Bond 25 questions: Awaiting principal photography Part II

Daniel Craig in SPECTRE’s gunbarrel

Earlier this month, the blog had a few questions while awaiting the start of Bond 25 principal photography. If Variety is correct, the wait won’t be much longer. But, in the interim, here are additional questions.

Who will be Bond 25’s composer?

David Arnold has a five-film run as 007 composer. But that ended when Sam Mendes directed this decade’s Skyfall and SPECTRE, bringing along his choice of composer, Thomas Newman.

We’ve had disclosures about production designer (Mark Tildesley) and director of photography (Linus Sandgren). But there’s been radio silence concerning Bond 25’s composer. Having Cary Fukunaga as director perhaps will bring a new 007 musical voice. We’ll see.

Will there be some crew turnover in other departments?

The Eon-produced 007 film series is known for having crew members who work multiple films. But nothing lasts forever.

Peter Lamont began work on the series as a draftsman on Goldfinger and worked his way up to production designer. He worked on the series into his 70s, departing after 2006’s Casino Royale.

Terry Bamber worked on a number of Bond films, with jobs such as second unit production manager. But he hasn’t been on a 007 film since Skyfall.

We already know of turnover in the production designer slot. Dennis Gassner had a three-film run in the job but was replaced by Tildesley when Danny Boyle was named director. Despite Boyle’s departure, it appears Tildesley remains in place.

Which writers will get a Bond 25 credit?

The blog asked this in a previous Bond 25 questions post. Since then, the writer count has gone up again.

At least six writers have been associated with the project: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Hodge, Paul Haggis, Scott Z. Burns and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Writing credits can be subject to arbitration by the Writers Guild of America.

“In certain cases, the proposed credits are subject to automatic arbitration, and in other cases, writers are given an opportunity to protest the proposed credits to trigger an arbitration,” according to the union’s website.

There are limits to the number of credits. A writing team such as Purvis and Wade is counted as a single writing entity, as it were. Regardless, it doesn’t appear likely all six will be in the movie’s writing credit. Hodge, for example, was Danny Boyle’s guy and left the project when Boyle did.

What happens with the gunbarrel in Bond 25?

The first three Daniel Craig 007 films moved the gunbarrel logo around. It appeared just before the main titles in Casino Royale. And it was at the end of both Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. It finally placed at its traditional start-of-the-movie position in SPECTRE, though there were a few quirks.

When last we saw Craig’s 007 at the end of SPECTRE, he appeared to have departed Her Majesty’s Secret Service. If that’s part of the plot of Bond 25, does it make sense to have the gunbarrel at the start? Or does it get moved again?

007 veteran crew member talks to James Bond Radio

The Internet series James Bond Radio today debuted a new podcast featuring veteran James Bond crew member Terry Bamber.

Bamber worked on Bond films from The Man With The Golden Gun through Skyfall. He’s not involved with SPECTRE (though his wife is a crew member). He was also assistant director and production manager of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie, which debuts Aug. 14.

Bamber’s father worked on the early 007 films. Given the family history, he makes some observations of note:

Favorite Bond movies: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (“fantastic film, fantastic film”), followed by Casino Royale and Diamonds Are Forever (“I could watch it over and over again.”) The Living Daylights is “in my top third” of Bond films.

First experience on a Bond set: Being taken by his father to the You Only Live Twice volcano set.

Favorite Bond: By “millimeters of a point,” Sean Connery.

Why he’s not working on SPECTRE: He says he got a phone call saying the production team decided “to go in a different direction.”

Bamber also makes some brief comments about his work on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie, where he was assistant director and production manager on the second unit.

The interview lasts more than 90 minutes and covers more ground than this post can really cover. You can listen to the podcast below. The Terry Bamber interview starts around the 17:00 mark.

U.N.C.L.E. movie notes: casting and social media

Bit by bit, scattered details about the The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie are emerging.

CASTING: @laneyboggs2001 on Twitter has tracked down casting from various Internet sources. They include Zee Omar as an Egyptian general and Gabriel Farnese as an Italian playboy.

The movie’s IMDB.COM CAST LIST is filling out, including two KGB agent parts.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Terry Bamber, first assistant director of the movie’s second (or action) unit, put out a Sept. 13 Tweet with a picture of a sign for an office for second unit crew members. It has an U.N.C.L.E. logo in the same font as the original 1964-68 series (though missing the last period in U.N.C.L.E.). Bamber doesn’t give away much except to say “I loved the original – now gang be prepared to be amazed at this.”

Bamber is also production manager for the second unit and performed similar duties on the last five James Bond movies including Skyfall.

(UPDATE Sept. 18): LaneyBoggs spotted AN AUG. 28 TWEET by Bamber where his Diet Coke and coffee were atop a Sept. 25 shooting schedule. Presumably that’s for the U.N.C.L.E. movie but there are no specific references.

Actress Allegra Riggio, who’s engaged to Jared Harris, who has a role in the film, this week visited the U.N.C.L.E. set and posted about it on Twitter. There were no spoilers. Some examples can be seen HERE, HERE and HERE.

Meanwhile, Evie Wray, whose IMDB.com entry lists some actress and makeup department credits, put out a TWEET hinting that she may be involved with the movie. Here’s the text of that Tweet:

Evie Wray‏@eviewray
time to find my Man From U.N.C.L.E box set.. prep for filming next month .. #spy #CIA #60s #ManFromUNCLE pic.twitter.com/nq8dq4prGM

The Tweet included a photograph of the DVD box set of the original show.