James Bond, the Amazon Era

As someone who doesn't have any affection or nostalgia for any Bond prior to Brosnan, I'm more excited by the idea of a fresh reboot than anything else.

Give me something set in modern day, unfettered by years of semi-canon, with cool gadgets and action sequences. Maybe leave out most of the blatant sexism.
 
Paul Andrew said:
As someone who doesn't have any affection or nostalgia for any Bond prior to Brosnan, I'm more excited by the idea of a fresh reboot than anything else.

Give me something set in modern day, unfettered by years of semi-canon, with cool gadgets and action sequences. Maybe leave out most of the blatant sexism.
Click to expand...

I am not sure if what you want is James Bond, in that case? ;)



Sean Connery Name GIF by James Bond 007
 
That article is probably correct. We will get an expanded universe of focus-grouped corporate content.

I'm picturing a Bond origin reboot. Bond himself will be re-framed as a misogynist Don Draper stereotype. The storyline will focus on some other mary-sue 000 agent who gets everything done while he is taking credit. She will have a situationship history with a young sexy version of Bloefeld. But now it's a few years later and Bloefeld is a growing threat to the agency. She gets torn between love vs career. Etc. This stuff writes itself.


I wonder why the Broccolis are selling the franchise. Is it only the money? Aren't they rich enough? If Barbara was tired of managing it then she could have found somebody better than Amazon. Look how they handled LOTR.

Maybe the Broccolis just think it's the end of the road for Bond, creatively. The entire Daniel Craig era was basically saying "Bond is a cold-war relic". Maybe they feel like it's time for their beloved family-pet-franchise to be put down, and Amazon is offering to pay them to do it. Surely they must know that Amazon will screw it up.
 
Paul Andrew said:
As someone who doesn't have any affection or nostalgia for any Bond prior to Brosnan, I'm more excited by the idea of a fresh reboot than anything else.

Give me something set in modern day, unfettered by years of semi-canon, with cool gadgets and action sequences. Maybe leave out most of the blatant sexism.
Click to expand...

What you are talking about is close to what we got with the start of the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies. Which is basically British action hero with the name James Bond. That's why I think the Bond movies ended with Licence to Kill.

batguy said:
Maybe the Broccolis just think it's the end of the road for Bond, creatively.
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There was an interview where the Bond producers were talking about taking polls or something. So they weren't the most creative people. Casino Royale was probably lucky in that they had the book as well. But there are elements in Casino Royale that show the problems that will turn up in later movies.

After that, the Daniel Craig movies basically went back to the Pierce Brosnan style. Of course, like others mentioned they also took from the Bourne movies and Dark Knight Trilogy.

There is a really good way to continue the Bond series. Perhaps the producers just didn't have it in them. It's worse than Star Wars to me in that you have 9 profitable movies between Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. None of which I would put ahead of the movies with Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton.

There was an interview with Timothy Dalton, which I can't find on youtube, where he talks about Bond and the books in the lead up to The Living Daylights. What he was attempting to bring to the screen. I hope I'm wrong but unless the new people in charge find a really creative director, I doubt we'll ever see that Bond in movies again.
 
batguy said:
I wonder why the Broccolis are selling the franchise. Is it only the money? Aren't they rich enough? If Barbara was tired of managing it then she could have found somebody better than Amazon. Look how they handled LOTR
Click to expand...

Amazon got their half of the rights when they bought MGM. And Barabra Broccoli didn't sell her half to Amazon either, she and Wilson still own half, its just that creative control has been shifted to Amazon.
 
Lightning said:
Amazon got their half of the rights when they bought MGM. And Barabra Broccoli didn't sell her half to Amazon either, she and Wilson still own half, its just that creative control has been shifted to Amazon.
Click to expand...

Shifting creative control is effectively selling the farm IMO. Just ask George Lucas. They might still be part-owners but that doesn't help if the new creatives crash the plane into the mountain.

A decade of bad content is enough to put most franchises out to pasture. 'Terminator' and 'Indiana Jones' were once mighty.


Wakeem said:
There was an interview where the Bond producers were talking about taking polls or something. So they weren't the most creative people. Casino Royale was probably lucky in that they had the book as well. But there are elements in Casino Royale that show the problems that will turn up in later movies.

After that, the Daniel Craig movies basically went back to the Pierce Brosnan style. Of course, like others mentioned they also took from the Bourne movies and Dark Knight Trilogy.

There is a really good way to continue the Bond series. Perhaps the producers just didn't have it in them. It's worse than Star Wars to me in that you have 9 profitable movies between Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. None of which I would put ahead of the movies with Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton.

There was an interview with Timothy Dalton, which I can't find on youtube, where he talks about Bond and the books in the lead up to The Living Daylights. What he was attempting to bring to the screen. I hope I'm wrong but unless the new people in charge find a really creative director, I doubt we'll ever see that Bond in movies again.
Click to expand...

You can't really put the pre-Brosnan style Bond into the modern world.

The cold war is over. High-tech gadgets get immediately disproven by Mythbusters or Youtubers. Exotic places are not as exotic as they used to be. Don Draper types get MeToo'd. People understand better why we shoudn't admire socopathic killers. Bond's loyalty to agency & country looks more colonial & dubious now. The same Austin-Powers cornball moments that became iconic 50 years ago would be laughed at today. Etc.

Stuff gets outdated. Robin Hood has been an iconic character for 800 years, but you can't put him in the modern world without changing him almost unrecognizeably. I love 'Smokey & the Bandit' and 'Dukes of Hazzard' but that world only works from about 1950-1990. 'Indiana Jones' only works from about 1900-1950. With the development of AI and military drones, 'Terminator' is probably at the end of its road right now.

Traditional James Bond only works from about 1950-1990. The world has changed too much since Ian Fleming's heyday. Modern Bond movies require changes. Either that or being set in the past.
 
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Wakeem said:
There was an interview with Timothy Dalton, which I can't find on youtube, where he talks about Bond and the books in the lead up to The Living Daylights. What he was attempting to bring to the screen. I hope I'm wrong but unless the new people in charge find a really creative director, I doubt we'll ever see that Bond in movies again.
Click to expand...

Quoting myself but I found that video with Timothy Dalton. It starts at his interview. I wish he got to make another Bond movie. But then he made two good ones.

 
cboath said:
And yet they've done great with Reacher. I've not seen rings of power, but, they wanted in the on the LOTR money. MGM went up for sale, Amazon bought it. Possibly the biggest asset in that purchase was Bond and what did the estate do? Shove their head in the sand. So, I can't say I blame Amazon for taking the reins as, clearly, no one else was doing it.

However, think they should actually produce something before it's trashed. This isn't KK and crew with a 5th SW flick that has a track record you can predict, this will be their first take. In the end, some will like it and some won't. I know some of the 'won't' crowd will not like it because they made up their minds ahead of time.
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I’m not prejudging whatever film they may ultimately make.
I am very concerned they will run Bond into the ground with too much product.
 
Lost in Trek said:
My biggest fear is that the studio will over saturate the market with Bond. What was once something special will now become routine and tiresome.
I can see it now… a new Bond movie every other year. Bond spinoffs… a movie just about the Q branch. A TV show about Money Penny. A series about Spectre.
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Wow, I wish I could pick lottery numbers as well I can predict what Amazon would do to Bond.

www.comingsoon.net

007: Moneypenny James Bond Spin-off Show Was Pitched by Amazon

A James Bond spin-off focused on the character Miss Moneypenny has been pitched by Amazon. Will it ever come to fruition, though?
www.comingsoon.net www.comingsoon.net
 
I watched some of the Denise Richards reality show. And not only does she drive a Corvette but it's stick shift too. I remember seeing a Christmas Jones fan poster some time ago. I never wanted a Jinx or Moneypenny spin off. I'm sure no one wanted a Christmas Jones spin off. But I can't recall right now any actresses that drive manual sportscars.
 
I've been a Bond fan since I was a child watching the Connery & Moore films being shown on Sunday afternoon TV.
With the proliferation of other actors playing the role and no continuity between storylines, I just accepted that James Bond 007 was a secret identity given to the agent who had that job at the time. Never read the books.

I adored the current batch of movies, with a storyline that has a continuous arc. Granted, I think it should have ended at Skyfall. That movie gave Bond a perfect sendoff. He gets the bad guy, gets the girl, gets the car, and he drives off. Done. No need for any more story. His arc is complete.

NTTD retconning the perfect ending and adding to the story was unnecessary. But I did like the callbacks to The Rock, which some folks say is the end of Connery's Bond character story, and I agree with that head cannon.

I'm okay with the Bond story continuing with a different actor, or picking up with Brosnan's or Dalton's Bond and continuing some story there, with a Bond more aimed at passing along legacy to a younger Bond candidate.
 
Why try to explain the Bond recasting at all?

Sure, they CAN do it. But that alone is not a justification. What's the benefit?


Star Wars could have explained how Darth Vader drinks coffee with that helmet on. But they didn't.
 
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