Press Conference in Turkey

Today there's a press conference currently being held at the Ciragan Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. Lucy Cotter of Sky News is there (according to Twitter) along with other journalists from media outlets.



https://twitter.com/#!/ShortList

Someone quotes from ShortList Magazine's Twitter feed:

Quote :

After the more serious tone of Quantum Of Solace, Daniel Craig says, "Bond is as funny as hell in this movie"

Quote :

Director Sam Mendes: "I'm making a film that's both a traditional Bond film, but also one that's very personal to me."

Quote :

Daniel Craig: "During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

That's promising.

Some notes from the press conference:

They are tight lipped as ever. Mendes says he's going back to Fleming's original character - he's complex, depressed about the job of killing - some of that will be explored. Craig says it's going to be "funny as hell" and his love life will be "rich". No word on 24th Bond movie - producers say "they hope so". Last time they filmed here was 49 years to the day (apparently forgetting THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH) and this was Fleming's favourite city.

^ The first unit of TWINE didn't film in Istanbul though, IIRC.

Sharky wrote:

Some notes from the press conference:

They are tight lipped as ever. Mendes says he's going back to Fleming's original character - he's complex, depressed about the job of killing

:roll:

As far as going back to Fleming's original character....we've basically gotten that line, in some form or fashion, since 1987.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Some notes from the press conference:

They are tight lipped as ever. Mendes says he's going back to Fleming's original character - he's complex, depressed about the job of killing

:roll:

As far as going back to Fleming's original character....we've basically gotten that line, in some form or fashion, since 1987.

Exactly right, Gravity. Even during the Brosnan era, which, while it had very enjoyable aspects about it, tended to be rather OTT, MGW would constantly say that, when producing Bond movies, "the first thing we do is to go back to the character of Bond as written by Ian Fleming". For whatever reason, since Roger Moore left the role of Bond, "being true to Fleming" and "making Bond a complex character" are buzzwords EON likes to use. Sometimes it actually happens (TLD, GE, TWINE), but most of the time we get ever more mindless video game violence with random moments where Bond looks sad while tinkling piano music plays in the soundtrack. Then Bond kills another hoard of people in bloodless, PG-13 (and I might add, completely joyless) ways.

I think this attitude is reponsible for sucking much of the fun out of the cinematic character of Bond. Connery and Moore, even at their hardest, were fun characters to watch. Even when they were being brutal, they had a black sense of humor about them, and their movies weren't wall to wall violence. I like Brosnan Bond a lot (second to Connery) but I get puzzled when people compare his era to Moore's. There's no comparison. While I prefer Brosnan to Moore, Moore's movies are much more fun to watch. Even when Brosnan is in a movie that's supposed to be fun, his character is laden down with mourning over Paris Carver, or bizarrely mourning over Miranda Frost, or other such distractions. Brosnan could survive these issues, Craig can't, in large part because Craig thinks these emotional moments are the whole point of Bond's character. There's something to be said for how Sean deals with Aki's death in YOLT, or how Roger deals with Vijay's death in OP. Both times, Bond is clearly effected, and the soundtrack amplifies his feelings. But Bond then changes the subject or redirects his anger elsewhere, and we move on.

Death and mourning are clearly there in Bond's character for those old enough and mature enough to see the signs (like when Sean puts on sunglasses as he tells Domino about her brother). We (the intelligent viewer) don't need Bond's inner life constantly hammered at us. The frequent hints in the earlier movies were quite sufficient. In the end, this "complex Bond" EON keeps feeding us increasingly comes across as infantilizing, especially since Dalton or Brosnan are no longer playing the role. The "emotions" in Nu-Bond seem not so much complex as badly broadcast on billboards, so that the target teenager demographic won't miss what's going on. Thus we get increasingly less sex and sophistication in these movies, and increasingly amounts of sadism. The Bond recipe is becoming unbalanced.

Harmsway wrote:

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

That's promising.

Indeed. Many's the time I wished I could email Miccoli pointing to choice tidbits of unused Fleming.

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

Dear lord! The skies have parted and the angels in heaven are singing sweet choruses! Somebody actually wants to use IAN FLEMING material in a JAMES BOND movie? What a concept!

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

That's promising.

Indeed. Many's the time I wished I could email Miccoli pointing to choice tidbits of unused Fleming.

Could always try. Or maybe Daniel Craig...brainwash him gradually. Sort of some Manchurian Candidate schtick.

Sharky wrote:

Some notes from the press conference:

They are tight lipped as ever. Mendes says he's going back to Fleming's original character - he's complex, depressed about the job of killing

Luckily Craig will have a crewcut and not boofy Brozzer hair for his emo beach scene.

dr. strangelove wrote:

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

Dear lord! The skies have parted and the angels in heaven are singing sweet choruses! Somebody actually wants to use IAN FLEMING material in a JAMES BOND movie? What a concept!

Was today the first time they've actually mentioned Ian Fleming as part of the publicity campaign for Skyfall? IF hasn't been worth mentioning in the official 007 Twitter feed (they could have done a "this day in Bond history" Tweet about Fleming viisting the Dr. No or Goldfinger sets, for example). Fleming wasn't mentioned much, if at all, during the November news conference. All of a sudden, it's like they have a V-8 moment ("Wow, I could have mentioned Ian Fleming.")

dr. strangelove wrote:

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

Dear lord! The skies have parted and the angels in heaven are singing sweet choruses! Somebody actually wants to use IAN FLEMING material in a JAMES BOND movie? What a concept!

If there's Fleming content in SKYFALL, then I don't think it's going to be really obvious. I imagine that it would be used as a starting point, and then adapted and rewritten to fit neatly into the film.

Yahoo article on Skyfall and the Istanbul press conference...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/007-film-depict-spys-inner-demons-171114370.html

Quote :

In Fleming's last novels, Mendes said, Bond suffered from a "combination of lassitude, boredom, depression, difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living, which is to kill. That makes him a much more interesting character, and some of those things are explored in this movie, because Daniel as an actor is capable of exploring them."

This has ramped up my interest.

Sharky wrote:

Some notes from the press conference:

Craig says his love life will be "rich".

James Bond remembers it's not just for pissing with.

During a news conference in Istanbul, director Sam Mendes revealed that the new James Bond film will explore a more emotional side of the character, adding that the movie will return to author Ian Fleming’s original creation.

Here's hoping....

http://www.filmnav.co.uk/2012/04/30/11298/

[quote="Sharky"]

Quote :

In Fleming's last novels, Mendes said, Bond suffered from a "combination of lassitude, boredom, depression, difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living, which is to kill. That makes him a much more interesting character, and some of those things are explored in this movie, because Daniel as an actor is capable of exploring them."

It also makes him a much more exasperating character. Refusal to destroy known monsters is not a laudable characteristic.

Hilly wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

That's promising.

Indeed. Many's the time I wished I could email Miccoli pointing to choice tidbits of unused Fleming.

Could always try. Or maybe Daniel Craig...brainwash him gradually. Sort of some Manchurian Candidate schtick.

PM me their email addresses, will ya' Hilly?

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

That's promising.

Indeed. Many's the time I wished I could email Miccoli pointing to choice tidbits of unused Fleming.

I think Babs is more interested in Craig's choice tit-bits rather than in Fleming's. Unless I missed it at the initial press conference back in November, why are we just now hearing about this? Presumably from Craig's own statements one can infer he re-read all of Fleming before the London press conference, so why is it just now, in late April, that we're getting all these talking points?

And I'm not looking for more "comedy", as some reports have been stating will be included in Skyfall; I'm just looking for more humor-appropriate moments and less politicization of the film; less moralizing by the writers and directors about what is "justice" and "vengeance", and less moral equivalency. Either Bond and HMSS are the good guys or they are not; I don't come to see this movies be directed in shades of gray. I want black and white.

For the most part I am encouraged by what I hear, but as RIWP points out the balance is critical and recent history not to mention some of what we are actually hearing here seems more than a bit contradictory.

I just hope its not a case of another the Die Another Day scenario where they try and do something interesting and different but then awkwardly graft a naive stereotype of what someone told them a Bond film should be on top.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Quote :

"During MGM's financial issues I re-read the books and kept emailing Sam saying, 'What about this? What about this?'"

That's promising.

Indeed. Many's the time I wished I could email Miccoli pointing to choice tidbits of unused Fleming.

Could always try. Or maybe Daniel Craig...brainwash him gradually. Sort of some Manchurian Candidate schtick.

PM me their email addresses, will ya' Hilly?

if only I had them. Sure some folks over at old MI6 thought I had a pipeline into the Fleming Estate via my fanfic.

DCraig@eon.com perhaps :)

Sharky wrote:

Quote :

In Fleming's last novels, Mendes said, Bond suffered from a "combination of lassitude, boredom, depression, difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living, which is to kill. That makes him a much more interesting character, and some of those things are explored in this movie, because Daniel as an actor is capable of exploring them."

This has ramped up my interest.

It's certainly confirming Mendes' interest in Bond. This is a nice change of pace after Forster admitting he wasn't all into the concept of Bond.

lachesis wrote:

For the most part I am encouraged by what I hear, but as RIWP points out the balance is critical and recent history not to mention some of what we are actually hearing here seems more than a bit contradictory.

I just hope its not a case of another the Die Another Day scenario where they try and do something interesting and different but then awkwardly graft a naive stereotype of what someone told them a Bond film should be on top.

Having watched DAD in the last week, I'm inclined to say that you've come up with the perfect description for that film, lachesis.

Actually, the DAD comparison might (unfortunately) be apt here, since both DAD and SF are anniversary films. EON went way over the top IMO with the "homages" ten years ago. It seems like they're dialing things back a bit this time, which is good. Even comparing SF to GF isn't necessarily a bad thing at all. But I worry about the "awkward grafting" lachesis mentions.

Sharky wrote:

Great stuff, thanks for posting that, Sharky. 100 times more informative than that circle jerk that occurred back in November. The three things that I took out of that...

- The crew's continued mentioning of a Fleming-inspired piece. Whether that's true or not...who knows. But they're certainly saying all the right things.

- Mendes admitting that he wanted to work within a specific genre.

- Mendes stating pretty clearly that Purvis and Wade "wrote the first script". That would certainly lead one to believe that Logan pretty much did his own thing from there, with minimal input from Dumb and Dumber. I believe Mendes used the word "assimilated", and it would seem to me, just from hearing what Mendes had to say here, that Logan was the primary contributor to the finalized screenplay.