News on NO TIME TO DIE (no spoilers)

I could see him commanding the Werewolf sleeper cell if they did a faithful adaptation of Moonraker!

If there ever was such a thing as a proper Moonraker adaptation, would they perhaps use some names from a long list of German actors for the parts of Krebs, Dr Walter and Drax? I still think it was a shame Ulrich Matthes didn’t appear as Bond villain…

Be that as it may, by going public with it - as has been noted - Branagh will likely not play a role in BOND 25.

You’re not alone. I wasn’t entirely sold on him for a lonng time, until I saw what he did in that one “Tatort”-Episode with Ulrich Tukur…

Fabulous. What a Blofeld he could have made. He has that rare quality to depict an evil character that is at the same time over-the-top and believable, understandable even.

Then again I’m glad he wasn’t just hired to mutter a mere dozen sentences, eleven of which completely forgettable…

True, although I’d have loved to see it too. Was it Le Chiffre that he was the original choice for?

As far as I remember, yes. Mads Mikkelsen was quite alright though, a most memorable villain after a long dry spell. Maybe Matthes would have added a nuance or two.

Yup. He couldn’t accept the offer as he was comitted to a theatre tour – and he said he never breaks his contracts. He was offered the part after he played Goebbels in Downfall.

In that Tatort* episode, he played an ex-cop who made a career as a drug dealer in South America. Returns home after 30 years to take (extremely) bloody revenge and has an elaborate plan for it. A lunatic megalomaniac in one of the weirdest episodes ever.

(*too complicated to explain the Tatort format. Wikipedia can do that for me… It’s the German crime series, running for more than 45 years with over 1000 episodes, prime time on Sunday, and this was one of the most discussed episodes ever)

And what about Derrick ?

Derrick’s not even close. It used to be an export hit but was fairly grounded in 70s/80s schematic telly fodder. While half of Europe has watched Derrick at a time today’s audiences would struggle to see its appeal. It still has its fans of course. But its cultural impact seems at best questionable today - like most tv shows of that era. It ran for 24 years and a bit less than 300 episodes. But there is hardly a significant difference between the first and last one.

Tatort (scene-of-crime) on the other hand is closing in on its 50th anniversary. Over the decades the show has acted as a cultural yardstick not only for tv entertainment and workmanship in film production, it’s also been a social and political indicator with its themes and characters, its storylines never far from the pulse of the Bundesrepublik. With its anthology format - housing a variety of investigator teams - it has tackled every facet of the genre from Whodunnit to thriller to satire, and everything in between.

In short, you may watch the entire Derrick canon and still not get more acquainted with German reality and its customs. But if you just watch three different Tatort episodes from each decade you will get a pretty good idea which things concerned Germans during the respective times and how they were wrapped into tv entertainment.

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This is actually making me curious about the other “what-if’s” of Bond. CR alone must have dozens given how late into production Le Chiffre and Vesper were cast.

This may also have been due to the general situation back then: the previous film ending the series in a corner with an uneven script and production. Then it wasn’t clear how well the original Fleming material would hold up in a modern action/suspense blockbuster. And finally they had to introduce a new lead actor too. Possible candidates may have been hesitant to come aboard in that kind of atmosphere.

Which may actually be not so far from the current situation yet again, as the lack of significant news on BOND 25 over such a prolonged period attests.

Apologies in advance for posting this…

Rumor was that Rachel McAdams was offered the part of Vesper Lynd and turned it down. This was when she was at the height of her popularity and had generally refused to do franchise fare.

Kind of a shame as I think that a Casino Royale featuring her and Branagh as Le Chiffre would have been quite interesting. Branagh especially would have been an interesting choice, and as much as I like Mikkelsen in the role, I think Branagh would have been a better choice. Both McAdams and Branagh might have caused the eventual fates of both of the characters to be a bit more surprising to an audience who was unfamiliar with the source material. It would have been fairly shocking for McAdams to turn out to be the traitor, given the roles that she’d played to that point, and an actor with the presence of Branagh would have been surprising to see turn out to be as weak and not as in control of things as Le Chiffre ultimately turned out to be.

More from Villenueve about Bond…

http://www.darkhorizons.com/villeneuve-on-turning-down-james-bond/

That’s a massive bummer. Was really hoping they’d get him as I think he’s one of a small few who could actually come in and save this franchise.

Oh well, guess we’ll be getting Nolan to come in here and finish out EON’s Nolan rip-off trilogy with a sampling of the real thing to close it all out.

Looking forward to 2030 when Bond 26 hits theaters with Bond #7.

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This is all being kept very hush hush, naturally, but I am worried they still don’t have a director lined up yet.

No one knows whats going on, even poor Whishaw!

You say even, the actors are often LITERALLY the last to know any hirings for a film - as Whishaw points out in the full interview. Best example on this - Danny Boyle knew Harris was playing Moneypenny before Harris did. If they want to ask someone who’ll know, they should ask one of the MANY types of producer on the film. They’ll know what’s going on LONG before the actors will (bar, got himself a co-producer credit, Daniel Craig)

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Also… actors are not allowed to say what they know.

If they want to keep the release date they have to get cracking and start shooting later this year.

I’m confident there will be serious activity by the end of the year. And, along with the continued release of the Dynamite comics, we have Horowitz’s second book.