For nearly two decades, a film adaptation of the hit 1960s spy series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” was always on the verge of being made. Warner Bros. almost tempted Quentin Tarantino to take it on in the mid-1990s as his much-anticipated follow-up to “Pulp Fiction,” but he opted to make “Jackie Brown” instead. Directors like Matthew Vaughn and David Dobkin pursued the project. A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Christian Bale and Ryan Reynolds (among many others) all eyed the film at one time or another. Steven Soderbergh was very close to directing a version starring George Clooney as Napoleon Solo (the role played by Robert Vaughn), but he backed out over budget issues. The film was made in 2013 with Guy Ritchie directing the film, with Tom Cruise and Armie Hammer starring as Solo and Illya Kuryakin (played by David McCallum in the show), respectively, but Cruise remains associated with Ethan Hunt and the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.
At this point, WB and producer John Davis were practically past the starting line (Alicia Vikander had been cast in the female lead), so they quickly chose Henry Cavill, who at the time was on the cusp of superstardom as the DC Extended Universe’s Superman, as Solo and got the production going. Everyone from Ritchie on down did their best. “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” is a smart, stylish piece of Hollywood action filmmaking. It should have been a hit.
Sadly, audiences did not love the film when it was released on August 14, 2015. Mixed reviews certainly didn’t help its cause, but the film’s biggest obstacle was the competition. “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” was still performing well in its third weekend of release (proving that Cruise made a wise choice), while “Straight Outta Compton” was the talk of the town with its impressive $60 million debut. Nine years later, Netflix subscribers are loving the film in a big way – and the timing of its belated popularity couldn’t have been better for Cavill.
Netflix customers are screaming Uncle!
As of August 1, 2024, Guy Ritchie’s “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” is the fourth most popular movie on Netflix, behind “Trolls Band Together”, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” and “Land of Bad”.via Flixpatrol) All three of these films are less than a year old, leading to renewed interest in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
This is great news for Cavill, who didn’t do much in 2024 before making cameos in “Deadpool and Wolverine.” He started the year as the lead character in Vaughn’s box office bomb “Argyle” (which grossed $96 million worldwide on a $200 million budget) and had a starring role in Ritchie’s flop “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” one more Ritchie has the film “In the Grey” in the pipeline, which Lionsgate currently has scheduled to release in theaters on January 17, 2025.
If Lionsgate is concerned about Cavill and Ritchie’s previous films being huge losses, perhaps it can pique audience interest through their sudden commercial disappointment in 2015. It’s certainly a better movie than “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” and, who knows — if it stays in Netflix’s top 10 for a while, maybe it’ll get WB interested in a sequel (Though now-dropped abuse charges against Hammer could complicate that decision,
In any case, Cavill is terrific in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and deserves better than what he’s gotten at the box office lately. If you’re one of those who saw this fun spy movie nine years ago, I urge you to give it a go on Netflix immediately. It’s a sizzling, sexy delight!
