No Time To Die: Production Diary

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  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited May 2016 Posts: 15,690
    @bondjames the chances of that are highly unlikely, because Craig returning will most certainly mean Waltz coming back too, and I just don't see how they can have Craig and Waltz fight it off again without mentioning anything from SP.

    We're not even talking OHMSS situation here. We would have the same actors playing Bond and Blofeld in successive films.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited May 2016 Posts: 23,883
    I agree @DaltonCraig007. It is unlikely. Highly unlikely actually, as you say. Just not impossible.
  • CatchingBulletsCatchingBullets facebook.com/catchingbullets
    Posts: 292
    Nearly every 007 bullet ends with a goodbye wave from the current man. The continuity of Bond works best when you do not fret about the continuity (Lea Seydoux will not be in the next Bond movie any more than Britt Ekland or Michelle Yeoh were destined to come back).
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    RC7 wrote: »
    And I strongly believe that the ending of "SPECTRE" is way too...harsh and radical. By doing so -by listening to what Daniel Craig wanted- the Bond producers effectively created a problem to continue the entire Bond franchise. That is, if you are against a new reboot, like I am.

    I don't see the problem at all. If you want to continue with Craig, you can. If you want to make a clean break, you can. You simply cast a new actor and deliver a new standalone film in which the world is fresh and unrelated to those that have gone before. Bond is an agent, no rookie, no veteran, just an agent working for Her Majesty's government. Populate it with a cracking villain and give it a distinct flavour and away you go. I think you're over-thinking the continuity aspect.

    We fully, but really, we 200% disagree ;-).

    Let's say of we follow your advice, then we could also say that we are overthinking continuity. I mean, you don't utter the words 'reboot', but it sounds like you are proposing that (correct me if I'm wrong?). And then, as we are not overthinking continuity, why can't we bring back Craig one more time in a more standalone fashion.

    Reboot is a modern phenomenon and more often than not pertains to the idea of starting a story over. CR was a reboot because it dispensed with everything bar M and built a universe from the ground up. I'm not suggesting that, what I'm referring to is the idea that you can introduce a fully formed character into a new and fully formed world. People understand Bond and they understand the basics of the world he operates in. It's the specifics that define each tenure and with a new actor you would again play with those. It's possible to make a clean break from this era, without the need for continuity to have an overbearing presence.

    You could bring back Craig in a standalone film, but I don't really see why you'd necessarily do that following SP.
  • edited May 2016 Posts: 4,325
    Nearly every 007 bullet ends with a goodbye wave from the current man. The continuity of Bond works best when you do not fret about the continuity (Lea Seydoux will not be in the next Bond movie any more than Britt Ekland or Michelle Yeoh were destined to come back).

    But how great would it be if she was in the next movie - a chance to do something original in a franchise that with CR-SF looked like it was doing some interesting things only with Spectre to return to type. How dull and uninteresting.
  • Posts: 6,601
    I think they actually liszened to people who wanted a traditional Bond. And that was the case, if yoz remember.
  • edited May 2016 Posts: 4,325
    Germanlady wrote: »
    I think they actually liszened to people who wanted a traditional Bond. And that was the case, if yoz remember.

    Yes, I know, didn't say anything to the contrary.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited May 2016 Posts: 23,883
    The thing about Craig is this - if you ask an average Joe (those who don't obsess about this 24/7) on the street about DC, I'm pretty sure they would have heard through the media exaggerations that he is tired of the role, and more recently that he potentially turned down a lot of money to do back to back films. They may also (depending on which market they are in) have heard that SP wasn't all that, and a bit of a let down. Moreover, they've probably heard the speculation about his possible successors, including media bait Elba etc.

    So what is the assumption from Joe Public? More likely than not that we will get a new actor for the next film.

    One almost couldn't have set this stuff up better in terms of expectations management, if the idea was for DC to leave post-SP.
  • Posts: 6,601
    Right, hence it would seem off, if he returned. Plus with all that has happened and what people believe sadly, whatever he will do, will only bring more negative press.

    if he stays, it will be: Oh so they paid him 100 mill. What a jerk.

    If he leaves, it will be : Oh he disliked the role so much, no amount money brought him back.

    he cant and wont win, but I prefer him out of further lines of fire.
  • Posts: 1,631
    RC7 wrote: »
    You could bring back Craig in a standalone film, but I don't really see why you'd necessarily do that following SP.

    I don't see any reason why they couldn't bring Craig back for a standalone film. Before they went into full-on retcon mode with the last film, that's what they did with Skyfall following Quantum of Solace.

    If QoS could be deemed inferior enough by EON to ignore it in the follow-up, then certainly Spectre could be ignored as well.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Make it a prequel to SF, bring back Dame Judi . Have a dream sequence where all
    the former Bonds give advice. ;)
  • Posts: 1,965
    IMO if Craig comes back you have to countinue with Blofeld and madeline
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Madeline can easily be written out.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,478
    Introducing Blofeld/Spectre in Craig's fourth film and trying to give Bond someone else he "loves" so soon after Vesper were poorly timed ideas.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    doubleoego wrote: »
    Madeline can easily be written out.

    I agree. She can also be easily written in. It's all going to depend on EON and their choice of director.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Agreed, they tried to cram too much story in to one film.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    Because, like @bondjames, I do believe Spectre originally started life as that rumour for a two-parter Bond story. I mean, some of the officials I remember insisted on it, yet Eon denied it. It was the plot of two films compressed into one, which is where the problems lied in. We haven't been told the real story behind it, but I suspect it was Logan's two-film outline that eventually formed the synopsis of Spectre.
  • 00Agent00Agent Any man who drinks Dom Perignon '52 can't be all bad.
    Posts: 5,185
    Agreed, they tried to cram too much story in to one film.

    maybe, i always thought it was too short. I felt like they were trying to make a 3 hour epic, or a two parter. but i understand that it is very hard to sell a 3 hour movie nowadays. I think they cut so much of it out (especially the Bro-feld connection) that it made less sense overall in the end.
    i would not mind seeing a 3 hour movie, especially if it's a bond movie and a good one of course
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    There is a very obvious ( in my mind at least ) change in tone to SP, after the
    Scenes in Austria. Leading me to agree with @ClarkDevlin about the two movie
    Idea, and with @00Agent that it felt too short, the ending seemed rushed.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,690
    I'd like to see a 3 hour Bond movie with an extended climax of Bond leading an army on the enemy base, similar to TSWLM'S but maybe 30 minutes in length. Mix some stealth as Bond approaches the base with full-on battle once the base is invaded.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,478
    I'd be very happy to get another big battle sequence like that again. It's been way too long.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    It's been a long time since we've seen Bond lead an assault.
  • 00Agent00Agent Any man who drinks Dom Perignon '52 can't be all bad.
    edited May 2016 Posts: 5,185
    I'd like to see a 3 hour Bond movie with an extended climax of Bond leading an army on the enemy base, similar to TSWLM'S but maybe 30 minutes in length. Mix some stealth as Bond approaches the base with full-on battle once the base is invaded.

    \m/

    That was one of the big missed oportunities in Spectre, and on the top of my list for things i wanna see in Bond 25 if craig comes back
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,690
    Especially with a 3 hour runtime the big battle sequence between armies could be a lot longer, maybe twice as long as TSWLM'S Liparus fight.
  • Posts: 1,631
    I wouldn't mind seeing that, but I shudder to think about how much such a sequence would balloon the budget. They managed to spend between $250-300 million on a film with a finale that features Bond running around an empty building for a good portion of it.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    :)) True, but the cost of property in London is extremely high. ;)
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,478
    If they can spend close to $40 million just on destroying vehicles (which they did in SP), then they can fit in a proper, epic, large-scale battle sequence. At least then, the money and effects are on the screen and we get a sequence worthy of a budget (though you can do something akin to what we got in YOLT and TSWLM for a lot less than $40 million.)
  • Posts: 1,631
    They can probably get it under budget by foregoing the photocopied pictures of past nemeses on the wall. Printer ink is awfully expensive, after all.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    I don't think I'd want a three-hour Bond film. That'll just make it Oscar-worthy flick. Just give me a typical Bond adventure under 2:30 hours at most, but with a twist.
  • jake24jake24 Sitting at your desk, kissing your lover, eating supper with your familyModerator
    Posts: 10,588
    Here's a treatment I wrote for Bond 25, which takes some influence from the YOLT novel. Bare with me, it's rough and probably riddled with plot holes:


    Taking place nearly a year following the events of Spectre, the film opens as we see the traditional gunbarrel sequence more akin to Binder's design. Here we see a brief, Bond-less pre-titles sequence where an unknown assailant behind the scenes manages to break a disheveled Blofeld and several other key members of SPECTRE out of Belmarsh Prison. A shadowy figure murders each prison guard one by one. Blofeld's cell opens.

    Another title sequence by Daniel Kleinman.

    What follows is an exterior shot of a secluded paradise (someone mentioned GoldenEye resort), and we see Bond for the first time, bored out of his mind, back in a stage of depression and addiction. Madeleine has trouble seeing her lover in this state and sympathises with him, though over time, after bottling up her emotions, expresses her displeasement with him. They agree, mutually (at least Bond made it seem), that they cannot be together. Madeleine leaves him, and that is the last we see of her. In actuality, Bond is heartbroken, being left with nothing. No lover, no job, nothing to preoccupy him. He knows now that the only place for him is in the field. He agrees to return to the service after hearing of Blofeld's escape. Bond is re-immersed into the world of a spy, and very quickly adapts to his former life of which he had become accustomed to.

    M informs Bond that Blofeld has formed a new SPECTRE organization (having been defunct after it's leader was imprisoned) with its few surviving members as well as new recruitments including henchwomen Irma Bunt (Tilda Swinton), with whom Blofeld is in a relationship with. Blofeld is played as more of a loose cannon in this film, seeming like he could snap at any moment. When he does, it's undeniably terrifying and unsettling. A growing number of suicides within secret agents is deeply concerning Mallory. MI6 receives a tip of Blofeld's location, and Bond is given his mission - to track down and eliminate his arch enemy by any means necessary. After flirting with Moneypenny, he receives his briefing from Q and a beautiful, gadget-less Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato (Q recognized Bond's lack of responsibility the last time around).

    Aston_Martin_Vanquish_Zagato_Concept_01.0.jpg
    Bond begins his journey in Cardiff, Wales, where Blofeld holds his first board meeting following SPECTRE's reconstruction. The scene takes place at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay (the location for the Welsh National Assembly, a very Ken Adam-esque place). Bond infiltrates the meeting, where it is revealed that SPECTRE was behind the suicides. SPECTRE bribed the head of the World Health Organization with a large sum of money, who in return, would grant SPECTRE permission to manufacture a pharmaceutical drug for field agents to use as a coping mechanism for PTSD. A chemical ingredient in the drug caused the many active agents that utilized it to have suicidal thoughts and eventually to commit suicide. Blofeld spots Bond and a shootout takes place between him, Bunt, and a few of Blofeld's mercenaries. Bond confronts Blofeld face to face and for this brief moment, Bond was brought back to the moment on Westminster Bridge where he opted against killing Blofeld for the sake of a life without espionage. Now that he'd learned his lesson and knew that this type of life wasn't suited for him, Bond wanted nothing more than to eliminate the one man responsible for everything that went wrong in his life. He points his Walther towards Blofeld, begins squeezing the trigger, when, very suddenly, Irma knocks the gun out of his hand. She and Blofeld manage to escape. Bond takes chase with his Aston. He dispatches of several mercenaries but looses sight of the two most important culprits.

    cardiff-bay.jpg
    Bond informs M that Blofeld was the puppeteer behind the suicides, who is currently at an enquiry centred around the stabilization of Britain's national security, a meeting in the presence of both MI6 and MI5 leaders. Suddenly, a bomb goes off and kills the head of MI5. M is spared, and the event quickly becomes a global concern. Now, the world restores their faith in MI6 to prevent future global terror. M is ordered by the British government to stay in London and out of the field as well as triple the size of MI6's security staff, as they are not keen on loosing any more valuable intelligence figures.

    Meanwhile, we see an intense exchange between Blofeld and Irma, who is revealed to be the one who broke him out of prison. He is completely fed up with Bond interfering with his plans, and asks her to track him down and kill him as her sole mission. At the same time, Blofeld goes into hiding. He knows what Bond is capable of.

    Bond is given a contact in Athens, Greece, named Tanya. Upon meeting her, Bond develops a close physical attraction towards her. This is to his surprise, as he didn't expect to have feelings for a women so soon after Madeleine left him. At first, Bond attempts to stay platonic, but In flagrant disregard of the untimely demises of all his past lovers, he opts to sleep with her. The following day, Bond receives a tip - a former SPECTRE operative that had gone rogue and is willing to give MI6 any information they need in exchange for full protection against Blofeld. Bond contacts the man and agrees to meet him at a luxurious casino off the coast of Athens. Before Bond can receive any information, Irma appears at the Casino and kills the lead. Bond and Tanya steel separate motorcycles and begin to escape with Bunt closely following. Bond kills several SPECTRE mercenaries but loses sight of Tanya. The chase progresses through the Acropolis and eventually leads to a dead end cliff. Bond pulls up to see Bunt taking Tanya hostage, threatening to shoot her unless he gave up his search for Blofeld. Bond disagrees and shoots Bunt in the shoulder. Wounded but not killed, she murders Tanya. Bond sprints towards her and hits her on the head with his gun. He interrogates Bunt on the spot, who reveals that she along with SPECTRE were responsible for the bomb, meant to kill M, which in turn would leave British intelligence in shambles and allow the organization to continue to create global terror and operate with ease. Refusing to give Bond any information as to Blofeld's location, he throws Bunt off the cliff, killing her. Bond is disgusted with himself and feels guilt having lead another innocent women to death. But regret is unprofessional. As Blofeld learns of the death of his lover, he begins to use everything at his disposal to finally succeed in the demise of Bond, something which he had been trying to do for a long time.

    acropolis-athens.jpg
    Back in London, not even the combined assistance from Q, Moneypenny, or Tanner will help M find a lead on Blofeld's location. He decides to enlist the CIA to aid in the tracking and elimination of the man once known as Franz Oberhauser. The CIA sends in their most skilled agent and one of Bond's closest allies - Felix Leiter.

    At Blades, Bond and Felix share a chat centred around several tactics and methods they plan to use to capture and kill Blofeld. Unexpectedly, the two are kidnapped and taken on board a helicopter to Japan. More specifically, Blofeld's villa in the Garden of Death. Both are knocked out. A tied up Bond awakes to see Blofeld standing over him. It sickened Blofeld to think that this one man had thwarted his plan for yet another instance. And he isn't going to let it happen again, so he made sure that Bond was lacking in any form of gadget that could free him of the situation he was about to experience. After the death of his lover, Blofeld exacts his revenge on Bond. First, to kill his friend, second, to kill him. Ernst had discovered a new torture method - Chinese water torture. Driving his victim insane by restricting them of movement while dropping a spec of water onto the same spot of their forehead one drop at a time. Not being able to move, Bond has no choice but to watch this psychotic individual inflict severe psychological distress on Leiter. Watching his friend being tortured without being able to stop it made Bond deeply disturbed. All he could do was scream.

    After many long minutes of torturing Leiter, Blofeld severs his neck, killing him. Bond is then forced onto the chair so Blofeld can repeat the same exercise on him. He thought it would be better, however, for Bond to die a much more gruesome death. He sets off a timer and an explosion is expected to blow in 10 minutes. As Blofeld and his men begin to escape the villa, Bond's adrenaline kicks in. Using every muscle in his body, Bond breaks free of one arm and uses it to untie the other. He grabs his Walther, kicks open the entrance to the corridor and shoots every henchmen it his path. A foot chase ensues that ends with Bond catching up to Blofeld, and the two engage in a lengthy one on one fist fight. Bond uses one hand to choke Blofeld and the other to break a chain off the wall. He begins to strangle Blofeld until his last breath. Bond kills him, knowing that the one man responsible for the death of Vesper, M, Felix, and Hannes, was now dead. He let out an exhale, and began to escape the garden as the clock ticks. Spotting a balloon, Bond climbs aboard and escapes within seconds of the explosion. However, shrapnel and falling debris from the villa rips a hole into the balloon, causing him to plummet to the ocean. We are left not knowing whether or not Bond survives the impact.


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