The Hollywood Reporter says Hugh Grant has joined the cast of Guy Ritchie’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. opposite Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki.
Steven Soderbergh was originally planning to direct the feature, based on the original NBC television series that starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin. They were agents of United Network Command for Law Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.) who fight the forces of Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity (T.H.R.U.S.H.).
Cavill will play Solo with Hammer as Kuryakin, although the names may ultimately differ in the final film, especially if the project contemporizes the action and maintains some subtle continuity with the original series.
Grant, who will play the head of British Naval Intelligence, recently provided a voice for Aardman Animation’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits and played several roles in the Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski’s Cloud Atlas.