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Interestingly if you watch the Sound Of Bond documentary, at the very start when Billie Eilish was recording her vocals there is a music stand that has Eclipse by Hans Zimmer written on it
That's gotta be a hangover from the space plot from Boyle, right? Or would they be way beyond that by that point in filmmaking? Strange as I don't see how "Eclipse" works with the NTTD we got.
No. 2027 is fairly safe.
Ever the optimist!
I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum: I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't announce an actor before the release of Dune 3. Or at least only shortly before.
I want to also go ahead and speculate that they'll likely use Francine Maisler as casting director. She worked with Pattinson on Mickey 17 and with Josh O'Connor on Challengers recently. That could also open the door for Chiwetel Ejiofor to get another shot at a Bond role.
Maisler has cast all of Villeneuve’s films since Sicario, so at this point I’d be a little surprised if she wasn’t involved with this film.
I reckon there’s also a decent chance Lucy Bevan or Nina Gold, who are both among the big casting directors for British-based productions at the moment (and have both worked with Heyman and Pascal lately), might also be involved with casting.
She is pretty quiet online and on socials, but she does have a casting call Instagram that last posted about a Snoop Dog biopic, looking for her Snoop. I'll keep an eye on it for any "looking for young athletic military type" roles that pop up ;)
Imagine if Villeneuve shot real locations in India or Thailand or wherever with the same epic scale and scope and reverence that he brought to Dune or Blade Runner. I would love to see the Holi festival (Festival of Colours, Love and Spring) in India as the backdrop to a Villeneuve-directed action set piece.
The second thing I thought about was how Bond 26 could show audiences something they’ve never seen in a Bond film. I wonder whether anyone on the production has floated the idea of shooting in an active war zone like Ukraine, or filming in a place like Iran, or even North Korea. It’ll probably never happen, but what if? Ukraine stands out to me for reasons obvious to any Bond fan.
Most fans consider Dalton’s third unmade Bond film as one of the franchises great “what ifs” but I think not shooting “License To Kill” in China in 1988 is the greater missed opportunity. We may have gotten Dalton’s third film had LTK followed the original plan/script. I want Bond 26 to push the envelope in this way.
There’s a 1987 movie called Walker, starring Ed Harris, that filmed in Nicaragua during the Contra war.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_(film)
I appreciate your criticism because it’s an idea. I don’t know if it’s good or bad but it’s compelling to consider. That’s all.
"Walker" bombed, because few people want to be beaten over the head with an unsubtle political message
Political commentary on current affairs is not what James Bond movies are about
That's why they replaced SMERSH with SPECTRE, to avoid potential political controversy
Khruschev shoe banging at the UN, 1960
Bay of Pigs attempted invasion, 1961
Berlin Wall building and confrontation, 1961
DN, 6 October 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis, 16-28 October1962
FRWL, 1963
If that were true then no film with any commentary or messaging would do well at the box office. But we know that’s not true. Apocalypse Now, for example, is a film adapted from a novel about the horrors of colonialism that comments on the horrors of imperialism using the Vietnam War as a backdrop. War films have been popular since All Quiet On The Western Front won Best Picture.
How many WWII films were made while WWII was actually happening?! How many films were made about the Cold War while the Cold War was raging?
Political commentary on current affairs isn’t what Bond films have been about but that doesn’t mean they can’t and it doesn’t mean that they can’t do it well.
Google how many people have died performing stunts in film. Yes, it’s make-believe, but most art is. I’d say that make-believe is taken pretty seriously when studios are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make it.
Come on! Stunt work is different than voluntarily placing your fantasy in an active real world war zone. Please! How is that even relevant to what was pitched above?
But that's not what I said
I said "beat you over the head with an unsubtle political message"?
I did not disparage War movies or Political movies as a genre
Their success will depend on the same set of elements as any other movie, script, directing, acting etc and probably include a degree of "subtley"
When you choose to go along to "Apocalypse Now" or "The Killing Fields" etc you know what you are getting into.
If a Bond movie suddenly dished up overt and specific political messaging of the type you are suggesting, most of the audience would be turned off and wouldn't go to see it, because a political lecture is not what an audience is looking for from a Bond movie.
Different circumstances. When a country directly involved in a war is making a movie, then there is national interest, if not survival, at stake, and there will inevitably be a propaganda agenda. The audience is anxious and wants to be encouraged and reassured that their cause is just and that they will come out on top, it's basic human nature.
Hence there will always a number of movies that come out showing war in a more positive light when America is getting involved in one, or a spat of space movies when America decides it's time to go back into space etc
Wars involving other people, not so much.
The period I sited was a brief one where many feared the Cold War was about become WW3
Have a look for yourself, I think you'll find that few were made in the period I specified and those that were tried to avoid being too provocative to the Russians.
Pressure eased again after Khruschev was deposed in 1964, but Bond emerged right in the thick of it.
Good luck with that, I don't think you'll find many who want to see it happen
File under "controverial opinions about JB"
Not saying we should see Bond going to Ukraine or Gaza, nor should the film necessarily tackle those things specifically. Ultimately what the film wants to say and how it’ll say it is up to the filmmakers. But something about our current times will be in there, even subtly. Even just thinking about a villain’s caper you’re getting into that territory (ie. what’s a threat that’ll ring true today).
That’s interesting. It depends on the villain I suppose. Someone like Hugo Drax is initially presented as a baddie with a bag of cash, but by the end of MR we learn he’s definitely got a eugenics driven ideology. You get that weird inverse with certain Bond villains I guess.
This is the first Bond film to be written after Brexit actually happened. The first Bond film since we've had open warfare between European states again. I don't think they'll make a big deal out of the US and Trump (Republicans buy sneakers watch Bond films, too), but it's the first since Macron declared NATO braindead and the US is threatening to pull it's commitment to Article 5. UK is standing on it's own and needs it's greatest hero to set the world right again. Pretty easy hook for a mission. It would kind of feel weird, if they just do a bit of Policeman James as the original mission, before the stakes get raised.
That doesn't mean I expect Bond to be in the field in Ukraine. Even if they wanted to do a "War Bond" - which I think is a possible idea for Villeneuve and Knight to agree on - it would be something like the Solo novel. Some fake country in Africa or South America as a stand-in. I think I actually pitched that here once, as a semi-origin idea. Bond is still in the Royal Navy on a mission training troops [edit: or fighting pirates - how about that for a PTS?] in a Commonwealth nation, when he gets a tap on the shoulder and is seconded to MI6 and sent to some neighbouring country, where a civil war has broken out and the rebel leader needs to be taken out. Espionage ensues.
Only question is whether it will be given by M to Bond or by M to some minister or by some minister to M or by the villain to Bond!
I’m pretty sure in SF all those character interactions play out, so I’m banking on all of those in the same film 😂
Yes, there's exceptions, and why I was careful to say 'real world ideology'! :D
Drax and Stromberg are driven by ideology, but it's fairly fantastical and harmless to us watching it.
I guess the only baddies driven by actual real world political ideology would be, what, Orlov and the Chinese behind SPECTRE's scheme in YOLT? So secondary villains really- they both employ the main villains who are in it for the money (well, we assume that's what Kamal Khan is in it for: we never really find out!). I guess FYEO might count, but that's really only an opportunistic skirmish rather than grand evil plan. Otherwise pretty much everyone else is just driven by making money, especially in the Craig movies (Safin's scheme might be in part racist but it's kind of unclear).
You're right that they all take place in the present day world with current concerns though. I was trying to think which of the pre-Brosnans don't make reference to the Cold War. Maybe GF, LALD, MR and LTK? Is that it? Or is it even in those?
I would like it if the Double 0 programme is a new and vital way of dealing with those changes, rather than the old, out of date thing they're dusting off- which is a sentiment we've had a fair bit in the last 30 years. I know part of the subtext of Bond is that he's a conservative (small C!) fighting the forces of modern world-changing for the old, wood-panelled ways in an old-fashioned way, but I'd like him to feel up to date and current for a change.