Reboot? Remake? Retro? Which direction should the series take next?

Films BOND 26 (title tba)
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Compare SPECTRE’s and NO TIME TO DIE’s endings. The earlier film could have well been curtains for Craig. For years it was curtains for Craig, a generic and entirely forgettable ending that didn’t even use the phrase fans recognise as fateful and important for Bond. That ending would have allowed any kind of business-as-usual in the next film - the Craig era would just have ended with a trite cliché.

For a time at least this was the series’ destination.

Now this ending. This ending that changes the entire meaning and impact of Craig’s tenure as Bond, that’s more daring than any stunt, any gamble in the entire series. I think it’s safe to assume that SPECTRE’s ‘safe’ ending left so many people dissatisfied; crucially many of them on the creative side of Eon.

I don’t think this was ‘planned’ in the sense they’ve been looking for a way to use this particular ending. Rather, everything in Craig’s tenure developed into a certain direction where, once you arrive at the DB5 driving off screen in SPECTRE’s last frames, you simply feel this needs a different, a much more impactful and human ending than the generic out that doesn’t hurt anybody.

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103

That’s why I’m as interested in the business of what comes next, as much as the “creative” what comes next.

The reality of this moment in time, is that Bond, like Star Wars, is looking into a new future. Basically up until SF, the cycle was “make one, plan the next” and every decade “re-cast.” Sure, there were new deals with different studio heads, different studios even, but organization structure was pretty much the same. For the first 50 years of the franchise, that was the cycle of operating life.

But now, the entertainment world is very different, the business model of the last century out the window. It goes beyond what fans see (and, it could be argued, only really care about) - universes, spin-offs, what-have-you.

Everyone talks the most of Disney-Lucasfilm-Star Wars - “Hey, continuation movie; oh, a prequel!; man, a TV show.” But more interesting is how the business model has changed. How content is delivered, who goes where. I grew up in a time where there were TV stars, and movie stars, with a one-way trajectory. Now, it’s entirely different, creatively, but what’s unspoken, economically. The business itself is entirely different.

NTTD marks a moment - a love letter to, and a clarion call for, the act of going to the cinema. History will write (accurate or not) that it was Bond that got people back to the movies, not Fast and Furious or Venom. “Bond’s” a star, so he’ll get the lead role in that story…

But for EON, I’ll throw out that maybe this is also the moment that marks the end - the end of how business was done. With Amazon coming, with Bond being the biggest and the last to embrace the “new” world, I’d make an argument that this film is a “creative” clear-the-decks - not in terms of storyline, but in terms of what the property is worth and what it does and how it goes about doing it.

Fleming’s books were huge in their time. The minute the DN dots rolled across the screen, the property became bigger and became something else, the future no longer at the hand of its maker. Perhaps NTTD might mark a similar epochal moment, where what happens next on-screen, will be dwarfed by what happens next off it.

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104

I completely agree. In no way do I believe this ending was planned for back in the CR days or even the SF days. The problems with the scripts throughout the series, Craig’s injury, the fact that he wasn’t even supposed to come back for NTTD… they accidentally landed on this ending. The fact that it kinda sorta works and lines up well with the other films makes it all the more remarkable.

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105

I’ll go even farther out on the limb I started out on in an earlier post…

I wouldn’t mind it if they completely steal the intro to OHMSS… Bond chases after a girl in the AM Vantage… we see him in shadows, face obscured, he lights a thin cigar… saves girl from henchmen, the ocean (whatever PWB comes up with)… she runs off without saying thank you or anything… Bond turns, it’s Hiddleston, he speaks into the camera… “this never happened to the other fella”… Bond turns as dots move across the screen taking us into the title sequence.

That’s it. That’s all you’d have to do. Everyone smiles, accepts it, and moves on. It’s subtle, it works. I don’t even care that it would be completely stolen from another film.

Sorry, I’m a Hiddleston guy.

106

I still wouldn’t be surprised to see the amnesia storyline play out in Bond 26. NTTD seemed to dip deep into the well of unused Fleming material and that is still one of the biggest pieces left. I’d also love to see the train derailment from Diamonds are Forever.

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107

These are exactly the kind of headlines I want to see. I’m hoping for the quickest turnaround possible. Let NTTD simmer for the remainder of 2021, and “let’s get back to work” next year.

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108

I’ve changed my mind, now that I’ve had time to work through at least three stages of grief (denial, bargaining and acceptance).

Craig was never my favorite Bond. Let his tenure (and life) end. Don’t resolve - go ahead and reboot. Let’s have a new, original Bond with no Tracy / Madeline baggage, and an all- new MI6 staff.

Just keep M’s office set.

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109

It was my impression that BB and MW hate Hiddleston. I’d watch him, the man’s proved himself as an actor(not just Loki) and he actually fits Fleming’s description of Bond. “Tall,slim,fit”

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Hate is pretty strong. I wonder why. He’s got the chops and could pull off the look.

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That’s all true. I think about how the reboot began: it was all about pushing boundaries. If they wanted to end Craig’s era with happily ever after there was no need to make a fifth film. Therefore NTTD’s finale had to be different to SPECTRE.

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113

Since we know now that Craig’s injury forced him to wear a cast throughout most of SPECTRE, it is not only clear why he was so fed up after finishing the film - it also explains why apart from the train fight (during which he was injured) most action scenes have him in a static position (sitting in a car or a plane, or a torture chair, resolving the conflict very quickly with a machine gun) and the film itself has more dialogue scenes. It seems as if Mendes and EON decided to make the best of it and turn SPECTRE into more of an atmospheric trip through Bond´s mind. And everything that was planned before had to be pared down. Even the ending.

Thankfully, NTTD was able to turn this around and even use SPECTRE as its own PTS.

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114

If memory serves me correctly wasn’t the Rome car chase suppose to be more elaborate with more stunt work but Rome city officials put up a bunch of restrictions and red tape one production got there.

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115

There was concern for certain historic sights, a fountain in particular if memory serves.

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116

I remember reading a quote from CJF or someone else saying NTTD will lead into Bond 26, so I expect the first we will see of Bond is going to be a film version of the beginning of the MWTGG novel and everyone will scream “they’re just ripping off Jason Bourne!” whilst forgetting that Fleming predated Ludlum by a good 15-20 years.

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117

Where? I have not seen any quote like that.

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118

I can not for the life of me remember where I read it but I distinctly remember reading it! Sorry :neutral_face:

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119

Bourne? Le Carré?

Bourne was written by Robert Ludlum (who in fact used the idea of an agent under amnesia quite well, if perhaps somewhat erratically) in 1980.

But le Carré published his first book, Call for the Dead, in 1961 - still, he only came to the attention of a wider audience with his third, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in 1963. And he usually approached the genre from a different angle with a focus on the characters. He rarely used fantastic elements in his plots. And when he did he took great care to make them seem anything but extraordinary.

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120

I loved that in Raymond Benson’s HIGH TIME TO KILL Bond spends an evening read John le Carré.

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121

Thanks for that, just got in from a long day at work!

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122

Not to worry, @UKN007.

Meanwhile…where to go from here?

If it’s true that Fukunaga pitched an idea for BOND 26 - and if that idea is any good - then he’s probably in a fine position to get the gig. I don’t see Amazon refusing an established talent director for their prestige property, regardless how NO TIME TO DIE does at the box office.

What will be that much harder to overcome is Ms Broccoli’s statement about not being able to see anybody else in the role. That’s going to be tricky to sell since the next Bond has to be - of course! - exceptional, unique, the best since…

Since it’s a reboot the tone will be of particular interest. Gritty and ‘realistic’ has run its course. Maybe BOND 26 could further embrace the bizarre and fantastical side of 007? NO TIME TO DIE had that Primo guy with his camera eye (was that a nod to LIVE AND LET DIE’s coconut scarecrows?). Could a horror element lead the way for the next Bond? A remake of LIVE AND LET DIE with an emphasis on the cult nature of the villain’s scheme?

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