007 25

[Ken Gargett]

some info on the next installment for anyone who missed it.

Director: Danny Boyle Screenplay: John Hodge Distribution: Universal Pictures Production start: 3rd December 2018 UK release: 25th October 2019 needless to say, Daniel Craig is back as Bond.

[JamesKPolkEsq]

If only they would re-do Dr. No. I think that modern filmmaking would do that particular story well...

[MIKA27]

On 5/26/2018 at 8:30 PM, Ken Gargett said:

some info on the next installment for anyone who missed it.

needless to say, Daniel Craig is back as Bond.

Yes but where does that leave the franchise after Craig exits after this one?

I read the below article which I found interesting and I agree with the opinion of the author.

[MIKA27]

WHY A FEMALE JAMES BOND WILL BURN THE 007 FRANCHISE TO THE GROUND

Source: DMARGE

“Bond. Jane Bond.”

Sounds a bit naff doesn’t it? That tends to happen when you play the game of counterfeit instead of create in Hollywood. And today we need to address this predicament as it concerns one of the world’s most beloved film spies.

Quote

“Why should a woman get sort of sloppy seconds?” – Rosamund Pike

Over the years there’s been growing noise for a female 007 to finally be thrust upon this world. Such was the significance of the online movement that it even attracted the interest of talents like Gillian Anderson, Priyanka Chopra and Emilia Clarke alongside support from Idris Elba.

As good as they all are at their day job, let us be one of few (and definitely not the last) to express our explicit opinion. For the love of God, don’t.

Badass female leads taking on big budget action flicks is cool, but you don’t just bastardise a tradition and a character’s core values dating back more than half a century to make a quick buck. But what about the era of female empowerment? Well if your idea of female empowerment is following in the footsteps of a gun-totting womaniser with a bad habit for drinking and gambling, then this conversation is over. It’s not empowering, it’s just lazy writing from producers who want to cash in on what’s trending with the help of an existing formula that’s been proven in the box office.

Quote

“Why not create your own story rather than jumping onto the shoulders and being compared to all those other male predecessors?” – Rachel Weisz

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Academy Award-winning Rachel Weisz, and actual wife to Daniel Craig, set the record straight.

“[Ian Fleming] devoted an awful lot of time to writing this particular character, who is particularly male and relates in a particular way to women.”

“Why not create your own story rather than jumping onto the shoulders and being compared to all those other male predecessors? Women are really fascinating and interesting, and should get their own stories.”

Weisz isn’t the only Hollywood female voice to come out in opposition of the idea. Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike recently explained in an interview with Uproxx that the notion of a female 007 was a cheap move in the fight to put females in leading roles.

“James Bond is a character that Ian Fleming created. Of course the brand has become bigger and whatever, but take one of the Bond Girls and give her her own story. I think the character of James Bond is a man.”

“To have such a character in a completely independent series, why should a woman get sort of sloppy seconds?”

“Why should she have once been a man and now it has to be played by a woman? Why not make a kick-ass female agent in her own right?”

Pike adds that swapping the gender of 007 would in actual fact “underestimate a woman entirely”.

And herein lies the problem. When Hollywood decides to create copy a film that supposedly champions a new era in equality, they actually end up creating a big steaming pile of turd. The proof is in the films rolling out in the past two years featuring an all-female cast that was once led by male actors.

Exhibit A, the trailer for the latest Ghostbusters reboot.

Exhibit B, the trailer for Ocean’s 8, the reboot of 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven which looks more like Sex & the City 3.

Gender-biased or not, novel industry names in reboots simply don’t cut it anymore and if you need a recent evidence of that, just look at 2017’s Baywatch which starred The Rock, Zac Efron and Alexandra Daddario. All bankable names for their own right and yet, the film only holds an 18% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a mediocre box office return.

If producers of James Bond want to bring a strong female character into the fold then it needs to be done on its own standing. Sigourney Weaver in ALIENS pioneered it and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill killed it, as did Chloë Grace Moretz in Kick-Ass and Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde.

The future of 007 and screen equality still holds some hope though – just in more subtle ways that are sure to pay real dividends.

Last year James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that Eon Productions had struck a deal with IM Global and Paramount to adapt Mark Burnell’s spy novel, The Rhythm Section. Blake Lively will star in the lead of this espionage action-thriller, a film which Broccoli has been trying green light with studios for the past seven years.

It sounds promising already and if it’s anything like the supreme effort that Charlize Theron put in her own spy thriller (see above), you can expect there to be less cringe and much more respect.

Not allowing a female James Bond isn’t about being sexist, it’s about making films that aren’t s**t.

 

[Ken Gargett]

i think this article was from a couple of years ago? i'm sure i saw it a while back. 

i think that the idea of a female bond was floated shortly after the last one when craig said never again. seems connery's wife was correct - never say never again. 

there was then a lot of talk he'd signed for two more. if the next one is a big success, i can see him doing one more. if you are offered squillions, more than set you up for life, why not? 

but a female bond? i think that was dimwitted journos desperate for clickbait and nothing more and then people have to refute it. bond is still a family business. that family knows their product/market. they have not always got it right but i cannot imagine, other than for a headline, they are ever seriously considering that. would not work. keen to see a woman dr who but that can work because of the regeneration. and hardly the same thing. will not happen. 

there is more chance of me playing bond than any woman. i would put money on that. 

[dangolf18]

It’s about time we need a new Bond (in my opinion). Hate to say it but Daniel Craig just isn’t that good of an actor.

[BrightonCorgi]

James Bond needs to say like the character he has always been.  Not a woman, not a minority....  There could be other 00 characters for them and may be even better movies, but let's keep 007 as is.  Just my rant.

[Doctorossi]

13 hours ago, MIKA27 said:

Yes but where does that leave the franchise after Craig exits after this one?

Just looking for an actor again. They've been there before.

[ritter6788]

Never seen any of the Bond movies.  Nothing against it just never got around to watching any of them. 

[cigcars]

On 5/26/2018 at 4:54 PM, FatherOfPugs said:

Isn't this supposed to be Daniel Craig's last film as James Bond?

    ** He was offered $100,000,000 (one hundred million) dollars to be Bond again....I think if I had the chops to play a Bond -type, yet it made me sick to my stomach and ready to throw up...I'd be back as Bond too!     

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, cigcars said:

    ** He was offered $100,000,000 (one hundred million) dollars to be Bond again....I think if I had the chops to play a Bond -type, yet it made me sick to my stomach and ready to throw up...I'd be back as Bond too!     

i'd be interested if you have anything definite on that. i heard similar figures a while back (they were talking $150 mill for two films, i think) but i also saw him completely deny it. as far as i can see, it is only media speculation so we click away. that said, he'll no doubt get a very very fat pay packet for it. 

mind you, if they make a half bill profit with him, then you can understand it. 

[n0s4atu]

I heard it was $60 million and I'm guessing no percentage of the gross.  Either way, I'll definitely go see it. 

I don't much care for the current Hollywood trend of changing characters genders, race, etc for no other reason than to remove a white male from a role.  Having said that Idris Elba could absolutely pull off the role because James Bond must be a few things, English, Male and have a suave vibe about him. He ticks off all those boxes.

[Ken Gargett]

49 minutes ago, n0s4atu said:

I heard it was $60 million and I'm guessing no percentage of the gross.  Either way, I'll definitely go see it. 

I don't much care for the current Hollywood trend of changing characters genders, race, etc for no other reason than to remove a white male from a role.  Having said that Idris Elba could absolutely pull off the role because James Bond must be a few things, English, Male and have a suave vibe about him. He ticks off all those boxes.

i will too. elba too old now. 15 years ago, maybe.

but, and not to rain on any parades, bond has never been english. british sure, but he has a scottish father and swiss mother. 

[n0s4atu]

Just now, Ken Gargett said:

i will too. elba too old now. 15 years ago, maybe.

but, and not to rain on any parades, bond has never been english. british sure, but he has a scottish father and swiss mother. 

lol My American is showing, I did actually mean British. And hey Idris is only 45, but I suppose that's another trend too, making everyone uber young so they can get many films out of them.  Perhaps we need to be on the lookout for  Jane Bond: Teen Super Spy.

I like Daniel Craig as Bond, but Connery and Moore (especially Moore) will always be Bond to me.

[Ken Gargett]

Just now, n0s4atu said:

lol My American is showing, I did actually mean British. And hey Idris is only 45, but I suppose that's another trend too, making everyone uber young so they can get many films out of them.  Perhaps we need to be on the lookout for  Jane Bond: Teen Super Spy.

I like Daniel Craig as Bond, but Connery and Moore (especially Moore) will always be Bond to me.

lazenby was the first i saw so always had a soft spot. connery one of a kind and will always be THE 007. moore i enjoyed in the early couple but i thought he took it into farce and degraded the entire thing. in the overall pantheon, he is last for me. i liked dalton and i think that he was much closer to the intent than many but let down by average scripts of the day. brosnan made a great remington steele and a lightweight bond. craig has been superb, i think. close to connery and his movies, well first and third at least, as good as any, perhaps the best of all. 

[n0s4atu]

Hmm, I think I need to revisit Octopussy with my cigar today, it was the first one I saw in theaters, which is why I have a soft spot for Moore, even if admittedly some/most of his exploits as Bond were often rather silly.

[ayepatz]

For me, it’s John Barry who made Bond great.

If you go back to the scores of the Connery films, the soundtracks just ooze with the elegance and glamour of the times, then, when the violence erupts, Barry blasts us with an astonishing array of big, ballsy, brass fanfares.

In later films, the themes became more and more diluted and bland, as he tried to keep up with the producers’ demands for reflecting the (dire) musical tastes of the day, but, for me, those first four Connery films created the musical world of Bond.

How great would it be for the new movie to feature some of those classic old big band trumpet flares?

Such things are always a matter of personal taste, but, for me, the greatest opening to any Bond movie is From Russia with Love. The fanfare lasts but a few seconds before giving way to the big sixties, romantic main theme, but in those few seconds you’ve been woken up, slapped across the chops, and primed for the most exhilarating ride of your life.

John Barry. Master Craftsman. I salute you.

 

[Ken Gargett]

10 hours ago, ayepatz said:

For me, it’s John Barry who made Bond great.

If you go back to the scores of the Connery films, the soundtracks just ooze with the elegance and glamour of the times, then, when the violence erupts, Barry blasts us with an astonishing array of big, ballsy, brass fanfares.

In later films, the themes became more and more diluted and bland, as he tried to keep up with the producers’ demands for reflecting the (dire) musical tastes of the day, but, for me, those first four Connery films created the musical world of Bond.

How great would it be for the new movie to feature some of those classic old big band trumpet flares?

Such things are always a matter of personal taste, but, for me, the greatest opening to any Bond movie is From Russia with Love. The fanfare lasts but a few seconds before giving way to the big sixties, romantic main theme, but in those few seconds you’ve been woken up, slapped across the chops, and primed for the most exhilarating ride of your life.

John Barry. Master Craftsman. I salute you.

 

he was fantastic.

did a few others - ipcress file i remember. 

they really lucked into some perfect timing with shirley bassey, tom jones et al of the day. perfect.