42 minutes in Horowitz says they’ve just started filming S2…so it seems they proved they could make it in Covid restrictions.
2 Likes
Read Horowitz replies, he reveals a new cast member for the second series. who will be VERY familiar to Bond fans…
2 Likes
It would seem they’re either jumping straight to book 4, Eagle Strike (Stephens’ character is the bad guy from that book) or combining it with Skeleton Key.
3 Likes
I would rather see them do book 4, Skeleton Key is one of the weakest books in my opinion.
I think Stephens will be great as Damian Cray!
PPK, if the first episode is any indication, they’ll probably add material from other books to shore up the Skeleton Key story.
1 Like
They’re probably just adding the home life and Sabina introduction from Skeleton Key to mostly Eagle Strike the way they added Stormbreaker’s home life stuff to what is mostly Point Blanc for season 1.
1 Like
Interesting discussion - Horowitz confirms that the more adult tone of the adaptation was because the original audience of the book it’s based on will now be adults.
1 Like
Watched this in two sittings, quite entertaining. My only serious gripe is that the series makes a lot of the ‘child as agent’ taboo - yet said ‘child’ is beating up a professional in the first episode. And is clearly nowhere in the book’s 14 yo region the tv series wisely avoids. All due to the grown up target audience of course.
Related to this I felt Vicky McClure was perhaps not the best choice for Mrs Jones. Ageing her with the glasses comes across as a caricature. The better solution would have been to change Mrs Jones role from aunt/mother figure to that of a big sister and let McClure just play the part in her usual persona.
Otherwise a fine adaptation, setting up the series with enough mystery to keep the audience intrigued, adding some of the less savoury sides of spying, the lies, the mistrust.
I remember when I first read the books - over a decade ago - I was surprised how easily the ludicrous concept of a 14 yo kid spy went past the reality check while reading. It took only a little suspension of disbelief to enjoy this series.
Watching the Amazon adaptation now I took out Point Blank to check where the ‘adult’ production veered from the written page. Not a lot was changed, rather amalgamated with Stormbreaker and later books to give the series a proper stage and focus.
While leafing through the book I came across this:
It was raining in Paris. The city looked tired and disappointed, the Eiffel Tower fighting against a mass of heavy clouds. There was nobody sitting at the tables outside the cafés, and for once the little kiosks selling paintings and postcards were being ignored by the tourists, who were hurrying back to their hotels. It was five o’clock in the afternoon and the evening was drawing in, unnoticed. The shops and offices were emptying, but the city didn’t care. It just wanted to be left alone.
For a paragraph in a young adult adventure - and in spite of being a little pasta-stitchy perhaps - this reads decidedly like the guidepost to point his readers a bit further down the street to his inspiration and paragon.
It’s no coincidence Anthony Horowitz does what he does.
1 Like
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/uk/uk-child-spies-scli-gbr-intl/index.html
Edit; I should say I only knew of that story because Horowitz mentioned it in an interview (“I thought I’d made it up till I read that!”)
1 Like
Indeed, I was thinking of that too - though this practice is really on the other end of the spying spectrum, in line with kids ratting out their parents/family/friends/teachers in Nazi Germany. Or later to the Stasi.
Here the reasoning is that in certain fields of crime children are ideally placed and easily recruited for the cause. With debatable results.
Maybe it is a modern form of the old chimney sweep tradition…
New trailer for season 2. Check out who is playing the main villain!
4 Likes
Quite, as if Alex Rider didn’t have enough connections to Bond…
3 Likes
Cool trailer. Eagle Strike was one of my favourite books and I thought Cray was a good villain.
I’m glad they have decided to ignore the Skeleton Key plot line (by the looks of it, though I see there is a surfing scene- could be the Cribber bit in Cornwall from that book) as I thought it was the least interesting from all of the books.
Lots to sink our teeth into with the whole Feathered Serpent video game house of horrors stuff!
2 Likes
Another longer trailer has dropped for season 2:
3 Likes
It looks fine - it’s just that it doesn’t really look different from any six pack of action series. I hope the finished product has a little more emphasis on intrigue and suspense than on the gunplay/beatemup. What sets Alex apart from the rest is that he’s really the underdog and has to rely on his wits and improvisation, not on just being the one to punch harder or shoot faster.
2 Likes
Well, the first series was, and this is the same people across the board, so I’m thinking it’s a slightly more adult version of Eagle Strike (which I gather is the basis for the plot)
1 Like
I will say, between Vexed (a very good police procedural staring Stephens, and made by the same production company as Alex Ryder) and his James Bond work, Toby Stephens being in this series was always WHEN rather than if
1 Like
My youngest son loves it, and has devoured all the Alex Rider books. They were shown the movie in school after reading Stormbreaker in class. He was not impressed…
1 Like
Diving into season 2
3 Likes
Didn’t realize it had released. Thanks for the heads up!
3 Likes