Strangely enough, our story begins with a credit card commercial. In the 1990s, UK bank Barclaycard ran a series of commercials that featured #RowanAtkinson playing an incompetent secret agent. They took the UK by storm, and in 2000, Atkinson revealed that the character would be transformed into Johnny English: a British spy, and the incompetent person's answer to James Bond!
The character has seen a reasonable amount of success, with two movies each grossing an impressive $160 million against costs of just over $40 million. Now, at last, we have confirmation that Johnny English is returning!
The comedic website Chortle has reported that the spy's third outing has entered pre-production. Shooting on the as-yet-untitled film is due to begin in the autumn, with a release date set for October 2018. It marks the second time this year Atkinson's shown the desire to reprise one of his fan-favorite characters, after a cameo as the dearly-loved Mr. Bean in the Chinese film Top Funny Comedian: The Movie.
As Atkinson commented:
"He’s fun and he’s rather human. I think he’s a rather realistic character. Perhaps he’s a more realistic and believable character than James Bond, in many ways. James Bond is just a superman. It’s rather fun to play someone with more faults and foibles."
He's right. Let's face it, if you gave most of us a pen that contains a tranquilizer dart, we too would end up tranquilizing ourselves. Here's the catch, though; the film industry has changed a lot since 2011's Johnny English Reborn. How will this oh-so-British spy respond to a world where spy films have become far grittier? There's only one possible answer: with a whole lot of tongue-in-cheek humor!
For fans of Rowan Atkinson, this is music to our ears. If you'll forgive my switching shows, there's just one thing I can say in response to Johnny English 3:
"Permission to shout "Bravo" at an annoyingly loud volume, sir?"
(Source: Chortle)
About the Creator
Tom Bacon
A prolific writer and film fan, Tom has a deep love of the superhero genre.
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