Simply because he did not want to be tied to one role and hoped to end his tenure for good.
Also, he probably liked to signal that he did not want this to go like it did before.
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This is too absurd, therefore fitting for these times (and especially funny since Cain just recently got a huge puff piece in VARIETY which must not have done the trick to get him more gigs):
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I’m actually a sworn deputy sheriff and a reserve police officer
Clark Kent by way of Dwight Schrute.
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It seems this is not yet over…
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Albeit the work of an utter stinker to pass personal comments, but - sweet baby Jesus and all his little demons, Jason Connery looks a bit knackered.
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This is not really ‘news’, nor is it directly related to Bond - but in the grater context of a changing industry approach and a shift in how we enjoy/consume/endure our entertainment this is an interesting article. The central argument:
Often, what film-makers and executives told me about the streamers’ approach to data didn’t sound so different from the old Hollywood studio production-line mentality. Studios have always sought a rationalised and repeatable formula for success, from the typecasting of actors during the Golden Age to proscriptive screenwriting manuals like Syd Field’s Screenplay and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat during the conglomerate era, and rigorous test screening. Script analysis software in the 2000s, like Epagogix and ScriptBook, tried to predict box office success based on story tropes and the personnel attached to projects; these were prototypic versions of what the streaming companies are doing now. If algorithms are a fixed set of steps leading to a controllable outcome, then the earlier development process, trying to line up the ducks of storytelling in the right order, was also algorithmic in a crude sense.
And film-makers and executives alike know the truth: when it comes to assessing the probable success of a title, data can only do so much. Netflix is diligent about predicting how titles will perform on the platform, regularly reviewing the accuracy of its forecasts and subsequently updating the models. But many major hits, such as The Queen’s Gambit and Squid Game, were a complete surprise. William Goldman’s famous maxim about Hollywood – “Nobody knows anything” – still holds.
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Problem is: they don’t care.
If something turns out to be a surprise hit, they love it, of course. But they only feed it into the algorithm and continue making the other crap.
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And the algorithm seems a surprisingly pliable tool which - for now - is not used so much in the actual production but at the decision stage which pitches are picked up and which ones Netflix passes on.
This would be a lot harder to quantify from outside and is likely - along with a risk averse climate and massively increased output - the main reason productions are now a lot less distinctive and tend to follow more or less streamlined in the wake of a broad undercurrent.
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In earlier times studio heads went with their opinions and feelings. Highly subjective, of course, but at least based on a distinct human notion.
Now it‘s all about „numbers can’t lie“.
Can‘t they though? Clicking on one program, ending it to… answer the phone, go out, react to whatever - but the algorithm concludes „people hate that kind of beginning in a movie“. And so on.
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But the old Hollywood studios had:
Howard Hawks
George Cukor
Joseph L. Mankiewiz
Billy Wilder
Vincente Minnelli
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
who bent that mentality to their artistic will and purpose.
Today, the successful/employed artist is the person who can prettify what the algorithm decrees, making smooth, slick, and digestible product that looks good on whatever size screen it might be watched on.
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AI makes me see things from Lex Luthor’s perspective for the same reason he opposes Superman: the risk to human potential. Each person is unique and that individuality needs to be protected and promoted. We should push our limits rather than be lazy and cede ourselves to a computer. I want to hear what the true soul of an artist has to say, rather than everyone simply asking ChatGPT. That’s where the soullessness comes in.
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Yes! So true!
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Today’s Sunday crossword puzzle is James Bond/Sean Connery-themed. It;'s title: “A Man of Character.”
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I just watched the crazy cartoon Gumball and there is a great episode, The Agent, which is a brilliant parody and homage to James Bond. There are all sorts of references to Bond scenes: including the briefing at the beginning with M, the dinner jacket with the red flower, the 360-degree turn with the crazy whistle from Golden Gun, the mini-submarine from TSWLM, walking over crocodiles (in this case, over heads) with the LALD theme, Bond’s free fall in MR, the black-yellow parachute from AVTAK. It is very funny!
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Not really news but saw this of Facebook and thought some might get a chuckle. The guy who posted it is named James Bond in real life (he noted he was born in 1963 in Germany and his mother was unaware).
I have a funny story. This is my real name and I was in line at the bank one day. The teller takes my ID looks at it, looks at me and says turn around. She asks do you know this guy behind you. I said no. She said well James Bond this is Roger Moore, Roger Moore this is James bond. we just looked at each other and went on about our business. We later worked together. Skip forward to a couple years ago and I’m at a different branch and the teller takes my ID. Another teller is walking by and the teller says look I have James Bond’s ID. She never slowed down and said I know. I introduced him to Roger Moore. I said you sure did and do you realize that was over 30 yrs ago. She said I remember it like it was yesterday.
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If anyone from the Bond 26 production team is reading, we could really use another announcement. I think we will soon be ranking Moneypenny’s dresses or the James Bond lighters from the nineties.
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The Rugs of Eon’s James Bond © ™ - A comprehensive study and definite ranking across 25 films and 2.5m interweb discussions by I.F. Llemming, exclusively compiled for TASCHEN with samples of 999 rugs in a 35 kg coffee table book. (price on request)
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A reason to go back to the cinema. For our London members, it will play at BFI IMAX in London.
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