MovieChat Forums > Callan (1967) Discussion > Official reboot on the way

Official reboot on the way

posted 9 years ago by duke-verity
8 replies | jump to latest

After years of rumours it looks like this is really going ahead. The estate of the late James Mitchell have given author M P Wright the green light to write a pilot script for a modern-day, contemporary Callan remake.

This is what M P Wright has to say:

'I'm currently working on a pilot script called 'One Shot, One Kill', which will bring the self-hating, bolshy, British government assassin back out of the shadows. All the series regulars are set to return - Hunter/Charlie, Toby Meres, Snell, and of course Lonely. All brought to life in contemporary and gritty settings.

It will be a really up to date story revolving around ISIS and the way illegal immigrants are brought into the country and what is happening in the Mediterranean at the moment. One of the strengths of the original show was what Callans's unit did were fit-ups, murder, blackmail and the question arises if things like that are still going on in 21st Century espionage.'

Well there we have it... To be honest I have some misgivings about this concept. This update sounds rather like Spooks or one of the many other contemporary TV spy dramas (all frankly heavily influenced by the original classic Callan) doing the rounds today. All this contemporary spin about a modern Callan going up against ISIS; it sounds almost indistinguishable from the hackneyed, clichéd, high-tech, generic, "catch a terrorist before breakfast" spy twaddle that the BBC and ITV networks are churning out factory-style in 2015.

I can't help feeling that it would have been better to have continued the Callan saga in novels and short stories (within which literary medium James Mitchell wrote many classics about this character) set in the Cold War 1960s and early '70s, as part of the original series time-frame and as part of James Mitchell's original canonical Callan universe.

I know it's often wrong to pre-judge, but as a long-term Callan fan I'll admit that my heart sank quite a bit when I read about this contemporary reboot concept. If they produce a masterpiece I'll eat my words. We'll just have to wait and see....

[–] striker90210 9 years ago

Thanks duke-verity for sharing the news. The information about a possible Callan reboot is mentioned in M.P. Wright's tweeter page and this article.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/crime-novel-made-into-tv-series-31318054.html

They can still reboot Callan without getting into unrelated issues such as the current situation in the Mediterranean and illegal immigration. What do these issues have to do with the character of Callan who is a government sanctioned assassin? Well, I will wait and see how these story points are weaved into the Callan character. Who knows, maybe between now and the release of any future Callan reboot they change their minds and rewrite the whole story. This happens all the time in movie production.

Just one last point for anyone who is related to the new Callan project and maybe reading this post. In my opinion, the best episodes and the best representation of the Callan character can be seen in the "Callan the black and white years" series that was released on DVD not long ago. That is the Callan that has stood the test of time and will never go out of fashion. That is the Callan that should be the starting point and the inspiration for any future reboot of the character.

[–] ib011f9545i 8 years ago

I have never heard of this author,is he a famous crime writer?

It is not going to be much of a series if it it just features current events.

I am watching the black and white and colour series on dvd at the moment.

I think they are great,mostly,some weaker episodes but always great acting and gritty and dour.

Callan is always described as an assassin and he is but he does detective work as well.

But I don't see that SPOOKS borrowed much from CALLAN except the taxi cab thing but was that not what MI5 did in real life.

I am loving CALLAN (again I just remember some of the episodes from the 1970s).

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ant-mac 7 years ago

I've been watching CALLAN since I was a child in the 1970s. I am also a long-term fan. Like you, I have grave misgivings about an updated and modern CALLAN TV series. I'm trying to remember the last time an idea like this worked out well...

No, sorry, nothing comes to mind.

And exactly what will they replace that theme music, GIRL IN THE DARK and that swinging light bulb with?

ant-mac

[–] duke-verity 7 years ago

If this reboot goes ahead, it will of course be aimed at today's audiences rather than at us dedicated fans of the original version. The target audience will be people who have never even heard of the original Callan, and therefore won't be judging a new version by comparison. These will be modern viewers weaned on flashy American crime dramas such as 24 and C.S.I, as well as our own home-grown recent espionage hokum such as Spooks.

The visual style will also inevitably be much glossier and faster paced than the old classic version; full of modern technical effects, scenes of characters staring at smart phones and computer displays whilst shouting "Suspect is in visual range! Go, go, go!" etc; choreographed gunplay and fight sequences, car chases and CGI-enhanced visuals.

Basically it's going to look something like the Daniel Craig era Bond movies, fused with The Wire and other popular examples of that slick, post-millennial TV thriller style. That's what many of today's viewers want and expect from their generic entertainment on the box.

This is of course that very slick escapist approach which the original Callan worked so very hard to avoid. The irony of this may be lost on the makers of the new version.

[–] striker90210 7 years ago

The visual style will also inevitably be much glossier and faster paced than the old classic version; full of modern technical effects, scenes of characters staring at smart phones and computer displays whilst shouting "Suspect is in visual range! Go, go, go!" etc; choreographed gunplay and fight sequences, car chases and CGI-enhanced visuals.

Basically it's going to look something like the Daniel Craig era Bond movies....

Here are my thoughts. I think they can add all these but to a certain extent. If any new Callan reboot looks and feels like a James Bond wannabe, it will backfire big time and everyone will claim that it is nothing but a cheaper imitation. When I look at the Bourne series, they added all these elements but with a difference. The action, camera work and the environment are distinctly different than Bond movies. A simple example, there are many chase sequences in the Bourne movies but there are no car chases with a tricked luxury car equivalent to an Aston Martin.

It is OK if there are cell phones, computers and car chases. A new reboot must appeal to a new generation but without compromising what made the original so unique and with respect to the source material. For me the important aspects of any future reboot are the characters and the story. Will the Callan character change from the original? A working class, reluctant but brutal and efficient hit man that does the dirty jobs that her Majesty's Secret Service refuses to touch. Will there be those supporting characters that gave the original Callan its distinct feel like Lonely, Hunter and Meres? Is the story going to be compelling and read like an exciting thriller in the murky world of hit men, counter intelligence and double crossing characters? Will there be the iconic opening sequence with the swinging light bulb and Callan in the shadows?

"This is a mission, not a fancy dress ball !!"

[–] duke-verity 7 years ago

Thank you for your thoughts. I really wish I could fully share in your positivity about the possibilities of a future reboot. As I said in the original post, if I'm wrong in my criticisms and they produce a masterpiece I will eat my words.

Callan was never about gloss, glamour, stylised and prettified designer violence (which frankly the Bourne movies absolutely revel in), high-speed car chases, technological gimmicks and escapist macho thrills. That was everything that James Mitchell's series was meant to be working against. His Cold War world was the grim, sad, noirish, downbeat, deglamourized, absolute antithesis of that popular escapist fantasy spy story/crime drama approach.

The essence of the character was his fallibility, vulnerability and humanity. He wasn't a fighting superman, he was an unpolished plebeian everyman. He was the killer who hated killing - forced to exercise his one dark talent because his employers wouldn't let him be anything else. This is what set him apart from many of his smooth, self confident, gun-toting, glamourous counterparts in the spy genre. Callan never revelled in what he did. Killing was killing, and it was never pretty. The message of the series was avowedly anti-glamour and anti-violence.

I have little faith in the ability of today's writers, producers and directors (utterly obsessed with making everything look high-def cinematic and beautiful) to grasp that essential point about the original classic series and what James Mitchell and co were trying to do. It will be lost in translation in the pursuit of ratings.

Since this thread was started in 2015 there doesn't seem to have been any further news of M P Wright's reboot plans. Perhaps a television production company decided not to go ahead with it, or maybe Mr Wright's script has been through multiple rewrites. Who knows. It may not even come to fruition now.

[–] Yonilikka-22 7 years ago

After the horrendous 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' movie, I'd prefer to see 'Callan' forgotten forever rather than be the subject of yet another failed attempt to bring it to a modern audience by essentially turning it something it isn't.