Bond 23: will words speak louder than action?

Bond 23: will words speak louder than action?
from '' http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/26/bond-action-sam-mendes''
Sam Mendes is reportedly axing the action from the next James Bond film. But what's wrong with more angst, less speed?
the hope of grabbing an Oscar?


The Sunday Express report which first alerted to us to this perilous state of affairs smacks rather of join-the-dots journalism – Mendes is a past Academy award winner, and is directing the new Bond movie, so naturally he's going to be keen to forge it in his own image. Why wouldn't he want to tone down the action in favour of awards season-friendly character-driven drama?


A "source" tells the paper: "There are growing rumours Sam Mendes is cutting out the action scenes and making it Oscar-friendly," and adds: "This could be a disaster in terms of sales at box office. Given that this 007 needs to make at least £300m to break even, it may be a very high price to pay for an Oscar nomination."


The report suggests that "all" the action scenes set to be filmed in India have been axed from the film, which may or may not be titled Skyfall, and adds that further sequences to be shot in Istanbul and Duntrune Castle in Scotland may only be extant "for the moment".


If there is any truth in the Express's story (and it's a big if) such a development would rather undermine the eminently sensible argument that James Bond is a series where the producer, not the director, calls the shots. As my colleague Xan Brooks has pointed out, Barbara Broccoli and her team at Eon productions, which has overseen the franchise since its inception, are hardly likely to sit back while Mendes chooses to focus on the 21st-century tristesse suffered by a dead-eyed, couch-potato Bond in his swanky, soulless flat in between missions.


On the other hand, if Mendes wants to create a deeper sense of the suave super spy's humanity, that can only be a good thing. It certainly worked for Martin Campbell in the excellent Casino Royale, which benefited from a more rounded, less cartoony 007 and took its action cues from the distinctly claustrophobic Bourne series. Campbell recognised, perhaps, that many of the best (early) Bond films do not contain the kind of spectacular stunts that came to characterise the later movies.


Nevertheless, there's growing speculation that Mendes is planning a fairly radical take on Bond for his film, which is due to hit cinemas in October next year. Do you believe it? And can you countenance it?