# Why remake "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548 "2015-08-11T14:17:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/121 "2015-08-22T19:40:43Z")
**Equipoise** : You’ve seen more movies in August than I have in the last three years! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/122 "2015-08-22T20:36:18Z")
> [@The\_Controvert](#): > > He didn’t want to besmersh their good name. A pun nearly bad enough to be in an actual Bond movie. Well done! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/123 "2015-08-22T23:04:11Z")
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The guy chasing Bond on skis goes through the train snowplow and comes out Bad Guy Pate’. Bond whirls around on his skis and remarks, “He had a lot of guts.” That isn’t a pun, but what is it, a sarcastic remark? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/124 "2015-08-23T02:49:09Z")
Just a wisecrack. 's’no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/125 "2015-08-23T03:07:21Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > It is set back in the '60s, but the original (which I watched when I was 13) took after the James Bond SPECTRE model and made the villains not tied to any nation. Fleming introduced SPECTRE when a thaw in relations with the Soviets made Smersh being the villains a problem. There was some dispute over who exactly came up with SPECTRE. Lawsuits were filed. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/126 "2015-08-23T04:11:45Z")
Who are the contenders other than Ian Fleming? This is something I’d never heard of before. re the current movie, I sort of found myself wishing that Gaby Teller… …had been April Dancer. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/127 "2015-08-23T04:37:01Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Who are the contenders other than Ian Fleming? This is something I’d never heard of before. The lawsuits surrounding the novel _Thunderball_ are fairly well-documented. Kevin McClory was the plantiff. The gist is that in 1958 and '59, Fleming and McClory and Jack Whittingham had a series of meetings discussing a possible James Bond screenplay. Fleming then went ahead and used the product of those meetings (including SPECTRE and the premise of a criminal organization stealing atom bombs for blackmail) as the basis for _Thunderball_, written in 1960. After the lawsuits, the novel had to be officially cited as “based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming”. McClory got the rights to produce the film adaptation of _Thunderball_ and, after years of wrangling, the similarly-premised and unofficial _Never Say Never Again_. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/128 "2015-08-23T04:39:20Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I sort of found myself wishing that Gaby Teller… > > …had been April Dancer. I was thinking the same thing myself. :o ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/129 "2015-08-23T04:41:33Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Neither was David McCallum’s, even for a Russian. A Beatle haircut? In 1964??? In what way was this inappropriate? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/130 "2015-08-23T04:42:54Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Not since Who Framed Roger Rabbit have I sat through a movie and been so happy! The quintessential “gimmick” flick? Really??? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/131 "2015-08-23T05:20:16Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The quintessential “gimmick” flick? Really??? :dubious: Which one? 😕 Seriously, yeah! Roger Rabbit was a really fun movie…but so was TMFU! (Gawd, that looks rude!) They aren’t very similar in most other ways, only that they both made me really…happy! (I’ve checked, and can’t find any Man From U.N.C.L.E. porn. Jessica Rabbit, on the other paw…) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/132 "2015-08-23T13:31:27Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The guy chasing Bond on skis goes through the train snowplow and comes out Bad Guy Pate’. > Bond whirls around on his skis and remarks, “He had a lot of guts.” > That isn’t a pun, but what is it, a sarcastic remark? How about Thunderball, when 007 dances with a woman and abruptly twirls her into a hitman’s silenced gunshot? She goes limp, the shooter makes a hasty exit, and our hero chuckles warmly to an onlooker while putting her body in a nearby chair. _“She’s just dead.”_ ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/133 "2015-08-23T13:54:05Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > A Beatle haircut? In 1964??? > > In what way was this inappropriate? 😕 Not inappropriate for a British entertainer. Highly inappropriate for a Soviet government employee. Robert Vaughn’s haircut was on the edge of what was permissible for a respectable U.S. government employee at the time. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/134 "2015-08-23T14:14:21Z")
On second thought, in a real government agency, Robert Vaughn’s co-workers would have teased him mercilessly, and hounded him to cut his hair shorter. People forget just how radical the Beatle cut was, at the time. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/135 "2015-08-23T14:17:40Z")
Do not spies disguise themselves? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/136 "2015-08-23T15:26:21Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Not inappropriate for a British entertainer. Highly inappropriate for a Soviet government employee. Robert Vaughn’s haircut was on the edge of what was permissible for a respectable U.S. government employee at the time. I don’t recall if either Solo or Kuryakin smoked, but that would have been required as well. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/137 "2015-08-23T18:10:32Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > People forget just how radical the Beatle cut was, at the time. That’s one reason why David’s Illya was so freakin’ COOL!!! 🆒 Also, he was stationed in New York. Any young Sov would have taken advantage of the opportunity to let his hair down, so to speak. :o ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/138 "2015-08-23T18:13:19Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Jessica Rabbit, on the other paw… Just knowing she was voiced by Kathleen Turner was enough to do it for me! :o Best cartoon porn I’ve seen so far invariably features Velma Dinkley. **Grrroarrrrrrrrrr!!!** 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/139 "2015-08-23T18:18:11Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That isn’t a pun, but what is it, a sarcastic remark? A quip. 007 was full of them; he must have had a full-time writer slaving away over a typewriter somewhere to keep him supplied with snappy off-the-cuff one-liners. In _ **Thunderball** _, after shooting a guy with a spear gun: “I think he got the point.” In _ **Goldfinger** _, when Pussy asks where her boss is: “Playing his golden harp.” In _ **You Only Live Twice** _, after being told that men always come first in Japan: “I just might retire here.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548/140 "2015-08-23T18:20:16Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > I don’t recall if either Solo or Kuryakin smoked, but that would have been required as well. Waverly did (one episode focused on his humidor), but I don’t think either Illya or Solo did. Would have set a bad example for all the kids watching! :mad: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-remake-the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e/727548.md?page=8)