VOD Spotlight: Paul Feig And Melissa McCarthy Team Up For Spy

In the movie Spy, Susan Cooper has been an unassuming team player at the CIA for years. She has been the voice behind agents and their successes. When top agents are compromised, she steps up to go deep undercover in a world of arms dealers in an attempt to prevent a global crisis.

Spy_webHere’s some fun trivia about Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne and Jude Law. (Trivia provided by imdb.com):

• Paul Feig, the writer-director-producer of Spy, began work on the film in 2010, after seeing Casino Royale, the 2006 James Bond movie, starring Daniel Craig. Feig has said Casino Royale is one of his all-time favorite films and he decided to create a comic version of a Bond-like film, recognizing that he was unlikely to ever be asked to do the real thing himself.

• Spy had a working title of “Susan Cooper,” the name given McCarthy’s character. Spy marks the third collaboration between McCarthy and Feig, following Bridesmaids (2011), and The Heat (2013). They will also be working together on 2016’s Ghostbusters release. McCarthy and costar Rose Byrne also appeared together in Bridesmaids.

• McCarthy and Feig are neighbors; she first heard about the project over a shared dinner, and subsequently asked to read the script.  

• When the film debuted in March 2015 at South By Southwest, it was not fully finished; Feig was quoted as saying that the music and color timing were still being tweaked. At the time of some of the earliest screenings, the movie was also without any closing credits.

• Much like the James Bond films, Spy features an Aston Martin car. The make and model of the Aston Martin in Spy is a blue Aston Martin DB9 coupé.

• McCarthy has said that Spy was one of the most physically taxing roles she has had. “Running, jumping, falling. I’ve cracked my head, I have cuts and bruises. At the end of the day I look like I fell down an elevator shaft. But I wear those wounds and thrown discs with a bit of pride.”  Stunt coordinator JJ Perry says, “We have a great stunt double (Luci Ramberg) for Melissa, but once we saw how good Melissa was, we were able to ask even more of her.” Perry also praises McCarthy’s s impressive ability to learn and retain choreography, saying, “She was in there with some heavy-hitting action stars, which can be intimidating, but she more than held her own. Her work ethic is outstanding.”

Spy is now available on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.

© 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Credit: Larry Horricks