"The Company" TV miniseries - info, photos, dates

[jetsetter]

This summer, TNT proudly presents The Company, the story of the Cold War -- its beginnings in the early 1950s, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in the 1960s and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – as told from the perspective of the soldiers involved: the spies of the CIA and the KGB. This epic three-week television event stars an international cast headed by Chris O’Donnell (Scent of a Woman, Grey’s Anatomy), Alfred Molina (Frida, The Da Vinci Code, Spider-Man 2) and Michael Keaton (Live from Baghdad, Cars). It comes to TNT from Sony Pictures Television and acclaimed executive producers Ridley Scott (Gladiator), Tony Scott (Man on Fire), John Calley (The Da Vinci Code); and co-executive producers David W. Zucker (Numb3rs) and David A. Rosemont (Into the West). The series will debut in August in two-hour installments over three consecutive Sundays, with the Sunday, August 5, premiere being presented with limited commercial interruption, sponsored by Ford and Quiznos. In addition, a special 10-part broadband series Spy Toys of the CIA, hosted by O’Donnell, will be available at tnt.tv beginning Friday, July 13.

Directed by Emmy winner Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers, TNT’s Salem’s Lot) and adapted by Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) from the best-selling historical novel by Robert Littell, The Company follows a game played over four decades, from the rainy streets of Berlin to the shores of Cuba, from secret revolutionary gatherings in Budapest to high-level meetings in the halls of Washington and Moscow. The chessboard is the entire globe, with pieces being moved and counter-moved carefully to try to gain advantage in the standoff between two super powers. In the end, the primary casualties were felt on the national and personal level by both willing participants and innocent bystanders.

Each night of The Company has a unique tone, with Night 1 presenting the early years of the CIA during the Cold War as a taut espionage thriller set mostly on the streets of East and West Berlin, where the cat-and-mouse games between the CIA and the KGB begin. Night 2 is an action thriller, with the primary focus placed on two violent and tragic events: the Hungarian uprising of 1956, which was quashed by massive Soviet involvement, and the Bay of Pigs, in which Cuban rebels attempted to oust Castro from power. And Night 3 is a complex psychological thriller, with the CIA desperately searching within its own ranks for a KGB mole who has been undermining CIA missions for decades.

Premiers August 5th

Photos and more info can be found here: http://www.tnt.tv/title/?oid=657967

Sneak peak video: http://www.tnt.tv/dramavision.jsp?oid=30454

Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Com...28TV_series%29

Going by the previews playing on TNT this looks like it will be an interesting miniseries.

[jetsetter]

The Company is a six-hour movie that will air over three nights, beginning this Sunday at 8 pm on TNT. It stars Chris O'Donnell, Alfred Molina, and Michael Keaton as players in the early days of the CIA. It is based on the highly-acclaimed novel by Robert LIttell.

The story focuses on three Yale friends who join the spy business, two of them go to the CIA and one (the Russian) goes to the KGB. It is set during the beginning of the Cold War, starting with the 1950s and then to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
This movie has extremely high production value. Much of the scenes are shot with very little light, or appear grainy, as if we're watching a movie about the CIA during the actual time period that this movie takes place. And the acting is outstanding. Chris O'Donnell has the perfect look and attitude to play a novice CIA agent who falls in love with his beautiful contact in Berlin. Alfred Molina plays a veteran agent who is teaching O'Donnell's character the ropes of the spy business. He conceives of certain spy tactics that we've seen in dozens of films and television shows, such as telling all his contacts about a meeting to root out a mole. Michael Keaton doesn't get a lot of face time, but he also does a great job of playing a CIA executive who is overly-suspicious of everyone he encounters.

Another co-star is Rory Cochrane, who we knew as Tim Speedle on CSI: Miami. He plays the Russian college friend who becomes a spy for the KGB and then a plant inside the United States. His character is very toned down from the over-the-top Miami. He plays his role with patience and subtlety, and it's very effective-- and also quite creepy.

Night 1 of this movie reminds me of a Caleb Carr novel. The set and costumes are all very detailed for the time period of this film. The spy business is still quite new to the U.S. and Russia, so the characters are essentially working from their gut instincts rather than from any formal training. The first two hours of the series are when the CIA and the KGB relationship begins to fail and the agents essentially pursue each other through the streets of Berlin.

Night 1 moves quite slowly as we watch the characters get comfortable in their roles as spies and make mistakes-- by falling in love with their contacts or falling in love in general (Women! They complicate everything!). This night is more of a historical look at how the CIA refined its spy operations and how its relationship with the KGB became fractured.

Nights 2 and 3 promise to provide less dialogue and more action as the story takes the agents through the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Bay of Pigs, and ending in the fall of the Soviet Union. The third night has CIA agents frantically searching within their own agency for the elusive KGB mole who has been undermining the CIA for decades.

If you're interested in the history of the CIA, or in general history about the Cold War, you will find this movie intriguing. The initial two hours move somewhat slowly but they cover some interesting history. Plus, the acting, the dialogue and the general look of The Company is top-notch.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/07/30/th...an-early-look/

[thedguy]

So is this "historical fiction" or re-enactments? Either way I got it set on my mythtv box

[jetsetter]

Originally Posted by thedguy

So is this "historical fiction" or re-enactments? Either way I got it set on my mythtv box

Historical fiction.

It has based on this book:

The Company: A Novel of the CIA is a work of fiction written by American novelist Robert Littell and published by Penguin Press in 2002. The plot interweaves the professional lives of both historical and fictional characters in the field of international espionage between June 1950 and August 1995.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Company_%28novel%29

[jetsetter]

The first two hour part of this three part series was very good. I suggest watching it.