One of the first big new movies of 2024 is Argylle, a spy thriller starring Henry Cavill and Bryce Dallas Howard that comes out on Thursday, February 1. The movie stars the latter as a spy author who's unceremoniously dragged into the world she writes about.
Sound familiar? Well if you've watched a movie recently, it could well ring a bell, because The Lost City has a similar plot. Ahead of Argylle's release, Netflix fans have rediscovered The Lost City, causing it to become the most-watched movie on Netflix UK.
The Lost City came out in 2022, and it stars Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. The former is a writer of steamy romantic adventure novels, and the latter is the model who's on the cover art. When Bullock is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire (played by Daniel Radcliffe), who thinks the research the author did for her novels could help him uncover treasure, Tatum comes to the rescue... or tries to, at least.
Also in the movie are Brad Pitt as a CIA operator who's recruited to help in the rescue, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as the author's publisher who wants her golden ticket back, and Oscar Nunez as a cargo plane pilot who helps out.
When it came out The Lost City was a commercial and critical hit, topping The Batman's box office reign with its crowd-pleasing mix of adventure, action and romance. And clearly that mix is still potent two years on, with the movie's reign on top of the Netflix Top 10 beating out other recent blockbuster addition Ambulance as well as Originals like Lift, The Kitchen and Badland Hunters.
The niche genre of "stories about authors getting first-hand experience in the stories they write about" is a well-stocked one with the likes of Nim's Island, True Memoirs of an International Assassin, Goosebumps, Inkheart and The Pagemaster all popular movies from recent years that hit the same themes.
Those are mostly fantasy and horror rather than spy and thriller, with The Lost City being the nearest to Argylle. If you're interested in the latter, we've got a guide on everything you need to know about the new movie here. After its theatrical run, it's expected to come to Apple TV Plus.
