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Mendes Laughs At Bond Fans (Really)


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#1 bill007

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Posted 28 April 2013 - 07:17 AM

From The Guardian, 19 Apr 2013......

 

Concerning Sam Mendes' lack of desire to direct another Bond film.....

 

 

What do you say to all the Bond fans you've disappointed?, which makes Mendes laugh.

 

I say to them, my life is not a democracy. It's not up for discussion. What? Maybe I should go on to one of the [Bond] chat threads and change my mind? I don't think that's going to happen.

 

There is more.....

 

http://www.guardian....eet?INTCMP=SRCH



#2 Quatermass

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Posted 28 April 2013 - 07:58 AM

Let him laugh. We can rise above it. Remember...he's a theatre lovey at heart. Bound by the Thespian Law that we proles don't understand the truth,beauty and philosophy that is...THE STAGE!  



#3 Jim

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Posted 28 April 2013 - 08:01 AM

Good for him. So he should.

#4 marktmurphy

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Posted 28 April 2013 - 11:31 AM

Can't see anything unreasonable there.



#5 Dustin

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Posted 28 April 2013 - 12:09 PM

Exactly. We didn't buy this man, did we?

#6 JohnnyWalker

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Posted 28 April 2013 - 12:16 PM

Only the people who'd complain about this have a problem.



#7 Hockey Mask

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Posted 29 April 2013 - 10:19 AM

Good for him! Still disappointed...but good for him.

#8 Dustin

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Posted 29 April 2013 - 10:51 AM

What we have to consider with the business of making Bond films is: by now it's become an enormous task that keeps a whole army of people at work, with the loin's share of the responsibility on the producers and the director. It's tough work that keeps these figureheads close company day in, day out for the best part of almost two years. Few creative projects call for a similar amount of dedication and plain old vigour for so long a time, with literally everything today depending on three or four opening weekends in the respective key markets of Europe, Asia and the US. We've witnessed a splendid success for SKYFALL, but fact is it could easily have come to a very different outcome with disastrous effects.

 

A director, any director, will think long and hard, and probably twice over, before he decides to go there a second time.   



#9 SecretAgentFan

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Posted 29 April 2013 - 02:25 PM

What do you say to all the Bond fans you've disappointed?, which makes Mendes laugh.

 

I say to them, my life is not a democracy. It's not up for discussion. What? Maybe I should go on to one of the [Bond] chat threads and change my mind? I don't think that's going to happen.

 

 

This is exactly the answer any sane person would give.



#10 Dustin

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Posted 29 April 2013 - 02:42 PM

Absolutely. Collective Bond lore has it Eon asked back every director since the days of Campbell's GE. Only Campbell accepted, with the added advantage of having an original Fleming novel as basis for his second effort. I've said this before, I would have been very surprised if Mendes had been game to continue with BOND 24, all the more so as people not at the steering wheel have already shown their intentions to stamp on the accelerator, seldom a good sign for a venture. 



#11 SecretAgentFan

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Posted 29 April 2013 - 03:38 PM

Well put.

 

And although I loved SKYFALL and Mendes´ work, I do think that changing directors is actually a wise thing to do for Bond these days. 

 

It´s not about giving the audience a new film every two years anymore, it´s about giving them an event, something new and fresh and different every time. The same director could not deliver that back-to-back.

 

Gone are the days in which audiences were hungry for Bond because there wasn´t anything else like it out there. Today, people can access whatever they like any second of the day. To actually make them go to the cinema or even pay attention - that can only be done with an "EVENT".

 

An unfortunate development, IMO. But I have grown up during a time when there were only three tv channels around, and any iPhone, Pad, whatever could only be dreamt up by Q branch. 



#12 glidrose

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Posted 30 April 2013 - 12:20 AM

 

Absolutely. Collective Bond lore has it Eon asked back every director since the days of Campbell's GE. Only Campbell accepted, with the added advantage of having an original Fleming novel as basis for his second effort. I've said this before, I would have been very surprised if Mendes had been game to continue with BOND 24, all the more so as people not at the steering wheel have already shown their intentions to stamp on the accelerator, seldom a good sign for a venture.

 

Not so sure they ever asked Roger Spottiswoode back. Apparently relations with the producers were chilly long before the end of production. I seem to recall Barbara Broccoli expressing regret that Judi Dench didn't hit him with her car one fine day during post-production. That titbit is from Dench's autobiography. She was none too thrilled with him either. Despite this I still think TND is Brosnan's finest Bond flick.

#13 Dustin

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Posted 30 April 2013 - 10:49 AM

 

Absolutely. Collective Bond lore has it Eon asked back every director since the days of Campbell's GE. Only Campbell accepted, with the added advantage of having an original Fleming novel as basis for his second effort. I've said this before, I would have been very surprised if Mendes had been game to continue with BOND 24, all the more so as people not at the steering wheel have already shown their intentions to stamp on the accelerator, seldom a good sign for a venture.

 

Not so sure they ever asked Roger Spottiswoode back. Apparently relations with the producers were chilly long before the end of production. I seem to recall Barbara Broccoli expressing regret that Judi Dench didn't hit him with her car one fine day during post-production. That titbit is from Dench's autobiography. She was none too thrilled with him either. Despite this I still think TND is Brosnan's finest Bond flick.

 

 

 

I think Spottiswoode claimed so himself in an interview, there's even a thread on it here. Can't find the original interview though, could have been a bit more ambiguous than a simple 'Would you consider doing the next one, too?' In the end only the people directly involved will ever know how serious such inquiries were at the time. Or if the 'regret' about an avoided accident falls in the same category as Diana Rigg's garlic... 



#14 Shrublands

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Posted 30 April 2013 - 11:00 AM

From what I understand, it's all just schmooze. They say they are invited back, but are not actualy invited back.

The exceptions are Campbell and Mendes, who were indeed invited back.



#15 Dustin

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Posted 30 April 2013 - 11:15 AM

From what I understand, it's all just schmooze. They say they are invited back, but are not actualy invited back.

The exceptions are Campbell and Mendes, who were indeed invited back.

 

Well, I can see the reasoning behind Eon wanting to have a director back even after a shaky production. They are at the helm and have all the control over their productions; no director is going to deliver something they didn't approve in the first place. So it makes little difference whether a director is happy with their decisions or not, in the end it's always Eon's film, directed by...

 

That said you are probably right, having some director back for a second go would not always be as splendid as interviews would suggest.    



#16 Sir_James_Moloney

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Posted 30 April 2013 - 11:45 PM

I had hesitated looking at this thread but I'm delighted to see such sensible responses to such an inflammatory topic. 

 

Absolutely. Collective Bond lore has it Eon asked back every director since the days of Campbell's GE. Only Campbell accepted, with the added advantage of having an original Fleming novel as basis for his second effort. 

 

Absolutely. And also a decade in between times



#17 bill007

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Posted 02 May 2013 - 03:59 AM

I thought it was cool he recognized those of us who do populate the message boards.  Who knows, maybe he even lurks among us. As maybe Michael and Barbara.  After all, we are the devoted, aren't we?



#18 RMc2

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Posted 02 May 2013 - 08:19 AM

I thought it was cool he recognized those of us who do populate the message boards.  Who knows, maybe he even lurks among us. As maybe Michael and Barbara.  After all, we are the devoted, aren't we?

 

Are you Sam Mendes?



#19 SecretAgentFan

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Posted 02 May 2013 - 04:46 PM

Nope. We had to kick Mendes off again and again because he always picked a fight with inflammatory remarks about Marc Forster.