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Couldn't agree more. Even the "worst" of Glen's Bond films, A View to a Kill, is still a pretty entertaining film.
Absolutely. Yes the guy was limited, yes he didn't do a lot with character, yes visually he lacked a lot.
But he left behind some cracking Bond films.
When Mendes is spending countless polishing his script and crafting his character arcs it would be nice if he could spare 5 minutes just to learn from some of Glen's action set pieces because he already knows how to do character and drama. He is lacking when it comes to action and this is where he needs to improve.
No one before or after has bettered John Glen's action sequences and in a series such as the Bond films that is an impressive feat.
Out of interest I just googled 'action directors' and got this list on Wikipedia:
Aaron Norris
Akira Kurosawa
Albert Pyun
Alex Shatford
Ang Lee
Andrew Davis
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Antoine Fuqua
Chris Nahon
Christopher Nolan
Corey Yuen
Deo Fajardo Sr.
Deo Fajardo Jr.
Doug Liman
Dwight H. Little
F. Gary Gray
Fernando Poe Jr.
George Pan Cosmatos
Guy Ritchie
J.J. Abrams
J. Lee Thompson
James Cameron
Jan De Bont
John Ford
John McTiernan
John Singleton
John Sturges
John Woo
Joe Carnahan
Joe Johnston
Jon Favreau
Jonathan Hensleigh
Jonathan Liebesman
Josh Trank
Justin Lin
Kathryn Bigelow
Kevin Munroe
Lito Lapid
Louis Leterrier
Luc Besson
Marc Webb
Martin Campbell
McG
Michael Bay
Michael Mann
Michael Winner
Neil Blomkamp
Neveldine/Taylor
Paul Greengrass
Pepe Marcos
Paul Verhoeven
Peter Berg
Peter MacDonald
Pierre Morel
Peter Hyams
Paul W.S. Anderson
Quentin Tarantino
Renny Harlin
Richard Donner
Ridley Scott
Ringo Lam
Rob Cohen
Robert Rodriguez
Roland Emmerich
Sam Peckinpah
Sam Raimi
Sergio Leone
Steven Spielberg
Ted Kotcheff
The Wachowski Brothers
Tony Scott
Toto Natividad
Tsui Hark
Walter Hill
Wolfgang Petersen
Wilson Yip
Zack Snyder
Takes the piss frankly. Apart from Spielberg and James Cameron I don't see anyone there who can compete on action terms with Glen's run of five thrill packed Bonds.
I've said it before: a Mann-directed Bond film would be so unique, so brutal, so excellent, but the style it would be in would most certainly divide the fans.
I'd very much welcome a Bond film directed by Michael Mann. It would be different, but something like that is needed every once in a while with a series that has gone on as long as Bond has.
They all have their moments I agree but can they point to 5 films on their CV boasting such a great collection of action scenes?
Couldn't agree more mate. I find his action scenes incredibly pedestrian. For all those people who said the snow scenes in Inception were his homage to OHMSS I just found myself think 'Jesus if that's true I hope he never gets his hands on a Bond film.'
That said I think given the shortlist of people who could direct the next Bond I'd still have him top 3 without a doubt. Hopefully Gary Powell could hold his hand on the action scenes.
Yeah, if chosen he definitely needs to be open to using a second unit director to shoot the action. The choreography for all his filmed fight scenes are brilliant like the mud pit fight in Batman Begins or the set pieces in Inception, but the framing is all off to the point that it cuts off part of the character's bodies that we should be seeing in full view. That affect clutters the camera and makes it look far too claustrophobic.
I think his best executed piece of action from both a style and technical level is the hotel fight in Inception where Joseph Gordon Levitt's character is brawling all across the floor and walls with a baddie.
Even that sequence only turned out that way because of the rotating set they built. The camera was on a crane that was outside of the set and could insert or remove itself into the hall. Sort of forced cinematography. I'm sure with Alexander Witt he'd be fine for Bond though.
Hmm, that's quite interesting.
I'll add some facts to answer to whose who think it's the biggest mistake.
I already did some reminder about the 80s being the second box office reign of Bond, worldwide.. Now let's focus on the UK box office for instance :
FYEO #1 of 1981 (just ahead of Superman II)
OP #2 of 1983 ( 8 M£, #1 was Jedi with 12 M£). NSNA #3 with 7 M£. "Bond" did more than StarWars that year in the end :)
AVATK #2 of 1985 (8M£, Back to the Future #1 with 12M£)
TLD #1 of 1987 (far above the rest)
LTK #7 of 1989.
So they kept him as long he kept making top box office movies. And he could make them every two years !
Now you may find box office should not be taken into account when making movies, but then please don't use "SF did a billion, they can't be wrong", in the next sentence :)
We're not saying that's all it takes, but action is a big part of the Bond package, so an experience with some action directing wouldn't go amiss in a prospective Bond director. We all got on the topic of action and action directors because @TheWiz posted a list he found of compiled directors who have been active in that genre, that's all.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003445/
Interview with him, talking about another movie and some talk about whylen Derk Meddings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1axUB4FahE
Michael Lerman first assistant director of QOS and Skyfall returns too.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0503569/
Interview with him around time of QOS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNv2OVWmPjg
Thank you! The OP has been updated. Funny how literally all of July (and the last news of June) have all been crew, and all returning crew at that. Production is gearing up!
Yep the pieces of the puzzle are all coming together now! Hopefully through August perhaps we will get a few rumours on cast and locations will come to light? Which gives us articles to debate! :-bd
IMO Logan should have written a good script and the Cubby Family should have managed things better. Mendes is what salvaged Skfall and he is what will salvage Bond 24... if it can be salvaged.
What makes you think Bond 24 needs to be salvaged at all?
The same thing that makes Cubby Broccoli Family think it needs to be salvaged... so much that they would push back the production of a big multi-million movie, at great cost I'm sure, several month. I run a Project Management Consultancy (Oravida Shanghai) and let's say if one of my projects fell behind that badly the manager would be sacked. So I won't be hiring making calls to Broccoli or Wilson after this mess up.
It was decided during pre-production that filming would start in December instead of November (if the rumors are true at all). Something like this isn't a big deal in film industry. They will still have more time to film Bond 24 and do the post-production than they did in the case of Casino Royale (which started filming in February!) and Quantum of Solcace (which started filming in January). Pre-production is all about making sure production will run smoothly. All they did was they back filming a little without changing the release date. No biggie.