343 replies to this topic

[NBooth]

[Express] says Mendes has Oscar hopes:

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“There are growing rumours Sam Mendes is cutting out the action scenes and making it Oscar-friendly.”

As far as bogus rumors go, this one takes the cake for sheer off-the-wall stupidity. There's no way EON would let Mendes cut the action scenes, and there's probably no way anyone who wants to make "the ultimate Bond film" (as Mendes seems to) would think the best way to do it is cutting out the Bond stuff. So I place no faith in the rumor at all; I post it here for the record.

That said, a tense non-actiony Bond movie would be awesome. Or even just one with the action toned back to Doctor No levels.

Edited by NBooth, 25 October 2011 - 08:46 AM.

[Ryan H.]

Tabloid THE SUN is reporting that Bond might sport a beard in BOND 23.


Here's a recent shot of Craig with his beard:

[Peter T Chattaway]

Brosnan sported a beard in the opening post-credits sequences of Die Another Day. Have any other Bonds been bearded? I can't remember any, but I could be forgetting something.

[NBooth]

Also featuring...Albert Finney?

[NBooth]

Production started today; ComingSoon has the press release:

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The film, from Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, is directed by Academy Award® winner Sam Mendes and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his third film as James Bond 007. The screenplay is written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan. SKYFALL, which goes into production on Monday, November 7th, will begin its worldwide roll-out in the UK and Ireland on October 26th 2012 and in North America on November 9th 2012.

....and the plot summary:

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In SKYFALL, Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Right. This time--it's personal. But I've got to say, having the central problem emerge from M's past is a pretty interesting direction to take.

Oh, and according to the press conference, Naomi Harris will be playing "a field agent named Eve". Eve Moneypenny? Who knows.

[Peter T Chattaway]

NBooth wrote:
: Right. This time--it's personal. But I've got to say, having the central problem emerge from M's past is a pretty interesting direction to take.

Didn't they sort of try something like this already in The World Is Not Enough?

[Ryan H.]

Guess we can officially change the title of the thread to SKYFALL.



Oh, and Craig still had the beard at the press conference, so that rumor might be right.

Peter T Chattaway, on 03 November 2011 - 02:33 PM, said:

NBooth wrote:
: Right. This time--it's personal. But I've got to say, having the central problem emerge from M's past is a pretty interesting direction to take.

Didn't they sort of try something like this already in The World Is Not Enough?

Yeah, they did. (I'm actually suspecting this flick will turn out to be Craig's THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH in more ways than one.)

Edited by Ryan H., 03 November 2011 - 07:01 PM.

[NBooth]

Peter T Chattaway, on 03 November 2011 - 02:33 PM, said:

NBooth wrote:
: Right. This time--it's personal. But I've got to say, having the central problem emerge from M's past is a pretty interesting direction to take.

Didn't they sort of try something like this already in The World Is Not Enough?

They did, now that you mention it, and it didn't really work. Which is probably why it slipped my mind.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Ryan H. wrote:
: (I'm actually suspecting this flick will turn out to be Craig's THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH in more ways than one.)

Ooh! let us count the ways! What are they?

-- We've got M's mysterious past.

-- It's the third film for the actor playing Bond.

-- It's directed by someone who is at least somewhat prestigious, and not just an action-movie journeyman (Michael Apted in the case of The World Is Not Enough, Sam Mendes in the case of Skyfall).

-- It's the first (and so far only) Daniel Craig Bond to be directed by an Englishman, just as The World Is Not Enough was the first (and only) Pierce Brosnan Bond to be directed by an Englishman. (Brosnan's other three films were directed by a Canadian and two New Zealanders; Craig's other two films were directed by a New Zealander and a German-Swiss.)

What else is there?

Edited by Peter T Chattaway, 03 November 2011 - 07:17 PM.

[Ryan H.]

Well, SKYFALL, like THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, follows after two films, the first of which was hailed as a successful adrenaline shot to a franchise, effectively mixing the classic with the contemporary (GOLDENEYE/CASINO ROYALE), and the second of which was largely seen as a disappointment, abandoning story for a string of endless action sequences (TOMORROW NEVER DIES/QUANTUM OF SOLACE). And, like THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, SKYFALL is being hailed as a return to a more robust, character-driven narrative.

[Ryan H.]

And another thing: both THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and SKYFALL will feature excursions to Istanbul and Scottish castles.

[NBooth]

Ryan H., on 05 November 2011 - 10:06 PM, said:

And another thing: both THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and SKYFALL will feature excursions to Istanbul and Scottish castles.

Well, all I can say is that Skyfall had better make more of Istanbul than The World is Not Enough. Sheesh. They might as well have set it in Wrightsville for all the use they made of it. Here you are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and you confine all the action to an island in the middle of the Bosphorus? Really? It's not like From Russia with Love scraped the bottom of the Istanbul-espionage barrel.

Right. I may have unresolved anger over that whole issue. Forget incoherent motivations and Brosnan's impersonation of something from the window of a JC Pennys; my biggest gripe with TWINE is that it had a great location in Istanbul and absolutely and utterly wasted it.

[Peter T Chattaway]

I cant believe you didnt include Denise Richards in your list of gripes to set aside. Every time she tries to pretend shes a nuclear scientist, or every time Pierce Brosnan has to pretend to be sexually interested in (or even just compatible with) her, I feel pity for the actors around her.

(And yes, the apostrophe/quote-mark key on my computer seems to be dead right now. The colon/semi-colon key next to it, too. Argh.)

[NBooth]

Peter T Chattaway, on 06 November 2011 - 12:11 AM, said:

I cant believe you didnt include Denise Richards in your list of gripes to set aside.

That probably speaks to exactly how forgettable I found her. Her presence in the movie didn't even occur to me.

[Ryan H.]

NBooth, on 05 November 2011 - 10:26 PM, said:

Well, all I can say is that Skyfall had better make more of Istanbul than The World is Not Enough. Sheesh. They might as well have set it in Wrightsville for all the use they made of it. Here you are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and you confine all the action to an island in the middle of the Bosphorus? Really? It's not like From Russia with Love scraped the bottom of the Istanbul-espionage barrel.

Well, they worked on two different versions of a giant chase through Istanbul (one a chase through a Turkish bath, the other a chase through traffic), but it ended up cut out of the script by the time they got to the third draft.

From what I understand, SKYFALL isn't spending a lot of time in Istanbul. It may be there just for the pre-title sequence.

Peter T Chattaway, on 06 November 2011 - 12:11 AM, said:

I cant believe you didnt include Denise Richards in your list of gripes to set aside.

Eh, she's somewhere near the bottom of my list of complaints with TWINE. She's bad, don't get me wrong, but so many of the things around her are so, so much worse, from the worst-ever performances given by the cast, from Dench to Brosnan to Carlyle to Marceau, to the listless action sequences, to the complete lack of exoticism. Bond films have survived terrible actresses before; the one thing they can't survive is being dull. And boy, TWINE is D-U-L-L. (Worst ever Bond film, AFAIC.)

Edited by Ryan H., 06 November 2011 - 06:42 AM.

[NBooth]

Ryan H., on 06 November 2011 - 06:42 AM, said:

NBooth, on 05 November 2011 - 10:26 PM, said:

Well, all I can say is that Skyfall had better make more of Istanbul than The World is Not Enough. Sheesh. They might as well have set it in Wrightsville for all the use they made of it. Here you are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and you confine all the action to an island in the middle of the Bosphorus? Really? It's not like From Russia with Love scraped the bottom of the Istanbul-espionage barrel.

Well, they worked on two different versions of a giant chase through Istanbul (one a chase through a Turkish bath, the other a chase through traffic), but it ended up cut out of the script by the time they got to the third draft.

From what I understand, SKYFALL isn't spending a lot of time in Istanbul. It may be there just for the pre-title sequence.

I remember hearing about that chase somewhere. The knowledge only heightened by bitterness.

A pre-title sequence in Istanbul would be fine, I guess. But really, I think the city deserves better.

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Peter T Chattaway, on 06 November 2011 - 12:11 AM, said:

I cant believe you didnt include Denise Richards in your list of gripes to set aside.

Eh, she's somewhere near the bottom of my list of complaints with TWINE. She's bad, don't get me wrong, but so many of the things around her are so, so much worse, from the worst-ever performances given by the cast, from Dench to Brosnan to Carlyle to Marceau, to the listless action sequences, to the complete lack of exoticism. Bond films have survived terrible actresses before; the one thing they can't survive is being dull. And boy, TWINE is D-U-L-L. (Worst ever Bond film, AFAIC.)

Agreed. And, what's worse, the story had potential. Of course, I guess most stories have potential, but this one is even constructed reasonably well. For some reason it just lacks any spark. They wasted a perfectly good plot.

Edited by NBooth, 06 November 2011 - 08:20 AM.

[Ryan H.]

NBooth, on 06 November 2011 - 08:13 AM, said:

Agreed. And, what's worse, the story had potential. Of course, I guess most stories have potential, but this one is even constructed reasonably well. For some reason it just lacks any spark. They wasted a perfectly good plot.

And they wasted Scott Walker, which is as great a crime, in my book.

But yeah, the story of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH had all kinds of stuff going for it. On paper, it's pretty good stuff; it has a better story than most Bond films. But boy oh boy, does it stink.

[Nathan Douglas]

Sheesh. And here I was holding onto all of this nostalgia for it being the first Bond film I got to see in a theatre.

Seriously, TWINE doesn't rate just a touch better than Die Another Day for you two?

[NBooth]

N.W. Douglas, on 06 November 2011 - 06:18 PM, said:

Sheesh. And here I was holding onto all of this nostalgia for it being the first Bond film I got to see in a theatre.

Seriously, TWINE doesn't rate just a touch better than Die Another Day for you two?

It's actually been years since I saw either of these movies, but for whatever it's worth DAD sticks in my memory way better than TWINE (for some reason I keep forgetting details about TWINE like the connection to M's past or Denise Richards, but the plot of DAD presents itself to me with a fair amount of coherence).

For me the great virtue of Die Another Day is that Brosnan had at that point given up caring about onion layers, and as a result I find his performance to be the most relaxed and, well, fun out of all four of his Bond flicks (really, the guy's not a charmless actor any time he's not playing Bond, but getting into that tux turns him into a charisma-vacuum). Plus, even though the plot is stupid and the stunts are over the top, DAD has the good grace not to take itself seriously after the first twenty minutes or so.

Edited by NBooth, 06 November 2011 - 07:25 PM.

[Ryan H.]

N.W. Douglas, on 06 November 2011 - 06:18 PM, said:

Seriously, TWINE doesn't rate just a touch better than Die Another Day for you two?

Nope. I watched DIE ANOTHER DAY not too long ago; it wasn't quite the "worst ever" Bond film so many make it out to be. Sure, it's really corny and tacky, but Bond's been corny and tacky before. What DIE ANOTHER DAY has, and in significantly higher quantities than many Bond films, is a sense of exoticism and grandeur. The sword fight alone puts it above a film as charmless and bland as TWINE.