I actually have to admit that I got introduced to Bond via Elmar Gunsch‘s „Wiedersehen macht Freude“ showing a clip from the ski chase opening of TSWLM which made me persuade my Dad to take me to a showing in a revival house.
But I fondly remember then Richard Kiel‘s appearance on „Am laufenden Band“, with Carrell asking the towering Kiel about having three kids „Und… das geht?“, with Kiel picking up the sexual allusion concerning his size, answering in German „Sehr behutsam!“
I don’t think this new generation retained a lot of Craig Bond to really care about the successor.
Even Tom Cruise barely held audiences to these last M:I.
It will all come up to proper marketing, social media plugs, momentum, make Bond cool…and a good story. Best example I think is John Wick.
However highly improbable to have Brosnan back, the return would actually solve the biggest problem for me: how to completely ignore the Craig arc and the NTTD ending.
With Brosnan they could tie in with DAD and lay grounds to a younger actor afterwards.
If they want to do this, then they have to make Bond different, both from what it’s been but also from what’s currently out there in the cinemas. If they go young, they’re almost forced into another reboot. I get the feeling that people are tired of that. It’s just reboots, sequels, superhero crap, and so on at the box office anymore. Another standard Bond adventure just adds to that fatigue. Do something different, stand out, and be a trendsetter like Bond used to be rather than just figuring out which way the wind is blowing and then follow it the way the franchise has been doing for several decades now.
Amazon could make some serious money if they bucked the trend of what people are expecting from them (which, I think is fair to say, something along the lines of the Uncharted movie) and did something that would be bold and exciting for a Bond film. Bond needs to be an event again, and doing something unexpected and with a popular actor returning to the role could be the ticket. It would certainly be more exciting than another reboot where we explore Bond’s origins and his trust/parental issues with his boss.
And they’ll be guaranteed to have a big showing at the box office simply by having Moneypenny and Q in the film.
Talking about the newly coveted target group of young male Gen-Z‘lers…
Bond has had a four year break from cinemas screens, and that hiatus will continue for a while yet as the next film’s script gets written and we enter the casting process. That’s going to be a good thing in the long run. Legacy sequels and most other IPs have been flogged to death and are simply inferior shells of their former selves.
Twenty sixth entry in the franchise or not, Amazon’s first can be something new for this younger male demographic that’s being sought after. Bond is tailor made to walk right in and capture that market - he has for generations. The question is just how different youth are these days, and is it more than how they consume their entertainment?
I agree, the character is a perfect shell for projecting on it everything the zeitgeist deems attractive. The legacy of Bond also offers many decades of background „content“ which is now accessible with a few strokes on a keyboard. Generations of relatives will have encountered Bond and talked about the films.
The biggest challenge might not be attracting young males but to keep on attracting the other important quadrant groups, young women, and all the older audiences familiar with the previous incarnations.
So you can’t focus on one but have to invite everyone in and keep happy.
Not an easy task.
I’m afraid that last Fantastic Four flick, in spite of all the differences, really provides a cautionary tale in this regard: positive reviews, a popular cast with high social media profile and positive presence in the feeds, a promising opening weekend - and it’s still close to a disaster cause the drop after the opening is just too sharp.
And this might be just be a trap of their own making, constantly hyping up the next big project, while yesterday’s fills the streaming backlist. It’s entirely possible audiences actually liked the film - and the film still tanked because people are happy to like it on Disney+ just as much and they’ve got the subscription anyway.
All of this will likely have to feature in Amazon’s BOND 26 plan if they want their product to survive and prosper on the big screen. It will be quite interesting to see how they approach the task.
The other thing to take from John Wick is a reasonable budget. No movie should have to make $800M to $1B to be successful.
The fourth Wick movie was the most successful and made less than $500M.
https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/John-Wick#tab=summary
John Wick is actually an interesting example: it’s an entirely unashamed killer-action genre work and not in the least interested to be anything else. No awards aspirations, no selling of cars/watches/clothes/lifestyle. Yes, it’s now a ‘franchise’ - but I dare say it’s not concerned with anything else but producing dirty, filthy pulp action fodder in the most entertaining fashion imaginable.
It’s perhaps hard to believe today, but in the days of DR NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE that used to be more or less Eon’s MO - granted, for lack of alternatives since their scope and budget was still limited. But that need not be a bad thing…
I see this remaining a real threat for all films in the foreseeable future. I also think the complete lack of mystery in marketing doesn’t help.
A lot of trailers basically have the entire film for public consumption before release day even arrives. They’re dumping all these clips on social media - sure, they’re promoting their product, but they’re also killing it IMO. Show less. Deep down people seem to want what they can’t have.
It won’t happen, but I’d just have a poster with an intriguing tagline and teaser trailer. The job should be to spark the imagination. We live in an age of over saturation, instant gratification and a need to know everything right now. Anything that goes against that is refreshing.
Completely agreed.
But… are we a minority? Most people I talk to about this, friends, colleagues, family members, have developed a total consumer attitude about movies. They want to know what they get, otherwise they will turn to familiar looking stuff or „something which is popular right now“.
Discovering something new? No, too risky. And in the cinema, it might be. Ticket prices, the obligatory drinks and snacks, transportation, and the more convenient „stay home and watch a streamer“ excuse.
People might say they want a new and exciting taste. But then they grab the usual brand.
Have to confess I’m at times guilty of this myself. I’ve got a ton of subscriptions, more than I could possibly use even if I were a teenager and would never have to work. Plus, we’ve got a number of public broadcaster media libraries with another treasure trove of material lasting potentially several lifetimes.
And yet, I often rewatch older stuff - and even when I set out to explore new series or films, like The German recently, I tend to go by familiar names, people whose work I already found intriguing/entertaining/challenging.
Same here.
Maybe though this also stems from disappointment with the new stuff which often is not really original and fresh at all.
Rewatching older films and shows will fill me then with so much more excitement.
My stars look at this dude. He could play 007 right now. C’mon Denis, give him a call.
Wow. Seth Meyers really didn’t do his research before that interview. C’mon man, be better.
It also wouldn’t matter. It would be a windfall for Amazon and a thrill for the fans. Let them figure out “who Bond will be long term” on their own time. I would love to see a two older actor double feature, Idris/Brosnan. That’ll give them plenty of time to figure out the long term solution while also making a gang of money in the interim. Everyone wins. But alas it makes way too much sense, so it won’t happen.
This is really more amusing than informative…
“Whoever it is, has to look like he could kill you with his bare hands in a trice. From the moment you see him, that has to be readily apparent,” a person close to discussions tells us.
He has? Not for me.
