I’m personally trying to remain optimistic that EON will right the ship and have Bond 25 ready for late 2019.
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Wasn’t there supposed to be a crash meeting of the BOND 25 staff on Friday? We haven’t heard anything about that, did we?
So either the meeting didn’t happen or the current orders are to stand by and wait for orders. Which in turn would mean they still have realistic hopes to keep the schedule.
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Suggested this here a while back; using YOLT to end Craig’s run and the first two acts of TMWTGG to intro bond 7.
YOLT gives Craig a classey exit - full circle, starting with an adaptation of a Fleming novel and ending with one. Boyle would’ve been the perfect director for this kaleidoscopic, drug fuelled trip.
Also it’s PTS could be the final scene of OHMSS, despatching Swann. Sure it’s more grief and revenge, but maybe that symmetry is a positive, rather than a negative in character arc terms. Maybe!
Starting Bond 26 with a new actor, possibly even crowbarring some plastic surgery in to smooth out the face change (and hoping the audience forgive the age change) could perhaps be the ‘doctor who regeneration’ that BB’s referring to (if it’s true that she said this)…
After failing to assassinate M, Bond goes through therapy to unbrainwash him; neatly allowing bond 7 to excecise all the tropes the audience want to see a new bond fulfil, only this time round it’s part of the story’s inner logic (that’d be a first). Like practicing his name in the mirror in an effort to remember: “James Bond… Bond, James Bond”.
And, while remembering James Bond he finally recalls the important lead that motivates the next act: who his brain washers and the assassins of Maddy Swann were: SMERSH, a new shadowy part of Russia’s secret service. The folk who might carry out an overseas op to poison a traitor with a nerve agent. Perhaps this could’ve been Boyle bringing back the Cold War, as rumoured.
This is the story I’d like to see, but for the bond25 part of this story they’d need a director whom, like Boyle, can make ‘trippy’ and ‘f***ed up on drugs’n booze’ classey, gripping and dramatic. Vallee can definitely do that (Sharp Objects is stunning) and apparently they asked him (but he’s busy). So who knows, maybe BOND 25 is YOLT after all.
I don’t think using YOLT/TMWTGG books is a bad idea, but to use it so soon after Skyfall’s ‘death’ would be bad timing.
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OK for you industry guys, I’m trying to understand something. How could EON - in mid-March when Boyle confirmed he was going to direct the film - only have a “first-draft” by Purvis & Wade in hand? Think about it - whatever they had was good enough to get Craig to sign on the dotted line -set a Oct/Nov '19 release date - so how come all of a sudden it isn’t good anymore? Take the Boyle fiasco out of the picture, you still “should” have a good enough script to proceed. I have the same question/concern about INDY 5. Whatever Lucasfilm had was good enough for Ford & Spielberg to sign on the dotted line and set a 2020 date, but then all of a sudden it wasn’t. I’m guessing in both cases there were themes and selling points in those original scripts that were sufficient to snatch the stars, but if that’s the case, isn’t it wise to speculate those story points shouldn’t change that much? What am I missing here?
That is why I’m struggling and asking Industry guys to respond. Are we to truly believe Craig signed on without at least a “first draft” of the story last summer? Or if it did exist back then, why then was it still in an early stage six months later when Boyle came aboard (as we’re now asked to believe)? I guess I was under the impression that the producers shelved a script that had undergone rewrites. I realize you don’t “shoot” until you have a polished version, but all these articles of late indicate it was a “first draft”.
The whole Craig era is an exercise in bad timing, so it would be a pretty good fit, IMO.
Between the delays, going from rookie Bond to burnt out, over-the-hill Bond between films, and retconning three films in order to prop up a bad script for the fourth, actually adapting some of Fleming’s more interesting material would be a welcome change, IMO. Of course, there’s also the high probability that they’d mess it up anyway, but you never know.
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Craig probably did not sign anything but a so called letter of intent to star in BOND 25, with the script being developed only afterwards due to funding becoming available only if Craig stars.
Also, Craig was promoted to associate producer on SPECTRE and kept this title probably for future Bond films starring himself. So it was also his duty to start the engine by stating he would be back.
I do believe and hope that EON was secretly nevertheless developing stories for Bond continually, deciding to go with one in particular, hiring P & W as soon as they were available and paying them out of their own pocket before Craig came around and said: oh, f— it, I’m back.
Most of the time, a first draft is all that’s needed to go into production, with rewrites happening again and again and again, throwing everything up in the air and making life hell for everyone involved. In a perfect world a script would be crafted and adhered to. That never happens on such a big budget production.
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The statement clearly says: Boyle decided to leave.
To give BB the blame is simply wrong. And this whole “bowing down before the suits”-explanation is also rubbish. I’m sure Boyle did get the same liberties as Mendes, Foster etc. In contrast to them he decided to be the diva.
I know that kind of director: especially if they are the arthouse darling they think they can get away with everything, since the critics will always side with them against the big bad evil producers.
No, that just doesn’t cut it here. EON has the experience of making Bond films since 1962. Boyle has made only one big budget film. Apart from “Trainspotting” and “Slumdog Millionaire” he had no success at the box office and recently only had one flop after another. To assume that he would have had the right idea to make a worldwide hit and the producers were to blockheaded to see that is childish.
Again, Marc Foster really had the much tougher situation to face: an unfinished script due to a lasting writers´ strike, the unbelievably huge pressure of following up the mega success of CR - and what did Foster do? Instead of bailing out when things did not go smoothly, he stayed and made the best out of it.
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In answer to your question, I’ve never worked on a Bond film but from my own experience - A script is not as simple as just drafts, especially on a project of this size where their are action sequences to be considered. Pre-warning what follows is long winded, dry, and still a truncated version of the life of a script.
First there will be discussions on what kind of story then want to tell, this will be the vaguest ideas of tone (realistic or fantastical) and the end of this stage will be the length of the film synopsis you see on the back on a dvd. The writers will then turn this into a more detailed pitch for a story breaking down characters, themes and what I’m going to call tentpole moments (beats in the story the script HAS to get to)
Once the writer(s) turn this in (this always takes the exact length of time you are given) there will be weeks of back and forth between everyone involved in the production so that what is possible and what will be difficult is ironed out as well as any ideas or characters can be given notes by the director/producer. Once THIS stage is done, the writer will turn this into a story. There still, months in and every man and his dog giving their opinion, is not what you would call a first draft.
You can see already why this goes quicker when it’s a writer/Director than when it’s in the studio machine.
Once notes have been given on this story, this will be turned into an actual script. This script is put out to heads of department who will start work on making their part happen. The producer/director will then ask for changes to be made, often in characterisation or dialogue. It is here you get what you’d call actual drafts, as the bones remain the same but the script is crafted into a full story everyone is happy with. These heads of department will meet up with producers/director constantly and show what will need changed in the script now that ideas have met the reality of life. Changes will be made like this CONSTANTLY until the film is finished.
The writer hired for the practicality of life changes is rarely the writer who did the story. Either side of that “first draft” everyone with a personal or financial stake will want their take added in.
In a smaller budget thing (and Chris Nolan films as he has enough sway with WB to be given big budgets for what amounts to home movies, what with his brother and his wife being the respective writer and producer), all this is covered by conversations between the writer and director.
Now, there is a vagueness as to which stage Hodge took over and what he took from P&W depending on when says how much work there is to do. Some claim we’re back at synopsis stage as Hodge went from scratch, general feeling when Hodge was hired was he was making a detailed pitch, others claim he made additions at the story stage, whilst others claim a full script by P&W is available. Though to answer the question of how long for a writer to do write a script - however long they are given, as I’ve yet to meet a writer where the thought “that could be better” hasn’t flipped across his/her mind, even years after the thing has been made.
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Sometimes, however, I do think that “this was better before it was rewritten”… 
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“Y’know, I think I was closer on the first draft”
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Agreed, it wouldn’t sit well with me at all. Unnecessary and pretentious rubbish. ‘Bond’ isn’t about him dying, and nor should it be. It has never been. It’s about him encountering obstacles and overcoming them.
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What know as fact so far…
DC was contracted for 5 movies, is currently in preproduction for the 5th .
DB , according to the statement released by EON on twitter, left the production due to creative differences.
There were no warning rumours of this prior to the announcement ( not one of us picked up any whispers anywhere)
It’s a bank holiday today in the UK ( if the supposed emergency meeting took place on Friday, no statement would be made until tomorrow at the earliest.
Now for conjecture-
Whether it was a Hodge Draft/ full script/ rework/ polish of the PW script, the release date was set , most likely by Universal, as intimated by Bryce, earlier in this thread. The statement has given huge publicity to Bond and his relevance all over the world media far more than Boyles initial hiring did, at a time when another spy franchise was taking plaudits and column inches from 007…
I have always thought that Craig was coming back for 5 ( to the extent that I won a couple of grand betting on his return) the negotions IMHO were about a 6th return or an extended producer role , the “return” announcement was timed for maximum column inches.
I believe it will meet its current slot and that a director announcement is on the way.
It´s such a useless idea, frankly, because we know that Bond will return.
And it diminishes everything since from that point on there will never be a threat to Bond again since the audience knows then: oh, well, he will be resurrected next time.
I hate this idea in other films and tv shows, too. If a character dies he should stay dead. Otherwise it´s just the cheapest ploy to shock an audience - and the shock wears off extremely fast then.
If indeed the rumor about Craig wanting his LOGAN has been true at some point I also have to say: LOGAN earned it by retiring Hugh Jackman in the role after nine (?) appearances as Wolverine. CraigBond getting such a film in his fifth outing would not carry that weight at all.
Also, why jumping on that train, too? It´s been done by someone else so recently.
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My feeling would be that Bond as a series, both literary and cinematic, have made a point of demonstrating that death is by no means the end, so no matter what kind of death they went for, you’d never believe it - Not helped by the end title card of “JAMES BOND WILL RETURN” kind of being noticed (and copied by Marvel several times)
Personally, I did not even like the ending of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR because the impact was so diminished due to our knowledge that many of the characters will indeed have future appearances. It´s just cheating.
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Spider-man was an odd choice, the rest, okay, they didn’t have to survive the events, they don’t have sequels about to happen, but Spider-man…the only character who had a commissioned film beyond Avengers 4 was…yeah.
Guardian have calmed down from the click bait Bond headlines and actually look at the director i think is the most likly to take over. He gives some interesting thoughts about wanting to look at the sort of British attitudes that he felt is rarely represented on screen.
Note: Before anyone says something about another London based film, he doesnt literally mean London as a setting, hes discussing the elements of British population that he feels arnt as adressed on film as they should be.
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Demange is the one I thought would get the job first time round.
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