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I much preferred his trailer delivery vs. the final product (there was more 'camp' in the way he said his lines, which I always like in Bond villains).
It's a relief to know he wasn't satisfied with the final product, because that means if he in fact returns, he will improve on his performance. Moreover, given that Mendes is done, perhaps he can have better chemistry with a new director, should he return.
Telly gave the definitive portrayal in my eyes. The banality of evil.
An email newsletter update for September 2016 from David Leigh of The James Bond Dossier website is useful at this time of rumours:
Regarding Bond 25, there is still no news. You may have seen a story claiming that Sony has offered Daniel Craig $150 million to do two more Bond films.
Forget it.
Sony currently has nothing to do with James Bond, their distribution deal with MGM, the actual studio that part owns the rights to 007 having expired with the release of SPECTRE. The other party that owns the 007 movies rights is Eon Productions through Danjaq.
MGM is looking for a new partner and ultimately may renew with Sony, but at the moment Sony is out of the frame.
‘I cannot claim that I’ve really nailed Blofeld. Overall it held water, was okay. But it wasn’t what I’ve been looking for. I was searching for more inspiration.’
He has been getting this vibe even before shooting started, but by then it was already too late.
‘An actor can only be really good when there are shared possibilities.’
He refuses to be any more specific about it, but it’s clear what he means by that: apparently the chemistry between him and director Sam Mendes didn’t play out the way he would have wished for[/quote]
Surely, we will have to get some credible news before October, given that this is his first proper interview since SP.
This is good. Hopefully we'll be getting some answers from the man himself.
I wouldn't count on it! :D
I Probably should have phrased that better, I meant of the DC era. I was so looking forward to SPECTRE, it pleasures me none for it to have been the let down that it was for me.
Yes of course I liked films pre GE but DC bought me back to Bond big time, the last time I was that excited was when LTK was released and I possibly was more hyped for CR and each subsequent Craig entry.
Well, I think one actor does want to return in a James Bond film: That's Christoph Waltz. What a wonderful self-critical actor! This is the kind of attitude you like to hear.
By the way, next month Daniel Craig will be present at the New Yorker Festival in which he will extensively talk with Nicholas Schmidle. The event is tentatively called "Beyond Bond", so I'm not sure what to think of it....:
http://festival.newyorker.com/event/daniel-craig-talks-nicholas-schmidle/
Yes.
I liked White's explanation for his falling out with Blofeld, that Blofeld put women and children in danger. It tied in nicely with his protecting Madeleine and trusting Bond to do the same (and it made sense since White did witness Bond's attempt to save Vesper).
Or it could just be that I think Christensen elevated every single scene he was in in CR, QoS, and SP. I think he's one of the best actors the series has had.
I don't think any great revelations will come from the event (like a firm time of release or what the film should involve), but we may be clued in to Dan's thought process regarding Bond as this point, and he may express whether or not he intends to go further with the role, and he could hint at or detail what he is waiting on if the interest in the character is there, like the distribution deal for example that EON and MGM are still trying to nail down.
The hands that feed them? Waltz wasn't begging for the role, EoN were the one's chasing after the 2 time Oscar winner. Waltz didn't more for SP than the other way round.
I'm glad he said what he said because it's pretty evident regardless. The script was terrible and Mendes' stewardship was below that of SF.
Bummer. One rumor I really wanted to be true.
Blofeld himself is a chameleon like character, but this is just getting ridiculous. ;)
It really is a relief to hear Waltz admit he under-delivered (both for the reason you state, bondjames—the hope that he would likely improve if presented a second chance at the part—and just to know that there was actual thought and effort put into shaping the character and that things just got bungled in the process).
It's for that same reason that I was glad to hear Mendes admit on the Skyfall commentary that they worked really hard to make the shower scene not look creepy. Yes, the finished scene has an odor of creepiness to it, but at least the filmmakers were aware of that and worked hard to avoid it and despite all efforts just weren't able to pull it off in the end.
Much, much better than Mendes jumping up and down and clapping his hands over ill-advised ejector seat jokes. Nobody's infallible, but awareness of where and how one has erred is key.
Yeah that's my take on it at the minute. I think SP was written to work as his last and he was at the very least considering to walk away but the lack of news about it makes me think that he might have changed his mind and he does strike me as something of a perfectionist. I wouldn't be surprised if he did another to go out on a high after the response to SP.
They just don't film these things without rehearsals. Everybody pretty much knew and approved of what they saw going in.
I'm not saying I don't agree with Waltz but I still would have expected more.
And I'm of the camp that no it didn't work.
From the great James Bond wiki:
"In a scene from an earlier draft of Spectre, it was revealed that in the 1990's, Oberhauser, having changed his name to Ernst Stavro Blofeld became part of a battalion of the French Foreign Legion called 'Les Spectre de St. Pierre' in Morocco. A fellow member of this battalion was the man who would later become known as Mr. White, and who would also become a member of Spectre. It is implied that the platoon was already involved in criminal dealings. At some point there was a sandstorm and Blofeld and White were left for dead by the rest of the battalion with eight fellow soldiers, without rations, in the middle of the desert. Blofeld killed the other eight men in the night, leaving only White alive to help him to get to and carry the 'food' (the eighth dead soldier). After the sandstorm was over, Blofeld, with White's assistance, developed the shadowy terrorist organization named after his legion, SPECTRE."
I certainly agree that if Bond 25 does feature Dan's return, I'd love to see Waltz right there with him, so that he can further develop his take on Blofeld in the way he desires (as he knows how to play baddies perfectly already). I love Blofeld in SP and find him fascinating for his obsessions with control (his drone like SPECTRE agents and torture tools that suck away free will) and his grudges based on a soft ego, so any chance to see more of him, I'm all for it.
The above backstory really captured my imagination when I read it a few month's back, and while it's clear to see in the film that Blofeld can be quite bloodthirsty, I miss not having that story given to the audience to further underscore his animal nature.
I think that the perfect spot for Bond to learn about Blofeld's actions while serving in the French Foreign Legion would've been during the meeting he has with Mr. White in Austria. After White tells Bond what Ernst did to finally bump him off for good, Bond could press him more and dig deeper to find why the two men broke apart, which would give White a perfect and credible opportunity to tell 007 about how he and Blofeld first met, detail how maniacal and mad he is, and how SPECTRE came into being long ago.
It's nice to have this backstory circulating out there and it's always in the back of my mind when I watch SP, I just wish it was made front and center in that White scene, to make it an ever greater moment in the film than it already was.
See now that's interesting.. you don't have to be someone's mom or dad or lost brother to grasp my attention. That back story is fabulous...why on why did they jettison THAT!!
That development/history certainly makes both Blofeld and White for more menacing. Although I liked White ..I felt he was fine.
I've got to say, he's a joy to watch and I love how he handles press. He's honest and abrupt, and doesn't string anyone along. Like Dan, he speaks his mind no matter what's on it, doesn't take himself too seriously and more than anything, just wants to find good work to attach himself to. He's very down to earth and a great intellect that really thinks about his performance and judges himself with almost too critical an eye, like a true artist.
It'd be great if Bond 25 gave him a chance to really cement his take on Blofeld as one of the best, and give him the room he needs to do work he feels proud of too. I think that whether or not we like or dislike SP, we can all agree that Blofeld deserves more time on screen to make an impression. Here's hoping, with fingers crossed. [-O<
i kind of had the feeling that SP might be heading down a precarious path back before filming even started - when it was reported that John Logan (who was handpicked by Mendes to write the script) had been sacked by Mendes himself and replaced by the P&W, who he had shown the door to after SF.... from then on, my expectations were tempered.
it may not have been a verbal confirmation - but (excuse the pun) the writing was on the wall..
@mcdonbb, as much as I love SP, a part of me laments that White is only confined to one scene, as great a scene as it is.
I wish there had been some way in the script to use White a little more, like having him try to locate Ernst himself in person, happening upon Bond as he's on the chase before he meets his demise at Blofeld's hands by some means or another. Or maybe give us a flashback or scene in general with him and Waltz to really cement that they were old war buddies who had both gone their separate ways and that bad, bad blood existed between them now.
It would've served to only underscore the contrast that the film already gives us for why White broke away from SPECTRE and Blofeld's business altogether: unlike Ernst, he couldn't stomach what the organization had become, and I'm sure that in every face of a woman or child he saw killed to further SPECTRE and/or Quantum's interests, he saw the faces of Madeleine and her mother, who by that point had left him all alone to deal with the consequences of the life choices he'd made.