NTTD’s writing credit: Scott Z. Burns may be odd man out

Survivors: Robert Wade, left, and Neal Purvis. (Paul Baack illustration)

Sorry, Scott Z. Burns. You may have gone from saving No Time to Die’s script to being the odd man out.

The Writer’s Guild of America East database has a listing for the writing credit for the 25th James Bond film:

Screenplay by: Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Story by: Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga

The Writers Guild database listing the credit is dated Jan. 21, 2020.

The film’s script went through a series of revisions. In February 2019, The Playlist reported that Burns had been enlisted to rewrite the movie.

“It’s an overhaul and I won’t be surprised if Burns is ultimately given first screenplay credit,” wrote Rodrigo Perez of The Playlist.

What The Playlist didn’t know was that Phoebe Waller-Bridge, an actress and writer, had also been employed for script duty on No Time to Die. Also, director Cary Fukunaga also does writing on his projects.

Still, an April press release from Eon Productions listed Burns among the screenwriters.

Meanwhile, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade had been the first writers hired, joining the project in 2017. They were bumped in 2018 when Danny Boyle was hired to direct, bringing scribe John Hodge with him.

Boyle then departed over “creative differences” and Hodge also exited. In came Fukunaga as the new director. Back came the Purvis and Wade team. The writers now have their 007th Bond screenwriting credit.

Secrets of the Aston Martin DB5 replicas revealed

A replica Aston Martin DB5 rolls off the truck in preparation for Bond 25 filming

Earlier this month, Aston Martin invited writers to have a look at its No Time to Die fleet, including information about the DB5 replicas featured in No Time to Die.

Both Esquire and the PistonHeads website did writeups. Previously, the blog has taken shots from some readers for referring to the DB5s in the movie as replicas. But the articles make clear there are key differences between the replicas Aston Martin made for the film and the original DB5s made in the 1960s.

Why replicas were needed: Bond’s DB5 was going to be involved in a lot of stunt driving. Having actual DB5s, more than a half-century old, perform the task was too risky.

Esquire: “(T)he biggest challenge of all for Aston Martin came when Eon requested no less than 8 dynamic original DB5s capable of extreme stunts, including the Matera chase seen in the trailer, plus another unrevealed sequence… it soon became clear to the Aston team that the original DB5 simply couldn’t handle the demands of such a shoot, when cars need to deliver on cue, again and again. Any mechanical issue would hold up production and given the intensity of the driving, it was far too risky.”

How the replicas vary from the original: They may be hard to spot at a distance, but there are differences.

PistonHeads: The replicas included “roll cages, hydraulic handbrakes and fire extinguishers.”

But that’s not all. Again from PistonHeads: “The radiator grille of the replica comes fractionally further forwards, the bezels around its headlights are different, the silver strips down the front wing vents are fractionally longer and it also has guttering, something the original car is missing. You’ll also notice the windscreen doesn’t quite fit at the edges. From the outside and ten feet away, though, the only obvious difference – visible only from some angles – is the presence of a hefty roll cage in the stunt car.”

Esquire also provided this detail of the manufacturing process of the replica cars. “They (the Aston team) began by laser-scanning an original DB5 which the design team then smoothed off to make it symmetrical (because a 60 year-old hand made car simply isn’t).”

No time to lie: PistonHeads, referring to the DB5 replica, said an Aston representative refused “to say where the powertrain has been donated from.”

Aston Martin might want to consult with star Daniel Craig. (You know, the Daniel Craig who supposedly designed one of your cars.) In June 2019, Craig told Prince Charles the replica has a BMW engine. It begins around the 1:50 mark of this video. He also told the prince how the replica cars have carbon fiber bodies and new suspension components.