Alexander Skarsgard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ryan Gosling lead wishlist for The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The hole left by the departure of George Clooney from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. looks to be filled sooner rather than later. I half expected that Steven Soderbergh, attached to direct the big screen adaptation of the cult fave 60s spy series, would replace the project with something else. Especially since it counts as one of the few films on his list before his "retirement". Why would he want to do with anybody other than his closest collaborators? 

But the wheels are still turning, apparently, as TheWrap has learned of Warner Brothers' extensive wishlist for the role that would've been opposite Clooney. The three main names being considered are Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, and Alexander Skarsgard.  The first two are pretty easy as they'll appear on everybody list for every movie. The kicker is Skarsgard, who most will recognize as Eric Northman on HBO's True Blood. While his big screen presence remains fairly untested, he's got a lot coming up. He stars in a remake of Straw Dogs which is out right now. He has a minor role in Lars Von Trier's disaster pic, Melancholia, and next year will be featured in Peter Berg's Battleship. None of those would likely make Skarsgard the movie star a film like U.N.C.L.E. would.

The series was sortof a riff on the James Bond model, following two secret agents: American Napoleon Solo(Robert Vaughn) and Russian Illya Kuryakin(David McCallum) and their adventures working for global espionage organization, U.N.C.L.E. Clooney would've been Solo most likely, and although no names have been mentioned for that role obviously someone of equal stature is being sought. Daniel Craig, maybe? Seems like a natural fit to me, although I'm sure he's too busy. But when you're a star of the caliber Warner Brothers is no doubt seeking, scheduling is always an issue.

The same could be said of Gordon-Levitt and Gosling. I doubt either of them has the time to fit in a film that by all accounts is going to be physically taxing and action heavy.

Soderbergh's frequent writing partner, Scott Z. Burns(Contagion, The Informant!), wrote the script, which will keep the same action/comedy tone and will be set in the 1960s.