News on NO TIME TO DIE (no spoilers)

And QOS with Haggis.

Personal vendetta angle was there LONG before P&W - as it is with most in this genre (5/6 Mission Impossible films have it - and the one that didn’t had a rogue IMF agent for a villain)

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I’ll be excited once the development of the script gets approved. I trust Hodge would come up with a Bond all of its own, and not self-referential to past Bond films. I say this because in T2 Trainspotting Hodge and Boyle consciously paid too much homage to the original and it felt very redundant.

I figure most fans would not feel the same way as I did. I would have liked the sequel to become in a class of its own, and less of the eye-winking towards the audience.

That’s my only concern for Bond 25. Boyle and Hodge are extraordinarily talented people and I’m curious on what their vision is for Bond with an unknown script.

To be honest, I just want Newman gone. His Spectre score was just a Skyfall re-tread. Very bland and by the numbers.

Orion, yes, but the core ideia wouldn’t be theirs. And yes, those ideias were there long before the pair, but someone needs to break out of this at some point. And they’ve been doing this for too long, it´s stale and getting rapidly uninteresting, IMO. I find myself increasingly drifting away from Bond these days, and that worries me, as a lifelong fan. Each spark of hope brings me back, but at some point I hope I won’t end up being disappointed. With each entry, and while its all still in production, I go into this hopeful state in which I find myself believing this will be the best Bond film in ages, and then, story wise, it all blows to smithereens.

I get what you mean on T2, it was very much a film that demonstrated the pitfalls of aging whilst trying to hold onto your youth through nostalgia by drawing attention to how these 4 weren’t really those people anymore, no matter how much they wanted to be. I enjoyed it, but I can see why others wouldn’t.

I think you’re being optimistic that writers are allowed their own ideas on a film this size…

Well, as a writer myself, i can tell you that a brilliant ideia goes a long way. If its brilliant and they sell it right, it goes all the way.

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:wave: so am I! There’s a surprising amount of us on this site, SAF is too.

In principle I agree, but Bond movies havn’t been a series that allows for writers to write so much as translate EON and the directors ideas into a script. P&W seem ok with working in that sort of mood, the one where you just write what you’re told by the director without putting in your own voice or ideas, which is probably why they keep being brought back.

Though if it’s any consolation, I don’t see Boyle wanting that sort of writer - his CV shows a preference for writers whose voice in a script is unmissable - Alex Garland and Aaron Sorkin arn’t exactly silent partners when it comes to film making.

All of the concerns here are well founded. However, Bond likes to gamble and getting Boyle is worth the risk imo.

I’m with Eon all the way on this call.

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Reacting to the temp score from SF that Mendes used and the short post period that did not allow for much creativity. Newman did compose two great themes anyway.

Re: Newman - I think you could also argue that any problem with the score might be more directed at Mendes. Newman was no doubt writing what was requested of him.

Well, it must be close to a formal announcement then. I’ve had two calls and four emails this morning asking me what else I know from some people in my past. Seems solid enough and the time table works. Clearly, this is a tipping point to set the carefully laid out dominoes off in their pattern that Eon has painstakingly set up.

On we go.

Have to defend P & W again; their drafts always were rewritten by others - also uncredited ones. So everything one disliked about those scripts either was loved by or put in by subsequent writers and mostly EON who paid the bill.

And when P & W said in that interview that they were looking for inspiration in magazines on technical equipment and outdoor extreme sports they were doing the same thing that EON and previous writers did. Of course, these magazines were not their only inspiration for Bond.

In fact, it was their fascination with Fleming that made them suggest to do CR. And their knowledge of Fleming‘s work is what made EON return to them again and again.

Also they are known for being reliable, meaning they deliver on time and don‘t throw tantrums when the inevitable dumb suggestions by others have to be put into their script.

So, let‘s not cherry pick what one hates in their scripts and attribute that to them while assuming all the great ideas came from the other writers.

Remember Haggis‘ idea about Vesper having a child? Yeah…

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I do gather that CR is the script of the six the pair worked on that has the most of their work in the final draft - which I think is great, it’s my favourite Bond movie - but as much as I want to think writers are always hired for good scripts, I think it’s

that keeps them as EONs favourite port of call.

One thing I have always wondered/speculated: with long periods of time between films, does EON have action sequences in mind and ask the writers to embed these in their scripts? Or do the writers themselves for each script come up with the sequences?

Combination of the two - the train sequence in Skyfall was on the table since Goldeneye as was the Caviar factory from TWINE, CR’s parkour came about from Jump London mixed with MGW knowing there’s a half built building that could serve as a construction site - the sinking house in CR was Paul Haggis thinking P&W’s script felt like it was missing a third act (Vesper killed herself during Bond’s recovery, like in the book, in their draft)

So, if John Hodge is writing an original script from an idea that Danny Boyle authored, it would (more than likely) be peppered with sequences that Eon has had on the burner for some time or already included in the Bond 25 P&W version, correct? That would cut down the lead time dramatically on Hodge’s script.

No idea. They could have passed on those ideas or could be giving Hodge Carte Blanche (:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:) to write the script he wants before having their stunt unit go over the practicalities of each sequence with Boyle. Hell, he could even just leave gaps in his story for action sequences (which I remember a writer on a film doing, but can’t for the life of me remember what film or writer it was)

I guess I was just thinking out loud and stretching to formulate a positive position to support a quality product out of Hodge in two months, when we’ve seen other films go through months and months of revisions and rewrites.