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Exactly! Gadgets and cliches are what drove the franchise into the ground right up to DAD. And all throughout the series, there were warning signs that these cliches should not be relied upon. In fact, they should be let go of....it started with DAF wasting a good chance to follow up with OHMSS despite having Sean Connery back.....TMWTGG did it in.....it took 3 years (unprecedented at the time) for another movie to follow it up....then came the knife that bled the series well into the 80's. I'm talking about MR.....a movie so expensive and over the top that FYEO couldn't save the studios from the budget of each movie becoming smaller and smaller to make up for the loss incurred from the high budget and marketing over the next ten years.
Movies like AVTAK and LTK in particular suffered as a result, often being compared to tv movies with the quality of film work due to budget constraints.....PB may have been the people's choice actor for Bond but not even GE could satisfy all the fans who were waiting to see his performance live up to its potential. While the actor complained about the one-liners, the gadgets and cliches came to a point with DAD to waste another decade on the franchise.
SF was made directed by someone who was good at his own style of dramas but when it came to the series, he demonstrated too much of his fandom from before the CR-QoS era and it didn't help.
When the series tries to imitate itself, it makes more movies that imitate GF in worse ways as opposed to FRWL. The formula hadn't quite been cemented to the point of being a cliche until GF came out...FRWL, OHMSS, CR, QoS don't follow formula and they age better and keep the franchise going.
With TV streaming being the main source of entertainment these days, studios should not have to risk the Bond franchise with formula, gadgets, and cliches...that will drive the franchise back into the ground.
@slide_99 .....sadly, yes.....Bond walking into the snowy night of Kazan, Russia was the last of the realism that made the most recent Golden Age of the series. It was so haunting...
My wallet is willing and ready for this release.
I'd lose my mind if we got something akin to the GE watch along livestream with Brosnan for that.
I'd happily have watched another hour of QOS. I never wanted it to end...
It didn't try to be a Bond movie....it let the narrative and aftermath of Vesper's death play out despite too much reliance on plot (sadly), DC emphasizing his own stunts and getting hurt to help compensate for the lack of script....SF, SP, NTTD all try to be Bond movies for the most part. The one liners and some of the action in NTTD were a bit forced for a story that was emotional.
I cannot think of a better way to describe it. Exactly this. Organic, raw, early Bond… I can definitely see the connexion with DN, FRWL, and also with LALD, TMWTGG and LTK. This is how I like my Bond films: no green figs, no yoghurt, just coffee, very black. And no gadgets. I love how, in the first two Connery and Craig films especially, we just follow Bond from one place to another, and focus on him. It's as simple as that. I think QOS shows that, as long as you have a charismatic and committed actor as Bond, you could just follow him with your camera and a small crew, going from one place to another, fighting, driving a car, having dinner, walking around, spying… like a documentary film or a road movie, and make a very interesting Bond film out of it. I would like to see that happen one day. But the simplicity of DN, FRWL, LALD, TMWTGG, LTK, CR (first part especially) and QOS give me that feeling already.
Wow! Good observation!
The producers seem like they feel punished every time they make an effort to do that kind of documentary-style of CHARACTER-DRIVEN storytelling. You could tell that humor was forced in the last 3 DC movies and that the cliches were inserted as fan service. The franchise has a better likelihood of even larger success when both fans and non-fans are given a good movie like CR. Keeping fans and non-fans builds a bigger audience, not checklists.
Neal Purvis apologized to me in person for DAD. I think the director was in part at fault. After that film, I'd sworn off going back to theatres for a Bond film.....and then CR happened....you didn't have to be a fan of the cliches to like CR.....I went to the theatre and watched it. PB was jealous and had every right to be.
If QoS is given that special edition it would have an opportunity to use the unseen footage and the film could be re-edited to what would have been an intended outcome had there been more time for production to do so....this means that an abridged version of CR-QoS to help the story play out more coherently could be made. David arnold could also be brought in to score the rest of the 20 minutes worth of scenes missing...or maybe there is some unreleased music from the film.
DC was quoted as not wanting to further the Vesper story at the premiere of QoS...this may have been a reason why Marc Forster decided against using the original fate of Mr. White. But if that scene would have been aired, we wouldn't have gotten to see him again in SP years later to deepen the CR story arc with his daughter being involved with Bond.
When Bond is getting ready for his impending death in NTTD, many flashbacks could have been played including the time when he was going in the burning hotel at Playas De Las Dunas sitting with Camille thinking they were going to die. Also other scenes like him cradling Mathis, and other scenes from past films. The burning hotel scene was made effectively to make it feel like he was going to grant Camille's wish.
The scene when Dominic Greene laughs at Bond saying "hahaha, looks like you just lost another one" is very similar to how Bond dispatches Safin in NTTD....it's more subtle to reflect that Bond has greater worries on his mind than the arseh-le in front of him he's been wasting too much time with.
Admit it, you all wish you could watch a deleted scene where Dominic Greene drinks a can of oil.
Yes, but it would never measure up to my imagination of it. Choking bastid.
You know the way he looks lost when he's thrown out of the car in the desert? So he pops the oil can open like a soda and sips it. Then he barfs....or there could be a retroactively filmed sequence where M's men find Greene's dead body with oil coming out of his mouth.
I bet you want to watch a deleted Quantum of Solace scene where......
Here's how DC was in part responsible for how SF was the beginning of how his last 3 films were just too different from the CR-QoS era...and this was right when QoS had premiered.
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond_23_report_dec08.php3
Perhaps a QoS longer version re-release could come out with a remastering of BloodStone with new generation video game graphics. And the good thing about the video game in story mode is that it can be repurposed with new scenes to better serve as that bridge between QoS and SF than the current version.
The series benefits most from the actors who really care about the role in terms of script, direction/directing, producing, and character. The two top actors who cared most about the role were DC and TD....SC loved the character but was not given enough creative control and felt no choice but to leave to be happy.... DC is a video game too and had lots of input on how to update GE007 for 2011 with Judi Dench. He made it his own and it didn't come off as the FRWL video game which came across more as an over-the-top cliche when SC last touched the 007 role.
By the time Everything or Nothing had come out, PB had a lot going against him to keep the role....he was already one of the highest paid actors so he felt that the bargaining table was his to turn, the producers were already thinking with one another about rebooting the series and wanted to see how Batman Begins would play out, and PB had realized his 007 movie qualities were becoming worse with subsequent one and complained to the press about the one-liners instead of working hard diplomatically behind the scenes with the writers and producers. It's like he felt that Purvis and Wade were one-time hires that the producers wouldn't keep. So it was cheaper to leave him alone and it's broken his heart to this day.
DC was the last actor to get praise from all the predecessor actors, namely SC, who always wished he could have done a film like OHMSS....GL was a lot like PB but his actions during filming and around the premiere were just too arrogant/naive/immature when he was in the late 60's. If GL didn't have too much pride, he wouldn't have often hidden or left the room out of embarrassment when SC was physically nearby him.
Surely the filmmakers' plans and directions changed many times over. From the original May 2008 target for releasing BOND 22, then with studio delays and emergent developments over the years. And I just called you surely.
Not sure who proposed (or will propose) they always planned an arc. Still there must be quotes and evidence to support they had a general plan for Craig's tenure (while still it changed many times over). And likewise comments and evidence indicating there was none.
You know....all those recent statements by Barbara Broccoli saying that DC had wanted to kill off the character just CR was released....it was just probably a thought in DC's mind because he had given his all and was thinking the fans were still not giving approval to his casting. He could have not returned for NTTD, but decided to on his terms. Back when SF was released, he was under contract for 2 more films but I think the 2nd one was only optional.
But yeah....SF used from QoS the M and Bond chemistry and set relationship to its benefit without giving as much credit...even the words "unprofessional" about regrets made it to the script...but the film was blatantly made as a standalone. It was funner to make because there was no writer's strike and time crunch for DC. The movie got highly marketed too while riding on the 50th anniversary vehicle.
The only scene I remember being mentioned was that of a pre-recorded message on her laptop featuring her....similar to what we saw in Spectre with each M's participation and the mere mention of her on a tape that Bond never watches. The scene could even have been the interrogation itself to intensify how much Mr. White was a villain.
Little is know if Eva Green even appeared for a photo shoot with Yusef in that picture we see, but it's highly likely that she did and hence, was paid for it.
Apparently, Eva wasn't actually on a retainer for QOS, though - there was an option in her contract instead. According to Some KInd of Hero, in the end Eva only 'spent a day on the production for the photograph of her with Yusef.' Even so, doesn't that actually make Eva Green the first Bond girl since Eunice Gayson to work on two consecutive Bond films? ;)
Wow! Yes, as a matter of fact, it does. But Madeleine has to take the title due to Lea's active involvement. Lea and all the folks who appeared in SP really banded together to help NTTD be a better direct sequel. QoS had a lot of pressure on it. Perhaps that writer's strike didn't allow Greene to do more than the photo shoot with Yusef.
It's good to know she wasn't just photoshopped into the picture...but why wasn't she at the premiere?