Although he hasn’t signed on the dotted line yet, Bradley Cooper is now Steven Soderbergh’s new number one choice as the suave Napoleon Solo in the forthcoming Warner Bros Spy movie ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement – in case you were interested?)

This follows the news that Soderbergh’s original hot choice George Clooney has turned down the opportunity to be America’s answer to James Bond. The ‘Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ TV series ran for 105 episodes from 1964 to 1968 and starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and British actor David McCullum as his partner Illya Kuryakin.

While Michael Caine’s  Harry Palmer was fighting the ‘Cold War’ on the big screen in the sixties, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ showed the Western World that East and West could team up to fight evil that threatened mankind. In this case the bad guys were represented by the organisation called THRUSH whose secret weapon probably left you with a nasty rash.

Granted, George Clooney has charm oozing out of every orifice but let’s face it at 50 he’s probably far too old to play the part of Solo, whereas Bradley Cooper is the same age now as Robert Vaughn was at the time. Cooper is no stranger to making that transition from a popular TV show to a full length movie as he did with ‘The A-team’.

A common mistake that many of the studios make is to set the movie version of the TV show in the modern day, as with ‘The A-Team’ and ‘Miami Vice’ for example. Both of these shows being hugely popular 25 years earlier in the 1980’s.

The rumour is that Soderbergh is planning to set U.N.C.L.E. in the sixties which is an inspired move considering the popularity of TVs ‘Mad Men’. Just think of all those cool suits and that AMT Piranha spy car and the Oldsmobile Thrushbuster. I had a Corgi toy version with a clicking push down periscope on the roof which thrust the characters out of each window holding a revolver. Ah! Good times.

Personally, I think that Cooper could pull it off quiet well. How about Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin as Kuryakin?

Source: Variety