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Both movies do (I mean, TFA opens with that awful "who talks first?" joke), lots of self-aware quips in both (though I do agree with @mtm that they felt forced and cringe-worthy in TLJ).
The prequels were made by George Lucas. Else you might as well say that Bond getting married and having a child is not faithful to Bond as that never happened in the original novel. And what I want from Amazon is to respect ALL of Bond, not just the parts they like (which is what Abrams did with TFA).
I'd appreciate a smaller adventure, like DN or FRWL or CR or even TLD. Give us some time to be with the new Bond, M, Moneypenny and see how Bond thinks and acts before launching him to some exotic locale.
I wouldn't mind a closer adaptation of MR but they would need to make it less UK-based.
Someone I'm recently impressed by for Moneypenny is Aimee Lou Wood, currently stealing all her scenes in The White Lotus season 3.
Amazon are probably going to do the opposite if you want to know the truth. Personally, I want somewhere in the middle, a talented director who loves and understands Bond would be Ideal, but I also don't want too much of an arthouse director.
Of course, Fleming’s novels are a bit racist and sexist, but they’re also amazingly written and inventive and theatrical and, as the series went along, they became introspective and melancholic and foreboding. Instead of blunting or excusing the racism and sexism, a series could better contextualize these attitudes and critique through the narrative. For the most part, each novel is a standalone adventure. But the show could use Bond’s WWII service or the death of his parents or both to undergird each adaptation with emotional and psychological continuity.
There are aspects of each book that could be modified or inverted in such a way as to honor the original and address modern perspectives. For example, Broccoli and Saltzman toyed with the idea of making Solitaire a Black woman, played by Dianna Ross, for the ‘73 film adaption of “Live and Let Die.” I think that’s an inspired idea for a new adaption. Changing Solitaire’s race doesn’t simply change the aesthetic, it tweaks the dynamics of all the characters.
What if, instead of working for the Soviets, Mr. Big wants to finance civil rights or Black abolition. Committing crimes for the greater (perceived) good is a compelling theme that could be used to question Bond’s attitudes, and that of the White establishment in the U.S. and UK. Bond can change and grow and have opinions as he does in the books. Bond is a hero with flaws, as Fleming is to so many (including me) and as are so many of the best characters. The 2006 adaption of “Casino Royale” proves that the worst parts of Fleming’s books can be overcome by carefully curating and adapting the best parts of Fleming books.
If there’s a desire to have multiple, simultaneous interpretations of Bond, then casting one actor for TV and another for the films could work. In contrast to a period tv series, the Bond movies could stay modern and cutting edge. I’m imagining a dynamic in which something like Jeffrey Deaver’s “Carte Blanche” is produced alongside Anthony Horowitz’s “Trigger Mortis.”