USA: MIKE MYERS ATTENDS PREMIERE OF NEW AUSTIN POWERS SPOOF SPY MOVIE "THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME"

Record ID: 705020

  • Title: USA: MIKE MYERS ATTENDS PREMIERE OF NEW AUSTIN POWERS SPOOF SPY MOVIE "THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME"
  • Date: 11th June 1999
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MAY 23, 1999) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MIKE MYERS SAYING OF THE FUTURE OF AUSTIN POWERS, Well, there's the possibility for different adventures. That's the good news about James Bond, that's the good news about Clouseau and the Pink Panther movies, there's always a new crime to solve, there's always a new plot to take over the world so, to that extent, that's fun, you know?
  • Embargoed: 26th June 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4IFTAUNRV4UUTNDCDYO8UWC3Q
  • Story Text: Two years after he created British superagent Austin Powers with a hyperactive libido and really bad teeth, Mike Myers is back with the sequel called "The Spy Who Shagged Me."
    He attended the film's World Premiere along with his co-stars Heather Graham and Rob Lowe in Los Angeles.
    Even though the first film only grossed 54 million USD, which falls far short of bona fide blockbuster status, New Line Cinema is pulling out all the stops for "The Spy Who Shagged Me," including a gala premiere, a huge advertising budget, and promotional tie-ins with Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Heineken Beer, and a line of merchandise including action figures and talking watches.
    New Line is believed to be positioning "The Spy Who Shagged Me" as the first major competitor to "The Phantom Menace" as the summer's big "event" movie.
    As in the original, Mike Myers acted as co-writer and co-producer in addition to playing the dual roles of international superspy Austin Powers and his arch-nemesis Dr.
    Evil.
    In the sequel, he also takes on the third role of Fat Bastard, a grossly overweight and flatulent Scottish spy who helps Dr.Evil in his latest dastardly plan to take over the world.
    The role of Fat Bastard required Myers to undergo more than seven hours of makeup a day that weighed close to five hundred pounds and needed an air cooling machine built in to keep Myers from overheating.
    Much like in the James Bond films that inspired it, the latest Powers adventure centers around a plot that seems to revel in its ridiculousness.
    Dr.Evil's latest plot to hold the world ransom is complicated when he travels back through time to the 60's to steal Austin Powers' so-called Mojo, otherwise known as his libido, the life force that makes him the irresistable swinging superagent he has become.
    Rendered powerless by the loss of his Mojo, Powers must team up with the beautiful and deadly CIA agent Felicity Shagwell, played by Heather Graham, to stop Dr.Evil from carrying out his diabolical plan.
    Returning to the cast are Seth Green, who plays Dr.
    Evil's son Scott, who still is sorting through his disfunctional relationship with his father, Robert Wagner, as Dr.Evil's right-hand man Number Two, and Elizabeth Hurley, who makes a cameo appearance as Vanessa Kensington, Powers' love interest from the first film.
    Newcomers include Rob Lowe, who plays a younger, 1960's version of Wagner's character, complete with a dead-on impersonation of Wagner, and two foot, eight inch tall actor Verne Troyer, who plays Mini Me, Dr.Evil's newest henchman, an exact clone of Evil, only one-eighth the size.
    Returning for a second time in the director's chair is filmmaker Jay Roach, who, in addition to directing the film, also helped assemble a star-studded soundtrack, with music from such diverse artists as Madonna, R.E.M., Lenny Kravitz, Scarey Spice "Mel G." and Elvis Costello "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" opens in theaters throughout the United States on Friday, June 11.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register