I think it’s more of a case of no one catching Barbara Broccoli’s eye like Daniel Craig did. And since she apparently really didn’t have her heart in the James Bond series anymore, especially with Michael G. Wilson leaving, nothing less than a blinking light “obvious” candidate would have done for her.
Regardless, of whether I think Henry Cavill is the obvious choice, there are other potential suitors out there, and it really does seem that Broccoli didn’t want to go through another round of weeding out the 007 candidates again and resuming the series without her batteries getting re-charged. But it’s been almost three and a half years since No Time To Die was released in cinemas and over five years since they were done filming NTTD and EON knew way back then that it would have to be getting a new 007 actor for the next film. This new hunt for the next Bond was not a surprise. EVERYONE knew it was going to happen, and yet despite all that “down time” Broccoli’s batteries for the Bond series were STILL not charged. And who knows if they ever were going to be re-charged?
No, I don’t think this was a case of Amazon joining Broccoli in thinking there were no candidates who were obvious or suitable. I think that was all on Broccoli/EON. I almost think Sean Connery could have been available at the peak of his career and Broccoli still wouldn’t have had her heart in it to continue.
So in the long run, it’s probably for the best for us fans that EON has ceded control over to Amazon. This Amy Pascal and David Heyman news is very promising and gives me hope. I’m probably a little more optimistic than I was immediately after the transfer of power. Amazon seems to be making a good first couple of steps. Hopefully it continues with a solid choice for James Bond and that they can keep giving us quality James Bond entertainment. But as with everything, time will tell.
I’m undecided about Cuarón, I think I know too little of his style to really have a handle on him. I only know CHILDREN OF MEN (on which I’m indifferent), AZKABAN (which I liked, but how much of it was really down to the Potter story?) and ROMA, which I also liked and which was probably his most ‘personal’ film of the three.
Hearing that news I was initially interested since I also had faint memories of PAN’S LABYRINTH and THE WITCHES, a fantasy/gothic element that might suit a Bond film and for which I’ve been arguing for some time now. But those he only produced. So right now I’m not sure what to make of it. I don’t know about the Mendes school, but it does indeed feel like Cuarón could also have been chosen by traditional Eon.
I’m not familiar enough with Cuaron’s work to have an opinion on him as a potential Bond director. Campbell, on the other hand, is someone who they should not be considering at this point. He’s 81 now and will be at least 82 before they get this thing up and running. The franchise also needs to be looking forward and not backward. I don’t think it would be a good thing for the franchise, especially as it starts what is essentially now a “new” franchise of Bond films, to have the same director introduce three consecutive Bond actors to the world over a span of three-plus decades.
This. Looking back now it seems indeed quite obvious how Broccoli avoided going onwards from Craig already after SPECTRE. Nothing in that film really called for Craig to come back. His story was told and ended in the perfect ambiguous manner to have another Bond pick up seamlessly and without undue contradictions. And yet, they waited several years to haul Craig back.
I initially was happy for him to have a chance at a better finale. But the truth of it apparently was exactly what @dalton has been saying all along: creatively they were at a dead end. NO TIME TO DIE just managed to turn that crisis into one last film, an allegory on the series as a whole: self referential, bloated like a corpse, running on the fumes of product placement and not much more. Even the last line was brutally honest there, James Bond will return - just not under Eon’s stewardship.
It really becomes evident if you look at the overall arc of the two eras that the now-former regime at EON oversaw. They follow such a similar arc that one can’t help but feel like we already know how the next actor’s tenure would have gone down if things had remained the same: opening film that reinvents Bond for a new era while trying to “peel back the layers” of the character, a second action-heavy film that manages to pay lip service to what would otherwise be a surprisingly prescient topic, a third film that dwells on the past of Bond’s boss as well as the somewhat fraught mother/son relationship between the two, and then a finale (in the case of Craig, this is spread over two films) that seeks to be a greatest-hits package set against a science-fiction backdrop, with the Craig films having the added bonus of plundering the Austin Powers franchise, of all things, for story inspiration.
I have no idea what Amazon’s going to do with Bond. They are off to a good start, so far, with the limited knowledge that we have. They could very well mess it up, though. But it’s going to be something new, and that’s exciting. I think we kind of know what we would be getting from EON if they were the ones introducing us to Bond #7, and it would have probably been more of the same and would probably have made it feel as though the franchise was on even shakier legs, creatively, moving forward than it was with SP and NTTD.
Regarding Cuarón’s work, i’ve only watched Children of Men, and perhaps He would do well with the spy stuff, but the action side of things is another matter.
Truth be told, I’d be quite okay with - another shocking Bond confession - a considerably less action-heavy entry. A film like MARATHON MAN had one explosion, one vicious fight, one low key finale. And the rest of it kept going on suspense and mystery. If a Bond film could manage a similar result I’d call it an improvement.
I’m feeling quite good too, and share your belief that Barbara just wasn’t energised to keep going. I’m not getting any younger either. As a James Bond fan I want new James Bond content to enjoy and Amazon have the initiative to provide that.
I like NTTD but that’s become a moot point. It’s a piece of work from a now former regime and things are bound to be different by default, as they should be.
It’s wise to keep caution, but on paper this has the potential to give people things they’ve been wanting. I’d rather there be movement than absolutely nothing, which I believe would’ve continued for a long time if EON retained ownership.
What I wonder is: Had Cuarón been announced this time last year by Eon, wouldn’t the more knowledgeable industrygazers have nodded and said, that’s a logical next-step decision from Broccoli’s POV?
Mind you, that’s not to say it was a wrong decision for Amazon to make. Both can be true at the same time.
I think it’s reasonable to assume we’re headed down that road anyway. They made a lot of money going that route. I would expect it to continue, for better or worse.
The thing is, EON has always, whether intentional or not, course corrected throughout the James Bond series. They went from the serious, back to basics On Her Majesty’s Secret Service starring George Lazenby to the comedic Diamonds Are Forever with Sean Connery which carried over into the Roger Moore era. Then they went for the serious Shakespearean actor in Timothy Dalton for his run before lightening up with Pierce Brosnan. They then went back to the serious, angst-filled run of Daniel Craig. Following that scenario, they/we are due for some more light-heartedness with the next James Bond.
Of course, we’re now dealing with Amazon rather than EON, but I think the principle still stands. We’ve had roughly 20 years of a moody, beaten down Bond. We need to have the aspirational 007 return and the fun put back into the series, and going down the Craig route again would seem to be unoriginal and being stuck in the EON rut that we all feared it, and the series, was in.
However, my gut instinct tells me that if we bring in someone like Cuarón or Danny Boyle, we’ll end up with something similar to what Mendes has done, which is a major concern for me.