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Interesting, but it needs to be handle well, I mean, it's a delicate thing, things like these tend to be convoluted if ended up in a film.
I don't know who could be a great director and scriptwriter for this job, I mean look at what happened to SPECTRE (2015) and NTTD, the two recent Bond films.
Or you could have somebody like Gogol who exists in the background to give the whole thing some coloring.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-68723533
Maybe Judi Dench could come back?
Maybe a story where a rogue Chinese general tries to sabotage the deal or manufacture???
Or to keep things happy, Bond is sent to assassinate a Chinese general who has been set up ????
By bringing UK, US and Australia into the deal, it would give the story multiple locations to use. If you used a Chinese angle too, it would offer more options. Just an idea.
I think it’d be a nice nod to the books, but potentially pointless. Unless May contributes something tangible to the plot (even if it’s only revealing minor information to Bond) there’s no need for her. I think 9.5 times out of 10 the character isn’t needed in that sense.
I think there’s only so much a film can show of Bond’s daily life as well. And there’s only so much we need to see of it.
Bond's private life is a topic to be explored. In fact, in recent years we have seen it more than in the first movies. We have already seen him living in Jamaica, for example.
In an origin story you can tell many things about his life.
Yeah, but it’s very fleeting. In NTTD we get a handful of shots of him having a shower, brushing his teeth, walking about his house (even the latter two things aren’t there to simply show us Bond’s daily life but are there for plot purposes. Primo steals Bond’s toothbrush which is how Spectre get his DNA, and the audience are shown things like Felix’s cigar and the Blofeld being imprisoned article in Bond’s drawer at the house).
I’m all for the films giving us these glimpses by the way. I love seeing things like Bond’s empty flat in SP. Or Bond in bed with a woman before being called into MI6. But there’s only so much these films can show us. I’m not a fan of a Bond origin story either personally.
Yes it's nice storytelling, that bit. It's there for plot as you say but also story: we're being shown how Bond's life has changed and what his circumstances are now.
If a more conventional Bond film showed us his home life in London in a similar way I'm not sure what story it would be telling really. Maybe there could be a reason, but there would need to be one: a change in those circumstances on the way or something like that.
When we see his flat in Spectre it's entirely for plot reasons: he's working on a mission off the books away from MI6. That gives us a chance for a bit of an insight into him and his life, but not just for the sake of it. A Bond film needs to drive forward all the time.
I like it, @Benny. Been missing some sub action. And Aussie action too. And if EON are concerned about offending real life countries:
I’d like to see May get a chance in cinematic Bond. If she adds to the plot, definitely. However, I think it would be a TERRIBLE idea to bring Judi Dench back in any way, shape or form. She needs to be left in the past. It would be as bad as having Craig comeback.
Exactly. Moments like that can’t feel baggy or pointless. They have to be part of the plot/story.
Don’t get me wrong, if we can be shown something like, say, Bond’s morning exercise routine or him sitting alone in his flat practicing his card skills and it fulfils that criteria, I’m all for it. But I don’t see any point in showing Bond eating scrambled eggs for the sake of it, or him reading files at his desk if it’s not relevant. I don’t particularly care about learning details such as how much he makes a year, what his diet is when in England etc (they’re wonderful to read in Fleming, but for a film I really don’t care).
When it comes to May though, I don't really see the point. I suppose you could do something in the background that hints towards her, but even then, the idea of Bond having a housekeeper just doesn't particularly appeal and if we're going to spend time with any of Bond's allies, I'd rather spend that time with, what I'm assuming will be the new Mi6 regulars.
I'd love it, but please not with Judi Dench.
Even in OHiMSS there was a very light plot thread that meant Yasmin was somewhat justified (namely Bond buying her the paprika). But even then I’m not convinced Bond needs a character like that. Weird as it sounds, a Bond who’s not tied to one woman and even sleeps around with married women is more likeable than a Bond who is having a casual fling with one woman. Things like Bond’s sleeping around on missions with other women comes to the forefront of the audience’s mind, and consequently he could come off negatively. They could play into this, but I don’t really see the point with a Sylvia Trench type. At least him not being tied down to one woman establishes Bond’s relationship with women and gives us a sense of the character.
There's a reason why Sylvia Trench was ditched after two movies. She was great in both,,especially in DN as it gives us a character defining moment, in FRWL it gives us a neat continuity nod, but what more could she have done. That said, I love the idea of the occasional minor Bond girl who is completely oblivious to Bond’s profession, but you don't need to have a recurring character.
Yeah, I feel after the third appearance the audience would start to feel bad for the poor woman! Agreed, there’s nothing else they could have done with her.
...or she'd come off as a bimbo. Imagine cramming her in OHMSS.
I'm all for seeing perhaps a more serious version of the typical 'Bond in bed with a women and has to leave because MI6 calls him' trope. Not dissimilar to the tone of the beach sections in SF. After seeing Bond complete a mission or whatever, we get brief shots of him with an unnamed woman at her place, cut to the two of them in bed (her sleeping, Bond awake) where he gets the call, and we see him sneak out without her waking up. I think that'd tell us something about his character while still making him out to be a bit of a ba*tard (but not so much so that the audience are turned off by him, and without muddying things with another big character). That's about as far as I'd go with such an idea/character though.
I don't think she would've fit in Goldfinger, given that it's a straightforward story (the film started with Bond doing night duty mission, then the main mission which was about Goldfinger himself), there's no time for flirting, it doesn't makes sense for her to be in Miami Beach with Bond (as a stand in for the Dink character), given that he's already in a mission.
The same in Thunderball, no time to put her character there because it's started the same as Goldfinger, straightforward stories, the film started with a meeting of all the 00s.
Maybe in You Only Live Twice, where instead of Ling, it's Sylvia instead, let's say Bond took her for a vacation in Hong Kong or China, but it's actually a set up by the MI6 to fake Bond's assassination, Sylvia was traumatized and thus, explaining the reason why she didn't came back.
Then of course, would fit in with OHMSS, as it's the film where Bond got married (and probably the Sylvia Trench situation could've given us a foreshadowing and warning as to what would happen if there's a woman who would stick with Bond for too long and how his mission could've affected their relationship, as it can be applied to what will happen to Tracy in the end).
After cleaning out this man at the tables, Bond finds his wife up at the bar, buys her a drink and suggests they go back to her place.
The woman is being seduced by this charismatic and, obviously, adrenaline-chewing young man, and playfully asks whether her husband would accept his behaviour…
Bond says not to worry about him, he’ll be busy for the rest of the night trying to win back his money.
The next scene is Bond making love to the wife, and in the middle of it, her husband does return home early.
Bond has to make a quick escape out of a top window and across rooftops, and it’s maybe during this escape that, although it’s the middle of the night, M has Bond called in for an emergency meeting…
Or something like that. The main point being, I’d like to see a mischievous man of action having some fun, pushing the boundaries…
Ahaha, he has the charm, @Torgeirtrap . That man definitely had the charm. And the playfulness.
(As I’ve repeatedly confessed, we can thank @mtm for my serious reappraisal of Roger!)…
What a lovely scene to fully cement Bond 7. I've imagined a similar scenario, except the husband is a gangster and very jealous, and Bond must fight and kill him, and then goes back to bed with now a widow.