Los Angeles ? There’s nothing covert about Hollywood’s intrigue with secret agents this year. The industry has spies piled sky high in every imaginable genre, from straight espionage adventures to action comedies to outright spoofs.

At least a dozen cloak-and-dagger flicks are hitting theaters by January, offering pint-sized operatives, heroic paper-pushers, big-toothed agents and the king of spies, James Bond, returning for his 20th big-screen adventure.

Arriving last week were “The Sum of All Fears,” starring Ben Affleck as Tom Clancy’s CIA desk jockey Jack Ryan, and “Undercover Brother,” a parody of ’70s “blaxploitation” movies with Eddie Griffin as an Afro-headed agent for a clandestine outfit called the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D.

“Bad Company,” a comic action tale featuring Anthony Hopkins as a CIA honcho and Chris Rock as a street hustler recruited to replace his slain twin brother, a master spy, opened Friday. Close on its heels is “The Bourne Identity,” an adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s best seller with Matt Damon as an amnesiac agent, which opens Friday.

“I guess there’s just something inherently fascinating about that world of deception. There’s something more sexy about that world than our own lives,” said Damon, noting that the exotic locales and fancy duds are a big part of the appeal of many cinematic spies.

“That grandeur of seeing your protagonist in a tuxedo in Switzerland, this world that none of us, we’re never, ever going to see up close and that probably doesn’t exist, anyway. It transports you when you see it on the screen.”

A decades-long fascination

Spies have been a staple since the early days of cinema. The misadventures of World War I German spy Mata Hari were depicted on film in the silent era and were most famously captured in 1931 with Greta Garbo in the title role.

Alfred Hitchcock crafted some of the most memorable spy tales, including “The 39 Steps,” “The Lady Vanishes” and “Notorious.” “Dr. No” in 1962 established the James Bond franchise, opening the door for other espionage serials, among them Dean Martin’s Matt Helm movies and James Coburn’s “Our Man Flint” and “In Like Flint.”

The George Smiley books and other spy novels of John Le Carre have been a steady source of films and TV miniseries, including “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” “The Little Drummer Girl” and last year’s “The Tailor of Panama.”

“They’re good entertainment. People are fascinated with spies. They have been ever since we’ve had spies,” said Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of “Bad Company,” whose previous espionage outings include “Enemy of the State.” “There are people who really put their lives at risk for what they believe in, and audiences have always been interested in that.”

More spies to come

The Bond films, based on Ian Fleming’s books, have been the most durable of Hollywood’s covert operations, the franchise surviving 40 years and periodic makeovers as new actors took on the role (after Sean Connery came George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and current 007 Pierce Brosnan, now in his fourth film).

Brosnan, who starred as an opportunistic, anti-Bond sort of spy in “The Tailor of Panama,” returns this fall in “Die Another Day,” co-starring Halle Berry as the debonair agent’s latest love interest and Rick Yune as a North Korean villain.

Among other upcoming spy tales:

“Austin Powers in Goldmember”: Hollywood’s most successful spy spoof is back for its third installment. Mike Myers wears the bad dental work again as Austin and plays a new villain, Goldmember.

“XXX”: Vin Diesel stars as an extreme-sports star recruited by a National Security Agency operative (Samuel L. Jackson) to take on a dangerous mission.

“Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams”: The sister and brother junior agents take on rival child spies in the sequel to last year’s surprise family hit.

“The Tuxedo”: In his latest action comedy, Jackie Chan plays a chauffeur who is transformed into a super agent when he puts on his employer’s magical formal wear.

“Ecks Vs. Sever”: “Spy Kids” co-star Antonio Banderas plays an ex-FBI agent on the trail of a dangerous operative (Lucy Liu).

“I Spy”: Eddie Murphy is a cocky boxer teamed with a secret agent (Owen Wilson) hunting down an arms dealer in a big-screen adaptation of the 1960s TV show.

“The Recruit”: Al Pacino plays a CIA boss dealing with a new recruit (Colin Farrell) at the agency’s training ground, “The Farm.”

“That slate of films is demonstrative of the appeal of that genre and also that there’s many different ways to tell a story using that world,” said Affleck, whose “The Sum of All Fears” debuted in late May as the No. 1 film. “It’s an enduring genre that kind of feeds into that fantasy life we all have, whether you’re an actor or postal-service worker, where you think, wouldn’t it be fun if I was really a spy?”

Poking fun

The “Austin Powers” movies and “Undercover Brother” are the latest in a venerable line of spy spoofs, including the 1960s TV series “Get Smart” and the 1984 comedy “Top Secret!” from the makers of “Airplane!”

Even Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron’s spy hit, “True Lies,” poked fun at the genre’s conventions while embracing the over-the-top action and intrigue.

“To spoof something, you have to have something out there in the zeitgeist everybody can relate to,” said John Ridley, who created “Undercover Brother” as an Internet cartoon and co-wrote the movie screenplay with Michael McCullers, Myers’ collaborator on the second and third “Austin Powers” films. “When you see so many spy films out there, they start to have their own cliches, which makes it easier and easier to make fun of.

“How come James Bond always happens to get out of these situations? Why do they always give a demonstration of just the exact gadget he’s going to need later? How come villains take so much time explaining what they’re going to do as they’re about to kill him? The fun is in turning all that on its ear.”