Open Channel D: The Man From UNCLE Affair

By  REBECCA KEEGAN  (in London) On a misty October evening at the Old Royal Naval College, on the set of Guy Ritchie's "Man From U.N.C.L.E.," Armie Hammer climbed out from behind the steering wheel of a cute, little snub-nosed East German car called a Trabant. "I don't think these cars were made for people," said the 6-foot-5 Hammer, filming a chase scene set in 1963 Berlin with co-stars Henry Cavill and Alicia Vikander. A stunt driver operated Cavill and Vikander's vintage Wartburg remotely from above as the cars performed a kind of side-by-side automotive ballet. The period spy movie, due Aug. 14, pairs Hammer and Cavill as a duo on opposite sides of the Cold War, in roles popularized decades ago on television by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum. The characters, like the cars, are vintage, but the story is new. "We originate from different sides of the Cold War initially, and we're forced together because circumstance requires it...

Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer gave an interview to Josh Horiowitz, to the MTVNews at the Warner Brothers CinemaCon event in Las Vegas. They talked about their partnership in The Man From UNCLE as the protagonists Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. Cavill spoke of the difference between playing Superman (a "golden boy") and Napoleon Solo (that is "like a bad boy doing the right things".) Hammer praised the director and co-writer Guy Ritchie and his characterization of the 1960s. Finally, Henry Cavill talked about his participation in the film Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice . Here you can watch the interview for MTVNews:

00:00 - A night view of Rome, Italy, 1963 00:03 - In a black car we see Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander). Lying in the back seat, Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) put the silencer on his gun.  A white car approaches with Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) at the wheel. Solo shoots, Illya strays from the bullets, chases Gaby and Solo, but the white car gets stuck in an alley. 00:40 - illustrations and maps of Berlin, Germany, 1963. Napoleon Solo crosses the Checkpoint Charlie in the Berlin Wall. 00:45 - Sanders (Jared Harris), a CIA chief, speaks to Napoleon Solo about a criminal organization linked to fugitive Nazis who is building an atomic bomb. 00:55 - Oleg (Misha Kusnetsov), KGB coordinator, tells Kuryakyn he must infiltrate the organization. 01:00 - Solo and Kuryakyn fight in a public bathroom. 01:03 - Illya comments with Oleg that Napoleon Solo is "CIA most effective agent". 01:10 - Solo tells Sanders that Illya Kuryakin will be the best in KGB in 3 years.  ...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. :  EW preview BY  CLARK COLLIS The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Posted April 9 2015 — 4:28 PM EDT STARRING  Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Hugh Grant DIRECTED BY  Guy Ritchie RATED  PG-13 RELEASE DATE  August 14 Guy Ritchie ( Sherlock Holmes ) has long loved the early Bond movies and the 1960s films built around British spy Harry Palmer (Michael Caine). So he decided to make one in that spirit. In his reboot of the cult ’60s spy series, Henry Cavill ( Man of Steel ) plays Napoleon Solo, a CIA agent who reluctantly joins forces with a KGB spook, Illya Kuryakin ( The Social Network ’s Armie Hammer), during the height of the Cold War. They’re tasked with taking out a secret organization that has kidnapped the father of Gabriella Teller, an East German mechanic ( Ex Machina ’s Alicia Vikander). Before Solo and Kuryakin buddy up, though, they’re hardcore enemies. In one extended chase sequence, Solo and Te...

From the Wikipedia : Several comic strips based on the series were published. In the US, there was a  Gold Key Comics   comic book series (one based on the show), which ran for twenty-two issues. Entertainment Publishing released an eleven issue series of one- and two-part stories from January 1987 to September 1988 that updated U.N.C.L.E. to the Eighties, while largely ignoring the reunion TV-movie. A two-part comics story, "The Birds of Prey Affair," was put out by   Millennium Publications   in 1993, which showcased the return of a smaller, much more streamlined version of THRUSH, controlled by Dr. Egret, who had melded with the Ultimate Computer. The script was written by   Mark Ellis   and   Terry Collins  with artwork by Nick Choles, and transplanted the characters into the present day.  Two   Man from U.N.C.L.E.   strips were originated for the British market in the 1960s (some Gold Key material was also reprinted), the...

Tom Zé is the composer of the first song featured in The Man From UNCLE Soundtrack.  And he didn't even know the very existence of the movie. When you watch The Man From UNCLE first trailer or access its official website , you most certainly  will hear one weird song. The tune is called " Jimmy, Renda-se " ("Jimmy, Surrender") and was released in 1970. The voice belongs to Tom Zé, 76, a musician born in a small town in the state of Bahia, in Brazil. But Tom lives for a long time in Brazilian largest metropolis, São Paulo. He became internationally known in the 1990s through the hands of David Byrne (from Talking Heads)  In this exclusive interview, Tom Zé talked by phone to Dagomir Marquezi, this blog editor. Tom stated that he liked the TV series in the 1960's. But had no idea that it had been adapted for film. Much less that one of his songs was included in the soundtrack of the movie directed by Guy Ritchie. How did your song ended up on t...

The producers of The Man From UNCLE  series assembled 8 movie pictures from original episodes. One of the best was The Spy in the Green Hat (1967), starred by Jack Palance, Janet Leigh and Letitia Roman. The film mixed comedy and adventure just right. The cool style of the series was present in the movie credits. The scene only shows Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin chasing THRUSH agents on a staircase. But the edition alternates slow and fast moments, creating an effect that would be taken up decades later with the Matrix series. Here's the opening of The Spy in the Green Hat:

  In the very end of the Man From UNCLE first trailer there is a frame (almost impossible to be noticed) with important news: The Man From UNCLE movie official site is already online. It's a site still quite simple, in the early stages of construction.  There is one important information in the site home (see the picture above) The Man From UNCLE will have an IMAX version (that will premiere in 14 August). The Man From UNCLE film official site is in this link.