Universal is going down the right routes with their upcoming MI6 spy thriller Section 6, which has potentially found a director in London filmmaker Joe Cornish, who is currently attached to the job. They nailed the right nationality, no doubt about that.
This is a film that covers the history behind the formation of the legendary British secret intelligence agency MI6, otherwise known by its titular moniker. The film takes place in 1919 and already has its lead in 300: Rise of an Empire’s Jack O’Connell, who will be seen later this year in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. He’ll be playing a war vet who is on a mission in Russia to retrieve coded assassination orders, as to avoid a possible revolution. This isn’t exactly a movie that has comedy written all over it, but that’s mostly what Cornish is known for.
You might recall Cornish wrote and directed 2011’s joyously raucous sci-fi comedy Attack the Block, which was admittedly as action packed as indie genre films get. Beyond that, the most popular thing he has directed were episodes of he and Adam Buxton’s BBC series The Adam and Joe Show, for which he also wrote and directed. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a sketch about a particularly convoluted game show.
And as THR reports it, he beat out Tom Hooper and David Mackenzie for Universal’s attention. The guy who created Quizzlestick topped the Oscar-winning Hooper! I’m definitely intrigued, despite all reservations.
Universal bought up Aaron Berg’s spec script late last year for a good price, with a promise to get the production into gear as quickly as possible after a script rewrite. No screenwriter has been named to take over the revisions, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if Cornish did it himself, assuming he officially signs on. His last two screenplays were The Adventures of Tintin, co-written with Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright, and Marvel’s Ant-Man, another team-up with Wright who is directing. This story is essentially the inspiration for the James Bond series, so perhaps Cornish, even if he isn’t writing it, will find a way to add a bit of lightness to the drama.
In case you haven’t seen Attack the Block, you can find it for free right now on Crackle. It’s the flick that got Cornish in the conversation for Star Trek 3, even if it all fell apart.
