Scribes analyze Fukunaga’s prospects for directing Bond 25

Cary Joji Fukunaga, Bond 25’s new director

The naming of Cary Joji Fukunaga as the new director for Bond 25 quickly spurred entertainment writers and other scribes to analyze how he’ll perform.

Essentially, several were excited by what Fukunaga will bring to the production. Others were more cautious, Fukunaga, who has a reputation as an auteur director, is replacing Danny Boyle, another auteur who departed over unspecified “creative differences.”

ERIC KOHN, INDIEWIRE: “Fukunaga has never made an obvious blockbuster, but he’s been steadily flexing the muscles required for a brainy action-adventure over the course of a trailblazing decade-long career…With those two features (Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre) alone, the filmmaker had already shown his capacity to juggle the unique formula that has sustained the Bond franchise across 65 years: tough, visceral action against diverse backdrops, balanced off with sleek romanticism.”

MORGAN JEFFERY, DIGITAL SPY: “If Fukunaga is anything, he’s a director who always has a very specific vision. So given that Boyle is confirmed to have quit Bond over ‘creative differences’, is it a risk to hire another auteur type?…For better or for worse, the Bond films already have their own style, their own formula, and don’t really suit idiosyncratic filmmakers…Cary Fukunaga is a great director, but helming a Bond film and working within that rigid framework is a very singular task. For all Fukunaga’s impressive qualities as a filmmaker, it’s no sure thing that he’ll be able to pull it off.”

OWEN GLEIBERMAN, VARIETY: “(T)he reason Cary Fukunaga has the potential to be an ideal filmmaker for the Bond series is all over his direction of ‘True Detective.’ Simply put, he has a depth-charge understanding of men…and women. And that, as much as anything, is what the James Bond series now needs to be about.”

ALISSA WILKINSON, VOX: “Fukunaga has spent much of his life moving between cultures and absorbing them. His father, a third-generation Japanese American, was born in an internment camp in the US during World War II; his mother is Swedish-American. His parents split when he was a child, after which his father married an Argentinian woman and his mother married a Mexican-American man. Fukunaga is fluent in French as well as Spanish, the latter of which he learned during summers in Mexico with his mother and stepfather.”

GEOFFREY MACNAB, THE INDEPENDENT: “Fukunaga seems a very clever pick on two different levels. He has a strong creative reputation – he is an auteur whose latest series Maniac is said to be genre-breaking and mind-bending – but he also knows how to play the game. He can work with big paymasters like HBO and Netflix….The next Bond will be the first one since the rise of the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Fukunaga’s films, whether Sin Nombre or Jane Eyre, have often had very strong women characters. He’ll strain out any of the sexism that might have crept into the Bond series in the past.”

About Whishaw’s ‘confirmation’ he’ll be in Bond 25

Publicity still of Ben Whishaw with Daniel Craig in Skyfall

Over the past several days, the blog has noted a number of stories saying that Ben Whishaw has confirmed he’ll be in Bond 25.

The various stories cite a May 17 story in The Hollywood Reporter.

Here are the key quotes from the original THR story:

One film franchise looking more certain is James Bond, in which Whishaw has played the character Q since 2012’s Skyfall. Danny Boyle looks set to direct the next, the 25th, 007 offering, although Whishaw admitted he hadn’t spoken to him about the as-yet-untitled project

“Nothing yet. But I think it’s not happening until the end of the year, so I have no idea. I know as much as you do!,” he said. “I believe I’m contracted to be in it. That’s as much as I know.”

But he said he was enthused that Boyle was the choice as the next director. “I was thrilled when I read that he was going to be doing it,” he said. “I can’t think of a better, more exciting director for Daniel [Craig], for the way that he’s taken the character. I think it’ll be really exciting to work with him. I’ve been such a big fan.” (emphasis added)

With that in mind, here how that’s been played up.

A Very English Scandal star Ben Whishaw confirms return to James Bond franchise (The Independent)

Ben Whishaw Confirms He Will Return as Q in Bond 25 (Esquire.com)

Another James Bond Actor Who Is Probably Returning for Bond 25 (Cinema Blend)

Of the three, only the headline writer for Cinema Blend showed any kind of restraint to reflect Whishaw’s less-than-definitive comments. Truth be told, the blog would be greatly surprised if Whishaw wasn’t in a fifth Daniel Craig 007 film. But Whshaw wasn’t exactly confirming his participation in the project.

007 film universe rumor and entertainment websites

Image for the official James Bond feed on Twitter

It has been almost a week, but entertainment news websites are still following up on the rumor that Eon Productions wants a 007 film universe.

There hasn’t been anything new, but the rumor is making the rounds.

Here’s how it breaks down. The followups are not a comprehensive list. But this post does contain a shoutout to the original source and a 007 fan account on Twitter that picked up on it.

June 23: Jeff Sneider, editor-in-chief of The Tracking Board website, says in a tweet that, “I’ve heard the Broccolis have caught Universe Fever and would love to explore other corners of the Bond franchise…simultaneously.”

June 24: @Bond25Film on Twitter does a “quote tweet,” where you can see Sneider’s original tweet. @Bond25Film says (understandably) to take “this with a huge pinch of salt.”

June 24: In full disclosure, @Bond25Film’s “quote tweet” was the first time this blog heard of Sneider’s original tweet. After tracking the original tweet down, the blog did a post the same day plus a June 25 follow-up about questions raised by the rumor.

June 26: Phil Nobile Jr., a writer for Birth. Movies. Death. and a Bond fan, comes out with a post noting the Sneider rumor.

“I’m highly skeptical that this will come to pass, but as a fan of the franchise with no real Bond 25 news to report, I humbly offer these suggestions for opening up the Bondverse,” Nobile writes. His ideas include a prequel for M (the Judi Dench version).

June 28: The Express, in a story with the headline “James Bond SHOCK,” weighs in.

June 28: Esquire also comments on the rumor. “Do We…do we want this?” reads a secondary headline.

June 28: The Playlist, while citing Jeff Sneider, also says, Eon’s Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson “might have a contemporary way to keep that money tap open.”

June 29: The Independent, again citing Jeff Sneider, says, “It seems like there’s no franchise on the planet that’s immune from the cinematic universe fever.”

June 29: Add /Film to the list. The site adds this observation: “Also the truth: a James Bond cinematic universe would completely fit in with the series’ modus operandi of borrowing whatever is cool, hip, or popular and making it its own.”

How a line from David Lean applies to Bond 25

Image for the official James Bondlifier  feed on Twitter

The line we’re referring to comes from the director’s 1957 epic The Bridge On the River Kwai: “Madness! Madness!”

Put another way, the last few days have been a doozy regarding the future of the cinema version of James Bond.

Character actor and Daniel Craig friend Mark Strong, while promoting a movie, was quoted by THE SHORT LIST WEBSITE as saying:

““Do you know what, I’d have loved to have played the villain in a Bond movie while Daniel was doing it because he’s a pal and that would have been great. But I think he’s come to the end of his Bond time and so it’s probably never going to happen, but that would have always been great.”

Despite starting off the last sentence with the words, “But I think,” Strong’s comments were read as a virtual confirmation not only by The Short List but by THE INDEPENDENT (albeit with the qualifier “seemingly”), THE DAILY MAIL, THE MIRROR,  MOVIE WEB and /FILM.

In turn, FORBES.COM film writer Scott Mendelson used the news (such as it was) to write why Craig should come back for a fifth outing as 007, even though the writer criticized SPECTRE, the most recent 007 film, when it came out.

Separately, actress Naomie Harris, weighed in on Twitter with her opinions about 007 film’s future, including how she hopes her portrayal of Miss Moneypenny will eventually be seen like Judi Dench playing M:

.@BondCraigFan What Judi Densch did with M – she was a mainstay of the franchise for many years & I hope that my work as MP can be the same!

— Naomie Harris (@NaomieHarris) February 22, 2016

So many of you asked about working w/ #DanielCraig… he’s a phenomenal actor & when working w/ him it feels like working w/ the real bond

— Naomie Harris (@NaomieHarris) February 22, 2016

Imagine what it will be like when there’s actual news about Bond 25.

Excerpts from early SPECTRE reviews

SPECTRE poster

The initial wave of SPECTRE reviews, by critics who attended a Wednesday press showing in the U.K., are being posted. Reaction is mostly positive (some reviews overwhelmingly so) while some reviews express reservations.

What follows are some excerpts from a sampling of those reviews.

We’ve tried to keep out spoilers, but for some almost anything is a spoiler. So if you’re really spoiler adverse, stop reading now.

OLIVER LYTTELTON, THE PLAYLIST: “The Daniel Craig era of Bond movies has been something of a mixed bag so far. …(I)t would be nice to report that (director Sam Mendes’ ) second movie in the franchise, “Spectre,” will please both the hardcore and the more casual fan. Unfortunately, the new film, the 24th in the long-running series, feels more like a successor to ‘Quantum (of Solace),’ or to one of the ropier Roger Moore films, than to its Oscar-winning predecessor.”

“As with “Skyfall,” Mendes (and writers John Logan, Neil Purvis and Robert Wade, here joined by “Edge Of Tomorrow” and “Black Mass” co-writer Jez Butterworth) are pushing forward a more serialized, backstory-heavy Bond for the modern super-franchise era, while also paying homage to classic 007 entries.”

PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN: “If nothing else, the spelling of the title should tip you off that this is a thoroughly English movie franchise. Bond is back and Daniel Craig is back in a terrifically exciting, spectacular, almost operatically delirious 007 adventure – endorsing intelligence work as old-fashioned derring-do and incidentally taking a stoutly pro-Snowden line against the creepy voyeur surveillance that undermines the rights of a free individual. It’s pure action mayhem with a real sense of style.”

BRIAN VINER, DAILY MAIL:  “Does it warrant all the hype, the secrecy, the breathless anticipation? Indubitably, yes.

“From the exhilarating pre-credits sequence, against the backdrop of the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City, to a spectacular denouement…Spectre is a proper joyride of a James Bond film.

“It features everything (with the exception of a really memorable theme song) that most of us hope for in a 007 picture: great gadgets, stunts, and a handful of laugh-out loud one-liners.”

“It is a pleasure, too, to find Bond back in control of his own destiny. As good as Skyfall was, it was disconcerting to see him quite so vulnerable.”

DAVID EDWARDS, THE MIRROR: “Mean, moody and mad as hell, this is a Bond we haven’t seen since the days of Sean Connery, with director Sam Mendes returning the superspy to his brutal roots.

“Forget the campiness of the past, 007 is the suited-and-booted menace originally envisioned by creator Ian Fleming.

“And while you can’t help cheering as he takes on the sinister criminal organisation, Spectre, with the single-mindedness of an Exocet missile, he remains someone you really wouldn’t want to meet for a Martini.”

GEOFFREY MCCNAB, THE INDEPENDENT: “Thankfully, as an action movie, Spectre is every bit the equal of its predecessor, Skyfall. For at least half its running time, this is as good as Bond gets – a rip-roaring and very stylishly made thriller with tremendous production values.

“The hitch is that, in its latter stages, Spectre struggles to reconcile its own internal contradictions. The filmmakers want to have it both ways: to provide slick entertainment while also giving us new insight into Bond’s emotions and into his past. This leads to some strange contortions.”

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.

Our guide to incorrect stories about SPECTRE’s title song

New SPECTRE poster

So, according to THE BBC, Sam Smith recorded his title song to SPECTRE back in January.

With that in mind, here’s a number of stories the past few months that were totally incorrect but caught the attention of James Bond fans anyway.

BILLBOARD, JULY 30:

British band Radiohead has emerged as a sudden favorite among U.K. bookmakers to be named the performers of the theme for Spectre, the latest James Bond.

One bookie revealed that it had suspended betting after an anonymous customer asked to put a £15,000 ($23,000) wager on the band.

Why British bookies supposedly had inside information was never made clear. Still, bookies adjusting odds generates stories about James Bond films in general.

Sam Smith interviews: THE TELEGRAPH compiled a number of times Smith himself denied he was performing the 007 film title song, another reminder that people deny things they know to be true.

Here’s an excerpt with some samples:

Just last week, he told BBC Radio 2’s Jo Wiley: “That’s not me. That’s definitely not me.”

Back in July, Smith batted the rumours back again on Absolute Radio. He said: “I’ve got to tell you it’s the funniest thing just to sit back and watch everyone confirming something I know nothing about.

“Sia would be sick but she’s not British. I think you’ve got to have someone who is British. Saying that, I loved the Jack White and Alisha Keys one.”

And on Capital FM last year, the singer said: “People seem to think I’m doing it but I have no idea what’s going on.

“I’m being deadly serious. I think I would know by now… I heard Ellie Goulding was going to do it.”

Ellie Goulding as supposed frontrunner: There were stories at CAPITAL FM on July 29, IGN.COM on July 28 and THE INDEPENDENT also on July 28 that the singer was going to perform the SPECTRE title song.

Obviously, all were wrong. The DIGITAL SPY WEBSITE ran a story there may have been a deliberate misinformation campaign to fool everyone.

If that’s case, however, perhaps instead of trying to fool people about the title song performer, more attention should have been paid to the SPECTRE scripting process and avoided wasting time on questionable ideas that became public because of the Sony hacking.

A sampling of early reviews for Trigger Mortis

Trigger Mortis cover

Reviews for the newest James Bond continuation novel, Anthony Horowitz’s Trigger Mortis, are starting to come in.

This blog has already run a guest review from the Ian Fleming Foundation’s Brad Frank. What follows is a sampling of other reviews.

FELIX SALMON IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW:

James Bond is a synchronic spy. From the day that the first Bond thriller, “Casino Royale,” was published in 1953, all the way through to this year’s forthcoming “Spectre” movie, Bond has always been thoroughly modern, with all the latest toys. In “Trigger Mortis: A James Bond Novel,” however, Bond ventures somewhere Ian Fleming, or the movie producer Albert Broccoli, would never go: back, into the past.

(snip)

So although “Trigger Mortis” begins two weeks after the end of “Goldfinger,” its protagonist isn’t — could never be — the same Bond. The new Bond is friends with a gay man, chivalrously sleeps on the couch when a woman doesn’t want to have sex with him and even, at one point, drinks a bottle of water at lunch.

THE INDEPENDENT:

Anthony Horowitz knows exactly what ingredients are required to satisfy even the most gluttonous James Bond fan and serves them up with the confidence of the self-confessed aficionado that he is.

(snip)

Horowitz is far from the first to take up Ian Fleming’s most famous creation. Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver and Kingsley Amis have all gone before. But there are new elements that Horowitz brings that make this a particularly enjoyable, and familiar, read.

(snip)

There is a thin line between pastiche and homage, however. Horowitz is an unabashed fan of both Bond and Fleming, as much of his work to date clearly shows, and his plot in less capable hands could easily have erred on the wrong side.

JAKE KERRIDGE IN THE TELEGRAPH:

(Ian) Fleming’s estate has made a canny choice in Horowitz, who proved in his (Arthur) Conan Doyle pastiche The House of Silk – which saw Sherlock Holmes battling a VIP paedophile ring – that he can convincingly replicate another author’s world without sticking too slavishly to his template.

In Trigger Mortis Horowitz has had the ingenious idea of showing us Bond in the act of doing something which we know he does a lot, but Fleming would never have dreamed of writing: all the “It’s not you, it’s me” business of dumping his conquests.

How did SPECTRE’s budget get so high?

Many entertainment websites (including this blog) have written about how the Mexican government may have helped shape a sequence in SPECTRE in return for $20 million in incentives, something the TAX ANALYSTS WEBSITE REPORTED EARLIER THIS MONTH.

The Cinema Blend website in its story on the subject added a question about SPECTRE’s $300 million-plus budget: “Why is the budget that high to begin with?” Skyfall had a reported budget of $200 million.

Sam Mendes, at the Dec. 4 media event for SPECTRE said the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios was “where budgets go to die.” The comment took on a whole new meaning after hacking of internal Sony Pictures emails revealed the budget was on pace to exceed $300 million, making the 24th James Bond movie once of the most expensive of all time.

Cinema Blend poses a good question. Here’s an attempt at a partial answer. What follows is by no means definitive or comprehensive.

More locations: With 2012’s Skyfall, the first unit only went to one location: Turkey. The second unit went to Shanghai to film exteriors but the first unit used Pinewood Studios and U.K. locations in place of the Chinese business center.

With SPECTRE, the crew is traveling more. The OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE said, “The locations for SPECTRE include Pinewood London, Mexico City, Rome, Tangier and Erfoud, Morocco. Bond is also back in the snow, this time in Sölden, Austria as well as Obertilliach and Lake Altaussee.” Already, there has been filming in Rome and Austria.

Some of the principals probably got a big raise: In November 2012, as Skyfall was on its way to a worldwide box office of $1.1 billion, THE INDEPENDENT reported star Daniel Craig would be paid 31 million pounds (or almost $46 million at current exchange rates) to play 007 in Bond 24 (now SPECTRE) and Bond 25 combined.

According to that article, Craig received 1.9 million pounds for Casino Royale, 4.4 million pounds for Quantum of Solace and 10.7 million pounds for Skyfall.

Meanwhile, Skyfall director Mendes initially said the thought of directing another Bond movie made him “physically ill.”

Nevertheless, Eon Productions wanted Mendes back, to the point of being willing to push back production so the director could participate in some stage projects. With Skyfall’s box office, it’s likely he got a big raise also. Money has a way of calming upset stomachs.

Bond movies now have pricier casts: Under Albert R. Broccoli, Eon was willing to pay big money for its Bond but supporting actors — particularly those with the M, Moneypenny and Q roles — were paid modestly.

In the 21st century, the likes of Ralph Fiennes (a two-time Oscar nominee), Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw are paid better adjusted for inflation than Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn. Meanwhile, Skyfall had an Oscar winning actor (Javier Bardem as Silva) and SPECTRE has another (Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser).

All of this is, at best, a partial explanation. SPECTRE’s budget exceeds the estimated outlays of Marvel’s The Avengers ($220 million) and The Dark Knight Rises ($250 million), movies with extensive special effects.

Bond 23 generates lots of reading material but few answers

Want to find out what’s going on with Bond 23? It seems like the more you read, the less you *actually* know. But recent articles cover enough ground, a reader can pretty much reinforce his or her own prejudices.

Are you inclined to believe Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Wilson are concerned, hands-on, smart operators trying to get Bond 23 to theaters as soon as possible despite financial troubles at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer? Well, THIS HOLLYWOOD REPORTER STORY VIA REUTERS is for you:

But Bond appears to be left out in the cold as MGM debtholders extended a deadline to get the studio’s financial house in order to September 15. Broccoli and Wilson declined comment but are said to be deeply concerned about the effect of an indefinite delay.

“They’re completely panicked that if they go five, six years without a Bond movie, it’ll be over,” a former MGM insider said. “They don’t want to kill the golden goose.”

That depiction, of course, is different than other accounts where, Wilson in particular, talks about how tired and exhausted he is from making James Bond movies.

On the other hand, if you’re really, really skeptical whether a new Bond movie can possibly come out soon, then READ THIS BLOG BY THE U.K. NEWSPAPER THE INDEPENDENT. Here’s a sample:

Today’s announcement that Daniel Craig is to star in a Hollywood film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is great news for fans of Stieg Larsson. But it represents a rather less exciting development for those who prefer Craig’s other alter ego, James Bond.

(snip)
This suggests that the British star may very well not be expecting to be called up for Bond duty any time soon. So 007’s most recent outing, in 2008’s underwhelming Quantum of Solace, is likely to be his last for several more years to come.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times weighed in WITH A LONG STORY YOU CAN READ BY CLICKING HERE that explains how MGM hot into its current mess and the studio’s relationship with Bond. The FT frowns upon even the slightest excerpting on the Web, so we’ll just link to it. One criticism, though: the FT story confuses films released by the old United Artists studio (i.e. the first 11 Bond films, Annie Hall, In The Heat of the Night, The Apartment) with films actually produced and released by MGM before MGM acquired UA.

Bottom line: you may learn *some* things but Bond fans won’t likely find definitive answers to the questions they care most about.