The November Man
Short description
Peter Devereaux, a former CIA operative living quietly in Switzerland, is pulled back into service for what is presented as a personal assignment. He is asked to protect Alice Fournier, a woman whose testimony could damage a candidate in a Russian presidential election. What begins as a protection job turns into something else, and Devereaux finds himself working against David Mason, a younger agent he once trained himself. The two men are drawn into a conflict that reaches into the upper levels of the intelligence services on both sides.
Roger Donaldson directed the film, the fourteenth of the fifteen features in his filmography, arriving between Seeking Justice and McLaren. Pierce Brosnan plays Devereaux, with Luke Bracey as Mason, Olga Kurylenko as Fournier, Bill Smitrovich, Amila Terzimehic and Lazar Ristovski also credited among a cast of thirty-nine. Karl Gajdusek and Michael Finch wrote the screenplay, and Beau St. Clair and Sriram Das produced. The film was a British and American production shot for a modest budget of about 15 million dollars, and it returned roughly 33 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.3 from around 73,000 votes, and on TMDB it stands at 6.1 from over 1,600 votes, placing it in middling territory with viewers. A critics' rating of 4.7 from 126 reviews sits noticeably below those audience scores, indicating reviewers were less positive about the film than general audiences were.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the seventh book in the series of novels "The November Man" by American writer Bill Granger, "No Spies".
- The date of birth listed in the Devero file (May 16, 1953) matches the actual birthday of Pierce Brosnan.
- Instead of the State Duma building in Moscow, the House of the Government of the Russian Federation is shown.
- In the scene where the heroine remembers her family being shot by the general, the general is aiming a Walther P99 at the girl in one shot, and a different pistol in the next.
- In the literary source material for the screenplay (Bill Granger’s novel), Berlin, the capital of Germany, was the central setting. However, Pierce Brosnan believed that filming there would be too expensive, so Belgrade, the capital of the Republic of Serbia, was chosen as the filming location.
- Initially, Daniel Craig was cast as Devereux, the main character, but at the very last moment, director Roger Donaldson was forced to find a replacement for Craig due to his commitments to other projects. By this point, Donaldson had become so accustomed to the idea of someone who had played James Bond starring as the lead that he even tried to involve Sir Sean Connery in the project, but he was too old for the role. When rumors of all this reached Pierce Brosnan, he contacted Donaldson and offered to play Devereux. Donaldson accepted the offer.
- One of the most challenging stunts to prepare and execute was the car explosion that occurred as Pierce Brosnan and Luke Bracey moved away from it. The car was rigged with explosives to create two blasts (one on each side of the car) and to prevent debris from flying around. The film shows the explosions happening because Pierce Brosnan's character cuts the fuel line and then shoots the car to ignite the fuel and, consequently, cause an explosion. The power of the explosion had to be such that the car would be lifted into the air and a fireball would be created. Furthermore, it required the participation of two stunt performers as FBI agents who were heading towards the car, and the timing of the explosion had to be calculated precisely to ensure their safety.
- The film was shot digitally, but to soften the image and add depth, the latest anamorphic lenses were used. The resulting image was approximately what it would look like if everything had been filmed on a 35mm camera thirty years ago, which was perfectly suited for a film about the Cold War. The film's plot moved quickly, and there were many action scenes, so the 'Steadicam' camera stabilization system was actively used during filming, as were cameras mounted on cars and motorcycles. In one of the car chase scenes, operator Romain Lacourbas filmed from the rear seat of a motorcycle, sitting backwards.
- Pierce Brosnan, together with his friend and producer Beau St. Clair, acquired the rights to adapt the 'November Man' book series back in 2005. Even before the world premiere of the film, Brosnan announced that he was starting work on the second installment of the new franchise.
- On a Mercedes van, a misspelling is visible on the right front door, reading: 'CABLE Komsomolskaya St. 864 MOSCOW'. The license plate 'F 466 NM 99' does not exist in the Russian Federation, nor do some of the other license plates shown in the film.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
