Bond 25 script rewritten by committee, Baz says

“We can’t go yet, dear. I have to help out on the script rewrite.”

Bond 25’s script is being “endlessly” rewritten by a committee, the Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye wrote in a story published Thursday night.

The committee consists of “director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and 007 himself, Daniel Craig,” Bamigboye reported.

Bamigboye quoted a source he didn’t identify as saying Waller-Bridge is “writing a re-write of a re-write…‘They have an outline of plot, but dialogue is all last-minute. It’s not the way to make a movie.”

Efforts to devise a Bond 25 script began in 2017 when 007 film veterans Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were hired. For a time, the production shifted to screenwriter John Hodge when Danny Boyle was hired as director in 2018.

A few months later, Boyle exited and Hodge followed him out the door. Fukunaga, who often writes his own scripts, was hired to replace Boyle. Scott Z. Burns and Waller-Bridge subsequently were hired to work on the Bond 25 story.

Bamigboye has a record of coming up with 007 film scoops that were later proven correct. Among them was the fact that Purvis and Wade were brought back to begin Bond 25’s scripting.

A Bond 25 sequence was filmed in Norway in March. Principal photography began late last month.

Authorities arrest suspect in killing of Barry Crane

Barry Crane (1927-1985)

Federal and Los Angeles authorities have arrested a suspect in the 1985 murder of Barry Crane, a veteran TV director and producer, The Hollywood Reporter said.

An excerpt from the story:

Federal and local authorities on Thursday arrested a man they believe brutally killed TV producer Barry Crane back in 1985, Los Angeles police confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Edwin Hiatt, now 52, was taken into custody in North Carolina by the FBI Fugitive Task Force after detectives with LAPD said they identified him as Crane’s killer through DNA evidence.

Crane earned a reputation as Mission: Impossible’s “human computer,” capable of quickly breaking down complex scripts into filming schedules.

“To make it simple, he was a walking computer,” the late Stanley Kallis, one of M:I’s producers, told author Patrick J. White in 1991’s The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier. “He had perfect recall and could juggle in his mind eighty facts at any moment.”

Crane’s title on that series was associate producer. He also was associate producer on Mannix. Both series were overseen by executive producer Bruce Geller. Crane became producer for the final season of Mission: Impossible.

After M:I wrapped production, Crane worked primarily as a TV director. Throughout this period, Crane was a noted player of Bridge. Before his tenure on M:I and Mannix, Crane was a production manager at series such as Burke’s Law made at Four Star Productions.

UPDATE (May 10): The New York Times published a story with additional details. Among other things, “Mr. Hiatt’s DNA matched cigarette butts recovered from the ashtray of Mr. Crane’s stolen car,” The Times said, citing court documents.

Barry Crane title card for an episode of Mannix

Phoebe Waller-Bridge talks (briefly) to THR about Bond 25

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Actress-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge was interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter Podcast about her career. Toward the end of the interview she discussed Bond 25 a bit.

Waller-Bridge is among several scribes to have a go at Bond 25’s script.

“I think I’m still processing it,” she said during the May 8 podcast. “It’s really exciting.  The film they’ve got is such an exciting story.”

Host Scott Feinberg asked the scribe if her feminist humor will show up in the script.

“We’ll see, we’ll see what I can sneak in,” Waller-Bridge replied. “I was really just making them real people,” she said of the story’s female characters.

Waller-Bridge was recruited to the project by star Daniel Craig. She signed up after script doctor Scott Z. Burns spent four weeks doing his rewrites. The script originated with veteran 007 screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

The Bond 25 portion of the interview doesn’t start until more than 53 minutes in.

007 Magazine comes out with publications for 40th

007 Magazine logo

Graham Rye’s 007 Magazine marked its 40th anniversary this year. It’s coming out with multiple issues this year available for pre-order.

Among them:

–An issue shipping in May featuring ” promotional items and collectables marketing tie-ins for” Bond films in the U.K. and U.S.

–An issue shipping in June. It’s a re-issue from 1995 concerning GoldenEyeAn  and has “been re-mastered, re-typeset, and re-scanned from the original transparencies & photographs and digitally printed for the highest quality reproduction.”

–An issue shipping in June about 1989’s Licence to Kill, the second and final 007 film starring Timothy Dalton.

For more information about ordering these and other issues, CLICK HERE.