Keep the office set!

Aziz_FekkeshAziz_Fekkesh Royale-les-Eaux
edited February 2013 in Bond 26 & Beyond Posts: 403
This was one of my favorite parts of SF and I really do hope that they bring it back again. Gassner's revamped and modernized set was brilliant.

Comments

  • edited February 2013 Posts: 12,837
    Revamped and modernised? Seemed the same as the old Bernard Lee/Robert Brown one last time I watched it.

    But I doubt they'd have bought it back to only use it once. I'm confident it'll be in Bond 24.
  • Posts: 5,745
    This was one of my favorite parts of SF and I really do hope that they bring it back again. Gassner's revamped and modernized set was brilliant.

    You mean the same classic M office and Moneypenny desk, now with laptops?

    Or the underground stuff? They won't go back to the underground.
  • brinkeguthriebrinkeguthrie Piz Gloria
    Posts: 1,400
    they won't go back to the underground? So for B24, they're back to the usual (and real) V.C. location? If so, the classic M office (wherever it was in Skyfall) is history.
  • It's obvious to me that the M office at the end of Skyfall will be the one which will be used going forward and is a deliberate nod to the classic Bernard Lee era. I think a return to a more classic style where old meets new is a clever move which will appeal.
  • edited February 2013 Posts: 3,333
    The underground bunker and Mallory's office are two separate locations. M's office clearly has large windows so I'm confused as to how anyone could think that it was part of the underground set?

    I fully expect to see the continuation of the relocated 00-Section Chief's HQ in Bond 24. In other words the Ken Adam set.
  • Posts: 14,822
    It was pretty obvious to me that they returned to the Ken Adam set for good, except that they are now in MI6 headquarters.
  • saunderssaunders Living in a world of avarice and deceit
    Posts: 987
    From the Bond/Moneypenny rooftop scene prior to the Mallory's M office I think it's clear that the British Secret service HQ is back in Whitehall as it had been located in the Lazenby, Moore and Dalton films (and probably Connery's considering the Thunderball briefing room windows).
    I am so pleased to see the traditional M's office set back, and look forward to Fiennes and Craig recreating some of the classic Lee/Connery tense scenes. It really feels as if the franchise has finally cast off the last of the 90's Brosnan hang ups and is ready to return to a more classic style of Bond film.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,350
    Quite. People wanted Purvis, Wade, Dench and Arnold gone and now you have it. I'm looking forward to the future now.
  • edited February 2013 Posts: 14,822
    saunders wrote:
    From the Bond/Moneypenny rooftop scene prior to the Mallory's M office I think it's clear that the British Secret service HQ is back in Whitehall as it had been located in the Lazenby, Moore and Dalton films (and probably Connery's considering the Thunderball briefing room windows).
    I am so pleased to see the traditional M's office set back, and look forward to Fiennes and Craig recreating some of the classic Lee/Connery tense scenes. It really feels as if the franchise has finally cast off the last of the 90's Brosnan hang ups and is ready to return to a more classic style of Bond film.

    Not sure it is back in Whitehall, after all there is now an official MI6 headquarter which anyone knows and can see from the outside in London. I thought the explosion was also an excuse to refurbish M's office to look like the old Whitehall place.

    And beside, I have read somewhere that C's real MI6 office is very much old fashioned looking.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    Well SF seems to suggest Whitehall. They leave the roof and head indoors. Who knows, Bond's continuity is always skewed film to film, but it suggests Whitehall.
  • Posts: 14,822
    RC7 wrote:
    Well SF seems to suggest Whitehall. They leave the roof and head indoors. Who knows, Bond's continuity is always skewed film to film, but it suggests Whitehall.

    I need to watch it again. I always thought they were still in MI6 headquarters, only the inside was changed re(tro)vamped to look like the old set.
  • Aziz_FekkeshAziz_Fekkesh Royale-les-Eaux
    Posts: 403
    See, I don't really think it's obvious that they'll keep the set (and yes, I was referring to the Lee-era one). The series is not known for continuity outside of a few occasions (notice how Dench's M seems to have a new house every time in CR, QoS, and SF) and the office set is just so good.
  • Posts: 5,745
    Ludovico wrote:
    RC7 wrote:
    Well SF seems to suggest Whitehall. They leave the roof and head indoors. Who knows, Bond's continuity is always skewed film to film, but it suggests Whitehall.

    I need to watch it again. I always thought they were still in MI6 headquarters, only the inside was changed re(tro)vamped to look like the old set.

    Well wasn't Bond on a rooftop in Whitehall when Eve walked up and handed him M's gift, then they went downstairs to Mallory's office? So then it's back in Whitehall. Easy.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    JWESTBROOK wrote:
    Ludovico wrote:
    RC7 wrote:
    Well SF seems to suggest Whitehall. They leave the roof and head indoors. Who knows, Bond's continuity is always skewed film to film, but it suggests Whitehall.

    I need to watch it again. I always thought they were still in MI6 headquarters, only the inside was changed re(tro)vamped to look like the old set.

    Well wasn't Bond on a rooftop in Whitehall when Eve walked up and handed him M's gift, then they went downstairs to Mallory's office? So then it's back in Whitehall. Easy.

    Correct.
  • Aziz_FekkeshAziz_Fekkesh Royale-les-Eaux
    Posts: 403
    Perhaps I should have led with this: what is Whitehall?
  • Posts: 421
    It's an area in central London near Parliament with several large government buildings where Bond is seen running through the streets before the enquiry shootout, and where many of the pre-1995 Bond film HQ's were set.

    I'm not sure exactly what they'll return to. I always got the impression that the underground was (a) temporary and (b) was compromised by Silva anyway. I think (especially if Mendes returns) that we'll probably get the wood-panelled, padded door set back - with the items such as laptops, screens, phones etc etc integrated, à la Skyfall
  • Posts: 37
    I actually hope they won't keep the office set. Although nice as a gimmick for the introduction of the new M and Moneypenny in Skyfall, it seems odd to me that MI6 would pretend to live in the 60s while everything else has changed.

    Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing it, but I don't necessarily want to see it in the next 5 movies as well - it wouldn't add much!
  • Posts: 421
    Lets not forget, with the exception of the real SIS, most government departments are based in the old buildings around Whitehall and Ministers probably have old offices like that. I mean, look at the Foreign Secretary's office:

    8047491942_1cda673cfa.jpg

    And I wouldn't say that they're pretending to live in the 1960's, just because their office dates from the 17-1800's.
  • In fairness its fantastic we got a replica of the same set from 1962, but M's office in the PB days was a similar modern redesign of the classic Bernard Lee set.
  • Taffin wrote:
    I actually hope they won't keep the office set. Although nice as a gimmick for the introduction of the new M and Moneypenny in Skyfall, it seems odd to me that MI6 would pretend to live in the 60s while everything else has changed.

    Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing it, but I don't necessarily want to see it in the next 5 movies as well - it wouldn't add much!

    I don't get that at all. My financial advisor, who is 28 and VERY modern, has an office that looks very similar to M's. I don't think that he's pretending to live in the 60s, that just a professional, and warm and inviting, style.

  • JamesCraigJamesCraig Ancient Rome
    Posts: 3,497
    Why shouldn't they keep the office set?

    We get the "classic" Bond "ready to go" and now someone gets worked up about the classic office. It's not entirely the same, it has a picture of MI6 HQ behind M's desk.
  • Posts: 12,506
    I would love to see the classic set stay for sure!
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,350
    Taffin wrote:
    I actually hope they won't keep the office set. Although nice as a gimmick for the introduction of the new M and Moneypenny in Skyfall, it seems odd to me that MI6 would pretend to live in the 60s while everything else has changed.

    Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing it, but I don't necessarily want to see it in the next 5 movies as well - it wouldn't add much!

    MI6 and Bond should always stay as they are, in the 60's. The world changes. That's how you blend old and new together.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    Samuel001 wrote:
    MI6 and Bond should always stay as they are, in the 60's.

    Did you mean to write this?
  • edited February 2013 Posts: 11,425
    It always annoyed me that just because MI6 became 'official' and moved into new digs just around the time GE came out that they felt the need to use the 'real' MI6 building and get rid of M's old office. This pointless 'up-dating' of iconic Bond elements is one of the things that made the Brosnan era so dull for me. It was never the same seeing Bond getting his briefing from M in some bland 90s corporate office.

    Not only this, but I hate Terry Farrell's disgusting Vauxhall Cross building. It wasn't even designed for MI6. It is a speculative office building that happens to look like a Fascist secret police HQ.

    The film Bond's MI6 belongs (IMO) in some undefined location in Whitehall. For me, the final scene of SF was the best of the entire film. I was left, as I have been on a number of occassions now during the DC era, hoping that the next film is going to really nail it.
  • DCisaredDCisared Liverpool
    Posts: 1,329
    Taffin wrote:
    I actually hope they won't keep the office set. Although nice as a gimmick for the introduction of the new M and Moneypenny in Skyfall, it seems odd to me that MI6 would pretend to live in the 60s while everything else has changed.

    Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing it, but I don't necessarily want to see it in the next 5 movies as well - it wouldn't add much!

    I don't get that at all. My financial advisor, who is 28 and VERY modern, has an office that looks very similar to M's. I don't think that he's pretending to live in the 60s, that just a professional, and warm and inviting, style.

    I have a financial advisor , it's the latest thing from lady branch, it's called a girlfriend (cue bond theme) .
  • DCisaredDCisared Liverpool
    edited February 2013 Posts: 1,329
    Anyway keep the skyfall office.
    Sorry about the double post.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited February 2013 Posts: 13,350
    RC7 wrote:
    Samuel001 wrote:
    MI6 and Bond should always stay as they are, in the 60's.

    Did you mean to write this?

    Yes.

    As written in the novels and seen in the first films, Bond's world - MI6 should stay as it is, as should his character, though I'm sure you know that's what I meant.
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