SPECTRE Production Timeline

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  • Posts: 7,507
    Ludovico wrote:
    I am not the biggest fan of John Logan as a scriptwriter. I don't hate him, but in general I find him overrated. He writes some good, maybe even great, dialogues, he can write great characters too, but he is not the greatest plotter. His Star Trek Nemesis was very weak and while I enjoyed Gladiator as a fun sword and sandals flick it is a vastly overrated movie. I enjoyed SF far more and find it superior, but blame him for the contrived turn of events surrounding Silva's escape. So I would be quite happy if he had a somewhat lesser role in the creative process. I always thought a two movies arc was a big gamble.That said, in this interview he seems very pleasant and what he says about being less interested about making big movies and being more interested about stage work, I can appreciate this. Sometimes you want to do something different, and as a former amateur thespian I know how the stage can appeal.

    Now, now. The last thing we need around here is a mature, levelheaded opinion to interfere with our hyperventilation and bloviation.

    :)) =D>
  • Posts: 15,114
    Ludovico wrote:
    I am not the biggest fan of John Logan as a scriptwriter. I don't hate him, but in general I find him overrated. He writes some good, maybe even great, dialogues, he can write great characters too, but he is not the greatest plotter. His Star Trek Nemesis was very weak and while I enjoyed Gladiator as a fun sword and sandals flick it is a vastly overrated movie. I enjoyed SF far more and find it superior, but blame him for the contrived turn of events surrounding Silva's escape. So I would be quite happy if he had a somewhat lesser role in the creative process. I always thought a two movies arc was a big gamble.That said, in this interview he seems very pleasant and what he says about being less interested about making big movies and being more interested about stage work, I can appreciate this. Sometimes you want to do something different, and as a former amateur thespian I know how the stage can appeal.

    Now, now. The last thing we need around here is a mature, levelheaded opinion to interfere with our hyperventilation and bloviation.

    Yeah, I know, what am I doing, not reading more into it.
  • edited June 2014 Posts: 2,015
    Well now you can read with a new eye all that I posted about John Logan in the last few weeks. Very active on many things not at all related to Bond, and away from the UK for public appearances in various places in the USA while Mendes was saying work was ongoing on the script. You can imagine he works on the script with Mendes by Skype, of course, but well... if he says now he has lost interest.. :)

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    Got Wood?
  • Posts: 5,745
    I interpret the future to mean post Bond.

    He clearly had an idea for Bond 24 and Bond 25, and as far was we know the basic idea for both films may still hold true. He's a professional; he's been doing this for years. He will finish with Bond and then move on to what's next. He didn't seem in any way upset or salty when mentioning Bond, and from everything we've seen he, Mendes, and the producers have a great working relationship.

    I doubt he would pick an interview in a small Chicago newspaper to 'get back' or 'raise his salary'.

    He will not be sacked. Or replaced. He is speaking to a community of thespians, so of course he is going to tell them he is more passionate for theater.
  • There is no reason to be upset in such case, everyone is paid :)
    In this industry, you can stop working together on one project and work on another, there's no acrimony, since it gets you out of Hollywood if you have a reputation to be sensitive with these issues. The New Line / Peter Jackson saga is quite exceptional, it usually happens away from the public.
    As a French artist said once of other artists about his proposals, "they didn't like it, let's say no more".


  • edited June 2014 Posts: 6,601
    There have been SOME voices of reason saying that it just means, that he is not jumping into the next big movie boat after Bond. No more, no less IMO. He isn't stupid and getting worked up publicly IF something was wrong.

    And since when do you need to sit next to each other to write a script? As I see it, he could sit in the middle of a jungle as long as he has internet.
  • In my opinion Logan doesn't give off the impression there is anything wrong in his current role as Bond writer. He even mentions his collaborative process with Sam Mendes with a very positive attitude. He is talking about what he sees in his future as a writer and after possibly 3 Bond films he is just looking at doing something else. He is probably loving every minute of shaping the next 2 Bond films but they can become huge tasks with a lot of pressure. As he mentions he has done a lot of work and is looking at writing less "big movies" (Bond being the biggest of those) and concentrating on theatre / tv work for a while. I think we shouldn't read too much into this comment. I personally think BOND is in good hands.
  • Posts: 15,114
    Well now you can read with a new eye all that I posted about John Logan in the last few weeks. Very active on many things not at all related to Bond, and away from the UK for public appearances in various places in the USA while Mendes was saying work was ongoing on the script. You can imagine he works on the script with Mendes by Skype, of course, but well... if he says now he has lost interest.. :)

    He did not say he has lost interest. He said he has less interest to work on big movies like Bond movies. And he says this after he already wrote the first draft for Bond 24. After writing Nemesis (a terrible movie, but there you go), Gladiator, The last Samurai, The Aviator, Skyfall, I can understand why he would like to do stage work. For the big movies, he has been there, done that.

    As for working on the script: 1)do we know if he is still personally working on it and to which extend? As I said he might be less involved in the writing process 2)even if he is, he can indeed communicate through various means and 3)whatever his current involvement, there are also others working on it.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    John Logan is tweeting the script to Mendes and the producers now.
  • Purvis and Wade has less interest in Bond quite early on it seems, but never said so publicly during their tenure :)
  • edited June 2014 Posts: 6,601
    Purvis and Wade has less interest in Bond quite early on it seems, but never said so publicly during their tenure :)
    It seems? How would you know? Seems to me, it was the best gig they could possibly get. But we get it - you want to spread the rumor, that Logan is more or less on his way out and the whole thing is gonna be B A D! Uhhh - fearrrr!
    Maybe you should stick to keeping track of them BO numbers, once we get to that. That was you, who did that VERY accurately, right? Until then, maybe take it easy and not go into the arena with "I am right! I am right! I wanna BE right by all means!"
    None of us knows, whether or not there is an interpretation apart from what he actually said.

  • Posts: 908
    Germanlady wrote:
    There have been SOME voices of reason saying that it just means, that he is not jumping into the next big movie boat after Bond. No more, no less IMO. He isn't stupid and getting worked up publicly IF something was wrong.

    In this business everything is ALWAYS super duper. Everybody loves each other, everybody has tons of fun on the set.... You get the picture!
    When Someone openly states that he feels kind of bored with the kind of work he's doing that tells us something. Maybe the producers were impudent enough to ask for a script at least resembling logic. This might be quite offending for MR. Logan and what we are seeing is his reaction to this insult.
  • edited June 2014 Posts: 2,015
    Germanlady wrote:
    It seems? How would you know?

    Wow, there was a smiley. It was some irony on the fact the stories of the last Brosnan movies in particular are not very inspired, it's a bit easy to mix them up IMO.
    Germanlady wrote:
    But we get it - you want to spread the rumor, that Logan is more or less on his way out and the whole thing is gonna be B A D! Uhhh - fearrrr!

    Not at all, I just explained a few posts above the contrary : avoiding Skyfall 2 may be a very good news. Skyfall's self-reference fest had the 50th birthday as an excuse, but can you really do a second movie like that ? These producers know how to surprise and Bond is still there after 50 years. Many other franchises have lasted only 3 or 4 times because of the diminishing return effect of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it".

    If Bond 24 is Skyfall 2 and "only" does 750 M$, it will be called a flop by some, Bond's image may even be affected, we may loose Craig on that one who knows ? Just look at the Hobbit who did billions but was not good enough for many compared to the LOTR. If it's very different from Skyfall 2, we may avoid this.
    Germanlady wrote:
    Maybe you should stick to keeping track of them BO numbers, once we get to that.

    Hm, well, I tried to explain on the contrary that instant tracking of the Box Office is full of mistakes and is mostly Public Relationship. You want to boost some first week end figures ? Set up expensive early screenings... And the US box office forums are now discovering the matinees figures (something we have in France for years, now on the day of release at 2pm, the forums are full of "fiasco !" or "box office hit !" - so now we start to see PR campains for the first matinee in Paris, like free food for those who come :) )

    For instance, some people in France (not only on this forum) "tracked" every week how Skyfall would alas fail to reach the 7 millions figure here, now once the dust is settled, the official figure is above that. Not much, but above. It showed that instant tracking of that 7 millions figure was just some artefact.
    Germanlady wrote:
    Until then, maybe take it easy and not go into the arena with "I am right! I am right! I wanna BE right by all means!"
    None of us knows, whether or not there is an interpretation apart from what he actually said.

    We have something directly from the person's mouth here. It's not like some people claiming "World War Z" will be a fiasco because of rumours of Pitt and Forster disagreeing on everything, remember ? :)

    I'll keep on thinking that saying in a public interview, that you're less and less interested in writing for the likes of Bond, and that means the second movie of your contract, may mean the contract won't be honored, and that everyone may have already agreed so. Logan was very active the last few weeks on many things not related to Bond at all, away from Eon, sometimes for very mundane and time consuming activites, I did not conclude at that time explictly he wasn't involved any more when I gave the info here, but I thought so indeed... Teleworking is wishful thinking here, IMO.

    Oh, and don't forget we've also been told before that Mendes wanted the two-movie arc of Bond 24 and Bond 25 to be changed to come back...

    Note that the info is now on the front page of this site, including the hypothesis he may leave after Bond 24, and this site doesn't quote easily such rumors.


  • Posts: 11,425
    I can imagine Logan was pretty annoyed when Mendes came along and tore up his script. I just hope whatever comes out the other end is good.
  • Posts: 6,601
    @Suivez - on the front page we have the article and a title, saying he might be out fter 24 or 25. To be honest - if he gives a good script performance for 24 I will be quite satisfied. Personally I never believe in deals of more then one piece of cake.

    Even if we take this serious and assume the worst (of which there is still no reason) its not a bad thing, if somene new writes 25. ( as you said yourself) ;)
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    I'm not fussed about B25. I'd just rather a screenwriter who wasn't bored, 18 months before his screenplay hits cinemas.
  • WalecsWalecs On Her Majesty's Secret Service
    Posts: 3,157
    RC7 wrote:
    I'm not fussed about B25. I'd just rather a screenwriter who wasn't bored, 18 months before his screenplay hits cinemas.

    I agree. I hope they'll hire someone else.
  • edited June 2014 Posts: 2,015
    Germanlady wrote:
    Even if we take this serious and assume the worst (of which there is still no reason) its not a bad thing, if somene new writes 25. ( as you said yourself) ;)

    I don't see "the worst" in Logan not writing the script, troubled productions happen all the time, and some give masterpieces. Moonlight and Magniolas is a good read for people interested in the movie-making process IMO (it's at the moment a successful theater play in Paris), it's a fiction, it's a comedy, and it's about scriptwriting Gone With The Wind, so some won't see the connection, but nowadays we know almost nothing about the movie industry, and all the testimonies are written with some strong bias it seems.

    I just know from my own experience and the numerous anecdote told by others on the set (we often had nothing else to do) that you can watch very often on the sets of movies some Christian Bale-like explosion, and almost none of them are acknowledged publicly (I saw a director from the most expensive European movie of that time close to punching in the face his first assistant who was fed up of receiving incoherent orders).

    However, we're now in the time where public interviews are not as free as before. I simply can't imagine Logan saying being bored by Bond while still playing a major role in the chain of events.

    The days where Sean Connery said in interviews as soon as 1965 that he wished the Bond movies were not done every year, are over, now you've got an agent that keeps reminding you what to say if you want to stay in the business IMO.

    As for Logan's way of writing Skyfall, IMO, added to Mendes' style of realization, it ended with a very theatrical result. If people want a more "on the field" movie, and not "this time it's personal" again, having Logan less involved is not necessarily a bad thing.

    I can almost read the "enter scene" and "exit scene" comments when Mallory enter to give a few lines between M and Bond and leave just after, for instance. A theatrical moment between three characters. But when he leaves, the camera changes axis, and well, we discover that Tanner was actually listening to the whole "M/Mallory/Bond moment of truth" exchange all the time. I really felt like watching a theater play, where two actors discuss loud enough for everyone in the room, but the third actor two meters away "hears nothing". That's the code in theater plays, but in cinema that's a bit too theatrical now IMO.


  • Posts: 5,745
    I think some of us are blowing this way out of proportion.

    Again, if he wanted to part ways with Eon, he wouldn't do it four months from production. Especially with a guaranteed success on his hands, and especially with his good working relationship with Mendes.

    If he wanted to part ways, he wouldn't do it in a small part of a small Chicago paper. He's not 'digging' at anybody, there's no behind-the-scenes film-threatening drama. He simply plans to move on from film after his work on Bond and more into theater and television.

    Again, he was speaking to an audience of thespians, so he wanted them to know his future plans involve a lot of theater. Nothing about his statement was immediate. As you grow tired of your current job you start to look towards the next thing. That's all he's doing. Future planning.

    Besides, his exact words are 'the Bonds'. That's plural. More than one. So subconsciously he's admitted to doing Bond 24 completely through when we over-analyze it.

    I can't believe some people are shouting for his removal simply because he's planning his next projects. Completely ridiculous and reactionary.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    I think some are overreacting - and part of that, I feel, is just because we have no real news. Just something to speculate about.
    I agree with your points, JWESTBROOK. I understand if people feel like speculating and going off on a tangent a bit, but hopefully we can all keep it in perspective overall.
  • Posts: 15,114
    Yes, reading some people here, Logan is downright sickened about Bond, angry that Mendes changed completely his script and about to walk out, making as much noise as he can.

    All I understood from his interview, in which he seemed to be a very pleasant man (and again, I am not a fan of his as a scriptwriter), is that he enjoys doing stage work more and more, while he is less interested about big budgets movies. And again, that is understandable.
  • Posts: 6,601
    Amen to that. Thanks. ;)
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Getafix wrote:
    I can imagine Logan was pretty annoyed when Mendes came along and tore up his script. I just hope whatever comes out the other end is good.

    Tamahori also tore up the script for DAD. Then he ate it and what came out the other end was what we got for the 40th anniversary.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Getafix wrote:
    I can imagine Logan was pretty annoyed when Mendes came along and tore up his script. I just hope whatever comes out the other end is good.

    Tamahori also tore up the script for DAD. Then he ate it and what came out the other end was what we got for the 40th anniversary.

    Yes, well I'm reasonably confident that Mendes isn't about to make another DAD. But Tamahori and he have made two of my least favourite Bond movies.
  • Posts: 1,548
    If Bond 24 is anywhere near as classy as Skyfall I will be more than happy. And I don't care where the gunbarrel is!
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    All these discussions have been amusing to read. My favorite moment was when a certain member lashed out at Logan for being involved with other projects beyond his Bond work. What a foolish twit Mr. Logan must be, and what nerve he must have to be doing other work outside of the Bond scripts that helps sustain his comfortable living and gives lifeblood to his art form and creativity. To hell with him, I say!
  • edited June 2014 Posts: 2,015
    My favorite moment was when a certain member lashed out at Logan for being involved with other projects beyond his Bond work.

    What are you afraid of ? But building a straw man is easier I guess :)

    I said that when Mendes says the script is still being worked upon at the moment after dismissing Logan's first work, and when you can read on Twitter Logan is spending at the same time a few weeks in Chicago, including days signing books or talking at panels at a book fair in Chicago, it's not ridiculous to think he's not involved much if at all in the intensive last days of work on the script before casting and scouting works begin with a no-turning back on many options.

    A few days after, he says he's less and less interested in writing for the movies. I promise I didn't know about the interview beforehand even if it looks too good to be true :)


  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    My favorite moment was when a certain member lashed out at Logan for being involved with other projects beyond his Bond work.

    What are you afraid of ? But building a straw man is easier I guess :)

    I said that when Mendes says the script is still being worked upon at the moment, and when you can read on Twitter Logan is spending at the same time a few weeks in Chicago, including hours signing books at a book fair in Chicago, it's not ridiculous to think he's not involved much in the intensive last days of work on the script before casting and scouting works begin with a no-turning back on many options.

    A few days after, he says he's less and less interested in writing for the movies. I promise I didn't know about the interview beforehand :)


    I'm not afraid of anything. When I denoted you as "a certain member" it was meant to be obvious and clear, not cowardly and sheepish. I knew who I was talking about, as did you and everyone else here. Just playful fun, really.

    Anyway, as I said, Logan is more than free to engage in other projects beyond Bond. He doesn't have to swear off other projects, opportunities or events simply because Bond has entered his life. If he wants to sign books, let the man sign books. If he wants to travel to Chicago and meet fans, let him go to Chicago and meet fans. As a fellow writer myself, you should know that we never really stop writing. We think of ideas organically in our heads all the time, sometimes sparked by instant epiphanies or ideas that just seem to pop out of the ether and make us plot out a story in our heads. With all this in mind, Logan can just as easily write Bond 24 AND meet all the other commitments he has going on, whether they are of the business or pleasure variety.
  • Posts: 6,601
    Gosh, if nothing else, don't you think, he will give his best to not deliver shit, that will have his name on it? SOME logic, please.
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