It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
We know one part of the plan. If Purvis and Wade are writing again, expect Bond to leave MI6 at some point. And then say something along the lines of “I never left.”
Lol, maybe/maybe not. Although doubtful 🤨, lol
Because he said that once? In a film where he never left MI6.
Thank you for the clarification @DEKE_RIVERS. For a minute I thought I was referring to a painting….
And a new painting, at that. Not one of those old ones. Man, I was confused too 🤔!!
I’m sorry. I meant to say where M says he’s the best person for the job. But they’ll only say it to his face once. When one of them is dying.
I blame Sam Mendes for that. Surrogate families are one of his trademarks.
I’m still confused @peter but I guess some mysteries should never be solved..
😂…!!!
And how many times did that happen again...?
I think if we're finding issues with the idea of M thinking Bond is good at his job then the whole series may as well go in the bin.
Like Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies, right? Oh, wait…
On Felix Leiter in the CIA they are international like MI6. The way the FBI and MI5 are domestic.
But of course Felix and Bond end up working in the US. And Bond worked London and the UK. With Felix in the books believe most of that was post-CIA when he was with Pinkerton Detective Agency.
I still don’t get the hate for these two. The way these things go:
They have meetings with a bunch of creatives. A creative TEAM.
They collectively zero-in on the story they all agree will be the one they want to tell.
The writers go off with those notes and create an outline.
The team will read the outline.
Then writers will receive notes and adjust the outline accordingly.
Once the outline is done, the writer go off and pound out a draft.
More meetings. More notes.
The writers take the notes and proceed on a second draft.
More meetings, more notes.
The writer takes these notes and do a third draft. I assume they get at least a three step deal. If so, they start showing this script to potential directors.
Directors will read. Directors will have meetings to discuss their vision based off of the script and where they want to go.
The director that wins the job will have a whole pile of notes and these notes will be given to the original writers, or, at this time, more writers will come on board.
This writer or writers will pound out a new fourth draft based off of the directors notes.
More meetings. More notes.
The writers will take the notes and do draft five.
More meetings more notes. But now, the creative team is asking for more action.
A new writer or script doctor is brought on board. They will be hired for about three weeks work and they’ll focus on action. The new draft is submitted.
The creative team goes over this new draft and feel that character is lacking, so another writer or doctor comes on board and they will work on the new draft focusing on character work.
The creative team assesses the new script, and the director now dislikes the third act.
Either writers they’ve used in previous drafts will be brought back, or a new doctor will be hired to fix the third act for them.
And so on….
How anyone can pinpoint what P & W do and don’t do is a wild guess at best. And everything they, and others, write, are based on creative notes, from a team, from Day One until the film is locked.
I will never understand the dislike directed at these two. Anyone writing for movies of this scope are all, off the charts, talented…
You're right @echo . I have no excuses for that bimbo. She's driven the franchise into the ground. Once she took over, the fandom and box office dwindled way below that of AVTAK and LTK. Just shameful. And sooo obvious that she hates James Bond (unless of course it's her lovetboy wearing the tux)!
She's an embarrassment and this franchise is rudderless!!! They have no clue where to go next.
Idiots!
Great post @peter. If I had to hypothesize, I guess so many people hate on P&W because they see them as a microcosm for everything they find wrong with the series these days. TWINE and DAD aren’t that popular amongst the fans as it is; I imagine the Craig era and some of those choices would only add to that fire. Regardless I think they’ve got quite the grasp on the character/series (perhaps even more than Maibaum.)
On a side note, having recently watched the 1949 version of “The Great Gatsby” with Alan Ladd (and directed by Mr. Maibaum), I can firmly say that nothing P&W have put on the screen have come close to boring me in the way Maibaum’s Gatsby has.
That doesn't strike me as a P&W trope, since they've been writing these movies since the 90s and we only got that in the last three films, none of which were written exclusively by them. It seems more like a byproduct of the producers putting known/semi-known actors into secondary MI6 roles, therefore requiring more screen time for them.
Rest assured @peter she is not Kathleen Kennedy. And sometimes, even KK's hate is overblown. As for P & W, they have made some comments that don't make them look good for the future. Like saying that the Bond villain has become a reality with certain political figures. While not wrong, that didn't fill me with confidence, as Bond should be easier to write with that pure evil in the world. And while I'm actually thankful that they have worked on the franchise, nothing needs to change more than the writing of Bond. They're not a**holes to other creative people on Bond like Richard Maibaum, and most things are truly NOT their fault (their QOS script was better, Marc Forster and the writer's strike can be blamed mostly for that). They saved SP probably, Brofeld WAS NOT their fault, as proven. Their freshness on TWINE was ruined by others, I imagine. DAD wasn't their fault. But when Martin Campbell wanted them fired for not having strong enough material, it makes me wonder who really wrote CR (other than Fleming and Paul Haggis). So, in some ways they can be seen as favoritism for EON as much as Craig. So, while by far NOT the worst writers for Bond, (I know that there are MANY more candidates for that position, books, movies and video games), it's just I feel it's simply time for a change.
On a happier note, today I talked to a younger man (mid 20's) who was a Bond fan (he said OHMSS was his favorite, points right there)! It's always nice to talk to younger generations about Bond, as it's proof that he will never go away. He's asking the same questions that we are now. That's enough hype for the future for me.
Yes, the MI6 family doesn't feel like them. I think EON might honestly cut back on the MI6 family just a bit for at least the next Bond's first movie.
This is true (although increasingly with the films they'd written you see more of M/the others, likely for the reason you just gave). It was more me being sarcastic/trying to make the point you can blame pretty much anything on them.
I'm not sure if Campbell could have gotten them fired even if he'd wanted to. From what I've always gathered it was a case where he brought Haggis on to polish things up and do later drafts. It actually sounds pretty typical of the entire process to me.
No notes at all on any of this.
Glad to help @CrabKey! I look forward to seeing more childish behavior from you in the future!
Boy I remember when I was 12….
The fetch my shoes line is abrupt, but I don't regard it as a smoking gun of racism that permeates the film. Not a line one would hear today, but Bond saying it was a command, the same as "Cover the boat." Bond is in charge. He gave a command. The moment was tense. I suppose he could have said, "Quarrel, will you please fetch my shoes. Thank you." Had Quarrel not been Jamaican, would the line have been more acceptable?
I recognize that racism is often subtle. But I don't think there's an underlying subtext of racism and elitism in DN. This was a film that featured multiple races as main characters. Actually quite inclusive, even if the main character was a Chinese played by a Caucasian.
Is the absence of actors of African origin in FRWL racist?
Racism is real and worthy of talking about. That I don't share your view about DN doesn't make you right and me ignorant. If you want to have a conversation about racism, then have it without attacking those who disagree with you. It is conversation that can be had. We don't have to dance around it. And it might go into areas that make some uncomfortable.
I don’t remember reading that Campbell wanted them fired, it just seems part of the process to get a script worked on. I don’t think they’re sole writers on any of the films, are they? Might be wrong.
I don’t really understand the political figure point either; what’s wrong with that?
Telling anyone to “fetch” anything is elitist.
That it was ordered to a man of colour, may not be racist to you, but it was the casual racism that did exist.
Bond treats Rosie Carver like shit.
Nice descriptor @DEKE_RIVERS . Keep it up.
(And Carver was under suspicion, and had nothing to do with her race)…