343 replies to this topic

[Judo Chop]

Ryan H., on 03 December 2010 - 12:03 PM, said:

Come on, Judo. Dench's M and Bond have a complex relationship. She's a mother figure, y'know? But like estranged mother and child, they're never quite sure as to how much they should trust one another. That's rich, rich drama right there.

Seriously, I'm mighty afraid of this installment. With Morgan and Mendes on board, I'm picturing a portentous Bond film that drowns in its attempts to "peel back the layers of the character" and create some kind of "dramatic" story that sends Bond on yet another "This time it's personal!" romp, complete with a slightly political edge and plenty of silly, overblown monologues about how Bond can't be trusted and how the Cold War doesn't exist anymore, blah blah blah.

Maybe I'm wrong, and Morgan and Mendes are smart enough to recognize the Bondian cliches that have developed over the last twenty or so years of Bond films and avoid them wholesale. But I doubt it.

I may be wrong too, and am just succumbing to fear, but I doubt it as well. I think they'll probably look at those old cliches and think, "They are bad, only because they weren't done RIGHT. This time it'll be different..."

That said, I'm not all against ALL of the cliches. I'll accept a thrown bone or two for nostalgia's sake. I think Bond has earned a free pass in that department, and a new take on old stuff can be fun.
But I really won't be able to stomach any more layer peeling, or trust histrionics.

I'll feel comfortable when I find out all of M's lines are to be delivered via text message on Bond's standard issue cell phone.

And that Bond's standard issue cell phone gets destroyed in the PTS.

[NBooth]

Collider is saying that, despite MGM getting its feet under it, pre-production on Bond 23 is "halted".

Quote

Variety now reports, however, that pre-production on Bond 23 has been “halted” as the company awaits bids for its assets. A spokesman for the studio confirmed that scripting is still underway, but that the project’s timeline is “a little up in the air what with the situation at MGM, so we gave to be flexible.” Oddly enough, the article also states that no director is attached to the project. With star Daniel Craig actively pursuing other projects, including David Fincher’s adaptation of The Millenium Trilogy, and MGM in disarray, will Bond 23 ever see the living daylights?

Of course, their "Variety" link doesn't seem to be working, so who knows?

Edited by NBooth, 05 January 2011 - 02:36 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

The Playlist sums up what happened here: "Here’s what happened. Variety tried to be bloggers and failed and dug up a Total Film interview from January 2010 that they mistook for 2011. We were dumb enough to follow suit—though so did half the Internet. Nothing to see here, please move on."

[NBooth]

Well that explains a lot! Good to hear.

[NBooth]

November 9, 2012

Quote

MGM is announcing that "BOND 23" is set to go into production in late 2011. Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions, together with Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, the Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., today announced that the 23rd James Bond film will have a worldwide release on November 9, 2012 -- just as Deadline last month reported it would.

[Ryan H.]

And it looks like John Logan (who worked with Mendes on SWEENEY TODD before Mendes dropped out of that project) will be joining Neil Purvis and Robert Wade on the screenplay.

Logan also wrote THE LAST SAMURAI, GLADIATOR, THE AVIATOR, as well as some considerably less prestigious stuff, like the remake of THE TIME MACHINE and STAR TREK: NEMESIS.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Ryan H. wrote:
: Logan also wrote THE LAST SAMURAI, GLADIATOR, THE AVIATOR, as well as some considerably less prestigious stuff, like the remake of THE TIME MACHINE and STAR TREK: NEMESIS.

I don't know about The Last Samurai or The Aviator, which were both clearly star vehicles (for Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio, respectively), but as for the other films on that list ... well, Gladiator had something like three or four different writers, and The Time Machine went through massive reshoots (with a change in director part-way through, if memory serves), and Star Trek: Nemesis was crippled both by a director who just didn't get the franchise and by the fact that the actors had a lot more input into the script (which is generally an iffy prospect at best, where Star Trek movies are concerned; for every ST4:TVH, there's a ST5:TFF, etc.).

So... I have no idea what to expect, here.

[Ryan H.]

I'll say this for Logan; his shooting script for SWEENEY TODD, which differs from the finished product, read really well. But that's about the extent of my experience with Logan as a screenwriter. I wonder how his work on HUGO CABRET turned out.

[Peter T Chattaway]

So... which studio will get to distribute this film? Paramount, having lost its DreamWorks and Marvel deals to Disney, may be looking for a new franchise.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Distributor-wise, it looks like Fox is also in the running.

[John Drew]

Rumored title is Red Sky at Night. If this holds up, may I be the first to offer the producers a suggestion? Please forego hiring some current artist to create a new song for this series, and just have The Fixx rerecord their song - just have 'em drop the "i-e-s" and add a "y". Or, change your title to match their song. The lyrics already read like a possible Bond entry...

Red skies at night, red skies at night
Wo oh, wo oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Red skies at night, red skies at night
Wo oh, wo oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Should have taken warning
It's just, people mourning, running, hiding, lost
You can't find, find a place to go
So it's red skies at night, red skies at night
Wo oh, wo oh oh oh oh
Should have taken warning
It's just, people mourning, running, hiding, lost
You can't find, find a place to go
So it's red skies at night, red skies at night
Wo oh, wo oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Red skies at night, red skies at night
Wo oh, wo oh oh
Someone's taking over
And it looks like they're aiming right at you
Someone says, "We'll be dead by morning"
Someone cries, leaving
Red eyes at night, red eyes at night
Oh, wo oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Red skies at night, red skies at night, red skies at night (4x)
Red {echo}
Skies {echo}
At {echo}
Night
Red skies at night, red skies at night
Wo oh, wo oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Red skies at night, red skies at night
Wo oh, wo oh oh oh oh oh

Just add silhouettes of naked women, Bond flashing his Walther PPK, and stir.

Edited by Baal_T'shuvah, 21 January 2011 - 09:58 AM.

[Ryan H.]

Baal_T, on 21 January 2011 - 08:54 AM, said:

Rumored title is Red Sky at Night.

This "rumor" originated on a small-time message board somewhere, and then, through the oddity of internet media, became a more respectable story. There's probably nothing to it.

[Judo Chop]

Ryan H., on 21 January 2011 - 11:49 AM, said:

Baal_T, on 21 January 2011 - 08:54 AM, said:

Rumored title is Red Sky at Night.

This "rumor" originated on a small-time message board somewhere, and then, through the oddity of internet media, became a more respectable story. There's probably nothing to it.

Can't see it. Granted, they're doing things much differently than they have in the past, but it still doesn't sound like something that would get the EON stamp of approval.

[NBooth]

Nah. The title was supposed to be "Red Sky at Night" but through a mix-up with the iPhone auto-correct it's now Dead Sky at Night, and there's talk of trying to get the words "Gold" and "Forever" in there.

[Peter T Chattaway]

FWIW, link to my three-year-old blog post on the previous film's title -- which includes a list of the Ian Fleming titles that have NOT been used yet:

• Risico -- plot elements have already been incorporated into the film version of For Your Eyes Only
  
• The Property of a Lady -- plot elements and titular phrase have already been incorporated into the film version of Octopussy
  
• The Hildebrand Rarity -- plot elements have already been incorporated into the film Licence to Kill
  
• 007 in New York -- sounds too much like a song by Sting, if you ask me

So far, only 5 of the 22 existing James Bond films have NOT been named after one of Ian Fleming's books or short stories ... however, of those titles, 2 were phrases that had already appeared in the James Bond books/films (Licence to Kill, The World Is Not Enough) and 1 was the name of the Caribbean vacation home where Fleming wrote the books (GoldenEye).

The 2 titles that had nothing particularly to do with Fleming or his writings were Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day -- so if the filmmakers go with a non-Fleming title for this film, you can probably expect it to include the word "die" as well as a reference to some future point in time.

[SDG]

Peter T Chattaway, on 21 January 2011 - 01:43 PM, said:

• The Hildebrand Rarity -- plot elements have already been incorporated into the film Licence to Kill
• 007 in New York -- sounds too much like a song by Sting, if you ask me

If 007 in New York sounds too much like a song by Sting, The Hildebrand Rarity sounds too much like a Mad Libs-style Ludlum novel.

TV Tropes: Mad Lib Thriller Title

Random thriller title generator using the Ludlum formula

Edited by SDG, 21 January 2011 - 01:54 PM.

[NBooth]

Quote

The 2 titles that had nothing particularly to do with Fleming or his writings were Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day -- so if the filmmakers go with a non-Fleming title for this film, you can probably expect it to include the word "die" as well as a reference to some future point in time.

At least one of those was a mistake. Well, both of them might have been a mistake, come to think of it, but yeah; whether it was initially a mistake or not, they do like death and time over there.

I would love to see Property of a Lady as the title, myself, for all that it's was used in Octopussy. It's not like anyone remembers the plot of that one anyway.

007 in New York sounds like an entry in a horror-movie franchise. Next up: Freddy meets 007.

Edited by NBooth, 21 January 2011 - 04:36 PM.

[Ryan H.]

My money's on RISICO.

[Judo Chop]

Ryan H., on 21 January 2011 - 05:51 PM, said:

My money's on RISICO.

Now that they've proven they're not afraid to chart obscure waters with words like "Quantum" and "Solace", I don't see why they wouldn't. It's not bad, really. Plus, Dan Craig is fully the face of Bond now and hardly needs a title to help sell tickets. It's sharp sounding, and it's got a little mystique. Is it a place? A person? Another organization? A codename for a scheme? An anagram for a device like the "A.T.A.C." of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY? Will Bond find out before it's too late? (Sorry. Got a little trailerish on y'all.)

I wish we had a different director. Love me some Craig though.

[Peter T Chattaway]

And as the villain ... Javier Bardem?

If so, he would apparently be only the second Oscar-winner to face off against Bond, the previous Oscar-winner-turned-Bond-villain being Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill (1985). (The current M, of course, is played by Judi Dench, who won an Oscar herself for Shakespeare in Love, 1998, between her second and third Bond films. The next Bond film will be her seventh.)