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Not that it's a particularly bold prediction, but I predict that if Aaron Taylor Johnson is cast as the next Bond, his wife will become the first ever female director of a Bond film. But no, she won't direct Bond 26.
Not that I disagree, but why do you think it's dangerous? Also, I feel somewhat similarly. I *would* prefer a Bond 26 set in the present, but I trust Nolan. If he wants to set it in the past, that's okay with me. Heck, Nolan is pretty much the only one I trust to deliver an excellent Bond film set in the past.
I'm trying to think of exceptions. I guess Captain America? That was a while ago though.
That was successful because of the MCU brand name. I just EON doesn’t go that route with that much Bond content at once.
Well they don't often do 'period action films' as a franchise because there often is little reason, but of course they do make period films that are successful, some with action in them. Things like The Mummy (Brendan Fraser version), adaptations like The Three Musketeers, and of course war films and westerns. If TV can do it for The Ipcress File I'm sure Eon can make it work for Bond.
That's an outlier, not a formula....
I'm in two minds on a cost basis: it will increase the budget to have everything in period. But then if you look at NTTD you have: Matera, which is basically period anyway- there's not much there which couldn't be in the 60s or 30s or whenever: there's even a load of 60s cars around for some reason. And of course Bond's car is a 60s car, totally recreated for the film. Jamaica is mostly beach and trees and sea and a house they built, so no problem. You've also got Cuba which is pretty much entirely built on the Pinewood backlot, so building period is no problem there. Norway: mostly wilderness again so no problem. Safin's base is all studio set so can be whatever you want. You have dozens and dozens of digitally adjusted shots that we don't even notice (did you know the shot of Bond sliding his Aston out of the garage in London was flipped? Same with the arrival at the Matera train station: those would have been digitally altered so signs, cars etc. were the right way around) so the vast majority of locations can be altered.
If NTTD had been a period film you'd pretty much only be looking at, what? The London scenes like Bond's MI6 arrival or the riverside chat with M which were a problem; the Jamaica roundabout; hiring some period planes and boats.. and that's kind of it. So actually, budget-wise, surprisingly I don't think it would be a problem.
There's more of an issue when it comes to product placement I guess; if companies can't get their current product in there they may be less interested.
Yes, I think it's workable, and with them having killed off Bond in the last film they have obviously committed to obviously separate continuities from now on, so if they were going to take a shot at period adaptations of Bond novels now is as good a time as any. I'm still not convinced it's going to happen, but it's not an outlandish idea. I think the lack of a diverse cast for something like Moonraker (if you are being accurate to the book) is going to be a bigger hurdle than anything else, I'm sure Eon are pretty committed on that score, Nolan or no.
And to build period sets vs contemporary ones usually cost quite a bit more to replicate because of the research and time it takes to make all the details authentic. To dress all the sets in period is a creative and financial undertaking.
Back in 2010, The Pacific was a massive series with a $200 million budget.
$200 million with no stars.
Granted, computer wizardry today can eat into a little of this budget, plus it was a war epic, but a period Bond film would still have to have massive scope as well. It's still need stunts and pyrotechnics inside of the period dressing.
A financier will say what's the point in spending $250 million on a period action piece, when we can stretch the $250 million budget on other things (like stars), in a contemporary setting.
There is no added value for making Bond period, and it makes a gigantic project that much harder to execute... and the risk is higher, since a period Bond will not likely appeal to all the global markets.
I totally agree that it wouldn't be a great idea and I don't want it, and I'm not sure the audience would either; but playing the devil's advocate and considering just how much of these films Eon do build on stages and totally control locations, plus the amount of digital retouching they do on these, I don't think it would actually be as much of a budget issue as I first thought. They hire vehicles etc. anyway - there's not going to be much of a premium one on period ones I'd have thought: I know a classic car hire place that supplies lots of films. Plus there are plenty of prop houses full of 20th century stuff. Something like Lucia's villa in Spectre is full of that stuff anyway- Pinewood has still got plenty of the dressings used on The Saint, Bond films of the time etc. And if you look at the Cuba street they built, that's pretty much all period designs, fixtures and fittings because Cuba wasn't built yesterday and doesn't get updated.
A film like Skyfall with the central London stuff might be trickier, but there's lots of research and set building that goes into these anyway. Silva's island is all 50s/60s architecture; the Spectre Rome meeting room is, what, 18th century? The MI6 open plan offices in SF/SP/NTTD are period buildings again, Skyfall itself is a building hundreds of years old... they do plenty of period research already. Look at the scale of something like the Spectre PTS: hundreds of extras, all in bespoke costumes and makeup. What would actually push the budget higher in the Spectre PTS if it was period? Hire an old helicopter and that's kind of it- it's in an old bit of the city already and I'm sure there's an awful lot of digital retouching going on we don't even know about.
It would add to the budget, and the product placement is possibly a bigger issue, but the Bond films are so totally controlled and big budget anyway that I'm not sure it's inconceivable. I can see how it would push cheaper productions' budgets much higher and force them build and recreate more than they would have done, but with Bond they're pretty much starting from a blank page with their sets and locations anyway.
For my judgement, The Man From UNCLE was as close to a period Bond picture we could get, and it has a lot of Fleming-esque elements, and the number 2 Bond choice in a spy role, and it didn't launch a franchise, so how would a similar Bond picture sustain or revitalize a franchise?
That's what I thought, but when you look at the last few films; does it? Which big scenes would have needed a lot more cash? Matera pretty much is period, same with Cuba, Safin's lair, Norway chase- I don't think it would have been a problem there. With SP: Mexico city is a huge tightly controlled affair in an old bit of the city anyway; the Rome chase there's no-one else there(!); snow chase is countryside; the crater base is pretty much from the 50s; Westminster Bridge is a set... Skyfall maybe poses more challenges with some (but not all) of the train stuff; the stuff we see of Istanbul could be dressed; MI6 is all a set; Shanghai had a massive set built for the set piece; the casino is all set; Silva's lair is a set... London becomes more of a problem where you have to dress the tube stations and do something with the running through Westminster, but then the Tube crash is all set; and then you have Skyfall house itself which is both countryside and a big set.
In a way I can imagine smaller scenes, like Q's escape from the guys on the cable car, suddenly costing more than they need to.
But I do understand you point that it’d be a similar budget to the films they’re making, BUT, at what risk (you and I both have an inkling this concept may not work as successfully as the model they have now)
I agree @LucknFate … Tgeres not really a global appetite for action period pieces. It doesn’t make any commercial sense whatsoever. Risk and reward. The words the film industry lives by. And the less risk, and more reward ($$$), the better.
Investing in a period Bond film at what return?
Better to use a quarter of a billion and make a contemporary film, make it as best as they can, for maximum profit
Yeah, as I said earlier; they'd be eyeing up the performance of Indy 5 and UNCLE and things like that and wondering whether it's a good idea.
But in terms of expense: costume and makeup? They're already spending oodles on that anyway. It would make things a bit more expensive and harder to do, yes - I remember I got to walk past on the pavement in that scene in Skyfall where M and Tanner are in the Jag getting the 'think on your sins' message, and I'd never have been able to do that if it were period- they'd have to close it all down. Although that scene does also show how big these films are: they weren't shooting that in traffic, all of the cars on that (very main) London road were all part of the filming and they all reversed back into position for a new take. And that's just for a quite brief interior scene in a car!
So these are big, very controlled films anyway- there's nothing being done guerilla-style on these.
Something like that scene where Bond arrives at MI6 in NTTD; that all looks natural but I bet you all of those cars on the road that Bond crosses to get to the building are all film cars. Swapping those out for period cars would be pretty much no expense at all. A few extras in costume, paint out some modern street furniture- on Eon's budget I don't think that's breaking the bank. I don't want it and I don't think they should, but I think they actually could if they wanted to.
Ahaha not at all!! Very producer driven and slick machines!!
Not that I want a period Bond but you make really good points.
Bond films are often set in classic, less contemporary locations (for some reason AVTAK just came to mind), and also outdoors in big nature settings...so in that sense it would be easier for a Bond film to go period than something that is rooted in the present reality.
Go period, *but* not to the books.
Go 87-97, because we weren’t in serious spy mode for the films at the first part of that, really engage with the Cold War ending setting, and take us right up to the HK handover as the epilogue to that Cold War and the end of empire. They can even do a couple of Benson adaptations.
Not strictly Fleming — he started dodging Russia — but open to Fleming themes. And, still very zeitgeist in pop culture, though they are moving on to the 2ks. (See how Liason used that in its backstory, for one example of 2k nostalgia)
I must admit, I have thought before that IFP could do a Bond book around the early 80s and it could have a nicely different Cold War flavour.