Harold The Spy

Harold The Spy is a 2013 spy comedy film parodying the spy comedy genre. The film stars Anthony Devera, Anton Gruzberg, Kirill Gruzberg, and Nicholas Merchant. The screenplay was written by Anthony Devera and Anton Gruzberg, and the film was directed by Anthony Devera. It was released on December 1, 2013.

In addition to parodying the spy comedy genre, it also has elements from the Pink Panther original film series. Due to this, Nicholas Merchant put down his role at first, but then accepted it.

Plot
Harold comes to Antinous's office to get a mission. Horrified at the fact that the mission is about the recent shootings at the Vine Street Fair, Harold contacts his assistant, Donald Hark.

At Donald's house, Harold and Donald are working on a computer-generated image of the criminal, Lars Lewan, while the criminal himself is hiding in a tent in Donald's house. Lars reveals that he is from Russia, but he introduces himself as Kirill Gruzberg (the actor's name).

Confused, Harold and Donald visit Lars's office. Lars shows the two his model of a doomsday machine he is building and shows them a presentation of his plan to return Alaska to it's home country; Russia. The next day Harold goes to Antinous's office and informs him about the criminals. Antinous is surprised and promotes Harold to senior agent.

Lars returns to his temporary home the next day, but the air conditioning isn't working. Harold and Donald, looking all over the internet for Lars, gets a phone call from Lars. Harold and Donald get into the house disguised as people from an air conditioning repair company. While the two are "fixing" the air conditioning system, Lars goes shopping. Donald doesn't find anything, but Harold finds a mysterious letter dated a week before the shootings. The letter was sent by Lars's accomplice, Mikhail Gusev. Harold goes to Vietnam to find Michael, while Donald hunts Lars.

At Mikhail's house, Harold confronts Mikhail. He tells Harold the truth about the shootings while Lars is announcing to the whole world his ultimatum. Donald tricks Lars into going on a "walk", but Lars is actually taken to the police office. Lars is arrested, but later escapes from jail, as he snuck a gun into the cell.

Cast
Anthony Devera as Harold

Anton Gruzberg as Donald

Kirill Gruzberg as Lars

Nicholas Merchant as Antinous

Production
The concept of a spy comedy was created after Adventure Ops failed. At the same time, ELITE had just ended, so something had to follow it. Because ELITE was a parody of Mr. Bean, Vietnam Camera decided to make a parody of every film starring Rowan Atkinson. Johnny English was selected.

Production of Harold The Spy started on 28 April 2013. At the time Lars wasn't cast yet, so the original intro didn't have Lars in it. When Lars was cast, a newer intro was made. Things got rusty when Anton and Kirill Gruzberg announced that they would have to leave for good in August. So all of their scenes were shot before the last week of July.

Principle photography was to wrap up in September 2013, but there were a lot of schedule conflicts. The planned release date was November 16, 2013, but due to these delays it was released December 1, 2013. The working title for the film was Harold Douglas and the Attack of the Ostrich.

Conflicts
Principle actors Anton and Kirill Gruzberg left the film halfway through production. As the film had no finalized script during production, many scenes had to be altered or completely reshot. This included the entire scene where Lars reveals his plans to Harold and Donald. The character Antinous (portrayed by Nicholas Merchant) was altered greatly during the end of production, he had previously had been a nerd talking in a high pitched, weird voice. Because of this, all of Merchant's scenes had to be rewritten and reshot.

Deleted Scenes
There are a number of deleted scenes. Harold teaches Antinous a modified version of Kung Fu. Harold drops a flash drive into a pond after visiting Lars, which was deleted because a different flash drive was used in the reshoot.

Sequel
At first a sequel was in jeopardy due to the worse than expected reception of Harold The Spy. When things got better, a web series was originally planned, but Anthony Devera ultimately decided to make a film. Another film was to follow that, but the original sequel to Harold The Spy was canceled. The official sequel, known as Harold The Champion, was released in June 2016.