I was reading earlier through some of the ideas that people have proposed to how Bond26 can continue and a number of people still cling to the idea that Mathilde and Madeleine might make an appearance.
A thought came to my mind - is it possible Bond26 has not been put into production because the producers are waiting for Lisa-Dorah Sonnet, the actress who played Mathilde, to reach a certain age so she can return as a teenager or young adult? 😅
I'm not sure to understand. How could Bond 26 use the Craig era's timeline after what happened in NTTD ? Or do those people suggest the next film should not feature Bond considering he's dead and instead of that, keep going with the Scooby gang, Nomi, Madeleine and Mathilde ? But in that case, it wouldn't be a Bond film anymore...
I don't think the idea of waiting for Bond's daughter makes any sense economically, logically or in any other way. Let's also make it clear: having Bond's daughter take over the movie series means no longer making James Bond movies.
What could possibly work is making her the main character in some other format such as YA novels or an animated TV series. But this should never happen at the expense of James Bond movies in the cinema, obviously in a differnt timeline than CraigBond.
Would putting a one-movie character like Mathilde into the literary universe just because she's CraigBond's daughter really work? I'm not sure. Not forgetting IFP probably wouldn't be interested in such a concept.
Most of the authors who had the privilege to keep Fleming's universe alive seem to be strongly attached to Bond's journey from CR to TMWTGG. I like when Kim Sherwood describes Bond as "conqueror of SMERSH", although it doesn't match with the period. I take it as a way to remind the reader it's the original character she's dealing with.
I'm not a big fan of the concept, but In my opinion it's the only ways I can see something centered on Mathilde could work. Waiting for the "right" time to let her take over the movies doesn't work for me at all.
Yes I see your point, but when you think about it, why would people want to learn more about Mathilde?
She's just one character among many others, and given Bond's paternity is everything but a new concept, I really don't see any reason to explore it again. Benson's short story 'Blast from the past' is a good conclusion to Kissy Suzuki's pregnancy in YOLT. I don't think a series of novels involving Mathilde would be very successful considering the global audience's lack of interest for the literary universe.
I think this writer got it right, a more conservative Bond reboot, meaning not some radical change, is a likely outcome after Hollywood's recent travails. MGW sort of referred to that idea of a more conservative Bond when he talked about Bond26 having a Bond who is already in their mid-30s, experienced, already a member of the 00 section. I'm still mystified as to why we had so much reinvention talk in late 2022 and then it all dissipated.
I am also not a fan of the idea but could see it in some kind of spin off media like a book series. The concept of Mathilde being hunted down by Dryden's daughter could be quite a gripping read. (Dryden was one of Craig's first kills. He has a daughter who is pictured very briefly after he is shot in CR).
Considering that the Wai Lin and Jinx concept films never got the go-ahead, I can't see how the Bond films would continue without James Bond in some kind of secret agent role as the central character. I think Joker 2 has proven that experimentation is a dead horse.
Remember NTTD ends with the line "James Bond will return" and the Bond series has always had the ability to bounce back after periods of uncertainty.
Sadly, the periods of uncertainty before were due to MGM's financial woes or Daniel Craig being a nervous nellie, this time around the uncertainty is entirely self-imposed by EON, the worst kind. I hope I'm wrong but I think the Project 007 game is going to be the only Bond 'content' we'll see for some time. I have previously referenced the international distribution deals EON/MGM had with Universal and Warner Bros for Bond26 and Bond27 but I can only imagine that they used the actor's strike to break those under the legal concept of "force majeure," basically meaning 'unexpected outside forces make this deal impossible'.
An explanation of force majeure and the entertainment industry can be found here.
I would also say there were also periods of uncertainty due to the performance of certain films. For example if DAF had been a flop after the lower takings of OHMSS, there was speculation that the Bond series might not have continued into the 70s. The same thing happened in 1974 after the lower takings of TMWTGG. And again in 1985 after AVTAK. Uncertainty continued throughout Dalton's era since his films were not quite so successful in the USA and judging by some documentaries I have seen, not everyone at United Artists was satisfied with 2nd choice Dalton after the whole debacle with Brosnan over his Remington Steele contract.
In searching the interweb for Bond26 news I came across this Youtuber, who claims there will be a Christmas announcement about Bond and the reason why is also why movement on Bond26 has been delayed. This may explain that Amazon executive's odd comment about not being bothered about Bond26's timing.
The guy's comments are at about 7 minutes into the video. He's a ScifFi Youtuber but he claims to know about Bond because of connections in the world of Stargate and another reboot of that franchise which is owned by MGM. He says that Sony are going to be involved in the Stargate reboot and ALSO Bond. That is odd because of the previous deals announced with Universal and Warners Bros.
Pascal left Sony in February 2015 but she has continued to work with Sony on Spiderman movies and Pascal joined the MGM Board and has produced a TV show for Amazon MGM.
So, there is lots of history and recent connective tissue between MGM and Sony with Amy Pascal in there. I have read in the past that Pascal is pals with BB.
Whether these things are true or not, it does seem we are getting trickles of information that do seem to be adding up. The Christmas announcement also matches with what fulhambond has been mentioning in his thread about Paul Mescal in the running as the next Bond. Also in the original link which started this thread:
Barbara was originally quoted in 2022 as saying the next Bond film would be two years away from production. So a Christmas 2024 announcement does fit.
As it's about 8 weeks until Christmas week, I think I will start a Bond marathon - 28 films in 8 weeks (Yes, I will include the three unofficial ones as well 😆)
Q is mentioned in Fleming's Casino Royale (not 'Q Branch', but 'Q'). It's not specified if that is a person or not, but there is an entity named as Q by M, and as M is a person it's reasonable for the reader to assume Q is a person too.
The most obvious USP Eon/MGM has is James Bond 007: the name is a trademark.
If the Christmas announcement is to be believed, wouldn't it make more sense for Paul Mescal to be in the running for the part?
Kraven the Hunter will be released on December 13th. If ATJ is announced as Bond at around the same time, he will be less likely able to promote this film since he will just be bombarded with Bond related questions in any interview he takes part in.
Gladiator II will be released in November so Paul Mescal will have enough time and space to do promotions and interviews for this film without being clouded by the Bond bandwagon.
I don’t see ATJ getting it unless Kraven is a dead cert dud: he’ll be signed up to a sequel and the 007 guys won’t be likely to go near him if he’s likely to do another. It’ll probably bomb, but that’s in no small part down to his zero screen presence, another reason not to hire him as Bond.
My comment was a little bit sarcastic. My opinion is the only info we might get this year will be given by Broccoli and Wilson themselves during the Governors Award on November 17. They could officially announce they're currently working on the next movie (script?).
For the rest, I just think it's too soon and I don't expect anything before 2025.
A-ha! Thanks for reminding me! Yes, that Deadline article, two years from June 2022 could mean 2025 principal photography. About Paul Mescal, we know two things about what MGW and BB want, a taller Bond and a mid-thirties Bond. Irish Mescal is 5' 11 according to IMDB, so just tall enough maybe, but he was born in 1996 so he's only 28 years old. He looks his age too. He can do an English accent, you can hear when he speaks in the Gladiator II trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgYUipGJNo (Is this for the US market where ancient civilisations need to have English accents?)
Looking at IMDB, Mescal doesn't have anything in pre-production, he only has some movies now in post that will no doubt get released next year. So, he seems to be available. I wonder if Mescal and ATJ's Bond futures are dependent on how well the films do? But after a special screening of Gladiator II, the buzz is very, very positive. ATJ's Kraven on the other hand has had its release date moved again and again.
Comments
Major Boothroyd is mentioned in the films too, so could still be tricky…no gun barrel either - but that’s hardly hindered the Craig tenure 🤣
License the theme tune? 🤣 That will be another decade going through the courts then 😳
This may be of interest -
I was reading earlier through some of the ideas that people have proposed to how Bond26 can continue and a number of people still cling to the idea that Mathilde and Madeleine might make an appearance.
A thought came to my mind - is it possible Bond26 has not been put into production because the producers are waiting for Lisa-Dorah Sonnet, the actress who played Mathilde, to reach a certain age so she can return as a teenager or young adult? 😅
Nice money if you can earn it by doing absolutely sweet Fanny Adams.
Very true. This subsequent article
has only a fleeting reference to Bond (it's in the penultimate paragraph) but a very relevant one to the subject of this thread.
I'm not sure to understand. How could Bond 26 use the Craig era's timeline after what happened in NTTD ? Or do those people suggest the next film should not feature Bond considering he's dead and instead of that, keep going with the Scooby gang, Nomi, Madeleine and Mathilde ? But in that case, it wouldn't be a Bond film anymore...
I don't think the idea of waiting for Bond's daughter makes any sense economically, logically or in any other way. Let's also make it clear: having Bond's daughter take over the movie series means no longer making James Bond movies.
What could possibly work is making her the main character in some other format such as YA novels or an animated TV series. But this should never happen at the expense of James Bond movies in the cinema, obviously in a differnt timeline than CraigBond.
Would putting a one-movie character like Mathilde into the literary universe just because she's CraigBond's daughter really work? I'm not sure. Not forgetting IFP probably wouldn't be interested in such a concept.
Most of the authors who had the privilege to keep Fleming's universe alive seem to be strongly attached to Bond's journey from CR to TMWTGG. I like when Kim Sherwood describes Bond as "conqueror of SMERSH", although it doesn't match with the period. I take it as a way to remind the reader it's the original character she's dealing with.
I'm not a big fan of the concept, but In my opinion it's the only ways I can see something centered on Mathilde could work. Waiting for the "right" time to let her take over the movies doesn't work for me at all.
The quicker they forget the Craig reign the better it will be.
Not forget, but it's important that they ignore it when making more movies.
Yes I see your point, but when you think about it, why would people want to learn more about Mathilde?
She's just one character among many others, and given Bond's paternity is everything but a new concept, I really don't see any reason to explore it again. Benson's short story 'Blast from the past' is a good conclusion to Kissy Suzuki's pregnancy in YOLT. I don't think a series of novels involving Mathilde would be very successful considering the global audience's lack of interest for the literary universe.
Maybe, but not in the movies.
I think this writer got it right, a more conservative Bond reboot, meaning not some radical change, is a likely outcome after Hollywood's recent travails. MGW sort of referred to that idea of a more conservative Bond when he talked about Bond26 having a Bond who is already in their mid-30s, experienced, already a member of the 00 section. I'm still mystified as to why we had so much reinvention talk in late 2022 and then it all dissipated.
I am also not a fan of the idea but could see it in some kind of spin off media like a book series. The concept of Mathilde being hunted down by Dryden's daughter could be quite a gripping read. (Dryden was one of Craig's first kills. He has a daughter who is pictured very briefly after he is shot in CR).
Considering that the Wai Lin and Jinx concept films never got the go-ahead, I can't see how the Bond films would continue without James Bond in some kind of secret agent role as the central character. I think Joker 2 has proven that experimentation is a dead horse.
Remember NTTD ends with the line "James Bond will return" and the Bond series has always had the ability to bounce back after periods of uncertainty.
Joker 2 failed, But if experimenting in movies is over, then movies are over.
Maybe I should rephrase and say "major" experimenting usually leads to box office disaster
That's a better way to say it. 🙂
The most radical thing they could do at this point is to give us the Bond we used to expect.
I've had the same thought.
Sadly, the periods of uncertainty before were due to MGM's financial woes or Daniel Craig being a nervous nellie, this time around the uncertainty is entirely self-imposed by EON, the worst kind. I hope I'm wrong but I think the Project 007 game is going to be the only Bond 'content' we'll see for some time. I have previously referenced the international distribution deals EON/MGM had with Universal and Warner Bros for Bond26 and Bond27 but I can only imagine that they used the actor's strike to break those under the legal concept of "force majeure," basically meaning 'unexpected outside forces make this deal impossible'.
An explanation of force majeure and the entertainment industry can be found here.
https://www.sagaftra.org/sites/default/files/sa_documents/How%20Will%20Force%20Majeure%20Impact%20Writers%20Strike_%20It's%20Complicated%C2%A0%20-%20Variety.pdf
I would also say there were also periods of uncertainty due to the performance of certain films. For example if DAF had been a flop after the lower takings of OHMSS, there was speculation that the Bond series might not have continued into the 70s. The same thing happened in 1974 after the lower takings of TMWTGG. And again in 1985 after AVTAK. Uncertainty continued throughout Dalton's era since his films were not quite so successful in the USA and judging by some documentaries I have seen, not everyone at United Artists was satisfied with 2nd choice Dalton after the whole debacle with Brosnan over his Remington Steele contract.
In searching the interweb for Bond26 news I came across this Youtuber, who claims there will be a Christmas announcement about Bond and the reason why is also why movement on Bond26 has been delayed. This may explain that Amazon executive's odd comment about not being bothered about Bond26's timing.
The guy's comments are at about 7 minutes into the video. He's a ScifFi Youtuber but he claims to know about Bond because of connections in the world of Stargate and another reboot of that franchise which is owned by MGM. He says that Sony are going to be involved in the Stargate reboot and ALSO Bond. That is odd because of the previous deals announced with Universal and Warners Bros.
Sony distributed Skyfall and Spectre when Amy Pascal was Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures but she had to resign due to embarrassing emails revealed by the Sony hack. https://www.heyuguys.com/sony-mgm-unite-to-release-bond-23-24/
Pascal left Sony in February 2015 but she has continued to work with Sony on Spiderman movies and Pascal joined the MGM Board and has produced a TV show for Amazon MGM.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1166871/?ref_=nmbio_ov_i
So, there is lots of history and recent connective tissue between MGM and Sony with Amy Pascal in there. I have read in the past that Pascal is pals with BB.
Whether these things are true or not, it does seem we are getting trickles of information that do seem to be adding up. The Christmas announcement also matches with what fulhambond has been mentioning in his thread about Paul Mescal in the running as the next Bond. Also in the original link which started this thread:
https://deadline.com/2022/06/james-bond-daniel-craig-next-007-reinventing-barbara-broccoli-1235053969/
Barbara was originally quoted in 2022 as saying the next Bond film would be two years away from production. So a Christmas 2024 announcement does fit.
As it's about 8 weeks until Christmas week, I think I will start a Bond marathon - 28 films in 8 weeks (Yes, I will include the three unofficial ones as well 😆)
Q is mentioned in Fleming's Casino Royale (not 'Q Branch', but 'Q'). It's not specified if that is a person or not, but there is an entity named as Q by M, and as M is a person it's reasonable for the reader to assume Q is a person too.
The most obvious USP Eon/MGM has is James Bond 007: the name is a trademark.
It also gives credit to the ATJ theory considering Kraven is co-produced by Sony and will be released on December 13 in the US.
If the Christmas announcement is to be believed, wouldn't it make more sense for Paul Mescal to be in the running for the part?
Kraven the Hunter will be released on December 13th. If ATJ is announced as Bond at around the same time, he will be less likely able to promote this film since he will just be bombarded with Bond related questions in any interview he takes part in.
Gladiator II will be released in November so Paul Mescal will have enough time and space to do promotions and interviews for this film without being clouded by the Bond bandwagon.
I don’t see ATJ getting it unless Kraven is a dead cert dud: he’ll be signed up to a sequel and the 007 guys won’t be likely to go near him if he’s likely to do another. It’ll probably bomb, but that’s in no small part down to his zero screen presence, another reason not to hire him as Bond.
My comment was a little bit sarcastic. My opinion is the only info we might get this year will be given by Broccoli and Wilson themselves during the Governors Award on November 17. They could officially announce they're currently working on the next movie (script?).
For the rest, I just think it's too soon and I don't expect anything before 2025.
A-ha! Thanks for reminding me! Yes, that Deadline article, two years from June 2022 could mean 2025 principal photography. About Paul Mescal, we know two things about what MGW and BB want, a taller Bond and a mid-thirties Bond. Irish Mescal is 5' 11 according to IMDB, so just tall enough maybe, but he was born in 1996 so he's only 28 years old. He looks his age too. He can do an English accent, you can hear when he speaks in the Gladiator II trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgYUipGJNo (Is this for the US market where ancient civilisations need to have English accents?)
Looking at IMDB, Mescal doesn't have anything in pre-production, he only has some movies now in post that will no doubt get released next year. So, he seems to be available. I wonder if Mescal and ATJ's Bond futures are dependent on how well the films do? But after a special screening of Gladiator II, the buzz is very, very positive. ATJ's Kraven on the other hand has had its release date moved again and again.
https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/drama-movies/first-gladiator-2-reactions-call-the-sequel-epic-and-absolute-sicko-sh-t-with-oscar-buzz-for-denzel-washington-already/
Then again we normally get a director announced first...