1017 replies to this topic

[KHergesheimer]

George Lucas did it. Could be a similar situation. See to Disney or Warners, someone who can sustain and exapand the franchise, particularly in a world where cinema is under more pressure and other routes to monetization are increasingly important. Not farfetched that someone has made them an offer they can't refused.
MGW must be ready to retire, BB has strong interests in theatre and beyond, and maybe the next generation of the family are just not that committed and would rather walk away with a $1b or so.

[Tiin007]

Alternatively, I heard it once suggested that EON may be doing Craig a favor by waiting to announce his return and the schedule for Bond 25 until after Logan Lucky's promotional tour. Otherwise, Craig would be bombarded by Bond questions when he is trying to break out of the mold. 

[Gobi-1]

Entriely speculative - but perhaps a studio has been found, and the announcement regarding Bond 25 is being delayed so as not to interfere with work on a different film. If WB has won it, I'd imagine they'd want Nolan as their director and Hardy as Bond (assuming they go for recast) in which case the release of Dunkirk would be impacted by such an announcement - if they think its a good bit of aded publicity it would be announced just before the cast and crew start their press tour, however if they think it might distract from their own film, they'd leave it till after. Again this is entirely speculative and I was merely using WB and Dunkirk as the example given the rumors surrounding Nolan and Hardy, but any studio could be in this situation - Bond films aren't made in a vacuum.

 

Nolan usually doesn't announce what his next project will be until many months after his previous film has been released but if WB has acquired the MGM distribution rights I could certainly see them wanting to bang the drums as soon as possible.

[SecretAgentFan]

Alternatively, I heard it once suggested that EON may be doing Craig a favor by waiting to announce his return and the schedule for Bond 25 until after Logan Lucky's promotional tour. Otherwise, Craig would be bombarded by Bond questions when he is trying to break out of the mold. 

 

I guess if he´s doing press for LOGAN LUCKY he will be bombarded with questions about Bond anyway.  Goes with the territory if you´re Bond.

[RMc2]

 

Entriely speculative - but perhaps a studio has been found, and the announcement regarding Bond 25 is being delayed so as not to interfere with work on a different film. If WB has won it, I'd imagine they'd want Nolan as their director and Hardy as Bond (assuming they go for recast) in which case the release of Dunkirk would be impacted by such an announcement - if they think its a good bit of aded publicity it would be announced just before the cast and crew start their press tour, however if they think it might distract from their own film, they'd leave it till after. Again this is entirely speculative and I was merely using WB and Dunkirk as the example given the rumors surrounding Nolan and Hardy, but any studio could be in this situation - Bond films aren't made in a vacuum.

 

Nolan usually doesn't announce what his next project will be until many months after his previous film has been released but if WB has acquired the MGM distribution rights I could certainly see them wanting to bang the drums as soon as possible.

 

 

Some insider knowledge: Nolan gives WB virtually nothing to market his movies. On Dunkirk, he's given them even less than usual (hence those very repetitive ads), I don't know why that is. I think they're more likely to be doing all they can to push Dunkirk at the mo, rather than distract from it. In the wake of Wonder Woman's phenomenal success, they don't need more good news to keep shareholders happy.

 

Of course, Nolan's name might boost Dunkirk's ticket sales even further if he's the next Bond director...

 

Who knows? Maybe EON wants to keep things hush. Maybe their new partner wants to keep things hush. Maybe there is no deal.

 

 

Alternatively, I heard it once suggested that EON may be doing Craig a favor by waiting to announce his return and the schedule for Bond 25 until after Logan Lucky's promotional tour. Otherwise, Craig would be bombarded by Bond questions when he is trying to break out of the mold. 

 

I guess if he´s doing press for LOGAN LUCKY he will be bombarded with questions about Bond anyway.  Goes with the territory if you´re Bond.

 

 

We can but hope for some information from the lion's mouth.

[Orion]

Craig will be asked Bond questions LONG after he finishes. Look at Dalton's interviews for Penny Dreadful - 24 years after he last played Bond!

[Dustin]

If there a deal had been signed with MGM - prerequisite to any sort of progress on BOND 25 - then I think it would prove extremely difficult to keep it under lock and key for any length of time. The number of people in-the-know would grow almost exponentially with each day and there surely would be signs professional Hollywood gazers like Variety would pick up soon. I doubt this could be a secret for much longer than a couple of days. At most.

[Orion]

This is a point - devoid of court orders, nothing stays silent in film for long.

[SecretAgentFan]

Well, secret deals do stay secret in Hollywood.  And the trade papers are a far cry from what they were only twenty years ago.  These days, Variety and THR have been transformed into gossip rags, very, very rarely breaking really new stories - instead they are fed the stuff publicists want to get out.  Or they do the opinion pieces which are only click bait.

 

So, I believe a deal could have been done.  But it´s true: why do this deal and not publicize it then?

 

There must remain some problem.  Maybe something that happened after the deal was done, possibly making it useless anyway. 

[Red_Snow]

 

Alternatively, I heard it once suggested that EON may be doing Craig a favor by waiting to announce his return and the schedule for Bond 25 until after Logan Lucky's promotional tour. Otherwise, Craig would be bombarded by Bond questions when he is trying to break out of the mold. 

 

I guess if he´s doing press for LOGAN LUCKY he will be bombarded with questions about Bond anyway.  Goes with the territory if you´re Bond.

 

 

There will be no avoiding Bond questions when he starts promoting KINGS with Halle Berry later in the year.

[KHergesheimer]

Few rumors of Eon planning a Bond universe (http://birthmoviesde...ing-a-bondverse) appearing today....could be something in the works and reason for a delay? Mapping out Craig's return and several films in the pipeline announced and a new distribution deal all at the same time? Maybe Craig will end up directing one of the universe projects, would wet his appetite to explore his artistic side. Who knows.

[Orion]

It sounds bogus but even if it isn't, Thing is...there arn't that many characters that you could base a film round let alone a franchise. Beyond Felix Leiter and , maybe Moneypenny, I don't get who they'd have.

[KHergesheimer]

Agree, limited, but Felix Leiter, other OOs, SPECTRE....

[Orion]

SPECTRE - intrguing but would raise the question of "where's Bond in all this?" and then I don't see how using a different 00 would be any different to a normal Bond film.

[Dustin]

You would first have to establish these characters outside of Bond's immediate orbit, find an interesting premise and a storyline for them. Since they are living in Bond's world I doubt you could get away with dialling back on certain aspects of this, action and atmosphere would have to closely relate to the 007 brand. This would end up being Bond films without Bond; not perhaps the best recipe for success.

On top of that I don't see Eon go out of its way to make a Felix Leiter/Moneypenny/00X film series a priority between Bond films. This is a plan for a totally different outfit than Eon currently is. They could theoretically farm out the whole affair, yes. But does anybody really believe they would?

[SecretAgentFan]

I hope they won´t.

 

007 is special because he is singular.  Telling stories about 001-6 would diminish his allure.

 

And a production company which only a few years ago laughed off the idea of doing two Bond films back-to-back because "one Bond film alone is such a huge endeavour" will not be able to sustain the necessary rhythm of putting out at least one additional spin-off a year.  Hell, they can´t even commit to produce one more Bond film so far...

[KHergesheimer]

007 vs Predator? Just joking (I hope!). Agree with all those views, can't see Eon pulling it off, unless of course they are not involved and the franchise is acquired and managed by someone else. Still not a lot of room to maneuver, and it could diminish the main attraction. That wouldn't necessarily stop someone from trying (e.g. refilm the original novels, go retro, Netflix SPECTRE series, adapt the Gardner continuation novels for another 00....use your imagination, if there is a fragment of an idea it can be blown out into something much larger). If there is money to be made trust Hollywood to exploit it any way they can. Have to give credit to Eon as they have largely avoiding that in the past and protected the series from over exploitation, although for the life of Hildebrand please Eon give us some news.

[sharpshooter]

for the life of Hildebrand please Eon give us some news.

Once we get real Bond 25 news the fanbase will wake up. We like discussing the old films, but it's hard to deny the added purpose a new film gives us all. 

[Napoleon Solo]

I posted in another thread, but the source of this 007 film universe rumor (Jeff Sneider of The Tracking Board) also is a believer in the "James Bond is just a code name theory."

A week after his original tweet, he followed up on the subject via an online show called Meet the Movie Press

http://bit.ly/2t9EXix

[Dustin]

"...fun to speculate..."

Thanks for pointing to this, Napoleon Solo.

[Tiin007]

Is David Arnold hinting at his return for Bond 25, trolling us, or just having a little fun? 

 

https://twitter.com/...684686132236288

[Orion]

Arnold mostly just jokes around on twitter but he is theri first port of call if the director doesn't have a go-to composer, and, wierdly, Omega also unveiled a limited edition Bond watch today...coincidence? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably but I want to see movement on a Bond film!!

[sharpshooter]

Is David Arnold hinting at his return for Bond 25, trolling us, or just having a little fun? 

 

https://twitter.com/...684686132236288

I'd like to think so, but it's probably nothing.

[SecretAgentFan]

If this is nothing, he probably thinks he will never be called back and therefore free to capitalize on his prior connection to Bond.

 

But...

 

... why now?  There is no reason for him to allude to Bond right now, well, apart from feeling like it.

 

Then again...

 

... posting Bond´s ID after having found it again...

 

And, oh, it is Craig´s pic on that ID.  So maybe that indicates that Craig indeed is back.  And that Arnold will send him off musically on his last mission.  And that would close the circle. And...

 

 

Damn, he definitely succeeded in making me think about this.

[Pussfeller]

It seems reasonable to suppose that Arnold will be back, or at least that he's the most likely candidate, since the only reason he was absent from SF and SP was because Mendes wanted his own guy. 

[Orion]

Yes, and even Mendes actually met with Arnold regarding Skyfall - despite everyone involved (and indeed not) assuming Mendes would bring his own compser on.

[Dustin]

Like P&W, like Pinewood, Arnold would be one of those you'd naturally expect to be involved from an early stage perhaps.

[Orion]

Mendes mentions in a feature he did for Empire that EON have a whole crew on stand by "if you want to use them". He then goes on to explain that he only had three crew member he wanted to bring with him (Deakins, Newman and Gassner) and as one of those WAS EON's go to, he mostly used EON's people.

[KHergesheimer]

Wouldn't it be great if things were secretly in motion behind the scenes and we had a big announcement right around the time Craig's Lucky comes out that he's back (guaranteed headlines and great way to boost awareness of the film), they have a script, and a director (Nolan?) and ready to start pre-production? If Criag and/or Nolan areinvolved I suspect they would keep it very quiet until everyone was comfortable they had a decent script, thus avoiding the Spectre production/retro-fitting the script problems and taking pressure off. So potentially pre-production end of the year, filming early-mid next year (maybe suited for a particular location) and release late 2018/early 2019. It's possible, although you have to think something would have leaked by now.

[SecretAgentFan]

In a perfect world EON would have secured Craig, a distributor, a director and a workable script (there never will be a script that will not be second-guessed and constantly rewritten, that´s the reality of film production), and they all would have secretly worked on it in order to start production in late 2017.

 

But...  this world is far from perfect, I´m afraid.