Eight days (and COUNTing) of weird 007 omens

“Eight days and COUNTing…”

For James Bond fans, it’s been a really weird eight days (“…and COUNTing like that guy in Diamonds Are Forever might say) since the abrupt announcement that Danny Boyle was no longer directing Bond 25.

— Multiple British tabloid stories purporting to explain what happened. (You can see summaries and links at the Bond 25 timeline, a sister website to this blog.) The problem is they’re tabloids. Their accuracy reputation is dodgy. Even if they are right, that gives Bond fans an easy out to dismiss the stories.

–The expected counter-attacks from Bond-friendly websites. Example: The James Bond International Fan Club weighed in with an Aug. 28 post with the headline, “Bond 25 still on track.”

The problem? The first paragraph of the JBIFC post undercut the headline.

Despite the doom and gloom that has been around in the media about Bond 25 since it was announced that Danny Boyle had stepped aside from the director’s chair, as far as the JBIFC understands it EON hopes to be able to make an announcement about a replacement director very soon. Moreover, according to a number of sources, the film-makers are determined to keep production on the movie on schedule for a planned 2019 release, once a new director is in place. (emphasis added)

There’s a significant difference between “hopes” and “determined” and actually being on track when you don’t have a new director in place. A more accurate headline might have been, “Bond 25 aims to stay on track” or “Bond 25 intends to stay on track.” The story under-delivered what the headline would lead you to believe.  Then again, this is from a fan club. Its allegiance is specified in its name.

— For the better part of 24 hours, the official Eon James Bond website instead referred to users to a 20th Century Fox movie site from the evening of Aug. 28 to the around midday Aug. 29. A reader, @corneelVF on Twitter posted an explanation. It included screen shots about how 007.com was tied to Fox. Regardless, some fans expressed their concern.

The period when 007.com went offline was almost an omen about how odd things have lately. What it that significant? Probably not. But it hardly assured 007 fans.

Needless to say, there’s a lot more that we don’t know. But it’s also fair to say we don’t know if Bond 25 really is on track for its announced fall 2019 release date. People who aren’t at the table where all this is getting hashed out probably don’t know themselves.