News on NO TIME TO DIE (no spoilers)

Burns was confirmed by various sources as working on Bond 25’s script, uncredited.

Seems like he did as much as he could in 4 weeks to polish the script, then hastily moved on to his next project.

This is all, very last minute isn’t it? Shooting isn’t far away…

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This, again, comes from Playlist…had anyone ever heard of them before they started dropping Bond 25 “exclusives”

Related note; Is it weird that the source sounds more suspicious to me than the info?

Was it though? Or was it the same source repeated a lot? “according to The Playlist” is used in a great many… here’s 4 relatively reputable sources, all of whom blatantly copy and paste the same sentence (right down to Burns film credits)

Pretty sure it was Baz Bamigoye who also reported it too, and we know he is pretty reliable.

I will be interested to see if Burns gets the leading screenplay credit over P+W

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If he’s only been on it for about a month - no way.

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Yes. It´s one of the many entertainment rumor sites which also features quite extensive reviews. They pick up gossip and news - so they are as reliable as all the others. Which means: they print rumors to generate traffic.

But in this case, it seems plausible. Again, the real question is: was Burns always only drafted for 4-5 weeks? If so, it really appears to have been only a polish. If not…

Dramatic drumroll, please

… BOND 25 will be delayed again or scrapped completely. Not because it is impossible to deliver a script that can be shot (didn’t stop the previous 24 films) but because no one wants to really commit. And in the film business it´s always easier and safer to say no in order to stay on the winners´ side. To say yes means you can be made responsible for the failure. And successes are rare, so…

“According to the playlist” :roll_eyes: he’s off to direct an episode of The Loudest Voice. Something which started filming in November last year, so Burns absolutely would’ve known when he needed to leave.

I’m still highly dubious of a source that has a “got a tip?” tab on the top right of the page, but it is what it is.

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And rightly so.

But to be fair - every entertainment outlet these days is looking for rumors and tips and rarely double checks it. And why would they in this case? EON would only say: no comment.

Official press releases are the only reliable information. And those aren’t really coming that often these days from EON.

One thing is for sure: the development of a script for BOND 25 has not been smooth sailing. And while that may be true for most big blockbuster films and Bond films in general, the development process in this particular case seems to be plagued by indecision and too many cooks in the kitchen.

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I’m just going to sit back and wait for an official announcement, whenever that is. The speculation can drive you crazy with various scenarios, either real or imagined, rolling around in your head. These uncertain times are easily exploited by the tabloids. Let’s wait a little longer (not that we have any other choice). All will be revealed.

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25’s script development troubles or indecisiveness on the part of EON was just baseless speculation - or thats what you told me a little while ago :wink: but yes it appears it has in no way been smooth sailing - that said, the scott burns news is not necessarily anything new (he could have been contracted for his rewrite and gone on to his next thing which is totally normal - i imagine fukunaga will give it another once over before he starts shooting for real too, maybe p+w on eon side)

I imagine that Eon were well aware of Burns availability and that is no shock to them. They nabbed him for as long as they could to work on CJFs draft, which will now go back to him if it needs any tweaks.

Everyone would prefer a script so good and tight that no one wants to tweak it, but that’s gotta be a rare thing. Scripts are never finished until the movie’s cut. Whatever the script’s current state of undress i think they’ll go ahead with the shoot without further delay and hope for the best. That’s my armchair analysis, which is worth sod all.

We can only hope that CJFs on his game.

Indeed! But at this point in the process if all parties aren’t in the same room to go over any thoughts upon Burns’ draft, then i despair.

From Playlist:

Well, things aren’t looking good at the moment, as the script is apparently still unfinished and filming is set to begin next month.

Bears an uncanny resemblance to the current Brexit position, as though BB and May are taking misguided advice from the same individual.

When you say Bond 25 could be scrapped - do you mean, another Bond film may never be made?

I suppose another way to look at it is the script for Bond 25 has more going for it than the script for Quantum of Solace, and for a lot of us that turned out just fine.

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If the state of the script is accurate (incomplete) at this late juncture, and they can’t come up with something that can be filmed after FOUR years to get something ready, then it is indeed a sad situation on many levels. I prefer to have the glass half-filled and hope that all this is just inaccurate speculation.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Logan and Haggis mostly used for polishing the dialogue for their respective Bond films? Wouldn’t this be the case for Burns as well, versus the massive rewrite some are speculating?

No, no, no. Of course, there will be another Bond film.

But this last Craig Film may go the way of the third Dalton Bond if push comes to shove.

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Difference is - Bond 25 IS filming (2nd unit though it may be), and the “extensive rewrites” have only one source - a click bait friendly site. The two more reputable sources (Baz, Variety) mention only that he’s doing a polish (Variety) and he wasn’t finished the last time checked (Baz)

And to be fair, as someone mentioned, QoS (and to an extent LTK) were filmed with a Writers Strike going on. And TND - well if there’d been a CBn chatroom back then, it might have imploded completely under the weight of discussion of all the different hands and process of that script making it up on-screen.

Yes - whatever is happening now could be reflective of the quality of the final product we see on-screen (a la SP, IMHO). But we’ve all been around the block long enough to now that in art, the tortured process of creation is not necessarily a forerunner of the finished product.

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To me, this seems like Burns was contracted for a quick polish, which he completed and has now moved on to other things. The production issues that have plagued Bond 25 are very similar to the production issues EON have had for the better part of 30 years now. When was the last time it was smooth sailing getting one of these films made? Maybe The World Is Not Enough? Goldeneye ended a 6 year drought that saw a film get cancelled and speculation on the death of the Bond franchise. TND filmed with an incomplete script and an incorrect title, DAD had Lee Tamahori and a 3 year gap. CR released 4 years later with a new Bond and 3 screenwriters, QoS filmed with a first draft script and Daniel Craig providing story updates. Bond 23 lingered in development hell for several years before SF released and Spectre was delayed for a year to accommodate Sam Mendes, whose script was in such dire straights, EON had to beg P&W to come back and rewrite it. Now Bond 25 has lingered in development hell again for several years despite Annapurna and Universal funding it. We’re on the second director, working on most likely someone else’s script and not his own and probably draft 25 of the screenplay. As Mr. White would say, EON is a kite dancing in a hurricane.

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