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My dear friend, @ColonelSun, your knowledgeable contributions are always a balm. Many thanks for putting to rest the many logistic speculations that have been thrown into the proverbial hat for the past weeks or months. That being said, when do you think Villeneuve will be free of Dune 3, filming wise? Probably by the end of the year as well, right? So everything seems to be in perfect alignment. I'm so glad (in Connery's voice) ;)
My feelings exactly. Integrity was properly defenestrated four years ago, for the sake of whims and under the guise of creative liberties (no need to further argue this in this particular thread, but from having Boyle's so called vision, to the narrative choices of NTTD, we can all agree that they wouldn't be keeping with the canonical line that, for better or worse, had aligned their product for 60 years. They just couldn't keep it up after CR. SF was a welcome variation that worked, a fluke made by talent and timing). So I'm quite glad to see new people around, even if I do entertain the hypothesis of EON lurking in the shadows, and I'm quite fine with that.
All and all, brave new world, whatever brave means.
There's a zero percent chance that Amazon releases Bond 26 in August or September, (unless right at the end, like B25) so that means it's either July or October or later. I think given the current timelines July is too optimistic. Most likely it will be another 3 years, at the start of October 2028.
I think you're likely right, although as I said in the actor thread, I think it's possible to have an actor announcement before that if they have their eye on someone. Although there's no script, there's a concept they're exploring, and a lot of actors would be very willing to work with Villeneuve and would probably sign onto something even if he just pitched his concept to them on zoom- and Bond is obviously a known quantity. I think having DV there makes this a different proposition to when Craig needed to see a script to sign onto CR, people want to be in his films.
DV tends to work with quality movie actors nowadays, so if they had an idea for the film and an actor in their sights, they might be wanting to sign him early before he does something else.
Like I say, I think you're likely right as they'd be keen to explore all possibilities before signing someone, but I think there is a world where we could get a name sooner, even before Dune is done.
Sometimes they test too much, overlook the best option.
Yeah but i mean in a starting point.
Important observation.
Will Knight be available for rewrites after Villeneuve devotes his full attention and time to Bond 26? Will Villeneuve perform his own rewrites? It's interesting to think that with two, strong authorial voices attached to Bond 26, there may only be one or two writers attached at all stages of production.
We may get a Bond film that's clearer in its narrative and themes. There's any number of reasons why a film stumbles but the Craig Era, in my opinion, suffered most from amorphous screenplays with compelling pitches, interesting possibilities, questionable choices, and incomplete or compromised executions. The notable exception is Casino Royale. But there was the undergirding of Fleming’s’ novel on which to build the movie.
Maybe a consistent vision from a singular creative or a duo of creatives will keep better focus. Of course, we've had Neal Purvis and Robert Wade for twenty or so years but they were, sometimes understandably, consistently overridden and rewritten. And, while I do think they were knowledgeable, reflective and enthusiastic about Bond, it seems from a comparison of output, they’ don’t have the level of authorial voice and innovation of Knight, Villeneuve or a partnership of the two.
But we would lose that committee style of filmmaking which didn’t always produce the best Bond films yet forged a genre of its own. There was a “big top” quality to the Broccoli/Saltzman/Wilson films. I think Cubby and Barbara are two of the greatest film producers that ever worked in Hollywood, but they’re human and fallible. They kept the longest running film series in Hollywood history alive and kicking but they were also responsible for some of its ailments.
I’m emboldened by Knight’s talk of boldness in his screenplay. Bond 26 has every opportunity to be a runaway hit, but even its failure will be judged in relative terms. Knight and Villeneuve may give us Bond 1 instead of Bond 26. I think this behind-the-camera combination, so far, could unlock the secrets of pulling it off either way.
I agree this is the closest we have come to a true auteur level vision for Bond. Look at the highest rated films of 2025, Sinners and One Battle After Another, audiences are hungry for a real authorial voice.
But honestly, unless you’re literally making a movie by yourself, there’s always a high level of collaboration with filmmaking. And every director has their own individual traits and ways of working. It’s not just Villeneuve and Knight making this film, but Heyman and Pascal too, and of course the many other collaborators who’ll at some point become involved. I think romanticising ‘auteur directors’ and those ‘consistent voices’ is a flawed thing to do in practice, tempting as it is (many of us may not enjoy Bond 26 or have criticisms about its storytelling and creative choices, despite supposedly being made by these two ‘innovative’ minds. Where does that leave this argument about ‘consistent’ creative voices, if that’s even the case with this movie?) It’s worth saying Villeneuve’s fame will simply amplify for those interested that idea of his ‘authorial voice’ anyway - regardless of whatever creative decisions he himself makes with this film - so it’s at best a bit misleading. At any rate I think it’ll be a collaborative film with many creative voices (and for better or worse a good bit of studio oversight), and I’d say it’s way too early to speculate if it’ll be a great Bond instalment, let alone some masterpiece of a film. Insofar as it’s subjective anyway. We’ll just have to see whatever way.
Yeah I always think it's a bit iffy when folks call Campbell a 'journeyman' director or anything like that, as if he's never done anything 'auteur'-ish: he has a won an actual BAFTA. He's done some bland filler-y crap over the years, sure, but he's also done some artistic stuff, and been very well-regarded for it.
Being an auteur or having a consistent creative voice isn’t in itself a sign of quality I suppose. Ed Wood, Tommy Wiseau, and Uwe Boll are auteurs with consistent creative voices. They probably have/had fuller creative control over their films than Villeneuve in practice! With Campbell even in his bland fill-ery crap there are creative similarities to his Bond films I’d say.