News on NO TIME TO DIE (no spoilers)

God I hope so! I hope he goes full Boyle on it!

I agree re the tone of LTK. However, boyles darkness incorporates a ton of wit and dark humour (as in trainspotting 1 & 2). The tonal palette of his movies can be very wide as he’s a master of shifting from one tone to another; instead of trying to contrive transitions from dark to light and back again, he creates tensions that are welcomly relieved by wit, or lightness that suddenly turns violent without warning (see Begby).

Forgive my odd comparison here, but a past master of suddenly shifting from dark to light was John Sullivan and his Only Fools and Horses scripts. His ability to shift tone mid-scene tapped into the emotions, rather than just being markers for chapter points where corners are turned.

Pathos, I guess! Bond has (or should have) its share of pathos. Craig brings it and boyles good at it so that combination could really enrich bond.

Most filmmakers employ the ‘End scene—begin new scene with score to set new tone’ formal mode of storytelling. The great filmmakers can change tone without these clunky mechanics mid-scene that either makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, or makes you cry or laugh with relief. They employ all their tools, including lighting and score to shift tone in very exciting ways.

A great example is in Pulp Fiction when Willis has a change of heart and grabs the samurai sword as the crazy surf music kicks in - - then he heads to the basement to rescue his enemy from the Gimp (and they say americans don’t do irony!). The juxtaposition of the fun music and tense narrative is what sets filmmakers like Tarantino and boyle apart from the rest. Many try to ape them, but Tarantino, Boyle, Scorsese, Lynch are masters at it. Boyles the first bond director who works in this way.

As you say, it’s our first punk bond - about time! Boyle’s smart enough to know the difference between what tropes to keep and what to shake up and, most importantly, he has a visceral gift for shaking those things up in very engaging and exciting ways.

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I think we’re all in for a massive shock.

If anyone has seen Trainspotting, T2, Trance, Slumdog, Shallow Grave- they are anything but Bond films in tone.

I think he is going to really shake things up for DC’s swansong (and it WILL be his last film, you can tell he has had enough) . Expect roving, kinetic camera-work, bonkers fights and an acerbic script.

Cannae wait!

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Costume Designer Jany Temime not returning…

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I’m relishing this!

His visceral style is so idiosyncratic that it’s easy to forget he has a great ear for dialogue too. Between him and hodge i expect to it sting the ears in the best way.

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Finally some news concrete news. Maybe we’ll start hearing about the cast in the next few months.

Probably not until a full draft script is finished.

Actors will need to see it before agreeing. I’m not sure if Hodge has finished a full draft, or just a spec version for Eon’s agreement. Needs to be the former before casting formally begins (usually).

That’s fair. I was looking more down the road, maybe September-November. I think that’s around the time we started getting concrete announcements for Skyfall and Spectre.

I agree with this - if you look back at past Bond’s, the earliest casting announcements were made was September.

I remember reading last spring/summer when Eon was looking at possible partners that they were looking for a deal for one picture only.

I have a feeling with Universal (Comcast) trying to buy Fox and MGM possibly being up for sale that a more permanate home will emerge for Bond by the next pic (and next actor)…

HUZZAH! Daniel Craig will finally wear suits which fit him!

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Boyle may well be sounding out actors already - i’d be surprised if he didn’t already know who he wanted as the villain. He’ll want a nod from him/her so he can have Hodge write the dialogue for that actor. But, of course nothing will be confirmed, let alone announced until the agent sees a contract. But, yeah, Boyle and a few of the cast (returning aside) probably already know.

I almost forgot what it was like to come here and read actual Bond news. It’ll get exciting from here on out.

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All of this is great news;
the production schedule is tight but as noted above, that is Boyle’s style.
I’m excited,
I’m a big Boyle fan, he’s a Manchester lad and his cinematic sensibilities should provide a fascinating addition to the canon.
Also FWIW, T2 was one of my top 3 movies of last year

Great news all around! Exciting stuff for sure! I for one am happy to have a director who works quickly and keeps things lean. After SPECTRE, the last thing we need is bloat. I can’t wait to see what new twists and turns Boyle and Hodge have in mind.

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I wouldn’t worry about it - Spectre began production in December 8th. They’ll get ‘er done…

I wonder which cast members will return. The MI6 team definitively will (Fiennes, Harris, Whishaw, Kinnear). How about Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter? He may be to busy to do it. Dave Bautista has said that he would like to (I support that). He also may be to busy to do it. Christoph Waltz has said no, but remeber he also said he wasn’t Blofeld. Maybe with a better script (or if Blofeld comes back altogther), he could be persuaded to return. Lea Seydoux could be as well. Spectre was orginally meant to be a two part film, let’s see if that could possibly still happen. On the plus side for me is that Neal Purvis and Robert Wade hopefully are fully not coming back. Above all, it’s time that some fresh writing blood got into the franchise.

My secret hope: Waltz indeed does not return for Bond 25 (as Hodge’s story is fairly standalone) but Felix does return.Then they film a polished version of the P&W script immediately after Bond 25, allowing Bond 26 (the ultimate showdown between Craig and Waltz) to be released in 2021 as Craig’s final outing.

And yes, I specifically want them to avoid the 2022 anniversary. Make a big deal out of the 75th in 2037.

P&W are responsible - mainly - for Casino Royale and Skyfall, two wildly acclaimed films, so I never understand when people hate on them.

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Good news - Universal could have an eye on MGM but Annapurna have deep enough pockets as well to keep them in business for a while - Bond does better business out of the US, so Universal are getting the big chunk of the profits with UK/Europe plus China so international distribution is not a bad nest egg to sit on without having to pay for a whole movie.

They had other top writers help them on those. In terms of hating on them, I always found their work on The World is Not Enough underrated. A few little tweeks and the movie would be one of the best. But as I said above, it’s time for some new writers.