News on NO TIME TO DIE (no spoilers)

[MrKiddWint]

@odd_jobbies

Not sure I’m convinced post TMWTGG either

Now, now. Lulu performed a single-entendre theme song for a single-entendre film. The entire project is 1974 to a T and delirious, smutty fun.

[sharpshooter]

Bond 25 needs a good script, first and foremost. How many films these days have extensive reshoots after getting cold feet on certain narrative decisions? Nail down the script, be confident and don’t look back.

[PPK_30]

Oh well done! Love it.

[secretagentfan]

The problem, especially with blockbuster movies, is the general feeling that the audience expects more bang for their buck. And the Marvel films seem to even confirm that - hence their always overblown finales with longer fights and more explosions. That’s why executives and producers always second-guess everything and try to offer more - with diminishing returns, creatively at least.

I would love a Bond film scale back those and really become a tight thriller at the end. FRWL did that perfectly - and while that film is over half a century old (damn…) its streamlined choices would help Bond films enormously.

IMO, it really is time to scale back everything in order to be special. M:I has reached a point where Bond films cannot top those. So… top all the action films with the courage to be a true spy thriller again. Throw out the huge set pieces, concentrate on smaller ones.

In a way, we all live now in a cinematic world of “Moonraker”. And we need to go back to “For your eyes only”.

[Orion]

It’s interesting you say that as, to some extent, the Craig era did move away from the huge action set pieces that defined the Brosnan era. I’m curious to know if having new studio partners, one of whom markets Fast and Furious (the poster child for script exists to connect set pieces) will allow them to have more focus on plot, or if they’ll be “encouraged” to trying to make those set pieces people talk about rather than the story (Goldeneye’s tank chase for example)

[Double-OhAgent]

@odd_jobbies

@Univex

someone I consider a modern Kubrick

And there’s a sense of something dark and angry bubbling just out of sight - just under the surface (not as extreme, but similar to Lynch). One could argue it’s an obvious evocation of the story of the psychosis of Maniac’s protatagonist. But it was ever present in True Detective and so I think it’s a signature, or precupation of Fukunaga, just as it is of Lynch. I suspect we’ll have just as dark a simmering tension in Bond 25.

I’ve never seen Fukunaga’s work, but if it’s true what you say, then that would dovetail very nicely with finally getting a screen version of the novel You Only Live Twice–particularly its Garden Of Death scenes.

Man, I really hope we finally get to see that.

[odd_jobbies]

Indeed, please see my love letter just below the post you quoted

[odd_jobbies]

@Double-OhAgent

that would dovetail very nicely with finally getting a screen version of the novel You Only Live Twice

After watching 2 eps of Maniac I’m starting to think this may be the case.

[Stbernard]

After watching the same amount of episodes, is it weird that I now want Gabriel Byrne to play Blofeld in said Garden of death, alongside the chain smoking Sonoya Mizuna as either Bunt or Kissy…
DAMN YOU 007 you are wrecking my enjoyment of Maniac ( but really Byrne would be a great villain)

[odd_jobbies]

@Stbernard

Byrne

Byrne Is a great anything tbh; hero, villain, character part. He’d have been a great bond circa Millers Crossing 28 years ago.

His looks are probably too archetypal matinee idol for Eons taste in villains. But I’d love to see him in bond, either side of the moral divide.

[theSpectre]

I see what you mean and for the most part I agree…that being said, I feel like Casino Royale and Skyfall are those films. The Craig era has spent so much time trying to be gritty and realistic, it has sometimes lost that playfulness that made the Moore era so special (for me at least). I personally love the idea that Bond 25 is going to be emulate FRWL, but I also want Craig to go out with such a bang. Let him go OTT, MI has become so much better since they embraced the ridiculousness. Now I’m not calling for a return to the absurd antics of the Brosnan era, but a loud, bombastic finale can be excellent if done right: see Mission Impossible - Fallout.

[LeChiffre]

The loud, bombastic finale was the weakest part of Fallout, IMO.

[AceRoberts]

I have said on several occasions that what is missing in the Craig era is the coordinated attack (Ninja’s at the volcano in YOLT, the aquasoldiers in TB) at the end, with Bond leading the troops.

[rubixcub]

What’s your take on the romantic ballads (Nobody Does it Better, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, All Time High)? I kind of miss those, if for no other reason than they’re different and we don’t see them anymore. When people think “Bond theme”, the same concepts come up --minor key, strident chords, big, brassy arrangements – and IMO it can be limiting. The above ballads, perhaps because they’re all in major keys, provide an interesting contrast to the action and violence.

[secretagentfan]

A happier song for a happier Bond - Yes, please!

[MrKiddWint]

@odd_jobbies

The reprise of the theme just before the end credits, as the Junk sails way with Nick Nack complaining from the case tied to the top of the mast is a fantastic moment for me - romantic, epic, witty and cool - what Bond is all about.

Isn’t the reprise the first time that a Bond song’s lyrics are different at the end than they were at the beginning?

Nick Nack in the cage is one of two reminders of Orson Welles the film has for me: in this instance, Iago in the cage in OTHELLO, and Bond on the undergirding iron work recalls the ending of THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. I love that Bond loses his gun and that Scaramanga does not realize that a mannequin has replaced a mannequin (maybe the darkest joke in all of Bond movies), and dies because of this oversight.

Just goes to show that you can hurry into production and still make a great Bond movie.

[Orion]

Two rightful classics in there that I wouldn’t complain about seeing repeated…one not so much…however I suspect, after the success of Skyfall and Writing’s on The Wall, we’re in for another power ballad. Personally would prefer a rock song, but I gather You Know My Name and Another Way To Die didn’t chart as well as their successors did, certainly weren’t award winning.

[MrHinx]

@theSpectre

The Craig era has spent so much time trying to be gritty and realistic, it has sometimes lost that playfulness that made the Moore era so special (for me at least). I personally love the idea that Bond 25 is going to be emulate FRWL, but I also want Craig to go out with such a bang. Let him go OTT, MI has become so much better since they embraced the ridiculousness

This!!! I love that both Skyfall and then even more Spectre embraced the ridiculousness! Let’s just have the next one give us Bond and Beyond… and an all out assault of the enemy base as the clock ticks down… ridiculous but oh so enjoyable!!!

[rubixcub]

“License to Kill” could arguably be listed alongside the others though it has some bombast in the arrangement and sounds like it’s in a minor key even though it isn’t.

[PPK_30]

I’d even argue that Garbage’s TWINE has some “bombast” and is underrated and a VERY Bondian tune.

I was listening to it on the way to work this morning and was thinking we really need a spectacular end for Craig, a classic title song and now I think of it- as others have suggested- Bond leading an assault on a lair or base. Embrace what Bond is, and what it has been over the years and go all out! No more grittiness.