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When any director boards a project, they will help develop or continue developing the story according to their vision. Not just for Bond.
Sure (although I can see some broad ideas, tones, or themes from the Craig era being carried over, but that's not unusual and a Bond movie like that can still stand on its own two feet). But they don't have to make what they see as just a generic Bond film either. If anything I think that sense of disappointment in terms of audience reaction wouldn't be beneficial.
After what I would call five tragic films, in terms of content themes, I really hope they don't go for a woman dying to motivate Bond or as a consequence of Bond again for at least one film. Let's try to have fun?
I think they can and should do something different, but it’s difficult to imagine completely stripping Bond from some of the more ‘mature’ stuff the franchise proved it could do under EON. It’d be a shame to lose that edge and create something weak under the guise of ‘having fun’ at the expense of genuine thrills, spectacle, and creativity. One of Amazon’s challenges will be proving they can craft the best Bond film they can and are worthy of taking that mantle. They have to create something exciting and thrilling - they need to tell a great Bond story. Simply giving us a ‘fun’ little Bond film won’t be good enough.
I think I'm asking for Casino Royale, minus Vesper, but I don't know what you'd replace her with? Blofeld somehow? I mean in terms of tone and action. Very inventive screen action paired with nice drama and tense poker scenes. If they can do something like that again, I think everybody will be happy. Perhaps just something fresh would be fun enough, I don't mean it has to be kiddy or slapstick.
I tend to agree. And similarly, I don't think they should try to mimic Mendes. Or Marvel.
Producing Bond 26 is going to be a daunting task.
This certainly wouldn't hurt @LucknFate Maybe @007HallY meant something along those lines as well. But funnily, since Amazon paid that much, don't we think they might be looking to emulate or best the only billion dollar Bond film? Which is SF. Not saying they should. Just a thought. But personally, I want something in the mold of TLD/GE, but a similar or better style of SF, wouldn't hurt.
I’d say the best thing they can do is make the best Bond film they can. I don’t think they should obsess over being different to the Craig films as such, but neither should they copy them without making it their own (even Fleming had Bond falling love more and the women dying more than once. Even Horowitz did it).
What they’ll do I don't know in practice. But it should be exciting and a gripping story with spectacle (stunts etc).
They bought this IP because they feel they can produce audience friendly movies that will make buckets load of cash, worldwide.
And like any good producers, they, and their team, will knock their heads together and make a list in their writers/boardroom of what makes James Bond, James Bond, and; the general elements of what historically has made the best Bond films resonate with the public.
On top of that, they'll also look at contemporary films and streaming in the genre that people watch, and have been successful.
After that, they'll have a more crystalized vision of what they want to bring to today's (tomorrow's) audiences.
They'll hire the best writers to put that vision in story form.
The best director to shoot the hell out of the vision.
The best man available that will tick as many boxes as possible.
Then they'll take all of this and try and make the best picture they can.
But once any producers try and emulate or re-create what's come before, they usually fail and make a watered-down version of the original. I think a trap like this is very much in the minds of Pascal and Heyman.
They don't want to try and make an EoN Bond film. They want to continue a recognizable brand, yes, but with their own unique vision (or what was the point in taking the job?). Just as you can't have another Connery or Lazenby or Moore or Dalton or Brosnan or Craig, on a larger scale, there will never be another EoN like Bond picture because what they put into their films was their creative DNA and it can't simply be replicated.
Amazon, and their producers, will keep a recognizable brand (hopefully), but will pour their own creative DNA into it, and it will feel, and should feel, a little different than what's come before (but the same, as the film industry likes to say).
People say making a Bond picture isn't rocket science.
It's not brain surgery either.
Or manufacturing a new line of original cars...
But there are plenty of traps this venture could fall into.
And it most definitely is, as @echo said, a daunting task.
I still think that adapting novels is the best way to stay fresh and not fall into pastiche.
One of the original producers continued to evolve after his partner and he parted ways.
He brought up a new generation, under his guidance and the creative DNA continued to evolve under his watchful eye until the end of his life.
No, @DEKE_RIVERS , the creative DNA just changed hands to a wholly new set of creatives with the only connection being one of the producers worked alongside the old guard where she oversaw the release and distribution of three of the last five films.
@DEKE_RIVERS , I think you only post to be contrarian. I hope you enjoy mainly writing to oppose others.
Most of the time I have absolutely no understanding what you’re trying to articulate.
But you keep being you, bud 👍🏻!
I'm not saying anything that people can't see with their own eyes.
That’s ok Deke. I’m in Deketown again, where nothing and everything makes sense. It’s not rocket science, after all.
With humor.
But who knows if these producers have the same reverence for Fleming or feel his material has been mined, maybe they just want to put their own stamp on it or purely use the films as reference points? Certainly there are a lot more questions in the air for this next Bond film than perhaps there ever has been before. I just hope they retain Bond’s edge and put all the money on the screen.
(1) make the best Bond film that they can, and risk limiting their audience, or
(2) play safe and go for the lowest common denominator to maximise box office appeal and minimise alienating any potential audiences
I desperately hope that they go for (1), but Amazon are a big corporation, and big corporations usually play safe
Let’s hope they avoid taking a Woke view that Fleming is outdated, and end up with a Snow White style mess
EON made a Connery film without Connery - OHMSS, and that turned out pretty good
It was a flop.
Not a flop. Just underwhelming financially (and critically). But not a flop. And I wouldn't say OHMSS was a "Connery film without Connery" anyway.
No Bond film has been a flop Deke.
Heyman and Pascal are smart. I hope they're smart enough to leverage Fleming like EON did in times of franchise uncertainty. Nearly every time the franchise reached an inflection point, EON sewed in Fleming's tone and sweep as a way to reestablish, or recenter, the franchise's identity. OHMSS, FYEO, TLD, GE and CR all do this.
The notable exception (in my opinion) is the TSWLM. Not being able to use the source material of the same name forced EON to both reconstitute what worked before and innovate something relatively new. TSWLM took the best parts of YOLT to construct a film whose plot and motifs better matched its respective Bond, and gave us a more compelling henchman and Bond girl in Jaws and Anya. Maybe DAF fits this category too.
One ponders just how explorative and experimental some of these workshopping ideas could be. For instance, I’d entertain a pitch that keeps Bond contemporary while fashioning his world in a 50’s/60’s aesthetic. Think Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm or Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps. What if Ken Adam never stopped designing Bond’s world. In the mind’s eye of most people, the Ken Adam sets and designs and concepts are what they envision as a Bond film.
What about Bond as a political or detective thriller? That flat-foot-on-concrete-casing-the-city-streets feel isn’t too far off from novels like Live And Let Die or Diamonds Are Forever. Get David Fincher to make Bond in the vein of Klute or Three Days Of The Condor or The Long Goodbye.
Can we fashion a Bond film into a neo-noir? I mean, Moonraker’s plot of a Nazi hiding in sophisticated sight seems malleable. Doesn’t hurt that Fleming was an avid reader of Raymond Chandler.
Bond as a neo-western? Like, No Country For Old Men? Well, not exactly like that. But Bond’s appearance in The Spy Who Loved Me (novel) gives lone-ranger-riding-into-town-in-the-nick-of-time vibes. Then, there’s Scaramanga. The fastest golden gun in the West Indies. As we all know, Jack Palance, who co-starred in Shane, was the first proposed and offered choice to play The Man With The Golden Gun.
Does Bond become more erotic and sexually frank? If Cuarón or Nolan or Berger really are in consideration (or contention) then that tells us the studio may want something like before but in a way that the Broccolis were too protective to go.
By “before,” I mean the best of what made the Craig films so special. EON showed that Fleming’s Bond was adaptable. Not merely his plots but Bond as a distinct character, misogyny and all. Craig’s films had something to say about Bond. The massive success of that era shows that the Broccoli’s instincts were, on the whole, right. But the Broccolis may have been too cautious. Not in protecting their legacy, but in their narrow idea of how far the formula could bend without snapping. A chance in good faith is often rewarded. They should know. They were deservedly compensated.
We live in a world where Tony Gilroy wrote a Star Wars streaming series. I get it. A job is a job for Tony. He has to get ‘em where he can. But Andor may be the greatest piece of Star Wars media created since A New Hope (and it may be better). The caliber of (possible) directors circling this project seems to be taken too lightly or nonchalantly by many fans.
I love this idea, the best of both worlds.
And Craig is not going to save the series this time. His Bond is dead.
Well, yeah… he’s not Bond anymore and doesn’t have anything to do with this…
If we’re talking about what could be carried over from his films creatively (insofar as his films were quite varied) into a new era, that’s a different matter.
Here is the most realistic AI in 2025. AI can successfully get the mouths to match the dialogue. All of the scenes in this video are AI generated. Not real.
The technology is here to create a prequel to Dr. No. A fully created AI theatrical film would most likely face legal challenges as SAG-AFTRA and UK Equity actors would not be used, however if the majority of the film used real cast and crew, just Connery recreated, it should be okay to distribute. I can understand if fans think Sean Connery brought back to AI life is disrespectful and wrong but the possibilities with AI are incredible.
Shut up! What a terribly stupid and vapid idea!