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Comments
$200 million certainly isn't chump change. However, Sony kept SPECTRE in theaters for 154 days (and well after the movie was available on home video) vs. 109 for Skyfall. You could speculate that SPECTRE would have done about the same business as Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation ($195 million in 91 days) without all the extra effort.
I don't know about 20 years but Captain America: Civil War and Dr. Strange did very well. For that matter, Suicide Squad -- a property not that well known among the general public -- had North American box office of $325 million. It did almost as well as Batman v Superman ($330 million).
http://www.showbiz411.com/2016/11/28/gay-taleses-voyeur-movie-can-still-happen-even-if-director-sam-mendes-is-unhappy-about-documentary
Friedman has some standing in the community - if I recall correctly he broke the news that Mathieu Amalric would be the villain of Bond 22, but he has a checkered past especially for reviewing a leaked version of the Wolverine film a few years back and getting fired as a result....
If it is true, and I don't necessarily believe it, the inmates have taken over the asylum. "Oh whatever you guys want to be do is OK by me..."
Just the way I feel. Mendes has nothing more to offer. SF was a surprise and one of my favorites. It was a Mendes film but Mendes failed making a Bond film with SP. Don't see a triumph beyond that.
Yea although I liked SP's far better. I want the next Bond film to have a Bond score.
Um, did you read the article? He merely casually surmises Mendes will return.
He says Mendes and Craig will probably return, saying that they 'play this game' of saying they're not returning and then do. Maybe you should actually read the article.
As I said before I really think Mendes does not have anything else to offer for Bond - he was the right director to bring us Skyfall but he seems not to be the right guy to bring us a bookending equivalent of Casino Royale. But that is, imho, the kind of Bond movie Craig should do to end his era in the franchise.
What I learn from posts in this forum and elsewhere is that people want a "classic Bond film" and to my understaning the majority of fans and the general audience saw and see CR as a modern form of a "classic Bond film". Skyfall was well-received in majority but there is also agreement over it being a different kind of Bond movie and definitely something new to the franchise. Therefore I think not Skyfall (being the 1Bn one) should be the template again but Casino Royale and it's bones were a great Fleming story and a clever way to update and fill it with contemporary, currently relevant material. If P&W can deliver this when given the right starting point then OK - but I have my doubts the very same way as with Mendes. The cast should remain though - I think they are all marvellous and I would be glad to see them all back ... including Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter.
I just want something that feels like it's got some heft to it, visually and narratively. Do I think Mendes could deliver that? I do. He won't have been blind to the critical response to SP and he strikes me as the kind of bloke who works best when the chips are stacked against him.
There are directors I'd like to see have a shot, but if Craig were to return I don't necessarily think a Mendes return is the worst idea. If he can take his best work from SF and SP respectively and deliver a juicy, intriguing plot then I don't really have a problem.
It's all in the script.
I seriously wonder if team Bond are even capable of cracking out a good, solid Bond film anymore without a Fleming story to base it on. I like Skyfall but only really because of the great opening sequence, a Bond with a wing down which echoes the books and the scene on the island when Bond meets Silva, where the location and dialogue are both reminiscent of the books.
Yes, I very much want to see Jeffrey Wright back as Leiter.
Friedman is a Hollywood insider, his article directly speaks to the author of the novel 'The Voyeur's Motel'. It seemingly indicates that Friedman has some kind of inside track on matters occurring behind-the-scenes.
Interestingly, Friedman was one of the first people to reveal details of Mendes' return for Bond 24. He also confirmed Adele's involvement in SF and released the lyrics ahead of time....
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2013/05/31/now-sam-mendes-is-probably-directing-bond-24-which-is-probably-coming-out-i
Personally, I think the stars are aligning for Sam to return. Here's the evidence:
- When SP came out he said it would likely be his last Bond film. However, he added the caveat that he could return - he just needed some distance first. Maybe this was just Mendes not wanting to appear churlish and ungrateful at the time, but it's been a year now.
- We know Craig was apprehensive about doing Spectre without Mendes. If EON wanted DC back, they may also have to get Sam to appease Craig.
- All of Mendes' post-Bond films have stalled. Instead, he's retreating to the theatre next year doing a play written by the bloke who also wrote Spectre!
- Mendes has since had a year to think of his decision and has come back and given a definitive "no" to returning. But....he said the exact same thing last time!
Finally, (and i think this is the most important point).....EON would let him finish the story he begun. I know this runs contrary to everything a lot of fans would want, but I can imagine Sam wanted to come back for this sole reason. (he said he only wanted to do SP as the thought of someone else playing with the characters of M, Q, MP and Bond made him jealous)
Just as Spectre felt like an end to Craig's era, it also left numerous unanswered questions: Can Bond live happily ever after with Madeleine? Will Blofeld return? These were all questions posed by Sam and likely ones he could be enticed to return and answer. Maybe we could even get a true adapation of YOLT?
Plus, Mendes loves grabbing a current zeitgesity theme - what better than the ugly return of nationalism and soverignity? Here's an article which pretty much reviews the next Bond film fore it's even been released:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/donald-trump-brexit-article-50-british-passport-james-bond-film-a7434221.html
(We all know this is where Bond 25 is heading; SF latched on to Assange and SP on Snowden)
I do feel that Sam burnt out a little with SP....I think SF is a masterpiece because Mendes took his sensibilities and applied them to the Bond formula; however, SF was a Mendes film first. SP was Sam's victory lap. He just wanted to kick-back and have some fun. So we were left with a bloated, silly and disposable Bond film. It felt like his heart wasn't quite in it as much as it was in SF.
If we can get the Mendes who made SF back - that would be amazing! Just not the bloke who made SP.
Mendes = Newman = :D
Fixed for you ;)
He used the word 'probably' - pure speculation.
:P
"The ugly return of Nationalism and Soverignity..."
As I recall, Bond was always a devote nationalist. For Queen and country, remember? Her Majestys loyal Terrier?
"Can Bond live happily ever after with Madeleine?"
No, here is why, Craigs tenure consists of a beginning and an end. But no real middle. Where is all the missions between?
We have Craigs Bond show us what makes Bond, Bond and his origins. Spectre is not a one off movie event. Spectre can't be the end of Spectre, with Blofeld's capture nor can it be an end for this Bond timeline. Therefore Spectre must return and if that means killing off Swann or even staging her death for a massive twist so be it.
I don't like papering over crack, and just wiping out story. I would rather they start Bond 25 with Bond waking up in the chair with drills still in his neck, and that Act 3 of Spectre was all going on in his head, than attempt to just forget Spectre/Swann. The idea also means Blofeld at large rather than have to come up with some story about how he gets out (No repeat of Silva escape), or even duller him orchestrating things from within prison.
It's not papering over cracks, the story is over. Villain foiled, Bond drives off with a woman under his arm. What has tormented him all these years has been dealt with, he's at peace. What more of the story is there left to tell?
If that case new timeline and new Bond actor. But I don't think it done yet, I suspect another Craig film with a follow on from Spectre, maybe even the death of Bond? after all they have give Craig the back story, the happy ending, Eon might give him a Sherlock ending.
Perhaps the ending of YOLT the novel where Bond is missing, presumed dead - without all the Kissy stuff? Although they kind of used that at the start of Skyfall with Bond's obituary etc.