Gene Colan: The Bourne Precursor

Gene Colan self portrait, circa 1970

The big movie this weekend is Jason Bourne. Like previous entries in the film series, it features a “shaky cam” technique intended to make the audience feel as if it’s in the middle of the action.

However, some of that concept was pioneered by the work of comic book artist Gene Colan (1926-2011).

Colan worked for both Marvel and DC, including a six-year run (1966-1973) on Daredevil as well as brief runs on the title later in the 1970s as well as the 1990s.

In a documentary for the home video release of the 2003 Daredevil movie, Colan described his approach to the many action scenes he drew.

“If there was a fight scene, I would try to do it in such a way to confuse the reader,” Colan said. “Because in real life, very often you don’t see the details. You’d just see action.”

Colan said you would see “arms and legs and people sailing over tables. But you don’t see the details. And very often it’s done in a dark room where you can see even less. But it’s exciting. It’s more dramatic that way…I wanted the story to be mystifying and sinister.”

As a result, Colan-illustrated stories emphasize movement in their action sequences. Colan drawings simulate the blur of a punch or a kick or other mayhem.

With 2008’s Quantum of Solace, Eon Productions embraced the approach of the Bourne film series. Eon hired Dan Bradley as Quantum’s second unit director, where he’d be in charge of the movie’s action scenes. Bradley was a Bourne film veteran.

Here’s how Bradley described his approach, according to a 2008 post on the Commander Bond website:

“One of the things I really believe is that we shouldn’t try and make everything feel perfectly staged. I’m always saying to my crew, I want to feel like we were lucky to catch a glimpse of some crazy piece of action. I don’t want it to feel like a movie, where everything is perfectly presented to the audience.”

Of course, comics and film are different. Colan drew mostly 20-page stories where action scenes took up only part of the story. Jason Bourne employs “shaky cam” for much of its running time, even when actions scenes aren’t occurring.

Still, the notion of disorienting the audience remains a strong one, given the box office reception, so far, for Jason Bourne. It’s just worth remembering others, including Gene Colan, took a similar path before.

Colan, of course, drew more than just Daredevil. CLICK HERE and HERE and HERE to see his take on Dr. Strange, the mystic character created by Steve Ditko. The good doctor will be the subject of a Marvel Studios movie in November.

Jason Bourne shakes off critics on its opening weekend

Jason Bourne poster

UPDATE (July 31) — Jason Bourne is now projected for an opening weekend of $60 million in the U.S. and Canada, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER said.

ORIGINAL POST (July 30): Jason Bourne’s amnesia is extending to critical reviews as the year’s major spy movie appears on its way to being the No. 1 movie this weekend in the U.S. and Canada.

The movie, which reunited star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, is on a pace to generate more than $60 million in ticket sales in the region on its opening weekend, according to the Deadline: Hollywood entertainment news website. The film’s global opening weekend may exceed $100 million, Deadline reported.

That was despite a “fresh” rating of only 57 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Early in the week, the movie’s score was 68 percent. But more negative reviews came out as the week progressed, dragging down the film’s score ahead of its debut.

It appears that won’t matter, at least as far as box office is concerned. Jason Bourne was forecast to open at $60 million in the U.S. and Canada while studio Universal was being more conservative at $40 million-plus, according to a July 26 story at TheWrap entertainment news website.

SPECTRE, the most recent 007 film, had a U.S.-Canada opening weekend of $70.4 million in November 2015. The biggest Bond opening was 2012’s Skyfall at $88.4 million.

Jason Bourne was the fourth movie in the series starring Damon and the third helmed by Greengrass. Both have criticized 007 films, which rankles some Bond film fans. Jason Bourne was the first Bourne entry since 2007 for both Damon and Greengrass. The Bourne Legacy, released in 2012, featured Jeremy Renner as another agent.

The gritty style of the Bourne films — including more intense and violent action scenes — had an impact in the 2000s on the 007 series made by Eon Productions.

Bourne was a factor in recasting the Bond role with Daniel Craig, The New York Times reported in 2005. And 2008’s Quantum of Solace employed Dan Bradley as second unit director. Bradley had worked on the Bourne films in the same capacity.

 

Kingsman: Is the spy pendulum swinging back?

Kingsman: The Secret Service, the next film up in “The Year of the Spy,” makes its U.S. debut on Feb. 13. Its importance, though, may extend beyond its opening weekend.

The movie, directed by Matthew Vaughn, may be a sign whether the pendulum of spy movies is starting to swing back from the grim and gritty that has dominated the 21st century.

Vaughn and his collaborators certainly haven’t been shy about playing up that angle. The return of the “fun” spy movie was emphasized last July at the massive San Diego comic book convention.

Vaughn’s film is based on a comic book by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. At San Diego, Millar was quoted by the Screen Rant website as saying, “James Bond cries in the shower now in these movies but [Kingsman star Colin Firth] gets to do cool stuff – like firing these gadgets and all this stuff. I think he got the best gig in the end.”

Millar referred to a scene in Casino Royale, Eon Productions’ first entry in the “grim and gritty” genre, in which the 007 series started over. Bond (Daniel Craig) doesn’t actually cry in the shower. But he comforts a sobbing Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) who is overcome after watching Bond in action. Regardless, the scene was an example of how Casino Royale was from the preceding 20 007 films made by Eon.

Casino, in turn, had been influenced by 2002’s The Bourne Identity. That came out in June 2002, a few months before Die Another Day, the 40th anniversary Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan. A second Bourne film, The Bourne Supremacy came out in 2004 while Eon was agonizing what to do next.

Bourne’s style — including faster paced and grimmer action sequences — weighed on the minds of executives at Eon and Sony Pictures, which began distributing Bond movies with Casino. Here’s how The New York Times described it IN AN OCTOBER 2005 STORY about Craig’s casting. The passage refers to Barbara Broccoli, Eon’s co-boss and cites executives who weren’t identified.

For both Ms. Broccoli and Sony, executives said, the model was Jason Bourne, the character Matt Damon successfully incarnated in two gritty spy movies for Universal Pictures, “The Bourne Identity” and “The Bourne Supremacy.”

Casino turned out to be a big hit. For 2008’s Quantum of Solace, Eon doubled down on making its movies more Bourne like, including more rapid epiding and hiring Dan Bradley as second unit director. Bradley had worked on two Bourne films (The Bourne Supremacy and 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum).

Quantum roughly matched Casino’s box office. The next 007 entry, Skyfall, didn’t adhere so much to Bourne as it did to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, another dark series. Skyfall director Sam Mendes even acknowledged the influence.

No complaints at the box office. Skyfall reeled in $1.11 billion worldwide.

Still, trends don’t last forever. Even among fans, you’ll occasionally hear comments such as Skyfall “is like watching the same funeral over and over.”

So enter Kingsman. Its trailer openly mocks grim and gritty spy movies. Colin Firth at one point says current spy movies are too serious for his taste.

We’ll see how Kingsman performs with movie goers. It’s rated R — mostly because of its violence. That normally holds down ticket sales. Also, the comic book on which it’s based isn’t that well known among the general public.

Kingsman probably has more humor than The Man From U.N.C.L.E., although Henry Cavill, the star of that film, has said that movie also has a humorous element. U.N.C.L.E. won’t be out until mid-August.

As for SPECTRE, the Bond film currently in production, it’s hard to tell. Sam Mendes is back as director and he’s not exactly hailed as a master of humor.

On the other hand, if you read between the lines of a spoiler-laden DEC. 12 GAWKER STORY, the movie appears to be attempting to be more like a “classic” Bond film while retaining Daniel Craig seriousness. The Gawker story was based on a draft SPECTRE script that surfaced because of the hacking at Sony.

Meanwhile, it’s too early to write off grim and gritty. Matt Damon is planning to do a fourth Bourne film that is supposed to be released in 2016.

UPDATE (Feb. 11) — Kingsman is forecast to finish a distant second to Fifty Shades of Grey this weekend, according to DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD.

Damon back as Bourne: JB vs. JB

Matt Damon TOLD E! ONLINE that he’s returning to the role of Jason Bourne with Paul Greengrass again directing.

The movie would be made next year for a 2016 release, according to the E! Online interview. Does that mean we’ll once again get some James Bond “trash talk”?

Damon made three Bourne movies from 2002 to 2007: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The latter two were directed by Greengrass.

In the 2000s, Damon wasn’t shy about criticizing Bond. For example, there’s this 2009 quote from a Miami Herald interview via The Huffington Post.

Damon called Bond an “imperalist, misogynist who goes around swilling martinis and bedding women and killing people. He’s repulsive.” He made almost identical comments in 2007 (also using the “imperalist” and “misogynist” gibes), ACCORDING TO THE DAILY MAIL.

At one time, Bourne was very much on the minds of the makers of James Bond movies. THE NEW YORK TIMES in October 2005 quoted executives it didn’t identify that “the model” for recasting the 007 role with Daniel Craig was the Bourne films.

The resemblance between the Bourne movies and Bond came with Craig’s second 007 film, Quantum of Solace. The movie utilized the services of Dan Bradley as second unit director, the same job he held on the Bourne movies. It had a lot of rapid camera movement, particularly in the first 20 minutes, similar to the Bourne series.

Since then, with 2012’s Sam Mendes-directed Skyfall, the Bourne-isms faded. Greengrass interviewed Mendes about Skyfall in 2012.

Bond 24, again with Mendes at the helm, is scheduled for a fall 2015 release. So it will be out well before Damon’s next Bourne effort. Still, given that Damon is an outspoken actor, it’ll be interesting to see if we hear more from Damon on the JB vs. JB comparison.

Early handicapping of Skyfall’s U.S. box office prospects

007 will find those mirrors of limited use when dealing with the box office power of The Twilight Saga vampires

Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, is still in production but we decided to look ahead to the U.S. box office landscape the 007 movie will face in November.

Our early guess: No threats to the rear or at the front lines, but Skyfall will face tough competition a week after its Nov. 9, 2012 opening in the U.S.

We looked at THIS SCHEDULE on The Numbers Web site. On Nov. 2, the line-up looks like this:

November 2 Red Dawn Open Road
November 2 The Guilt Trip Paramount Pictures
November 2 Wreck-It Ralph Walt Disney Pictures
November 2 Seven Psychopaths (Limited) CBS Films

Red Dawn is a remake of a 1984 movie <a.directed by John Milius about teenagers in the U.S. heartland defending themselves again invading Soviet soldiers. The 2012 remake is directed by Dan Bradley, second-unit director on a couple of Jason Bourne movies and 2008’s Quantum of Solace. According to the IMDB.com entry, the villains in the remake are North Korean soldiers. The Guilt Trip stars Seth Rogan and Barbra Streisand. Wreck-It Falph, ,a>based on its IMDB.com entry doesn’t look like a huge box-office hit. Seven Psychopaths has a cast that includes two former 007 actors (Christopher Walken and Olga Kurylenko) but the fact it’s in limited release suggests it won’t be a ginormous hit at the box office.

On the weekend of Nov. 9? Besides Skyfall, there’s <a.Anna Karenina, a remake of a remake of a 1935 movie with Greta Garbo. And that’s it.

Ah, but the big challenge lies a week later, Nov. 16, with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II, the latest in the series of films about young vampires that’s been a huge hit in the U.S.

To summarize: It doesn’t appear there’s a huge hit immediately before Skyfall’s U.S. opening, and not much competition for the 007 film’s first weekend. That is, unless major studios change their schedules, Skyfall likely will be the No. 1 movie on opening weekend. At the same time, Skyfall will be “one and done” the following weekend as The Twilight Saga takes over. Anyway, we’ll see in five months.

2005: a new 007 is cast; past is prologue

Seems hard to believe but it has been more than five years since Daniel Craig was cast as James Bond. While researching something else, we came across how The New York Times reported the story. There were a few things that caught our eye.

First, there was a comment from producer Michael G. Wilson, yet another refrain by Wilson of something he has been saying since the 1990s:

“We are running out of energy, mental energy,” Mr. Wilson recalled saying. “We need to generate something new, for ourselves.”

Yes, Wilson could not let the announcement pass without complaining about how tired he was. We’ve written before about Wilson’s complaints about how exhausting it is to make James Bond movies, as close as a movie producer can be to having a guaranteed sale. So add this to the list.

Next, then-NYT reporter Sharon Waxman (now editor-in-chief of The Wrap, an entertainment-news Web site) quoted studio executives she didn’t identify concerning the new direction the 007 film series would take now that it had a new leading man:

For both Ms. (Barbara) Broccoli and Sony, executives said, the model was Jason Bourne, the character Matt Damon successfully incarnated in two gritty spy movies for Universal Pictures, “The Bourne Identity” and “The Bourne Supremacy.”

Note, this was published in Ocotober of 2005, months before cameras would start rolling on Casino Royale. There wasn’t a public hint that Eon Productions was even thinking about emulating the Bourne films, something that reached its peak in the first 20 minutes or so of 2008’s Quantum of Solace. In that film, the Eon team even hired Dan Bradley, second unit director of the Bourne movies. After Casino Royale, producer Broccoli said Bourne was never a consideration in interviews SUCH AS THIS ONE WITH UGO.COM and that Casino was inspired by From Russia With Love, not Jason Bourne.

Finally, there was this passage in the NYT story, citing Amy Pascal, chairman of Sony’s Columbia Pictures:

Ms. Pascal said fans would have to wait to see the movie before judging Mr. Craig. As for the online criticism, she observed: “Well, he is tall. He’s the same size as Sean Connery.”

Now, for the record, HMSS gave both Daniel Craig and Casino Royale a number of favorable reviews. So what we’re about to say isn’t a jab at Craig. It should be noted what Pascal said is demonstrably incorrect.

Connery, depending on your source, is generally listed at 6-foot-2 or so. Daniel Craig, again depending on the source, at around 5-foot-10. Now 5-foot-10 isn’t a midget by any means. But it’s a good four inches shorter than 6-foot-2. If Pascal wanted to brush off criticism of the choice, there were all sorts of other things to say. Don’t say something that doesn’t stand up to the tiniest bit of scrutiny.

A Bourne movie without Bourne? Here’s hoping Eon doesn’t copy that idea

Eon Productions has been “inspired” by the Jason Bourne franchise in its last two James Bond films starring Daniel Craig. 007 has been grim, not showing much in the way of humor and, with Quantum of Solace, there were lots of shaky camera shots and it even had Bourne’s second-unit director Dan Bradley.

The Bourne franchise is about to make its boldest move yet, as EXPLAINED IN THIS YAHOO MOVIES STORY:

The next film will be called “The Bourne Legacy,” but even though the name’s in the title, the film will have no Jason Bourne. Thus, no Matt Damon. Interestingly enough, the book “The Bourne Legacy” does have Jason Bourne (though it wasn’t actually written by Robert Ludlum, the creator of the book series).

On the Hollywood Elsewhere Web site, new director Tony Gilroy describes it like this:

“The easiest way to think of it is an expansion or a reveal,” Gilroy says. “Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he’s very much alive. What happened in the first three films is the trigger for what happens. I’m building a legend and an environment and a wider conspiracy…the world we’re making enhances and advances and invites Jason Bourne’s return [down the road].

OK. Grim avenger Bond? That’s one way to play the part. Shaky camera? It’s kind of an in-thing among filmmakers these days. But we would not be interested in a James Bond movie without James Bond just to explain what the criminal organization Quantum is all about. (And yes, we can already hear a joke one of our 007 friends would tell based on this posting.)