Bond 26 (202X)

hegottheboot wrote:

Step 1: take all the "new fresh exciting" ideas that are insane or stolen from other properties aside and shove them in a furnace.
Step 2: Take all this time and bang out the story and really sweat over it, bleed on the pages, argue it to death in the writer's room with MGW and oh hell I can't think of any good writers to suggest screw it let's just say MGW and Len Deighton with Raymond Benson are the writer's room.
Step 3: Make the final picture MOVE. It has to be meaningful and fun and MOVE with the energy Bond requires.
Step 4: Make the picture well but don't go with such a bloated budget. Keep it lean but put all the money on the screen the way they used to-and then actually get it out in two years!
Step 5: Make Bond a proper event release again. Really do a proper campaign-and you can sell the picture on one big thing-JAMES BOND IS BACK. NO CGI. NO EQUAL. Make the film for real on film with no CG whatsoever and you've got instant sellable/marketable PR built in plus audience interest will be piqued and confirmed-and you'd break the bubble of the Nolanverse/Mission Impossible series by showing the imitators how it's really done instead of imitating the imitators.

Boom.

I'd say bring Bruce Feirstein back. A true MGW and Feirstein collaboration could make a very excellent Bond film!

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Changing that would certainly fuel the codename theory, no?

Ha! I've thought about this for awhile. Just because the code name theory has been debunked up till now, there is no reason that they can't use it going forward and make all 007s James Bond from now on. I hope not.

Please don't offer them story ideas - they seem to ask anyone these days... Anyone from scientologist rapists to Mike Myers and beyond.

Babs says Bond is at a "critical juncture". That finding the perfect replacement would make or break the franchise. Can only go up from here, to be honest.  

Interesting that it's at a "critical juncture"... Can we read into her not having much faith in NTTD to keep audiences attracted to the series?

https://screenrant.com/james-bond-series-daniel-craig-status-update/

I'd wager Cavill is also out of the running, as has signed to play a spy in a new franchise, beginning with Argylle. Matthew Vaughn is directing, who has called this new soon-to-be-published novel the most incredible spy story since Fleming's in the 50s.

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/matthew-vaughan-argylle-film-henry-cavill-1235014809/

Good to keep Eon on their toes if this is the case.

Because of the way they've let the audience engagement wane and increased the between film gap it's always a "critical juncture". Cruise and Co. are shooting simultaneous "Mission: Ripoff Bond Elements because EON isn't doing them" right now.

Yeah. MI has never been better and if this new Cavill/Vaughn series lives up to their word, they're really going to have to come up with some special to co-exist... And the way to forward is to embrace who and what the character and series is.

Rate this is going, this film is going to need an OHMSS-titles style flashback montage but in bloody sepia.

Michael Wilson recently said in an interview that the Craig-era is like a miniseries. Much too bloated a saga for the word 'mini' imo.

Wondering if this is the approach they will now take with each new actor, that it will be a contained mini-cycle of sorts or will there be a return to the old 'loose' continuity?

Surely they won't. Surely it's been a headache for them to tie everything together. They only need to look at SF to realise that, as a planned standalone film it was the most successful of Craig's run (time will tell on NTTD but I'm not optimistic). Further, how many times could tell Bond's 00 trajectory? He's supposed to be the same character.

That said, I'd be interested in seeing them retell Bond's origins to fix how severely they fucked that up.

I've been seeing growing support for the series to return to individual assignments and to reintroduce fun. Finally! Maybe the pandemic has highlighted a need for escapism instead of the doom and gloom associated with Danpout Craig.

If I'm excited for anything NTTD, it's the direction it'll force the series in for Bond 26.

Just would like to get going with a new Bond. I do sometimes wonder what if we had a new Bond actor who did a Lazenby and do just the one? Not suggesting whoever we get would but nothing written in stone you HAVE to do 6-7 or whatever.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

I've been seeing growing support for the series to return to individual assignments and to reintroduce fun. Finally! Maybe the pandemic has highlighted a need for escapism instead of the doom and gloom associated with Danpout Craig.

If I'm excited for anything NTTD, it's the direction it'll force the series in for Bond 26.

I see this wish more and more, as well - but I wonder if Eon won't rather come away thinking their main mistake was in not planning things out ahead of time rather than simply the ongoing plot line stuff is in and of itself bad.

I don't think we're out of the woods in terms of ongoing storyline stuff, particularly if NTTD ends up being a success in their view, however they might measure that within the context of the pandemic.

The opening weekend is certainly a success ... biggest in the series' history, apparently.

Somerset wrote:

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

I've been seeing growing support for the series to return to individual assignments and to reintroduce fun. Finally! Maybe the pandemic has highlighted a need for escapism instead of the doom and gloom associated with Danpout Craig.

If I'm excited for anything NTTD, it's the direction it'll force the series in for Bond 26.

I see this wish more and more, as well - but I wonder if Eon won't rather come away thinking their main mistake was in not planning things out ahead of time rather than simply the ongoing plot line stuff is in and of itself bad.

One would have thought that lesson was learnt after Spectre.    But given the scripting headaches with NTTD, surely there's no desire to return to that. Further, what kind of emotional trajectory could Bond tackle over the course of x-many films? We've gone from the oxymoron 'rookie' Bond to over-the-hill to returning to form (the operative word) to what-I-think-happens in NTTD... I doubt they're going to retcon/reboot anything from their holy Craig era just yet.

Somerset wrote:

I don't think we're out of the woods in terms of ongoing storyline stuff

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Further, what kind of emotional trajectory could Bond tackle over the course of x-many films? We've gone from the oxymoron 'rookie' Bond to over-the-hill to returning to form (the operative word) to what-I-think-happens in NTTD...

Trying to think they way Eon might be...maybe they will try to do the ongoing stories and characters and cliffhangers while leaving Bond stable and consistently himself film-to-film? I don't think they'll ever revert to the superman Bonds of Sean and Rog, but Brosnan did a good job making Bond seem both human (without the cod psych stuff) and still the traditonal hero we recognized in Sean and Rog. They could head that way, while the films can still follow on from each other. Make the growth stuff the relationships Bond has with other characters. Do a Mathis or Zukovsky, play that relationship out over more than two films. Or pull the trigger on that idea of having the Bond girl in the first film come back as the villain's wife in the next. One film is just the villains trying to kill Bond out of revenge over events in prior films, a la FRWL or Nobody Lives Forever. Stuff like that. Meanwhile leave the films end on cliffhangers, like QOS was supposed to, or film two back to back as one giant adventure, as they flirted with for SP.

I think there's some vision of what comes next as a fusion between the Craig and Brosnan eras. But I don't see the days of entirely standalone coming back...yet.

I don't mind those ideas. I think Brosnan deserves more credit for infusing more vulnerability/humanity into the character. It's no coincidence that Roger Ebert felt his Bond was more psychologically complete, and that Christopher Lee felt his cousin Fleming would have loved Brosnan's iteration. Because much of the character's psychology is present in the Brosnan era without it ever becoming overbearing - much like in Fleming's novels (YOLT and TMWTGG excluded). So a return to that I'd certainly approve of.

Returning characters and references to previous adventures are perfectly fine, but a continuing saga should be avoided at all costs. A cliffhanger should only go as far as to provide a ghost into the next film,  but the main story should standalone, like Fleming's FRWL-DN, or OHMSS-YOLT.



In other news, Denis Villeneuve wants to direct a Bond film, and Babs and Crag-face are already collaborating on their next theatre project: Macbeth. What a joy that will be. Any case, I imagine that puts Bond 26 on the back burner for the next little while. An interesting note is that YouTuber Calvin Dyson attended the London premiere of No Time To Die. He mentions that MGW introduced the cast and crew to the audience before Babs appeared briefly to honour MGW, highlighting her value in her producing partner... Calvin suggested a sense of finality; that it sounded like a last hurrah for him. I wonder if there's any truth to that. I remember MP mentioning that he had heard word of his moving on, that Babs will work in a more consultancy capacity, and that one of MGW's sons will take over as lead producer.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

In other news, Denis Villeneuve wants to direct a Bond film

That sounds like a really bad idea. I kinda liked ARRIVAL and wanted to like BR2049, and have more than mild expectations for DUNE, but he seems very anti-populist in a way that makes Forster seem like Michael Bay (I actually adore STRANGER THAN FICTION and like parts of QUANTUM, so that wasn't intended as a bitch-out to Marc.)

It would possibly put Greig Fraser in line as cinematographer, which might be a good idea. He can shoot all that virtual stage stuff like MANDALORIAN and then turn around and do it (mostly) all for real like DUNE, and ROGUE ONE looked really good, based on my memory of a single viewing, plus I have high hopes for his work on the new BATMAN. Either that or Denis' other DP of choice, Deakins, who probably would not want to do another Bond for anybody. He said he hadn't seen a Bond film since the 60s when he was hired for SKYFALL, and I got the impression that he feels there is too much action in them to engage him beyond that one-off.

Y'know, if they wanted to do one that was small and character-driven and moody, M. Night might be the guy. Except for SPLIT, I don't think I've seen a really good movie from him since UNBREAKABLE, but he might make something that was about behavior and incident, maybe more FRWL-like. Just so long as they don't end the PTS with an image of Craig's haggard visage and have the new Bond look to the camera and say, 'I see dead people.'

I'd forgotten he directed Arrival. God, that was a slog to get through. And it looked so bleak, which we need to get away from. No Villeneuve. And no Nolan.

I recall seeing Unbreakable years ago but none of that screamed James Bond to me. I like the sound of small, character driven and moody, and if that's the case, they should seriously consider Tomas Alfredson of Tinker Tailor fame. And let him bring in Michael Fassbender (even though their film together - The Snowman - was panned) as Bond.

Does anyone have any thoughts about Boyle coming back to revive whatever his pitch for B25 was?

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

I think Brosnan deserves more credit for infusing more vulnerability/humanity into the character. It's no coincidence that Roger Ebert felt his Bond was more psychologically complete, and that Christopher Lee felt his cousin Fleming would have loved Brosnan's iteration. Because much of the character's psychology is present in the Brosnan era without it ever becoming overbearing - much like in Fleming's novels (YOLT and TMWTGG excluded). So a return to that I'd certainly approve of.

100% -- he was asked to do that in each of his films. But it goes unremarked upon since it's not on the Eon talking points sheet.

I had heard that about Lee which I always found quite revealing.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

In other news, Denis Villeneuve wants to direct a Bond film, and Babs and Crag-face are already collaborating on their next theatre project: Macbeth. What a joy that will be. Any case, I imagine that puts Bond 26 on the back burner for the next little while.

Did Villeneuve start talking about that again? I remember he was putting himself out there before Eon hired Boyle on NTTD, but he was tied up with, I think, Dune.

Enemy might be the only one of his films I'd ever watch again. Arrival and BR were fine, though. He seems to be of the clinical Nolan school, which kind of puts me off.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

I remember MP mentioning that he had heard word of his moving on, that Babs will work in a more consultancy capacity, and that one of MGW's sons will take over as lead producer.

I had heard the MGW retirement thing some years ago. I think his son's name is Greg. Might make sense. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Greg has now had on SP and NTTD the equivalent job that Barbara had on TLD and LTK before her "promotion" with GE. I'm not sure if the Barbara consultancy thing was part of the rumor years ago. Might let her invest time in her other projects while the Wilson boy keeps the films coming more regularly. I'm for that.

I thought the main reason that Boyle walked was a disagreement with EON over a couple of his/John Hodge's script ideas that (if you've seen NTTD, no details in order to avoid spoilers) seem to have ended up in the movie regardless.

That was supposedly it. (Although I think it's going to turn out that Boyle was opposed to the ideas that made it into the film instead of those ideas being his to begin with.) There was an interview with the production designer on NTTD (who was a Boyle crew leftover) and he said he's been trying to talk to Eon and Boyle about reconnecting because he thought what Boyle had was good stuff.

I always had a hard time fathoming a Boyle Bond pic, but if rumors are to be believed it was going to be somewhat lighter in tone. There's also a great clip of him on Youtube somewhere talking about how much he loved the Fleming books and read them as a kid several times.

It would be something to have a properly lensed Bond film again that looked elegant but served the story. There's a reason why Cubby was insistent on not jazzing up too much with style.
Heck, I think the last truly good looking Bond was TND. (In spite of having to go with shallow depth of field for all the media screens in Carver sets) TWINE had a lower key aspect which is fine but honestly was a bit too normal looking in spots.

Hm. I thought SF was quite gorgeous, or, at worst, at least visually arresting.

I'm with you, Khanners. I thought SF was the most visually striking Bond film to date. Many great moments, but I always remember Bond floating towards the Macau casino for the dazzling colours etc.