Cold War Update: Tinker, Tailor, Playboy Bunnies & Spies + Top Gun Returns in 3D!

By Jason Apuzzo. • If you needed any more evidence that the 80s are back in a big way, word comes this week that Top Gun is being retrofit into 3D and should hit theaters in 2012. This is big news because so far as I’m aware it represents the first time a ‘library’ film title not made by James Cameron (Titanic) or George Lucas (the Star Wars saga) is being converted into 3D for theatrical release. If Top Gun 3D performs well, expect more such conversions down the line and a lot of classic film titles coming back to your local theaters – a very welcome development, in my opinion. It’s certainly better than paying $15 to watch a stereoscopic version of Green Lantern.

But lets talk Maverick. Regular LFM readers know how highly I think of Top Gun, a signature film from my youth – not to mention a watershed moment in my relationship with aviator sunglasses. Why did people of my generation love that film so much? Was it the appeal of being a hot-shot jet pilot? Was it the beach volleyball? The Kawasakis? The girls? Sunsets in San Diego? Maybe it was Iceman’s sweet flat-top haircut. Or Tom Skerritt chewing out Tom Cruise, slyly motiving him by implying he wasn’t as committed as his father. Maybe it was Cruise’s great line about flying “inverted,” or the angry bald guy in the flight-ops center barking, “Damnit, Maverick!” every five minutes.

Whatever it was, Top Gun was the movie from the 80s that romanticized American military life – and did so without having to demonize any particular enemy nation. It was a film that hit the sweet spot, made a dull teenage summer exciting, and incidentally launched Tom Cruise’s career. How good was Top Gun? I personally have a friend whom I strongly suspect was pulled into a career in Naval aviation – not to mention beach volleyball – at least in part due to this film. And who could blame him? Top Gun paints an appealing, glamorous picture of serving your country. I’ll definitely be first in line when Top Gun 3D arrives next year. [Btw, whatever happened to Berlin?]

• A slew of Cold War-related films are suddenly in development right now. One of the ones I’m most excited about is something called Hunter Killer, which may end up starring Gerard Butler and was originally supposed be directed by Phillip Noyce (Salt). Here’s how JoBlo describes it:

HUNTER KILLER, based on the book “Firing Point,” follows an untested submarine captain who must work with a Navy SEAL team to rescue the Russian president, who has been taken prisoner during a military coup, in an effort to stop a rogue Russian General from igniting World War III.

There seem to be a lot of ‘rogue Russian generals’ in the movies these days, all trying to re-ignite the Cold War. Wasn’t there one in X-Men: First Class? And Salt? If Putin’s the Alpha Dog he pretends to be, he really should put the kabosh on these people. In any case, even without a director or star, Hunter Killer is apparently hot enough to have a release date of Dec. 21st, 2012.

• Even though it doesn’t open until Dec. 9th, a major marketing push is being made for the new adaptation of John Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I’m not a Le Carré fan (as for espionage novels, I’m more of an Eric Ambler man), but a dark, cerebral little Cold War spy thriller? With a superb British cast? After a summer of idiotic, deafening comic book movies, that’s sounding quite appealing. Besides, now that Gary Oldman is more or less done taking checks for Harry Potter and the Batman films, perhaps he can return to actual acting. Read about Tinker here, see new posters for the film (here and here) and a new featurette; John Le Carré will be making a cameo in the film; the film also has three new trailers (here, here and here), and here’s a clip from the film.

• Another project I’m excited about is something called Red Star that was picked up this summer by Warner Brothers for producer Neil Moritz (Battle: Los Angeles). The project is based on a comic series by Christian Gossett, and according to THR the story is “set in an alternate USSR where futuristic technology and magical elements co-exist. The main character is a soldier in the Red Fleet and his wife, who become keys to defeating a former brutal ruler and his minions.”

This would certainly have to be an alternate USSR, if ‘futuristic technology’ is involved. I still remember driving in a Russian Lada sedan on a trip to Moscow as a teenager, and my spine still hasn’t recovered. In any case, Timur Bekmambetov was previously attached to this project when it was at Universal – we’ll see if he stays with it at Warners …

• Some other promising new projects on the horizon include a $100 million Korean war-era epic called 1950, to be directed by Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious). The story follows a journalist who travels across the Korean peninsula with a platoon of Marines in the midst of a mass, Christmas Eve evacuation of 200,000 South Koreans escaping the oncoming Chinese communist and North Korean armies. Also: a new anti-communist drama called Closer to the Moon is being made starring Game of Thrones’ Harry Lloyd; the Cold War sci-fi classic Colossus: The Forbin Project is getting a remake … but the best news by far is that we may get a Danger Girl movie starring Milla Jovovich, Sofia Vergara and Kate Beckinsale! Do I believe these rumors? I’m not sure I do, but I can’t begin to describe what a great idea this would be. If you’re not familiar with Danger Girl, it’s a comic book series about a trio of impossibly curvaceous female spies sent on missions to retrieve mystic relics also sought after by a powerful international crime syndicate. Think Charlie’s Angels by way of Indiana Jones and James Bond. The stories are a lot of fun, inventive, playfully sexy, and it’s easy to imagine something like this working much better than even Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider films did. And since Sofia Vergara’s name is being thrown around, here’s hoping they do it in 3D.

• Some fabulous news of late is that Steven Soderbergh’s Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie will be set in the 1960s, and won’t feature George Clooney! Hooray! Is Michael Fassbender available?

• Die Hard 5 has a new director, and the film may take place in Russia. Does anybody still care about Die Hard? Please tell me if you do below, along with why.

• Speaking of Tom Cruise, Mission-Impossible: Ghost Protocol is rattling its way down the tracks. The film is now set to debut on Dec. 21st, there is a new poster out, along with new promo images (see here and here), and producer J.J. Abrams has been talking up the film’s stunts and the scale of the film in IMAX. I think MI4 actually had the best trailer of the summer, and the film opens with no less than the destruction of Red Square – not a bad way to grab your attention. I’m looking forward to this one, although this series  hasn’t always worked before …

• Another Cold War project coming our way shortly is the Clint Eastwood/Leonardo DiCaprio biopic, J. Edgar. (See my J. Edgar script review here.) J. Edgar will be opening at the AFI Fest on Nov. 3rd, before its wide release on Nov. 9th. Eastwood and DiCaprio have finally started to talk about the project (see here), and this Entertainment Weekly article provides a fairly accurate sense of what to expect from the film, based on my reading of the screenplay. My expectation, frankly, is that J. Edgar is going to be dry, episodic, and generally center-left in its politics. Beyond that, I really wish Clint still made fun films rather than history lessons [sigh].

• On the Cold War ring-a-ding-ding front, NBC’s The Playboy Club (Sept. 19th) and ABC’s Pan Am (Sept. 25th) are soon set to debut, with predictable controversies emerging. Poor Gloria Steinem wants viewers to boycott The Playboy Club (she’d have better luck boycotting Michael Vick), and so does an organization called the ‘Parents Television Council.’ With respect to this ‘controversy,’ though, it really seems like people are just going through the motions here. Everybody knows that the sexuality The Playboy Club will be peddling is tame and quaint compared to what’s available everywhere on the internet, cable, or even on newstands. That doesn’t mean that anyone should be taken in by the blather coming from NBC’s producers that being a Playboy Bunny back in the day was ‘empowering’ – unless you grow carrots, there’s nothing ‘empowering’ for a woman about dressing like a rabbit – but nor does it mean that this show is returning us to Sodom & Gomorrah. After all, would you rather catch 5 minutes of The Playboy Club … or Jersey Shore? The Playboy Club will probably feature passable jazz, stylish retro-chic clothing, and a dash of Chicago mob history. Or you can watch Snooki and JWoww talk breast implants. You make the call. And while you’re doing that, catch this interview with Playboy Club star Amber Heard.

As for Pan Am (which has an espionage element in its storyline), there’s some recent casting news, a new interview with star Christina Ricci, and Pan Am‘s producers (much like the Playboy Club produers) are claiming that their show is actually not a Mad Men ripoff. Sure. [We have Christina Hendricks to thank for all this.]

• I continue to worry about what Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes have in store for us with Bond 23; I have the sinking feeling that Bond 23 is going to be what we have to sit through before a better team takes charge of this series. In any case, there’s been a lot of minor news about the film lately: it seems that Jeffrey Wright will not be returning as Felix Leiter, Ben Whishaw and Rhys Ifans will apparently be joining the cast, and after some permit troubles the film will be shooting in India, after all. There’s also a new Bond video game out (GoldenEye 007: Reloaded), and there’s a rumor that Bond 23 will be based on Jeffery Deaver’s new Bond novel Carte Blanche, although I don’t believe that (it would require too much re-inventing of the character). We’ll continue to cross our fingers about this film, and hope that my sixth sense is wrong …

• In other Cold War News & Notes: Renny Harlin talks here and here about his new film 5 Days of War (see Joe Bendel’s LFM review); The Iron Lady is looking like a very ugly hit job on Margaret Thatcher; NASA apparently avoided working with the Apollo 18 filmmakers (see my review of the film), and you can see clips of the film here; watch this sexy (and amusing) deleted scene from X-Men: First Class, which is newly out on Blu-ray, and also catch this interview with the film’s screenwriters; Sam Worthington talks about The Debt (read Joe Bendel’s LFM review), and you can see clips of the film here; the first image is out of the Aaron Eckhart CIA spy thriller The Expatriate; The Darkest Hour has a new motion poster out, and you can read a new interview with the filmmakers, and also check out this set visit and some production art; and Jonathan Demme will be making the new JFK-related movie based on Stephen King’s novel, 11/22/63.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … easily my favorite film of the summer, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, will be out on Blu-ray/DVD September 30th, and in the meantime photographer Robert Zuckerman has just released a marvelous gallery of behind-the-scenes production stills from that film, including the one above of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. So be sure to check those out …

And that’s what’s happening today in the Cold War!

Posted on September 14th, 2011 at 8:47pm.