Bryce Dallas Howard Is A Prophetic, Cat-Loving Spy Novelist In The Argylle Trailer
The good news? Henry Cavill is playing a spy again! The bad news? It's not the "Man From U.N.C.L.E." sequel we've been hoping for, and his glorious mustache is not making a comeback in "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two." This time, he's playing the titular character in cat-oriented spy movie "Argylle," from director Matthew Vaughn ("Kick-Ass," "Kingsman: The Secret Service").
The movie has a pretty stacked cast, including Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, Catherine O'Hara, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson. Here's the official synopsis:
Bryce Dallas Howard is Elly Conway, the reclusive author of a series of best-selling espionage novels, whose idea of bliss is a night at home with her computer and her cat, Alfie. But when the plots of Elly's fictional books — which center on secret agent Argylle and his mission to unravel a global spy syndicate — begin to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, quiet evenings at home become a thing of the past.
Accompanied by Aiden (Sam Rockwell), a cat-allergic spy, Elly (carrying Alfie in her backpack) races across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Elly's fictional world and her real one begins to blur.
Let's hope that Elly's cat fares better than John Wick's dog. Check out the freshly-released trailer for "Argylle" below.
Watch the first trailer for Argylle
"Argylle" is based on the upcoming debut novel by Elly Conway, who ... may not actually exist. There's a listing for the book on Penguin's website, but the synopsis describes one of the movie's in-universe spy novels. Between that, Howard's character being called Elly Conway, and the lack of any digital footprint for Conway, it seems likely that either the book is being published under a pseudonym, or there is no book and "Elly Conway" was just a marketing gimmick. The screenplay for "Argylle" was written by Jason Fuchs ("Pan," "Ice Age: Continental Drift").
Apple spent $200 million acquiring the distribution rights to "Argylle" in 2021, with a plan for the movie to release on Apple TV+ after a run in theaters, for which Apple has partnered with Universal Pictures. Right now, that acquisition looks like a bad hangover from the streaming spending frenzy that also led Netflix to drop $200 million on "The Gray Man" and Amazon to shell out $300 million for "Citadel."
Unlike those two star-studded spy projects, "Argylle" will at least get a run at the box office before it heads to Apple TV+, which is an opportunity to recoup some expenses with ticket sales. On the other hand, it's set for release in February, which is regarded as a "dump month" — a traditionally quieter window when studios release projects they don't have much faith in. On the other other hand, Vaughn has previously enjoyed success with a spy movie released in February; "Kingsman: The Secret Service" grossed $414 million against a production budget of $81 million.
Will "Argylle" land on all fours, or get buried in the litter box? We'll find out when the movie hits theaters on February 2, 2024.