A fifth Brosnan Bond?
TOOTS
Posts: 114MI6 Agent
What if Pierce had done a 5th, traditional Bond movie? In light of Casino Royale, reconceiving tradBond is very difficult. What follows is based on unfilmed ideas from writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and the Fleming novel, You Only Live Twice! I reason that because DAD was the most successful up to that point, they would have continued BIG and kept on Tamahori. Like The Spy Who Loved Me was followed by the similar MR, Shatterhand carries forward elements of DAD and referencing popular touchstone, Jinx (who was denied her own movie but this film keeps alive the possibility of that still happening). However, since Brosnan is VERY expensive, a pre-Sony MGM, gives in to his salary demands. He gets $30 mil plus 20% of the gross (announced as a world record) plus funding of 2 non-Bonds, first of which is the Thomas Crown sequel as well as the funding of Brosnan's directorial debut. Pierce will helm "Cassie, My Love: The Cassandra Harris Story" starring Keely Shaye-Smith in the title role. Brosnan is front and centre of a simpler, dramatic, human, personal story with less and tighter action, more breathing time and character development. There is no gadget car or Q scene, Tamahori relying on knowledge of the previous movie (gadgets just appearing a la AVTAK). Brosnan's script desires are granted with a romance with big female co-star and battling a larger than life, trad villain in a plot concerning environmental issues. Big names are anxious to be involved in Pierce's swansong as 007 and they are uncluttered by secondary romances or a list of anonymous henchpersons. There are, of course, topical references. CR has made this type of thinking obsolete, hopefully.
SHATTERHAND
1995 - GoldenEye
1997 – Tomorrow Never Dies
1999 – The World Is Not Enough
2002 – Die Another Day
2005 - SHATTERHAND
Starring
James Bond : Pierce Brosnan
Dr Guntram Shatterhand: Gerard Depardieu
Gala Brand: Catherine Zeta Jones (needed to match Halle Berry)
Tiffy: Naomie Harris (character name from MWGG novel – Harris is fresh from starring with Brosnan in After The Sunset - "I wanna make sure the women have beautiful dresses", Tamahori states, oddly.)
Raoul: Emilio Echevarria
Damian Falco: Michael Madsen
Jack Wade: Joe Don Baker
Kamran Shah: Art Malik
M: Judi Dench
Q: John Cleese
Moneypenny: Samantha Bond
Bill Tanner: Michael Kitchen
Charles Robinson: Colin Salmon
Minister of Defence: Julian Fellowes
Hayes Pinto: Billy Zane
Directed by Lee Tamahori
Written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (Bruce Feirstein, writer of the Licence To Thrill ride complains to the WGA about the use of the water skidoo PTS as used in the ride. A deal is done but he does not get any credit)
Locations: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (shot in Spain), Jamaica, Chicago, Washington, USA, London - UK, Amazon Jungle (shot in Mexico)
PTS -[/b] A nightgoggles POV at what looks to be a prison. Hooded figures in orange jumpsuits patrol a high-fenced court yard. CU – Pierce Brosnan is JB, also clad in orange (this image will be leaked by The Sun causing mild controversy - "Bond takes on Gitmo" shriek the tabloids), breaking into jail. We see him searching compound and then stopping at a cell door. Using chemical charge secreted in his Omega, he corrodes the lock and pulls black hood off figure to reveal…KAMRAN SHAH. They escape together and dive onto a waiting jet powered water skidoo, tricked out with Q gadgets. Two pursuing patrol boats pursue and a thrilling chase in which gadgets include a propeller jammer and an engine exploder mean Bond evades pursuers, non-lethally. However, a Cuban patrol helicopter captures Bond and Kamran and the titles begin…
TITLES: a botanical and plant motif with title song, Shatterhand, performed by Britney Spears (the Bjork version was nixed by the studio but becomes a bootleg collector's item) written by David Arnold, Don Black and Bjork.
("After Madonna, anything goes!" quip the Burly Chassis-pining traditionalists)
HAVANA, CUBA.
RAOUL, Bond’s ally from the previous film, meets Bond and Kamran. Bond speaks to Raoul in fluent Spannish and it emerges the “capture” was pre-arranged. Raoul arranges safe passage to Jamaica and the safehouse on the Northshore (this will be shot at Goldeneye, tying in with history and Chris Blackwell’s Island Outpost compound promotional tie-in. Much publicity will be made of this - a multi-media event will be staged here. Brosnan will say they are going back to the roots of Fleming with this script).
GOLDENEYE, JAMAICA
Bond meets local agent, TIFFY ("in a beautiful dress" Tamahori's handwritten script notes say), a beautiful field operative with two pet kling kling birds. They enjoy each other’s company on the secluded bay (very From Here To Eternity). They are also involved with debriefing Kamran Shah, on live link with M, ROBINSON, TANNER, MONEYPENNY and Q in SIS HQ, London. Shah reveals he was a deep cover MI6 agent, mistakenly captured by the US in Afganistan. His jail-break had to look real. DAMIAN FALCO is patched in at this point saying he’s taking flak from the CIA as the British made him look foolish. The jailbreak has made headlines across the world. The debriefing continues. Terrorist cells had recently been captured with a highly lethal airbased nerve toxin, the like of which has never been seen before. Some power is developing this but is unknown. Shah says while he was under deep cover, the only phrase that came up repeatedly but that he just did not understand was the word, "Maincasse". There are no further leads. "Maincasse" is French for Brokenhand and Bond and Tiffy deduce that it must be the Shatterhand corporation based in Chicago. As Jinx is on another assignment, Falco suggests his deep cover agent will contact Bond not the other way round. It is safer that way.
THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, CHICAGO, USA
Curator, HAYES PINTO introduces “a true artist of life, DR GUNTRAM SHATTERHAND”. The large, imposing, Eurotrash figure draped in a Kimono, addresses a black-tie art auction, telling them about his new discoveries in plantlife, both cures to disease and new threats to mankind. The ecological balance of nature is being slowly eroded by man and he intends to stop the rot. Tonight’s fundraiser is to bid for a painting, “The Art Of Living” by world famous modern artist, GALA BRAND ("in a beautiful dress" Tamahori's handwritten script notes say). His new facility, based in the heart of the Amazon jungle, will also be called “The Art Of Living”. Shatterhand he intends to conduct research there, having purchased land the size of a small country. Naturally, the economic benefits for the Shatterhand corporation will be enormous and so his private security force will be ready to deal with corruption of governments and corporations. An exciting auction takes place where Bond starts bidding for the painting. In the end Shatterhand bids $50 million for it, a world record. However, it turns out that Brand is his lover and the sum is “merely a cloud in the sky” compared to his wealth. Bond meets Gala Brand and arranges a tour of the facility. They arrange to meet the next day.
AERIAL TOUR, CHICAGO, USA
Leaving by helicopter from the top of the Drake Hotel, Bond rides with Gala Brand to the Shatterhand facility, seeing the main locations of Chicago by air. We learn about Shatterhand’s past: he was a Swiss scientist who has seen his native Alps corroded with pollution. This is where she first met him and they she has watched him change the world from the wings. He watches the Polar caps melt with disdain and wonders when mankind will stop its self destruction. She is his inspiration. He is her muse.
MODERN SCIENCE LAB, NEAR CHICAGO, USA
A huge, Ken Adam-esque facility. The state rooms are decorated with rather dark, abstract Brand paintings. Bond lunches with Shatterhand, dressed in a Japanese kimono sit down to eat raw food included live lobster. “Mr Bond, I believe in the purity of the earth. This nutrition before you, soon will be impossible to consume, so polluted will be our world.” Shatterhand then challenges Bond to a game of scissors cut paper. Which they play. Bond wins. Shatterhand sucks his teeth.
HIGH RISE HOTEL, CHICAGO, USA
Bond returns to his hotel to find goons in his room. He fights them and the fight spills into a glass elevator, going up outside the building. He dispatches goons and returns to find Gala Brand waiting in his room. They were following her – she is the deep cover agent for NSA. She noted that strange things were going on and she offered to snoop on her lover, a relationship she is trapped in. Bond and Gala ("in another beautiful dress" Tamahori's handwritten script notes say) dine at Chatfield’s where a bartender makes Bond a proper Vodka Martini to his exacting specifications. They share a romantic moment at the Lighthouse. She must get back before she is discovered but she says Shatterhand has an RV at the Carter Harrison Crib.
NIGHT - CARTER HARRIS CRIB, CHICAGO, USA
Dark, rainy, stormy – a shadowy rendez-vous. Bond spots Shatterhand meeting some shadowy figures. They hand over packages. Bond manages to obtain a sample from the package received by Shatterhand but is confronted by goons and is severely beaten up in a dark, gritty sequence. He blacks out...
MODERN SCIENCE LAB, NEAR CHICAGO, USA
…and wakes, wretching, inside a padded steel angular cell with a glass dome. Above, Shatterhand addresses him as 007. Bond will become victim of the nerve agent his is developing at the lab. This agent will be given in small doses to various terrorist organizations around the world. It’s release will cause global panic but the cure will be “found” by Shatterhand, after some years, and on the basis that the entire Amazon region will be preserved for science and conservation. Bond reasons that while Shatterhand is correct, is methodology will kill millions and destabilize the world. “Isn’t that what is happening already?” Shatterhand smirks. The chamber suddenly starts to hiss and Bond realizes he is in giant gas chamber. “Goodbye Mr Bond. The only cure is…death!” Working on a distraction by Gala, Bond is frantic but miraculously produces his rebreather and using his sonic agitator ring, breaks the glass. He overcomes guards and in an exciting action sequence involving lots of machine gun fire, he and Gala escape, using Shatterhand’s helicopter.
WASHINGTON, USA
Bond meets Jack Wade of the CIA and they tour the city in Wade's beat up car. They arrive at a botanical institute. A keen horticulturalist, Wade reveals the results of the examination of the material Bond obtained at the Carter Harris Crib. These are seeds to some of the world’s most deadliest plants. “Slay it with flowers, Jimbo!”. Whatever Shatterhand is doing in his “Art of Living” facility in the Amazonian jungle, it must be stopped. Bond reports to the Pentagon and meets Falco who, lighting a Malboro with his Zippo says "I'd love to help you Barnd but my [censored] will be smoke if this goes wrong." "I did OK in North Korea last time." "Sure Barnd, but you had Jinx with you last time. This time you're solo." "And Gala?" "Don't be partying with her, Barnd. She's mine!" "Quite a distinctive brand."
BOND’S HOME, LONDON, UK
Bond wakes in his flat with Gala Brand. Bond does his morning exercises and then goes in for an icy shower followed by steaming hot. He is joined by a naked Gala. They later have breakfast together (scrambled eggs and we see all the Fleming brands on the tray). Suddenly, a team of assassins burst through and proceed to shoot the place up. Bond finds a concealed weapon (his old Walther PPK) and together he and Gala fend off the attackers. The fight is quick-paced and gritty, Bourne-esque but Mr and Mrs Smith-inspired repartee between Bond and Gala as they dispatch the assassins in a domestic setting, smashing pictures (including one of Desmond Llewelyn as Q) and using what is available (Bond's fridge protects 007 from a hail of bullets while he uses the rows of bottles of Bollinger RD, Smirnoff Vodka and Heineken beer as projectiles). He even fashions a Molotov cocktail from a bottle of Tallisker whisky. Bond and Gala jump into his private car, the classic DB5 (parked in the plane-tree lined square off the King's Road) and race to Vauxhall Cross, SIS HQ.
M’s OFFICE, LONDON, UK
Bond has a flirtation with Moneypenny before introducing her to Gala Brand. The look on Moneypenny’s face is priceless. They both go in to see M – Gala is NSA security cleared. The plot is recapped. Bond says the attack on his home territory is reason enough to go after Shatterhand. Besides, the facility in the jungle needs to be destroyed and Gala knows all about it. They retire to the Situation Room with the MI6 regulars and the rest of the 00 Section. The Minister says it is political suicide. There is no international permission to do this - "Well, that hasn't stopped you before", Bond quips. Q goes through a further analysis of the seeds and poison making potential of the facility. M says most of the poison carrying terrorists have been apprehended but she backs 007. Gala Brand should go with Bond as she knows the facility.
“THE ART OF LIVING” AMAZON JUNGLE, EXTERIOR –
ENCLOSED JAPANESE BEACH LOCATION INTERIOR
Bond and Gala in micro-light aircraft recce the huge facility. They land and sneak in. They see manmade geyers, fumeroles and Shatterhand, walking around his facility in Japanese armour. A goon who failed him is thrown into a poison bush and the geyser which erupts every 10 minutes kills another spy, a giant cage of vultures hangs ominously, releasing the birds automatically for them to eat the rotting flesh of the bodies. Guards apprehend Bond and Gala but they are involved in a fight which takes them into the cage of vultures. However, here they are captured. Shatterhand "You see Mr Bond, Gala, my art of living is really a garden of death. While I collect (sneers disdainfully at Gala) art, I am also a collector of death." Bond and Gala and are tied to the geyser, due to erupt in 10 minutes and Shatterhand gloats saying his agents will wait for his order to release the toxins to the terrorist cells. Suddenly a fleet of micro-light aircraft appear – the rest of the 00’s together with SAS and DELTA force ops team. Swooping down they break into the facility. Bond and Gala are rescued and a major battle ensues. Shatterhand is killed by falling victim to his own poison plants "That's the art of dying, Shatterhand!". The facility being blown to smithereens and Bond and Gala escape by holding onto a massive hot air weather balloon. The last shot is of them floating high above the jungle in this.
END TITLE SONG: I WILL RETURN music by David Arnold lyrics by Don Black performed by Tony Bennett (this is the unused end title song from DAD and apparently Arnold tried to get Tony Bennett for Only Myself To Blame).
THE END OF SHATTERHAND
BUT
JAMES BOND WILL RETURN
SHATTERHAND
1995 - GoldenEye
1997 – Tomorrow Never Dies
1999 – The World Is Not Enough
2002 – Die Another Day
2005 - SHATTERHAND
Starring
James Bond : Pierce Brosnan
Dr Guntram Shatterhand: Gerard Depardieu
Gala Brand: Catherine Zeta Jones (needed to match Halle Berry)
Tiffy: Naomie Harris (character name from MWGG novel – Harris is fresh from starring with Brosnan in After The Sunset - "I wanna make sure the women have beautiful dresses", Tamahori states, oddly.)
Raoul: Emilio Echevarria
Damian Falco: Michael Madsen
Jack Wade: Joe Don Baker
Kamran Shah: Art Malik
M: Judi Dench
Q: John Cleese
Moneypenny: Samantha Bond
Bill Tanner: Michael Kitchen
Charles Robinson: Colin Salmon
Minister of Defence: Julian Fellowes
Hayes Pinto: Billy Zane
Directed by Lee Tamahori
Written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (Bruce Feirstein, writer of the Licence To Thrill ride complains to the WGA about the use of the water skidoo PTS as used in the ride. A deal is done but he does not get any credit)
Locations: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (shot in Spain), Jamaica, Chicago, Washington, USA, London - UK, Amazon Jungle (shot in Mexico)
PTS -[/b] A nightgoggles POV at what looks to be a prison. Hooded figures in orange jumpsuits patrol a high-fenced court yard. CU – Pierce Brosnan is JB, also clad in orange (this image will be leaked by The Sun causing mild controversy - "Bond takes on Gitmo" shriek the tabloids), breaking into jail. We see him searching compound and then stopping at a cell door. Using chemical charge secreted in his Omega, he corrodes the lock and pulls black hood off figure to reveal…KAMRAN SHAH. They escape together and dive onto a waiting jet powered water skidoo, tricked out with Q gadgets. Two pursuing patrol boats pursue and a thrilling chase in which gadgets include a propeller jammer and an engine exploder mean Bond evades pursuers, non-lethally. However, a Cuban patrol helicopter captures Bond and Kamran and the titles begin…
TITLES: a botanical and plant motif with title song, Shatterhand, performed by Britney Spears (the Bjork version was nixed by the studio but becomes a bootleg collector's item) written by David Arnold, Don Black and Bjork.
("After Madonna, anything goes!" quip the Burly Chassis-pining traditionalists)
HAVANA, CUBA.
RAOUL, Bond’s ally from the previous film, meets Bond and Kamran. Bond speaks to Raoul in fluent Spannish and it emerges the “capture” was pre-arranged. Raoul arranges safe passage to Jamaica and the safehouse on the Northshore (this will be shot at Goldeneye, tying in with history and Chris Blackwell’s Island Outpost compound promotional tie-in. Much publicity will be made of this - a multi-media event will be staged here. Brosnan will say they are going back to the roots of Fleming with this script).
GOLDENEYE, JAMAICA
Bond meets local agent, TIFFY ("in a beautiful dress" Tamahori's handwritten script notes say), a beautiful field operative with two pet kling kling birds. They enjoy each other’s company on the secluded bay (very From Here To Eternity). They are also involved with debriefing Kamran Shah, on live link with M, ROBINSON, TANNER, MONEYPENNY and Q in SIS HQ, London. Shah reveals he was a deep cover MI6 agent, mistakenly captured by the US in Afganistan. His jail-break had to look real. DAMIAN FALCO is patched in at this point saying he’s taking flak from the CIA as the British made him look foolish. The jailbreak has made headlines across the world. The debriefing continues. Terrorist cells had recently been captured with a highly lethal airbased nerve toxin, the like of which has never been seen before. Some power is developing this but is unknown. Shah says while he was under deep cover, the only phrase that came up repeatedly but that he just did not understand was the word, "Maincasse". There are no further leads. "Maincasse" is French for Brokenhand and Bond and Tiffy deduce that it must be the Shatterhand corporation based in Chicago. As Jinx is on another assignment, Falco suggests his deep cover agent will contact Bond not the other way round. It is safer that way.
THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, CHICAGO, USA
Curator, HAYES PINTO introduces “a true artist of life, DR GUNTRAM SHATTERHAND”. The large, imposing, Eurotrash figure draped in a Kimono, addresses a black-tie art auction, telling them about his new discoveries in plantlife, both cures to disease and new threats to mankind. The ecological balance of nature is being slowly eroded by man and he intends to stop the rot. Tonight’s fundraiser is to bid for a painting, “The Art Of Living” by world famous modern artist, GALA BRAND ("in a beautiful dress" Tamahori's handwritten script notes say). His new facility, based in the heart of the Amazon jungle, will also be called “The Art Of Living”. Shatterhand he intends to conduct research there, having purchased land the size of a small country. Naturally, the economic benefits for the Shatterhand corporation will be enormous and so his private security force will be ready to deal with corruption of governments and corporations. An exciting auction takes place where Bond starts bidding for the painting. In the end Shatterhand bids $50 million for it, a world record. However, it turns out that Brand is his lover and the sum is “merely a cloud in the sky” compared to his wealth. Bond meets Gala Brand and arranges a tour of the facility. They arrange to meet the next day.
AERIAL TOUR, CHICAGO, USA
Leaving by helicopter from the top of the Drake Hotel, Bond rides with Gala Brand to the Shatterhand facility, seeing the main locations of Chicago by air. We learn about Shatterhand’s past: he was a Swiss scientist who has seen his native Alps corroded with pollution. This is where she first met him and they she has watched him change the world from the wings. He watches the Polar caps melt with disdain and wonders when mankind will stop its self destruction. She is his inspiration. He is her muse.
MODERN SCIENCE LAB, NEAR CHICAGO, USA
A huge, Ken Adam-esque facility. The state rooms are decorated with rather dark, abstract Brand paintings. Bond lunches with Shatterhand, dressed in a Japanese kimono sit down to eat raw food included live lobster. “Mr Bond, I believe in the purity of the earth. This nutrition before you, soon will be impossible to consume, so polluted will be our world.” Shatterhand then challenges Bond to a game of scissors cut paper. Which they play. Bond wins. Shatterhand sucks his teeth.
HIGH RISE HOTEL, CHICAGO, USA
Bond returns to his hotel to find goons in his room. He fights them and the fight spills into a glass elevator, going up outside the building. He dispatches goons and returns to find Gala Brand waiting in his room. They were following her – she is the deep cover agent for NSA. She noted that strange things were going on and she offered to snoop on her lover, a relationship she is trapped in. Bond and Gala ("in another beautiful dress" Tamahori's handwritten script notes say) dine at Chatfield’s where a bartender makes Bond a proper Vodka Martini to his exacting specifications. They share a romantic moment at the Lighthouse. She must get back before she is discovered but she says Shatterhand has an RV at the Carter Harrison Crib.
NIGHT - CARTER HARRIS CRIB, CHICAGO, USA
Dark, rainy, stormy – a shadowy rendez-vous. Bond spots Shatterhand meeting some shadowy figures. They hand over packages. Bond manages to obtain a sample from the package received by Shatterhand but is confronted by goons and is severely beaten up in a dark, gritty sequence. He blacks out...
MODERN SCIENCE LAB, NEAR CHICAGO, USA
…and wakes, wretching, inside a padded steel angular cell with a glass dome. Above, Shatterhand addresses him as 007. Bond will become victim of the nerve agent his is developing at the lab. This agent will be given in small doses to various terrorist organizations around the world. It’s release will cause global panic but the cure will be “found” by Shatterhand, after some years, and on the basis that the entire Amazon region will be preserved for science and conservation. Bond reasons that while Shatterhand is correct, is methodology will kill millions and destabilize the world. “Isn’t that what is happening already?” Shatterhand smirks. The chamber suddenly starts to hiss and Bond realizes he is in giant gas chamber. “Goodbye Mr Bond. The only cure is…death!” Working on a distraction by Gala, Bond is frantic but miraculously produces his rebreather and using his sonic agitator ring, breaks the glass. He overcomes guards and in an exciting action sequence involving lots of machine gun fire, he and Gala escape, using Shatterhand’s helicopter.
WASHINGTON, USA
Bond meets Jack Wade of the CIA and they tour the city in Wade's beat up car. They arrive at a botanical institute. A keen horticulturalist, Wade reveals the results of the examination of the material Bond obtained at the Carter Harris Crib. These are seeds to some of the world’s most deadliest plants. “Slay it with flowers, Jimbo!”. Whatever Shatterhand is doing in his “Art of Living” facility in the Amazonian jungle, it must be stopped. Bond reports to the Pentagon and meets Falco who, lighting a Malboro with his Zippo says "I'd love to help you Barnd but my [censored] will be smoke if this goes wrong." "I did OK in North Korea last time." "Sure Barnd, but you had Jinx with you last time. This time you're solo." "And Gala?" "Don't be partying with her, Barnd. She's mine!" "Quite a distinctive brand."
BOND’S HOME, LONDON, UK
Bond wakes in his flat with Gala Brand. Bond does his morning exercises and then goes in for an icy shower followed by steaming hot. He is joined by a naked Gala. They later have breakfast together (scrambled eggs and we see all the Fleming brands on the tray). Suddenly, a team of assassins burst through and proceed to shoot the place up. Bond finds a concealed weapon (his old Walther PPK) and together he and Gala fend off the attackers. The fight is quick-paced and gritty, Bourne-esque but Mr and Mrs Smith-inspired repartee between Bond and Gala as they dispatch the assassins in a domestic setting, smashing pictures (including one of Desmond Llewelyn as Q) and using what is available (Bond's fridge protects 007 from a hail of bullets while he uses the rows of bottles of Bollinger RD, Smirnoff Vodka and Heineken beer as projectiles). He even fashions a Molotov cocktail from a bottle of Tallisker whisky. Bond and Gala jump into his private car, the classic DB5 (parked in the plane-tree lined square off the King's Road) and race to Vauxhall Cross, SIS HQ.
M’s OFFICE, LONDON, UK
Bond has a flirtation with Moneypenny before introducing her to Gala Brand. The look on Moneypenny’s face is priceless. They both go in to see M – Gala is NSA security cleared. The plot is recapped. Bond says the attack on his home territory is reason enough to go after Shatterhand. Besides, the facility in the jungle needs to be destroyed and Gala knows all about it. They retire to the Situation Room with the MI6 regulars and the rest of the 00 Section. The Minister says it is political suicide. There is no international permission to do this - "Well, that hasn't stopped you before", Bond quips. Q goes through a further analysis of the seeds and poison making potential of the facility. M says most of the poison carrying terrorists have been apprehended but she backs 007. Gala Brand should go with Bond as she knows the facility.
“THE ART OF LIVING” AMAZON JUNGLE, EXTERIOR –
ENCLOSED JAPANESE BEACH LOCATION INTERIOR
Bond and Gala in micro-light aircraft recce the huge facility. They land and sneak in. They see manmade geyers, fumeroles and Shatterhand, walking around his facility in Japanese armour. A goon who failed him is thrown into a poison bush and the geyser which erupts every 10 minutes kills another spy, a giant cage of vultures hangs ominously, releasing the birds automatically for them to eat the rotting flesh of the bodies. Guards apprehend Bond and Gala but they are involved in a fight which takes them into the cage of vultures. However, here they are captured. Shatterhand "You see Mr Bond, Gala, my art of living is really a garden of death. While I collect (sneers disdainfully at Gala) art, I am also a collector of death." Bond and Gala and are tied to the geyser, due to erupt in 10 minutes and Shatterhand gloats saying his agents will wait for his order to release the toxins to the terrorist cells. Suddenly a fleet of micro-light aircraft appear – the rest of the 00’s together with SAS and DELTA force ops team. Swooping down they break into the facility. Bond and Gala are rescued and a major battle ensues. Shatterhand is killed by falling victim to his own poison plants "That's the art of dying, Shatterhand!". The facility being blown to smithereens and Bond and Gala escape by holding onto a massive hot air weather balloon. The last shot is of them floating high above the jungle in this.
END TITLE SONG: I WILL RETURN music by David Arnold lyrics by Don Black performed by Tony Bennett (this is the unused end title song from DAD and apparently Arnold tried to get Tony Bennett for Only Myself To Blame).
THE END OF SHATTERHAND
BUT
JAMES BOND WILL RETURN
Comments
Then we probably would had another AVTAK in terms of the grandpa Bond factor. Personally, I'm very glad it didn't happen.
But nicely envisioned all the same. Agree with Laz, glad it didn't happen though.
I always felt that if CR is/was such a good concept, it could have waited longer to become Bond 22, but it seems that the mutually exclusive condition that people are putting on this "what if" is too much for them to even entertain for fun.
I think that a treatment of YOLT the novel is an ideal vehicle for any outgoing Bond, esp. Pierce at his age and the issues running through that novel (as well as from OHMSS) could translate into very interesting and insightful themes cinematically, just as "Bond begins" was used to great, if not optimal effect in CR. This could have been a great opportunity for which ever director to make just that, a great Bond movie, had this outing been given the wider than normal creative bandwidth that CR received.
Could Brosnan's fifth have broken with tradition? My guess would be not, just going on, well, tradition. But to consider it, I don't think Brosnan's ever shown the acting chops to make a YOLT-type story work. I'd like to think he could pull it off, but then again I always thought he'd do better in the role than he actually did, so my default would be for him to prove my expectation wrong, and for his fifth to be as bad as his fourth, or his third. Like Laz says, glad it didn't happen.
Although I certainly don't consider CR's screenplay to be the best in years, I think it is a heck of a lot better than the screenplays for TND and DAD. When people talk about how much they love it, it would usually be because in their view, the screenplay (and other elements) was superb, not because it was an untraditional Bond film.
There is no reason IMO why Brosnan couldn't have done a fifth Bond film, traditional or not, if the foundation was strong enough. I think he was a brilliant Bond and I think he has the ability to handle any material presented to him. In fact, one of my biggest Bond regrets was that Brosnan didn't one final Bond film in 2004 (well, I would have loved for him to do two more Bond films, but I would be willing to settle for one.
I tend to share Dan's thoughts on the subject. This may be splitting hairs, but to me there's a difference between "traditional" and "formulaic" -- the former having a positive (or, at worst, a neutral) connotation, the latter having a negative connotation. DAD failed for me because it was the ultimate formulaic Bond film, totally lacking in inspiration other than the endless homages and seeming desire for cheap one-liners. Supes put it perfectly when talking of "creative bandwidth" -- DAD was infused with none. (BTW, I feel AVTAK failed for totally different reasons.)
That said, why not a fifth Brosnan film -- one that was "traditional" yet still inspired? Like Dan said, the big culprits from 1995-2002 were P&W and their writing. I know others feel differently, but my problem with the Brosnan films was never Brosnan himself. I always believed and enjoyed his characterization, and whatever his shortcomings as an actor, I firmly believe you do not need much in the way of "chops" to play Bond in an EON film. This ain't Hamlet.
Let Brosnan ask John Mctiernan to direct.
Give Brosnan more of a say in the production and story.
Put the script through more writers like TSWLM to come up with something more interesting than the last couple of films.
Hire a slightly older leading lady who can act rather than 'Denise Richards' style casting.
After packing the Brosnan era with young physical villains give him an older more sedentary foe in the classic style. Someone like Udo Kier.
The Klitscko brothers as henchmen?
A big YOLT/TSWLM style climax. Bond in the middle of a giant battle.
No CGI.
Yep yep yep, more so than non-Bond films, nothing get's shot without the greenlight from Babs and Michael; no one snuck in the CGI tsunami/parasailing or the ice palace when they weren't looking. In fact, the ice palace was Bab's idea. I just hate how they seemed to wash their hands of the excessed the past few films reached that lead them to the back to basics approach to CR as if they were innocent victims.
If you wanted to say, EON wanted to build a better mousetrap with CR, that sounds right IMO, Campbell, P&W, Wilson and Babs have all let slip comments qualifying what they thought of the Brosnan Bonds, not to wash their hands of them, but simply saying it like it is. IMHO. I never got the impression they weren't proud of their work on those films, just that they recognized them as of a type (P&W comments about writing for Brosnan I thought were particularly revealing, also Campbell's comments about not being interested in directing the second Brosnsn Bond), and they wanted to make something better with CR. And they did.
As many here keep pointing out (and I agree with them), there are very many different types of Bond films--this thread addresses that admirably IMO. Makes sense that those differences happened knowingly, and that the various creaters cared about the product they were making as much if not more so as us fans. I doubt Babs regrets her ice palace idea, the intent was a good one IMO, but the follow-through...yeah, I can see some step-away happening with that part of it. Perhaps she regrets hiring Tamahori? That I would credit, lol.
With CR, EON wanted to aim higher than the traditional Bond film. They hit their mark IMO. I may not like some of their other films, but I'm pretty sure they love all their cinematic children to various degrees, even the ugly stupid ones, lol.
Don't speak too soon, you're about to contradict yourself. :v Hopefully, you can one day learn from these others and appreciate the finer differences of the films, just telling how you regard many of the non-CR installments. Okay, contradiction about to take place...now
...well, at least you didn't outright call the Brosnan films EON's little inbred freaks.
And I think my eye is plenty objective, thanks. Why do I have to learn anything more about the films I don't like? Do you need to learn more about the ones you don't like? Or is it okay that you simply don't like them? I think it is, I may not agree with you but that's what makes a horse race, eh?
-{
He got the memo a little too late.
Even if I enjoy his Bonds, these are my two cents.