No Time to Die (2020)

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I thought Bellucci was already the oldest actress Craig had been paired with?

I meant as a proper Bond girl? I guess you could make the argument that Bellucci was one in "Spectre". I didn't get that feeling personally.

Salomé wrote:

This movie might well turn out less than great, but I think it's a bit premature to make this judgment just on the fact that the villain or villains might be Russians, no?

What I find interesting is that presumably one of the Bond girls will quite possibly be the oldest actress that Daniel Craig has been paired with.

I think it was Erica Ambler who stated that Daniel Craig looked uncomfortable in some of the more intimate scenes with Léa Seydoux, so I wonder if a slightly older Bond girl might be a request made by him personally?

I believe Ambler enjoyed the sugar-daddy routine between Bond and Madeleine. 

Personally, I feel Craig looked uncomfortable in most scenes in SP.

FieldsMan wrote:

Casting Call for Bond 25:

Male Leading Role
Playing age: 30’s - 60’s
Russian. (Also open to suggestions of actors from the Balkans or similar) Must speak fluent English. 
Characteristics: Charismatic, Powerful, Innovative, Cosmopolitan, Bright, Cold and Vindictive.
Female Leading Role
Playing age: 30 - 45
Russian. (Also open to suggestions of actresses from the Balkans or similar) Must speak fluent English. 
Very Striking. Strong Physical / fighting / stage combat skills required. 
Characteristics: Intelligent, brave, fierce and charming. She's witty and skillful. A survivor.
Male Supporting Role
Playing age: 35 - 55
Maori.
Advanced physical / fighting / stage combat skills required.
Characteristics: Authoritative, cunning, ruthless & loyal.
* * *
I think the Maori character could suggest two things - Dave Bautista is likely not returning as Hinx, and secondly, that New Zealand may feature.

Maori character could suggest Babs makes an attempt to get Dwayne Johnson to play the henchman.
"Fierce" is one of the most overused words in today's modern language. If you have to describe yourself as "fierce" you probably aren't.
Lead villain's age range is interesting, as if they haven't settled on the villain's story just yet.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

CJB wrote:

This move already sounds shit.

Early returns are not promising. I've believed for some time that the existence of Putrump is simply too tantalizing for Babs to pass up, and I may well be right. Bond as breaker of Brexit and borders, anyone? Bleurgh.

Interesting point. Could be right. However, the film would be out after the mid-term elections and too soon before the next Presidential election in order to have any impact. Besides, they've already done a movie about a psychotic billionaire industrialist with a pipeline to the Kremlin: A VIEW TO A KILL.

CJB wrote:

This move already sounds shit.

Why?

Not sure I'm familiar with Mark Tildesley's work, but it's a shame Dennis Gassner won't be returning as Production Designer.

Maybe it's too obvious, but I though Stellan Skarsgard did a great Russian accent in Our Kind of Traitor (also starring our Naomie Harris). He's certainly in the same ballpark as Waltz and Bardem in terms of international appeal and talent.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

CJB wrote:

This move already sounds shit.

Early returns are not promising. I've believed for some time that the existence of Putrump is simply too tantalizing for Babs to pass up, and I may well be right. Bond as breaker of Brexit and borders, anyone? Bleurgh.

Interesting point. Could be right. However, the film would be out after the mid-term elections and too soon before the next Presidential election in order to have any impact. Besides, they've already done a movie about a psychotic billionaire industrialist with a pipeline to the Kremlin: A VIEW TO A KILL.

It would be more a case of spleen-venting and "virtue"-signaling than election-influencing. At bare minimum, I'm certain B25 will, at minimum, contain not-so-veiled allusions to Putrump.

--mentally remove the second "at minimum" from the above post. No way to edit.

Bond 25 will be "special" according to special effects supervisor Chris Corbould.

https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/990171/James-Bond-25-Special-effects-supervisor-Chris-Corbould-Danny-Boyle-Daniel-Craig

Like in a short bus kind of way?

Well well well ... Danny Boyle has departed Bond 25, 'creative differences' cited as the reason -

https://screenrant.com/bond-25-danny-boyle-director-exit/

What now?

I saw the Variety post just now...wow. That can't be good. I wonder what the creative differences are. It can't be a desire to change things as the series has literally been malleable to apparently anyone's point of view since 2002.

With this bad news it becomes painfully clear, that EoN, or in other words BB, isn't the right person anymore to helm such a legacy. If it was Craig's doing, then even worse. She never had control over him, more like the opposite, she is under his spell.

Anyway, whatever went down, Bond 25 will either be a rushed project to keep the release date or they have to announce a 2020 release which would make it a five year gap with the same actor as Bond.

I see a grim future for this franchise.

Sorry if this all sounds very negative, but as a lifelong die-hard fan of the novels and films this is one more major disappointment....

Maybe it's just time to mothball the series for a long while. Like until after I've started pushing up daisies.

Brilliant news if it means Craig will follow suit.

Will they still use Hodge's script or return to Purvis and Wade's?

Best news to wake up to. I now remain optimistic.

hegottheboot wrote:

I saw the Variety post just now...wow. That can't be good. I wonder what the creative differences are. It can't be a desire to change things as the series has literally been malleable to apparently anyone's point of view since 2002.

The real "creative differences" will eventually be revealed in the coming days through different media reports, with all sides wanting to get their spin out to the public via anonymous sources.

I do believe that the Idris Elba rumors that recently re-ignited didn't simply come out of nowhere. I believe they were carefully orchestrated and leaked to the public for a reason. Not a chance all of this is coincidental. This is only the tip of the tentacle.

My theory: studio wants an expanded universe to fill in during the off-years, with a character written into BOND25 that would have been played by Idris Elba and spun off into it's own series similar to what Dwayne Johnson is doing with The Fast and The Furious film series. Boyle either could not or would not make such an accommodation.

I don't believe Craig's job as 007 was in danger by Elba, but I believe there would have effectively been 2 roosters in Ms. Broccoli's hen house, and that was one too many for Boyle and maybe for Craig. Although Craig is standing by EON for now (as evidenced by the tweet with his name on it), that may not last for long. He has essentially been paid $25 million (?) to come back to a series that he claimed he would rather slash his wrists than ever revisit, to do a follow up to a movie that should have ended Craig's run for good because it left nowhere else for the storyline to go. This was always a money-grab for Craig, and whatever loyalty and attachment he seems to have felt has gone out the window. Furthermore, I never believed Boyle was all-in on this production. He wasn't among the 3 Finalists rumored last year. We waited for the big announcement in January BB promised us but never happened. Boyle's name surfaced in Spring but only as a tentative interest. I think he got a hard-sell and got rushed into doing this movie and convinced himself the story was where he wanted it, and if it wasn't, it would all work itself out as production progressed.

Nobody with any pedigree should want to come in to this dumpster-fire of a production and have anything to do with directing this abortion. Barbara needs to sell EON. Craig goes to. New owners. New producers. Bring in Christopher Nolan to direct and let him rebuild this series with whatever creative control he wants. He has a proven track record of success that even Boyle didn't.

Quite honestly this was the best news I've read all day. Burn this mother down and start over!

Fascinated to know what these creative differences are.

Oh well, we all knew Bond 25 was going to be a mess.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

hegottheboot wrote:

I saw the Variety post just now...wow. That can't be good. I wonder what the creative differences are. It can't be a desire to change things as the series has literally been malleable to apparently anyone's point of view since 2002.

The real "creative differences" will eventually be revealed in the coming days through different media reports, with all sides wanting to get their spin out to the public via anonymous sources.

I do believe that the Idris Elba rumors that recently re-ignited didn't simply come out of nowhere. I believe they were carefully orchestrated and leaked to the public for a reason. Not a chance all of this is coincidental. This is only the tip of the tentacle.

My theory: studio wants an expanded universe to fill in during the off-years, with a character written into BOND25 that would have been played by Idris Elba and spun off into it's own series similar to what Dwayne Johnson is doing with The Fast and The Furious film series. Boyle either could not or would not make such an accommodation.

I don't believe Craig's job as 007 was in danger by Elba, but I believe there would have effectively been 2 roosters in Ms. Broccoli's hen house, and that was one too many for Boyle and maybe for Craig. Although Craig is standing by EON for now (as evidenced by the tweet with his name on it), that may not last for long. He has essentially been paid $25 million (?) to come back to a series that he claimed he would rather slash his wrists than ever revisit, to do a follow up to a movie that should have ended Craig's run for good because it left nowhere else for the storyline to go. This was always a money-grab for Craig, and whatever loyalty and attachment he seems to have felt has gone out the window. Furthermore, I never believed Boyle was all-in on this production. He wasn't among the 3 Finalists rumored last year. We waited for the big announcement in January BB promised us but never happened. Boyle's name surfaced in Spring but only as a tentative interest. I think he got a hard-sell and got rushed into doing this movie and convinced himself the story was where he wanted it, and if it wasn't, it would all work itself out as production progressed.

Nobody with any pedigree should want to come in to this dumpster-fire of a production and have anything to do with directing this abortion. Barbara needs to sell EON. Craig goes to. New owners. New producers. Bring in Christopher Nolan to direct and let him rebuild this series with whatever creative control he wants. He has a proven track record of success that even Boyle didn't.

Quite honestly this was the best news I've read all day. Burn this mother down and start over!

It was indeed great news to read today and I'm hoping this wedges out Craig soon too, however I'm remaining optimistic for a better outcome that what you outline. Nolan really isn't suited for Bond.

Interesting theory, Gravy.

I don't think EON wants an expanded universe, considering it took them this long to find a director and a distributor and the movie might not even come out next year. They clearly said they were more interested in side projects than they were in Bond.

I don't think it's about creating an expanded universe.

The delay only came down to whether Craig wanted to come back or not. He knew only a few months before the rest of the world did, which was 2-3 years after SPECTRE. Of course Babs wanted to explore other projects he makes up his mind - what else would any business(wo)man do?

His decision to stay or go would play into the distributor saga, hence the time taken in securing Universal.

Pretty good article about how it's time for Craig's Bond to rest:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/movies/why-its-time-for-james-bond-to-move-on/ar-BBMhe1R?MSCC=1534958019&ocid=spartandhp#image=BBBtPnQ|1

I'm not sure how much worse you can get than SPECTRE, so in following tradition of the last Bond films of each actor being their weakest (as commonly thought), Craig, it's time to go. I mean, DAF, AVTAK, LTK and DAD are all better films than what we got in 2015...

I love this caption in the slide. I wonder how many ISIS militants are parkour experts...

MSN wrote:

In Daniel Craig’s first Bond movie, he pursues bomb-maker Mollaka (Sébastien Foucan), who turns out to be a parkour expert, through a construction site in Madagascar.

Boyle may have walked due to a casting dispute over the Russian villain -

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/danny-boyle-left-bond-25-villain-casting-dispute/

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Boyle may have walked due to a casting dispute over the Russian villain -

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/danny-boyle-left-bond-25-villain-casting-dispute/

Sounds a rather minor reason to abandon ship, unless Boyle was never remotely enthusiastic about the project from the get-go and was looking for any excuse to exit stage right.