Steven Soderbergh in Talks to Direct WB's "Man From U.N.C.L.E."
By Jeff Sneider
Published: November 16, 2010


Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is in early talks to direct Warner Bros.' long-gestating adaptation of the '60s TV series "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", according to the Hollywood Reporter.




The studio has been developing the project since the '90s, most recently with David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) directing from a script by Max Borenstein that was reportedly well liked by Warners brass.

However, Dobkin has decided that he'll only be involved as a producer (along with John Davis), and WB is in negotiations with Soderbergh's The Informant! screenwriter Scott Z. Burns to write a new script.





While "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." was expected to take a more comedic tone with Dobkin at the helm, it's unclear which direction Soderbergh will take the project, as the genre-hopping filmmaker can't be tied down to one particular type of movie.

Soderbergh has Relativity's action film Haywire on the horizon, and he'll soon return behind the camera for WB's globetrotting virus thriller Contagion, which was also written by Burns.

With such a busy schedule, Soderbergh will have to wait until the end of next year at the earliest to direct "U.N.C.L.E."

http://www.thewrap.com/deal-central/column-post/steven-soderbergh-talks-direct-wbs-man-uncle-22577

George Clooney Drops Out of Steven Soderbergh's "Man From U.N.C.L.E."
By Sharon Knolle
Posted Aug 29th 2011


George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh have teamed together on umpteen films, including the "Ocean's" series, Out of Sight and Solaris, but you won't see Clooney in Soderbergh's next film.

Deadline is reporting that Clooney has dropped out of Soderbergh's adaptation of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", but no one seems to know why.



U.N.C.L.E.'s screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, meanwhile, told CinemaBlend, "The script is done and they'll start casting soon," with an eye towards a spring start date.



Instead of basing the script on any specific TV episodes, Burns said that the movie will be inspired by real Cold War events.

"All those shows are called, like, 'The Terbuf Affair' or whatever. Our 'affair' comes from something that was actually going on in the world at the time."



The original 1960s series starred Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as an American and a Russian spy who team up to fight the evil THRUSH organization.

Clooney would presumeably have taken the Napoleon Solo role played by Vaughn.

Clooney will next be seen in the heavily-buzzed-about The Ides of March and The Descendants, and recently wrapped Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/08/29/george-clooney-man-from-uncle/