ARCHIVES 2015 BOND, BOURNE, DOWNTON & LE CARRE

Monica Bellucci stars in the next James Bond film “Spectre.”

ROSTER OF DEBUTS:
--James Bond:  November 6, 2015.  Daniel Craig as Bond in “Spectre.”

--Downton Abbey: January 3, 2016: Season Six on PBS

--Night Manager: Early 2016.  Six part series based on John LeCarre’s 1993 novel “The Night Manager” slated for AMC in U.S. and Canada.

--Jason Bourne: June 26, 2016.  This time with Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass.

SPECTRE REDUX:

Didn’t James Bond already do away with Spectre, the arch evil crime syndicate?  Obviously not as the latest in the series of Bond epics with Daniel Craig in the lead role will arrive in theatres in early November.

France’s Lea Seydoux, who appeared 

in the lead role of “Blue is the 

Warmest Color,” will appear in 

the next James Bond film, “Spectre.”

Called “Spectre,” the Sam Mendes directed film has cast Monica Bellucci as the beautiful widow with secrets.  Other hotties include Mexico’s Stephanie Sigman and France’s Lea Seydoux.  Craig is back and he’s Daniel Craig in his prime.  Other alpha males include Ralph Fiennes as M and Christoph Waltz, who turns every role he assumes into gold.  Sam Smith sings the newest Bond theme song.

NIGHT MANAGER:

John le Carre’s 1993 spy thriller, “The Night Manager,” has found (after more than 30 years on the shelf) filmmakers brave enough to adapt the molasses-like (aka Le Carre) plot to the screen.  Veteran actors Hugh Laurie (“House”) and Tom Hiddleston (“The Avengers”) tackle the lead roles for this six-part series to appear early in 2016 on BBC. Susanne Bier directs.

DOWNTON ABBEY:

Season six of Masterpiece Theatre’s Downton Abbey series debuts January 3, 2016.  Fearing the wrath of its legions of followers there will be no spoilers in this blog.  Find it on PBS at the usual stations.

Matt Damon is Jason Bourne (again) in Bourne’s fifth film based on the work 

of spy thriller master Robert Ludlum.

BOURNE AGAIN

Note the clever subheadline.  Sigh, I’m so easily amused.  But put that idle chatter aside as the real entertainment news for spy/thriller aficionado’s is set to premiere the fifth in the Bourne series (off of novels by Robert Ludlum) on June 26, 2016.  Bourne V will reunite Matt Damon as Jason Bourne with director Paul Greengrass.  Star rags’ catty reviewers of Bourne IV starring Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross with a stunning and highly talented Rachel Weisz as Marta Shearing pointed out that “The “Bourne Legacy” (2012) reportedly failed to sell enough tickets to make it as profitable as the Damon/Greengrass versions. That doesn’t mean the recent “Bourne Legacy with Renner as Aaron Cross, a Bourne colleague, was a bomb.  No way.  Renner and Rachel Weisz   delivered the goods. Tell me is there a better thriller scene than Aaron Cross battling a wolf and a rogue drone at the same time.  Renner and Weisz were in synch all the way through this “amazing” flick.  Who is better Damon or Renner?  Who cares?  In the absence of Jason Bourne, Aaron Cross et al with direction by Tony Gilroy, set the bar high for the next Bourne again adventure.  

A handful of cast members for Downton Abbey are shown at a season 6 script reading.  Left to right:  Joanne Froggett (Anna Smith); Jim Carter (Mr. Carson); Maggie Smith (Violet Crawley) 

and Jeremy Swift (Spratt, the Butler). 

Brit Tom Hiddleston, the former arch villain Loki 

in "The Avengers" series is going to be 

the hero in the TV mini-series adaption 

of John Le Carre’s novel “Night Manager” 

set for early 2016  release.  

Tom looks great in a tux. Are we looking 

at the next generation Bond once/and if Daniel Craig steps down?