News on NO TIME TO DIE (no spoilers)

I remember that, South Africa was one of the locations considered for the pre-title sequence before they settled on Turkey. I think that one came down to money/ budget more than any creative reasons.

Good catch! Certainly wouldnā€™t be the first time an old idea was dusted off and used.

I could definitely see that being a thread at the very least. All writers need human interest in their stories - something the audience can relate to. Often thatā€™s a hard sell in action movies about spy betraying one another, hacking, shadowy organisations and global surveillance systems.

They tried to make it more relatable with the water plot in QoS, but a few GVs of thirsty looking Bolivians didnā€™t quite cut it. Human trafficking is a very emotive subject that, if served prepoerly could deliver far more relatable jeopardy than weā€™re used to in Bond. I can see Craig, CJF and any writer being very open to that.

Fair point indeed!

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Namibia was reportedly location scouted prior to Boyleā€™s departure.

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While Iā€™d like to see them tackle such a topic, it would again be a reminder of the missed opportunity of using it in Casino Royale. Tackling the human trafficking issue then, instead of issue of terrorism that had already more than saturated the entertainment landscape by the time 2006 rolled around, would have allowed EON to make a much more faithful adaptation of Flemingā€™s novel.

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I can see Craig, CJF and any writer being very open to that.

Especially CJF. His first feature film, Sin Nombre, was an adventure thriller about illegal immigration. And letā€™s not forget Beasts of No Nation, a film about an African warlord.

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The major question for me is: how severe and realistic can the topic of a Bond film be?

The caper at the heart of any Bond film so far has worked best when it was treated as lightly as possible. More reality might break the concept of the inherent pulpy entertainment.

Trafficking might be too grueling for that.

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Agreed; best keep it light and frothyā€¦ likeā€¦ planetary genocideā€¦ mwahahaha

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Quite. Things Bond can stop. People trafficking isā€¦not one of those things. Bare in mind this is a series that has gone out of its way to remain apolitical (mostly)

I remain convinced that thereā€™s a way for Bond to branch out from what theyā€™ve typically done and tackle more uncomfortable things. At the heart of the series is a man who is essentially sanctioned by his government to commit murder as he sees fit, and in some films in the franchise, exercises it quite freely. Not exactly a nice, sunny idea in and of itself. Surely, a deft writer (or team of writers) could find a way to make a Bond film that works outside of the somewhat narrow confines that EON has set in place for themselves over 50+ years and make it work with audiences.

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CJFā€™s True Detective was an unresolved plot about a VIP poedo ring trafficking young girls.

But When it comes to bond I think itā€™s in the nature of blockbuster, big budget tent pole movies that thereā€™ll always be many cooks with a say on things and thatā€™s the main problem when it comes to a complex, controversial screenplay.

The sheer number of execs and studio suits cause enough problems in the relatively frothy variety of movie (SP). Imagine the hair pulling, gnashing of teeth, back and forth snippy emails when human trafficking and the poedophilia that goes hand in hand with it are the subject matter.

Things would twist so far out of any good writers control that a mess is surely inevitable.

In theory Iā€™d love a gritty bond that dealt with this kind of darker stuff; as dalton pointed out above bondā€™s profession is itself damned dark, so darker subject matter would unlock interesting avenues to explore bond without it being another ā€˜all about bondā€™ navel gazing plot.

A novel could tackle it more effectively. So long as they can find a writer who can handle that stuff without on one hand sensationaliztion it, or on the other making it a wholey depressing read.

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The human trafficking angle could work within the context of a SPECTRE-run enterprise since that was one of the projects discussed at the board meeting.

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Bond films are designed for a mass audience as family entertainment.

Therefore every topic has to be treated as abstract as possible in order to create the necessary distance that allows not to think too much about the horrible consequences of the villainous plan.

Trafficking could only be mentioned in passing without being at the forefront of the villainā€˜s actions. In other words: who would want to see Bond dealing with the horrific pain and treatment of women and children?

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I donā€™t think that itā€™s one or the other, to be honest. I canā€™t believe Iā€™m going to hold this up as an example of how to go about filmmaking, but Taken handled the topic fairly well. In fact, aside from Neesonā€™s fisticuffs, itā€™s about the only thing the film does well. It does more than gloss over the issue, giving the audience enough of a behind-the-scenes look at it to further put the audience on Neesonā€™s side of things, but it never gets bogged down in it to the point where it takes you out of the movie.

Now I need to go and ponder how things went so sideways that I found myself defending that garbage film.

On the other topic of discussion, I do think that Bond films can emerge from being these cookie-cutter affairs that are aimed at the widest possible audience and still be very financially successful. Eventually, itā€™s going to have to in order to remain financially viable as thereā€™s only so many times you can tell what is essentially the same story over and over and over again.

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I bet more than one critic said that at the end of the 70s :wink:

But Taken was ā€œonlyā€ a Liam Neeson flick, whereas any Bond movie is the big thing thatā€™s being talked about months, even years before shooting starts at all. Itā€™s the film that has an instant place in movie history (and be it just as the worst ever). Itā€™s going to have Royals at the Premiere, and a free-TV premiere in Xmas week and it has to have a 12 rating. And above all, it has all those big sponsorship deals with Omega and Heineken and Ford and Sony (maybe not any more), and such difficult topics donā€™t sit very well with those.

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Sad, but true.

Thatā€˜s the essence of it: a mainstream entertainment can only go so far in tackling a grave topic.

Thatā€™s not only a consideration of profits and the environment the sponsors want to see their products shown in. Thereā€™s also the very real risk of failure in the artistic intention and accusations of using such topics merely as a vehicle for the entertainment of a more or less brutalised audience.

Iā€™m not sure a Bond film could really find that balance, doing the theme justice and still remain attractive to the broad audience. After all, there are countless real life horrors in our world which just refuse to be depicted in a casual, ā€˜entertainingā€™ manner, child abuse, rape and mutilation employed as war tactics, child soldiers, so on. Weā€™ll never see them addressed - other than in a cursory fashion - in mainstream film, simply because they cannot feature in a story thatā€™s meant to end for the viewers with a ā€˜happy endā€™.

By their very nature, by the DNA Fleming gave his works, Bond films are escapism - a fairytale for grownups. This can be a scary or even brutal story - but itā€™s not meant to be a story too close to reality.*

*To illustrate what I mean here: Fleming has been accused of sadism, especially in his first two books with their torture scenes. But Fleming, in his position during the war, has seen a number of real-life cases which were far more horrible, to the point of being unspeakable. He never understood that accusation and could rightfully claim that his books still remained on the very tame side of affairs.

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Even at itā€™s grittiest I think Bond is probably better staying away from something like human trafficking. Yes, they dealt with terrorism in the past but that was terrorism for hire rather than the much more problematic subject of religious extremism, which hasnā€™t been touched on for equally good reasons. Having Bond enter that world and runs the risk of trivialising it, after all ā€˜Bond villainā€™ has become short hand for over the top villains with overly elaborate schemes and not something you want associated with such a serious subject.
The reference we got in SPECTRE is about as Bond should go in that area.

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