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When I was 18, I had consumed and discussed dozens if not hundreds of films made years to decades before I was born. Most of my students haven't even heard of The Matrix, The Terminator, Dirty Harry, ... Teaching with scenes from Bond films is easy for me, since most of my students haven't seen a Bond film before NTTD.
I just don't think they are the target audience yet.
Every bond film exists somewhere on the spectrum between hardboiled, dark and serious on the one hand, and light, campy, spectacle on the other. After the death of Bond followed by a long absence during which the world has changed drastically (remember, Bond 25 wrapped in late 2019), they need to come back on a strong, triumphant note with another Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Goldeneye type adventure. Ofcourse they can massage in some characterisation and depth as most bond films manage to, but the broad strokes need to recapture that essential magic of the series for a new generation. The old Bond films are now so old that young people will find it hard to go back and watch, but the tone and style of those films is absolutely worth bringing into the modern era.
I agree that Bond exists between hardboiled and light (really like that description).
I'd say every Bond film tries to capture that Bond magic, and I'd say every film has done it. But getting it right this time for a new era will be important. I don't know about an OP style adventure (I'm not sure if the more absurd fourth wall breaking humour like the Tarzan yell will resonate today, much as I love it) or even a TSWLM type one (it's very much a grandiose Bond film that I think an era needs to build up to a bit). Anyway, them and GE are all different films.
I guess for me it simply depends on what exactly they're going to do.
I agree. We can still introduce them to good material. I wish parents would throw in a few efforts towards cultural enlightenment as well. ;-)
And that is why a traditional Bond film, despite its many thrills, may not be thrilling enough unless it's all condensed to 90 minutes, a suggestion I've actually read in this forum.
To put it simply, if it ain't broke don't fix it. B-)
Like I said, I have cousins in their late teens, and from about 13/14 they were pretty clued up on older films, books, music etc, and it's very much to do with the internet/easy access nowadays. A lot of their friends that age are really into 80s media for some reason, which is kinda cool.
And the GB films are far less successful. Doesn’t this just prove quality over quantity?
I’m assuming you’ve never actually made a film or participated in a film’s production.
Mod edit: double post merged. Please use the edit button.
I brought up generational divides a few months ago and got push back that it really was not a thing. The simple existence of this forum, used primarily by younger viewers, is itself a generational divider. We don't hear a lot from the 50-80 year old fans here. It would seem to me that that, reading the above, generational division will be EON's toughest adversary in finding just the right tone for the new Bond. I wonder if the fans brought up on the Craig era will feel as displaced as the fans brought up in Connery era sometimes feel if EON misses the mark.
I'm not sure if it's something you can avoid really. It's a series which has been around for so long and in many different iterations (even the films within a single actor's tenure can be different from each other/have its divides with fans). Like I said, I'm sure in the 70s/80s there were fans who were in their late teens when they watched the 60s films and may well have felt the Moore/Dalton films weren't Bond movies as they knew them.
It's generally a minority from what I can tell though. I think people on the whole are excited by a new Bond movie and will want to enjoy it.
This poses yet another possible conundrum I had not thought of. Are Bond forums actually atrophying and aging out themselves because the new generation of filmgoers are not seeking out and joining Bond forums like this one?
I got into Bond around the time of Skyfall and I'm in my twenties now. So theres that.
But on the topic of Bond in the cultural zeitgeist, I think there was a return of sort to the Bondmania on the level that it was in the 60s back in, oh, '11-'16.
I think Skyfall and the 50th anniversary, Olympics and the like got a lot of people in Bond fever and that continued for a while, but after Spectre I think it waned a bit and i feel like a bit of malaise set in and increasingly so after NTTD.
I think some people were turned off by both Sp and Nttd but in different ways. I hope the next one can get us back on track.
There is always a natural quiet downturn between films.
The success of SF definitely encouraged a slew of spy films in the following couple of year which include Spy, U.N.C.L.E. and the next MI.
Believe me, there has never been ANYTHING close to the spy craze of the mid '60s. The entire world's pop culture changed and was gripped by Bondmania and it's spin offs. Nobody had ever seen anything like Bond.
The difference is Skyfall got people excited about Bond so much that Barbara wanted to make a new film for '14 and Spectre and No Time To Die both left the general audience and the producers with a dodo feeling.
That's a question I've asked numerous times without an adequate response. What does the next Bond look like that appeals to your generation? Is it merely a younger Bond? What will connect you more to the new Bond as opposed to previous Bonds?
I would like to know as well.
What is a dodo feeling?
I don't discount what you say about SF, but I had no sense of that at all. I have no gauge for the excitement you say audiences felt. Whereas, as delfloria notes, the Bond craze of the 60s was a phenomenon.
I hope the next Bond era is successful, but I do worry that there really isn't any place to go. I am not talking about physical locations or the myriad of story possibilities. I don't want the series to become a tech heavy, CGI inflated, Bond version of Fast and Furious or a film that seems like a video game.
Ironically, Die Another Day feels like a video game in more than one area, lol.
This would include: a deep enough voice. If all the folks on here who keep showing enthusiasm for Aaron Taylor Johnson would listen, their enthusiasm would evaporate.
Because none of us know. It's entirely dependent on the type of films they want to make and the actor they decide to go with. For the moment it's impossible to say.
Yes I agree. Bond always reinvents slightly for the next generation, which usually works. Most kids born in the 50's and 60's have Connery as their Bond, Moore in the 70's and 80's, Brosnan for the 90's and Craig for the 00's.
The next Bond will be no different. It will still cater for the old farts like me, but will also introduce newer elements to keep Gen Z or whatever the new kids are called happy too.
I don't think EON do a bad job of reinventing/modernising Bond at all. It's why the franchise has lasted so long.
If Cruise can create a BO hit with Top Gun 2, a throwback 80's style sequel to a film made back in the mid 80's, and Nolan can create a BO hit from a rather slow movie about a guy who invented the atom bomb back in the 30's and 40's, it shouldn't be too hard to bring Gen Z on board for the next Bond film.
By the time the next Bond heads into production will it be Gen. Alpha that it will be reinvented for? I'd like to think it would just be a regular old amazing Bond adventure and let the audience experience the ride and either hate or fall in love with 007.
Well what does it mean to you @Mendes4Lyfe? Because I don't think making films specifically to try and appeal to the under 30 crowd is something Eon would ever do. The films have always managed to find an audience by moving with the times while staying true to the core of the Bond character, not by trying to win favour with a youthful demographic.
That's all that's needed tbh.
Well, OP and Moonraker were kids movies.