It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I looked them both up on Google. Out of the two I like the idea of casting Kim best.
Replacing Roberts I can deal with, and it could do with something a bit stronger than the fire truck chase, but I’m afraid otherwise I still rather like it :)
1) Bring in Timothy Dalton
2) Keep Duran Duran’s theme
3) No May Day
4) No Beach Boys during the PTS
5) A more complex Max Zorin
6) Michelle Pfeiffer as Mary Ann Russell.
7) Keep Patrick Macnee
8) Entirely new story that expands on the Fleming short story, which sees Bond investigating the death of a motorcycle dispatch rider and the theft of top secret documents that Zorin is behind.
Easy.
Still, it's not hard to wish it had ended on a bit better note than that shower scene.
Reading back in the thread it's interesting that someone points out that Bond and Mayday never really go head-to-head, which is a good point. Maybe it would have been good for them to have a proper Oddjob-style showdown: and she would have got the better of him. I'd certainly keep her changing sides though: I like that bit, and Zorin's betrayal of her really works to sell how evil and unhinged he is.
After the way Bond gently turns down Dink in For Your Eyes Only, the scene kind of seems hypocritically wrong.
Yeah I think they cast her a little too young. Although 29 isn't the youngest Bond girl ever I'm sure, bearing in mind she was supposed to be an expert geologist, had run her own company, has a big house and dead family etc. then she sounds like she should have been a little older- Maud Adams was 38 in Octopussy and she feels a much better fit to Roger; they should have gone for someone a little more mature.
Although I guess that would have brought the average age of the goodies in that movie even higher! :D
Except maybe about the casting of Michelle Pfeiffer and the removal of May Day, I pretty much agree with all your points, especially the introduction of Dalton and the need of a new and better story, while retaining Zorin as the antagonist. Looking back, Osborne and Davies's screenplay for Bond 17, rewritten with Zorin in place of Sir Henry Ferguson, could have been an interesting base for an alternative Bond 14 starring Dalton.
In a more secondary way, I would have preferred the title to be "From a View to a Kill".
I just didn’t find May Day interesting. And keeping Zorin is the main bad guy would of made for some interesting exchanges between Walken and Dalton.
Did that turn up then? Which one was that? I can never remember which was which from those 90s drafts.
In this screenplay, Sir Henry Ferguson is a businessman who seeks to obtain Hong Kong. To succeed, he supports the renegade general Han, in the hope that he will overthrow the Chinese regime and take power. In addition to selling him weapons, Ferguson provides him with a stealth technology capable of launching an undetectable nuclear attack on mainland China. I may be anticipating the writers' intentions, but in the early 90s I guess the idea was to highlight the loss of influence of States in the face of the monopoly of certain companies, able to manipulate countries for their own ends.
Personally I really like the French sections of AVTAK - I think that gives it a really nice feel and I think it would be a shame to lose that.
I find it very hard to picture Dalton in it as many suggest- I think he'd really struggle in it and he's not 'big' enough to survive next to Walken or Jones. If you had to replace Roger (which I very much resist) then Brosnan would be a much better choice: even in full Remington Steel mode he'd have been charismatic enough to carry it and would have been able to handle the tonal changes.
Still, I think Ferguson's plan (destabilize a government to acquire territory, making his business as powerful as States) could have been ideal for Zorin, in case of a complete rewrite to suit Dalton's introduction.
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond_17_act1.php3
Regarding Osborne and Davies's script, most details available come from the Some Kind of Hero book, by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury. Recently, the screenplay was sold in auction and some scenes were readable.
https://propstoreauction.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/26/lot/3381/JAMES-BOND-BOND-17-Draft-Screenplay
Interesting to see the idea of bringing the DB5 goes back all that way.
You could still keep that lighter touch associated with a Moore film but get rid of the more absurd gags, i.e. the Beach Boys etc... Perhaps most importantly fix the editing of the fight scenes. Really wouldn't be too hard to go through and clean it up of the major complaints and have a cracking good adventure.
Yeah that all sounds good to me- as you say some of the fights are the lowest points: the one in the microchip boxing plant is appalling (we don't even see Bond beat his opponent!) and could have done with a totally different set piece down there. The film is quite good at setting up a sort of ominous tone so something like the Moonraker 'smelling a rat' sequence would've been nice.
I do seem to be in a very small minority who doesn't mind the California Girls bit :) - I think it's quite a fun joke and it's not really much sillier than the Bond theme triumphantly blaring out at that moment.
I personally would never want to dump May Day either. I love the concept idea of a villain having a close romantic relationship with a henchwoman. AVTAK almost fulfilled this situation, until the surprise twist near the end. The betrayal and redemption is kind of silly in retrospection. She helps Bond sacrificing herself to get the bomb out of the shaft, not because it's the right thing to do, but because she's angry about Zorin's back-stabbing her. Hardly what you'd consider a heroic noble sacrifice.
Having her in an Oddjob-like final showdown would definitely make more sense and tie in more with the Goldfinger comparison the movie has of course, Though I still prefer my idea as described in my very first post in this thread. ;)
By the way I can easily see Dalton as Bond in my idea for the movie. Dalton could easily duke it out with May Day on the Golden Gate Bridge. :D
Yeah I've been thinking recently that a husband and wife team would be a rather nice dynamic for villains, and I like how it works here. "I thought that creep liked me"
I guess Electra and Reynard almost have that dynamic although she's really using him more than loving him.
Is that bad? I don't see the problem with that. I actually really like the moment they become allies, it's something very rare in a Bond film.
Yes it never occurred to me that they never have a full-on confrontation. It might have been nice to expand that little bit where she catches up with Bond and Stacey in the tunnels, maybe kicking him into a little side cavern to give him a proper beating for while until the caverns flood: maybe he manages to turn the tables on her in the fight and has her beaten at the moment the water arrives, and then actually saves her from drowning.
It sounds like you see Bond as having noble ideals that can outweigh his impulses for vengeance in the right circumstances.
Acknowledgement that this is Moore's last mission.
That is a good call.
That would have been good with Madonna playing Stacey.