Who should direct Bond 24 (and beyond)?

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Plus he's 68. I don't think he's got it in him anymore.

Ridley Scott is 74, and he managed just fine with PROMETHEUS ...

Managed what?

To make a big-budget movie.

FourDot wrote:

Managed what?

Manage a' trois.

FourDot wrote:

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Plus he's 68. I don't think he's got it in him anymore.

Ridley Scott is 74, and he managed just fine with PROMETHEUS ...

Managed what?

Boom!

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

To make a big-budget movie.

Hmm. Yes, I suppose it did get released and Fox were able to con people into seeing it.

Scott has lost all sense of storytelling nous. It is completely gone. He's always been shaky on that ground, but now it's just plain dead within him. He just does things that he thinks are vaguely interesting without any semblance of structure or clarity. I'd want his brother to do a Bond film before he did.

I'd honestly like Nolan to do one, even if it's a hugely flawed Bond film I think he's just about the only person who would do it on film, and do it in IMAX, and that sense of a Bond film being a big event film that you go to a special theatre to see strikes me as the only way you could ever get back to that Thunderball or Lewis Gilbert-feeling of BIG event pictures done on a mammoth scale. I don't care that he might not be able to nail classic or even fundamental aspects of the Bond franchise, I'd just like to see the property given that kind of massive rendering by someone who is an avid fan of the character and the films. It'd put Bond right back at the forefront of really ambitious and cinematic stuntwork as well.

As a perhaps more realistic choice, I'd give Duncan Jones a crack at it.

This might be a bit of an odd one, but depending on how THE LAST STAND plays out, South Korean director Kim Jee-Woon might be a good choice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6oi5O8PWP0&feature=player_embedded

It's his first English-language release, and he looks pretty confident in the action scenes.

Control wrote:

Throw your ideas around.
Anton Corbijn - while I thought THE AMERICAN was a little bit dry, he definitely has a solid grip on visuals. Add a quality writer to the equation, and I think he could come up with a great Bond film.
.

Brilliant suggestion. He's long been my favorite photographer, Control was stunning, and The American made me weep with joy.

My other vote would be for Ridley, but he'd really have to want to do it. His for-hire projects are never that good.

My vote for most interesting choice of Bond director: Polanski. :twisted:
In fact, The way to really shake up the Bond franchise? You want blood, pain, darkness? Okay, here you go:
Bond 24 Starring Jason Issacs, Directed by Roman Polanski. Written by Raymond Benson. Rated R. Done.

hegottheboot wrote:

My other vote would be for Ridley, but he'd really have to want to do it. His for-hire projects are never that good.

If that's the case, he's been for-hire since 1982. ;)

Corbijn's got the same problem as Scott, as do a lot of directors who come from the worlds of advertising, music videos and photography. His films have nice looking still images, but are utterly vacuous in their direction. The tyranny of the pretty image.

PROMETHEUS is a good recent example.

I was just thinking (for a change), how about somebody completely out of the ball park for directing Bond 24 (and beyond), Stuart Baird. Baired was the editor for both CR and SF and could quite possibly return for future Bond films, he is currently 64-years-old although that should not be a major problem, I reckon that he could still just about direct up to four Bond films before he is "too old". Worth a shot? They have used former Bond editors as directors before (Peter Hunt and John Glen) and they worked just fine, maybe just one more Bond film edited by Baird after SF just to make extra sure first though.


Out of all of the names mentioned on this thread so far, these are the ones that have jumped out at me as the most suitable:

Tomas Alfredson
Michael Winterbottom
Edgar Wright
Richard Kwietniowski
Shekhar Kapur
John Madden
Florent-Emilio Siri
Bernard Rose
Mike Leigh
Kenneth Branagh
Duncan Jones

Finally, there is also, of course, Sam Mendes (depending upon how SF turns out first).

Stuart Baird is quite possibly the rottenest director working.

Three movies, all propped up by solid Jerry Goldsmith scores, all in focus, and all lame beyond belief. The guy can't stage a scene. There are plenty of editors turned directors who are solid or even really good, but Baird?

I have never seen a film directed by Stuart Baird so maybe, following your review, he may not be such a wise choice after all. Still, I shall have to see and judge for myself.

Martin McDonagh or Michael Winterbottom should try doing a Bond film.

No to both. Saw McDonaugh's SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS recently. Awful, though not as bad as IN BRUGES.

Great playwright, but a lousy picker of material when it comes to films

What do you think of Winterbottom?

Didn't like THE KILLER INSIDE ME, but enjoyed 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (regardless of how true it was to the Factory Records scene).

Although he probably wouldn't, I could see McDonough directing a Bond movie, but not Winterbottom, I don't think he would be the type to consider doing it. I realise some people may have thought the same of Mendes, but he is, to a certain extent a mainstream filmmaker and Winterbottom isn't. Considering he has had a prior working relationship with Craig and seemingly only makes movies for Sony, how about David Fincher? (Apologies if his name has been mentioned on this thread beforehand).

I could see it happening for the reasons you mention, but personally I hate that idea as much as a Nolan-directed Bond. Both are way too clinical.

If not Mendes, then I think Danny Boyle is the likely choice (Olympics short, knows Craig, British, loves Bond).

Largo's Shark wrote:

I could see it happening for the reasons you mention, but personally I hate that idea as much as a Nolan-directed Bond. Both are way too clinical.

I definitely agree about Fincher being clinical. I know Nolan can be too at time, having said that, I did find some moments in The Dark Knight Rises to be quite moving so at the very least it shows that he can be a little warm when he wants to be, although I don't know how I would feel about a Hans Zimmer scored Bond movie. With Fincher though we'd probably get Jeff Cronenweth as DP and Trent Reznor as composer so it would definitely look and sound very moody.

Sir Dalton Craig wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

I could see it happening for the reasons you mention, but personally I hate that idea as much as a Nolan-directed Bond. Both are way too clinical.

I definitely agree about Fincher being clinical. I know Nolan can be too at time, having said that, I did find some moments in The Dark Knight Rises to be quite moving so at the very least it shows that he can be a little warm when he wants to be

It's not so much warmth but more about (good) humour, sex and sensuality. Which are pretty much absent from his autistic films.

Sir Dalton Craig wrote:

although I don't know how I would feel about a Hans Zimmer scored Bond movie. With Fincher though we'd probably get Jeff Cronenweth as DP and Trent Reznor as composer so it would definitely look and sound very moody.

There's def9inetly a few Zimmer-esque moments in Newman's SKYFALL (first half of Jellyfish and She's Mine) though I wouldn't want an entire film with his sensibilities. Could you imagine HZ writing anything like Mogdilani or Severine? Me neither. His approach to harmony is too 19th century (Wagner, Puccini, Verdi) and not enough indebted to the jazz and blues tradition, that Newman clearly gets.

I'm not a big fan of Wally Pfister either (in terms of depth of field, focal length, color and use of natural light - Deakins's work in SF s***s all of him), and we'd probably get Jonathan Nolan replacing or re-writing Jonathan Logan. 'nuff said.

I dig Trent Reznor's stuff for NIN, but as a film composer he bores me senseless. If there was ever an argument for the sound design approach to film scoring being about artistic timidity, then Reznor's your guy.

As far as Jeff Cronenweth goes, I've gotta say THE SOCIAL NETWORK is one of the ugliest films I've ever seen.

Largo's Shark wrote:

There's def9inetly a few Zimmer-esque moments in Newman's SKYFALL (first half of Jellyfish and She's Mine) though I wouldn't want an entire film with his sensibilities. Could you imagine HZ writing anything like Mogdilani or Severine? Me neither. His approach to harmony is too 19th century (Wagner, Puccini, Verdi) and not enough indebted to the jazz and blues tradition, that Newman clearly gets.

I'm not a big fan of Wally Pfister either (in terms of depth of field, focal length, color and use of natural light - Deakins's work in SF s***s all of him), and we'd probably get Jonathan Nolan replacing or re-writing Jonathan Logan. 'nuff said.

I dig Trent Reznor's stuff for NIN, but as a film composer he bores me senseless. If there was ever an argument for the sound design approach to film scoring being about artistic timidity, then Reznor's your guy.

As far as Jeff Cronenweth goes, I've gotta say THE SOCIAL NETWORK is one of the ugliest films I've ever seen.

Thinking about it, I actually agree with a lot of what you just said there. I don't mind Zimmer, I really enjoyed his work for Inception, but he is noisy and there isn't enough harmony as you said. There's a track on the SF album called Severine, it's only a little over a minute long but it is gorgeous to listen to and knocks anything from TDKR soundtrack for six.

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to photography in movies, but I will say this, there was some gorgeous use of colour in Skyfall. The purples in Shanghai, the Jellyfish behind the silhouettes of Bond and Patrice (yes, I know the scene doesn't really make much sense, but it's stylistic triumph), not to mention Craig's Bond running from the burning Skyfall, the scene lit with nothing but the orange glow of the burned out house was amazing. I can't honesty say if anything grabbed my eye like that in TDKR.

If Mendes doesn't return, there's a good chance Danny Boyle will do it. I don't necessarily want Boyle to do it, but then again, I didn't really want Mendes to do it, either, but then SKYFALL turned out pretty well.

It would be sad if Mendes doesn't return. He's set such a high standard. I suppose Boyle could be a comfortable choice. I also think Vaughn should direct a Bond film at some stage - but it looks like he's firmly implanted himself in the comic book genre.

Seems as though Mendes may be directing... It's not confirmed, but this article highlights that Mendes is developing the story with Logan. One report may be a coincidence, but I read somewhere from a key crew member (can't remember who) that Mendes, Logan, the producers and some other chief crew know of the story for Bond 24...

Quote :

Press Release
Doha, Qatar; November 19, 2012: As Skyfall becomes the most successful Bond film in its 23 film history, British screenwriting duo Neal Purvis and Robert Wade took part in a master class at the fourth Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) to lift the lid on writing for one of the iconic film franchises of all time.

“When we were originally asked to come in to meet the Bond people, we weren’t expecting to be walking straight into a meeting with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson” said Neal Purvis, describing the moment they first started collaborating with franchise’s producers. “Usually there are many other layers of people that stop you getting to the head honchos and we certainly were not expecting to be kept around for 15 years”

“When we met Eon Productions, only two of our screenplays had been made into films. It just seemed preposterous to us that they wouldn’t have other writers on the project” added Robert Wade. “But they’d read a few of our other scripts and liked our sense of character and action. If there’s action without a story or a character angle, then it’s just boring.”

Meeting at 22, the pair who has been writing together for 28 years wrote their first script during the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

“The British Film industry in 1984 was not in a great shape. We’d write pop video’s to make extra money,” said Purvis. ”The tragedy is we were getting paid in the 80’s what screenwriters are still being paid today”

Since then, they’ve written a total of 41 scripts, with ten being made into films. Wade said “We were told don’t expect anymore than one in ten of your screen plays to be made. She was right. We thought yes, that’s probably true, however that won’t apply to us.”

“Now were on our 41st script and have have ten films made. You wouldn’t write each day if you didn’t believer that your scripts were going to be made,” added Purvis.

Addressing the production delays this latest outing, the duo shed light on how important this additional time was “We benefited from the delays as we hadn’t gotten the story right. The film would not have been made without them,” explained Wade.

“The third act wasn’t right. We gave ourselves a few weeks to come up with a new concept, which ultimately became a metaphor for our journey working on these movies – our own Skyfall” added Purvis.

When pushed on if the partners were intending to write more Bond films Wade said “We’re very happy to have done five Bond movies, I think we’ve gotten it to a good place. I know that John Logan and Sam Mendes have come up with a plot for another one, which takes the pressure off because these films take up a lot of time.”

Purvis added, “We were going to stop with Quantum of Solace, but it’s good to go out on a high with Skyfall.”

Asked about other projects outside of Bond, Wade divulged “We did get hired to write a script about Elton John stealing 11 of the best footballers in the world, to play against a team of robots on another planet. “That was our second paid job,” explained Purvis.

And what’s the only thing as a bond writer you can’t do? “Time Travel” says Purvis. “And killing him off” said Wade, before adding “although we have been tempted”

http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=10620&t=mi6&s=news

Mendes might contribute to story ideas, but I would be surprised if he returned instead of taking the success of SF and using it to do his own pet projects.

I can only imagine Mendes contributing to the story if he's contemplating returning.