I could totally live with BOND 25 if it didn’t have any homage to the past and just did it’s own thing in LALD/TMWTGG style - which is of course entirely illusionary and just shows how I lack the grasp for pulling the strings of such a venture.
If anything I would like to see a glimpse of ‘Bond at home’ - but not the burnt out or still-not-opened-my-crates version we’ve been served previously. Bond at leisure and minus the SIS-platinum Diners Club card, maybe enjoying some casual sailing or playing golf or climbing. Something a 50ish Bond would do to have a good time and ignore the skeletons in his wardrobe…and those under his bed…and those in his cellar and the ones in the mirror too. The gloomy lonely drinking Bond has been a bit overdone in my view.
If they start with that it’d be cool, balance nicel with his alone drinking from earlier films, with the idea that whilst He used to have nothing more than his work, he now has the semblance of a normal life.
Goldeneye: Casino
Tomorrow Never Dies: No casino
The World is not Enough: Casino
Die Another Day: No casino
Casino Royale: Casino
Quantum of Solace: No casino
Skyfall: Casino
SPECTRE: No casino
Bond 25: ?
I LOVED the Macau casino in Skyfall. Rather than a cheap homage or “casino for the sake of having one,” it was unique / modern / beautiful. Aesthetically, one of my favorite casinos in the franchise, and a great twist on a Bond trope. That’s the type of Bondian atmosphere we need more of (as opposed to cheap homages like the DB5).
One can only hope. That would be wonderful; particularly if they do a golf or sailing scene, or scuba diving around barracudas - still living dangerously, like how he did with the scorpion; minus the drink, of course.
It is the end of the Craig era, which was tied together in SPECTRE as Blofeld´s long standing evil plan to hurt his stepbrother. To introduce Blofeld and Spectre in SPECTRE and then get them both out of the way in order to start fresh for the finale would be a huge waste of one of Bond´s biggest and most important enemy.
And since Blofeld therefore has to return, Waltz also should. I don´t think recasting the role would work or do it any favors. Waltz is a capable actor, and if he gets more screen time and more chances to shine he still can be the menacing, sick bastard who employs many henchmen to actually finish off Bond.
BOND 25 really could be a film which has the opportunity of having the backstory already explained in SPECTRE and now can go full throttle right from the start.
Blofeld has escaped/rbeen released from prison and kickstarts Spectre again. His main plan now can be to unleash terror on the world, knowing that this would bring Bond back on a collision course - but now Blofeld does not have to explain himself anymore, he just can go berserk on Bond, killing off Madeleine, maybe even M, and delight in the way Bond seems to be outmatched.
Waltz is indeed a capable actor, but the role itself as reimagined for SP is crap. If they do bring him back, then all the previously mentioned “pressures” on this film (be a good send-off for Craig, be a good anniversary entry, satisfy us after too long a wait) will be joined by one more: reverse the damage done to Blofeld’s character in the last outing.
Having said all that, the “YOLT” approach is intriguing if, like the book, they make Blofeld the villain sans SPECTRE. Having had all his plans turned to dust by Bond and the organization scattered to the four winds, Blofeld could engage in an entirely personal vendetta against Bond and the two could have a movie-long back-and-forth grudge match with tons of collateral damage (including but not limited to Madeleine) and ending in that exploding castle with Bond’s hands around Blofeld’s throat. Or some 2019 equivalent.
And now, having just realized that I have actually made a pitch for another “this time it’s personal” plot, I’m going to go beat myself about the head and neck with a copy of the massive “James Bond Archives” book. (But in fairness to myself, the Craig era is so far down the “personal” path now there’s probably no way out)
Don´t beat yourself up - the personal angle is the defining trait for Craig´s arc, and dammit, it should own it in BOND 25, too.
I don´t know whether Bond actually managed to break up Spectre. Actually, all the shady business entanglements will most definitely have been going on after Blofeld got jailed. Moreover, I would love it if Blofeld had actually engineered his capture in order to spin a much bigger net…
Agreed on Blofeld. I thought his nature of reintroduction - scar, safari suit (at least they gave him hair) was as uninspiring as you could get and a criminally underwhelming use of an actor with the talent of Waltz. That said I wouldn’t have a problem with a film directly pitting Bond against the villain, something which the Craig era has never really pulled off (SF excepted for them most part). CR is about Bond, Greene sneering but non-threatening, Negrano not really Bond’s adversary, and the pastiche nature of Blofeld as thrown up by SP.
All that said, the one up-side of the big gaps between films is I’m unconvinced that the Blofeld of SP is locked into the audience’s mind and so if Waltz were to return and given a blank canvas, well the opportunity to do the character justice has not entirely been wasted. But enough with cats and all that cobblers…
Yes, the problem of a true head-to-head, Bond vs Villain plot is how to make it work. The closest they came was maybe FRWL; Red Grant was always one step ahead of Bond, but he sticks mostly to the shadows and they don’t get physical until the end. And technically he’s not THE villain; he’s three tiers down from (faceless) Blofeld. TMWTGG ostensibly was a “mano-a-mano” battle with Scaramanga, but they chickened out, unnecessarily complicating and diluting it with the Solex MacGuffin. GE may have been the best shot at an equal match-up but the “big reveal” came too late to generate much energy.
And we’ve already met Waltz-Blofeld and know he’s no physical match for Craig 007, so you’d have to get pretty creative. Of course there are ways to hurt a person without laying a hand on them, but there’s already another thread here complaining we don’t have enough hand-to-hand combat lately.
I don’t know if SPECTRE’s totally busted up, either. All we see is that one complex that Bond blows up in a couple of minutes with a machine gun in true Playstation style. That whole thing was such a cake walk for Bond I honestly thought it was going to turn out to be a dream sequence and Bond would wake to find himself still in the torture chair. It would actually be kind of disappointing if that’s all there was to SPECTRE. Maybe not disappointing enough for me to want it back in Bond 25, mind you…
The worst part of “New Blofeld” for me – besides the “origin” cribbed from a PARODY of the Bond series – is the way he tells Bond, “Call me Ernst. Stavro. Blofeld.” DUN-DUN-DUNNNN! Like that name would mean anything in Craig’s universe, where the old films never happened. This line was obviously directed at the audience, and for me qualifies as the biggest violation of the Fourth Wall since “the other fella” bit. Only without the fun.
Based on the evidence so far I’m leaning towards Paramount. However EON could be “seeing other people” by setting up their various projects at different studios instead of putting all of their eggs in one basket.
Yeah - Paramount look likely.
Megan Ellison also retweeting Craig Bond return and while her own Annapurna were in the running, her brother is also David Ellison at Paramount… + the CBS/VIacom bits and the distro deal for Lively Spy movie pretty much seals the deal imo
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is the number one talk show in the US (in total viewers). That could explain it. And the CBS Corporation and Warner are co-owners of the CW. I don’t think Craig’s visit to the Late Show necessarily means it’s going to be Paramount.