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All I'm saying is that to the casual audience there is one very obvious person that stands who would do a good job on Bond 26, and if EON choose to go another way they're going to have to contend with those expectations.
If we’re talking about the average viewer, they really don’t think about these things that much, if at all. It’s comparable to Danny Boyle not directing Bond 25 or Guillermo del Torro not directing The Hobbit. It’s only the filmey fans who know, or care enough to have opinions on these things. Honestly, even with those examples opinions/discussions of the film superseded any disappointment over the previous director.
In fact if anything those examples are more extreme in the sense that those directors were originally hired and we have a rough idea of what these movies could have looked like under their lead compared to what we got. Nolan’s not even attached to Bond at the moment. As it is it’s more akin to hypothetical discussions over what a John Landis directed TSWLM would have looked like, or indeed what a Nolan directed SP would have looked like. It’s completely hypothetical and not much discussed.
And, I don't know anything about Nolan other than he's talked about all the time on here, and he did some Batman films, (and Batman is massive on here too), and he a silly film called Tennet that I tried to watch a few weeks ago but turned it off because I hadn't got a Scooby what was going on.
Plus, the last guy was supposed to be a top-notch director and look what we got.
Exactly.
I've worked on several films and TV projects based on pre-existing properties which tried as hard as they could to appease fans while also bringing their own creative vision to the projects only to be criticized mercilessly by fans. It is a no win situation. The only thing that producers can do is put out quality projects.
Yes, and I hope she gets a chance.
Agreed. :-&
Bingo. We are living in a time when even a really well made, big spy movie that received excellent reviews can flop. Nolan on the other hand pretty much guarantees box office success.
MI not doing well was based on a few things. The studios didn’t predict the extent to which ‘Barbenheimer’ would take off and their film got sidelined. Add to that MI is a series with a relatively soft fanbase compared to Bond (financially it’s never made as much money as Bond, and I don’t think it has that same dedicated fanbase, most of whom are older and more specific demographic wise to Bond), and because it was a two parter a big chunk of people simply decided it wasn’t worth going to the cinemas/decided to catch them at home later on, you have an underwhelming film. If a Bond film had been released in MI’s place it would have done better.
In reference to Bond, Nolan himself said that he wants complete control of the whole package or he'll be happy just to see the film in the cinema. That suggests that he's not willing to revert to the position he was in back in the '00s, when he made those Batman films. Can't blame him for that - who wants to give up what they've achieved and drop back two decades? Then again, would he be willing to make the sacrifice if it's his one chance to direct a Bond film? Hmm. Dunno.
He also said that working on Bond involves "a particular set of constraints".
So did Batman.
He directed the film that was written for him. Wanna blame someone if you didn't like NTTD, don't blame CJF for it. Blame the writers and Barb.
I tend to agree, as far as I'm aware Nolan delivered 3 premium standard franchise films in the course of 7 years with very little friction between him and Warner. He's closer to a Peter Jackson than a Danny Boyle type.
Blame everyone involved honestly.
The producers are responsible for the content of the film. Especially the case for Bond films.
Tom Cruise is a star. The new Bond, well...I don't think so.
The risk is real. Bond's fanbase is too old now.
Like I said, the fanbase of MI is likely older than Bond’s. And far less inclined to go to the cinema to watch these films. Doesn’t matter how famous Tom Cruise is (honestly, some people including me simply find him smug or creepy even if they like his films), that fanbase wasn’t and isn’t ever going to be strong enough to pull it through significant competition.
There are some young people who hate Bond (always been the case) but its viewership is pretty wide on the whole. A good chunk of people will go and see Bond 26 because it’s ‘the new Bond film’, and honestly a new actor/fresh direction always brings younger viewers.
@Last_Rat_Standing ... Cary was one of the screenwriters.... In fact he executed a page one rewrite based off of the original P & W script.... Then I believe Scott Burns next came on board for a two week polish on the action sequences, then PWB was the next writer hired, I believe, with Fukunaga overseeing and polishing as they went along.
And "Barb" had the writers and major players of the production read YOLT... And why would you just blame "Barb"? There's MGW, Gregg Wilson, ALL of their producing partners including in distribution....when a script is commissioned it has to be greenlit by an entire army of people (producers/financiers for obvious reasons (they're sinking a quarter of a billion dollars into one project), distributors because they have to sell the product to worldwide territories).
So, if you want to heap blame there's a whole slew of people besides "Barb"...
Personally, I love the flick; love it more since my first viewing...I should be blamed too, I suppose? After all I'm buying into this dreck!
"Tenet" pulling as much as it did during the peak of COVID shutdowns in Summer 2020 is an actual miracle, and is a testament to the brand power of Nolan.
I'm Nolan agnostic for B26 but there is no world where "Tenet" should be viewed as a drag on his career as a commercial hit maker.
Agreed — as usual people online want an image to get mad at, and not the actual reality of a $300MM project. There is no fall guy.
I think if anything Covid covered for Tenet’s lack of success. It really was a baffling film for a lot of people in a way Nolan’s other films hadn’t been. No one really knew what it was about (certainly the whole spy/sci fi twist wasn’t apparent which might have gotten some people onboard), it didn’t have a major/recognisable actor in the lead role, it certainly didn’t have good word of mouth or rewatchability, and as I’ve said in the past a large portion of people don’t care about the director. I don’t think it would have been a hit even without Covid, nor do I think Nolan’s name helped.
I mean, even in Nolan’s filmography Tenet’s a strange one. It really seemed like he was trying something different with it.
So, does EON make a Bond film for the older audience (who are not generally film goers) or strive for a new young base of fans?
Also, the age of the producers does come into play regarding their own personal perspectives.
Does a new Bond interpretation need a whole new perspective to bring in a new generation of fans?
@peter
I like NTTD and thought he directed the hell out of it. Now I had some issues with how some things played out. My initial comment was defending CJF in a way in which he shouldn't be the reason in which people didn't like NTTD.
I also challenge this notion that Nolan still has ideas for "his" Bond movie, whatever twist or arc or setting fans have projected onto this potential Bond story, and here's maybe why:
He already worked with Chris Corbould to give Batman his own "Q Branch" essentially with his own Morgan Freeman playing a "Q" type with plenty of cool, dynamic gadgets, better than Bond has in decades I'd say. Batman let him work with all of the British acting talent he could ever hope for, with Michael Caine, Christian Bale, Gary Oldham, and he was given much more free reign than he'd likely be afforded with Bond on the music and dark art style. He clearly had zero control over marketing Batman Begins, but that became more cohesive with the sequels. He probably scratched a significant portion of his Bond itch on three Batmans, and WB likely let him go much further than Eon would.
Then with Inception, to me, it's clear that Marion Cotillard is his idea of a femme fatale, the type of woman that can truly get stuck... in a man's mind, and what that can do to him. It's also a spy thriller.. corporate espionage, but there are meetings in Morocco with foot chases in the street, shootouts, ski sequences, a villain lair, etc. The protagonist assembles a team of slick spy types. Maybe Nolan's Moneypenny would be, as M.'s assistant, something of a researcher and adviser for planning Bond's assaults/missions like Page's character in Inception designing the maze-like "sets in their mind" (just realized it's literal mindsets!).
And to be honest, as much as I love Inception, it is cold, mostly sexless, and I do think the action style of CR and NTTD suits the screen Bond better than anything Nolan has shown me so far, and Tenet really had a lot of opportunity to prove me wrong and didn't.
But as things sit, something seems off about a Nolan Bond project. Like when the prettiest girl at school doesn't necessarily take interest in the handsomest boy. And I think if he did do it, we're pretty far down his filmmaking Bond wishlist at this point. Maybe he seems less interested now because he's afraid if they ask, he'll have to admit he's blown his lot.
Every director gets a dud.
And we all make decisions we should expect an impact/reaction from.
Tenet was an opportunity to do another cinematic sandbox, like Inception, where Nolan can truly fabricate unreal action scenes that defy an audience's notions and expectations (hallway fight in Inception works for this imo), and all he really accomplishes for Tenet is storming some weird music hall venue with no explanation and they literally just walk in/out of the door, then that scene of them scaling a building, a car chase where some cars go backward/undo a crash... like where is the same invention in the action that the story has been served?
The biggest set piece is slowly rolling a jumbo jet halfway into a hangar ... it's not extravagant and fails the otherwise exceptional premise and world that Nolan often builds.
In terms of creative action invention. For him to not be able recognize that a well-oiled Bond-veteran second unit would actually likely enhance any potential Bond story of his is a liability imo (and that's IF he can write-in a good action set piece setup in the script, or lets some of the Bond team in on the story development to ensure those big Bond moments happen). Tenet (which I like btw) just underserves itself, and I think as a whole against Batman, Inception, and Tenet, the common critique out there (not necessarily always from me in each case) is that the action is lacking, sometimes the women are underwritten, and he can't do "sexy" beyond sending an actor to a good tailor.