Just yesterday we reported that Steven Soderbergh was in talks to direct a film version of Man From U.N.C.L.E. It seemed an unexpected choice for the helmer, but if The Playlist is correct, the logic becomes a little more career, as they suggest the project is being set up to reteam Soderbergh with his Ocean’s 11 star, George Clooney.
Clooney is apparently in early talks to star in the flick, and is talking to Soderbergh about his involvement in the movie. The film is still come way off though, as Soderbergh is currently busy on Contagion, and is likely to make his long-gestating Liberace biopic next summer, and so probably won’t get to U.N.C.L.E. until early 2012.
While several of the scripts for planned U.N.C.L.E. have attempted to modernise the story, Soderbergh apparently wants to go back to square one, keep the setting in the 60s (one of the director’s favourite periods) go back to the series’ root.
The original TV series featured the espionage adventures of Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David MacCallum), agents of United Network Command for Law Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.), who fight the forces of T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity).