# The November Man
**The November Man** is a 2014 action spy thriller directed by [Roger Donaldson](https://www.edgepedia.org/roger-donaldson), starring [Pierce Brosnan](https://www.edgepedia.org/pierce-brosnan) as Peter Devereaux, a retired CIA operative code-named "the November Man" who is pulled back into service to protect a witness and finds himself hunted by his own former protégé.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) • [2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-november-man/umc.cmc.5rg13e3y3q9pzmpbme2xsidce) The film is based on Bill Granger's novel *There Are No Spies*, part of his November Man book series, and was released in the United States on August 27, 2014 by [Relativity Media](https://www.edgepedia.org/relativity-media).[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-november-man/umc.cmc.5rg13e3y3q9pzmpbme2xsidce) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | August 27, 2014 (wide, US), distributed by Relativity Media; 108 minutes; rated R[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) |
| Source | Bill Granger's novel *There Are No Spies*, from the November Man series[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-november-man/umc.cmc.5rg13e3y3q9pzmpbme2xsidce) |
| Director and writers | Roger Donaldson; screenplay by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) |
| Lead cast | Pierce Brosnan (Peter Devereaux), Luke Bracey (David Mason), Olga Kurylenko (Alice Fournier)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) |
| Box office | $25,018,119 domestic on a $15,000,000 production budget; opening weekend $7,911,597 in 2,776 theaters[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/November-Man-The) |
| Critical reception | 36% on the Tomatometer (126 reviews); Metascore 38 from 32 reviews[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) • [4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-november-man/) |
| Filming location | Belgrade, Serbia, substituted for the script's Berlin setting[5](https://www.motionpictures.org/2014/08/filming-the-november-man-in-beautiful-belgrade/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Five years into his retirement, CIA veteran Peter Devereaux is recruited by his former handler to extract a Russian deep-cover agent who holds incriminating evidence against Arkady Federov, a corrupt Russian leader about to be elected president.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) • [6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3848766977/) The agent, Natalia Ulanova, is also Devereaux's former lover.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) A separate CIA team arrives on the scene, led by Devereaux's former protégé David Mason (Luke Bracey), the mission goes wrong, and the ex-lover is killed.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man)
Now a rogue agent, Devereaux protects Alice Fournier ([Olga Kurylenko](https://www.edgepedia.org/olga-kurylenko)), a relief worker whose testimony could expose a decades-old conspiracy, while evading both Russian assassins and the agency that trained him.[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-november-man/umc.cmc.5rg13e3y3q9pzmpbme2xsidce) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) Suspicion of a mole inside the CIA leaves Devereaux with no one he can trust, and the film plays as a cat-and-mouse contest between the mentor and the pupil he trained.[2](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-november-man/umc.cmc.5rg13e3y3q9pzmpbme2xsidce)
## Production
The screenplay by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek took five years to develop.[5](https://www.motionpictures.org/2014/08/filming-the-november-man-in-beautiful-belgrade/) The script placed much of the action in Berlin, but filming there proved too expensive, so producer Sriram Das scouted Eastern European capitals and settled on Belgrade in 2012.[5](https://www.motionpictures.org/2014/08/filming-the-november-man-in-beautiful-belgrade/) Director Roger Donaldson, an Australian filmmaker known for work across several genres, said he was drawn to Serbia as a setting rarely seen in commercial films, and the city and national governments cooperated by opening locations and supplying crews from the local film industry.[5](https://www.motionpictures.org/2014/08/filming-the-november-man-in-beautiful-belgrade/) • [7](https://archive.nerdist.com/the-november-man-director-roger-donaldson-on-pierce-brosnan-cia-thrillers-and-more/) In interviews, Donaldson explained that he deliberately updated the material: Granger's books were set in the Cold War 1960s, and he converted the story to the present day with cell phones, satellite tracking, and drones.[7](https://archive.nerdist.com/the-november-man-director-roger-donaldson-on-pierce-brosnan-cia-thrillers-and-more/)
Brosnan had announced his intention to bring Granger's spy novels to the screen shortly after leaving the [James Bond](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-bond) role, and the project took nearly a decade to reach theaters.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/09/the-november-man-review-pierce-brosnan) The film was produced through Irish DreamTime, Brosnan's production company, together with Das Films, and financed by a group including SPD Films, The Solution Entertainment Group, PalmStar Media, and Merced Media Partners.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) • [3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/November-Man-The)
## Box office
The film opened on August 27, 2014 in 2,776 theaters and earned $7,911,597 over its first weekend, 31.6 percent of its eventual domestic total.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/November-Man-The) Domestic grosses reached $25,018,119 against a production budget of $15,000,000, with the run ending in late October 2014.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/November-Man-The) • [6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3848766977/) The two main box-office trackers disagree on the international and worldwide totals: [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) lists $14,643,800 international and $39,661,919 worldwide, while The Numbers lists $9,802,216 international and $34,820,335 worldwide.[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3848766977/) • [3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/November-Man-The) [Home video](https://www.edgepedia.org/home-video) followed on November 25, 2014 from Fox Home Entertainment.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/November-Man-The)
## Reception
Critics received the film coolly. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 36 percent Tomatometer from 126 reviews, with the site's critics consensus stating that the film "has a few of the ingredients necessary for a better-than-average spy thriller, making it all the more disappointing that it falls back on dull genre clichés."[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 38 from 32 reviews, categorized as generally unfavorable.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-november-man/) Audiences were warmer: the Popcornmeter stood at 46 percent from more than 10,000 ratings, and aggregated user scores ran higher than the critics' averages.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man) • [9](https://www.cinafilm.com/movies/the-november-man-2014/)
Reviewers frequently compared the film to the Bond and Bourne franchises. [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter)'s John DeFore found the cat-and-mouse scenes "enjoyable and only occasionally ridiculous" while noting they hardly compare to a Bourne movie.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-november-man/) [Mark Kermode](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-kermode), film critic for *The Observer*, judged it old-fashioned next to contemporary spy films, directing "with efficiency, if not flair."[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/09/the-november-man-review-pierce-brosnan) Common threads in negative reviews were an incoherent plot and underdeveloped characters, while Brosnan's performance was widely singled out as the film's strength; RogerEbert.com called him "perfectly cast as Devereaux."[10](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-november-man-2014) • [11](https://theithacan.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/9.11.14.pdf) French critics were more favorable, with *Le Parisien* calling it a classic and very effective espionage thriller and several outlets framing it as a successful return to spy roles for Brosnan.[12](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-109544/critiques/presse/)
## References
1. [The November Man, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_november_man)
2. [The November Man, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-november-man/umc.cmc.5rg13e3y3q9pzmpbme2xsidce)
3. [The November Man (2014), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/November-Man-The)
4. [The November Man Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-november-man/)
5. [Filming The November Man in Beautiful Belgrade, The Credits (MotionPictures.org)](https://www.motionpictures.org/2014/08/filming-the-november-man-in-beautiful-belgrade/)
6. [The November Man, Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3848766977/)
7. [The November Man Director Roger Donaldson on Pierce Brosnan, CIA Thrillers and More, Nerdist](https://archive.nerdist.com/the-november-man-director-roger-donaldson-on-pierce-brosnan-cia-thrillers-and-more/)
8. [The November Man review, The Guardian/Observer (Mark Kermode)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/09/the-november-man-review-pierce-brosnan)
9. [The November Man (2014) Reviews, Cinafilm](https://www.cinafilm.com/movies/the-november-man-2014/)
10. [The November Man movie review, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-november-man-2014)
11. [The Ithacan, September 11, 2014](https://theithacan.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/9.11.14.pdf)
12. [Critiques Presse pour le film The November Man, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-109544/critiques/presse/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Action, thriller, and crime series film entries › Entries released in the 2010s › Thriller and spy entries*
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