Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has selected Nov. 17 as the
street date for director Guy Ritchie’s reimaging of the popular Cold War
television series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, The Tudors, etc.) is
teamed with Armie Hammer (Mirror Mirror) as iconic spies
Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin.
Available for consumers to select from will be DVD and
Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions.
The television series, made famous by Robert Vaughn and
David McCallum —US and Soviet spies teamed to battle T.H.R.U.S.H. — was clearly
a product of the Cold War (on television from 1964 through early 1968 — a total
of 105 episodes). But the series was also well-timed in that the James Bond/007
series of films (Dr. No in 1962; From Russian with Love the following
year; Goldfinger arrived in 1964; and, Thunderball followed in
1965) had caught fire theatrically (Ian Fleming was involved in both). The demand was there!
Just as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. reached its
zenith along came Mission: Impossible and that was it for Robert Vaughn and David
McCallum. M:I was a better action
series and didn’t carry the baggage of the “U.N.” The organization that Solo and Kuryakin
worked for didn’t actually have anything to do with the United Nations, but
perception is reality.
Tom Cruise has made — through a series of very smart moves —
the theatrical releases of Mission: Impossible a monster film
franchise. Sadly, lightning did strike
twice with this re-boot.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. only pulled in $45.4 million in domestic
ticket sales, so this potential film franchise is probably DOA. For the record, the ARR is 95 days.
As to bonus goodies, common to both the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack SKUs is the featurette titled “A Higher Class of Hero.”
Exclusive to the Blu-ray edition are five additional
featurettes.
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