True Lies is a 1994 American action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, is based on the 1991 French comedy film La Totale! The film follows U.S. government agent Harry Tasker (Schwarzenegger), who struggles to balance his double life as a spy with his familial duties. It had a box office of over $378 million on a budget of about $100 million.
The trigger for this post is our paper (on a very serious topic):
Combating Child Labor: Incentives and Information Disclosure in Global Supply Chains
which is a finalist for Best Paper in MSOM (The results will be announced in late June at our annual conference being held in Munich).
What triggered this research? It was:
The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (written in 2010), which became effective on January 1, 2012, empowers California consumers to join the fight against human trafficking by giving them access to information about retailers’ and manufacturers’ efforts to eradicate such labor practices from their supply chains.
Who was the Governor of California that made it happen?
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
To know more about what it is (authored by the then Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris):
The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act: A Resource Guide.
True. No Lies.😏
Talking about spies, perhaps the most gripping book that I have read in recent years (and way better than the movie, now streaming on Netflix):
All the Old Knives is a 2022 American spy thriller film directed by Janus Metz Pedersen and written by Olen Steinhauer. It is based on Steinhauer’s 2015 novel of the same name. The film stars Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Pryce and David Dawson.
Olen Steinhauer also created the TV series Berlin Station, focused on a fictional Central Intelligence Agency branch operating in Berlin, which is very good. For a recent series (that could have been better, but since I am really missing John le Carré and found his last book Silverview a bit light and unsatisfying) that begins slowly, but then gets pretty intense:
Slow Horses is a spy thriller television series based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Mick Herron starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Of course, there is:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Cold War spy thriller film, based on John le Carré’s 1974 novel of the same name. The film stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, David Dencik and Kathy Burke supporting. The film received three Oscar nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and for Oldman, Best Actor. It had box office of over $81 million on a budget of $21 million.
Another gem of a movie is:
A Most Wanted Man is a 2014 espionage thriller film based on the 2008 novel of the same name by John le Carré, The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams and Willem Dafoe.
As I recently re-watched:
The Russia House is a 1990 American spy film starring Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer and Roy Scheider. Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay based on John le Carré’s 1989 novel of the same name.
I wondered if the “Quantum Race” allegedly in progress (“China is winning!”) is simply a contemporary version of the cold-war hoax to keep the agencies (DARPA, NSF, DoD, DoE etc) funding flowing, of which I am a recent beneficiary ☺️: see A Floquet Connection.
The second season of Tehran is here. Will it be as good as the first, or disappoint?