With one big potential franchise role done, dusted and set to gallop into our cinemas with The Lone Ranger, the man in the mask is looking for another. Armie Hammer is now on to share the screen with Tom Cruise in The Man From U.N.C.L.E**.
Guy Ritchie is the man with the megaphone for this one. He's directing the adaptation of a spy caper TV series that aired between 1964 and 1968 and saw Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as agents of the United Network Command for Law Enforcement. They certainly liked their acronyms in the 1960s, and they also liked to battle T.H.R.U.S.H. (if we hear ONE MORE PERSON GIGGLING, NO-ONE IS GETTING OUT OF CLASS FOR LUNCH.)
According to Deadline, Cruise (who had been in talks) is set to play the Vaughn role of Napoleon Solo with Hammer filling McCallum’s suit as Illya Kuryakin. The script has seen work from David Campbell Wilson and Scott Z. Burns.
It’s another positive turn for a project that looked troubled a while ago. Warner Bros. has been trying to get this one going for years, with George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh attached at one point, only to pass when Clooney decided he couldn’t physically handle the role thanks to his Syriana back injuries.
There’s no word on when this one will start shooting, but the casting of Hammer suggests it could be sooner rather than later. You’ll be able to see him in goofily heroic mode when** The Lone Ranger** arrives on August 9. The latest trailer is below for your eyeballs to take in.