In the 1950's, when director Alfred Hitchcock was sick of the ownership problems that had stopped a James Bond movie from being made, he came up with his own spy thriller concept and the result was Cary Grant and North by Northwest, the greatest Bond performance and movie, NOT to feature 007. Could Steven Spielberg be planning something similar here? We all know he adores the James Bond franchise, his Indiana Jones films owe a great credit to Ian Fleming and the Bond canon, and he has always welcomed an offer that has never come from Sony to make a movie in that universe. Has he decided to do a Hitchcock and simply create his own Bond? Variety are reporting that the world's most famous director has recently become excited by Paul Attanasio's (The Sum of All Fears, Donnie Brasco) script for a re-imaging of Matt Helm, a 60's "counter agent" (not strictly a spy, more Jack Ryan than 007) of the post World War II Cold War Era whose 27 novels written by Donald Hamilton had him taking down the world's most dangerous spies. He is described by Wiki as "tough-minded, pragmatic, and competent" but is also an out of shape 36 year old in the early books, whose best days are behind him. After the jump, more on what could be Spielberg's next picture... The project is setup at Paramount where Spielberg is currently only scheduled to produce but since reading the new script draft he has become very interested in making this his next picture. Only a few days ago, Peter Jackson revealed to AICN that Spielberg had completed his first cut on Tintin, so it's very feasible he is looking ahead to what his next project could be. Where the novel's were gritty, realistic and very Fleming/Ludlum esque, a four film series in the 60's played up the playboy demeanor by casting Dean Martin and by having lots of scantily clad women, toilet humor gags and the worst one-liners in history. It was an early Austin Powers kind of movie, viciously out to mock and reap the rewards from 007. Attanasio's script, and thank God for this, is set in the modern day and is closer to the tone of the Bourne series than Bond, in truth. Which I'm fine with, as long as Shia LaBeouf isn't cast. Looking at the image at the top of the post of Helm and the character descriptions, I'm thinking George Clooney would kill at this. Don't you? Trades say we should find out at the end of play this week if this is to be Spielberg's next picture. One factor is Paramount's recession hit studio who are making cutbacks on blockbuster deals, pondering whether Spielberg is really worth the big directing fee it would require for his signature.
