The Express says Mendes cutting action scenes to make Bond 23 "Oscar-friendly"

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/279086/Ah-Mr-Bond-time-for-some-proper-acting

Not exactly airtight reporting. The story quotes a source as saying there are rumors.

CRAP gone is the actioner in comes the pretentious b*llsh*t, With QoS they began this process and it must get worse and really bad at the boxoffice before they will quit monkeying around.

Don't really believe it.

Where have they got this from? MI6? CBN?

Yeah, or anywhere on the net.

Wouldn't surprise me.

Toss in a plot involving homosexuality, Bond ending hunger in Africa, and sympathy toward Al-Qued--er, "The Arab Spring", and Mendes might be on his way to another Oscar nomination.

Bond and Oscar is never something I really put together.

As it's the Express I'm surprised they don't wedge a mention of Lady Diana in there...take with a pinch of salt. Certainly if the film is concieved with such pretentions it will be a sad day for Bond.

so maybe they will have a lesbian scene too to make it politically correct with the times

j7wild wrote:

so maybe they will have a lesbian scene too to make it politically correct with the times

We can only hope, j7.

j7wild wrote:

so maybe they will have a lesbian scene too to make it politically correct with the times

If it wants to be "politically correct" it would have a man-on-man love scene. Having a lesbian love scene is now viewed mostly as being a bone(r) thrown to the straight, male audience, and anything that appeals to a straight, male, white audience must be "corrected", because we can't go out making movies that appeal to straight, male audiences that reinforce their heterosexuality, or that celebrate being a man.

Mr. Brown wrote:

Wouldn't surprise me.

Toss in a plot involving homosexuality, Bond ending hunger in Africa, and sympathy toward Al-Qued--er, "The Arab Spring", and Mendes might be on his way to another Oscar nomination.

Well, if they take out the action scenes (i.e. the killings) then it might well be on its way to a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. If they take out Bond saving the world and show MI6 and the West losing then it will certainly win a Carter Center Award.

Mr. Brown wrote:

j7wild wrote:

so maybe they will have a lesbian scene too to make it politically correct with the times

We can only hope, j7.

M and Moneypenny are married now. An inter-racial, inter-generational lesbian couple. The Oscars will go wild and Babs will have her dreams come true.

"What would I ever do without you, Moneypenny."

We should write a parody script incorporating ideas like this.

In all honesty, cutting action scenesin favour of non-action scenes is what made Bond initally great to me. Made it more stylish.

Of course, this all depends if the action scenes are now jettisoned for moments of style, or moments of psychology.

colly wrote:

In all honesty, cutting action scenesin favour of non-action scenes is what made Bond initally great to me. Made it more stylish.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. All of this talk of Bond being on a shoestring budget sounds relative to me. After the location/action overload of QoS, it looks like they're cutting down. That's good news in my book.

The Oscar bait stuff though...

colly wrote:

In all honesty, cutting action scenesin favour of non-action scenes is what made Bond initally great to me. Made it more stylish.

Of course, this all depends if the action scenes are now jettisoned for moments of style, or moments of psychology.

Well, the rumor certainly seems to fit with that latest news article about BOND-23 being filmed on a "shoe-string budget", and with action sequences being scaled back. Perhaps it's just The Express piggybacking on the previous article written by The Sun(?), but it could also be a public relations trial balloon being sent up by SONY or EON to see how it goes over with the fans. However, having just written that, I realize how ludicrous the idea of EON caring about what the core fans think, so I'm probably wrong.

I wouldn't mind less action if the in-between scenes were fantastic, but I think we've gone down that road before with TWINE, and though I loved TWINE, it seems to have been hated by fans and critics alike.

Personally, I think EON has boxed themselves in with Craig. He can't do light comedy, romance, and action like Moore or Brosnan; he seems to be channeling the spirit of Jason Bourne, and my hunch is that if EON doesn't want to do another Bourne-type film (such as CR or QOS), then they're probably having a tough time figuring out how to use Craig moving forward. I just don't see a Xenia, Odd Job, or Jaws type villain, or a Moonraker/DAD-type plot, ending up in a Craig Bond film, and I think Barbara has too much invested in trying to make the series a respectable film franchise vying for acting awards to pull out now. Babs is "all in", so to speak, on recruiting Oscar nominated actors, actresses, and directors to perform in her 007 films, and she can't turn back.

Maybe the Morgan shocker in this one is Bond discovering he has a Son, who is autistic and has recently been diagnosed with AIDS forcing him to leave the service and become a full time dad, a change of lifestyle that leads to trauma and depression, a downward spiral that is so profoud he grows a beard and never leaves his home (a council flat in Manchester)?

what exactly is a shoe string budget?

do y'all know that an average budget (not low budget and not high budget) film now costs $100 million dollar to make?

and thinking back, when The Living Daylights came out in 1987, it was the most expensive Bond films ever produced at $40 million

As I said, I think they mean in contrast to QoS, which was $230. Apparently Bond 23 will be around $130. Compared to most blockbusters today, that's a pretty tight budget.

I wouldn't mind cutting back on action scenes... As long as they're replaced by drinking, smoking, gambling, fine dining, and rooting.

6of1 wrote:

Where have they got this from? MI6? CBN?

The website of The Express newspaper in the U.K.

Suits me.

Make the Oscar-bait, win some Oscars, Babs will have it out of her system, and we can resume normal service for the next film.

CJB wrote:

I wouldn't mind cutting back on action scenes... As long as they're replaced by drinking, smoking, gambling, fine dining, and rooting.

And lots of sex.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

CJB wrote:

I wouldn't mind cutting back on action scenes... As long as they're replaced by drinking, smoking, gambling, fine dining, and rooting.

And lots of sex.

Rooting is Australian for sex. ;)