Broccoli & Wilson considered ‘shutting down’ B25: EW

Daniel Craig/James Bond character poster

Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson “considered shutting down” No Time to Die “entirely” after the film’s first director, Danny Boyle departed, Entertainment Weekly said, citing comments from Broccoli during an interview for a new EW story.

The entertainment publication didn’t provide additional details. It merely says the production continued after the producers met Cary Fukunaga, who got hired as the new director.

Eon Productions makes the Bond films and controls the franchise along with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. No Time to Die is being released by United Artists Releasing, a joint venture between MGM and Annapurna Pictures, in the U.S. with Universal internationally. Presumably those parties would have had to be consulted had a shutdown been ordered.

The movie originally had a fall 2019 release date. With Boyle’s departure because of “creative differences,” it was pushed back, first to February 2020 and finally to its current April 2020 release.

Some other details in the EW story:

–David Dencik plays a kidnapped scientist referenced in previously released plot summaries.

–Broccoli appears to deny that Lashana Lynch’s Nomi character received the 007 designation after Bond left MI6. “People write these theories without knowing,” Broccoli told EW. The Mail on Sunday reported in July 2019 that Nomi had been assigned the 007 code number in the film

UPDATE (4:55 p.m. New York time): Reader Jeffrey Westhoff notes that Brie Larson, star of Captain Marvel (where Lashana Lynch was a co-star) wrote a tweet in December where she believed Lynch’s character had the 007 code number.

RUNNING AROUND MY HOUSE SCREAMING “MY SISTER IS 007!!!!” SO PROUD SO IN LOVE WITH @LashanaLynch IM BALD YALL TODAY IS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY https://t.co/PyI9ynOUWB

— Brie Larson (@brielarson) December 4, 2019

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Some questions about Daniel Craig’s SPECTRE interview

SPECTRE promotional art

SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond film, has its premiere later this month. So it’s time to explore new questions about the 007 movie.

Was Time Out London’s interview with Daniel Craig good P.R. or bad P.R.? 

That depends on your public relations philosophy.

Come again?

The classic public relations philosophy stems from a George M. Cohan quote: “I don’t care what you say about me as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right.”

By that standard, Craig’s interview with Tine Out London was a spectacular success.

How so?

The 007 actor’s quotes to Time Out (“I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists” than make another Bond movie, and “If I did another Bond movie, it would only be for the money,” among others) were summarized widely.

Among other outlets, VARIETY, ITV,  NBC NEWS,  THE TELEGRAPH, THE DAILY BEAST, THE INDEPENDENT, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and many, many others had stories based on the quotes from Time Out London.

If George M. Cohan were still alive (he died in 1942), he would marvel at how right he was.

Are you saying this was really planned?

Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. Nevertheless, the Time Out London interview was done a few days after SPECTRE wrapped principal photography.

Often these types of interviews are done under embargo. That is, the interviews occur with the understanding the resulting stories won’t be released until shortly before a movie is released — often with a specific date and time for release.

Put another way, the major parties responsible for SPECTRE — Eon Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony Pictures — shouldn’t be surprised these quotes were coming. Interviews with stars for major movies, generally speaking, are done under very controlled circumstances.

Often such interviews are done with a public relations person sitting in on it. Even if it didn’t happen in this case, Eon, MGM and Sony know the star, know what he often says in interviews. If they weren’t prepared, well, they probably should have been.

Caveat Emptor Part III: More Daniel Craig comments

SPECTRE teaser poster

Daniel Craig has commented to Esquire and the Daily Mail about his 007 future. Now, it’s Entertainment Weekly’s turn to quote the 007 star.

The entertainment publication has POSTED THIS STORY where the actor comments about his future in the role as Ian Flmeing’s secret agent.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I can’t give you an honest answer at this point,” Craig said, reaching for a double espresso in an opulent London hotel suite. “It’s not that I’m trying to play hard to get. I’ve just given it no thought whatsoever.”

“This movie has taken up two years of my life. And I just need a break,” Craig continued. “I need to get back to normal life. I need to reintroduce myself to my family who are not best pleased with me. The idea of planning ahead — I’m not trying to be coy. People want an answer and I don’t have one.”

Meanwhile, Barbara Broccoli, the co-boss of Eon Productions, once again praised the actor, as she has many times since he was cast as Bond in 2005.

“Daniel has reinvigorated this character,” Broccoli told EW on the set of Spectre at London’s Pinewood Studios in May. “He’s made it contemporary, given it depth and resonance and humanity. The part is his. He’s so great and attracts so many people who want to work with him like Christoph and Lea, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw.”

And the world goes round and round.

When the Esquire interview came out, some fans reading the tea leaves figured Craig was done. When Craig commented to the Daily Mail, some fans figured Craig was a lock to play Bond for years to come.

Again, caveat emptor — let the buyer aware. Meanwhile, audiences in the U.K. and Ireland will see Craig’s fourth performance as Bond later this month. U.S. fans will have to wait a little more than a month from now.

Here we go again: SPECTRE an origin story, Mendes says

SPECTRE teaser poster

It’s deja vu all over again.

Sam Mendes, the director of SPECTRE, is quoted in an ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY STORY as saying the 24th James Bond film is an origin story.

Here’s an excerpt:

“The Bond creation myth never happened,” Mendes says. “I felt there was an opportunity there: What made him? And who were the people who affected him along the way? You’re sort of telling the story backwards of how Bond became Bond.”

Nine years ago, Casino Royale, the 21st 007 film and the first to star Daniel Craig, was marketed as an origin story for Bond.

This continued well after its theatrical release. In the United States, the USA cable channel showed the film. USA’s promos had the tagline, “How James became Bond!”

In the Casino Royale novel, author Ian Fleming’s first, Bond already was a veteran agent. The story took place in 1951 (or so we’re told in Fleming’s Goldfinger novel) and Bond had been active as an operative since World War II.

That was then, this is now. “Spectre provides a kind of culmination to the three previous films while developing a backstory that’s been largely unexplored until now,” according to the Entertainment Weekly story.

The main thing that’s changed since Casino Royale is that Danjaq LLC/Eon Productions (the Broccoli-Wilson family entities that control the Bond film rights and produce the films) reached a settlement with the estate of Kevin McClory.

That settlement, reached in 2013, gives Danjaq/Eon (and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, their partner) control of SPECTRE and the character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

A weird week (at least on the Internet) for SPECTRE

This was an unusual week for SPECTRE. The marketing effort for the 24th James Bond film zigged one way but the Internet zagged in an entirely different direction.

The week began with a video blog showing behind-the-scenes footage during SPECTRE’s shoot in Mexico City back in March.

That’s understandable. The Mexico City sequence opens the film (the filmmakers have disclosed this, so it’s not a spoiler). It’s going to be expansive, so the short video sought to give the viewer an idea of that without giving any plot details away.

The Internet, however, refused to be gently guided in that direction. Bookmaker William Hill in the U.K. decided to alter its odds for the actor succeeds Daniel Craig as Bond. Craig said back in 2012 he was contracted for two films. That would mean he’s on board through Bond 25. That would indicate, there won’t be an actual vacancy until 2018 or so.

Nevertheless, the bookmaker moved actor Damian Lewis to 3-1, generating stories in familiar trade publications such as THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and VARIETY as well as outlets such as THE TELEGRAPH and ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. Even The Atlantic, which normally analyzes weighty and serious matters, DID A STORY that used the William Hill news as a news peg to also examine whether the next 007 should be black.

Referring to SPECTRE star Daniel Craig and his blonde hair and Lewis and his red hair, The Atlantic story concluded, “Ten years removed from his casting, the fuss about Craig seems ridiculous, and it’s hard to imagine a public outcry if Lewis really did sign on to the franchise. “But the same can’t be said for what could happen if the producers defied change-averse Brits to make a truly bold casting decision.”

In any case, Indiewire took the whole thing a step further. It asked readers to PARTICIPATE IN A SURVEY about who should be Craig’s successor. (Indiewire calls it a poll, but it’s not. An actual poll employs statistical methods in selecting its sample of respondents. This is just click on whoever you want to be 007.) Anyway, there were turn out the vote efforts by fans of potential future Bonds.

It’s probably safe to assume the folks at Eon Productions and their studio partners at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony Pictures are not real happy about this turn of events.

MGM and Sony are ponying up $300 million or more and, no doubt, would rather have the public concentrate on the upcoming SPECTRE due out in November than the next re-casting of Bond, whenever that occurs. In the 21st Century, the Internet sometimes has a way of not cooperating with movie marketing.

Mission: Impossible 5 resumes production

Tom Cruise

Mission: Impossible 5 is back in production after a short break to revamp its ending, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY SAID ON ITS WEBSITE.

An excerpt:

EW has confirmed that production on Mission: Impossible 5 halted for one week so that the ending to the film could be reworked. The production, which is shooting in London, has now resumed and is currently in the process of filming the revised ending.

The delay to change the ending was reported earlier by THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Director Christopher McQuarrie earlier in the week has said via Twitter the movie hadn’t completed production yet.

None of this would have been a big deal except Paramount moved M:I 5’s release date up to July 31 from Dec. 25. This occurred more or less at the same time the production team concluded the ending needed to be changed.

The M:I movie franchise, featuring star-producer Tom Cruise, has been a financial success for Paramount. The studio has some experience with high wire acts, such as World War Z, directed by Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster, which had a totally changed ending.

People, Entertainment Weekly have U.N.C.L.E. peek

Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer
(Art by Paul Baack)

Both People magazine and Entertainment Weekly, both part of Time Inc., have put out sneak peeks of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie hours ahead of the release of the film’s teaser trailer.

THE STORY ON PEOPLE’S WEBSITE centers on Henry Cavill, who plays Napoleon Solo, the role created by Robert Vaughn in the 1964-68 series. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Henry Cavill ditches his Superman suit for a sleek tux in this summer’s silver-screen adaptation of the 1960s TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Man of Steel actor calls the film, which is directed by Guy Ritchie, “a cool, sexy and especially not heavy Cold War spy thriller.”

The story is pretty short but has new images from the movie, which had principal photography in September-December 2013.

The ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY STORY is a little bit broader (and contains additional images). It includes this quote from co-writer Lionel Wigram about how the movie came to be an origin story.

“The series hadn’t really done the origin story—U.N.C.L.E. already existed,” says producer Lionel Wigram, who also co-wrote the screenplay. “At the height of the Cold War you’ve got a Russian and an American working together. How did that come about?”

The Russian is Illya Kuryakin, played in the film by Armie Hammer and a role originated by David McCallum. The trailer is scheduled to go online at 8 p.m. today, New York time.

UPDATE: This image of a poster has shown up on Twitter. Also the movie now has A TWITTER FEED. According to one of the images on the Twitter page, the movie will be available in Imax. (Also, there is now a FACEBOOK PAGE for the movie.)

New poster for Guy Ritchie's #ManFromUNCLE. Check out the trailer on @PeopleMag and @EW at 5pm PT. pic.twitter.com/AFIww0Jf2g

— Man From UNCLE (@manfromuncle) February 11, 2015

Entertainment Weekly describes an U.N.C.L.E. scene

Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo photo that appeared on the HenryCavillfan.org site

For those who don’t want to know anything about the movie, leave now. A mild, vague spoiler awaits.

Entertainment Weekly, in its Nov. 29 issue, describes a scene from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie. It’s part of a broader story about the crowded U.K. filming scene, where tax breaks have fueled a boom in productions by U.S.-headquartered studios.

The story isn’t online at the publication’s website. However, the Henry Cavill News fan site HAS A POST with images of the article by writer Clark Hollis called The Joy of Sets.

In one passage, Hollis describes watching an U.N.C.L.E. movie scene being filmed. Referring to Guy Ritchie, Hollis writes:

The director decided to double down on the damp, ordering up a rain machine and having (Luca) Calvani’s character savagely attack (Henry) Cavill’s hero in the midst of what will look to audiences like a sudden Italian summer downpour. And I do mean savagely. You know you’re on a Guy Ritchie set when you hear the directorial instruction. “Let’s have him kick him in the bollocks!”

The article also has a drawing recreating the scene described, involving Cavill’s Napoleon Solo and Calvani’s Alexander. There are also comments about why the U.K. is a nice place to make a movie from Armie Hammer, who plays Illya Kuryakin. Entertainment Weekly lists movies currently in production in the U.K. It doesn’t provide a release date for the U.N.C.L.E. film.

To view the Henry Cavill News post, CLICK HERE. Entertainment Weekly’s Facebook page has A PHOTO of the Nov. 29 cover (the U.K. movie story is not the cover story).

Our Bond 23 accuracy checklist

Over this year, James Bond fans have debated the accuracy of reports about Bond 23, which is gearing up production. Here’s a checklist of stories of the major disclosures to make it easier to determine who was right or not with the Bond 23 news conference scheduled for Nov. 3.

We’ve tried to track these down to the first media outlet to report, but if sharp-eyed readers can find earlier examples, let us know. (Also here’s a tip of the cap to the MI6 James Bond fan Web site. Its archive helped us track down some of the links.

Skyfall is the title: First reported by the Fusible Web site.

Ralph Fiennes is in the cast: reported in Variety on March 25, though that was a passing reference. This is almost virtually accepted by fans as fact, but still not officially confirmed. 007 actor Daniel Craig told MTV in September that he “hoped” Fiennes would be in the cast.

UPDATE: Actually credit would appear to go to the Daily Mail for Fiennes in a story published on Feb. 4. (Thanks to “Shrublands” on the Commander Bond message board.)

Albert Finney is in the cast: reported in the Daily Mail on Oct. 28.

Naomie Harris is in the cast: This has been around so long, it’s also accepted as virtual fact. It was first reported in June by the now-defunct News of the World (closed by parent company News Corp. because of the now-infamous hacking scandal). You can CLICK HERE to see a timeline. Eon confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Harris was under consideration. But it has never been officially confirmed she’s in the movie. The Daily Mail upped the ante in July, reporting that Harris was negotiating to be the new Miss Moneypenny.

Berenice Marlohe is the cast: first reported by a Web site called Twitch.

Bond will have a beard during at least part of Bond 23: reported by the Sun newspaper in the U.K. on Oct. 21.

Meanwhile, here’s a list of previous media reports that have been confirmed:

Bond 23 will have November 2012 release date: Reported by Nikke Finke’s Deadline entertainment news Web site in late 2010. Confirmed in news release from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Eon Productions in early 2011. Later release dated tweaked so that U.K. release will be in October 2012, while the November 2012 date still applies to the U.S.

Javier Bardem offered a role in Bond 23: First reported by by the Deadline Web site. Bardem later told ABC that he accepted the role.

Sam Mendes being considered to direct Bond 23: First reported (and this is sounding like a broken record) by the Deadline Web site in Janurary 2010. Mendes responds by claiming to the Wall Street Journal in mid-January 2010 that it was merely “speculation” he might direct Bond 23. He tells this tall tale DAYS after his publicist confirmed talks were underway. Oops. Ex-wife Kate Winslet said in a Dec. 3, 2010 Daily Mail interview that Mendes was directing Bond 23 and she was moving to London so the kids could have time with dad. MGM and Eon finally come clean in an early 2011 news release.

Daniel Craig briefly talks about Bond 23 to IGN

Daniel Craig, while promoting the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens movies, did a little ducking and weaving when asked by IGN about Bond 23.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Craig told IGN. Director Sam Mendes “is so on top of this, it’s great.”

The interviewer asks if traditional elements will be back while having a darker take. We suspect you shouldn’t read too much into Craig’s comments but see for yourself. The exchange about Bond 23 is not long and was at the end of the interview:

UPDATE: EW.com, Entertainment Weekly’s Web site, hypes its interview with Craig and Harrison Ford. Craig is quoted as saying he didn’t like either Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan much as 007. You can CLICK HERE to see the item.