EVERY year (and lately EVERYDAY) is volatile here in the US, semi joking, semi serious. Just look at the “attack” last Saturday. Thankfully, I got a bunch of James Bond (as well as many other of my favorite characters) material to still enjoy for the first time. When the movie comes it comes, for better or worse for our patience.
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At this point, 2028 is also in question.
And let me say it again: Denis Villeneuve might drop the project, too.
Bond is loaded with problems:
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It needs to make a gazillion at the box office to become profitable.
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The fanbase is rapidly ageing, and the young demo does not care that much if at all about this IP.
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Ideas for the casting of the central character have been exhausted - after the blond, rugged version what do you do, go back to the dressman or choose another rugged version? In any event, it’s been there done that.
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In which world does Bond exist? The old world order is gone. So, do you go back to the past or completely change Bond?
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A mega production like Bond has to rely on financial cooperation with several countries. With the forever wars this means one crisis after the other, and Bond films won‘t be a priority if your gasoline is running out.
Yes, you could do a very pared down Bond film that is actually exciting and great. But Amazon won’t go for that. Bezos does not need the money he okayed for the rights, but as any greedy billionaire he won’t settle for anything but the biggest.
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Yes but, with the exception of:
This has been the state of the franchise for a while. I’m sure Denis Villeneuve knew what he was getting into when he signed on.
Also,
This is just standard for the franchise at this point. GoldenEye had the challenge of being a post-Cold War Bond. Casino Royale had the challenge of being a post-9/11 Bond. Now we have the challenge of being post-lockdown/ whatever-other-nonsense-is-going-on-right-now Bond.
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It would certainly be a surprise if BOND 26 went down a few notches with the budget, closer to upper mid-range production levels. By now even the $ 250m* of NO TIME TO DIE would look as if Amazon doesn’t trust its own product. With a property like Bond they literally can’t afford to keep the string on the purse - not after splurging to get it all under Amazon’s stewardship.
*And some of that cost, like the several DB5 replicas knocked off by Aston Martin, can hardly be quantified in dollars and is likely not reflected in the above figure. What did they charge for these, the material costs? The working hours of their special engineering department? Of course that project had to earn its keep by the limited replica run of 25 fibreglass models customers could buy for roughly $ 4.5m. That’s at least $ 100m sideways financing for that segment of the film.
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I believe the world hasn‘t been in a crisis like this for about 100 years, and Bond has not been either.
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Difficult to say for sure. The 1929 Wall Street crash wiped out ‘only’ $ 14 billion off the stock market in the US - but rang in a decade of global recession and the entire effects of it can hardly be separated from the political fallout in Europe and the subsequent war. In contrast, the 2008 financial crisis loss is estimated at $ 7 trillion. Some experts, economists and political scientists alike, argue we still didn’t recover from that.
Politically, there have been numerous crises since 1962, starting with the Cuba crisis standoff, the 1969 outbreak of the NI ‘troubles’ and the provoIRA campaign, the terror wave of the 70s throughout Western Europe and the Middle East, the Soviet deployment to Afghanistan 1979, the martial law in Poland 1981 andandand. The number of conflicts and crises is huge.
What we can observe today - meaning this last decade - is an increasing frequency of crises and the unique situation that vast segments of the civic society is not just affected by them but invested itself. In previous decades people used to have some kind of vague opinion on these, naturally varying in strength depending on how close they used to be to the thematics. Few people today enjoy the luxury of simply following events with mild curiosity when practically every unhinged ejaculation on social media can and does affect their jobs, their livelihoods, their future and that of their families. There’s no escaping from a fractured society except into ever tinier bubbles.
I suppose this is a comparatively unique situation Amazon has to tackle with a global entertainment brand that used to weather all previous crises. But things need not necessarily take the worst turn, it always depends how we respond to the changes, as fans, as audiences, but also as a society. I remember in the days after 9/11 there have been some observers who questioned whether there will ever be another action film after what we’ve just witnessed. It turned out there were plenty.
We’ll see how this will play out, for better or worse.
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I looked into it. The “report” came from The Sun.
Buy shares in salt mines.
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Entirely possible they made that one up - or just looked for some exec willing to underwrite what they were going to report anyway. But in this case it would actually make sense to take time and wait how things may shape up the next 12 months. Or longer if necessary. There is a reason Valenti asked fans to be patient two weeks ago. As long as it’s all scripts and revisions they can be as flexible as they like without burning huge amounts of cash.
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Agreed. It’s more the source, a broken clock is right twice a day.
I don’t think actual news is coming until near Dune 3’s release.
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My opinion too. The Sun could end up being right by default, not through credible journalism. In the meantime First Light, King Zero and LaLaLand are on the horizon. Those will come out when they come out, too. As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned not to wish my life away.
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Despite being The Sun it all sounds reasonable and realistic. Apart from Lucy Fleming saying anything about it.
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Agreed. Bond was born in the aftermath of one global restructuring–post-WWII. The Bond film franchise has ridden the waves that have roiled that world order, but has never before faced a changing of that world order such as is happening today.
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