What Directors Should Helm A Bond Film?

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  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,713
    Steve McQueen would be the single worst possible choice for Craig's final outing.
  • Posts: 11,425
    How come? Any way, even if not for Craig's last outing, an interesting option for the future.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited June 2017 Posts: 15,713
    @Getafix McQueen directing B25 would be an indirect confirmation Craig won't come back, because he most likely won't direct the film unless he can bring on Fassbender as Bond. McQueen would make a killer Bond film, don't get me wrong, but him doing B25 would very likely happen without Craig.
  • edited June 2017 Posts: 11,425
    I see. Yes good point. Well Fassbender needs to take over for the next one or he will be too old
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,713
    Getafix wrote: »
    I see. Yes good point. Well Fassbender needs to take over for the next one or he will be too old

    Of course, but Fassbender's age (disregarding his looks/acting talent), is pitch-perfect for a new Bond if the role is recast in B25 (he'll be 42 in 2019 assuming B25 is released then). So pair that with getting McQueen as director, who made 3 films in his entire career, all featuring Fassbender in highly acclaimed performances, you just have to connect the dots to see what would happen.
  • Posts: 11,425
    I'd be 100% fine with that. Fassbender would be awesome.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,159
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I'm not going to disparage Scott's achievements; he's doing good stuff. But if we must go there, I don't think he's quite as sharp as he used to be and in some ways his films demonstrate that. Also, the Bonds are more demanding, I believe, than films like Prometheus and Covenant.

    But I don't want to belabour the point. Clearly I'm in a minority here and that's fine.

    It depends which Bond films you're talking about. Surely Dr No isn't more demanding than Alien Covenant?

    True, @Mendes4Lyfe, but surely we are not waiting for another DN anno 2017. :-) I know I for one would love another toned down, straight forward Bond. But would such a film be commercially viable today? :-)
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    No thanks. Campbell only introduces new Bond actors with a first film. He wouldn't return anyway unless he has creative freedom, he's said as much. He's not interested in trying to make sense out of the mess Mendes left.
    I'm with you on Campbell still having what it takes. He'd be perfect to get things back on a nuts and bolts track after the artsy detours of the past decade. I also agree that he should only come back if he introduces someone new. I'm not for any bookending. That was already done with Mendes as far as I'm concerned.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,195
    If the script is solid they need a, competent director with a strong visual style to transfer the written words onto the screen; the script is everything. I don't think Bond needs another auteur.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited June 2017 Posts: 23,883
    Tuulia wrote: »
    The thread is supposed to be about directors, not actors, but since that was discussed, too, I have to ask about this:
    bondjames wrote: »
    THIS is what the Bond's film need. No more naval-gazing and portentous gloom. No more Craig moping about his childhood. We need a stylish, fun, sexy film that's mischievous and damn cool. EON are seriously falling behind, whilst interesting talent is coming up.
    On the action front I most definitely agree, with regret.
    Also how great is Charlize? Can't we get her in one of his films.
    She is well past her prime, but should have been a shoo-in for a Bond film some years back. She's quite tall though, which perhaps ruled her out for the current iteration.

    Charlize Theron is "well past her prime"? In what way?
    I've noticed that she's aged quite a bit over the past few years (it happens to all of us of course). So when I say past her prime, I mean her prime in terms of physical youthful beauty (personal opinion). Just like Monica Bellucci therefore, I think she would have been better about a decade back. I suppose anything's possible if Craig stays in the role well into his 50's however. Plus, she's a bit tall for him.
    Tuulia wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    THIS is what the Bond's film need. No more naval-gazing and portentous gloom. No more Craig moping about his childhood. We need a stylish, fun, sexy film that's mischievous and damn cool. EON are seriously falling behind, whilst interesting talent is coming up.
    On the action front I most definitely agree, with regret.
    Also how great is Charlize? Can't we get her in one of his films.
    She is well past her prime, but should have been a shoo-in for a Bond film some years back. She's quite tall though, which perhaps ruled her out for the current iteration.
    That hasn't stopped any of the Mission: Impossible women from showing up next to Tom Cruise.
    They're all strategically shorter than Tom, no? Anyway, Cruise can carry any film with any actress. He's probably the only out there who has that 80's star power still.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1036572/For-size-James-Bond-wears-stacked-heels-hes-says-star.html

    I agree that Theron could have made a good villainess in the past, but it can't happen now.

    Why not?
    She just played the villain in FF8 (ironically with a Blofeld 'author of pain' twist) so I can't see EON going for her now. Also, she's the lead in Atomic Blonde which is about a female Bond style character.
  • DarthDimi wrote: »
    I'm not going to disparage Scott's achievements; he's doing good stuff. But if we must go there, I don't think he's quite as sharp as he used to be and in some ways his films demonstrate that. Also, the Bonds are more demanding, I believe, than films like Prometheus and Covenant.

    But I don't want to belabour the point. Clearly I'm in a minority here and that's fine.

    You're certainly right on the first account, and likely right on the second as well. Still, putting together all those action sequences—however competently or incompetently the script comes together—is no mean feat. And more importantly, The Foreigner at a glance demonstrates Campbell has steam left yet.
  • edited June 2017 Posts: 11,425
    The Graun gives Baby Driver a 5 star review.

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/27/baby-driver-review-edgar-wright-ansel-elgort-kevin-spacey-jon-hamm-jamie-foxx

    I think I'd personally prefer Edgar Wright to another Campbell effort, although I can't see it happening with Craig in the lead. And an Edgar Wright Bond film would be an odd follow up to the Nolan-esque Mendes era.

    Having said that, those kinds of sudden change in tone and approach between films were par for the course during the Young/Hamilton/Gilbert era.
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,392
    Getafix wrote: »
    The Graun gives Baby Driver a 5 star review.

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/27/baby-driver-review-edgar-wright-ansel-elgort-kevin-spacey-jon-hamm-jamie-foxx

    I think I'd personally prefer Edgar Wright to another Campbell effort, although I can't see it happening with Craig in the lead. And an Edgar Wright Bond film would be an odd follow up to the Nolan-esque Mendes era.

    Having said that, those kinds of sudden change in tone and approach between films were par for the course during the Young/Hamilton/Gilbert era.

    The Bond series has shifted tones more times than you could shake a stick at. Whenever a new guy takes up the tux, it usually means there's going to be significant changes. The audience is used to it by now.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Yes. I'd be fine with it.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    I have no problems with a change in tone either. In fact, I'd welcome it, but only if a new actor accompanies it.

    If it's Craig again, I'd much rather he finish up his navel gazing family driven arc before a new man takes over with a lighter touch.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited June 2017 Posts: 6,277
    Getafix wrote: »
    Just saw the "Atomic Blonde" trailer - and it looks terrific.



    People wanting a fun edgy Bond film, should possibly consider David Leitch (or the other John Wick dude).

    THIS is what the Bond's film need. No more naval-gazing and portentous gloom. No more Craig moping about his childhood. We need a stylish, fun, sexy film that's mischievous and damn cool. EON are seriously falling behind, whilst interesting talent is coming up.

    Also how great is Charlize? Can't we get her in one of his films.

    atomic-blonde-charlize-theron1.jpg

    I think people have been saying this on and off for decades. Frankly it's usually about once every ten years that Bond seems to strike a chord these days.

    I don't know whether that's EON's fault, or whether actually we should give them credit for just keeping the show on the road.

    Much of the last quarter century looks like a missed opportunity for Bond IMO, when you see what has been going on. Why did Bond have to wait for Bourne to follow. Couldn't EON see that some radical change of direction was needed earlier? The 90s offered real potential that was largely squandered IMO.

    I'm guessing a large part of that was because of the hiatus, and then Cubby's death. They needed to find their footing.
    I think soderbergh is the perfect choice for where the franchise needs to go. He's kinda caught between the gap of journeyman and auteur. Stylistically he's more than willing to take big risks, but functionally he's a very focused, tight filmmaker. Despite how his films look, he knows the basics of how to tell a story well.

    The series needs a creative shot of adrenaline to the brain, and who is better than Soderbergh for that. I think Nolan or those other big name directors would be looking to take the franchise in a certain direction, and we would end up getting bogged down again, having to dig ourselves out with retcons. I think Soderbergh would be primarily concerned with the story he's telling.

    I do agree about Soderbergh. He would give us a lean and mean Bond, and he would be perfect for Craig's swan song, and to kill off Blofeld. If we don't get Mendes for Bond 25--shudder--I bet we get Soderbergh.

    Eon should save the remnants of the MR novel (Gala Brand, bridge sequence, cliffs of Dover) for the next Bond actor, because it's a younger Bond story.
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,392
    Getafix wrote: »
    Just saw the "Atomic Blonde" trailer - and it looks terrific.



    People wanting a fun edgy Bond film, should possibly consider David Leitch (or the other John Wick dude).

    THIS is what the Bond's film need. No more naval-gazing and portentous gloom. No more Craig moping about his childhood. We need a stylish, fun, sexy film that's mischievous and damn cool. EON are seriously falling behind, whilst interesting talent is coming up.

    Also how great is Charlize? Can't we get her in one of his films.

    atomic-blonde-charlize-theron1.jpg

    I think people have been saying this on and off for decades. Frankly it's usually about once every ten years that Bond seems to strike a chord these days.

    I don't know whether that's EON's fault, or whether actually we should give them credit for just keeping the show on the road.

    Much of the last quarter century looks like a missed opportunity for Bond IMO, when you see what has been going on. Why did Bond have to wait for Bourne to follow. Couldn't EON see that some radical change of direction was needed earlier? The 90s offered real potential that was largely squandered IMO.

    Brilliant, just brilliant.

    And that trailer for Atomic Blonde isn't half bad. It's incredible how many upbeat, comedy action vehicles are beginning to start up now. A real paradigm shift occuring. Bond better jump on this quick, although to be fair Bond is usually a few years behind. GoldenEye was kinda connected to the fall of the Berlin Wall, but that happened six years before.
  • RoadphillRoadphill United Kingdom
    Posts: 984
    I agree with Soderbergh. We need a director now who isn't too artsy and interested in making Oscar bait. Someone who is competent, solid with action and doesn't use colour grading much. I have had my fill of that with the last two films.
  • Posts: 5,767
    Getafix wrote: »
    Just saw the "Atomic Blonde" trailer - and it looks terrific.



    People wanting a fun edgy Bond film, should possibly consider David Leitch (or the other John Wick dude).

    THIS is what the Bond's film need. No more naval-gazing and portentous gloom. No more Craig moping about his childhood. We need a stylish, fun, sexy film that's mischievous and damn cool. EON are seriously falling behind, whilst interesting talent is coming up.

    Also how great is Charlize? Can't we get her in one of his films.

    atomic-blonde-charlize-theron1.jpg

    I think people have been saying this on and off for decades. Frankly it's usually about once every ten years that Bond seems to strike a chord these days.

    I don't know whether that's EON's fault, or whether actually we should give them credit for just keeping the show on the road.

    Much of the last quarter century looks like a missed opportunity for Bond IMO, when you see what has been going on. Why did Bond have to wait for Bourne to follow. Couldn't EON see that some radical change of direction was needed earlier? The 90s offered real potential that was largely squandered IMO.

    Brilliant, just brilliant.

    And that trailer for Atomic Blonde isn't half bad. It's incredible how many upbeat, comedy action vehicles are beginning to start up now. A real paradigm shift occuring. Bond better jump on this quick, although to be fair Bond is usually a few years behind. GoldenEye was kinda connected to the fall of the Berlin Wall, but that happened six years before.
    Re: Atomic Blonde. From what I was able to see so far, I would file that film together with all those Liam Neeson films and the like, and John Wick perhaps, all nice films in their niche, but not at all on the level of Bond. Also the action. The Raid, there we´re talking, at least action-wise. All the rest is unfinished attempts.

  • Posts: 2,081
    @bondjames, yeah, thought so, and of course it's always a personal opinion. I think Theron looks gorgeous and fit. I like it when women don't look like they might be daughters of the men they're presumably "romantically" (or some such thing) involved with. If the men don't look all that "youthful" then the women shouldn't, either.

    It has always been a common view in Hollywood that men are fine as romantic or action leads pretty much all their lives (or at least well into their 60s) while women are seen past their prime after 35/40 (then they can be mothers and supportive wives). One just needs to look at the casting choices made and how often the women have to be considerably younger (or at the very least look considerably younger, by 15-20+ years) than the men. Personally I find it creepy and frequently unpleasant to watch. (I loved MMFR for many reasons, one big one was not having to stomach the usual movie crap regarding women)
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Martin Campbell or Alexander Witt.
  • edited July 2017 Posts: 11,425
    Tuulia wrote: »
    @bondjames, yeah, thought so, and of course it's always a personal opinion. I think Theron looks gorgeous and fit. I like it when women don't look like they might be daughters of the men they're presumably "romantically" (or some such thing) involved with. If the men don't look all that "youthful" then the women shouldn't, either.

    It has always been a common view in Hollywood that men are fine as romantic or action leads pretty much all their lives (or at least well into their 60s) while women are seen past their prime after 35/40 (then they can be mothers and supportive wives). One just needs to look at the casting choices made and how often the women have to be considerably younger (or at the very least look considerably younger, by 15-20+ years) than the men. Personally I find it creepy and frequently unpleasant to watch. (I loved MMFR for many reasons, one big one was not having to stomach the usual movie crap regarding women)

    Well said. Maud Adams in OP was one my favourite matches for Rog. They seem to have genuine chemistry. She appears older than the average 'Bond girl' and plays a character who is clearly supposed to be worldly. They need more of that.

  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited July 2017 Posts: 23,883
    @Tuulia, just to clarify my thinking on this, I'm not averse in principle to the concept of an older woman with a younger man, or vice versa. Like fine wine, there is a lot that can be appreciated in someone who has had time to mature, and that can be captured on screen with a competent director.

    However, as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, my opinion can shift depending on the specific woman. As I noted in my prior post, I can see a decline in Theron (not physically, but facially) which makes me less inclined to want her as a main Bond girl. Bellucci was a stunner in her prime, but she too didn't look that great to me (even though her performance was very good) in SP. Having said that, her role (that of widow and secondary character) in SP was perfectly fine, and her age was not an issue because of the way the character was written. Moreover, both Bellucci and Theron are both quite age appropriate for Craig (even though Theron is too tall for him), so if he's back for B25 and they go with her, I wouldn't be upset. He doesn't look that great either tbh.

    I'm not sure about the common view in Hollywood about older men with younger women, but I'm sure you can appreciate that as a man I am perhaps biased towards that view myself. As long as the woman is mature enough as a person, I don't have a problem with younger girls (or older ones for that matter, as long as they meet my lowly personal standards). It's all good.
  • Posts: 1,631
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    I'm not going to disparage Scott's achievements; he's doing good stuff. But if we must go there, I don't think he's quite as sharp as he used to be and in some ways his films demonstrate that. Also, the Bonds are more demanding, I believe, than films like Prometheus and Covenant.

    But I don't want to belabour the point. Clearly I'm in a minority here and that's fine.

    It depends which Bond films you're talking about. Surely Dr No isn't more demanding than Alien Covenant?

    True, @Mendes4Lyfe, but surely we are not waiting for another DN anno 2017. :-) I know I for one would love another toned down, straight forward Bond. But would such a film be commercially viable today? :-)

    That's an interesting question, and one that I would hope might make its way into the discussions at EON. Or, to put a slightly different spin on the question, would a modern Bond film in the mold of DN even need to be commercially viable in the same way that a big-budget Bond film like SF or SP needed to be. If they were to make another film like DN, conceivably that could be done on a relatively tight budget, which would result in a drastically reduced break-even point for the film. Success could be reached at a much lower point than what people were using as a means to measure the relative 'success' of Spectre, for instance.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    edited July 2017 Posts: 45,489
    As long as they don t make a "found footage" Bond film. Those are all piss poor.
  • Posts: 1,631
    As long as they don t make a "found footage" Bond film. Those are all piss poor.

    Good lord that would be awful. And, honestly, I wonder how that would even work for a Bond film. Thankfully, I can't see EON stooping to that level.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    It's about gross revenue (and growing the brand) as much as it is about profit these days. So a smaller scaled film like DN is only viable if it has more action in it to sell it globally.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Bond is dead, and Tanner while kissing his corpse, checks out his mobile phone camera. Cue Bond theme. The whole shaky mobile cam story ensues.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    giphy.gif
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Is that from THE LAST JEDI? What a scoop.
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