Skyfall (2012) - UK Oct 26th , US Nov 9th [SPOILERS]

Quote :

I don’t know, there is also something that Sam, the director, told me a short while and he was right: James Bond films are midway between reality and fiction. Therefore is a very good and very fertile terrain to play the characters with a certain freedom. It has to do with a real situation and there has got to be seriousness playing it but it’s more open, it gives you more air so that you can work and imagine more. And that is very fun because you’re not doing absolute fiction, it’s not a superhero picture, but it’s not a completely down-to-earth film. It’s something in the middle that’s very good and very fun for an actor.

This is very encouraging. I hope Mendes hits right between fantasy and dirty spy stuff. That's exactly where Bond should lie, IMO.

I'm intrigued by how they'll make this a lighter and more humourous Bond film, given the dramatic events, like what happens to Skyfall and M. I can see Bardem being a nasty, but quirky villian. Marlohe hinted at Severine being psychotic. Dench has looked confused and angry in some set photos - that can be funny, I hope Craig will make more use of Bond's wit - and I don't mean just 7 or 8 lines like in QOS.

Yeah, Harris made a comment about how she felt Mendes had brought a lighter touch to SKYFALL than had been seen with the past two Bond flicks. Fiennes, on the other hand, described the film as quite hard-edged, and given what we know about the film, I'm guessing he's probably closer to the truth.

A film can be both hard-edged and humourous.

I hope it does both nicely. I still find the line in QoS about "you mother?" "She'd like to think so." To be a nice balance of humor and charm but also well timed. Craig can do the whole humor/charm bit. We just haven't seen much of it.

Harmsway wrote:

Yeah, Harris made a comment about how she felt Mendes had brought a lighter touch to SKYFALL than had been seen with the past two Bond flicks. Fiennes, on the other hand, described the film as quite hard-edged, and given what we know about the film, I'm guessing he's probably closer to the truth.

I think she may be describing her part, though, as "lighter" and humorous. I think she's saying her character think's she's Bond's equal, but she finds out she's not, and I'm assuming some of the humor comes from that. I'm thinking she'll be better than Goodnight, but not as seasoned or self-sufficient or battle-hardened as Goodhead, Jinx, Bouvier, or Wai Lin. Possibly starting off thinking she's a big shot agent who can run with the big dogs (the 00-agents), then finds out she's not cut out for field work, and accepts a job as personal secretary to the incoming M. We'll find out her last name is Moneypenny by the end of the film.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

We'll find out her last name is Moneypenny by the end of the film.

Yes, I expect that that'll be the film's last big "surprise" before cutting to the closing credits to the blaring strains of the James Bond Theme.

RALPH FIENNES: Good to have you onboard, Miss---- er.... (consults a list of staff members) ...Moneypenny?

Y'know, I'm beginning to wonder whether I even need to see SKYFALL. I suspect we've got pretty much every nook and cranny of it sussed out by now.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Yeah, Harris made a comment about how she felt Mendes had brought a lighter touch to SKYFALL than had been seen with the past two Bond flicks. Fiennes, on the other hand, described the film as quite hard-edged, and given what we know about the film, I'm guessing he's probably closer to the truth.

I think she may be describing her part, though, as "lighter" and humorous. I think she's saying her character think's she's Bond's equal, but she finds out she's not, and I'm assuming some of the humor comes from that. I'm thinking she'll be better than Goodnight, but not as seasoned or self-sufficient or battle-hardened as Goodhead, Jinx, Bouvier, or Wai Lin. Possibly starting off thinking she's a big shot agent who can run with the big dogs (the 00-agents), then finds out she's not cut out for field work, and accepts a job as personal secretary to the incoming M. We'll find out her last name is Moneypenny by the end of the film.

Yeah. This is what I'm gathering. Eve thinks she's Bond's equal when she's not. Hilarity ensues. (Though from that video blog, she seems to be really quite good with a gun.)

Even if this is a bit more hard-edged, I think it'll still be a bit more glamorous than QOS.

And Bond slaps her around a little bit to put her back in line.








... What?

Jack Wade wrote:

Yeah. This is what I'm gathering. Eve thinks she's Bond's equal when she's not. Hilarity ensues.

I don't think it will be the butt of a joke. It would come off as "Eve is a woman trying to do a man's job, and she's failing! Laugh!" which is alarmingly sexist. And while the forums might treat political correctness as a venereal disease, EON do not. And it would also be very close to Elvis, who is the single least-respected Bond villain in the franchise's history (his pants are literally blown off fetmoseconds before his death).

I think Eve will be a highly-competent field agent, but largely inexperienced - possibly because she is a relative newcomer, or because she has been stationed to an obscure posting - and this inexperience brings with it a certain naivety. One of the recurring themes in CASINO ROYALE was the nature of Bond's work and what it actually takes to kill someone. Even when it was a life-or-death situation, like the fight with Obanno, Bond still starts going into shock because of the adrenaline. I think that Eve will see what Bond does and feel that there is no difference between them, assume that she can do anything he does, and consequently will not understand and/or appreciate the consequences of what Bond has to do. There will come a situation where Eve is under pressure and cannot cope with it, possibly with disastrous conseuqnces (ie Silva gets away). Eve would then resign herself to a secondary role.

Good summary ^ Shadow. That very well could be what Eve is all about.

Maybe she'll be like a female Saunders...

"Section 26, paragraph 5. Need-to-know, bitch."

We had one of those in Fields. Although her love of doing things by the book was more a case of inexperience and her excitement at being given such an important task as detaining Bond, rather than Saunders' combination of stuffiness and general incompetence. Exactly how he got to be in such a high-ranking position while coming up with such flawed plans as hiding Koskov in the boot of the car is a mystery that may never be solved. Though ironically enough, following through with Saunders' plan would likely have alerted Bond that something was not right with Koskov's defection, since Koskov took pains to make sure he would have made it across the border without being discovered, and so would have alerted the border guards to his presence on the basis that it was part of a secret mission to infiltrate MI6. Saunders was not to know that, though.

Back to Eve. I think if this "She thinks she's Bond's equal, but she's really his junior" thing actually appears in the film (and I believe it will, since it's a very unusual thing for Harris to say), then I think it will be a nice riff on the whole "My character is really a Bond Woman ... she's strong and independent, and really Bond's Equal" trope that we've seen so much of. Though I think a lot of that trope is down to misinterpretation of the character by the actor playing her than anything else.

Seven months and COUNT-ing!

:shock:

Craig and Bardem on Bond and Silva:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1682783/skyfall-daniel-craig.jhtml

Silva is "more than a villain" and has a "very important relationship to Bond".

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Silva is "more than a villain" and has a "very important relationship to Bond".

I have an idea about this, one that might explain Peter Morgan's "big hook" - could Silva be the man who was originally supposed to become 007?

In CASINO ROYALE, M said that she knew it was too early to promote Bond. We always assumed that this was because Bond had acted rashly in Madagascar, but what if Raoul Silva was a Double-Oh or a Double-Oh candidate who was killed early, and M was forced to promote Bond in his place? After all, Bond said that he knew Double-Ohs have very short life expectancies; could he have come to this conclusion after seeing the example of Silva?

A Spanish British agent?

Well, they had a French British accountant and an Italian French British agent, so maybe that's it.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

A Spanish British agent?

Sure, why not? It probably wouldn't be allowed if he was a naturalised Spanish citizen, but if he and his family had been living in Britain for generations, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Who am I to argue with your speculation?

Morgan's big hook may have been M's death. Or MI6 coming under attack. Dunno if a death (safe to say near the end of the film if the scene list if correct) would be a "hook", though.

IGN and Coming Soon are reporting that SKYFALL will feature scenes on Hasima Island, an abandoned island and ghost town off the coast of Nagasaki, though they're unclear as to whether the scenes will actually be set in Japan, or whether Hashima Island will double for somewhere else like Macau or Shangahi.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

IGN and Coming Soon are reporting that SKYFALL will feature scenes on Hasima Island, an abandoned island and ghost town off the coast of Nagasaki, though they're unclear as to whether the scenes will actually be set in Japan, or whether Hashima Island will double for somewhere else like Macau or Shangahi.

That looks cool.

It does sound very Bond villain-ish, doesn't it? I mean, it's an underwater coal mining facility. From a purely engineering perspective (and I come from a family of engineers), that's about as difficult and as expensive as you can get.

I'm guessing it will be set somewhere off the coast of China or Macau, rather than Japan, though.

That would certainly add some "benign bizarre" to the film!

Although ironically, everyone was criticising the run-down look of Haiti and Bolivia in QUANTUM OF SOLACE.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Although ironically, everyone was criticising the run-down look of Haiti and Bolivia in QUANTUM OF SOLACE.

They are? I think they look good in the film.

I would say that the difference is that this island is unusual, and the QOS locations are Shitsville.