No Time to Die (2020)

Bond 25 to be released through Annapurna's new United Artists Releasing... My sense of nostalgia gets a boost, but it'll take just a little more than a logo and some flashy rumoured locations to really get me pumped for Bond 25.

FieldsMan wrote:

We edge closer to Bond 25 start date (Can Craig bow out between now and then? I dream...) and more "news" is leaking:

- Greece will apparently feature in Bond 25, namely Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre in Athens:


- Emma Stone and Dakota Johnson as Bond girls? The fact there is support for this among some fandom is laughable. I'm willing to bet these are rumours, but still. Hilarious.
- Matera in Southern Italy is apparently confirmed as a location. Aside from the the picturesque piazzas and views, Eon supposedly want to shoot in caves in the area. Great idea. Though Italy again? 4/5 Craig-era films have shot in Italy. It's sure to look great, and it's certainly not the end of the world to see it again so soon, however, could it be a coincidence that the only Craig Bond film I like DOESN'T feature Italy?


- We all should know by now that snowy Norway is a location. We won't get a ski chase. Trouble with the old leg. Trouble with the lead actor's attitude.
- Remember, a Bond stuntman leaked that Bond 25 will shoot in Canada too...
- Rami Malek "squirmed" at the question of being cast in a Bond film. If this is true, he'd be the first villain noticeably younger than Craig's Bond. Not sure that's a good move, considering Craig looks almost 60 himself.
- Dua Lipa shoots down theme song rumours. She'd be great though. I think she will sing it.

Is it FYEO since Bond was last in Greece? Wonder what part that building is due to play.

Matera looks very picturesque. Could the bad guy's lair be in the caves, maybe?

Both my thoughts actually. Though Athens will be a new location for Bond, actually.

While the release date remains, Bond 25 has been pushed back another month! Fingers crossed something happens that prevents Craig from doing it

Bond 25 and Brexit both rivalling each other for infinite postponing.

This seems like another half assed attempt at just milking the UA brand name and trying to squeeze some cash out of properties for bigwigs and perhaps funnel it into the essentially gone MGM. If they revived the legendary UA production technique it could really be something but of course they won't.

Those actresses are really wrong for the series and they would be breaking the long habit of casting for looks instead of talent or name value. And of course the name value castings are usually for the secondary or sacrificial lamb spots anyhow. When the next turn of the roulette wheel comes around perhaps a new precedent should be set by having an older actor with the best actresses one can sign perhaps?

Bond did go to Greece in Benson's THE FACTS OF DEATH. Used it fantastically too. And as always it's a better story than anything they can do now. One of the best aspects of Benson's tenure was his usage of locations and how he did full recces to gather firsthand info to then pepper his plots with.

FieldsMan wrote:

Both my thoughts actually. Though Athens will be a new location for Bond, actually.

While the release date remains, Bond 25 has been pushed back another month! Fingers crossed something happens that prevents Craig from doing it

Nah, let him have his swan song in the tuxedo...if the story is linked to Casino Royale somehow, a new Bond would muck it up.

If it does $250m+ in the USA and about 900m worldwide minimal, it's a success.

Then we move on.

Maybe Cavill or Assbender can be persuaded by then.

My idea is that with a new Bond, this version of Bond 25 will be scrapped. Or, the references to the CR "arc" are omitted and the script is reworked.

HGTB wrote:

Bond did go to Greece in Benson's THE FACTS OF DEATH. Used it fantastically too. And as always it's a better story than anything they can do now. One of the best aspects of Benson's tenure was his usage of locations and how he did full recces to gather firsthand info to then pepper his plots with.

Haven't read it. Bond did also go to Athens in Blood Stone, IIRC. Haven't picked up the game in years so I could be wrong.

Oh good grief...I hated that game. It felt like an unpolished run of the mill shooter with a Craig era reskin applied to it. I had totally forgotten it went to Greece and blotted it out of my memory.

Fields, you should definitely read the Benson novels. I think you'd get a real kick out of them. They play in many ways like a blending of Fleming and the film series-and in a good way if that makes any sense. While not all perfect, all six are great reads.

I plan to eventually. My to-read list is so long right now I'm trying my hardest to smash out a book within a week. Obviously the 500+ page books (i.e. The Gulag Archipelago) take more time.

...

On reflection, the UA banner might be MGM trying to deflect and distract from the fact that Bond 25 is shaping up like SP. Fan service.

BOND 25 release pushed back to April 2020. Haha. What a joke. Eon are "thrilled" to be releasing the movie on this date.

Get. Rid. Of. Craig.

To the surprise of ... no one.



I'll admit I think this delay got a genuine laugh from me. What an absolute incompetent dumpster fire this generation of Bond film-making has been. I know they've used up most of the Ian Fleming books but come on, it's a James Bond movie. This shouldn't be this hard to put together if they'd just dump the tired, miserable psychobabbling reboot thing which apparently was thought out about as well as a drunken late night shopping binge on Amazon. Put Bond's butt on a plane, send him to a foreign country and have him kill some maniac with an evil plan. What is hard here? If it's Craig, tell him to swallow that lemon he's been sucking on since he got the role and either shape up or bug off already. By the time they get around to making this movie he'll probably look more aged that Roger Moore did in his last film. They should have been looking for a new Bond after the last one anyways given the wrist-slitting comments in case ol' sourpatch Bond decides to walk away which I'm betting is what he's actually wanting to do.

Either it's Craig or they haven't got a good script together despite it being a series where at this point a standard adventure would a blessing at this point given the last film which was basically just bad fan fiction with a big budget. Somebody's got to whip this series back in the shape at EON because if the next film isn't an OHMSS-sized masterpiece after all this then they clearly have a problem.

for the clip.

for the post.

Nothing about the Craig era as a whole screams competence or passion. Skyfall is a saving grace when, in years to come, people will start looking at the Craig era for what it is. CR will no longer be regarded as one of the greats (because it shouldn't be).

The delay has "creative differences" written all over it: Craig is probably not happy with something because, let's face it, when is he ever grateful? Cary FuckyouNahnah is probably unhappy with the script. Purvis and Wade are probably churning out pages at the last minute because Eon ditched their idea for Boyle's, which obviously stole time away from them developing the script. Now it's getting rewritten with the help of a virtue-signalling scientologist/communist rapist who shouldn't be anywhere near Bond. All the while Babs is intent of making Bond a feminist icon and Craig is looking like Roger Moore post-seven film stint.

After this debacle, the film we end up getting won't be worth the wait. Finish what Craig started in CR? Why? That's a shit foundation, that's been mostly miss than hit.

I guess I'll be the sole guy that says: I'll wait and see. Not being optimistic or pessimistic. Of course, I want EON do get this one right and leave Craig's run on a higher note than SPECTRE, and if delaying the release date helps that, so be it.

Just can the thing already. The series is a 20th century relic. Nobody in this day and age wants a white cismale heterosexual defending England and the West given these entities no longer have any tangible meaning beyond vague "values" based platitudes. A Western country daring to have a border is now racist so what's the actual point of this character anymore? Let's stop kidding ourselves here. If they wanted to make a proper Bond caper they could've churned one out 3 years ago, but EON and Cregg are set on some pseudo-intellectual social justice piece that trashes Fleming's vision further and so they're dragging their feet.

CJB, knowing you since the KTBEU days I would think that post you wrote was brilliant satire, but in this era, it's becoming hard to tell.

Hollywood may have lately been broadening their target demographics beyond white male heterosexuals once they discovered diversity actually makes them money at the box office, but that doesn't mean there's no place for them as cinematic heroes, despite whatever persecution complex (in this case "white fragility") conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson try to grasp on as if all other demographics are setting to supplant them rather than just demand for an equal playing field.

It's funny how every time the Bond series tries adapt to the times in an incremental way, there's this complaint that Bond has lost his place in the world. Whether because Dalton's Bond is no longer banging half a dozen women left and right like Roger Moore's Bond due to the AIDS epidemic. Pierce Brosnan being "emasculated" because he's now working for a female M that calls him a misogynist. Daniel Craig wearing a drag in ad that most of the world seems to have forgotten except this forum and maybe CraigNotBond.com.

I doubt everyone in this world that went to go see Bond films came out saying "boy, that was fun watching a white heterosexual male fighting villains for a Western country while at the same time putting the women, ethnic, and LGBTQ people in line to keep our own end up!" except maybe some of you in this forum, and perhaps those writing forgettable think pieces with the exclusion of having fun watching them.

Personally, I'm hoping to enjoy this upcoming installment the way I have with the past twentysomething films: As an enjoyable cinematic lark. Most importantly, I hope they make it a film you guys can enjoy. Especially you FieldsMan. I know you have your gripes with Craig's run, but I genuinely hope you get something positive out of it, because isn't that all we really want when going to a Bond film? Perhaps you're about to retort that with a "I doubt it, because so and so", so be it I suppose. I'll still wish they churn out something you can enjoy on some level.

CJB wrote:

Just can the thing already. The series is a 20th century relic. Nobody in this day and age wants a white cismale heterosexual defending England and the West given these entities no longer have any tangible meaning  beyond vague "values" based platitudes. A Western country daring to have a border is now racist so what's the actual point of this character anymore? Let's stop kidding ourselves  here. If they wanted to make a proper Bond caper they could've churned one out 3 years ago, but EON and Cregg are set on some pseudo-intellectual social justice piece that trashes Fleming's vision further and so they're dragging their feet.

You may be right, CJB. And honestly, if Bond is going to go that route, I would much prefer they euthanize the series right now. Have some respect for Fleming, for God's sake. But whether or not Babs/Kregg respect Fleming is an open question. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Fleming's heirs now revile the genius, even as they continue reaping the royalties...

Here are glass half-full and half-empty ways of looking at the latest delay.

http://bit.ly/2STiDJC

examples:

Half-full: Easter may be better than Valentines Day

Half-empty: This movie has a weird history and this is just one more example.

One more thought about the current SPECTRE-Bond 25 gap.

It's approaching almost 4.5 years. But have there been any *major* calamities?

There was a four-year gap between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. That included MGM going into bankruptcy.

Interesting times.

I agree with the sentiments above. Time to lay some flowers at the tombstone and hop in a chopper someplace. Be easier though to get some of the ex Bond's back for some weird Expendables type film. Ending with Brosnan driving them away in an Aston, the camera zooms in on Brozzer who looks at the camera with the same look he had when hearing Onatopp's name for the first time and remarks:

"Pain face!?"

and drives off.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Personally, I'm hoping to enjoy this upcoming installment the way I have with the past twentysomething films: As an enjoyable cinematic lark. Most importantly, I hope they make it a film you guys can enjoy. Especially you FieldsMan. I know you have your gripes with Craig's run, but I genuinely hope you get something positive out of it, because isn't that all we really want when going to a Bond film? Perhaps you're about to retort that with a "I doubt it, because so and so", so be it I suppose. I'll still wish they churn out something you can enjoy on some level.

Of course we want a great Bond film. Can't make a good cake with off ingredients.

Steven Soderbergh writer hired to give the Bond 25 script an "overhaul".

https://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/16/scott-z-burns-enters-bond-25-writing-sweepstakes/

If they're still unhappy at this late stage in the game, then I can't see Bond 25 coming out even in April '20. FUnaga will feud. Hotheaded Craig will walk. An "overhaul" will undoubtedly lead to new script problems. This should not be happening now.

Also interesting how it mentions that FUnaga is a writer himself. So maybe even he couldn't save the script from the colossal fuck up it probably is. Guess that's what happens when you want to follow on that same story arc started in trash.

Full story: https://theplaylist.net/exclusive-scott-z-burns-bond-25-20190216/

Maybe they should get Rian Johnson in. That'll definitely put the mockers on Bond as a series.

Good lord this is more awful than I realized. Thanks for the update Fields. As much as I disliked Bourne Ultimatum the novel, the film version was a horrible way to discredit Ludlum's work.
So now we're on to big script doctors. Wow. How low can we go?


If you took any Benson novel and steamlined it to dial back the literary references general audiences won't get and to fit a 2 hour narrative you'd have the best entry since LTK easily. I'm not even joking and none of his books are themselves perfect. Or you could choose Gardner elements and build a great story.

Or make one of the games into films at this point. As limited as they were; Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, EoN were better stories.
Hell, the 1985 AVTAK tie in children's choose your own adventure books have better stories!

Ffolkes is a better Bond film than the current slate. Remo Williams is a better Bond film than the current slate. Are we going to get to the point where there is more Bond in Zardoz than a Bond film?!?!?!?!?!?

It just occurred to me that they aren't even hiding the fact they're looking to Bourne for inspiration now. Ultimatum was woeful, too!

I actually wouldn't mind Nightmare's story adapted, if Brosnan was still in the role. Though I'd replace the space ending with something more, erm.. grounded, and reduce the gunfire, of course. From memory the NATO through line was great. Cloning and nanotechnology might be a bit of stretch, though.

Twitter's going crazy. There's not a lot of support for Craig's return.