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well..... it wasn't that simple..
they were indeed given their walking papers after SF, as Mendes has had a closer (and until this time, better) working relationship with John Logan... after turning in a few really subpar drafts of the script for SP, Mendes freaked out - sacked Logan, then (for all intents and purposes) went crawling back to Purvis and Wade to rewrite the mess Logan had created.. then after they were done, he brought in Jez Butterworth to do touch up work on their draft..
honestly, i feel like it's time for the series to move beyond P&W - and i think they had planned on it, but Logan really served up a sh**burger for Mendes and company... but it's also been well documented here on these boards that previous issues with DAD and even TWINE might have had more to do with the directors of said films changing things around to suit what they wanted to do with the film... christ, Tamahori pretty much took a chainsaw to their script for DAD - and we see how that turned out... and QOS was pretty much a disaster from the jump, since they rushed and didn't allow Haggis to do his full rewrite on it.
:)) :)) you obviously haven't been here for very long then..
QOS holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts on this forum... and SF has it's fair share of detractors as well.
That's what John Cleese thought hahaha!
2nd that! DC da man!
That's not 'setting the record straight', it's just your opinion.
Over a 50 year period all the Bond producers have made mistakes and errors of judgement. And you seem to think DAD was a right move? Seriously?
Well, as I say that's an opinion and shouldn't be rammed down our throats as 'fact'.
My opinion is that they recognised that they were going in the wrong direction after DAD and did something about it. They took the bold step to cast Craig, which proved to be the right decision and are now riding the wave of critical and commercial success.
That's my opinion of course.
And if you give the likes of Disney the franchise, any lingering resemblance the franchise now has to Ian Flaming can be kissed goodbye.
The guy doesn't know anything, he is coming on a fan forum quoting matters of fact. Then saying dumb stuff like Skyfall is such a disappointment in the writing department.
And they still have the same ole P+W writing the scripts WRONG John Logan wrote Skyfall, Purvis & Wade only touched up the last draft the same with Spectre.
I'm not convinced that's true of SP and it definitely isn't true of SF.
Skyfall and Spectre were both Logan stories, Purvis and Wade were only brought in to beef up both. Hence following Skyfall Purvis and Wade were dropped only for it to then be discovered the Logan's story was thin on his own, a grovelling apology later Purvis and Wade agreed to touch up Spectre.
An old Logan interview http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-features/9940386/John-Logan-on-Peter-and-Alice-I-loved-writing-Skyfall-but-theatre-is-my-world.html
Yeah, Mendes and Logan are peas in pods. Following Skyfall with the TV series Penny Dreadful together I think they though cut out Purvis & Wade again and let Logan have free reign, however I think Logan can be guilty of self indulgence and his script for Spectre was over theatrical and lacked human element and humour, hence bring in Purvis in Wade to macho it up a bit and add a bit of wit.
The nugget of 'M's' death is a Logan idea as far as I'm aware, in conjunction with Mendes, but regard the screenplay it is a combination of work from Logan and P+W. These films aren't the work of a singular voice. Also, you'll note that P+W are credited ahead of Logan in the title sequence, the credits themselves are verified by the WGA, so if Logan felt he was the majority 'voice' in that screenplay he would certainly have raised it with them. P+W didn't 'touch up the last draft'. If you're merely polishing it's unlikely you would receive a credit, and you certainly wouldn't get top billing. I believe SP will see a similar scenario. P+W will have restructured parts of the film, I have no doubt.
If Daniel Craig does retire from the role I'd favour full recasting of M, Moneypenny, Q, the look of MI6. I suppose if Bond 25 is SPECTRE part 2 then it would make sense to keep as much of the cast but if a new Bond actor takes over I wouldn't mind a clean slate approach. Judi Dench was a fine M but, said in hindsight, I don't think Casino Royale would have been noticeably worse had they recast M. Recasting M in Bond 25 wouldn't be a big deal.
You beat me to it. And SKYFALL really IS a huge disappointment in the writing dept., even though Logan's history doesn't really suggest otherwise (his main 'win' credits are mostly for films that were rewritten by other people, while the stuff that was filmed intact turned out to be the end of STAR TREK for nearly a decade and BATS.)
I thought that was the single item retained from Peter Morgan's time writing SF.
Ah yes, you're right I think.
Meanwhile, I wonder if Logan is being made a bit of a scapegoat. Supposedly, Logan was working closely with Mendes during the SPECTRE scripting process. If they worked *that closely* what Logan turned in shouldn't have been that much of a surprise.
P+W are plodding journeymen. They write hackneyed, derivative plots and stories and have absolutely no talent for dialogue. They should be working on daytime TV not Bond.
Logan occassionaly writes some brilliant, memorable dialogue, but is also pretty awful at plot and story.
Bond deserves a lot better.
Bringing in Peter Morgan for SF was a really positive move and its a shame that didn't work out. He is good at plot and story and writes solid, unflashy dialogue.
Should give Mark Gatiss the gig. Talent writer, understands what excites and audience has amazing film knowledge massive Bond fan recently did this Bond program http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02x2jbn was hailed for his guest writing on Doctor Who.
I love Sherlock and dislike Dr. Who. Torn.
did you follow any of the drama that went on during preproduction on SP?.. i just have to ask...
because what i was saying wasn't a loose opinion, or a glossing over of details... Logan's draft of SP was garbage, and P&W were brought back to completely overhaul it... and when i say that, i'm not talking as if Mendes was somewhat just a little unsure with John's script - or he was having small minor issues with it.. no, he apparently didn't like any of it - no one did - not Sam, not Dan, not Babs or Michael..... I'm sure there is still plenty of Logan's work in there, but it's mostly P&W's now....
the only one brought in to do a little "beefing up" was Jez Butterworth, and that was after P&W had already finished their version of the script.
this was one of the reasons production was delayed - the script kept being rewritten.. it went from September to October to December, and basically literally right before they started shooting was the script finally as finalized as it was going to be..
i've always said give Paul Haggis another real shot at it..
he may have had some really "far out" and crazy ideas that no one would like - thankfully EON checked him at the door when it came to those..
but i believe CR's great story and writing was due in large part to him... i dont even count QOS as being written by him - because it pretty much wasn't.. i don't even think he made it halfway through his rewrite before being forced to turn back in - and a lot of that movie was rewritten on set while they were filming (now thats a clusterf*ck)
so i say let the man have another go, and lets see what he can really do..