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Are there any Villeneuve films anyone would recommend? Something more in line with what his Bond would be like?
Having said that, some news is better than the neverending abyss.
But perhaps he's changed or I've misinterpreted his personal feelings regarding them. Or maybe he would intend something mildly subversive ... I just don't see him doing it for the money, power and spectacle. But then of course I don't really know ...
@Jordo007
I agree with @Denbigh that Sicario is probably the best film to explore Villeneuve's filmmaking besides his sci-fi films.
@Mendes4Lyfe
I don't quite see why Villeneuve would surely provide more of the Craig Bond. He has never done anything even remotely like Bond. Martin Campbell had made some sex comedies and courtroom dramas before doing GE. Not exactly very Bondian. In hindsight, I don't think GE resembled anything he had done before, yet he knocked that film out of the park.
Also, there's not a lot of "news" here. Villeneuve doing Bond next is mostly conjecture and wishful thinking from fans. There are far more film projects to be mysterious about than Bond.
Or there's the longtime Zombie Bond concept.
Yes, exactly! Thank you.
I just don't think based on his filmography Villeneuve is going to be a champion of the Moore/Brosnan bond returning.
Who said anything about the Moore/Brosnan Bond returning? I for one am looking for something entirely new.
That's my point, for me Villeneuve is very similar to what we have been getting.
Yet you seem to want a new Moore/Brosnan era, whatever that means. (Both had very different films in their era.)
I’d give Prisoners a watch. Sicario on paper is more ‘Bond-esque’, but I’d say that’s the best thriller he’s ever made.
Anyway, I’ve said before apart from Prisoners I tend to find Villeneuve’s films a tad dull too, but very well made. He wouldn’t be my first choice, and I don’t know how well he understands Bond - none of us do- but it’s also worth saying we also don’t know what kind of Bond film he’d give us. I’d reserve judgments if he was announced as the director until we see the film itself.
If the bond series is a pendulum, its about time it started swinging back in the other direction, that's all it means. Similar to Brosnan after Dalton or Moore after Connery.
Denis Villeneueve would have too much in common with the recent films, it wouldn't feel like a departure into something new.
It can't be Bond. The new actor needs a longer gap. ;)
But the Moore, Brosnan, and Connery eras all had a variety of different films in their eras. It’s not as simple as a pendulum swinging back and forth either. Moore’s era came after DAF which some would argue is a Moore film which happened to feature Connery. TLD retained some of the humour and certainly plot ideas from the later Moore films. GE is a much darker and character driven Bond film which very much feels like it came after LTK.
And as I said, I don’t think we can tell at the moment what Villeneuve would hypothetically give us.
What would such a film look like? What would we be returning to?
Even worse, since it will be the first movie of a new era, it will influence the whole era even if Villeneuve only directs the next movie.
Essentially drama and the type of grounded characterisation of the Craig films taking a back seat to pure escapism and breezy adventure.
Well color me stupid ...
That’s what I thought you meant, and I just don’t think that’s possible, or for the best.
I love the older films. Three of my top five are 60s films, and there are certain classic elements that I felt were lacking from the Craig era. But the fact remains that the films have depth now that they never used to. Reverting back to even a Brosnan style of Bond film, with comparatively surface level character drama wouldn’t be a reinvention, it would be a regression.
The series is not simply a pendulum swinging back and forth, it’s been in a constant state of evolution since the beginning. Adapting to new actors, writers, and directors, as well as external things like world events, changes in society, attitudes, innovations in filmmaking, etc. Ultimately, we just have to accept that some of the changes made during the Craig era, such as the increased focus on character and emotional conflicts, are permanent. To go back would be like the series becoming more two-dimensional.
Bravo @George_Kaplan …. Whether one agrees with your assessment, or not, this is certainly the best description, and the truth, of the ongoing life of agent James Bond, in film. He is always in a state of flux. Even within each actor’s tenure the character is active and morphing to the times. He’s never static. And he’s never gone backwards. The Bond of Dr. No is quite a bit different in just about every way to the one who showed up in DAF; the Bond in LALD was different to the one in TMWTGG, is different to the one seen in TSWLM….
Bond moves forward and is malleable to present times. There are archetypal traits that will always remain true to the character, but the series would never have survived the last 60 years if he wasn’t the man of today….
You could make this case in the late eighties, that reverting back to comedic, charming bond after Dalton would be a regression, but ultimately Brosnan brought in a whole new generation of fans by doing exactly that. I don't know what is meant by "it's not possible" - how so? EON don't have the resources? Ofcoure it's possible, and a lot of Bond fans have been yearn for a return to standalone missions with a more breezy feel. The franchise literally still exists because of how adaptable it can be, if it had stuck with hardboiled thrillers forever the series might not have made it to 10 entries, let alone 25.
Exactly. Hell, the Bond of DN is different to the Bond of FRWL.
On the whole, even with this constant evolution, I'd say the character's been remarkably consistent considering. EON have always understood and kept the fundamental traits of the character alive and have always had a deference to the novels. It's a good mixture.
Look at the world around us right now. Nothing is breezy. There's a lot of geopolitical menace looming, including, possibly, from my own country. :(
I don't think we're headed for a lighter Bond.
Sounds like a lighter Bond is more needed than ever.
Perhaps what we'll get then is a more breezy, humorous (perhaps even lighthearted) Bond along the lines of Brosnan in GE or Connery in DN or GF, in a film that skews towards darkness in similar ways to the later Craig films. Doesn't sound dissimilar to GE really...
GE is a response to Dalton's unfortunate failure, but also to the end (!) of the Cold War.
Eon always incorporates current events as well as recent non-Bond films.
It's how Bond films have survived.
https://screenrant.com/james-bond-casting-chances-jack-oconnell-response/