contrast to the Bourne series, neither of these films vilify the CIA!

Fair Game (not to be confused with the 1995 Cindy Crawford vehicle!) tells the story of a woman who, against her wishes, became the most famous American spy of the last decade: Valerie Plame Wilson. The story became a hot-button political issue sparking fierce debate on both sides of the aisles, but at its core it always seemed to me a classic spy yarn that could be torn straight out of Le Carré: a covert operative running dangerous missions in the field is exposed and hung out to dry by her bureaucratic masters for political reasons. That’s a log-line that with little tweaking could easily be applied to at least three Le Carré books (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Looking Glass War and The Honourable Schoolboy) and probably more. It’s the stuff of classic spy stories! And that’s exactly the approach that Liman takes to this material: he tells the spy story. In doing so (as with the best spy fiction), he tells many other stories too, and a film that begins as a flat-out spy movie very naturally morphs into a political thriller and a family drama by its denouement. In a genre landscape rife with popcorn explorations of spy marriages (Undercovers, True Lies and particularly Liman’s own Mr. and Mrs. Smith), it’s very interesting to see a fact-based tale of a marriage rocked by one spouse’s secret life. In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Liman used conventions of the spy genre to humorously explore relationship issues. In Fair Game, he achieves a blistering combination of spy movie and family drama. The former had a gunfight at the kitchen table; the latter has a disagreement that leads to raised voices in the same setting... and the stakes feel much higher in the latter.

Naomi Watts is excellent as Plame, as is Sean Penn as her former ambassador husband, Joe Wilson. Even before Valerie’s exposure, her career inflicts constant trauma on their marriage. Valerie’s ceaseless business trips to Kuala Lumpur or Amman, Jordan take their toll on her home life. Her young children ask when their mom will be back, and their father can’t give them an answer. Even he doesn’t know where she is or how long she’ll be gone, though he is one of the few people who knows her true profession.

Besides the intense portrait of a possibly decaying marriage, Fair Game shines as a spy thriller. The movie opens with Valerie undercover in Kuala Lumpur. These scenes may be familiar ones, but that familiarity is essential to establishing the genre before shaking up its formula. That genre familiarity is aided immeasurably by an excellent score by John Powell of the percussion-heavy, pounding variety with which he has redefined the sound of the spy movie in the last decade. It occurred to me watching this film that Powell is really the first person to do that since John Barry defined it to begin with in the Sixties. Both composers have worked within a wide spectrum of sub-genres, from outlandish fantasy (You Only Live Twice in Barry’s case; Knight and Day for Powell) to grounded, serious action (From Russia With Love; the Bourne films) to gritty drama full of bureaucratic hurdles (The Ipcress File; Fair Game), applying their signature motifs across the board. While many great composers have worked in the spy genre over the last several decades (and some have experimented with totally different sorts of scores), no one has so exhaustively overhauled the sound of spy movies as Powell. Barry’s jazz-infused style remained the expected and accepted soundtrack of the genre up until the 2000s (when it may have been partially done in by Austin Powers). Now it’s propulsive percussion–which offers somewhat less room for variation, but perfectly compliments the high-energy spy movies being made today–and Powell brings that in spades to Fair Game, signaling spy to the audience as loudly as Barry-like trumpet flourishes did in the past. Granted, the visuals and the settings do that as well, but in the case of real-life subject matter that could have been handled a number of different ways, it’s important to establish the territory as early as possible.

The scenes of Valerie recruiting assets overseas and eventually sending them into harm’s way deliver exactly what fans of the serious spy genre want, but as with many of the best examples of that side of the genre, the scenes back in the office are even more rewarding. Liman operates the camera himself, and brings the same handheld craziness for which the Bourne movies are famous not to running-through-Baghdad action scenes, but to meetings in Langley conference rooms! The constantly shifting, cinema verite-style camera work combined with naturalistic lighting really makes you feel like you’re there–and it’s harrowing! Fans of the Le Carré school of spy novels know how harrowing and suspenseful a good author can make the bureaucratic side of spying, but I’ve never seen the day-to-day business of CIA officers conveyed with such a sense of urgency on film before. You really get the sense that this is important work, and that lives and indeed the very fate of the nation depend on decisions made within these cramped walls. If the Bourne movies (particularly Greengrass’s–for better or for worse) redefined the way that action is portrayed in spy movies, Fair Game redefines the way intrigue is portrayed. If there’s ever a movie version of The Sandbaggers, it should be filmed like this.

Despite accusations from people who probably didn’t see the film, Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone managed to explore the WMD issue without becoming a political film. I can’t say the same for Doug Liman’s Fair Game, although despite the presence of outspoken activist Sean Penn (whose own extra-textual persona unfortunately distracts from what’s really a very wonderful performance during a patriotic speech at the movie’s finale), the director approaches what became a hotly politicized story about as apolitically as could be possible. Liman doesn’t engage in any of the games of speculation so popular among media pundits on both sides about how high up in the administration the decision to expose an undercover CIA operative went. Instead he sticks to the non-controversial official version of the facts, laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of the only person convicted of a crime in the matter, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and self-confessed State Department source Richard Armitage.

Libby is the only key figure in the Administration portrayed with any substantial screen time by an actor. The only time we ever see the President or the Vice President, it’s done using actual TV footage from the time–not cut into the movie directly, but playing on televisions in the scenes. It’s a tricky approach that could have gone wrong, but it works. Having lived through this little bit of history so recently, I also found it neat to see Liman’s interpretation of what went on behind the scenes of those well-known soundbites. He gives the feeling of filling in the blanks, which works well. In a bold move, he solidifies that approach by ending with footage of the real Valerie Plame testifying before Congress instead of Watts. It’s a jarring move, but Liman pulls it off and it serves as a good reminder that this sort of intrigue really happens, and isn't just the realm of Le Carré and his ilk.

Fair Game is an excellent movie that doesn’t dwell on the political debate fueled by the events depicted, but instead delivers an incredibly satisfying spy story and family drama. The lead actors turn in excellent performances that should be recognized come awards season, but ultimately what this movie will be remembered for in the annals of spy film history is the way Doug Liman (aided by John Powell) brazenly redefines the backroom intrigue of the Serious side of the genre. Fair Game is to Serious spy movies what the Bourne films proved to be to Action ones.

Valerie Plame Wilson Writing A Spy Novel

The AP reports that Valerie Plame Wilson (who previously penned the memoir Fair Game) is following in the footsteps of other famous spies-turned-novelists like Stella Rimington, John Le Carré and Graham Greene.  The outed CIA covert operative is collaborating on a spy novel with mystery writer Sarah Lovett (Dark Alchemy).  "I was always irked by how pop culture portrayed female CIA operatives," she tells the AP. "I wanted to write a thriller that was more realistic." Plame Wilson singles out Alias in particular as lacking realism.  (What?!  You mean real spies aren't always related to or in love with one another? While piecing together ancient doomsday devices?  I'm shocked!)  She did apparently look up to Jennifer Garner in one respect though. "I used to look at Alias," she says, "[a]nd I'd say to myself, 'I wish I had that body!'" Well, now she kind of does: Plame Wilson is played by the gorgeous Naomi Watts in Doug Liman's new movie based on her book, Fair Game ("It could be worse," she jokes) and another stunning blonde, Kari Machett, plays a character seemingly inspired by her on USA's Covert Affairs.  Plame Wilson serves as a technical advisor on Covert Affairs, which is produced by Liman.  Fair Game, which I've been very excited to see ever since The Hollywood Reporter reviewed it at Cannes audaciously declared that it "might be one of the best spy movies ever," opens tomorrow. See the trailer here.

James D'Arcy Plays Ian Fleming

Well, who would have thought it?  One of those many Ian Fleming movies in development has actually come to fruition!  I first reported last March about Age of Heroes, the British film about Fleming's "Red Indians," the 30 Assault Unit he formed while working for Naval Intelligence during WWII.  At the time, I had no idea how close that film actually was to production.  (Often things reported in the trades take years to actually get made, if ever.)  Well, apparently this one got made.  It actually filmed over the summer!  There are even some reports of an October 1 UK release date, which is right around the corner.  (Can anyone in the UK confirm this?)  When I wrote that first report, I speculated as to how large a role Fleming would have in the picture (since he didn't actually participate in the commando unit's raids, as was depicted in the 1990 TV movie Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming starring Jason Connery) and who would play him.  Well, now we know thanks to both the IMDb and a Fujifilm magazine story reprinted on the Sean Bean fansite The Mighty Bean (who also supply that poster) that James D'Arcy is playing Fleming.  How large a role it is is still to be determined.  According to that article:

"During the filming James D’Arcy, whose previous roles have included British navy First Lt. Tom Pullings in Master and Commander (2003), Father Francis in Exorcist: The Beginning (2003), and numerous British TV roles, offered some brief thoughts on his role as Ian Fleming to the Norwegian press. He said: ‘Fleming lived an unreal life. It’s strange, really, that the story of his life isn’t better known’."

Hm. I can't recall him from Master and Commander; the role I most immediately associate with James D'Arcy is Sherlock Holmes, whom he played in an ill-received (and decidedly non-canonical) 2002 TV movie called Sherlock: A Case of Evil (which actually pre-figured both the Robert Downey Jr. film and the current contemporary TV version in some key ways).  He doesn't look much like Ian Fleming, but then again he doesn't categorically not look like him either, so make-up should be able to do the trick.  Fleming has previously been played by Jason Connery, Charles Dance (who was a dead ringer for the author) and Ben Daniels.

Tradecraft: Summit Picks Up Valerie Plame Movie

Variety reports that Summit Entertainment, the fledgling studio best known for the Twilight saga (and a number of Pierce Brosnan movies), has picked up the North American distribution rights for Bourne Identity director Doug Liman's latest spy movie Fair Game, about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. Naomi Watts stars as Plame, and Sean Penn plays her husband. Plame's is a real-life story of the messy intersection between spies and politics that could easily have come from the mind of John Le Carré... and I find it fascinating.  In 2003, the undercover agent's identity was leaked to the media and made public–putting her in jeopardy–by shadowy figures in her own government to forward their own political agenda after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly criticized the administration's justification for war in Iraq.  The issue was instantly politicized, but to me the most interesting aspect of it is not the political ramifications at all, but the inherent espionage drama.  I mean, this is exactly the story that spy fans have read in fictional form again and again from Le Carré to Queen & Country: an active agent risking her life for her country betrayed and hung out to dry by unscrupulous politicians. And Liman seems like the right man to tell it, having kickstarted the cinematic adventures of another agent foresaken by those he served, Jason Bourne.  Unsurprisingly, Summit's co-chairs described their new acquisition as "a very strong, engaging thriller that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats." According to the trade, "Fair Game is based on Plame's memoir of the same name [not the 1995 Cindy Crawford movie], and also draws from Wilson's book The Politics of Truth."  Brothers Jez and John Butterworth wrote the script. 

When it was first announced, Liman's movie was set up at Warner Bros., but the studio got cold feet after other serious, adult dramas (like State of Play and Duplicity) flopped at the box office. Summit might be just the right company to buck that trend, though, having already successfully marketed serious dramas like Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker and The Ghost Writer.  They'll get a free head-start on their marketing campaign, as Fair Game is the only American movie in competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Tradecraft: Another Ian Fleming Movie In The Works

We've heard about two potential Ian Fleming biopics in the offing: Fleming, being developed by Leonardo DiCaprio at Warner Bros. and Ian Fleming, from Palmstar Entertainment and Animus Films, based on Andrew Lycett's excellent book Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond.  James McAvoy was briefly linked to the latter project, but quickly debunked those rumors. Now, there's a third Fleming project in the pipeline!  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Age of Heroes "is based on the true story of the formation of Ian Fleming's 30 Commando unit , a precursor for the elite forces in the U.K."  Of course they mean the 30 Assault Unit, which Fleming dreamed up while working for Naval Intelligence.  The elite squad is the subject of Craig Caibell's new book The History of the 30 Assault Unit: Ian Fleming's Red Indians.  The trade goes on to say that "Sean Bean, Danny Dyer and Rosie Fellner are gearing up to star in [the] action drama ... directed by Adrian Vitoria and set to shoot early next month."  The big question, of course, is who will play Fleming, and how large a role will the part be?  Fleming himself didn't actually participate in any of 30 AU's raids (much to his chagrin) as he was deemed to know far too many secrets to risk capture behind enemy lines.  (The 1990 TV movie Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, starring Jason Connery, took creative license and depicted Fleming taking part in one of the raids.)  But if the film really does focus on the formation of the unit, then Fleming should play a pretty big role.  Age of Heroes is said to be the first film in a potential trilogy; presumably the future James Bond author would take on more of an M-like role in the subsequent films.  Personally, I can't quite picture Goldeneye's Sean Bean playing Fleming; he seems more likely to be one of the soldiers.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out.  Personally, I think focusing on this particular period of Fleming's life (clearly the most exciting!) might be a better approach than attempting an all-encompassing biopic.

For a background on the unit and perhaps some idea of what we can expect from the film, here's Amazon's description of Cabell's book:

The Second World War spawned a plethora of crack special forces units (Long Range Desert Group, SAS, SBS, Phantom and Commandos) but 30 Assault Unit remains, even today, far more secretive and exclusive than the others. Formed by Ian Fleming, who was working for Naval Intelligence, 30 AU's mission was to penetrate and operate behind enemy lines, capture by whatever means necessary vital intelligence and feed it back to London where it could be assimilated and acted upon. This crack team of commandos included mavericks such as Patrick Dalzel-Job (generally regarded as the model for Fleming's fictional secret agent 007), and less well known (despite their conspicuous bravery) figures such as Captains Huntingdon-Whiteley, Captain Martin-Smith, Lieutenant Commander Curtis and Lieutenant McFee. The author has trawled archives and interviewed veterans in order to piece together the history and record of this elusive special forces unit who fought with great distinction and achieved results disproportionate to their size.