Many of you won’t remember this spy show from the late 1960′s, but as a child my Sunday afternoons were blessed with reruns of The Man from U.N.C.L.E, a James-Bond inspired show in which two agents, American Napoleon Solo and Russian Illya Kuryakin, fought the forces of evil (namely the Nazi-inspired THRUSH agency who planned to dominate the world). A movie has been in development for years, if not decades, but this week saw some news that may push the film forward.

Director of Traffic and the Ocean’s 11 films, Steven Soderbergh is apparently in line to direct the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Obviously his new film, Haywire, a Bourne-like spy thriller set in Spain, Ireland, and New Mexico, is impressing people with its relatively low-budget approach to making an action flick. Soderbergh will also bring along his writing colleague Scott Burns, who penned The Bourne Ultimatum and Soderbergh’s upcoming apocalypse flick Contagion.

What’s more, a report from Indiewire suggests that George Clooney is interested in playing the lead role of Solo. Clooney, a friend and supporter of Soderbergh, seems like an obvious choice if the schedule will work, and his interest will certainly drive production for the remake forward. The original role was played by Robert Vaughn, who you may remember from The Magnificent Seven, The Towering Inferno, and the original The A-Team.

There are some thing you think you’ll never see.  And for the most part, you never will.  This is generally a good thing, because they’re really outlandish, mind-altering things like chupacabras and sharks that can walk on land and Zach Galifianakis in an action movie.

Oh wait…that last one happened.  And it happened in the movie Anchor Bay sent me a copy of to review.  I’m talking about Operation: Endgame, and it’s going to be a huge pile of hilarious, comic action glee that will sometimes make you sorry you laughed.

Operation: Endgame follows a shadowy government organization operating out of The Factory, a facility where all the operatives are named after Tarot cards, and they work on false flag operations.  Misdirection, assorted mayhem, that sort of thing.  They work in two teams diametrically opposed to each other, to serve as an internal balance: Alpha and Omega.  And when one of them goes rogue and kills the guy overseeing The Factory, well, all hell’s about to break loose espionage-style.

After about a half hour of this, it struck me as nothing more than a spy movie shot in the style of Arrested Development but without a narrator.  Having Jeffrey Tambor around didn’t hurt, but it likely still would’ve struck me that way even without George Bluth running things.

After that point, however, Operation: Endgame will devolve into a bizarre series of killings, assorted lunacy and occasional dark humor.  Seriously, I’ve never spent so much time laughing in such close proximity to messy bludgeoning death.  But then, I’ve never seen clever jokes put so close to messy bludgeoning death, so it’s a real day of firsts.

Once again Anchor Bay has secured its place, as far as I’m concerned, of being about the only studio on Earth that will, with every release, more likely than not be good.  See, Operation: Endgame is wildly entertaining stuff, both in the action sense and in the comedy sense.  Granted, the comedy is often of the darkest variety and the action of the bloodsoaked, but it really delivers a punch regardless of the overall tone.

It’s funny, it’s exciting, it’s loads of fun and sometimes it will even make you deeply uncomfortable, and because of all this, because I had a great time watching this, I’m giving the Screenhead Ten Scale a crack over the head with a handy crowbar, laughing uproariously, and tossing this one a full-on ten out of ten.  It’s too funny and too exciting to be anything less than a great time, and great times deserve the best recommendation.

We’ve been asking the question for the last few weeks now–who is Salt? And today, we find out with the theatrical release (opening today no less!) with Salt.

Salt follows the lady of the same name, Evelyn Salt, as she’s enjoying her life.  She’s got a great job with the CIA, she’s got a loving husband, a pretty cute dog, and in general, things are good.  At least until the CIA lands a pretty big fish by the name of Orlov, who reveals something that seems preposterous on the surface: a Russian agent has been trained to look, act, and think like an American, but in reality, they’re tasked to do a variety of things, including killing the Russian president during his state visit to the recently (and conveniently!) deceased vice-president’s funeral.  One of those agents turns out to be Evelyn Salt…and there are others….

Admittedly, Salt tries desperately to be a suspenseful little thriller, and on some elements, it does succeed.  There are a few little “probably should’ve seen that coming” surprises here that will likely catch you off guard, but make too much sense in the grander scheme of things.

But Salt does a whole lot of stuff that makes absolutely no sense.  Comparing this thing to classic Warner Brothers isn’t out of line–I watched, astonished, as a United States counterintelligence agent took potshots at Salt, who at the time was laying prone on the roof of a GAS TRUCK.  Seriously.  He’s shooting at what looks like a tanker of flammable liquid rolling down what looks like an interstate highway at appropriate highway speeds.

Disaster movies have started with less.

They will roll through this movie with an incredible mix of pedestrian plot twist and thoroughly irrational action that couldn’t have less connection with reality if it were performed entirely by trained circus clowns.  I’m watching, astonished, as Evelyn Salt manages to survive drops and rolls and other ridiculous stunts that should have killed her a dozen times over, and watching her try to open that bunker toward the end was just downright ludicrous.  I won’t spoiler, but if you do see it, it’ll be a delicate mix of hilarious and godawful.

Maybe I’ll call it “godlarious”.

But I can still recommend Salt.  Just don’t look too closely at it or the whole tenuous illusion will be quite spoiled.  If you go in with a bucket of popcorn, an open mind, and a matinee ticket so if you don’t like it you won’t feel too cheated, you should come out all right.

Thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale hands this high-tension disaster of a spy movie a six out of ten–it’s not terrible, but it’s hardly anything great.

I am impressed with this cast of talented and versatile actors. Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman and Michael Fassbender are set to star in the espionage thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Swedish director Tomas Alfredson signed on to direct.

Alfredson is notable for Let The Right One In and he will begin principal lensing in October in London.

Tinker is based on John Le Carre’s 1974 bestseller. A story set in the aftermath of the Cold War and involves a spy hunt within the highest echelons of the British Secret Intelligence Service. Le Carre’s novel became a 1970s British TV series that starred Alec Guinness.

Following up on word that Tom Cruise is set to be replaced by Will Smith in Edwin A. Salt, Moviehole reports that the news was false and that Cruise is still attached to the project.

A high-rank production source said that the studio, producers, director and "potential" star Cruise are all waiting on a rewrite of the script from Kurt Wimmer, which is due in the next couple of weeks. Apparently, Will Smith wasn’t even approached for the project.

The film tells the story of a CIA officer who is fingered by a defector as a Russian sleeper spy. The agent in question must elude capture and prove his innocence.