3 posts tagged “brad pitt”

A lovely American fan has sent me all the episodes of Mr & Mrs Smith, a 1990s TV series that was never shown in full in the US. I believe seven episodes aired there. Australia was the only country that showed all 13 (I understand from Wikipedia that Norway did, too). I have a feeling we only showed seven, at some ungodly hour (New Zealand programmers often do not make very wise calls).
   It was very hard finding the title sequence on YouTube, although it’s an American show. There’s this translated Czech version, though the actress dubbing Maria Bello sounds pretty close to the original:

   The plot: Mr and Mrs Smith are rival industrial spies. After the pilot, the Factory, Mr Smith’s employer, has hired Mrs Smith as well. The second episode sees them posing as husband and wife in suburbia but work on the same side, though with some rivalry and the usual sexual tension that you see in series of this nature (‘Will they? Won’t they?’).
   The split-screen effect was used on all episodes usefully, and the show was very stylish with nice, self-contained stories.
   When a movie with the same name came out a few years later, about two rival spies living in suburbia as a married couple, it was very easy to think that it was a big-screen version of this TV series. The writer claims there was no connection (after all, it wouldn’t have been the first movie with that name), though it does cut the series’ concept very closely.
   Bakula and Bello, however, were far better than Pitt and Jolie.

I read some disturbing news: Hollywood is thinking of remaking Bullitt, one of my all-time favourite films, and putting Brad Pitt into the Steve McQueen role.
   I don’t have much against remakes. I am looking forward to Life on Mars set in Los Angeles, unlike a lot of my Brit friends who have not been this aghast since the Germans bought Rolls-Royce. I even went to see 2003’s The Italian Job set in Los Angeles, and told my Brit friends, who had not been that aghast since the Germans bought Bentley.
   But Bullitt?
   I’ve nothing personal against Brad. I like the social causes the bloke is getting into. But even he must be smart enough to know that there will be a certain proportion of Earth’s male population who think that this is sacrilege. We are talking Holy Grail stuff here. And there are more reasons against this idea.

10. Most straight men (and let’s face it, most gay men) would prefer Daniel Craig in the role.
9. The bad guys will not look as menacing in a 2008 Dodge Charger.
8. You cannot re-create the scene where Jacqueline Bisset drives Steve McQueen back into the City on 101 because they would be stuck in gridlock.
7. Because of his personal interests, Brad would spend too much time filming the architects’ office scene.
6. The crew would be distracted when Angelina comes to visit on set.
5. Bullitt and Delgetti would be arrested as terror suspects at San Francisco Airport for leaving their car and running inside.
4. That annoying creaking sound heard on the soundtrack (it’s the noise of Steve McQueen turning in his grave).
3. ‘Hotel Daniels’ on Embarcadero is now the site of the HQ for the Gap, and it would be seriously bad publicity to kill the witness there.
2. The serious risk that Robert Vaughn’s character will be played by Tom Cruise as a Scientologist seeking respectability.
1. No dude who has worn a skirt (Troy) can replace Steve McQueen.

Roger has posted two advertisements for Heineken at his Vox blog, one starring Brad Pitt (and I cannot make out what on earth he says at the end), while the second stars the former Mrs Brad Pitt (which has no dialogue). The headline refers to the latter—which I happen to prefer.
   It explains why I am not a beer drinker.