Spy Games

Zap2it.com posts an interview with first time feature film director, JJ Abrams, on doing Mission Impossible III .

Abrams is best known for co-creating television shows like "Felicity" and the mega-hit Lost. He is also the man responsible for the spy drama Alias, which like "mission" also uses elaborate stunts, gadgets and some worldwide crisis as its backdrop.

From Daniel Fienberg's article:

Abrams... felt undaunted following in the footsteps of Brian De Palma and John Woo, directors of the first two "Mission: Impossible" blockbusters.

"For me, it was as a series that, as good as those movies were, never sort of realized the promise of the franchise," says Abrams.

As a fan of the original long-running television series Abrams' solution -- working with veteran "Alias" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci -- was to bring go back to some of the values of the source material.

Even as a fan of Abrams and his TV work, I still have been cautious to get too jazzed about the film, after being sooo disappointed by the second film. I know its unfair to hold J.J. Abrams responsible for the failures of MI:II, but I was really looking forward to John Woo taking over at the time that he did it and look how that turned out.

I do like the fact that he is a fan of the 60's tv series though, and hopefully, he put that to good use in making this film. Having 2 veteran writers on Alias was also a very smart move.

You can read the entire article here.

Now, onto news about another popular "spy" film franchise...courtesy MTV via Dark Horizons:

[Film] Producer Frank Marshall recently said that he doesn't expect the upcoming "The Bourne Ultimatum" to be the last film in the highly successful spy series."

It's kinda up to Matt [Damon]. Maybe to five [films] ... At some point, he's gotta find out who he is" says Marshall who added about 'Ultimatum' that Julia Stiles' character will "be a central character in this. So will Joan Allen and some of the other characters from the last movie".

The third film is scheduled to start shooting on August 1st and whilst the title is the same as the Robert Ludlum book, only the first film in the series bares any real resemblance to the original novel.

I know, I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't really care for this film series all that much. I have seen the first two 'Bourne' flicks, and for some reason, they both left me with that "let down" feeling. I think Damon is a fine actor, I enjoy the work of Doug Liman, who directed the first film and produced the second, I like action films...I think it's just matter of the way Damon comes across in that action guy persona...by contrast members of my family really enjoy the series and seeing Damon do his thing. I never read the Ludlum books and since they really don't seem to follow their lead, when making the films, I doubt that reading them would do me any good. For Marshall to even suggest up to 2 more sequels are possible, the series must be making some serious cah-hash, for all parties involved.

What am I missing?

Click here, to read the original MTV article, by Larry Carroll on the subject.