Marky B

Reading Deck's thread about anti-heroes and seeing the picture of Edward Woodward as Callan (how many actors can boast they have played British Secret Service assassin,a former CIA agent and a dustbinman clap ) has prompted me to suggest a film version of the lone givernment killer.
Edward Woodward could play Hunter his boss secret ,but who would play the edgy,hard David Callan secret secret ?
Mark Strong? Colin Salmon? Clive Owen (lest he doesn't get the Bond job)? Ross Kemp (even it was too prove he can go beyond Grant Mitchell clones)? Jason Statham (to put his mind off losing Kelly Brooke to Zany Bill)? Vinny Jones (er,maybe not)?
Any other ideas,people? How about someone to play Lonely?
Ta Ta
Marky B thumbs_u

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

Bobj

There was a film version of Callan in 1974 with Edward Woodward & Russell Hunter but with other cast members roles taken by more established actors. Not an expert on Callan but I think it was based on the story 'A Red File for Callan'which was an episode in the TV series extended for the big screen.
If you are talking about a remake then I agree Mark Strong would be ideal (has a wider range than Ross Kemp. Can't think of many actors suitable for the role of Lonely but possibly Perry Fenwick (Billy Mitchell in Eastenders) could do it.

mysteriesofedgarwallace

The film version was a re-make of the pilot "Magnum for Schneider"

For me, Clive Owen as Callan would be perfect.
Or Ewan MacGregor maybe??

Grant Mitchell, oops Ross Kemp could play Toby Mears (originally played by Anthony Valentine) that would be an interesting contrast.

Maybe James Cross could be played by Jude Law??

I think Minty from Eastenders might be an amusing choice for Lonely

Lord Brett

Owen as Callan - hmmm...certainly better casting that Owen as Bond.

As for the source novel of the Callan movie, you are both right, as A Red File for Callan and A Magnum for Schnieder are one and the same book. It was subsequently re-released again as Callan to tie-in with the release of the film.

James Mitchel wrote several other Callan novels, which are all excellent (and some of which are quite hard to find) as well as another series of spy novels in a very similar vein, which started before Callan. These feature the anti-hero John Craig and are written under the pen-name James Munro.

The last (and best) of these, The Innocent Bystanders, was filmed in 1972 under the title Innocent Bystanders, starring Stanley Baker, Donald Pleasence and Derren Nesbit. Very good it is too.

samkydd

I recently picked up a DVD of the Callan film for £1. It is the remade Armchair Cinema story from 1974, made a while after the Callan series ended. It had Michael da Costa and Don Henderson in it, who I also saw last week in the Sweeney pilot Regan made around the same time.

I hadn't seen many of the TV episodes because I was still a child and probably had to be in bed when it was on, school night. All I remember is the swinging light bulb (in my bedroom), and the little I did see of it had the flavour of a film recording style similar to Public Eye - lots of indoor scenes and not much filmed outside. I preferred Euston Films/ITC programmes because they seemed to film more outside than indoors, and when they did the sets seemed real rather than a hardboard partition in the corner of a studio!

The film has some great location shots of London, and one of the newspaper boards outside the tube mentioned The Royal Wedding, which must have been Princess Anne and Captain Mark Philips in 1973. Some of the cars in the scrapyard would be worth saving today, including half a 100E Ford Anglia (my first car which I paid £50 for and it was over 20 years old) and a custom-painted bright orange Ford Prefect on the back of a lorry! Custom Car buffs still use these models today! Callan used a Mk 1 two door Range Rover to torment his prey, and although common as eggs a few years ago these early models have now achieved classic car status, especially as the new ones change shape every few months and the latest is the car of choice for Premier League poseurs, drug barons, the Dulwich school run runabout and hairdressers from Islington!

Some of the street shooting showed off the fashions of the day as well as some of the commercial vehicles we used to take for granted like the Commer and the Ford Anglia van, and Hunter was chauffeured around incognito in a Bedford HA van (a la Biedebecke Affair). On the back of a double-decker bus Callan was getting off there was an advert "It's All Go Allegro at Mann Egerton", the model which we all remember as the Austin All-Agro!

I watched the film today and it is interesting to me because it explains who Callan was and what his role was, a sort of Harry Palmer anti-hero type. I'd only a vague idea before about him being some sort of spy but that was it.

Michael da Costa seemed to be in a lot of similar series in a career spanning from 1960 to 1977 and then nothing after that in IMDB. He seemed a natural to play petty villainous "makes your skin crawl" greasy type characters! Anyone know what happened to him?

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

essaljay

I agreed at first that "Minty" would be great for lonely but on second thoughts minty has tremendous presence and wouldn't fade into the background which was lonely's strong point. I think a good Callan would be Phil Mitchell (I can't remember his name) For me he has that edginess that can spill over at a moments notice.

Dame Starry

Eddie Marsan could play 'Lonely' I reckon.

Lord Brett

I would beware of casting any male actor from Eastenders in anything, as almost invariably they get found out as talentless nerks. Does anyone remember ITVs comical attempts to cast Ross Kemp in every pilot script they had on the books a few years back? More recently, Nigel Harman's supposed classy underplaying in 'enders turned out to be plain old wooden acting when ITV put him in their rubbish spy series pilot The Outsiders last year.

The bloke who plays Phil Mitchell can play a fat, whiskery, mumbling geezer who waddles around trying to intimidate people while sounding like he's having an asthma attack. If that's not the limit of his range I'll be very surprised (and the first to admit it).

(edit - OK, old pros who wind up in the 'Enders after years of service on proper TV don't count in the above rant. Rudolph Walker for Callan anyone?)


I don't normally get so worked up, but Callan is my favourite show and I loathe Easternders!

christoph404

I can't imagine anyone else in the role of Callan, a TV series very much of its time, a bit of an anti James Bond type agent in a similar but more ruthless mould to Harry Palmer. I thought Woodward was superb in the part and made it his own, its a tough act to follow. Lets not forget Anthony Valentine as Toby, I thought he and Woodward made a good team.
A bit of trivia: I read an interview years ago with Russell Hunter talking about his role as black cabbie driver "Lonely" Apparently in reality Russell Hunter could not drive and had no driving licence, any shots of him driving in real streets were done with his cab on the back of a trailer.

Moor Larkin

Quite justified old chap.......

I've no idea how good or bad these actors really are but it does seem certain that they become prisoners of their personas and perhaps, after years of playing the same bloke, prisoners of their own imaginations. They would certainly need a break of a year or two from the dreaded soap chain-gang before they could give a decent performance in anything else.

Callan would be a worthwhile project but the already expressed desire for action (outdoor v indoor) even within this very Thread, suggests it could never be remade. Oddly, the soaps have given us one or two of the few 'indoor' moments on TV in recent years, with their occasional forays into 'two-hander' episodes..........

How closely was George Markstein connected with Callan, Lord Brett?

batman

Callan should be left well alone. The only time a character was re-cast it didn't work. Meres was played by Peter Egan in the film and although he was fine, he just wasn't Meres.

I also totaly agree with Lord Brett's appraisal of the 'acting' ability of soem of the Eastenders cast, especially 'Phil Mitchell' who seems to think he's Oliver Reed .... not!

Bats.

I wish I had claws.

hankoler

If you can whisper your way through a film then Phil Mitchell would be great ,thats all he does is whisper .

batman

He could get a series to himself ... The Wooden Whisperer.

Bats

I wish I had claws.

Lord Brett

As I recall he was called in by producer Reginald Colin to be the script editor, as series creator James Mitchel was a lot better at dialogue and character than plot.

essaljay

Wow! I really touched a nerve with that one. Yes I know that when someone joins a soap they leave their frontal lobe as a deposit and they don’t get it back until they leave but Ian McFadden was recruited at a time when they were using proper, good actors and not just stand-up comics etc. (failed and successful) Given a short time I’m sure he could retrieve his charisma and talent. If allowed.