No, I don't think they have those ready. But I think/hope they have a treatment of a script or maybe even a half-finished one. I would be very surprised if they have a Bond actor ready, but it's not unlikely EON has a list of actors they want to screen test. I also fairly likely EON know of some directors they like and are considering. They may even had talks with one or more. Of course I don't know, it just seems possible and even fairly likely to me.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,721Chief of Staff
I honestly think Bond 26 is still far away. BB doesn't even seem to know whether Ernst Stavro Purvis & Julius Wade are going to be part of it or not (let's hope not, I seriously believe Bond desperately needs some fresh air in terms of writing). She said they could, but that's not certain.
The time gap between LTK and GE was something very special back then because of the financial/legal issues with MGM, but I'm afraid such a period is something quite possible nowadays, even without any unexpected problem. Just before the premiere of NTTD, Craig insisted on the fact those movies are supposed to be "rare", which would explain why the gap between the release of Sp and the official annoucement of NTTD was so big. We had almost four years between two movies involving many members of the same team, so let's imagine what it could be for a transition period like the one we are currently dealing with...
Honestly, no they wouldn't make a big fuss. These hires are always announced to the press months after it's a done deal. There are the occasional gossip column leaks and such, but they don't call Variety the second a contract is signed.
I don't think they have their new Bond yet, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if a screenwriter on Eon's payroll has been quietly working on "a take" for the past year. (Which, I don't need to tell anyone here, doesn't mean they're anywhere near a finished script.)
And I'd normally say that they wouldn't have a director without a script, but the way things have been going on the last couple, the directors they've met with have been asked for their take/pitch, and those conversations have sent them down roads before, so that hypothetical take that hypothetical screenwriter is working on may well have come from a director that's on the line, if not signed.
Other things to consider about what we know and what we think we know: in Some Kind of Hero, it's noted that Eon's publicist was telling the press AT THE TIME OF CAMPBELL'S SIGNING in early 2005 that "For now, Pierce Bronsan is still our Bond," even though Brosnan was let go over the phone a year earlier, while in the Bahamas filming After the Sunset (2004).
Pair that with SKOH's narrative that Barbara was shown Layer Cake and said "Craig is our next Bond," and later narratives which claim she had Craig picked since 1998's Elizabeth, and we have to admit that we not only do we not know what's actually happening, but we may never know, because Eon likes to craft its own version of what happens and when with this stuff.
Is a new Bond signed yet? Likely not. Is a new Bond picked out already? Based on the above, harder to say.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,721Chief of Staff
Whilst now not having to chase money to make Bond films, I still think you’d have heard something if they had all three lined up…but they don’t, so 🤷🏻♂️
They certainly do weave their own narratives: the official versions of Dalton’s hiring and leaving (the DVD docos have him as first choice for the role and deciding to not return himself for GoldenEye) are both disputed.
Along with James Bond we meet the beautiful Sacre joining 007 in high Yuletide adventure. She also has another name, but exactly what escapes me right now. Something clothes-realted, and a colour is also mentioned I think ......
It's going to be interesting to see how Amazon could potentially ruin the franchise. Reinventing isn't necessary...having a good movie and a good plot is. Bring Campbell back to direct it, pay him 10 million if they had to...he's been the best modern bond director to date.
BTW I'm new here, happy to be apart of the community now.
I disagree. The Bond franchise has been reinvented a number of times before, OHMSS, LALD, GE and CR are obvious examples. After Bond's death in NTTD a reinvention isn't a choice, it's necessary. We all hope for a good movie with a solid plot.
I may be in the tiny minority here.... but when the rumors swirled that Nolan wished to direct 3 films... all set back in the Cold War.... I was completely elated.. That is exactly what I'd voiced a number of times after the end of the Craig era.... wishful thinking.... but.... take a look at box office results across the board.... despite what media would have you believe... most of the population is nauseated with the injection of social / political / DEI themes into films....... There's a draw towards the nostalgia of just a good story... with good characters... true to the original texts... without all of the virtue signaling...... EON is standing at the edge of either knocking it out of the park..... or crashing and burning like Disney....
Thanks for the info. For a moment I hoped it was the international breakthrough of how "they" is written around here, but I guess that was over-optimistic.
Purvis & Wade were interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Today programme today and they contradicted past statements by BB and MGW and said that they had not spoken to the Bond producers about the next Bond.
This is despite BB and MGW (see my messages on page 7 messages #201, #202 and #203 from October 2022) telling Empire magazine that they would reinvent Bond with P&W. A year later and no progress? It seems unlikely to me.
I understand the Box Office benefit of distance between two Bonds but we're now more than 2 years since NTTD was released and almost four since it was first supposed to be released. I guess if we assume 4 years between Bond25 and Bond26 simply for Box Office reasons, then it would be an October 2025 release with the new Bond named a year earlier, as we saw the DC and CR.
The interview with P&W starts at 1hour 38mins with the Dr Nicola Fox guest editor.
True, but the thing is..trying to reinvent to appease the times we are in doesn't always work out well. Example: Top Gun Maverick kept the character pretty much the same, but obviously he's older now. They didn't go and find a new Maverick yet. Craig is done obviously, but they just need a great story/plot and a well directed movie and it'll be a success. Reinventing Bond to be a woman wouldn't work out well IMO.
There is a new James Bond youtuber with a channel titled "Analyze This, Mister" Bond" and i think he sounds interesting. In this video he's talking about where the James Bond movies should go next, and in my opinion it's the best .... well, analyzis of this I've seen so far:
Contemporary - facial recognition tech challenge for a spy
Naval background - draws strength from it *
Strong military aspect to the character *
Worldly Bond is part of his drive, knowledge, hedonistic
Friends from across the world who help.
Bond not going rogue. *
Articulate and wit
Bond immersed in a culture, building film around that, e.g. most of the film in today's Tokyo
An eye to geopolitical climate *
Reposition 00 branch within MI6 as super secret paramilitary team
Q becomes more of a quartermaster and not a scientist
Spycraft needed, like Bond sweeping room for bugs.
Going back to intelligence of spy work *
Small shifts in emphasis, no big change
I think he addressed more of Bond's character than I did, but certainly the next Bond is unlikely to be 'wrecking ball' Bond, as he describes DC's Bond, and the idea of a more espionage take, which I have referenced elsewhere on this discussion, is going to see a more intelligent Bond, less brawn.
I was thinking about appealing to a younger audience and I thought about the writers. We know BB and MGW will likely tap Purvis & Wade again for the reinvention, if they haven't already, but how old are these people?
Casino, Purvis is now 62 years old and Wade is 61. Paul Haggis is in his 70s and was in his 50s when he co-wrote Casino. Of course P&W started on TWINE when they were in their mid-30s.
Quantum, a P&W script was thrown out and we know Haggis did some work, and they officially are the screen writers, so the average age is not getting any lower.
John Logan wrote Skyfall, and he is 62 now and was 51 when he worked on Skyfall.
Spectre is officially the Skyfall team again with Logan and P&W, so still the average age is not falling much, even with Jez Butterworth onboard who was 46 when they made Spectre in 2015.
NTTD saw two of the youngest writers to work on a Bond film. Cary Joji Fukunaga was in his early 40s when he worked on NTTD and Phoebe Walle-Bridge was about 35.
Maybe the solution is to have writers in their early, mid-30s, so they have the experience to do the job but are close enough to the younger audience. Perhaps P&W can advise, so a framework is set out with the reinvention and the younger writer(s) write the screenplay.
Wouldn't believe anything at this point. EON only allows the information they want to get out to get out when they want it to get out. That was a bit of a mess. Anyway, ever since the Skyfall / Sony email leak mess, EON appears to have been pretty successful in controlling the information that gets out. I just want the next Bond film out while my faculties and still mostly intact.
I agree with HowardB that EON are careful with their communication. I think BB and MGW, if he's not retired by then, will be equally careful with the selection of writer(s) for Bond26 - to be distributed by Universal. Assuming Bond26 is not already a Nolan film, who would BB pick to work with Purvis & Wade on it? I think P&W will be involved to some degree.
I think the writer(s) BB will want will be in their early to mid-30s, just as P&W were, experienced but young enough. Probably preferably British, but I won't make that a make or break issue, but I think she will want someone she has worked with before and BB has had various non-Bond projects.
Her most recent film, Till, had a 35 year old writer-director, Chinonye Chukwu, and she was born in Nigeria. Good expertise if you wanted part of Bond26 in Africa, a continent the franchise has shied away from.
Before Till, there was Ear for Eye, and this also had a women writer-director, Debbie Tucker Green, who is British and must be in her 30s, but I can't find a birthdate for her.
After the disaster that was Rhythm Section I can't see its writer Mark Burnell getting any Bond gigs anytime soon.
BB exec produced Trauma is a Time Machine, a film written and directed by her own daughter, Angelica Zollo. EON has been a family business but could BB have her own daughter write for Bond26?
BB exec produced Nancy with another writer-director, Christina Choe, who is American and has mostly directed TV. She could be 40 by now, so getting on the older side for a writer that really needs to be younger,
Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool is probably BB's best and most well known non-Bond project and its writers are both men who are going to be way above the early, mid-30s age criteria.
I'm not going to go further back, as 10 years will mean any writer now in their early to mid-30s would be in college or just recently out of it.
I think the list above gives an idea about who BB is looking to work with and after Phoebe Walle-Bridge's input on NTTD we could probably see another female writer working with P&W. I can't see PWB coming back to Bond though and she seemed to play down her role when asked about it.
P&W wrote a crime thriller and a highwayman adventure before joining the Bond franchise, so may be the new writer needs to have more of a thriller background.
Comments
No, I don't think they have those ready. But I think/hope they have a treatment of a script or maybe even a half-finished one. I would be very surprised if they have a Bond actor ready, but it's not unlikely EON has a list of actors they want to screen test. I also fairly likely EON know of some directors they like and are considering. They may even had talks with one or more. Of course I don't know, it just seems possible and even fairly likely to me.
I think Eon always have a list of both potential actors and directors…
Me too. The question is if they have contacted any of them yet.
Without a finished script, EON will have a problem getting any quality directors interested.
Agreed. At least a script well into development. It helps if the director is also a script writer.
I honestly think Bond 26 is still far away. BB doesn't even seem to know whether Ernst Stavro Purvis & Julius Wade are going to be part of it or not (let's hope not, I seriously believe Bond desperately needs some fresh air in terms of writing). She said they could, but that's not certain.
The time gap between LTK and GE was something very special back then because of the financial/legal issues with MGM, but I'm afraid such a period is something quite possible nowadays, even without any unexpected problem. Just before the premiere of NTTD, Craig insisted on the fact those movies are supposed to be "rare", which would explain why the gap between the release of Sp and the official annoucement of NTTD was so big. We had almost four years between two movies involving many members of the same team, so let's imagine what it could be for a transition period like the one we are currently dealing with...
Honestly, no they wouldn't make a big fuss. These hires are always announced to the press months after it's a done deal. There are the occasional gossip column leaks and such, but they don't call Variety the second a contract is signed.
I don't think they have their new Bond yet, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if a screenwriter on Eon's payroll has been quietly working on "a take" for the past year. (Which, I don't need to tell anyone here, doesn't mean they're anywhere near a finished script.)
And I'd normally say that they wouldn't have a director without a script, but the way things have been going on the last couple, the directors they've met with have been asked for their take/pitch, and those conversations have sent them down roads before, so that hypothetical take that hypothetical screenwriter is working on may well have come from a director that's on the line, if not signed.
It's messy, but Eon is kinda messy!
Other things to consider about what we know and what we think we know: in Some Kind of Hero, it's noted that Eon's publicist was telling the press AT THE TIME OF CAMPBELL'S SIGNING in early 2005 that "For now, Pierce Bronsan is still our Bond," even though Brosnan was let go over the phone a year earlier, while in the Bahamas filming After the Sunset (2004).
Pair that with SKOH's narrative that Barbara was shown Layer Cake and said "Craig is our next Bond," and later narratives which claim she had Craig picked since 1998's Elizabeth, and we have to admit that we not only do we not know what's actually happening, but we may never know, because Eon likes to craft its own version of what happens and when with this stuff.
Is a new Bond signed yet? Likely not. Is a new Bond picked out already? Based on the above, harder to say.
Whilst now not having to chase money to make Bond films, I still think you’d have heard something if they had all three lined up…but they don’t, so 🤷🏻♂️
They certainly do weave their own narratives: the official versions of Dalton’s hiring and leaving (the DVD docos have him as first choice for the role and deciding to not return himself for GoldenEye) are both disputed.
"Disputed" is putting it nicely.
A bit late but I don't see anyone else reporting it. Nolan said 'no Bond film' for him in late November.
Some wonder if Bond26 will ever arrive. I know something that is already happening: This year's AJB007 Christmas Special - Coldfinger!
Link: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/56289/the-ajb007-christmas-special-2023#latest
Along with James Bond we meet the beautiful Sacre joining 007 in high Yuletide adventure. She also has another name, but exactly what escapes me right now. Something clothes-realted, and a colour is also mentioned I think ......
(AI generated images)
It's going to be interesting to see how Amazon could potentially ruin the franchise. Reinventing isn't necessary...having a good movie and a good plot is. Bring Campbell back to direct it, pay him 10 million if they had to...he's been the best modern bond director to date.
BTW I'm new here, happy to be apart of the community now.
Welcome @sloopsuit 🍸️
I certainly wouldn't be against MC returning.
Welcome, Sloopsuit.
I disagree. The Bond franchise has been reinvented a number of times before, OHMSS, LALD, GE and CR are obvious examples. After Bond's death in NTTD a reinvention isn't a choice, it's necessary. We all hope for a good movie with a solid plot.
I may be in the tiny minority here.... but when the rumors swirled that Nolan wished to direct 3 films... all set back in the Cold War.... I was completely elated.. That is exactly what I'd voiced a number of times after the end of the Craig era.... wishful thinking.... but.... take a look at box office results across the board.... despite what media would have you believe... most of the population is nauseated with the injection of social / political / DEI themes into films....... There's a draw towards the nostalgia of just a good story... with good characters... true to the original texts... without all of the virtue signaling...... EON is standing at the edge of either knocking it out of the park..... or crashing and burning like Disney....
DEI?
It's an American abbreviation for "diversity, equity, and inclusion."
Thanks for the info. For a moment I hoped it was the international breakthrough of how "they" is written around here, but I guess that was over-optimistic.
Purvis & Wade were interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Today programme today and they contradicted past statements by BB and MGW and said that they had not spoken to the Bond producers about the next Bond.
This is despite BB and MGW (see my messages on page 7 messages #201, #202 and #203 from October 2022) telling Empire magazine that they would reinvent Bond with P&W. A year later and no progress? It seems unlikely to me.
I understand the Box Office benefit of distance between two Bonds but we're now more than 2 years since NTTD was released and almost four since it was first supposed to be released. I guess if we assume 4 years between Bond25 and Bond26 simply for Box Office reasons, then it would be an October 2025 release with the new Bond named a year earlier, as we saw the DC and CR.
The interview with P&W starts at 1hour 38mins with the Dr Nicola Fox guest editor.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj9z
Interesting find. Thanks someone.
True, but the thing is..trying to reinvent to appease the times we are in doesn't always work out well. Example: Top Gun Maverick kept the character pretty much the same, but obviously he's older now. They didn't go and find a new Maverick yet. Craig is done obviously, but they just need a great story/plot and a well directed movie and it'll be a success. Reinventing Bond to be a woman wouldn't work out well IMO.
Good points. It's about how and how much they change the movies, not if they do it. There is a chance they get it wrong and that's a worry.
There is a new James Bond youtuber with a channel titled "Analyze This, Mister" Bond" and i think he sounds interesting. In this video he's talking about where the James Bond movies should go next, and in my opinion it's the best .... well, analyzis of this I've seen so far:
It's a good video, I'll check out some of his other videos,
He packed a lot into the 30mins, here is my bullet point summary below. I was pleasantly surprised that he also ticked off some of the comments I made (I've put a star against them) in my post here https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1046788#Comment_1046788
Appeal to younger audience *
Bond will have been born in the late 1980s, 1990s
Contemporary - facial recognition tech challenge for a spy
Naval background - draws strength from it *
Strong military aspect to the character *
Worldly Bond is part of his drive, knowledge, hedonistic
Friends from across the world who help.
Bond not going rogue. *
Articulate and wit
Bond immersed in a culture, building film around that, e.g. most of the film in today's Tokyo
An eye to geopolitical climate *
Reposition 00 branch within MI6 as super secret paramilitary team
Q becomes more of a quartermaster and not a scientist
Spycraft needed, like Bond sweeping room for bugs.
Going back to intelligence of spy work *
Small shifts in emphasis, no big change
I think he addressed more of Bond's character than I did, but certainly the next Bond is unlikely to be 'wrecking ball' Bond, as he describes DC's Bond, and the idea of a more espionage take, which I have referenced elsewhere on this discussion, is going to see a more intelligent Bond, less brawn.
I was thinking about appealing to a younger audience and I thought about the writers. We know BB and MGW will likely tap Purvis & Wade again for the reinvention, if they haven't already, but how old are these people?
Casino, Purvis is now 62 years old and Wade is 61. Paul Haggis is in his 70s and was in his 50s when he co-wrote Casino. Of course P&W started on TWINE when they were in their mid-30s.
Quantum, a P&W script was thrown out and we know Haggis did some work, and they officially are the screen writers, so the average age is not getting any lower.
John Logan wrote Skyfall, and he is 62 now and was 51 when he worked on Skyfall.
Spectre is officially the Skyfall team again with Logan and P&W, so still the average age is not falling much, even with Jez Butterworth onboard who was 46 when they made Spectre in 2015.
NTTD saw two of the youngest writers to work on a Bond film. Cary Joji Fukunaga was in his early 40s when he worked on NTTD and Phoebe Walle-Bridge was about 35.
Maybe the solution is to have writers in their early, mid-30s, so they have the experience to do the job but are close enough to the younger audience. Perhaps P&W can advise, so a framework is set out with the reinvention and the younger writer(s) write the screenplay.
Wouldn't believe anything at this point. EON only allows the information they want to get out to get out when they want it to get out. That was a bit of a mess. Anyway, ever since the Skyfall / Sony email leak mess, EON appears to have been pretty successful in controlling the information that gets out. I just want the next Bond film out while my faculties and still mostly intact.
I agree with HowardB that EON are careful with their communication. I think BB and MGW, if he's not retired by then, will be equally careful with the selection of writer(s) for Bond26 - to be distributed by Universal. Assuming Bond26 is not already a Nolan film, who would BB pick to work with Purvis & Wade on it? I think P&W will be involved to some degree.
I think the writer(s) BB will want will be in their early to mid-30s, just as P&W were, experienced but young enough. Probably preferably British, but I won't make that a make or break issue, but I think she will want someone she has worked with before and BB has had various non-Bond projects.
Her most recent film, Till, had a 35 year old writer-director, Chinonye Chukwu, and she was born in Nigeria. Good expertise if you wanted part of Bond26 in Africa, a continent the franchise has shied away from.
Before Till, there was Ear for Eye, and this also had a women writer-director, Debbie Tucker Green, who is British and must be in her 30s, but I can't find a birthdate for her.
After the disaster that was Rhythm Section I can't see its writer Mark Burnell getting any Bond gigs anytime soon.
BB exec produced Trauma is a Time Machine, a film written and directed by her own daughter, Angelica Zollo. EON has been a family business but could BB have her own daughter write for Bond26?
BB exec produced Nancy with another writer-director, Christina Choe, who is American and has mostly directed TV. She could be 40 by now, so getting on the older side for a writer that really needs to be younger,
Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool is probably BB's best and most well known non-Bond project and its writers are both men who are going to be way above the early, mid-30s age criteria.
I'm not going to go further back, as 10 years will mean any writer now in their early to mid-30s would be in college or just recently out of it.
I think the list above gives an idea about who BB is looking to work with and after Phoebe Walle-Bridge's input on NTTD we could probably see another female writer working with P&W. I can't see PWB coming back to Bond though and she seemed to play down her role when asked about it.
P&W wrote a crime thriller and a highwayman adventure before joining the Bond franchise, so may be the new writer needs to have more of a thriller background.
Jane Goldman is a strong candidate. Kingsmen, The Debt, Kick-Ass. She can write a more fun Bond.