BOND POLLS 2017: Craig stays or leaves? Choose one of the four options [RESULTS, page 12]

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  • Lot of A's!
  • Posts: 4,325
    DonnyDB5 wrote: »
    Haven't given it much thought plot wise, but this is how I'd ideally like to see B25 go down...

    Bond is officially retired & living life with Madeline until he is inadvertently yanked out due to dire circumstances concerning Blofeld. Blofeld will either be broken out of prison by SPECTRE, or demands will be made to set him free. Cities across the world are targeted with terrorism from SPECTRE, and Madeline gets kidnapped (not killed). Meanwhile, national security agents & MI6 agents are dropping like flies by SPECTRE assassins. The movie should be utter chaos & really serve as Bonds' biggest challenge thus far. I would like to see Bond in Dubai, and a final showdown set in an ancient castle somewhere in the mountains where he rescues Madeline & kills Blofeld.

    Let this be Daniel's grand finale (if he decides not to do B26). Bring back Waltz, Seydoux, and the entire MI6 team. It must be epic, emotional, and exciting. Again, I'm not entirely sure how I'd like to see it play out, but the above ideas would serve as some potential factors.

    I like this. Maybe not Dubai though - hard to beat what M:I: GP did in Dubai.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    NATO will get Blofeld out.
  • Posts: 1,548
    Blofeld must return with Dan Craig. No need for fresh blood for a while yet.
  • edited February 2016 Posts: 267
    I'm going to go with A since I don't think there's any way that they don't bring Waltz' Blofled back in Bond 25.

    I do want Craig back so he can have a proper send off from the franchise, but I'd love to see them just move on and give Craig a final stand alone Bond film and then reintroduce Blofeld at some point in the 7th actor's era (and at this point I would also hope they'd ditched all continuity efforts - easily one of my least favorite things about the Craig era). SPECTRE muddied things up so badly and I just don't see Bond 25 being the film I want it to be without totally casting aside all of the plot threads from the previous film.

    The only way I'd want Blofeld back in Bond 25 is if they make no mention of Swann, make no mention of the events of Spectre, and just move on entirely from a plot stand point. I see that being less likely than having Bond 25 simply be a stand alone Bond film though if Craig were to return.
  • Posts: 1,680
    If Craig & Waltz come back the storyline will continue in some fashion, I dont believe it will be standalone & i do believe the tone will be a higher mix of SF as well as SP.

    I am curious as to where they will go in regards to plot & the theme of the movie. The next one will have to be clever as their will be no major reveal of the villian like SP had.

    I have a feeling the next one wont be entirely centered around Waltz/Blofeld & Craigs age will be played at again.
  • I would go for A)... because i really like Daniel C as Bond! But i am a little disappoint that Mr.White was killed, maybe he should have been in more movies, he was a mystery powerful man.
  • Keep voting please ;-)
  • Posts: 2,341
    I say "A"
    Continue what was started with CR and onwards. Of course, I think this should be Craig's final film as 007. I had a feeling that SP would be his final film but Craig is contracted for one more so just finish up what was started.
  • "Option C" (a fresh start) was my first option just after watching SP.
    However, now, three months after SP release, I vote for A, but I wouldn´t use Swan or Blofeld as main characters. I think Bond 25 should be a stand-alone movie with a few mild references to the last four films. A story-line may be the fact that James Bond can´t live a normal life with a family or a girlfiend (Madeleine), because he is afraid of loosing them again and also because his real home is Mi6 and he will never be able to quit.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    Posts: 1,984
    It's not exactly what I want, but A seems the most likely. To have Blofeld and SPECTRE introduced and the whole story being wrapped up in just one film wouldn't be fulfilling in the slightest. Craig's contracted for one more - and for his final film to destroy or ignore everything he's built in the previous four films would be highly unwise, so I don't think it'd make much sense for D to happen. And since Craig's contracted for a fifth film, I find B and C unlikely, though B would be the next most likely. D is by far the least likely IMO.
  • So far these are the results after 33 people have casted their choices:

    A]...73%..(24 voters)
    B]...03%..(01 voters)
    C]...21%..(07 voters)
    D]...03%..(01 voters)

  • Either A or D. I like some continuity (in the form of Blofeld returning, for example) but it does not need to become one big self-referencing cobweb in my opinion. It only drags down the tone of the film and I've had it with Bond constantly facing emotional turmoil and 'inner demons'. That's not who Bond is imo. It would be a shame to dispose of EVERYTHING they've established so far, but I'd like it if they returned to the anthological format from before CR.
  • w2bondw2bond is indeed a very rare breed
    Posts: 2,252
    ACBD seems the most logical in order of likelihood. I don't agree with the stipulation of "The 25th film and other future films will be LESS HEAVY on character background, chronology and continuity". No point extrapolating that opinion until we have more information. If Mendes returns we will have the same or more character background. Plus to date, all of Craig's films have been much much more character heavy than the previous films
  • edited February 2016 Posts: 1,661
    My preference is C.

    The Craig Bond story arc appears to be over. SPECTRE has revealed itself and was funding QUANTUM. Le Chiffre/Green/Silva all worked (directly/indirectly) for SPECTRE.

    SPECTRE ends with Blofeld in custody. I think it's reasonable to assume Blofeld will escape (!) and seek revenge against Bond and MI6 but the storyline could work with a reboot. Craig's Bond was a reboot but M was retained from the Brosnan era so, in theory, you could reboot Bond with actor #7 and have Blofeld in prison or just escaped and with a new plan for world domination! That storyline could appear in Bond 26 or 27, not Bond 25.

    I don't think Craig's comments about only doing another film just for the money/cutting his wrists blah blah blah endear him to some Bond fans. Accepting his films have been major hits, I don't feel there is any need for him to return. Like Doctor Who, the James Bond franchise endures because it reinvents itself through recasting. A new actor as James Bond will freshen things, it will be different and people will be excited to see the new guy in action. Overall, I feel option C is the best way forward. :)
  • Craig stays and they hire the directors from Winter Soldier.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    While I'd love for DC to return for a great finale, I'm very open these days to a new actor and to replace everyone except Fiennes. Actually that would really be my first preference at this point, since DC only has one more left in him anyway at most, and he's come full circle with the character.
  • SuperintendentSuperintendent A separate pool. For sharks, no less.
    Posts: 870
    I'm choosing C.

    I have no desire for round 2 of Bond vs. Blofeld. I'd rather even have a standalone Daniel Craig film with a new villain and no Spectre, where they casually tell us that Bond and Madeleine have separated. But I think it's best now to start afresh with a new actor.

    B is not a realistic option, IMO.

    That said, it'll probably be A, but I'm not so sure it'll be less heavy on character background.
  • pachazopachazo Make Your Choice
    Posts: 7,314
    bondjames wrote: »
    I'm very open these days to a new actor and to replace everyone except Fiennes.

    I do like Fiennes but I'm hoping they will recast M with a lesser known actor the next time around. Perhaps then there will be no pressure to have to include him in such a large portion of the film.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    pachazo wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    I'm very open these days to a new actor and to replace everyone except Fiennes.

    I do like Fiennes but I'm hoping they will recast M with a lesser known actor the next time around. Perhaps then there will be no pressure to have to include him in such a large portion of the film.
    That's true. Someone mentioned a week or so back (maybe on this thread) that there must be a whole batch of very good older English actors who can take the role on. I'm sure most of them are currently on Game of Thrones in some capacity actually.
  • A: I think Craig may do a few more films yet. Money talks...
  • Birdleson wrote: »
    Craig stays and they hire the directors from Winter Soldier.

    That would actually keep me out of the theatre. We've gone comic bookie enough.

    Have you seen WS? Because that's a solid spy film.
  • C,but without the reboot part
  • Option A. Then after Craig's done his fifth and final, Option B.

    No matter the cost, we cannot reboot the series again, at least not for another fifty years, otherwise the series will just reboot over and over again with every change of actor.
  • A tacit reboot is fine, isn't that basically what they did with TLD and GE?
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 8,255
    Option A: for legacy (and correcting mistakes from SPECTRE), and to give DC his proper send-off
  • Birdleson wrote: »
    I used to say the same until SPECTRE. Now the Craig Era has been locked into such a box of continuity, I don't see an option. Unless, with the next Bond, nothing of the previous films is referenced or mentioned, a tacit reboot; I could live with that.

    That's my biggest issue with SPECTRE. It was a bad film IMO, but the way it backed the next film into a corner is what irritates me the most. I don't see any way Craig returns and we don't get a film that ends up picking up where SPECTRE left off.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    bondboy007 wrote: »
    Birdleson wrote: »
    I used to say the same until SPECTRE. Now the Craig Era has been locked into such a box of continuity, I don't see an option. Unless, with the next Bond, nothing of the previous films is referenced or mentioned, a tacit reboot; I could live with that.

    That's my biggest issue with SPECTRE. It was a bad film IMO, but the way it backed the next film into a corner is what irritates me the most. I don't see any way Craig returns and we don't get a film that ends up picking up where SPECTRE left off.

    Agree entirely.

    In their haste to reintroduce Blofeld, the stepbrother crap, Madeline saying she's in love with Bond and driving off into the sunset they leave themselves very little option but to carry on the story.

    The fact that in the original script Bond's last line as they drive away was 'We have all the time in the world' tells you they were, at least originally, planning to kill Madeline off in the next one (which they can still do of course) but presumably at the last minute they got cold feet thinking 'are we really going to kill off another Bond girl and try and pretend she's Bond's true love so soon after Vesper?'

    It's a god awful mess for sure.

    Someone made a post somewhere which might be a way out suggesting that we have Bond watch Vesper's interrogation tape where Blofeld tortures her (or maybe watches as Mr White does).

    We could have the Tiffany Case 'it didn't work out with Madeline' line at the start and then the climax is Bond getting revenge on the bloke who really was responsible for Vesper's death.

    It's far from ideal for a number of reasons (it would make the resolution in QOS defunct, Bond seems over Vesper so do we want to dredge it all up again?) but no solutions are.

    It would take an exceptionally talented writer to extricate them from this cul de sac and given we have not had an exceptionally talented writer on the Bond series for years I'm beginning to think that letting DC go and starting again might be the only way out.

    This all comes from doing a botch retconning and not going in with a coherent plan of how the next films would pan out.

    This is probably why Cubby always made standalone films because you end up tying yourself in awful knots. The whole thing worked a lot better with the Sean-Rog-Tim-Pierce handovers precisely because the issue of continuity was never addressed. Bond was Bond, the MI6 crew were the MI6 crew and it was set 5 minutes in the future. There's no need to dwell on stuff like why does no one age; just strap yourself in for 2 hours of thrilling entertainment.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 8,255
    Movie audiences have changed so much, even since '95 when Brosnan took over the role. We're more global now, we've been inundated with franchises, sequels, re-boots, ret-cons, that I don't think simply changing the Bond actor will come as easily as it did in the past.

    Yes, SPECTRE backed the story thread into a corner, but nowadays, when a role is re-cast, we're expecting a re-boot as well. And re-boots every few years may work for some franchises (or not, in the case of Spiderman), but I think this route will be troublesome for Bond.

    Equally troublesome would be re-casting and ignoring the Craig time-line.

    I would continue the story-line, fix the holes of SPECTRE. And start planning what the next phase of the 007 franchise will be. The producers will have a monumental task after Craig's tenure is over.

    As I said before, I don't envy their position.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited February 2016 Posts: 23,883
    I'm not sure this is so difficult to do. They've arguably only lost some market share with two actor recasts (Lazenby and Dalton). In all three other cases, the debut films were very popular. Even the Lazenby and Dalton years have received a critical reappraisal (with time admittedly).

    So I see no risk in recasting now. In fact, given the general critical reception to SP (tepid, if not hostile), the finger is much closer to the actor reset button. Not because Craig has not been liked (he has been a very successful Bond) but because I think like with all other long running actors, he just seems to have run his course. The writing's on the wall, if you'll excuse the pun.

    I've seen some members comment that the SP story sort of backs EON into a corner. Well, that's interesting, because there was a member in the leaks thread a while back who claimed to know Mendes. He stated that Mendes told him that both Mendes and Craig were going to set things up in a way that he couldn't return. Well, perhaps they have, if you consider the 'wrist' comments in combination with the SP plot. The most likely implication is Craig Bond has ridden into the sunset with his girl.
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