Movies "No Time To Die" - Bond 25 Official Thread

James Bond 25 News Thread

Title: TBD (Rumored to be titled: Shatterhand)
Release Date: November 8, 2019 (US) [UK and the rest of the world will release earlier]
Starring: Daniel Craig as James Bond


Facts


Rumor Patrol

- Naomi Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear are likely to reprise their roles from previous Bond Films (Moneypenny, M, Q, and Bill Tanner respectively).

- Christoph Waltz has expressed interest in playing Blofield two more times provided that Craig returns.

- Jeffery Wright could return as Felix Leiter.

- Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith is linked to a potential role.

- John Logan is penning the script, possibly as a continuation of SPECTRE.

- Daniel Craig was offered £150 million for two more films (Bond 25 and 26). It is currently unknown if he accepted. (Source)

Useless Trivia
Source: IMDB

- This film, if Craig does not withdraw, would mark his fifth and possibly final time as James Bond. This would put him third on the list on film count with five, behind Sir Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore. However, assuming a release date of 2017, if you count the number of years in the role, the film would mark Craig's eleventh year in the role, the second longest tenure in the part (behind Roger Moore who had a dozen years).

- If this film utilizes a Fleming title, there only remains four, The Property of a Lady, The Hildebrand Rarity, Risico and 007 in New York.

 

I think the response to Spectre has given EON cause to hesitate. The idea of Bond and Blofeld having been brothers once upon a time was not well received by the fans.

 

I liked the idea of brothers separated from a young age and choosing the separate paths that would ultimately cross, although personally I don't feel it fits in with the whole Bond persona, which to me means to be alone and uncompromising. I watched Spectre knowing nothing of the plot other than Daniel Craig was playing Bond, and after having watched the whole series from Dr No to Skyfall, the whole Blofeld reveal stunned me as a moviegoer.
As a "reboot" of the series starting from Casino Royale I find it hard to see how this storyline could develop in the grand Bond scheme of things, as Blofeld has been nicked on a bridge and Bond has seemingly chosen Madeleine over MI6, very OHMSS but with a more open ending, and I wonder where these films sit in the Bond chronology.

 

Bookmakers have suspended betting on who will play the next James Bond after unnamed sources claimed Craig walked away from a two-film deal. Tom Hiddleston of all people was tipped to take over.

It wouldn't be the first time a character was written out like that. Bond and Natalya walked off into the sunset in GoldenEye, but she was absent from Tomorrow Never Dies. The novelisation of the film had Bond mention that she left him for a hockey player (a reference to Izabella Scorupco marrying an ice hockey player).

Blofeld is the grand manipulator. It wouldn't be hard to have the Chinese claim that he is their agent and the Prime Minister ordering his release to avoid an international incident.

Again, easily fixed: before Bond hands Blofeld over to the Chinese, Blofeld asks when Bond began to suspect that he was not Franz Oberhauser; Bond replies that he never knew Oberhauser's mother's maiden name, but found that it was not Blofeld and that there was no family connection to the name. Blofeld admits that he began researching Bond after Bond's interference in Montenegro, Bolivia and Macau, and found Franz Oberhauser, who murdered his father and staged his own death and was only too happy to strike back at his adoptive brother. Blofeld killed him and assumed his identity, and was so convincing as Oberhauser that, in a sense, he was Oberhauser.

Blofeld then reveals his actual history: the son of a Pole and a Greek living in Romania; when his parents were killed by the regime, he fled to Sweden to seek asylum and was adopted by a German and a Dane. He was raised in Switzerland and sent to boarding school in Austria and went to university in France. As a result, he has no sense of national identity and sees borders as absurd, unnecessary and limiting human potential. He is therefore diametrically opposed to Bond, the great defender of the realm.

 

@prisonermonkeys
I don't suppose you do a bit of scriptwriting in your spare time do you?
I like the idea of Blofeld being borderless, Not patriotic, nor having a real sense of identity apart from what he has created for himself. Sounds good.

 

I did some at university for a bit of fun and because I needed a creative writing unit, but nothing more than that. My ideal Bond 25 would look like this:

Spoiler

Bond is sent to Africa to investigate the disappearance of Felix Leiter; in reality, Leiter staged his own disappearance to get Bond out of London without arousing suspicion. Leiter has been looking into Hugo Vanderdaatje, a South African soldier-turned-businessman and Spectre operative who is trying to corner the market on colombite, a rare mineral that has shown promise as a near-room temperature semiconductor.

Picking up the trail Leiter had been following, Bond discovers that Spectre is operating on behalf of a Chinese conglomerate with ties to the government to secure the colombite reserves to give them a total monopoly. Their plan is to load a commercial rocket with a colombite bomb and detonate it in the upper atmosphere, making it look like a failed rocket launch. The bomb will disperse a colombite isotope through the atmosphere, causing widespread disruption to global communication networks. With the world's only reserves of colombite, the Chinese will be immune to the effects of the isotope, giving them economic and military superiority for a generation.

Bond thwarts the plan by disabling the altimeter that will detonate the bomb aboard the rocket before being recalled to carry out the exchange of Blofeld to the Chinese. The two discuss the Oberhauser identity and Blofeld's vision of a world without borders. Blofeld expresses disappointment at Bond's lack of imagination; he might have stopped the bomb, but the Chinese will not kill Blofeld for his failure as Spectre has other plans in motion, and that Bond is the only person who can kill him (this would become an important point for a proper adaptation of You Only Live Twice, where Blofeld's irrational hatred of Bond has very nearly destroyed Spectre and Bond feels compelled to make sure Blofeld is dead, even though he is no longer a threat; when the two finally confront one another, Bond points out that he never intended to kill Blofeld, but to use Blofeld's hatred of him to give someone else the opportunity to kill him).

As the Chinese arrive to collect him, Blofeld says "it's a shame, James - you were just starting to get interesting" before Bond is shot by a Spectre sniper.

 

Mendes won't be directing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wn2xy

I'd like to see another Martin Campbell Bond I think.

 

He wasn't directing Spectre, either ...

Campbell is good for producing a solid Bond film when the franchise needs it the most, but his actual films haven't been the strongest in the series' history (and some of his more-recent films leave a lot to be desired).

 

*Cough*Green Lantern*/Cough*

Following up on the Craig issue, was it confirmed that Daniel Craig walked away from Bond 25 as well? According to my sources, he is still contracted to do that one, unless the end game has changed. Has it?

 

There's been no word.

 

...A few days ago, I rewatched SPECTRE and noticed how bored Craig looked throughout the proceedings. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't want to return.

As for Hiddlestone, I think he lacks the requisite jawline to play Bond. Just my opinion. I'd rather go with Idris Elba, if he's still interested.

 

I think it's more the direction that the films will take that will be the sticking point. Spectre suffered from a lot of rewrites, and it really felt like pieces were being moved around to set up the next film. The entire point of Spectre is to address the flaws in the organisation's existence - that intelligence agencies would spot them immediately. Blofeld's plan is to orchestrate and then hijack a global surveillance network so that Spectre can see any threats immediately.

EON need to think carefully about the next run of films. They will probably want to round Craig's tenure off with a definitive end to the storyline, and the only way to do it would be with a proper adaptation of You Only Live Twice. Unfortunately, that's borderline impossible given the content. The Garden of Death is fine, but there's a lot of metaphysical stuff in it that makes it so effective - but is as difficult to film as it is necessary to the story.

Fleming always intended for You Only Live Twice to be the final novel, even though he went on to write The Man with the Golden Gun. The entire point of the story is the final confrontation between good and evil. Blofeld no longer represents a threat to the world, but neither he nor Bond can continue to exist while the other survives, and so conflict is inevitable. Blofeld has sequestered himself in a foreign land, a splinter of evil that has appropriated and bastardised elements of its culture, and if left unchecked, threatens to evolve into a greater threat; thus, Bond is compelled to travel to the ends of the earth and dig the evil out. Having succeeded in his mission, his memories are erased as a form of death and rebirth, allowing him to live a new life.

 

Here's what I would propose as a script. I loved On Her Majesty's Secret Service from back in the day (1969?). It was the most believable plot, Bond does actual spying. It wasn't well received by critics either. But then the next movie, Diamonds Are Forever, it was like Bond forgot all about what happened at the end of the last movie. Diamonds Are Forever should have been License To Kill, where he goes off on a tangent of revenge; and then they can either end the series as Bond quits or have him return.

 

Because George Lazenby was a terrible James Bond.

Bond never went on a rampage.

In the original novels, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice form a trilogy. Thunderball sees Bond take on SPECTRE, which was originally a group of mafia figures and agents of communist regimes trying to take advantage of the political stalemate in Europe to force a conflict. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was Bond trying to find Blofeld and bring him to justice and destroy whatever remained of SPECTRE. And finally, You Only Live Twice was Bond trying to stop Blofeld once and for all.

 

Mendes out, Craig expected to depart:

http://m.smh.com.au/entertainment/m...raig-expected-to-follow-20160529-gp6wcr.html?

Tom Hiddleston tipped as the seventh James Bond.

 

....

Spoiler: No, nooooo. Urrrrgaaahhhh!!!

 

It might not be that bad. He was excellent in "The Night Manager" (which is apparently what sold the producers on him), and he's the only actor who gets to do anything interesting in the Marvel films.

 

I still say they should get Michael Fassbender or Henry Cavill for Bond. And they should do throwbacks like X-Men First Class did.

 

Fassbender is too connected to too many big franchises these days. He's in both X-Men and the Alien prequels, and there are plans for an Assassin's Creed series. If they picked him up following Inglorious Basterds, it would have been perfect. But he'd be a great Bond villain.

As for throwback films, it wouldn't work. Bond has always been a character grounded in current events, even during the novels. Going back and trying to make a side series set during the Cold War wouldn't work.

 

Daniel Craig reportedly offered £150 million for two more Bond films. It is unknown if the offer is taken, however.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/danie...o-return-for-two-more-james-bond-films-2016-9

 

If Craig is out then Waltz supposedly out too isn't it ?

I remember Waltz saying he'd be in the next movie only if Craig stays as Bond.

 

I do hope he returns, least of all because he is my favourite James Bond. I just watched Spectre again, and it would be a low note to go out on. The film tries to do so much, and yet so little actually happens.

There's always the possibility of borrowing chapter titles: The Undertaker's Wind (which was the original title of Live and Let Die until Fleming's publicist voiced concerns that audiences would think of a flatulent mortician), Death Is So Permanent, The Moguls of Death, Multiple Requiem, The Gambit of Shame, The Death Collector and The Belles of Hell (the original title of On Her Majesty's Secret Service) all work to varying degrees.

 

Death collector sounds awesome to me.

 

Death collector sounds awesome to me.

 

It's taken from You Only Live Twice, which is practically unfilmable. Following the events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Blofeld flees to Japan where he adopts the alias Dr. Guntram von Shatterhand and positions himself as a wealthy benefactor to the Japanese government. However, the castle compound thar he has set himself up in is populated by a wide variety of poisonous plants and venemous animals - the Garden of Death - and he takes advantage of the Japanese cultural attitude towards suicide, turning a blind eye to suicidal people who break into the castle and kill themselves; every death is unique, making him "the death collector". Given his political connections, the Japanese government is unwilling to do anything about it, so Tiger Tanaka - the head of the Japanese secret service - enlists Bond to aid him.

 

yeah that can't be used. It's just sounds great as a title.

 

Rumor Patrol: The following Bond actors have their schedules clear for the foreseeable future:

Daniel Craig - which means that he did, by all signs, accept the £150 million offer.
Ben Whishaw
Naomi Harris
Ralph Fiennes

Christoph Waltz has one film in pre-production as of post time.

Source: IMDB.COM

Edited for grammar because I am a grammar nazi.

 

I can't imagine that he would have a sizeable role in Bond 25. After all, he was captured at the end of Spectre.

 

I'm not sure about that. I'd imagine a nice believable escape would have been planned in case of capture (I'm thinking along the lines of Raoul Silva, although yes, his role in the film was large) He does have people everywhere after all....

Mind you, scriptwriting must be one of the most creative vocations there is, so if anyone can write Blofeld a good escape it's these guys.

 

A pet hate of mine is the carefully-constructed escape where the villain wants to get caught as part of an elaborate scheme. It's what Silva did, but I liked what Silva did for one simple reason: when Q accidentally gave him access to the MI6 network, he opened every single lock in the bunker. A lesser film would have Silva anticipating which cell he would have been locked in and only opening the doors he needed.

I would rather see Blofeld walk free rather than escape. SPECTRE operated by playing the superpowers off one another, trying to get one to destroy the other and then crushing the weakened winner so a third power - usually China - could rise. So I think the best way to do it would be to have Beijing claim that Blofeld is an intelligence source and request his release. With Spectre's operations being so well-hidden, the only charge MI6 can hold him on is the illegal demolition of Vauxhall Cross (as it was destroyed at midnight rather than as scheduled), and so the Prime Minister orders his release to avoid a diplomatic incident.