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Wolfgang Thurauf, a prominent German fan of James Bond, has died.
Thurauf’s passing was reported on social media on Tuesday. His many friends posted about his passing.
I had exchanges with Wolfgang. I asked — pleaded, even — for more details from his friends. Age? Bond affiliation? Nothing was forthcoming. Over the years, I had seen photos of him at different Bond movie premieres.
Based on the social media announcements, Wolfgang had a huge impact on other Bond fans.
As the 007 film franchise advances, the likes of fans such as Wolfgang are passing from the scene. Such fans are no longer around.
UPDATE: I’m told Wolfgang was 62 and was the vice president of the German James bond Fan Club.
UPDATE II: Wolfgang’s DOB was April 29, 1962, meaning he was 61, 11 months, when he died.
Who knows what Bond 26 has in store. This week, a British tabloid got a lot of publicity for saying a certain actor has the inside track for the role.
Here’s a wish for Bond 26: After more than a decade of deconstructing James Bond during the Daniel Craig era, can we start building him back up?
Throughout Craig’s tenure, we’d hear how everything is all set for Bond to be Bond again. We can now have Bond do anything! Yet, with every Craig movie, the deconstruction continued.
Finally, with No Time to Die, Bond had a wife, a kid, and got killed at the end. That’s the ultimate deconstruction.
Barbara Broccoli, the boss of Eon Productions, has said repeatedly that Bond needs a new direction. We can’t rush things, etc.
Hot take: It doesn’t really matter who gets cast as Bond in future films (assuming they get made). The question is what do you do with Bond?
In the real world, movie audiences haven’t warmed to sequels of late. Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, released in 2023, did OK at the box office but wasn’t a runaway hit. Some sequels such as The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny only did so-so.
The Bond franchise has done sequels for more than 60 years since the release of Dr. No (1962).
The last actual Ian Fleming novel adaptation was Casino Royale (2006). That was 18 years ago. There are slivers of Fleming’s stories that haven’t been adapted into movies (such as a brainwashed Bond trying to kill M in the 1965 novel The Man With the Golden Gun).
For now, tabloid articles and speculation by fans only go so far. The movie business is in a mess. We’ll see how that goes. But it would be nice if poor James got built back up.
Zack Snyder’s Superman (Henry Cavill) in a filthy costume
Director Zack Snyder, after ruining the likes of Superman, Batman, and the Justice League of America, in a recent interview with The Atlantic, floated ideas he’d like to try with the cinema James Bond.
“It’d be cool to see, like, 20-year-old James Bond,” Snyder said. “The humble roots that he comes from. Whatever trauma of youth that makes you be able to be James Bond. There has to be something there.”
Earth to Zack: The entire Daniel Craig era (2006-2021) was all about exploring Bond’s roots.
Casino Royale? While Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel wasn’t a true origin story, Eon Productions (influenced by Batman Begins) filmed it that way. Eon opted to start the film series all over again. Goodbye, first 20 films of the series.
Skyfall? The 50th anniversary Bond film took its name from Stately Bond Manor, i.e. what was supposed to be Bond’s ancestral home.
SPECTRE? Eon, having gotten the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE, came up with a ridiculous storyline where Blofeld was Bond’s foster brother.
No Time to Die? Daniel Craig’s Bond finale wallowed in the events of the Craig era.
Other than Quantum of Solace, the Craig films looked backward, rather than forward. You could make the case that Quantum also looked backward, except for just one movie (Casino).
So after all that, Zack Snyder says the film series should look backward? Again?
Snyder’s track record with Man of Steel (with Henry Cavill as Superman in a dirty costume), Batman v. Superman, and Justice League doesn’t give one a lot of confidence in his judgment.
Batman v. Superman saw Batman (Ben Affleck) go off his rocker trying to kill Superman until he realizes Clark Kent’s mother is named Martha, the same name his mother had. Martha?!
Justice League saw Snyder relieved from directing (though he kept the credit) after Warner Bros. ordered the film pared way back to about a two-hour running time. The revamped Justice League also had bad reviews. But at least Cavill had a clean costume.
Christopher Nolan, who produced the Snyder-directed Man of Steel, defended Snyder in The Atlantic story. “There’s no superhero science-fiction film coming out these days where I don’t see some influence of Zack,” he said.
Many Bond fans would love Nolan to direct a 007 film. Nolan said in November that’s not happening.
Whatever. Neither Snyder nor Nolan seem to be reading the room. Bond isn’t a “superhero science-fiction film.”
Yes, Bond movies, as far back as Dr. No, have had science fiction elements. Snyder may be the last person Bond fans want touching the franchise — assuming there is a Bond 26.
“Good to see you again, Mr. Bond.” (Graphic by the late Paul Baack.)
Ten years ago, it was announced that Danjaq/Eon had gotten the rights back to Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE.
Danaq/Eon along with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer said they had reached a deal with the estate of Kevin McClory to acquire “all of the estate’s and family’s rights and interests relating to James Bond, thus bringing to an amicable conclusion the legal and business disputes that have arisen periodically for over 50 years.”
In the 1960s, Kevin McClory had a legal fight with Ian Fleming. Eventually, the result was Fleming could continue to publish his Thunderball novel, while McClory would have the film rights to the Thunderball book and the screenplays it was based on. Eon reached a deal with McClory so Thunderball would be part of the Eon film series.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, McClory began trying to develop a movie based on his Thunderball rights. After legal fights with Eon, a Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again, came out in 1983, the same year as Eon’s Octopussy. McClory persisted for years trying to make other films.
McClory died in 2006. But the McClory rights issue still cast a shadow over Eon.
Eon rebooted the series starting with 2006’s Casino Royale. With 2008’s Quantum of Solace, a new villainous organized was introduced called Quantum. In the buildup to that film, Eon’s leadership, in effect, said SPECTRE was passe and that Quantum was *something new*.
Until, of course, Nov. 15, 2013. Blofeld and SPECTRE would get shoehorned into 2015’s SPECTRE. So much for the Quantum is the new and exciting villainous group talking point.
In 2014, Sony Pictures (which released four Bond movies) was hacked. Various emails and other correspondence became public. During the development of SPECTRE, it turned out, Eon considered an African warlord version of Blofeld and a woman version of Blofeld.
The production eventually went with a (somewhat) updated version of the 1967 Donald Pleasance Blofeld played by Christoph Waltz. Also, the Waltz Blofeld was revealed to be Bond’s foster brother. Many long-time Bond fans groaned. In addition, 2012’s Skyfall was retconned so that movie’s villain, Silva, was working for SPECTRE all along.
The results were mixed. Waltz’s Blofeld was brought back for 2021’s No Time to Die only to be killed by events manipulated by that movie’s villain, Safin. The Waltz version of SPECTRE also got wiped out pretty quickly.
In the end? The news of a decade ago brought about a mixed result.
It has been four years since that last James Bond film wrapped filming. It has been two years since the last 007 movie, No Time to Die, came out.
Based on the comments from key Eon Productions principals (Eon Boss Barbara Broccoli and Gregg Wilson), nothing is happening concerning the next Bond film adventure.
Naturally, the blog has questions.
Eon says it needs to reinvent James Bond. Why?
The most recent Bond actor, Daniel Craig, was cast in October 2005. His tenure lasted through 2019 (when Craig filmed his final scenes for No Time to Die.)
Eon has said Bond needs to be reinvented since Craig was first cast. Did Eon not make *any adjustments* during the Craig era? Really, seriously?
Eon says it has reinvented Bond before. But does that idea hold up?
From 1985 (Roger Moore’s final 007 film) through 1987 (recasting Bond with Pierce Brosnan and then recasting again with Timothy Dalton), the Bond series had a major change of direction with a more serious take. But that didn’t take years and years as Eon would have you believe now.
What do you mean?
The Bond film franchise was on hiatus from 1989-1995. But that had nothing to do with creative choices. Rather, it had to do with legal fights between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Bond’s home studio) and Eon Productions.
What’s more, there was a Bond hiatus from 2008-2012. But that had nothing to do with a Bond creative choice. That was because MGM went into bankruptcy.
What are you suggesting?
When Ian Fleming created James Bond, the character was a “blunt instrument” who acted on behalf of the U.K. government. In the 21st century, audiences are more suspicious about the interests of the U.K. and U.S. governments.
Over the last 20 years, Bond has gone rogue repeatedly. Should Bond go even more rogue in the future? Should Bond go totally independent and not be tied to any one government? Now THAT would be reinventing Bond.
Who knows about all this? At this point, Bond’s copyright holders say they’re not doing anything.
What happens next?
We have one season of a Bond-themed reality show in the can with another season coming up. That’s all we know at this point.
Barbara Broccoli, the boss of Eon Productions, said in an interview with The Guardian that work on Bond 26 is not yet underway.
Here’s the key excerpt:
Producer Barbara Broccoli said there is “a big road ahead” before the character is “reinvented for the next chapter”, and that executives “haven’t even begun” the process of modernising the franchise.
She added that the next film will have to reflect the way the world has changed in the two decades since (Daniel) Craig was confirmed as the sixth 007 and pointed out that Bond has often been reinvented.
Some observations:
–Broccoli’s comments are little changed from the past
In a Sept. 28, 2022 Associated Press video, she said: “We’re really at the beginning. We’ve got to reinvent it for the future. That’s going to take some time. We won’t start casting until we kind of have a sense of what we’re planning to do.”
In a Feb. 20, 2023 AP video, she said: “It’ll be awhile. We have a lot of work to do before we start casting…We’re on the case.”
–Eon has reinvented Bond before in less time
It has been about four years since No Time to Die, Eon’s most recent Bond film, wrapped production. To be sure, the pandemic had an impact (the movie didn’t come out until fall 2021). Still, between 1985 and 1987, Eon changed the tone of its Bond productions to be more serious when Timothy Dalton was cast. And things were reinvented in a four-year period between Die Another Day (Pierce Brosnan) and Casino Royale (Craig).
Eon spent 2022 celebrating Craig’s five-film tenure as Bond. In January of that year, Broccoli told a Hollywood Reporter podcast she was in no hurry concerning Bond 26.
“We are living in the present moment and it’s a joyful moment, it’s a celebratory moment. We’re celebrating Daniel’s extraordinary achievement over 16 years.”
“We want to live in this moment for as long as possible and really applaud Daniel and really enjoy it. At some point later, we’ll sit down and think about the future. Right now, I want to live in the present and it’s a very happy place to be right now.”
–At least one film industry professional may have expressed some skepticism
It’s pretty clear there’s some bad blood between Eon and director Matthew Vaughn. The latter on a recent edition of the Happy Sad Confused podcast said Eon “is not keen on me.”
There was also the following exchange about Eon and Bond 26.
INTERVIEWER: Currently they are about to do their next reboot.
VAUGHN: Are they? (Pause) I actually don’t know.
One shouldn’t read too much to such a brief part of the interview. Vaughn wasn’t asked to expand on that comment. Even if he was being skeptical, Vaughn is hardly an unbiased observer. Still, it was an interesting exchange.
For at least 25 years, maybe longer, the makers of James Bond movies and the studios that finance the films, have fretted about demographics.
It’s no secret that 007 skews to an older audience. The first film in the series debuted more than 60 years ago and the second, From Russia With Love, came out 60 years ago next month.
In the 21st century, there was a local radio ad in the Detroit area for a lawn-care service. In the ad, a father is supposedly talking to his daughter. As the ad unfolds, the father says, “That’s just like James Bond.”
“Who’s that?” the daughter responds.
That was a little harsh, but it reflects reality.
With No Time to Die, the most recent Bond film, 007 had soft financial results, at least in the U.S. NTTD’s U.S. box office was just shy of $161 million, putting it at No. 007 among movies in the American market in 2021. That was down from about $200 million for 2015’s SPECTRE and even further down from $304 million from 2012’s Skyfall. All that despite rising theater prices during this era.
Some Bond fans dispute whether this is important. Well, Bond skews older so that’s not a factor, so the argument goes.
Not a factor? The money men of films and TV keep a close eye on demographics.
To be sure, many movies would kill to generate a $160 million box office in the U.S. But No Time to Die had major spending problems. That included the costs of a 350-foot replica rocket and a Russian gulag set in Canada which weren’t even used in the movie.
Also, No Time to Die went to pay-per-view in the U.S. a little more than a month after its U.S. debut. At that time, despite COVID, a monster hit would have an exclusive theater run of at least 45 days.
In addition, some Bond fans say “What about Mission: Impossible 7’s box office?” Well, what about it? The M:I series has never surpassed Bond at the box office. Both are popular with established fan bases. Yet each has encountered excessive spending with recent entries.
Bond, somehow, some way, needs to reach younger audiences. But its demographics aren’t an excuse for No Time to Die’s box office. That’s why studio executives get the big bucks.
Back in 2010, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Under such a filing, a company produces a reorganization plan with the intent of continuing operations while debts are reduced.
At the time, one key element of MGM’s plan was reviving the James Bond film series. At the time, the last Bond film was 2008’s Quantum of Solace and the series was in hiatus.
An excerpt from a 2010 Bloomberg story:
New James Bond films may be released every second year starting in November 2012, MGM said. It aims to own 50 percent of Bond 23, due out that year, with an equal partner paying all of the production costs, it said. Later Bond movies would be wholly owned and funded by MGM, the company said.
Bond 23 would turn out to be Skyfall and it was co-financed by MGM and Sony. MGM kept 75 percent of the profits and Sony 25 percent. Eventually, MGM and Sony cut a two-picture deal, with Sony distributing Bond 23 and 24.
Stop to think about this. If MGM’s plan had come to be, Bond 23 (Skyfall) would be out in 2012, Bond 24 (SPECTRE) in 2014, Bond 25 in 2016, Bond 26 in 2018, Bond 27 in 2020, and Bond 28 in 2022. We’d be anticipating a Bond 29 for 2024.
Evidently, MGM’s bankruptcy filing overlooked (to be kind) how MGM didn’t have complete control over the Bond franchise. Danjaq LLC and its Eon Productions unit control the rights to Bond while MGM provides the financing.
Regardless, MGM’s reorganization plan got approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court and the studio exited bankruptcy.
In 2012, a Sony executive named Rory Bruer said Bond 24 would be out in 2014. Eon boss Barbara Broccoli and star Daniel Craig cut him off at the knees in an interview with Collider.
“He was getting a little overexcited,” Broccoli told Collider. “We’re just actually focusing on this movie. One hopes that in the future we’ll be announcing other films, but no one’s officially announced it.”
“No one’s announced anything,” Craig chimed in. “He got a little ahead of himself.”
Bond 24/SPECTRE, indeed, would not be out until 2015.
MGM management soon backed off the pledge to make a Bond film every other year. By 2016, company management said Bond films would come out on a three- to four-year cycle.”
At this point, having a Bond movie every four years seems like a dream.
The James Bond film franchise has been on the sidelines since the fall of 2021 when No Time to Die was released.
2022, for Eon Productions, was a year of celebration about Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond plus the 60th anniversary of the franchise itself.
For 2023, there are issues related to the franchise and the overall movie industry.
Does Danjaq/Eon have a succession plan? Danjaq (the parent company) and Eon (which makes the movies) are a family business. A famous family business, to be sure. But a family business, nevertheless.
Family businesses can be hard to keep together as the third generation of a family takes over.
In the second generation of Danjaq/Eon, Michael G. Wilson is 81. Barbara Broccoli is 63. Outside the family, nobody knows about a succession plan. The conventional fan wisdom is that Gregg Wilson, Michael’s son, will continue to take on more responsibility while Barbara Broccoli continues.
Danjaq/Eon’s relationship with a new studio regime: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Danjaq’s long-time studio partner, was acquired by Amazon in 2021. When that happened, Eon’s Wilson and Broccoli said they wanted Amazon to keep MGM film executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy.
That didn’t happen. The two executives departed MGM in 2022 and landed at Warner Bros.
That raises the question of how well Danjaq/Eon is getting along with the Amazon-owned MGM. Nobody really knows, it’s not something either side is talking about.
Industry changes, rising budgets: No Time to Die had a production budget in the $300 million range (perhaps much more), not including marketing expenses. That makes it harder to turn a profit during a movie’s theatrical run.
In 2023, other films are running into the same math. Variety today published a story about the financial difficulties facing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. Both had big, $300 million (or more) budgets. Each is coming up short in their theatrical runs.
Meanwhile, cheaper movies such as Barbie (which has passed the $1 billion mark at the global box office) and Oppenheimer appear to be solidly profitable during their theatrical run before getting to pay-per-view and home video. Barbie’s budget was about $145 million, according to Variety, with Oppenheimer weighing in at about $100 million.
The Bond franchise has found itself in the blockbuster competition. But when the film Bond began 61 years ago, things were more modest. By the time You Only Live Twice (1967) came out, the budget for Ken Adam’s massive volcano set alone matched Dr. No’s $1 million production budget.
Since then, the series has expanded its scope, occasionally dialing things back before going big again. The last two entries, SPECTRE and No Time to Die, have been extremely expensive, even adjusting for inflation.
Of course, the industry itself is experiencing changes with streaming and other issues.
Where do you go from here? Danjaq/Eon is confronting many questions all at the same time. Craig is gone. A successor, presumably, will depend on who comes in as director. Do you stay with the uber-serious Craig tone? Or do you lighten up a bit?
In the summer of 2023, there are more questions than answers.
No Time to Die cost a lot of money to make. A lot. The exact amount hasn’t been released. Still, a December 2020 U.K. regulatory filing indicated the budget was approaching $300 million.
Estimates since then have run from just over $300 million to more than $350 million.
What contributed to this?
Costs incurred from the departure of Danny Boyle as director: In May 2020, No Time to Die production designer Mark Tildsley did a video interview as part of the Masterclass series.
Among the things he disclosed: No Time to Die’s art department built a 350-foot rocket replica and a Russian gulag set in Canada for what would have been the Boyle version of the movie. Neither would be used in the final movie.
Easy come, easy go.
Also, once Boyle was gone, the project wanted to hold onto Pinewood Studios’ expensive 007 Stage. (“You don’t want to know how much it costs to hire the Bond stage for a week,” Tildsey said.)
So the expensive stage was converted into an annex of the art department until No Time to Die got back up to speed with new director Cary Fukunaga.
High-priced writers: Scott Z. Burns and Phoebe Waller-Bridge were brought in to do rewrites of the eventual No Time to Die script. Burns didn’t get a credit while Waller-Bridge did. Regardless, they took home a lot of money.
Meanwhile, there is still fan debate about No Time to Die’s budget. It goes like this:
So what? A lot of blockbusters spend like this: So said the lemming rushing to join the other lemmings running off the cliff.
But yes, movies such as The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, both released this year, had that level of spending. They’re not expected to recoup their production costs from their theatrical runs.
No Time to Die is profitable! Eventually, perhaps. But remember No Time to Die’s theatrical run of $774 million doesn’t all go back to the studio. Theaters take a cut. In China, studios only get 25 percent of the cut. China helps fatten up the eventual global box office but it’s not as lucrative as you might think. Also, the production budget figure doesn’t include marketing costs.
You have to take COVID-19 into consideration. COVID-related delays had an impact. But the spending mentioned above related to Danny Boyle’s departure had nothing to do with COVID.
It remains to be seen what will happen with Bond 26. But a starting point may be for greater control of costs.
The Spy Command 