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Austin Powers is a series of American satirical spy comedy films created by Mike Myers, who stars as the British spy Austin Powers as well as his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil. The serie…
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Austin Powers is a series of American satirical spy comedy films created by Mike Myers, who stars as the British spy Austin Powers as well as his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil.
Austin Powers is a series of American satirical spy comedy films created by Mike Myers, who stars as the British spy Austin Powers as well as his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil. The series consists of International Man of Mystery (1997), The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Goldmember (2002), all of which were directed by Jay Roach, and co-produced and released by New Line Cinema.
The series is a satire of numerous films and characters, particularly the James Bond series and Jason King, and incorporates many other elements of popular culture as it follows a British spy's quest to bring down his nemesis. The character of Powers represents an archetype of 1960s Swinging London, with his advocacy of free love, his use of obscure impressions, and his clothing style. The films also poke fun at the outrageous plots, rampant sexual innuendo, and one-dimensional stock characters associated with 1960s spy films.
Myers himself has stated in interviews that the idea for Austin Powers came to him one night while driving home from ice hockey practice. Hearing the song "The Look of Love" by Burt Bacharach on his car radio, he wondered "Where have all the swingers gone?" and conceived the character who would become Austin Powers.
In an interview in November 2018 with Access Hollywood, Myers stated, "After my dad died in 1991, I was taking stock of his influence on me as a person and his influence on me with comedy in general. So Austin Powers was a tribute to my father, who [introduced me to] James Bond, Peter Sellers, The Beatles, The Goodies, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore."
The Austin Powers character first appeared in the band Ming Tea, with Myers as Powers, Susanna Hoffs as Jillian Shagwell, and Matthew Sweet as Sid Belvedere. Myers' wife Robin Ruzan said Myers should write a movie based on Powers.
The first phrase he thought the character might say was "Do I make you horny?", which later did indeed become a catchphrase for the character. He has also disclosed that the character also draws on his recollections of former Radio Caroline DJ Simon Dee, who hosted the first real television chat show in the United Kingdom in 1967, which ended with his driving off in a sports car with a young blonde in the passenger seat. An important inspiration for the series is British super spy James Bond. Myers said of Bond: "I can't even tell you how huge it was in our house ... That's really why I wanted to do Austin Powers. Austin Powers is out of pure love for James Bond."
Though Myers is Canadian by birth, his parents are natives of Liverpool, England, and Myers holds dual nationality. Although the films parody the plots and characters of 1960s spy movies and the Swinging London fashion scene of the era, the humour is influenced by Myers's British heritage, particularly the Carry On films and the comedic works of Benny Hill and Peter Sellers, the latter of whom Myers is a self confessed fan (his favorite films being the Bond spoof Casino Royale and The Party).
Austin Powers is everything I watched (on TV in the late sixties). My parents were from Liverpool, and there's no one more English than an Englishman who no longer lives there. Every molecule of British culture that came across the Atlantic was tasted and worshipped.
The series featured two cars with license plates reading "SWINGER" and "SWINGER2" and collectively dubbed the "Shaguars" that were portrayed by a 1961 Jaguar E-Type and a 2001 Jaguar XK8 convertible, with a Union Jack paint scheme. The Ministry of Defence creates two cars to transport Powers through time: a psychedelic rainbow painted 1999 Volkswagen "New Beetle" convertible in the second film, and a purple 1975 Cadillac Eldorado Fleetwood "pimpmobile" (license plate "SWNGR 3") in the third.
In the second film, Felicity Shagwell drives a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette with an American flag paint scheme. In the third, Nigel Powers has a 2001 Mini Cooper which can travel underwater, and which bears the license plate "GR8 SHAG".
Source: Austin Powers (CC BY-SA)
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Influences from Sellers' films are apparent throughout the series; the character of Austin Powers reflects the inspiration of Sellers' portrayal of the character Robert Danvers in the 1970 film There's a Girl in My Soup. Myers states Powers' dandyish appearance was also inspired by that of Jason King – the adventurous character (played by Peter Wyngarde) from the ITV Spy fi series Department S who was featured in the eponymous spin off series. Myers was also influenced by the comedy troupe Monty Python, with film critic Robbie Collin writing "the Austin Powers series chugs along on Pythonisms."
Other obviously apparent influences are the BBC's Adam Adamant Lives! television series, whose protagonist was a Victorian era spy, who was frozen in 1902, and then revived in the year 1966; The 1965 James Bond parody Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, in which a mad scientist builds a small army of attractive female robots; the Matt Helm series of films starring Dean Martin; the Derek Flint movies starring James Coburn; The Beatles films, The Monkees television series, and the "cocktail party" skits from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Powers was also influenced by the secret agent Harry Palmer (played by Michael Caine in three films, beginning with the 1965 film The Ipcress File), especially Caine's thick horn-rimmed glasses. Caine himself starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), with his portrayal of Nigel Powers, father of Austin Powers, spoofing Harry Palmer.
