No Time To Die: Production Diary

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  • Posts: 2,107
    Daniel Craig is writing a story treatment as we speak and he will also co-produce and direct Bond 25. Oh, and he will also star and sing the theme song.

    Or so have I heard.
  • DoctorNoDoctorNo USA-Maryland
    Posts: 754
    Fleming material... @talos7, I would want an adaptation of LALD. If they CR'd that book it could be great.

    I would steer clear of YOLT at this point, though I know a lot of people are calling for it. There's no point in killing off Blofeld after you've just introduced him, albeit ineptly. If they must bring Blofeld back then redo TB as next step before going OHMSS or YOLT.

    MR is the other holy grail of a book (like CR), but having just spent so much time in London with the last two, I would also avoid for the moment since the book is England based.

    DAF is Bond against the mob in America which is actually an interesting idea and good book, though a lesser one. Still, talking about in terms of CR redo it could be good too.

    TSWLM is actually a good book but you have to take it on its terms and set your expectations from the outset. It follows a woman, her past, her present, and then Bond is brought in at the last third. Like the short stories though it could be developed out into something good or more conventional. I like the characters enough. If Quentin Tarantino got his hands on it I'm sure he could make it a great faithful pulp film, though not to everyone's taste. Certainly not EON's.

    I'm also very intrigued by a modern take on FRWL.
  • edited September 2016 Posts: 4,600
    Its a massive challenge, keeping up with and respecting the spririt of Bond but, at the same time, coming up with something fresh. (they tried a new type of ending in SF and it worked fine but I know many here dont like it). If they are too conservative, its criticized as a tribute/reference. If its too new or "left field", it can be criticised for not being "Bondian". Having said that, there are alot of talented writers on this planet. It clearly is possible but they do need to widen their search to bring in some new blood re the writing IMHO.
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,087
    patb wrote: »
    Its a massive challenge, keeping up with and respecting the spririt of Bond but, at the same time, coming up with something fresh. (they tried a new type of ending in SF and it worked fine but I know many here dont like it). If they are too conservative, its criticized as a tribute/reference. If its too new or "left field", it can be criticised for not being "Bondian". Having said that, there are alot of talented writers on this planet. It clearly is possible but they do need to widen their search to bring in some new blood re the writing IMHO.

    I don't think its that difficult once you sit down and put your thinking cap on. It's just a question of updating the formula and finding a hook which works in the modern day. The other major pitfall is ending up with something desperate to seem contemporary, in the case of QoS.
  • I've been looking a bit at Guy Ritchie's Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/guyritchie/

    Boy, this man is really living Terence Young's lifestyle :-). I love his taste of good wines and expensive estates :-P
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Looks like a family man to my eyes.

    Why it's relevant regardless is beyond me...
  • Looks like a family man to my eyes.

    Why it's relevant regardless is beyond me...

    My intention isn't always to.....post relevant things ;-).
  • edited September 2016 Posts: 1,296
    I agree with evryeone else, it's impossible sometimes to come up with anything original anymore, but that's no reason not to infuse our Bond referentials with hickory-smoked danger and a plot so taut it makes the whales jealous. :) For exmaple In QoS, the desert walk and rooftop tie death are lifted storyboard for storyboard from TSWLM, but I think it was just an accident.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Looks like a family man to my eyes.

    Why it's relevant regardless is beyond me...

    My intention isn't always to.....post relevant things ;-).

    Silly business to be getting up to on a forum then, I'd say.
  • edited September 2016 Posts: 2,598
    ggl007 wrote: »
    Wanda confirms major Sony alliance: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wanda-confirms-major-sony-alliance-932028

    Does this mean there'll be more non Chinese films in China? I hope so!
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    edited September 2016 Posts: 4,399
    ggl007 wrote: »
    Wanda confirms major Sony alliance: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wanda-confirms-major-sony-alliance-932028

    a) Did they convince them, thanks to Bond? or...

    b) Is there now another reason for EON to say yes to Sony?

    Sony as a film studio is floundering, and has a real bad history of making some pretty piss poor decisions - which doesn't surprise me that they (probably HAD to) strike a deal with Wanda in order to help balance their check book... they have lost so much money on films over the past 2-3 years that it's not even funny - plus the man who took over for the ousted Amy Pascal, was the same one who was screwing things up over at 20th Century Fox - and had to be removed from his position there.. how he got the same gig at Sony is beyond comprehension - must be a good knob polisher...... if i were EON/MGM, i would not even entertain the notion of re-uping with Sony - too much baggage.
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    IGUANNA wrote: »
    I agree with evryeone else, it's impossible sometimes to come up with anything original anymore, but that's no reason not to infuse our Bond referentials with hickory-smoked danger and a plot so taut it makes the whales jealous. :) For exmaple In QoS, the desert walk and rooftop tie death are lifted storyboard for storyboard from TSWLM, but I think it was just an accident.

    doubtful.. ever look at the card that Bond handed to Greene's guard?.. the name says R. Sterling - the same cover name used in TSWLM.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    IGUANNA wrote: »
    I agree with evryeone else, it's impossible sometimes to come up with anything original anymore, but that's no reason not to infuse our Bond referentials with hickory-smoked danger

    Or some Cajun-spiced characters. If we get a Piri Piri plot we'll be laughing.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    edited September 2016 Posts: 7,980
    Cajun-spiced? sounds good to me, bring Bond back to New Orleans!
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    RC7 wrote: »
    IGUANNA wrote: »
    I agree with evryeone else, it's impossible sometimes to come up with anything original anymore, but that's no reason not to infuse our Bond referentials with hickory-smoked danger

    Or some Cajun-spiced characters. If we get a Piri Piri plot we'll be laughing.

    Any chance of someone spit roasting @IGUANNA, either slowl on a BBQ or with two burly sailors. I'm not that fussed which.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    HASEROT wrote: »
    IGUANNA wrote: »
    I agree with evryeone else, it's impossible sometimes to come up with anything original anymore, but that's no reason not to infuse our Bond referentials with hickory-smoked danger and a plot so taut it makes the whales jealous. :) For exmaple In QoS, the desert walk and rooftop tie death are lifted storyboard for storyboard from TSWLM, but I think it was just an accident.

    doubtful.. ever look at the card that Bond handed to Greene's guard?.. the name says R. Sterling - the same cover name used in TSWLM.

    Roger Moore did look like Robert Sterling.
  • Posts: 1,296
    After 54 years guys, we can expect a little bit of accidents in repetition. Originality is dead.
  • Posts: 1,296
    The important thing is to not to go to pieces when it happens. :)

    angry-kid-eating.jpg
  • edited September 2016 Posts: 5,767
    The thing is......after 24 (or 26) films there will always be inevitable referencing anyway. There's something not much...original stuff to do anymore after 54 years. A lot of scenes are merely 'accidental' references, and weren't born out of some deplorable uncreative motivation.
    Of course after a number of films and years certain mannerisms are well-known, like you know what beer your buddies prefer. But then what you do is, you get that sort of beer for your buddies, you don´t fuss about, you don´t have a drum roll every time and then, tadaa, present the beer to them. Because that gets sooo stale very soon. That´s not the reason you meet with them. You want to have good time, but unless you´ve given up on the future that doesn´t mean nostalgia. History is for building up on it. Of course that includes repetition of well-known things. But used in the right manner, those things propel the whole thing forward, instead of pulling it into a stasis of undecidedness.

    IGUANNA wrote: »
    I agree with evryeone else, it's impossible sometimes to come up with anything original anymore, but that's no reason not to infuse our Bond referentials with hickory-smoked danger and a plot so taut it makes the whales jealous. :) For exmaple In QoS, the desert walk and rooftop tie death are lifted storyboard for storyboard from TSWLM, but I think it was just an accident.
    I doubt heavily that it was an accident, but those scenes in QoS flow so natural in the film that the repetitiveness seems accidental. Whereas some other films give the impression of shoving a sign the size of the screen into the audiences face, saying, "attention, this is a reference!!"
    IGUANNA wrote: »
    After 54 years guys, we can expect a little bit of accidents in repetition. Originality is dead.
    Originality is many times mixed up with effectiveness.

  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    RC7 wrote: »
    IGUANNA wrote: »
    I agree with evryeone else, it's impossible sometimes to come up with anything original anymore, but that's no reason not to infuse our Bond referentials with hickory-smoked danger

    Or some Cajun-spiced characters. If we get a Piri Piri plot we'll be laughing.

    Any chance of someone spit roasting @IGUANNA, either slowl on a BBQ or with two burly sailors. I'm not that fussed which.

    I suspect he could handle two sailors, so BBQ it has to be, mate.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I actually recall Forster mentioning once that TSWLM was his favorite Bond film. Can someone confirm this to prove that I wasn't just hearing voices?
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    I actually recall Forster mentioning once that TSWLM was his favorite Bond film. Can someone confirm this to prove that I wasn't just hearing voices?

    I don't recall that. I remember he said he liked the 'early' films and iirc said he 'loved' GF. I got the impression anything post 60's he had quite a lot of disdain for.
  • Posts: 1,296
    Not too much disdain, since he referenced TSWLM in a ways by accident. Andwhat's this about BBQ sailors?
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Some of these moments in QoS seem to have been made with TSWLM in at least some mind, but it's hard to tell how much of this was meant to be a tribute by Forster, if any of it.

    Here's what I've found, after doing some snooping.

    From an interview with Forster around the release of QoS:
    Interviewer: Do you have a favorite Bond film?

    Forster: On Her Majesty's Secret Service is probably my favorite one. And then I like Dr. No and Goldfinger and then From Russia with Love.

    Interviewer: Are there any favorite Bond gadgets you have as well or favorite moments from any of the films?

    Forster: I always loved that car in the water, the Lotus.

    Interviewer
    : Right, from The Spy Who Loved Me?

    Forster: Yeah, I just always thought that Lotus, the swimming Lotus, just when I was younger, I just got a kick out of that, it was just too much.

    Forster seems to have at least seen TSWLM as he's able to pull on the memory of his love for the Lotus easily, but at another time and place he also said, “I’ve never seen a Bond film set in a desert,” when he was asked about the locations used in QoS.

    My guess is he maybe saw TSWLM as a boy (he even mentions seeing it when he was younger) but only certain bits of the film stuck with him beyond that. The SWLM homages may not have come from him then and instead from people on EON's side, though I think the GF one with Fields has him written all over it, as his love for the film is well-known.
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    I believe Forster also insisted many times that he was never a Bond fan, and why the producers approached him was beyond his comprehension. Something like that.
  • edited September 2016 Posts: 6,844
    Some of these moments in QoS seem to have been made with TSWLM in at least some mind, but it's hard to tell how much of this was meant to be a tribute by Forster, if any of it.

    Here's what I've found, after doing some snooping.

    From an interview with Forster around the release of QoS:
    Interviewer: Do you have a favorite Bond film?

    Forster: On Her Majesty's Secret Service is probably my favorite one. And then I like Dr. No and Goldfinger and then From Russia with Love.

    Interviewer: Are there any favorite Bond gadgets you have as well or favorite moments from any of the films?

    Forster: I always loved that car in the water, the Lotus.

    Interviewer
    : Right, from The Spy Who Loved Me?

    Forster: Yeah, I just always thought that Lotus, the swimming Lotus, just when I was younger, I just got a kick out of that, it was just too much.

    Forster seems to have at least seen TSWLM as he's able to pull on the memory of his love for the Lotus easily, but at another time and place he also said, “I’ve never seen a Bond film set in a desert,” when he was asked about the locations used in QoS.

    My guess is he maybe saw TSWLM as a boy (he even mentions seeing it when he was younger) but only certain bits of the film stuck with him beyond that. The SWLM homages may not have come from him then and instead from people on EON's side, though I think the GF one with Fields has him written all over it, as his love for the film is well-known.

    That would make sense because the SWLM references have no special attention drawn to them. As if they weren't consciously being deployed as references at all. They're simply there while the rest of the film keeps progressing around them. There's no loud winking, they're just there for the hardcore fans to subtly pick up on and smile wryly over. I'm thinking in particular of the R. Sterling Easter egg and the tie grab before falling. I don't even count the desert material as a reference—that's simply what the story called for!—unless we're going to call it a GoldenEye reference whenever a character is seen holding a club sandwich from here on out. "That's it, folks, no more club sandwiches! Can't let the audiences mistakenly think we're making GoldenEye references!"

    I've actually always liked the Goldfinger reference in QOS as well because a) there wasn't any undue attention drawn toward it (it served a purpose in the story and was allowed to breathe and function as its own scene), and b) it actually did something clever beyond being a reference for reference's sake: with oil commonly referred to as black gold.

    I really don't mind references in my 21st century Bond films. I just prefer they be handled the QOS way: intelligently, artistically, subtly, sparingly. Or SASI if you want to rearrange those around. EON needs to get sassy with their references, that's all I'm saying.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    A reference or two occasionally is great. Something like DAD is overkill, and just horrible.
  • Posts: 1,680
    Forster was the strangest choice by Eon to helm a film IMO
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Spottiswoode may take that prize.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    unless we're going to call it a GoldenEye reference whenever a character is seen holding a club sandwich from here on out. "That's it, folks, no more club sandwiches! Can't let the audiences mistakenly think we're making GoldenEye references!"

    I'm curious. Where is the club sandwich scene in GE?
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