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Posted in: Movies, Universal | Tagged: johnny english, johnny english 3, rowan atkinson
Rowan Atkinson Returns For Johnny English 3
Rowan Atkinson is set to return for Johnny English 3, reviving the hapless secret agent character he originally developed for Barclaycard tv ads in the 1990s. The original Johnny English film, which included Ben Miller as Atkinson's sidekick, was a box office success in 2003. The 2011 sequel, Johnny English Reborn, also featured Rosamund Pike and Gillian Anderson.
Speaking about Johnny English Reborn in 2011, Atkinson seemed accutely aware of the dynamic of spy fiction vs real world events. About James Bond, he told the Daily Mail:
'They are hugely inspiring – a wonderful combination of glamour and adventure. The books were written in the Fifties and were all about Britain as a fading power but they had this brilliant secret agent who could make Britain look great again.
'The Cold War was a very dominant feature of the books, and that doesn't exist any more. The character doesn't really fit the times and the idea that a member of the British intelligence would be driving a Rolls-Royce Phantom in this day and age – or even an Aston Martin – is patently ludicrous.
'We go along with the idea because that was the template that Ian Fleming set and we update it. Even though we are not a Bond or a Bourne movie, we are the comic equivalent. We rely on people's familiarity with, and liking for, that world – the world of espionage.'
Thinking back on the context of that time — just 6 years ago now! — and what has changed since then, it's easy to see why Johnny English is coming back. Matters of serious international espionage are in the new regularly now more than they have been in decades. A comedic antidote for that could be box office gold.
As reported by Chortle, pre-production has already begun on the film, and it is scheduled to hit theaters in the UK on October 12, 2018.
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