What changes were made to the original script?

Julius No M.D.

From what I've seen in the leaks versus the full movie, it appears as if the original story was going to be about SPECTRE usurping control of a single document. Concluding that it was too weak of a plot for Blofeld, they instead went for a 1984-style Big Brother plot with "Nine Eyes".

Also, the villains name was changed from Stockmann (sounds like some kind of Ayn Rand corporate hero) to Franz Oberhauser (in order to make him related to the Hannes Oberhauser).

Bond was originally supposed to kill Blofeld with a shot to the head, but the executives deemed it too brutal.

What other changes did you notice?

HatThrowingHenchman

he did find a tape of Vesper but never watched it ?:)

Sir Miles

Julius No M.D. wrote:

There was also supposed to be a tape of Vesper that Bond would find but never watch. Thankfully they didn't include this. Vesper doesn't need to keep coming back in every Bond movie.

But he DOES find the tape

Virgil37

Julius No M.D. wrote:

There was also supposed to be a tape of Vesper that Bond would find but never watch.  Thankfully they didn't include this.  Vesper doesn't need to keep coming back in every Bond movie.

Maybe in the original script it was a cassette tape and not a VHS tape as in the movie. . Just kidding.

Julius No M.D.

Oh, wow, that was such an insignificant part of the film, I barely remembered it. Why even include that if they weren't going to do anything with it?

welshboy78

To remind us its all linked / tie films together

chrisisall

And to reinforce that he's over her.

Sir Miles

Julius No M.D. wrote:

Oh, wow, that was such an insignificant part of the film, I barely remembered it. Why even include that if they weren't going to do anything with it?

Was it ? It's there to help tie everything in...

Sir Miles

chrisisall wrote:

And to reinforce that he's over her.

That's not how I see it...but I guess it's all relative and open to interpretation -{

chrisisall

Sir Miles wrote:

chrisisall wrote:

And to reinforce that he's over her.

That's not how I see it...but I guess it's all relative and open to interpretation -{

Well, he tossed on the table like he had no interest. Didn't he (I've only seen it once so far)?

Thunderpussy

Yes, I got the impression Bond was done with Vesper

Sir Miles

Thunderpussy wrote:

Yes, I got the impression Bond was done with Vesper

So you could just dismiss a woman you loved ?

You heartbreaker you )

Barbel

I think it's meant to represent closure. Two films ago, he'd have killed to see that!

Thunderpussy

He probably doesn't have a video player, it's all bluray or HD downloads
these days. and made by Sony obviously.

Gassy Man

Julius No M.D. wrote:

Oh, wow, that was such an insignificant part of the film, I barely remembered it. Why even include that if they weren't going to do anything with it?

It is greatly underplayed because nothing else in the film prepares the reader for it dramatically. We're just supposed to remember all the other films, or marginally the credits sequence, and rely on those, instead, for the emotional resonance. Weak writing. To me, the logical place to bring it up was the conversation between Bond and White. But it's played off instead more or less like the OHMSS scene where Bond pauses to look at the souvenirs of his previous adventures.

chrisisall

Gassy Man wrote:

We're just supposed to remember all the other films, or marginally the credits sequence, and rely on those, instead, for the emotional resonance. Weak writing.

Weak writing? Maybe to US, the real James Bond experts (no sarcasm there, btw), but in thinking about it, for a script written, re-written, and re-written yet AGAIN (by committee no less), I have to say they did a better than average job achieving what they set out to do. The final result was imperfect of course, but I have to give them kudos for coming as close as they did with what I feel is a VERY good entry into the franchise. I can quibble & nit pick with the best of them, however my expectations were totally exceeded with this one, and I call it a win for most of us. -{

MilleniumForce

Thunderpussy wrote:

Yes, I got the impression Bond was done with Vesper

And thank god! It's been 9 years! She betrayed him anyway, that was one of the most frustrating love stories I have ever seen.

Thunderpussy

) as he said himself " The bitch is dead" ........ now for " The next girl"

Virgil37

Thunderpussy wrote:

He probably doesn't have a video player, it's all bluray or HD downloads
these days. and made by Sony obviously.

Exactly my thoughts when I saw it. He wants to see it but thinks "bloody VHS tape..." )

Thunderpussy

) ) ) pity it wasn't a betamax " How the hell can I watch this ?"

chrisisall

Buying an old Betamax player off eBay burns time...

Virgil37

chrisisall wrote:

Buying an old Betamax player off eBay burns time...

Well, they could have included it. Bond goes to a laptop, and buys the Betamax player. It surely wouldn't have slowed down more the Tangier scenes, and would have added a couple of minutes tops,so 150 instead of 148, who cares?. The payoff would be in Bond 25 when he receives the player and plays the tape

Thunderpussy

It's odd , Mr White used such old equipment. Yet his new place
had all high Tec gear. He must have gotten Silva in for some IT
advice.

Youknowthename

HatThrowingHenchman wrote:

he did find a tape of Vesper but never watched it ?:)

Somehow Q forgot to equip Bond's phone with a VCR function :v

Sir Miles

Thunderpussy wrote:

It's odd , Mr White used such old equipment. Yet his new place
had all high Tec gear.

I thought exactly the same thing...I expected a DVD at least...

Napoleon Plural

I read that scene differently, it was a nasty blast from the past, he doesn't want to pick over an old wound. I mean, would you want to watch a tape of your loved one being tortured and/or interrogated?

Other stuff I mentioned in my thread about Bond's moral decision on the Spectre discussion board, but someone didn't see the joke and it got ignored. But yeah, Irma Bunt was meant to show up as a lesbian henchwoman to Blofeld, she made a play to Swann at one point. Also, the decision I guess was to have him do the opposite of what was in the film, but really would they have Blofeld show up for one adventure just to kill him? Sounds odd. Does make you wonder who the hell is in control of the writing process there.

The Red Kind

Agree with you regarding the Vesper tape NP.

Talking about Irma Bunt reminded me of the earlier production rumour that Brigitte Millar may somehow appear in a similar role in SP. I very much hope she returns for Bond 25, as for the brief moments we saw her at the SPECTRE meeting I thought she was excellent.

UnderwaterBattle007

There is a great discussion on James Bond radio the link is in another thread. I didn't realise there were two leaked scripts one in the October and one from the December .

There are some really interesting bits and some ideas that I'm sure are too good not to be used by EON in the future.

moneyofpropre

UnderwaterBattle007 wrote:

I didn't realise there were two leaked scripts

Two ?

There are more : https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commander007.net%2F2015%2F11%2Fspectre-script-17-octobre-partie-1%2F&edit-text=&act=url

Thunderpussy

Isn't that always the way. You wait years for a leaked script
then two show up at once !

Sir Miles

And very interesting reads they are ! Some good stuff was ditched there...better than what we ended up with in places...