It looks like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. could be back on track. Following the recent departure of director Steven Soderbergh from the film adaptation of the classic spy series, you could be forgiven for thinking that the project would never leave the ground. However it now appears that Guy Ritchie is set to take on the directorial duties, working with Sherlock producer Lionel Wigram.
With Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows about to hit the cinemas, it looks like Ritchie might move straight on to the project. Based on the classic ‘60s spy series starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, the show followed the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement in their fight against the evil T.H.R.U.S.H. Quite how Ritchie’s usual Cockney slant will work on the update will be interesting to see, but as screenwriter Scott Z. Burns recently told ComingSoon, it could well be set in the same time as the original.
"I thought it would be really fun to go back and look at spycraft in the Cold War and what you could and couldn't do," he said. "When you think about the world in the 1960's just in terms of cars and fashion and the aesthetic, to be able to go and shoot that world with today's cameras and today's technology, I think we could do some really cool stuff. Then also, the thing that was so cool about 'U.N.C.L.E.' that people don't realize--and this is why I like it more than 'Mission: Impossible'--the initial conceit of 'U.N.C.L.E.' was amazing. It was really about an organization that didn't have an affiliation with a country and Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin were guys who should've been sworn enemies. One was Russian and one was American and they worked together. In that way, it was a really incredibly progressive, hopeful kind of show."
