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The title of the thread is asking whether any of us have concerns about Bond 25 and i answered honestly.You may disagree and thats fine but how about not calling people who disagree with your opinion '' petulant four year olds '' because by doing that, YOU are the one who comes across as '' bleating '' and '' throwing rattles out of your prams ''.
The fact is that the production of this film has been very tumultous with an unprecedented almost five year gap between Bond movies ( Not counting the legal issues between LTK and GE ).The creators had the perfect opportunity to move on,recast,and start fresh but after all this time,they are racing to finish this movie on time without a completed script or even title.
I would tell you to '' get over it '' but that would be childish.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Finally a sensible comment, you summoned it better than I could have.
- They're not racing anywhere. Bond 25 will have the longest principal photography of any Bond film in the last twenty years.
- The script is very much completed.
- They probably do have a title, it's just they haven't told us. They didn't have one at the press conference, but that's a while ago now in the grand scheme of things.
Everything else? Yeah, fair enough. Everyone has their view on the last five years.
By "subset" I'm mostly referring to a vocal minority of fans who have a strict view of what a "proper" Bond film should be. That if they had their way we wouldn't have ever had Judi Dench's M, Ben Whishaw's Q, Harris' Moneypenny, and other things that shifted the dynamics. Those that want Bond films to be made as if it were still 1965 without wiggle room.
To be fair fans didn't know Harris was Moneypenny before the film came out. So I don't remember any complaints from fans.The worst vocal minority I remember were those protesting Craig's casting as Bond.
I'm not going to get into an argument with you regarding your comments (which you are entitled to) - save to say that everybody is entitled to an opinion, but when an expressed 'opinion' skews into wish-fulfilment (eg, wishing Craig had moved on and the role had been recast - when he hasn't and the role is still patently his - or that the five-year gap had never happened) it has nothing to do with 'legitimate concerns' about B25 (unless it is because there is a fear that Craig may now be too 'old' to convincingly execute the action-intensive scenes, perhaps - which would be a legitimate concern).
Oh, and for avoidance of doubt I never stated anybody who disagreed with my opinions - and certainly not you individually - was 'bleating' or 'petulant', merely stating that in my opinion there appeared to be a lot of said bleating and petulance present on this thread. To personalise it (which I didn't in my comment) by stating that I personally come across as throwing MY rattle out of the pram and passively-aggressively implying my comments about people getting over themselves were 'childish' is uncalled for - particularly as I qualified my earlier statements with a later, conciliatory post (which you obviously did not read).
I, for one, am full of confidence - Craig in situ, an interesting plot-line being finessed by a talented writer, an acclaimed up and coming director on board and filming progressing nicely - what's there to be concerned about right now? 🤔
Now, moving on - and again at the risk of repeating myself - I look forward to hearing other people's concerns - or lack thereof - regarding the Daniel Craig-starring B25 (title TBA) 👍
You must have an interesting definition of filming progressing nicely.Craig getting injured and an accidental explosion which ripped through a wall that could have killed people is hardly progressing nicely!
There have been worse accidents in past Bond films. I can think of that one incident where a fragment of a smoke grenade to into Halle Berry’s eye and she had to go straight to emergency surgery.
To be fair though, didn’t B25 at least mark the first time a director was hired and quit in the series?
Are you serious?
Go and work on a film set. See how many mishaps/setbacks happen on a weekly basis.
No, it actually didn't. Guy Hamilton left The Spy Who Loved Me as he was hired to direct Superman (1978) instead. Hamilton didn't end up directing it either of course; Richard Donner directed instead. The producers had to turn to YOLT's Lewis Gilbert to direct TSWLM instead. There's nothing new under the sun when it comes to the production side of the James Bond films.
Ah. Didn’t know. I’m glad Gilbert came aboard instead; TSWLM ended up awesome as it is.
There was a stuntman killed in the bobsled sequence in FYEO, and let's not forget Martin Grace nearly ending his career in the train set piece in OP!
Not a director, but watched a docu of TMWTGG the other day and found out that Cinematographer Ted Moore had to step down in the middle of production due to illness. Oswald Morris had to step in and finish the film.
My understanding is that Ted Moore jumped ship due to creative/financial issues, and the illness was just a cover story.
I don't intend getting involved in a ding-dong with you. So I will say only this - 1) Injuries to the leading player in an action-heavy film is a fairly common occurrence (need I remind you of the injuries suffered by Craig during the filming of CR and QoS?); and 2) Yes, filming IS progressing nicely - as far as I am aware nobody died during the incident you refer to, and again such incidents are a hazard associated with an explosion-laden production; nobody refers to YOLT being disaster - prone and yet, IIRC, a stuntman or camera operator lost part of his leg during the filming of that movie.
So, no, I don't have an 'interesting' definition of filming progressing nicely....it just is.
Hmm everywhere i look it says illness. I don't know why they would lie about that, Ted Moore had a long lasting relationship with Cubby, why would he start whining about more money after more than half the film is done? Sounds more like the usual overdramatized tabloid wank we are bombarded with nowadays.
And thank you, @peter - a sensible and well-informed response.
Because he wasn't getting the resources due to cuts in budgets, which put him off. There was a similar situation on the original Star Trek series where the studio had decided to make some cuts on production and the DP felt it was too much that it would result in an inferior looking production. Not surprisingly, that third season looked cheap as hell compared to the first two seasons, and the DP quit.
And TMWTGG certainly looked cheap. After Saltzman left, Cubby decided that Bond needed to feel big again in a way it hadn't since the 60s so more money was put into TSWLM and thus felt like a return to form for Bond on a grand scale.
Or the bobsled accident in FYEO, which killed one of the bobsled-drivers. Back in these days, there was no internet, so things gone wrong could be concealed for quite a time. What seems strange to me, is that people here desparately hope the movie will become a flop, be it that they still don't accept Craig as Bond, or the other characters like M, Moneypenny, Q, etc. I am confident, and hope, the movie will turn out to be a good and decent swan song for Craig and an entetaining spy flick. And although I like SF, I still have my issues with SP, but that's not the topic in this thread.
Exactly! Fans (and most especially the largely uniformed tabloid media) really need to get things in perspective when looking at the production of Bond 25. I was thinking of the stuntman death from FYEO that you mentioned. As far as I'm aware that is the only death to ever have occurred during the making of a James Bond film.
And not forgetting that cameraman John Jordan also had his leg severed by a propeller during the filming of the helicopter sequence in YOLT. He also worked on OHMSS. Jordan was in fact later killed when he was second unit director on the film Catch-22 in May 1969 when he fell to his death from a plane.
You got any sources to all of that?
Thank you, sir, @NeverOnTheFirmsTime (love your name!); @RC7 has written about this countless times, and @ColonelSun ... My own experience starts in the writing room. I've seen explosive arguments between creatives and executives, I've seen accidents and walk-offs, I've seen people get fired (damn, I've been fired after one of my scripts was bought! I still got credit and I got paid, but the producer decided he wanted a fresh vision on set, so I was told my services were no longer needed; for the on-set, last minute writing that happens, the producer and his friend butchered half of the script they had bought and I was left shaking my head (and then I was hired back to write the sequel!)!
The point is, every day on a film set, especially one as large as a Bond picture (or Avengers, or Star Wars), are very difficult and challenging. There are no "smooth sailing" film sets. There are just really good leaders (producers, directors, production managers...), that keep the hundreds of workers moving forward, especially when the sh*t hits the fan. And the sh*t WILL hit the fan!
So to think that whatever is going on the set of B25 is unique to this production, it just shows a very uninformed opinion (or it's just being lazy...)!
I'm going off memory, but I'll look it up and post it. EON is known for trying to put a positive spin on certain things, which is why on EON approved documentaries you'll never hear of things like Dalton and John Glen getting into heated conflicts over the direction of LTK.
One of my favorite Bond collections is the Criterion LaserDiscs for DN, FRWL, and GF. There's rare commentary tracks on all three with all the filmmakers speaking very candidly, which included unflattering remarks about key people. EON didn't like what was said on them and so demanded Criterion to stop producing those discs, so the next batch that came out had the commentaries completely excised.
https://deadline.com/2019/07/titans-dc-universe-death-crewmember-special-effects-facility-1202648815/
So yah, guys, B25, cursed, right...
What I should do is start a thread with others and we will report on every setback a film/TV production faced during production (some classics from the past, like firing Harvey Keitel and hiring Martin Sheen on APOCALYPSE NOW, only to have Sheen felled by a heart attack (how did that film turn out @AstonLotus ????????); or keeping with the classics, the producers of GODFATHER insisted Redford play Corleone, and that Coppola was basically fired from the project; Two kids and an actor were killed in the TWILIGHT ZONE film; Mark Eric Hexum shot n killed himself with a fake pistol on the TV show Cover Up; Brandon Lee was killed on the set of the CROW; Oliver Reed was a lead supporting actor in GLADIATOR, died during filming (a body double and CG replaced him); Christ this can go on and on; most films, even with these extreme examples, were a success in their own right.
Titans will go on too (RIP Warren Appleby).
B25, with an injury and explosion is NOT indicative of the final product. Anyone suggesting otherwise should grow up.
... or just should know what we are talking about. A smooth production doesn't automatically mean a good movie. In most of there cases it is the contrary, if the guys working on the film are talented ones. The more the problems and issues you have, the more you are forced to be creative. Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Apocalypse Now, Star Wars, Jaws, Blade Runner, Heaven's Gate, Fitzcarraldo, Titanic, Mad Max: Fury Road are all masterpieces which had nightmarish productions. B25 in comparison sounds like a walk in the park, as for now.
So yes, anyone suggesting otherwise sounds just pathetic.
There was the suicide of Pedro Armendariz.
Yes, I suppose so though that was after the filming of his scenes had wrapped on FRWL after they were moved forward so he could film them before he succumbed to his illness. In that sense, it wasn't actually a death that occurred on the set of a Bond film, but off stage as it were.