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I'm still open minded about this.
Maybe this time round the approach could be very different. We are in a very different era to how films were made before Covid, and Amazon are now involved too, etc.
You still don't think a script could already be in place (there must be several different variations that lie in EON's lockers from over the years that could have been dusted down)?
You don't think someone as big as Nolan could be already onboard, but as he is such a big name there are only a selected few that know about this for certain? Securing him would be a very different prospect to (no offence) a Spottiswoode, or a Campbell, and probably working to a tight deadline too.
If nothing else, it has brought the world of Bond forefront to the entertainment news again, so it may give EON a kick up the ass to start working again, with added pressure put on from Amazon now, who knows...
Yeah, why do things take so long for Eon now in terms of Bond? Are they producing other things?
Bingo. And one of the reasons I don't dismiss this ATJ rumour is that if you add up this ATJ rumour and the Nolan rumours, it's all staring to make sense! Peter is right when he says that they won't pick an actor without having a director first. And yes, announcing the director is usually one of the early developments. Unless maybe if they are being particularly secretive. And very few filmmakers are as secretive as Nolan.
The first time anyone revealed anything about Oppenheimer was only 6 months before the filming of that movie began! Nobody knew what movie Nolan was going to make after Tenet until early September 2021 and filming began on February 28, 2022.
Furhermore, ATJ and Nolan have worked together before. And remember Nolan's reaction when the ATJ/Bond rumour was mentioned in a podcast interview with him last summer!
A possible, speculative timeline:
- summer/fall 2022: while Nolan is doing post-production on Oppenheimer, Nolan and EON begin talks about Bond 26
- later in 2022: Nolan and the Bond producers agree on some basics and Nolan tells them that ATJ is his choice to play Bond. EON say "sure but we gotta screentest him first" and they screentest him
- early 2023: Nolan and EON more or less agree on ATJ, and they agree that Nolan would turn his focus on Bond after Oppenheimer premieres in the summer
- Fall 2023: Nolan begins writing the screenplay after the end of the WGA srikes. he is probably not writing it from scratch as he likely already had a draft of a Bond script that he had been writing for years (and that he maybe already showed EON back in 2022)
- Spring 2024: Nolan's Bond 26 script is more or less finished, they finalize the casting of ATJ
- late March 2024: announcement of Nolan and ATJ imminent!
Sure, this is speculative, I did this exercise simply to present a scenario in which the Nolan and the ATJ rumours make sense and could be true.
Glad to see someone else can apply some logic here too. This could just be another BS story by The Sun, but this time round it has really caught fire. I don't remember a Bond rumour in my lifetime getting this much airing across TV and social media, unless there was some truth to it.
Just about every news channel has broadcast this now, and many entertainment shows are debating it as though ATJ has already been hired.
Either The Sun didn't predict this would ignite like it has done, or the EON marketing machine has now started, and leaking it to a popular UK Tabloid was the first step.
There’s nothing to suggest even a small portion of any of the ATJ story was true.
When the time comes, a director and script will be announced and then casting will take place.
You know, I'm not excluding this possibility
Has it? There is a report that a `production insider' has debunked this, doing the rounds, but I take that with the same pinch of salt that I took The Sun article.
They had the Gerard Butler movie but I don't know what happened.
From yesterday's Variety:
Sources close to Taylor-Johnson downplayed the report and said he has not been cast as Bond, but technically anything is possible in the future.
This has been a hoax. No, I don't think someone as big as Nolan could be kept secret, with a secret script, and with a coronation of one actor (whether ATJ or someone else).
Looking at the time line of the strikes, when did you expect this secret script to have been written and ready for Nolan to take on?
And when, in recent times, was a role as big as Bond (or Batman or Superman), just given to an actor without screentestt and a competitive audition process.
But I've been saying the same thing over and over for two days, and sources close to ATJ, when asked by VARIETY (one of the main industry publications), about this, they flat out said he hasn't been cast.
What more does one need.
But, tomorrow is Friday, and according to The Sun he will be signing any day now...
But as mentioned earlier in this thread, that means Barbara Broccoli is lying and imho there is no reason to lie. All she had to say in February was "Bond 26 is in development. More news will follow at a later date. I can't provide any more details at the moment."
She said "nothing is happening yet. Nothing."
So we have fans saying " Eon has withheld information before so it doesn't mean Bond 26 isn't in production. For example two says before Craig was announced Eon said no decision has been made on casting."
But we all know Casino Royale was in pre production before Daniel Craig was cast.
Bond 21 was announced in February 2005. That's nine months before Daniel Craig was officially announced. The Sun is stating Bond 26 is going into production soon, filming at Pinewood is planned and Aaron Taylor-Johnson is expected to sign this week. But Eon hasn't confirmed/hinted that. Broccoli said "nothing is happening yet." It's not the same scenario as Eon not confirming Craig two days before he was officially announced because fans knew Bond 21 was in production. It was fact. It's not fact Bond 26 is in any stage of production. People are just guessing it's in production based on Sun's claims. If we take recent history, Eon and Amazon will announce Bond 26, the title and director before they sign the actor. It's doubtful Craig was cast in February 2005. The casting rumours continued into the summer and autumn. Its possible Craig was cast in April but we don't know for sure.
It seems likely Bond 26 will be announced before the next actor is cast.
Thank you, will check it out.
Exactly. There’s a reason why those early pre-production announcements, release dates and details like the director and title are made too. Not only are they hard to keep secret at this point, not only are a script and director needed to start auditions, and not only do those auditions take months to film and finalise the lead, but announcing it early drums up anticipation and excitement for the new film. Every Bond film has been public about when it begins formally making the film, and every time a new Bond is picked the director and title are announced before the actor is chosen. Even DN was given some brief notes in the press in mid 1961.
I know some fans here genuinely want to see a Bond film and are excited about the idea of things potentially moving quickly, but it’s not going to happen like this. There have been no secret auditions, Christopher Nolan has not secretly signed on, nor has he been working on this film for years now, and EON are still likely in the very, very early stages of this film (and by this I mean before pre-production). When the time comes we’ll get announcements of a director, some of the writers, perhaps a title and the potential release dates (which will usually be quite a way away). But for now nothing is happening, as BB likes to say.
Although if you read interviews about it now
it sounds like they only wanted Daniel from the start, they just needed to convince the studio and most importantly Daniel himself.
But it sounds like it was Daniel's role to turn down essentially
It sort of is and it sort of isn’t. It’s a luxury spa/hotel now, about £700-800 a night. If you’re rich and famous and going on holiday in Jamaica that’s probably where’d you’d go.
It seems EON were set on Craig, even if Martin Campbell wanted Henry Cavill.
The only difference I see here is that in 2005 they had a director and script.
In 2024 thus far as far as we know we have…nothing.
She is on X (Twitter).
X · JSalke
11.6K+ followers
Jennifer Salke (@JSalke) / X
I dont know if you can follow her on X and send her a tweet asking about Bond 26. If she does reply to comments she may reply. I doubt she'd say much but if someone asked her "do you think Bond 26 will be out next year or in 2026?" ... maybe she'd reply? Probably not but you never know. 😉
James Gunn replies to fans. He's directing the new Superman film. He's the new co-CEO at DC studios. Some people in Hollywood do reply to fans.
Eon are very opaque. Even Deadline and Variety know it.
But anyway, so while I've been enjoying James' performance as well as everyone else's, especially Kaya Scodelario, and given the nature of James' character, it isn't the most ranged character in terms of performance, which in turn led to wonder... does Theo James have much range? Genuine question.
I'm aware an actor with range isn't required for the role of James Bond, but would be nice wouldn't it?
;))
At 2 mins 4 seconds...
I heard on the radio that ATJ said he didn’t want to be part of a pop culture machine when asked about Bond. This is why he acted in Marvel films. :)
It’d be funny what with all the endless speculation in the media if Everything or Nothing or should I say Nothing (what with how slow they are these days in making Bond flicks) casted someone that pretty much no one knows like with Georgie Porgie.
Thanks for posting that video @bondywondy.
Henry Cavill, Idris Elba, Regé-Jean Page are all feature film actors. All struggled to have even moderately successful films at the box office. Cavill's only success was playing Superman. Superman (the character) was the main reason people went to see Man of Steel, not Cavill.
I don't think Elba's had any box office success at all.
Regé-Jean Page was in Dungeons and Dragons and that didn't do well. I doubt there will be a D&D 2.
It's possible Kraven The Hunter may destroy Aaron Taylor-Johnson's chances of becoming Bond. There's no guarantee it will do well. Recent comic book films have flopped - Madame Web, The Flash, The Marvels, Shazam 2, Aquaman 2 made half the box office gross of Aquaman 1. The Sun never factored into its "exclusive!" that Johnson's Kraven may flop and if it does why would Eon be in any great rush to cast/sign Johnson? "Hey, here's the new Bond! Ya know, the guy that tanked in Kraven!"
Wouldn't be a great marketing strategy. 🤭
Of course the opposite could happen. Kraven makes money and Eon feel Johnson is popular enough so they sign him. But the current comic book film climate isn't good. Deadpool 3 is likely to do very well but that's an established IP. Kraven isn't.
The paradox is it might better to cast a virtual unknown with no prior box office failure. If Eon found an actor working in theatre or with limited tv or film work there are no flops on his resume. He's a blank slate and extremely cheap to hire. You could argue it's better to cast a guy with no prior leading man film roles rather than a Cavill/Elba/Johnson type. Or maybe go the compromise route and consider someone like Aidan Turner. He's a tv actor with no big film roles so no box office failure baggage.
'Damaged goods' is a little bit harsh but I think Moore, Dalton and Brosnan were "almost stars".
And you need an almost star for this role.
I dunno, someone like Robert Pattinson had a string of smaller films post-Twilight which were not financially successful at all. Even if a few of them were very interesting and he got praise for his performances in them. Didn't stop him being cast as Batman because that's the actor they wanted. And of course his performances in many of those smaller, unsuccessful films probably gave producers/the director a sense of Pattinson's potential for playing that incarnation of Batman. It could well be the same with the next Bond. EON aren't looking for actors who have starred in moderately successful films/shows, or have absolutely no prior hits or failures, but those who convey the most potential for their next Bond.
On the other hand, I'd say Rege Jean Page delivering the performance he did in Grey Man is much more detrimental, not because the film was unsuccessful, but because the performance he gave seemingly didn't connect with general audiences and from what I understand didn't receive good reviews. And of course it's a film/character not a million miles away from Bond.
If Kraven made money he'd be tied into making sequels and MGM wouldn't touch him for Bond.
You're right that the chances of that seem very slim though. As it is though, I think with the Kraven contract in place they're unlikely to consider him before Kraven is released and the outcome is revealed.
Regards,
Grandfather Bounine.