Taking a break from his Sherlock Holmes franchise, director Guy Ritchie is prepping for the release of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the much-anticipated adaptation of the television series of the same name, starring Armie Hammer and the Man of Steel himself Henry Cavill. The trailer suggests the same slick, funny, and appealingly lensed spy-craft and detective work that has informed his adaptations of the Holmes legend, but the chemistry between Hammer and Cavill seems totally their own. The two young actors seemed to have a snappy comic repartee both in the trailer and on the panel, which offered some insights into how Ritchie approached the adaptation, the casting and process for the actors, and the enthusiasm for the material on set.

Archer staple Aisha Tyler moderated the panel, which included Cavill, Hammer, Alicia Vikander, and Elizabeth Debicki, and the show opened with a message from Ritchie, who hilariously kept messing up the message to the Comic-Con audience. He even blundered the names of the cast members a few times. The actors took up the conversation from there, and nailed the director’s name each time, surprisingly.

Panel Highlights

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    Image via Warner Bros.
    When talking about what it was like getting into character, Hammer and Cavill said that they relied heavily on the script to get into the contentious relationship. Cavill added of Hammer: “We enjoyed a few drinks together.”
  • Discussing the mix of humor and violence in the film, Cavill said that it was “new for me“ and that “the humor was built in by Guy.” Hammer joked “we just say the words on the page.”
  • Fielding a question about the 1964-65 time period, Vikander said that she grew up fetishizing the 1960s, seeing pictures of her parents from that time period. Debicki added that the 60s were “a great time for villains” and that her hair “weighed 10 kilos.” Tyler was quick to remind everyone that 10kils equals 25 pounds.
  • On his Russian accent, Hammer admitted that it certainly made him “sound more bad ass.”

Footage

The extended trailer delighted in a series of crazy car chases, wildly physical action and fight sequences, and more than a handful of solid one-liners. The trailer opened with a really suave, funny scene that saw Cavill and Vikander’s American spies using a zip-line to get across the Berlin wall. There was also a long look at the scene where Hammer’s KGB tough and Cavill’s smart-ass agent meet, concluding in a bathroom-set fight scene that looks quite exhilarating, and that’s not even counting the appearance of the great Jared Harris as their handler. There was a clear insinuation of a romance between Vikander’s character and Hammer’s, while most of the major quips went to Cavill. The trailer ended with a rousing rendition of “Feelin’ Good” that proved key to pumping up anticipation for a film that, for me at least, looked questionable at best before.

Audience Q&A

  • When asked about the fight scenes, Cavill said that Ritchie’s vision was precise but that, specifically in the bathroom-set action sequence, that Hammer and him “messed it up and Ritchie loved it.”
  • When asked about connecting to their characters, Debicki was quick to say that “evil came naturally” to her, while Hammer described his character as “all business.” Vikander added that her character was just straight-up “bad-ass,” and Cavill described his character, Napoleon, as a “mysterious rogue.”

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