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Regarding Boyle: I ask again for those who are familiar with his output and approach: Do you see this gelling well with Craig's style? Current Craig that is, and not Craig from 10 years ago? Does this seem like a good fit?
Regarding the entire story of Boyle: To those in the industry, does anything about this story seem unusual or strange to you? How common is it for something like this to happen at this stage, where a previously announced and familiar writing team (and possible director) are seemingly tossed out for a new concept? I would have thought that after about a year with the previous group that ideas had been formalized and vetted. Moreover, this Bond idea of Boyle's apparently originated in his head in 2012, and yet he only brought it up to them recently?
My point is, does this current Boyle narrative and how it came about seem plausible to you and what could have necessitated it?
Yes!
What do we think about it being continuation? Is that dead and it's a standalone or is Boyle a genius and has come up with a way to dig them out of brothergate that is actually good which is what spurred them to tear up P&W's scribblings and say 'Go for it Danny'.
Well if people who think making Blofeld Bond's stepbrother is a good idea are qualified then anyone is qualified.
The fact that Apocalypse Now is his favourite film has me thinking though. A crazy Blofeld, disguised and hidden away somewhere remote? Bond dispatched to investigate & then realizing who he's up against. A chance to finally even old scores?.... Tempting as it may seem, I think it's more likely we get a fresh story.
I'm still curious as to what people think about this seemingly 'sudden' change. It's all explained very conveniently in Baz's article, but I'm sure there's more to it. I don't believe this is normal at this stage in the process.
I didn’t know the novels had these narrative jumps through time. I don’t think the films have ever done anyothing than straight conventional linear narratives. CR is probably the only film to feature a sort of ‘flashback’ sequence in the PTS but chronologically it’s totally conventional. B25 might be a first if Boyle starts to play around with that a little bit.
Not a bad idea. Old Craig Bond sat on a terrace in the south of France thinking back over his career.
I wonder about this too. Beyond the most superficial analysis, how do people here --and in the film business-- extrapolate from someone's career to determine whether they're right for a certain type of project?
Certainly far more evidence than say Mendes, Forster or even Boyle prior to their respective entries being made and released.
Would you not agree?
I am just a very not famous working writer.
About ten years ago my agent told me that a company was interested in horror pictures and told me to go write one.
It's not my genre, but I was desperate for any sale (the wolves were knocking at the door).
So I watched some horror films (HALLOWEEN is really a classic), started crafting a story based on the childrens game, Bloody Mary (look in the mirror and say her name three x and Bloody Mary would come out and kill you-- ohhhh so original).
This wasn't going to be Shakespeare, so I did my best and banged out a script and some polishes as fast as I could.
It sold, I was paid, my wife, and (at the time), only one kid, was gonna stay, and we lived happily ever after.
Not quite.
During post production, I heard through the grape-vine that they changed the title from BLOODY MARY to DEAD MARY since there was a competing company also doing a film based on the same idea and it was called Bloody Mary.
Fine.
Then I got copies of the finished film delivered to my home (this was straight to DVD fair with Dominique Swain starring). I ripped open the package, and the front cover showed the lead actress and a very bad graphic of "Dead Mary". Cool.
I popped the disk in the player and watched... Credits and I see my name. Really cool. But there's another writer's name there too...
Huh?...
Okay, very long story short: this 2 million dollar feature cut as many corners as they could, took a third of my original script and stretched into a way over long 105 minutes, or whatever, and, the kicker: although the Dead Mary character burst with all her glory on the DVD cover, she is NEVER seen in the film! She was cut. Actually, she was NEVER filmed. Too expensive. And all the other stuff that I wrote (apart from a third), all that action down by the lake, with paranormal witch-happenings and all kinds of nasty spells put on our leads (after all Bloody Mary was a witch) and so on? Cut too.
Some time during production, I found out, they hired another writer to chop and dice and mix and shake the script to fit their ever-changing budget; expanding on one idea found in only one section of the original script.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Mary
A similar thing is now happening on another project of mine-- since this is optioned, I can't go into too much detail, but it IS a script based in my genre (thriller/action), with the idea that it is a healthy budget film. A director has been brought on, and, with all of our phone conferences, the notes he is giving me is, in this option period, kinda/somewhat/really starting to change the original script.
But, I've been paid, I'm under contract, I do as I say until I will most likely be "replaced" down the line (if it does indeed go "down the line"). That's right, the first credited writers on a lot of projects were also the first ones "replaced" with other writers, down the line.
RC7 can correct me, but this happens more often than not.
I'm not surprised that EoN would continue looking at, or hearing pitches from reputable creative talents like Boyle and Hodge, since there is still enough time before pre-production proper is to take place.
However, I think a key point to note is that he has never made a Bond film. We are only inferring from other films he has made which have nothing to do with Bond. Most of his films are quite sombre in tone, but then again they are also serious business. Existential even. Having said that, I found quite a lot of humour sprinkled throughout the Bat trilogy which I really enjoy. It's subtle, but it's there in the interactions. I certainly enjoyed the Bat humour far more than anything in SP, which I found rather ham fisted. Strange, because I enjoyed the humour in SF, and it was made by the same team.
Regarding his action sequencing: I've read this before from others so I suppose there is something to it, but I have never had any problems with how he handles action personally. I've said this before, but I think some of the set pieces in his films are truly awe inspiring (truck flip and sky hook in TDK, plane heist in TDRK, nearly anything in Inception etc.). In particular, the cinematography blows me away, so I guess it's just different strokes. One thing I'm reasonably sure of is that he wouldn't ever give us any overly predictable and linear action sequences as dull as those in SP, because I've yet to be bored by action in his films to that extent.
You could very well be correct mind you. I suppose I just think the concerns can be overcome.
Looking forward to your new film project.
Memento, The Prestige, BB, TDK, Inception, Dunkirk all brilliant.
Insomnia, TDKR, Interstellar less so but still pretty good.
If Nolan isn't qualified in what universe is someone like Demange qualified?
I'll grant you I have reservations over Nolan with regard to handling of humour, action sequences, and the sexlessness of his worlds.
But given we've just come off brothergate and some of the most pedestrian action of the series it's a rush more than worth taking.
Interesting story @peter. I think you should be overjoyed you actually got paid rather than sued for plagiarism by the makers of Candyman.
Ok, so based on that we can assume that this completely new script is not unusual, at least at this stage. Even if it's one that apparently doesn't rely on anything that has been conceptualized up to this point by the original team, but rather something that was initially contemplated in 2012 by someone else. A different scenario to what happened on SP.
I'm assuming they still have to start filming in January or thereabouts. Working backwards re: casting, location scouting and what not, I assume they will have to get that going by July or so. Script greenlight should presumably come in the next two months then.
I didn't watch CANDYMAN, but my story was, in essence, based on a childrens game/urban legend spooky story (at least known here in North America); but that was a hook to tell a "witch story". I'm assuming my original script looked nothing like CANYMAN's finished product.
I guess in the straight to video market these ideas get recycled endlessly and no one really cares that much.
Maybe if Dead Mary had broken the billion dollar mark then it might have been worth Candyman's lawyers getting involved.
Yeah, CR opens with Bond in the casino itself, then goes back to M's briefing. LALD and YOLT do something similar.
TSWLM opens with Vivienne at the motel where the book's climax is set, with her recollecting her previous love experiences and her life up to that moment.
OHMSS opens with Bond and Tracy on the beach being kidnapped by Draco's men, then Fleming goes back to Bond's arrival at Royale-Les-Eaux and Bond and Tracy's lovemaking. The movie does its own thing as the beach scene is both shown and set before the casino scenes.
I forgot to mention Octopussy as well. In the short story Bond meets Major Dexter Smythe and then Fleming flashes back to a few years earlier detailing Major Smythe's encounter with Oberhauser.
I think you're right on the mark there, @TheWizardOfIce. But, at the same time (and I'm just guessing at this point), two films can have the same hook (look at the two volcano films in the 90s), but are very different.
I knew of Candyman, but, to this day, have never watched it. I'm assuming (again), that my original script (essentially about a witch, who had her own, unique background story (that I told in flashbacks before our leads "play" the game)) and Candyman, are very much not alike, other than our hooks.
And, Bloody Mary is a story/urban legend in North America that's well known. So, I'm guessing in your scenario above (about hitting the billion dollar mark), "our" lawyers could turn around and say there is no case since Candyman's concept was taken from this childrens tale too; that they don't "own" the right to this legend; that the legend is in the public domain.
Well, Spielberg made Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List st the same time .
.https://www.google.com/amp/s/decider.com/2015/06/11/steven-spielberg-jurassic-park-schindlers-list-1993/amp/
Something else has been going through my mind since Baz's scoop.
Has Universal got the gig, and greenlighted the Curtis 'passion' project if Boyle agreed to do Bond? I wonder if they are the elusive foreign 'distributor'.
In this scenario EON are happy, Universal is happy, and most importantly Boyle is happy.
Sam Wood was among the other (uncredited) directors of Gone With the Wind. He and production designer William Cameron Menzies ended up working together on other projects, including Pride of the Yankees and For Whom the Bells Toll. For Pride of the Yankees,
After all ignoring mr reddit it could be Boyle loved Purvis and Wade’s idea and brought Hodge in to rework the script so the final film writing credits would be
Purvis Wade and Hodge
We assume Boyle won’t use Newman cause we don’t like him but he could of loved his work or worse could love Eric Sierra
Their script, on the other hand, which is owned by EoN, is the thing in a holding pattern at the moment. It sounds like Boyle made an awesome pitch; it sounds like EoN would like to do it. Everything is leaning this way, with an intelligent writer now executing the pitch in script form.
It sounds like this is the direction they're going in.
But, no matter what one thinks about EoN, if this finished script is not up to their liking, they will go back to the P&W script and move into production.
But like I said, P&W have done their job, and, once again, it sounds like they delivered their script. They're free agents no matter what happens (unless the director hires them back for polishes, which I doubt would happen (I imagine a director would bring on a writer(s) of his own choosing to do polishes)).
Re: Newman: I'm assuming he came with Mendes as they've collaborated in the past. I suppose EoN could have an appetite to bring him back (but, with no knowledge whatsoever, I just don't think this is the case).
But for the score I am 100% sure it won‘t be Newman again and would be more than happy with Arnold returning.