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
You're right on the brink of being flagged for trolling.
I know a lot of people will hate this but I love the idea. He doesn't have his surprisingly high MI6 payslip any more but still craves excitement and danger, so he's found himself on a bit of a downward spiral.
I think if they did want to kill him off as well it would work well. He knows he's past it, he knows it's too dangerous, but he's been slumming it for far too long and would rather go out in a blaze of glory complete with posh casinos and fast cars than spend another day living among us peasants.
My only issue with a female 007 in a one off movie is how that works out in the next film when we see Bond back as 007.
In that hypothetical scenario, it doesn’t matter. It’s the idea of a female 007 that is arbitrary at best. It’s what happens when you’re all out of ideas. Why not make Blofeld a dog, while we’re at it? Or have ‘M’ be played by Ray Winstone’s floating head from the Bet 365 adverts. Anything to be different!
What I’m interested in is where you take Bond next. That’s the interesting challenge. Making him a woman, or Chinese or a tranny is the painfully easy route in this day and age.
The idea of an older Bond is fine, but stripping him of all essence just creates a new character entirely. Could Bond be a down and out drunk? To a point. He’d be a functioning alcoholic, but he certainly wouldn’t be an East End cage fighter - it’s as out of character as saying he’s moved to Vegas and become a second rate crooner.
You could have great fun with the PTS with the audience who's expectations are that Bond is 007 so M calls through to Moneypenny via his intercome to send 007 into his office (a classic scene/trope) and CF walks in ( a gasp from the audience) and M does not blink an eye.
Then we cut to Bond in the gambling den, winnig big against local hoodlums. He takes a final swig of scotch, grabs a massive pile of cash "Thank you gentleman, same time tomorrow?"
He leaves and walks down a dark alley followed by the disgruntled crooks who want their cash back. Fight ensures. It's a little Jack Reacher in feel. It's just fun pushing the Bond boundaries.
We have seen from other films that Bond is still Bond - licence or not - Bond represents more than the licence, it's the chracter of the man himself. It works the other way (which the movie could show) in that just by being called 007 does not make you Bond. To seperate the two and show where the true Bondian spirit lies (with the man rather than the code name) could be an interesting idea.
I don't mind this idea at all.
Though I think it's hugely discourteous to not let Daniel Craig be in the PTS. He's the lead and he's Bond.
You could do a brief little flash-forward of Bond in a tight spot (a little like Mission: Impossible III) with the rest of the film catching up. The first scene after the MTS could say "3 Days Earlier".
Alternatively, you could have a scene after the gunbarrel of Bond in a seedy club and getting in a street brawl and having his arse handed to him. It be a pretty edgy and subversive way to begin one of these films. I much prefer this idea. It reminds me a little of the opening shot of Logan of him waking up drunk in the limo.
A female 007 is a cool idea. Its obvious that females would be part of the 00 Programme, any suggestion to the alternative is absurd. Bond often runs into his counterparts from different intelligence agencies who are women. Even Miranda Frost was an example of an MI6 agent who got the better of Bond.
As for how Bond becomes 007 at the end of the film? Dunno. This is clearly a story point. You could have Clare Foy retire from MI6 and Bond retakes the mantel? Maybe Bond's cynicism about MI6 and fighting for "the good guys" rubs off on her. Perhaps Bond dies and Foy steals the Aston Martin DB5 and drives off at the close of the film. Who knows.
Obviously the reboot with a new Bond would cover the point. We don't know the direction of that reboot, so there's no way of knowing how "Bond will become 007" again. I quite like the idea that the new Bond is on his own independent mission (as we'll once again have a young virile actor) and MI6 tracks him down after previously thinking him dead. so his "death" in the Craig films plays as a more symbolic passing opposed to a literally one....(This way we keep Fiennes, Whishaw and Harris)
How about not seeing Bond's face in the smokey, darkened gambling den and then also not in the dark, grungy alleyway fight (it would help for the stunt work), it woud be so grungy that the audience would never expect it to be Bond. then you see the character manage to get back to the flat (don't we recognise that front door?) and then into the bathroom and for the first time, the light comes on and, in the shaving mirror, we see DC's aged, blooded and beated face (setting the tone for the rest of the movie). Certainly a PTS like we've never seen before.
Re: CF could be killed at the end of the movie, sybolically opening up the vacancy for the new Bond? Also, symbolically, ending the female 007 story (right, you've had your , lets get on with a new 007 Bond. It would also make it clear that she was a star for that movie only rather than a potential new member of the team.
Alternatively, have her (or anther really good actress) as 008, leaving the door open for a return at a later date. I think recurring characters are great if handled well.
No, she can't die.
If the character works, she can have a spin-off. There's nothing stopping that spin-off being structured much more like a traditional Bond film. In fact, I'd prefer that. I would want to know next to nothing about that character at all and just see her go on an international mission.
Perhaps at the end of the film, she joins an even more elite part of MI6 and gets a new codename, which in turn could be the title of the film.
Bond can get his 007 title back at the end. I have no bones with that. It's inextricably linked to the iconography of the character, hence why we're playing around with the idea in B25.
I can just imagine the back and forth between Foy and Bond as he grows more disgruntled that a woman took his number. It would certainly annoy Bond and he wouldn't be afraid to express it.
I think Bond's roots should be fundamentally embraced and never forgotten. Bond is a misogynist, he can be witty and charming, but he is cold operator. What makes his character interesting is that he isn't a square-jawed, white-bread hero. He has traits which aren't particularly admirable. It doesn't mean that the film that surrounds him has to embrace those characteristics. If anything it's far more exciting to think of story which provoke a more dramatic dynamic between the characters. A female replacing Bond at MI6 could potentially do that.
Yes, I can see that, and their "banter" would be a reflection of the debate we are having within wider culture concerning gender balance etc.
As a co-incidence , I was watching series 2 of the Crown last night and there was something a little Bondian re the portrayal of Prince Phillip. Clearly, a bit of a lad, a plain speaker, taste for the good things in life and struggles to accept the new values as society moves on.
Really can't believe what I'm reading here.
I reached the grand old age of 43 on tuesday and have just came back from having an eye test where they said my eyes have deteriorated to the extent I now have to wear glasses permanently rather than just for computer work. My body is failing and the grave yawns open in front of me - and given where the world seems to be heading I really cannot wait to dive in.
Thankfully I got Charles Helfenstein's The Making of the Living Daylights for my birthday and the missus is going to visit her sister for the weekend. So on saturday I plan on reading that book from cover to cover and then watching the film and wrapping myself up in the comfort blanket of a time when Bond smoked, worked on his own and patted Moneypenny on the arse. The direction Bond is headed is really not for old farts like me so stop the train please so I can get off.
Thank you for some sanity Sir. The Ray Winstone line did raise a chuckle I must admit.
I have no problem with things changing, I understand they can't remain the same as they were when I was a child, and I try not to romanticise the past. We are always progressing after all, and if humans lived for 150 years we would have a generation that would still think it was outrageous that women have the right to vote for instance.
All I ask is that they don't try to make a big statement out of it, but like PC elements occur naturally. I'd much rather Bond stayed the way it was, but you have to have some adaptability in these regards, and try not to become too set in your ways.
1.) Can you think of an inventive way to bring Bond back to MI6? I'm not looking for a rehash of Bond's return from SF. Something new.
2.) Tell me about your villain and his scheme. It can't be Blofeld.
3.) Who is the lead Bond girl. What's her relationship with Bond?
Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's James Bond OO7 in: "The Undertaker's Wind"
1) Bond and Madeline have long since broken up. He's currently spending his days as the owner of a charter boat in Jamaica, and he spends his nights hopping from dive bar to dive bar. However, he feels unfulfilled. He thought a solid relationship could fill that hole in his heart, but in the back of his mind lies the nagging notion that while he was a spy, he was one man with a gun who saved the world. He finds a private military corporation to work with, but as he's introduced to his superior, he finds out that it's M. Due to the events of the Nine Eyes Crisis, MI5 and MI6 are under heavy scrutiny, and as such, Mallory (with clandestine permission of Her Majesty's Government) still operates the functioning 00-Section under the guise of a PMC, which, by the way, is named "Universal Exports".
Bond starts his mission out of Universal Exports'/MI6's Caribbean HQ, a throwback to the old days where MI6's offices could be in a submarine or the Hemingway House.
2) Bond's mission is a relatively easy one: infiltrate the security detail of Hispanic American movie producer Seraffimo Spang (Jimmy Smits), who is said to be a former SPECTRE member before the organization largely collapsed with the capture of Blofeld. As it turns out, Seraffimo is using his production company and films as a money laundering organ for SPECTRE, and alongside his brother, Jack Spang (Joe Magnaniello), he runs a human trafficking/people smuggling ring. The climax of the film is Bond and an MI6 squad trying to prevent the smuggling of Blofeld (he's not the main villain, but I want to get him back in the fold) out of a Eastern European supermax prison, who escapes with the production crew. However, the brothers Spang are both killed in the fight. Someone who looks like Waltz ought to play Blofeld, but it will be a minor, non-speaking role. In the film where Blofeld returns, he can played by someone completely different, and you could handwave it by saying that he's an internationally-wanted fugitive, and needed to change his appearance.
As film producers and human traffickers, there's "subtle allusions" to the recent string of exposures of men in power, specifically the film industry, as abusers. However, since they are human traffickers and illegal persons smugglers, it's not a direct commentary on the #MeToo movement. It's just another instance of Bond as a franchise reflecting the issue of the day, like Goldeneye and the post-soviet world, or Casino Royale and the rise of private, non-national terrorism.
The film Spang is producing is a neo-noir named "The Undertaker's Wind", it's an "Argo"-type deal.
3) There would be two Bond girls, the good one, who's an entertainment journalist and MI6 plant named Gala Brand who has been tracking Spang, and the bad one, one of the Spangs' mistresses, who seems to dislike their lover, but is actually playing along the entire time, outing Bond and Gala to the Brothers Spang. There might be a third one a la Dr. Warmflash, who would be an actress that contributes nothing significant to the plot.
Re Bond, either he wants to come back or circumstances force him and I think the latter works better. Considering what he has done for a living, he must have built up enemies or have experience with "cold cases" that came back into focus for MI6 and they need his experience.
Another idea: could cuts within MI6 be so bad (combined with more relience of tech) that they only have three/four double 0 agents in the field and, within a few days in seperate locations, they are all "taken out" by a mysterious assasin. M has to go back to Bond to bring him out of retirement.
Even though I hate the idea of the Spangs (Fleming's shittest villains by a country mile) you largely had me until the words 'Bond and an MI6 squad.'
See below a scene which IMHO has 20% Bond and 80% Boyle: (no idea where this is going but it's all good fun)
It's not the Scooby Gang or even other 00's, it's just a group of nameless troops, like the battles that happened at the end of the older films. As for the Spangs, I just cribbed the names and the fact that they're brothers. Character-wise, they're completely different.
Better still, at the risk of sounding far-fetched, why not make a James Bond movie?
You’re right, to go with Boyle, I think, is an indication that they are not playing it safe for B25
I could go for a female 00. But I want the focus of the next film to be Bond. Not M, not Moneypenny, not Swann, not Blofeld, not Q, not Tanner, not the double-taking pigeon (although I'm kind of curious what he's been up to).
I agree. Killing Bond won't work; no one will believe it's "real" in the context of the film. See the last Batman movie with Bale. That twist was weak.
That was kept ambiguous, like many other Nolan endings.
Nope, Batman plays dead.
RISICO
Daniel Craig as James Bond
Cristoph Waltz as Blofeld
Carice van Houten as Irma Bunt
Kelly Reilly as Rowena Flynn
David Harbour as Gregory Beam
Monica Bellucci as Lucia Sciarra
Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter
Naomie Harris as Moneypenny
Ben Whishaw as Q
Rory Kinnear as Tanner
Ralph Fiennes as M
Nicholas Woodeson as Dr. Hall
Marc Zinga as Moreau
Film begins with a short scene some years in the past with a group of French Foreign Legionnaires in Morocco stumbling on some treasure with dead locals around them. Two of the soldiers shoot their six comrades. They remove their shemaghs and they are a young Blofeld and White, who look at each other and smile. They have an octopus on their armbands and their unit is known as Spectre.
New gunbarrel with Bond theme which fades to the rest of the PTS.
In the Swiss Mountains, Moreau enters a building where a doctor shows a man he says is ready for a mission: James Bond
In New York, Beam, now a wealthy businessman after leaving the CIA, makes a speech regarding his presidential bid. Bond is there to kill Beam but is discovered and fights several security men. Beam escapes in a chopper. Bond, in a John Wick style scene fights his way out and coolly escapes the scene in a Mustang, calling on his phone that he is ready to come in. Title song plays.
In London, M meets with Bond, who is clearly looking very ill. Bond pulls his gun to shoot M but is shot with a dart by Moneypenny. Dr. Hall examines Bond and tells M that Bond had been "reconditioned." M says Bond had been ID'ed as a former MI6 agent, causing a scandal between the US and UK. M tells Hall to help Bond as there is much to be done and they need him.
The plot will revolve around Spectre creating enmity between the UK and US, dishonoring the UK in front of the allies, and the continuation of corporate wars in Africa through Beam becoming president of the US. Bond was set up to fail on his brainwashed mission to assassinate Beam. M will task Bond to work outside the service to clear his name and find how Beam and an entrepreneur named Irma Bunt are in league with Spectre. Bond will make contact with an undercover agent already in Africa named Rowena Flynn, which is a cover name for Gala Brant (for some reason Brant sounds better to me than Brand). Bunt will engineer Blofeld's escape. Bond will also enlist Lucia Sciarra, who had become a mafiosa in Naples.
Locations will be in Berlin, Africa, Naples and a finale with Blofeld and Bunt in a fortress in Dubrovnik. Bond will kill Blofeld and Bunt and with Leiter and Brant's help, clear his name and destroy Beam, proving him a puppet for Spectre. Leiter will arrest Beam.
At the end, Bond and Brant will meet at Regent's Park where Brant tells Bond that no matter what happens, the service will call on them and that they can never be together, much like in the end of the Moonraker novel. Bond will remark on their mission and say that the British are good at such work. Brant and Bond walk away from each other. Bond stops and briefly watches her, then his phone rings with Moneypenny calling him for an emergency meeting. Bond says he'll be there and drives away in a new Aston. Craig gets to tie up his story and give a nod to passing the torch.
To add, perhaps make Waltz bald along with the scar, a homage to the first intro to Blofeld. And this time, Bunt will be beautiful and seductive. And as van Houten is Dutch, she can play Bunt as Dutch, where the word for risk is risico. It would be nice to get a bit more spy thriller of it with a more grounded physical action, which can be as thrilling as shown with John Wick and the underrated Atomic Blonde.
It would be interesting to bring Beam back into the fold, especially now that David Harbour is a big star.