Why Richard Gere Isn’t Watching His New TV Series (But We Are!)

It’s a series we’ve been curious to discover since its project was announced. This is The Agency, the title chosen for the transatlantic adaptation of our national hit The Office of Legends. And it turns out Richard Gere is in it, and he has a problem with his new TV series.

This is only the second time in his history that Richard Gere has returned to the small screen. He explains Entertainment Weekly that he and his wife”were dependenton the original, but he can no longer watch the new version.

Why doesn’t Richard Gere want to watch The Agency?

“The only thing that bothers me is that I probably can’t watch it because I hate watching myself“, – declares the actor, now 75 years old.”A few weeks ago I thought, “I’m probably not going to watch it with my wife.” He will look at it alone. He will be, I know him.“

The Agency (scheduled for release later this year on Paramount+ in the US) follows an undercover CIA agent – ​​played by Michael Fassbender – codenamed Martian (Martian, in a French editor’s note) who is tasked with abandoning his undercover life and returning to his post in London. But when the love she left behind resurfaces, romance is reborn, and her career, her true identity, and her mission… are all threatened by her feelings.

The first photos from the series were released:

What does Richard Gere do at the agency?

Richard Gere plays Bosco, the head of the London agency, a man with a dark past who himself served as a secret agent. He can be compared to the character of Henri Duflo played by Jean-Pierre Darossin. After spending more than 40 years in iconic film roles, he finally transitioned to the small screen for his first lead role in the British thriller MotherFatherSon in 2019.

But Richard Gere didn’t really set out to get TV roles… until he read the agency’s scripts. His love of the original French spy drama, along with writing by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth (Le Mans 66, Edge of Tomorrow), eventually got him going. But he was shocked to see how much television had evolved during his film career.

The magic of television

“What we see today are great things being done on television“, he said.When I was a kid, we didn’t want to do television—that was something we didn’t do. The quality wasn’t there, but today we see things on TV that are as good as, or better than, almost anything we see on movie screens.“

He pauses before adding:It is difficult to call it television today. This is something different. I have to tell you, and I probably don’t have to tell you, that I was amazed at the amount of money involved when I went to a shoot outside of London, I hadn’t worked on this type of shoot in 25 or 30 years. Over the years, or even more, film footage takes up enormous footage. A very big budget to tell stories.“

The Agency will be broadcast on Canal+ in France during the 2024-2025 season without further details. So we’ll have to wait a little longer to see Richard Gere and Michael Fassbender in the American versions of Malotru and Socrates.