Phoebe Waller-Bridge talks to BBC about No Time to Die

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Phoebe Waller-Bridge downplayed the extent of her script work for No Time to Die in an interview with the BBC.

“They were just looking for tweaks across a few of the characters and a few of the storylines,” Waller-Bridge told the BBC.

The writer-actress said her hiring by itself didn’t represent a big change in the way women are depicted in the Bond film series.

“They were already doing that themselves,” the BBC quoted her as saying.

“They’re having that conversation with themselves the whole time. It (her involvement) was much more practical. Just, ‘You’re a writer, we need some help with these scenes. And you come up with some dialogue for these characters’.”

Waller-Bridge was one of a number of writers who worked on the 25th James Bond film. Others include series veterans Neal Purvis and Robert Wade as well as “script doctor” Scott Z. Burns.

However, Waller-Bridge has a higher profile because she starred in Fleabag, a streaming series she created. She recently walked off with three Fleabag-related Emmy awards.

What’s more, some outlets have played up her contributions as critical. The Daily Mail, in a September story, quoted an executive it didn’t identify as saying she was “the savior of Bond, really.”

In the BBC interview, Waller-Bridge said she was first approached by Bond producer Barbara Broccoli.

“We met for coffee and then a few months later we met again,” Waller-Bridge told the BBC. “And then I met the director Cary Joji Fukunaga and then I met Daniel (Craig) after that. But I know Daniel and Barbara had been talking about it for while.”

Bollinger marks 40th anniversary with Bond films

Eon’s Michael G. Wilson (right) at party celebrating Bollinger’s 40th anniversary with the Bond franchise.

Champagne Bollinger held an event in Paris today to mark the 40th anniversary of its association with the James Bond film franchise.

Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions, maker of the Bond films, was guest of honor at the event.

Bollinger began its association with Bond with 1979’s Moonraker.

“One of the great partnerships in cinema – 40 years and counting,” Wilson and his half-sister Barbara Broccoli said in a statement.

At the event, Bollinger launched its Moonraker Luxury Limited Edition. Naturally, it’s a 2007 vintage. Here’s a description of the package from the statement: “Crafted from pewter and wood veneer, encasing a Saint Louis crystal ice bucket” and a magnum of the champagne.

It’s limited to 407 units. Price: 4,500 British pounds ($5,760) each.