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Michell NOT directing 'Bond 22'


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#1 Stax

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 07:08 AM

Now on the CBn main page...



Negotiations fall through for Roger Michell


Variety claims that negotiations with director Roger Michell have fallen apart over "creative differences" (happens all the time). Who do you think should step in to direct? And how do you think this might affect the film's May 2, 2008 release date (if at all)? Talk amongst yourselves ...

#2 Double-Oh Agent

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 07:56 AM

Well, since I wasn't all that excited about Roger Michell directing Bond 22, this news doesn't bother me. In fact, I like it.

Does this affect the release date of Bond 22? I don't think so--for now. However, if EON doesn't have a director signed by say November, then there are problems.

My top two choices for Bond 22 director remain John McTiernan and Wolfgang Petersen.

#3 crashdrive

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 08:45 AM

Ok, eventhough he didn't get the job, Michell still is the kind of director EON is interested in. So we can cross Michell off the Bond Director Prediction List and look whether the next candidate will be either Frears (who just wrapped his new film 'The Queen'), Jon Amiel (who despite the announcement of 'Angel Makers', isn't in preproduction), Stephen Hopkings (who is still available), Roger Donaldson (also available), Stuart Baird (eventhough he'd be too busy editing 'CR' for pre on Bond 22), Michael Caton Jones (also still available), Mick Jackson (although he isn't getting any younger) or Antonia Bird (yes a woman, but a very exciting choice). Time will tell.

#4 Double-Oh Agent

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 09:25 AM

Ok, eventhough he didn't get the job, Michell still is the kind of director EON is interested in. So we can cross Michell off the Bond Director Prediction List and look whether the next candidate will be either Frears (who just wrapped his new film 'The Queen'), Jon Amiel (who despite the announcement of 'Angel Makers', isn't in preproduction), Stephen Hopkings (who is still available), Roger Donaldson (also available), Stuart Baird (eventhough he'd be too busy editing 'CR' for pre on Bond 22), Michael Caton Jones (also still available), Mick Jackson (although he isn't getting any younger) or Antonia Bird (yes a woman, but a very exciting choice). Time will tell.

Of those, Donaldson or Caton Jones would be my choice.

#5 Loomis

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 11:50 AM

Variety claims that negotiations with director Roger Michell have fallen apart over "creative differences" (happens all the time). Who do you think should step in to direct? And how do you think this might affect the film's May 2, 2008 release date (if at all)? Talk amongst yourselves ...


Relieved it won't be Michell, although I totally agree with crashdrive that he was classic Eon material.

Who do I think should step in to direct? Any of the following: Je-gyu Kang (director of the 1999 South Korean smash SHIRI [try saying those last four words very fast several times in a row :) ], which is kind of like Bond meeting DIE HARD on a budget very low by Hollywood standards, but done very stylishly); John McTiernan (even though some of his recent stuff has been poor); Phillip Noyce (a dream pick after the likes of CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and THE QUIET AMERICAN - I gather he may have been approached for DIE ANOTHER DAY); Matthew Vaughn (probably already "too big for Bond", at least in terms of hype, but LAYER CAKE shows he wouldn't have been the worst choice in the world for CASINO ROYALE, and Eon evidently thought so too). Who I don't want to direct (even though I like their films): Christopher Nolan or Quentin Tarantino (but why do I get the feeling that they're going to be mentioned a lot on this thread? :P ).

Who do I think may step in to direct? Noyce seems the only realistic choice of my abovementioned filmmakers, but even then he doesn't exactly seem a frontrunner.

Will Stuart Baird (currently editing CR) step up to the plate? He fits Eon's UK/Commonwealth "seasoned pro" profile, and was also apparently in the frame to direct DAD (as well as a Harry Potter film). Has directed EXECUTIVE DECISION, U.S. MARSHALS and STAR TREK: NEMESIS. Funnily enough, promoting an editor to the director's chair is also very much in keeping with Bond tradition (Peter Hunt, John Glen), although Baird has, of course, managed to become a successful director without Bond's help.

Caton-Jones seems a very likely choice. Sure, he's given Sony a "flop" with BASIC INSTINCT 2, but then again it'll probably be very profitable on DVD, and SHOOTING DOGS, a very different, more "serious" film made around the same time, shows his versatility (or, if you prefer, his total lack of any kind of signature style :P ) and will have impressed Eon, which seems to set a lot of snob value by directors who've made at least one or two "worthy" films. Also, I believe that Caton-Jones was all but set as the director of GOLDENEYE.

Finally, none of this will affect the release date, which has been clearly announced not just to the industry but to the public. It's set in stone. Besides, there's ample time to sign a director. Well, not ample, perhaps, but just enough time, I should think.

Stuart Baird (eventhough he'd be too busy editing 'CR' for pre on Bond 22)


Good point, although he'll be finished with CR in November, and I gather that shooting on BOND 22 won't start until May - won't that be enough time? And I'd forgotten about Frears, the intended director of the Jinx spinoff film.

#6 Simon

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 12:35 PM

Of those, Donaldson or Caton Jones would be my choice.


Absolutely my choice too, and in that order.

#7 manfromjapan

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 01:17 PM

I don't think McTiernan will be doing it as he is waiting to find out if he is going to jail for perjury in the Pellicano case.

How about John Glen? I think picking different directors for each film is a great IDEA but the potential for a disappointing film is quite high.

My no.1 choice is Vic Armstrong or Ian Sharp (he did second unit on Goldeneye).

Sharp is an excellent action director (Who Dares Wins) and Armstrong knows Bond inside out and is a great action director too. Case in point, most of the best scenes in TWINE and Die Another Day were directed by him.

In fact, I think the second unit directors on the Bonds are so important that they deserve a co-directing credit or at least a more prominently placed credit on the main titles.

#8 SecretAgentFan

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 01:49 PM

Maybe Campbell will be persuaded to return, after all. Would like to see that. Or Philipp Noyce. I don

#9 stamper

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 01:50 PM

Roger Moore should be the director, can you imagine the media frenzy ??? :)

#10 Qwerty

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:23 PM

Now on the CBn main page...



Negotiations fall through for Roger Michell


#11 DLibrasnow

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:29 PM

I'm hoping that Campbell is persuaded to do a second one. I'd like to see the same director do two in a row again.

#12 Harmsway

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:30 PM

Michell's gone? That's good news.

#13 Qwerty

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:31 PM

I'm hoping that Campbell is persuaded to do a second one. I'd like to see the same director do two in a row again.


Me too. Doesn't seem likely though (at this point).

#14 Loomis

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:32 PM

I doubt that Eon has scrapped its apparent (unwritten but seemingly very firm) rule of hiring only UK/Commonwealth directors of a certain age and with a certain pedigree, but I wonder whether the loss of Michell (who fits that profile far more than most) indicates that Sony is determined to get a younger, hipper, more commercially-successful director this time, a bigger name, and maybe even *Shock! Horror!* an American.

The theory being that Sony has given way to Eon on various big issues during the Craig era, but for whatever reason or reasons wishes to have its own way on this one. Doesn't seem all that improbable, does it? Frankly, I find it hard to picture exactly what kind of "creative differences" Michell would have with Eon that would stand in his way of doing a Bond film.

But, as the crashmeister says, time will tell.

#15 crheath

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:42 PM

Let me be the first to say I am a bit disappointed of this news. I for one thought Mitchell would have been a good choice. I just finished watching The Bourne Identity. I think he would be a good choice, though I don't remember his name.

Let me be the first to say I am a bit disappointed of this news. I for one thought Mitchell would have been a good choice. I just finished watching The Bourne Identity. I think he would be a good choice, though I don't remember his name.


Got it: Doug Liman.

#16 Icephoenix

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:46 PM

Do you mean Doug Liman?

*Appears now you did :)

#17 zencat

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:48 PM

"Creative differences", eh?

Would love to hear the real story.

Not broken hearted. I think using Michell was heading back down the Apted road.

#18 crashdrive

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:50 PM

Here are a couple of other directors I can see directing Bond (while staying true to EON's criteria):

Richard Loncraine ('Richard III', 'Wimbledon' & 'Firewall')
Mike Barker (Best Laid Plans, A Good Woman & Butterfly on a Wheel (starring Pierce Brosnan & Gerard Butler)
Pete Travis (Henry VIII, Cold Feet & Vantage Point (starring William Hurt & Dennis Quaid)
Paul McGuigan ('Lucky Number Slevin' and in talks to direct 'The Equalizer')
Ian Softley ('Backbeat', 'The Wings of The Dove' & 'The Skeleton Key')
Peter Webber ('Girl with a Pearl Earring' and currently directing the 'Silence of the Lambs' prequel 'Young Hannibal')
Gregor Jordan ('Ned Kelly' & 'Buffalo Soldiers' and is currently working on 'The Tripods')
Nick Hamm ('Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence', 'The Hole' & 'Godsend')

And Loomis suggested Geoffrey Sax ('White Noise' & 'Stormbreaker'). I'd love to see Kevin Macdonald ('Touching the Void' & 'The Last King of Scotland') or David Yates ('Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix') but those choices are probably unlikely.

#19 avl

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:57 PM

Does it really make much of a difference? The films have hardly been auteur-driven in the past have they. In terms of direction, its pretty hard to tell any of them apart as opposed to overall tone serious/comic- smaller scale/epic, which I guess a director might have influence over but is unlikely to determine, especially now with a re-energised EON

#20 Bucky

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 02:59 PM

I didn't mind the choice of Michell as director since I liked Changing Lanes although I did agree that there were better choices out there. It would be excellent if Campbell came back as director although i doubt that will happen.

Edited by Bucky, 10 August 2006 - 03:25 PM.


#21 Agent007.5

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 04:03 PM

My top choice for director would have to be Mike Newell, who most recently helmed the fourth Harry Potter film, "...The Goblet of Fire" and I think he bring more humor but also can bring some dark and deep messages to Bond. My only other choice, who's not too busy right now is TND director Roger Spottiswoode, who has proven to be a great Bond director, since I personally think TND was Brosnan's best.

#22 Andrew

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 04:21 PM

I'd still like to see Frears give it a shot.

#23 K1Bond007

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 05:28 PM

I never thought Roger Michell was that great of a choice. Sorry, but I'm kind of glad this fell through. There are so many better directors out there. Michell's style just didn't vibe with the harder edge Bond film that I believe they're going for with Craig. He might have been good with Brosnan in a Michael Apted sort of way, but we need someone that can bring the 'danger' and 'thrill' of Bond back, but with style like only Bond can only do. Michell is not that director.

Hopefully Matthew Vaughn will be available. He's fresh, but he's also certainly a rising star. Stardust is released in March so.. that should free up him in just the nick of time to start work. There are others though.

#24 Qwerty

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 05:38 PM

I was happy with Michell as one of the main choices, especially after seeing Changing Lanes, which I feel is a very well directed film.

#25 tigerheart

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 05:45 PM

A shame - was looking forward to seeing what Michell might do with Bond.

Alternatives? I'd be up for Caton Jones or Vaughn. We've seen what the latter can do with DC as his leading man in Layer Cake...

#26 blueman

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 06:11 PM

My three favorite films of the past two years were LAYER CAKE, KISS KISS BANG BANG, and BRICK. All, oddly, were by first-time directors and they all proved to have a very sure grasp of the genre material they were doing, IMHO. I've always thought if you have that knack, doing good genre work, then you have the knack. Those films aren't Bond, but in the neighborhood of IMO, and I can see all three directors--Matthew Vaughn, Shane Black, and Rian Johnson--turning in a decent Bond film, certainly better Bond films than TWINE or DAD. IMHO and FWIW. I'm sure there's other directors out there I'm not familiar with (like Michell, although I liked that Craig was apparently pulling for him), as I doubt any of the three I mentioned would be tapped for Bond 22. Maybe Vaughn, but I would doubt Black or Johnson would want to do one.

#27 JimmyBond

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 06:13 PM

Hopefully Matthew Vaughn will be available. He's fresh, but he's also certainly a rising star. Stardust is released in March so.. that should free up him in just the nick of time to start work. There are others though.


I would love to see what Vaugn could do with a Bond film. Layer Cake looked really expensive for being a film done so cheap, I'd love to see how "polished" he'd make a Bond film look.

#28 SecretAgentFan

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 07:23 PM

Strange to hear about creative differences with Michell.

Can

#29 Righty007

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 07:28 PM

Marty might be persuaded back since Bond 22 isn't coming out in 2007.

#30 Thunderfinger

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Posted 10 August 2006 - 07:56 PM

Copppola would be terrific.
But he won