SPECTRE Production Timeline

mcdonbb

As far as team falling apart... umm its the same team ..just out of order. Not Logan Not P&W.. Not Mendes are my first choice but they succeeded with SF. I'd rather see a qualified writer like Peter Morgan back... maybe bring in Bruce Feirstein to "Bond" it up a bit.

mcdonbb

ummm not sure why that comment posted ??? Had changed mind and off topic now. Anyway glad Witt back

Dragonpol

Patrick Marber was linked to the SF script in 2010; perhaps they should bring him in now.

fjdinardo

With this script re write will the film be delayed at all?

Ludovico

Getafix wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

Ludovico wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

Purvis and Wade are back - I'm shocked, but at least they have form. Has John Logan ran out of ideas?

When it came to plots, I never thought he ever had many ideas. He wrote great dialogues, sometimes great characters, but the plots are hardly his forte.

Hence the return of Purvis and Wade?

Well, I certainly hope that is the reason. I find it strange they'd be asked to rework the dialogues. Of course if you modify the plot some dialogues will be modified. But Logan's dialogues writing was never a problem. Not even in Nemesis, which was the only thing that was sometimes good.

I agree. Logan's stories are derivative and weak. But that is what makes this even more disturbing. Had they been bringing in Logan to polish a P+W story it would have made more sense. But can you really come in at a late stage and polish the story? I suppose it's possible but it suggests more fundamental problems.

Also, surely polishing was included in the original production schedule, therefore this delay is something beyond the anticipated and entirely routine polishing that always takes place.

You can polish a story just as you can polish dialogues. Actually, it is part of the creative process. Heck, Casablanca got into serious rewrites as they were filming it. Not the ideal circumstances, but it can happen.

That said, we don't know what part, if any, is true in the original article.

Treefingers

Its weird, but when I first heard of the hipthetical backing away of Logan from the series I supposed they'd get someone else to polish it and thought, well, wouldn't it be ironic if now they called in P/W?

Well good on them. It's exciting. I feel they actually probably developed some rather interesting products in the past which were ultimately adultered beyond repair, so to speak, by the other writers/directors (DAD anyone?). It'll be good to see P/W's style from a yet closer angle.

AlexanderWaverly

echo wrote:

Who is responsible for the last line of TWINE? Fierstein or P&W?

The progression on TWINE was:
--Purvis & Wade (pre-credits sequence was set in Cuba)
--Dana Stevens (pre-credits sequence set in Geneva)
--Bruce Feirstein (pre-credits in Spain). He also worked in some bits from his first draft for Tomorrow Never Dies.

4EverBonded

Other than the pre-credits sequence, was it like 90% Purvis and Wade then? How can you be sure? I'm genuinely interested. It must be hard to discern unless you can read the different drafts ... or know those involved, I assume.

I would thoroughly enjoy reading different drafts but find that difficult as I can only look on the internet for them.

AlexanderWaverly

4EverBonded wrote:

Other than the pre-credits sequence, was it like 90% Purvis and Wade then? How can you be sure? I'm genuinely interested. It must be hard to discern unless you can read the different drafts ... or know those involved, I assume.

I would thoroughly enjoy reading different drafts but find that difficult as I can only look on the internet for them.

I cited those as examples of how the draft varied. I read what appears to be the Stevens draft. I know the P&W draft began in Cuba because of comments Michael Apted made in the commentary track on the DVD. He specified how the first draft opened in Cuba.

The draft I read opened in Geneva (where you tend to find more Swiss bankers than in Spain). I've read Feirstein's first draft for TND and recognized bits that appeared in the movie.

Originally, P&W were to get the only writing credit for TWINE. The novelization, for example, mentions only them. Feirstein's name appeared as advertising began just before the movie opened.

Dragonpol

AlexanderWaverly wrote:

4EverBonded wrote:

Other than the pre-credits sequence, was it like 90% Purvis and Wade then? How can you be sure? I'm genuinely interested. It must be hard to discern unless you can read the different drafts ... or know those involved, I assume.

I would thoroughly enjoy reading different drafts but find that difficult as I can only look on the internet for them.

I cited those as examples of how the draft varied. I read what appears to be the Stevens draft. I know the P&W draft began in Cuba because of comments Michael Apted made in the commentary track on the DVD. He specified how the first draft opened in Cuba.

The draft I read opened in Geneva (where you tend to find more Swiss bankers than in Spain). I've read Feirstein's first draft for TND and recognized bits that appeared in the movie.

Originally, P&W were to get the only writing credit for TWINE. The novelization, for example, mentions only them. Feirstein's name appeared as advertising began just before the movie opened.

Very interesting disclosures there!

4EverBonded

Thanks for the info, AlexenearWaverly. On UNCLE, too. ;)
I like UNCLE very much, but Bond is my #1 favorite, so I appreciate any info people get to us. It's good you got to read an earlier draft of TWINE.

AlexanderWaverly

Here's a TWINE draft, somewhere between first draft and final product:

http://www.universalexports.net/scripts/twine.shtml

4EverBonded

Thanks! :)

Creasy47

At least more and more news is slowly trickling out.

fjdinardo

Im all for having more humor in Bond 24. It be something fresh since the Craig films started.

dragonsky

So the script is rewritten to add more humour ?

What ? That doesn't sound to good to me, and makes me think that we will get some forced jokes in the movie... I'm all for one liners and some jokes as we've seen in SkyFall or GoldenEye but I have a feeling we will get bad jokes.



And the filming won't start until December ? :O That's too long for me to wait for information about the movie.. :( I hope all this wait is worth it and B24 will be one great movie.

Creasy47

I know it's my fault, but in all honesty, sometimes I feel like the longer the wait, the more I amp myself up, just to be let down. That's why I'm trying to remain optimistic and interested, but at the same time, I'm not flipping out that a new Bond film is gearing up. I waited four years for SF and let myself expect one of the greatest installments in the series, and I was a bit let down. I'm trying not to make the same mistake this time around. I'm cutting out everything that may have attributed to that in terms of B24.

fjdinardo

I trust Sam Mendus to make a great film. Keep that in mind.

Getafix

fjdinardo wrote:

I trust Sam Mendus to make a great film. Keep that in mind.

That doesn't work for people who didn't necessarily love SF. I like some of Mendes' films but others I am not so impressed by. His involvement is not a guarantee of anything.

SaintMark

fjdinardo wrote:

I trust Sam Mendus to make a great film. Keep that in mind.

Sam Mendes is a decent director but he has not set the 007 on fire with his average movie.

Boyle was far more effective with his Olympic little movie, everything was perfection even the humor.

Creasy47

Getafix wrote:

fjdinardo wrote:

I trust Sam Mendus to make a great film. Keep that in mind.

That doesn't work for people who didn't necessarily love SF. I like some of Mendes' films but others I am not so impressed by. His involvement is not a guarantee of anything.

Exactly. He has impressed me before with films like 'American Beauty,' and while I don't hate SF, I don't love it, either. Even for those who did love SF, I'm sure some of them would agree that they would rather have a Bond film out this year with a new director than been left to wait an extra year for his return, especially those who didn't care for SF.

4EverBonded

I avoided spoilers as much as possible for Skyfall, so that helped. I was not let down in the slightest. I was very psyched for it and excited; it was totally satisfying for me, one of my favorite Bond films. I do think if I had read all the spoilers everywhere it would have not been nearly as good an experience for me. I would know too much about what was about to happen, would notice scenes that I had seen photos of already, etc.

Ludovico

Getafix wrote:

fjdinardo wrote:

I trust Sam Mendus to make a great film. Keep that in mind.

That doesn't work for people who didn't necessarily love SF. I like some of Mendes' films but others I am not so impressed by. His involvement is not a guarantee of anything.

I am not impressed by all of his filmography (I consider American Beauty to be one of the most overrated movie to ever win an Oscar), but as far as I know he did not make a truly bad movie yet.

Now John Logan on the other hand...

echo

Still processing the P&W "news"...

Looking at it from one perspective, the Bond series is one of "set" writers (Maibaum--peerless!--seriously, he had only two clunkers in his whole run--and eventually P&W).

When Bond writers go it more or less alone (YOLT, LALD, MR, DAD), the results are, somehow, less than stellar. And usually the producers are able to rein in the more outlandish writer's ideas--Goldfinger's brother, Vesper's child--and those were from two of the better writers! Writing a Bond film has to be a tough gig because of the pressure to top the previous two dozen films without falling into the traps of a DAD. This is a long way of saying that I'm glad Logan is not the sole writer on Bond 24.

RogueAgent

These latest development do concern me? It is a big change so late on and has now delayed filming by 1 or 2 months. Has their been a major falling out with Logan? How does Sam Mendes feel about the job now? Are we in danger of a rushed filming schedule? The only positive I can see from my point of view is now Purvis and Wade are back on board? Will we see Quantum return? :-?

4EverBonded

Ah Quantum ... does everybody here pretty much think Logan never included them? I so doubt it, but of course that is just my instinct about that. The script is mostly written but changes will be made - however, to bring Quantum back into the whole story if Logan did not include it would be too much to change at this point, in my opinion.

Creasy47

4EverBonded wrote:

Ah Quantum ... does everybody here pretty much think Logan never included them? I so doubt it, but of course that is just my instinct about that. The script is mostly written but changes will be made - however, to bring Quantum back into the whole story if Logan did not include it would be too much to change at this point, in my opinion.

As much as I want Quantum to return, I think two completely different conflicting story ideas will turn the entire film into a mess.

Ludovico

RogueAgent wrote:

These latest development do concern me? It is a big change so late on and has now delayed filming by 1 or 2 months. Has their been a major falling out with Logan? How does Sam Mendes feel about the job now? Are we in danger of a rushed filming schedule? The only positive I can see from my point of view is now Purvis and Wade are back on board? Will we see Quantum return? :-?

I'd love to see it, but I am not even sure it was their idea to begin with.

4EverBonded wrote:

Ah Quantum ... does everybody here pretty much think Logan never included them? I so doubt it, but of course that is just my instinct about that. The script is mostly written but changes will be made - however, to bring Quantum back into the whole story if Logan did not include it would be too much to change at this point, in my opinion.

Logan seemed to be keen on Blofeld, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

RogueAgent

Just thinking Purvis and Wade would want to finish that story arc before DC steps down from the role?

4EverBonded

It may not have been totally P&W's idea but I feel that Logan would have not included them, therefore the main structure of the story would not have them. Blofeld is definitely not exclusive to Quantum (obviously, as we just add him in there in our other discussions).

I just want to end up with a great story, without big plot holes (Mendes has already pointed out he wants little or no plot holes), with some fun yes just not over the top. I still want a lot of grit because I don't want Craig's Bond changed radically - but I do want him to enjoy life more now. That is definitely possible and there is a rather fine line when it comes to inserting humor.