James Bond is a franchise that prides itself with changing its situations to mirror the actions of the real world around it. Unfortunately, the franchise may have its work cut out for them now. The real world has evolved so quickly, essentially changing national roles, partnerships, and stances that the franchise is finding hard times trying to keep up.
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have co-written every Bond film since the 1999 film The World is Not Enough. After Skyfall, the pair retired from the Bond franchise, returning in the late stages to polish up the script for Spectre. In an interview with The Telegraph, Purvis admits that writing a Bond film in today’s rapidly changing world is next to impossible:
“The thing is, I’m just not sure how you would go about writing a James Bond film now. Each time, you’ve got to say something about Bond’s place in the world, which is Britain’s place in the world. But things are moving so quickly now, that becomes tricky. With people like Trump, the Bond villain has become a reality. So when they do another one, it will be interesting to see how they deal with the fact that the world has become a fantasy.”
The duo admits that the trouble with the production of Spectre had a lot to do with studio interference, and uncertainty. Actually the studio interference was substantial. At times, it felt like the film was doomed, but one person saved it:
“People were already in pre-production on the film, and they wanted to see things all the time. And sometimes they couldn’t decide what they wanted until they’d seen it written. So you write scene upon scene upon scene. You write so much. But how it finally got shaped was probably down to [Sam Mendes,] the director.”
They go on to talk about how a full-scale replica of Westminster Bridge was built at Pinewood Studios, so the film was tied to somehow making a helicopter crash on the bridge. They originally had James Bond chasing to go back to M and to choose spying over the girl, but the studio overruled their decision. This is a big problem with story tellers. With all the recent studio intervention, you would think that studios would realize they are making bad choices, and they need to leave the movie-making up to the professionals. With recent studio intervention leading to box office bombs like Suicide Squad, Fantastic Four, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, lets hope they will finally get the hint.
Will the duo return to the Bond franchise again? According to Wade:
“Never say never, but for sure, Spectre felt like it closed off a certain way of doing Bond. And I think whatever happens next will be quite different.”
There is no word whether or not Daniel Craig will return as James Bond in the next film, or if he is done with the franchise.
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