1531 replies to this topic

[terminus]

It could - my previous post about using his casting as Hildebrand and using it as his second turn only just occured to me. We're only one person away from opening up a second round too. Or we can keep his casting of Hildebrand and allow him another turn as it wasn't a set-field - what do people think?

As long as people understand that, in the future, adding new fields is a bit not encouraged.

[SamuelKevlar]

I recall it being discussed earlier that this UB would have more of a group feel to it, seeing more 00s and other intelligence agents involved in the action. And with Felix Leiter already getting his own chase sequence, that does indeed seem to be happening. I'm all in favour of it - every mention of another 00 or the glimpses we saw in TB and TWINE are favourite moments of mine. However, as set up now the only moment they all come together is a particularly dark one, with one 00 killed and another grievously wounded. It's also set in an evocative location with the Scarlet Sails, but again it is dark, literally this time. Most of the action takes place in a crowd. I propose an earlier sequence, perhaps taking place in the as-of-yet unchosen location, where the group work together more cohesively and succesfully, before everything starts going down the tube in this middle, Empire Strikes Back style entry to the series. I'm thinking something along the lines of the team missions in the Mission Impossible films, particularly the Vatican sequence in the third one. I'd be happy to put in something along these lines for my third go, but I'd first like to check if this is amenable to the direction you're all wanting to go in.

[terminus]

Hmmm. I'd certainly consider it - it could probably fit as the first sequence to feature Bond in the movie (after the sequence with Felix). My only worry would be that it would somehow lessen the awesomeness of the St. Petersburg sequence by us having brought all of the Double-Oh's together before it.

[coco1997]

Hmmm. I'd certainly consider it - it could probably fit as the first sequence to feature Bond in the movie (after the sequence with Felix). My only worry would be that it would somehow lessen the awesomeness of the St. Petersburg sequence by us having brought all of the Double-Oh's together before it.

Who are some of the members who participated in the past but haven't this round? Perhaps someone could get in contact with them to inform them we have a new game running. I've done my fair share of recruting new members (Jeo007, theMoorethemerrier) but it's getting harder and harder to introduce new people to the game. As we all know, the game is mostly enlivened by the core members here (terminus, Mr. Blofeld, tdalton, Tightpants, chrisno1 (who has been absent from this round), SamuelKevlar and myself). Assuming the previously named members continue to participate, we can count on the pro forma being finished not long from now. But getting our final member involved before moving on to the third turn has been a pain.

[terminus]

Yes - my general rule of thumb is to wait about 48 hours after the previous participant. With Halloween coming up and school vacations in the UK having been this past week, though, it may have held up some people.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I'll try to get ConnerysToupee to participate, but no guarantees, I'm afraid...

[terminus]

The more people involved in the project, the more collaborative and diverse and interesting it is!

[tdalton]

Hmmm. I'd certainly consider it - it could probably fit as the first sequence to feature Bond in the movie (after the sequence with Felix). My only worry would be that it would somehow lessen the awesomeness of the St. Petersburg sequence by us having brought all of the Double-Oh's together before it.

I think that the mission where the Double-oh section is basically decimated (0011 is eliminated, 008 severely injured, and Bond narrowly escaping as well) should be the first time that the three come together as a team in the story. We know that they're all great agents (Bond obviously is, Goodnight showed her abilities in Choice of Weapons, and 0011 would have to be pretty good to be promoted at such a young age), and the idea of them teaming up for a mission in the middle of the film should inspire the idea in the audience that it's going to be a walk in the park for them, which makes it all the more shocking when it turns out to be a total disaster, which also lends to the overall darker tone that this entry should have.

[terminus]

Would it be a better idea to have a mission with just Bond and 0011 at the start? Just throwing the idea out there.

[chrisno1]

I've been too busy to contribute to UB27, but I've read the posts today and and can see it is shaping very well. Nice few debates raging! Collaboration! Wonderful thing...

1. I'm probably in a minority, but I am not in favour of a mass 00 assault and shoot out. If I want to watch The Magnificent Seven, I will, but this idea fills me with no excitement what so ever. Can anyone explain to me what will be the purpose, other than to introduce to a audience approx 12 cast members who will hardly ever recur again? Let's remember this is a JAMES BOND fan flik not AN M.I.6. fan flik. I won't stop you pursuing it, but I really hate it...

2. I'm surprised we are relegating Hildebrand to a MacGuffin. This seems wholey inappropriate, especially as the movie is named after him. He has the backstory best ripened for development. Along with Feliz, (a name worryingly close to FELIX) we have a nice double act. But with Quinn, her henchman and (possibly 2) from Quantum all appearing, I fear we are overpopulating the piece with hoods in the way we might overpopulate with 00s...

3. Nambola is a good idea, but we just had a sort of Nambola episode in UB26 when we resolved the movie in Senegal. I THINK WE NEED TO WORK HARDER ON THAT END OF THE STORY TO MAKE IT WORK, CUTTING IN HILDEBRAND AND FELIZ AS APPROPRIATE...

I've cut and pasted the last full post and give it some thought, but as said, I'm rather busy at the moment.

[tdalton]

I've been too busy to contribute to UB27, but I've read the posts today and and can see it is shaping very well. Nice few debates raging! Collaboration! Wonderful thing...

1. I'm probably in a minority, but I am not in favour of a mass 00 assault and shoot out. If I want to watch The Magnificent Seven, I will, but this idea fills me with no excitement what so ever. Can anyone explain to me what will be the purpose, other than to introduce to a audience approx 12 cast members who will hardly ever recur again? Let's remember this is a JAMES BOND fan flik not AN M.I.6. fan flik. I won't stop you pursuing it, but I really hate it...

To be honest, I'm not in favor of a mass assault or shoot out for that scene either. The way that I see it going down would be just the three double-ohs (Bond, Goodnight, 0011) going on a rather covert assignment, and when they get in, they very quickly find out that it's a trap. I think that it would toy with the audience's expectations a bit because they would think that they're getting ready to watch some kind of epic showdown between the good guys and the bad guys, only to have the scene end very quickly and with more damage being done to the good guys than to the villains. I'd almost go as far as to say that it wouldn't even be an action sequence at all, but rather just a scene that really turns out to be a horrific moment in the film.

I'd have it set up so that the three Double-ohs infiltrate some kind of structure or complex, but within a couple of minutes, they've realized that it's a trap set by Quinn and Mr. White with the purpose of finishing off the people who have been standing in their way for all this time. I would have it so that Bond would be forced to watch what happens to his colleagues (perhaps he's physically restrained and it takes him a while to free himself) before he's able to make an escape and get himself and Goodnight out of there.

[Captain Tightpants]

1. I'm probably in a minority, but I am not in favour of a mass 00 assault and shoot out. If I want to watch The Magnificent Seven, I will, but this idea fills me with no excitement what so ever. Can anyone explain to me what will be the purpose, other than to introduce to a audience approx 12 cast members who will hardly ever recur again? Let's remember this is a JAMES BOND fan flik not AN M.I.6. fan flik. I won't stop you pursuing it, but I really hate it...

I believe the proposal is that only two or three Double-Oh agents will be involved: 007, 008 and 0011. The idea behind it is that MI6 will attempt a decapitationary strike, taking out the Quantum leadership in one blow. But it all goes horribly wrong.

2. I'm surprised we are relegating Hildebrand to a MacGuffin. This seems wholey inappropriate, especially as the movie is named after him. He has the backstory best ripened for development. Along with Feliz, (a name worryingly close to FELIX) we have a nice double act. But with Quinn, her henchman and (possibly 2) from Quantum all appearing, I fear we are overpopulating the piece with hoods in the way we might overpopulate with 00s...

It's not a MacGuffin in the strictest sense. I believe terminus referred to him as a MacGuffin in the way he forms the central plot idea, and that without him, there is no story. His plan revolves around a modern form of alchemy, transforming lead into gold using a newly-discovered element (which is more of a deus ex machina than a MacGuffin if we're being technical).

3. Nambola is a good idea, but we just had a sort of Nambola episode in UB26 when we resolved the movie in Senegal. I THINK WE NEED TO WORK HARDER ON THAT END OF THE STORY TO MAKE IT WORK, CUTTING IN HILDEBRAND AND FELIZ AS APPROPRIATE...

I included Senegal for a purpose in UB26: we spent far too much time in America. Seriously, Oak Ridge was enough. But then we got Chicago, which was tolerable and someone suggested San Diego, and we were all hard-pressed for ideas. I had to rip off THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (the glider), SE7EN and INCEPTION (the power station) in various ways to come up with an idea for an action sequence. Senegal was there to get Bond out of America, because it felt like a dead end. And yes, it wasn't executed that well - the Senegalese subplot was touched on during the Barcelona sequence, and then left until the end to Make It All Connected. But I don't see Nambola as being in the same vein. It's key to the plot here: Feliz (sidebar: we may want to consider renaming him ... "Feliz" is hardly an African name, but then, there was a sixteenth-century Bolivian revolutionary named Bernando O'Higgins because his grandfather was an Irish sailor who was shipwrecked off the Chilean coast ... maybe Feliz could have a similar family history and be insecure about it) wants to improve his nation's fortunes by using the Hildebrand Rarity to increase his gold reserves. Unlike Senegal, this was directly worked into the plot from the outset.

[coco1997]

I wouldn't be opposed to changing Feliz's surname if it would sound more appropriate. I'm more concerned with keeping the casting. However, I do like the name Henrik.

Any suggestions for a new name?

[terminus]

All interesting points to consider - perhaps 'action sequence' is too strong a phrase to describe how I pictured the teaming up of the three Double-Oh's (we decided a few treatments ago when we brought in Goodnight that our Double-Oh Section would, like Fleming's, be relegated to three members), I'm picturing more of a mix between the footchase at the start of QOS, mixed with the opening of XXX and a smidgeon of the footchases from Bourne. A very tense sequence with the Double-Oh Section trying to take down or bring in Mr White - whilst Quantum agents, most notably Quinn, try and take them down.

And, yes, perhaps 'macguffin' was the wrong term to use to describe Emeric Hildebrand as he's been named.

I do like the name Feliz - but it is quite similar to Felix. I'm happy to change his name - but we can keep the first name as I wrote into the backstory of Nambola that it was a former Dutch colony so a name like Henrik would fit the character.

I've compiled a list of viable names (from the No. 1 Ladie's Detective Agency series which is set in Botswana):

Makutsi
Matekoni
Potokwane
Polopetsi
Radiphuti
Sephotho

But we could also look at other Botswanan politicians to borrow surnames from - since Nambola is, at least, geophysically, based on Botswana.

[coco1997]

I've compiled a list of viable names (from the No. 1 Ladie's Detective Agency series which is set in Botswana):

Makutsi
Matekoni
Potokwane
Polopetsi
Radiphuti
Sephotho

But we could also look at other Botswanan politicians to borrow surnames from - since Nambola is, at least, geophysically, based on Botswana.

Hmmm...the only ones that caught my eye are Makutsi and Sephotho. But Makutsi almost sounds Japanese, so I'll go with Sephotho.

President Henrik Sephotho of Nambola

Also, any plans to open the floor for the next turn, terminus?

[terminus]

Actually - was just about to post when you made your post. I do have an idea of how the bits and pieces are going to fit together - and may post that later. But here's the proforma - let's open round three now:


THE HILDEBRAND RARITY

1 Bond - Daniel Craig

2 Bond Girl 1 (Main ie Vesper/Camille): Inna Korobkina as Yelena Minkova, a Belorussian prima donna ballerina performing in an adaptation of The Daughter of the Snows. She falls in with Bond after surviving an assassination attempt in a case of mistaken identity, having been poisoned with grayanotoxin (a poison derived from honey pollinated by the rhodendron flower). She always wears a scarf to conceal a surgical scar running around her neck after she had an operation on her thyroid, also known as a "Chernobyl necklace"; she survived the accident at Pripyat as a young girl. When the scarf has been removed, it looks as if someone has tried to decapitate her.
3 Bond Girl 2 (Minor ie Solange/Fields): Kerry Condon as Aoife Daly, MI6 logistics agent assigned to St Petersburg (think Nicky in the Bourne movies).
4 Bond Girl 3 (Background Girl): Jeany Spark as Vera (attache to the Space Tourism launchsite in Nambola if we decide to go that route, if not then just a receptionist at a hotel)

5 Henchman:

6 Villain: Giancarlo Esposito as Henrik Sephotho, the leader of a country
7 Villain 2: Jesper Christensen as Mr. White
8 Villain 3: THE HEAD OF QUANTUM (to be decided by group consensus)
9 Villain 4: Melanie Laurent as Quinn; Elias Koteas as "Shaw" (TBC)

10 Other Figures: Wolf Kahler as Dr. Emeric Hildebrand

11 M: Timothy Dalton
12 Moneypenny: Emily Blunt

13 Ally 1: Yvonne Strahovski as Mary Goodnight, 008
14 Ally 2: Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter
15 Ally 3: Max Minghella as Geoffrey Hastings, the new 0011, orphan, ex-RAF, idolises Bond, who sees an uncomfortable amount of himself in the younger man, though with an optimistic belief in the cause that he has since lost.

LOCATIONS - CHINA IS NOT TO BE USED, NOR ARE LOCATIONS IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

16 Pre-Titles Location: London
17 Location 1: St. Petersburg, Russia, during the Scarlet Sails, the high point of the city's White Nights Festival.
18 Location 2:
19 Location 3: Nambola (An African country [fictional, of course] and former Dutch colony bordered by South Africa, Angola and Botswana. About sixty percent of its income comes from diamond mining but there is also a thriving gold mining industry too - that said, it is still considered, in comparative terms, to be a third world country. This could be the country that Henrik Feliz is the leader of).
20 Location 4: Germany (because they have the second largest stockpile of gold outside of the US)

KEY PLOT POINTS

21 Villains Plot: For centuries, many scientists have attempted to find a method of converting lead into gold and vice versa. This has been impossible - until now. A scientist, named Hildebrand, has discovered a chemical process that does the impossible - using a rare chemical isotope/compound known as 'The Hildebrand Rarity'. Our villain seeks to use this process to turn governmental stockpiles of gold into lead - significantly increasing the prices of his own gold stockpiles whilst also creating new-gold using the process.

22 Pre-Title Sequence Stunt: Eric Wright (Stephen Moyer), a high-level MI6 agent, is being stalked through the streets of a city. He can't see his pursuer, as she is hidden in the darkness, with only a silhouette that is visible. She stalks him for several minutes, as Wright ducks into several establishments trying to lose her. Eventually he is cornered in an abandoned square when he's shot in the leg by another unknown assailant. He's left immobilized, allowing the woman to catch up with him. When she's revealed to the audience, we see that it is Quinn. She holds a gun on him, demanding the whereabouts of James Bond, Agent 007. He initially refuses, but gives the information up after Quinn promises not to shoot him. When he gives up the information, she continues to point her gun at him, prompting him to beg for his life. "You promised you wouldn't shoot me." "You're right, I promised that I wouldn't shoot you. Luckily for me, he," she says, motioning off into the darkness, "didn't make that promise." A gunshot rings out, Wright falls to the ground, and Quinn walks back into the darkness, where she is joined by a man we see only as a silhouette.

23 Major Stunt 1: Felix Leiter and the CIA are monitoring the apartment of the deceased Quantum agent Marcus (a brief remark lets us know that they know that he was killed in the Grenadines), hoping that, though slim odds, Marcus will have left something in his apartment of great value to Quantum; lo and behold, an "agent" slipping something out of a safe and into his pocket is revealed, at the last second, to be a fake; upon being stopped outside of the apartment door, he shoots his pursuers and barrels out through the hallway window.

Felix, fed up with his cramped quarters, the bureaucratic slowdowns, and the seeming incompetence of his fellow agents, rips off his headphones and runs out of the ramshackle surveillance house (located conveniently near the apartment complex) after the henchman -- and we now see that Felix is running on a pair of Cheetah running legs, giving him a leg up on the pursuee. (Felix footage would be made up of a trained Cheetah legs runner, seen only from behind, close shots of Jeffrey Wright from the legs up, and wide shots painstakingly synchronized of both Wright and the runner, digitally spliced together.)

After a pursuit across busy streets, footpaths, and up the breakdown lane of a highway, the henchman is finally cornered near a ledge halfway up an overpass -- and traffic below is fast. The goon takes his last few shots at Leiter, who ducks and slides across to the henchman, bumping into his ankles with the Cheetah legs. The henchman, now off balance, drops his gun and careens over the side, but Felix, supporting himself with one elbow, reaches up with his legs and scissors them between the goon, keeping him pinned, upside down, to the ledge.

Slowly, painstakingly, with his other arm, Felix reaches into the operative's inside coat pocket to fish out what he stole from Marcus's apartment, but the goon thinks fast -- as Leiter pulls it out, the henchman pulls Felix's gun from its holster, but it's too late; Leiter has the goods. With his other arm, Felix unstraps the Cheetah legs from his thighs, sending them -- and the trapped goon -- down into the busy traffic below.

Felix hauls himself up as best he can and looks over the ledge, wincing at the sight of his gorgeous Cheetah legs smashed to bits within the pulpy remains of the Quantum henchman, then looks at what he's retrieved from the dead man's pocket. We don't see what he has clearly, but shock sweeps across Leiter's face; he quickly pulls out his walkie-talkie and radios his superiors, saying that the Quantum man is dead, but they've got a new, and more dangerous, lead.

"Dangerous to who, Leiter?"
"To us!"

Reverse shot of Leiter's trembling hand, as sirens wail in the background, and we finally see his morbid prize: A Department of Defense identity card, registered to one Dr. Emeric Hildebrand.

24 Major Stunt 2: An assault of some kind involving the whole Double-Oh Branch, ideally involving Mr White who is killed. However, in the process, 0011 is also killed and 008 (Goodnight) is heavily injured, leading to her retirement from active service.
25 Major Stunt 3:
26 Finale Stunt:

STUFF

27 Bond's Car (inc. car gadgets):

28 Gadget 1:
29 Gadget 2:

PRODUCTION

30 Director: Christopher Nolan

31 Music By:

32 Themetune Sung By: Depeche Mode
33 Themetune Written By: (if different from themetune singer and soundtrack writer)

34 Titles Designed By:
35 Description of Titles:

[coco1997]

Good to see that you're going to try to use my Space Tourism idea!

THE HILDEBRAND RARITY

1 Bond - Daniel Craig

2 Bond Girl 1 (Main ie Vesper/Camille): Inna Korobkina as Yelena Minkova, a Belorussian prima donna ballerina performing in an adaptation of The Daughter of the Snows. She falls in with Bond after surviving an assassination attempt in a case of mistaken identity, having been poisoned with grayanotoxin (a poison derived from honey pollinated by the rhodendron flower). She always wears a scarf to conceal a surgical scar running around her neck after she had an operation on her thyroid, also known as a "Chernobyl necklace"; she survived the accident at Pripyat as a young girl. When the scarf has been removed, it looks as if someone has tried to decapitate her.
3 Bond Girl 2 (Minor ie Solange/Fields): Kerry Condon as Aoife Daly, MI6 logistics agent assigned to St Petersburg (think Nicky in the Bourne movies).
4 Bond Girl 3 (Background Girl): Jeany Spark as Vera (attache to the Space Tourism launchsite in Nambola if we decide to go that route, if not then just a receptionist at a hotel)

5 Henchman: Jason David Frank as Mesquito, a bodyguard/hired gun in the employ of President Sephotho

6 Villain: Giancarlo Esposito as Henrik Sephotho, the President of Nambola
7 Villain 2: Jesper Christensen as Mr. White
8 Villain 3: THE HEAD OF QUANTUM (to be decided by group consensus)
9 Villain 4: Melanie Laurent as Quinn; Elias Koteas as "Shaw" (TBC)

10 Other Figures: Wolf Kahler as Dr. Emeric Hildebrand

11 M: Timothy Dalton
12 Moneypenny: Emily Blunt

13 Ally 1: Yvonne Strahovski as Mary Goodnight, 008
14 Ally 2: Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter
15 Ally 3: Max Minghella as Geoffrey Hastings, the new 0011, orphan, ex-RAF, idolises Bond, who sees an uncomfortable amount of himself in the younger man, though with an optimistic belief in the cause that he has since lost.

LOCATIONS - CHINA IS NOT TO BE USED, NOR ARE LOCATIONS IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

16 Pre-Titles Location: London
17 Location 1: St. Petersburg, Russia, during the Scarlet Sails, the high point of the city's White Nights Festival.
18 Location 2:
19 Location 3: Nambola (An African country [fictional, of course] and former Dutch colony bordered by South Africa, Angola and Botswana. About sixty percent of its income comes from diamond mining but there is also a thriving gold mining industry too - that said, it is still considered, in comparative terms, to be a third world country. This could be the country that Henrik Feliz is the leader of).
20 Location 4: Germany (because they have the second largest stockpile of gold outside of the US)

KEY PLOT POINTS

21 Villains Plot: For centuries, many scientists have attempted to find a method of converting lead into gold and vice versa. This has been impossible - until now. A scientist, named Hildebrand, has discovered a chemical process that does the impossible - using a rare chemical isotope/compound known as 'The Hildebrand Rarity'. Our villain seeks to use this process to turn governmental stockpiles of gold into lead - significantly increasing the prices of his own gold stockpiles whilst also creating new-gold using the process.

22 Pre-Title Sequence Stunt: Eric Wright (Stephen Moyer), a high-level MI6 agent, is being stalked through the streets of a city. He can't see his pursuer, as she is hidden in the darkness, with only a silhouette that is visible. She stalks him for several minutes, as Wright ducks into several establishments trying to lose her. Eventually he is cornered in an abandoned square when he's shot in the leg by another unknown assailant. He's left immobilized, allowing the woman to catch up with him. When she's revealed to the audience, we see that it is Quinn. She holds a gun on him, demanding the whereabouts of James Bond, Agent 007. He initially refuses, but gives the information up after Quinn promises not to shoot him. When he gives up the information, she continues to point her gun at him, prompting him to beg for his life. "You promised you wouldn't shoot me." "You're right, I promised that I wouldn't shoot you. Luckily for me, he," she says, motioning off into the darkness, "didn't make that promise." A gunshot rings out, Wright falls to the ground, and Quinn walks back into the darkness, where she is joined by a man we see only as a silhouette.

23 Major Stunt 1: Felix Leiter and the CIA are monitoring the apartment of the deceased Quantum agent Marcus (a brief remark lets us know that they know that he was killed in the Grenadines), hoping that, though slim odds, Marcus will have left something in his apartment of great value to Quantum; lo and behold, an "agent" slipping something out of a safe and into his pocket is revealed, at the last second, to be a fake; upon being stopped outside of the apartment door, he shoots his pursuers and barrels out through the hallway window.

Felix, fed up with his cramped quarters, the bureaucratic slowdowns, and the seeming incompetence of his fellow agents, rips off his headphones and runs out of the ramshackle surveillance house (located conveniently near the apartment complex) after the henchman -- and we now see that Felix is running on a pair of Cheetah running legs, giving him a leg up on the pursuee. (Felix footage would be made up of a trained Cheetah legs runner, seen only from behind, close shots of Jeffrey Wright from the legs up, and wide shots painstakingly synchronized of both Wright and the runner, digitally spliced together.)

After a pursuit across busy streets, footpaths, and up the breakdown lane of a highway, the henchman is finally cornered near a ledge halfway up an overpass -- and traffic below is fast. The goon takes his last few shots at Leiter, who ducks and slides across to the henchman, bumping into his ankles with the Cheetah legs. The henchman, now off balance, drops his gun and careens over the side, but Felix, supporting himself with one elbow, reaches up with his legs and scissors them between the goon, keeping him pinned, upside down, to the ledge.

Slowly, painstakingly, with his other arm, Felix reaches into the operative's inside coat pocket to fish out what he stole from Marcus's apartment, but the goon thinks fast -- as Leiter pulls it out, the henchman pulls Felix's gun from its holster, but it's too late; Leiter has the goods. With his other arm, Felix unstraps the Cheetah legs from his thighs, sending them -- and the trapped goon -- down into the busy traffic below.

Felix hauls himself up as best he can and looks over the ledge, wincing at the sight of his gorgeous Cheetah legs smashed to bits within the pulpy remains of the Quantum henchman, then looks at what he's retrieved from the dead man's pocket. We don't see what he has clearly, but shock sweeps across Leiter's face; he quickly pulls out his walkie-talkie and radios his superiors, saying that the Quantum man is dead, but they've got a new, and more dangerous, lead.

"Dangerous to who, Leiter?"
"To us!"

Reverse shot of Leiter's trembling hand, as sirens wail in the background, and we finally see his morbid prize: A Department of Defense identity card, registered to one Dr. Emeric Hildebrand.

24 Major Stunt 2: An assault of some kind involving the whole Double-Oh Branch, ideally involving Mr White who is killed. However, in the process, 0011 is also killed and 008 (Goodnight) is heavily injured, leading to her retirement from active service.
25 Major Stunt 3:
26 Finale Stunt:

STUFF

27 Bond's Car (inc. car gadgets):

28 Gadget 1:
29 Gadget 2:

PRODUCTION

30 Director: Christopher Nolan

31 Music By:

32 Themetune Sung By: Depeche Mode
33 Themetune Written By: (if different from themetune singer and soundtrack writer)

34 Titles Designed By:
35 Description of Titles:

[terminus]

Yes - I think it could proove an excellent backdrop for something akin to the Greene Planet fundraiser.

Plus - the thread's 40 Pages Old! I can't believe a thread I started has made it to 40 pages!

[tdalton]

Plus - the thread's 40 Pages Old! I can't believe a thread I started has made it to 40 pages!

Congratulations on the longevity of the thread. IMO, this is one of the best threads to come along in quite a while on CBn, so very well done.

I had an idea for an action scene that could take place before the big mid-film showdown between Bond, Goodnight, 011 and the villains, but I'm not sure where, or if, it could fit in the proforma as the pre-showdown action sequences are already filled up.

The main idea that I have for the scene is that it's a way of pulling the main plot of Feliz and the gold together with the subplot of Quinn vs. Bond, allowing for the plots to converge at some point rather than continuing on seperately. Also, I'm looking at it as a chance to set-up the guilt that Bond should feel after leading her into the mission where she's injured, with her doubts about the job leading Bond to feel that had he not led her into the trap, that she could have gotten out of the active service without injury and gone on to a happier life.

Here's what I had in mind (I know it's a bit long, but it's more of me just kind of my putting some thoughts together in an actual written form as to how to perhaps merge the two storylines together a bit. I can significantly shorten this down if we decide to put this on the proforma):

Bond and Goodnight are sent on a joint-mission to assassinate Mr. White, who is having a meeting with Feliz regarding something to do with the plot revolving around the gold. They set up across the street in a very-LTK type of set-up, waiting for the meeting to take place. The wait gives them a good amount of time to talk, with Goodnight confessing the problems that she has with the job, how she's finding it harder and harder to be able to deal with the cold-blooded nature of the job, etc.

Once Mr. White arrives, Bond waits for the opportunity to take the shot. Before he's able to get the shot off, an explosion rocks the building that he and Goodnight are in, which also sends Mr. White and Feliz into hiding in the room they're in across the street. Bond looks around to survey the damage, and sees, though the smoke and fire, the silhouettes of a man and a woman standing in the hallway. The woman fires a shot at them, missing. Both Bond and Goodnight spring into action, with Bond going after the woman while Goodnight goes after the man.

The woman leads Bond on a chase down a stairwell and through the streets for a bit before she gets away. Before she disappears into the darkness, Bond catches a glimpse of her face, and sees that it's Quinn.

Bond checks his mobile phone for Goodnight's location (they're both implanted with Casino Royale-type tracking devices, which, based on their use in that film, I'm assuming are standard-issue). He tracks her location to an abandoned and run-down building a few blocks away. He finds Goodnight tied to a chair in the middle of an empty and dark room, with just enough lighting to see within a few feet. As he approaches her, he's grabbed by the man that Goodnight had been chasing (this is Quinn's henchman and, in this scene would mark the first time we'd see his face in the story). He roughs Bond up a bit, and when Bond thinks that he is going to be killed by the man, the man looks directly into his eyes (allowing Bond to see that this man is clearly something different than what he's faced before, which is a man with no soul, and just emptiness in his eyes, and one that shows no emotion. The man tells him that he's lucky, that he would have met his end right then and there if it weren't for the woman he works for (Quinn), who says that she personally wants to be the one to eliminate Bond. He drops Bond on the floor, and walks out of the room.

[coco1997]

Very cool, t. Perhaps my henchman suggestion (Mesquito) could play the part of Quinn's henchman?

[tdalton]

Very cool, t. Perhaps my henchman suggestion (Mesquito) could play the part of Quinn's henchman?

I could certainly work him into the scene (and very good casting on that one as well as a cool name for the character ). The henchman that I've currently got in the scene is the one that's listed next to Quinn in the proforma as being called "Shaw" (that's not going to actually be his name) as portrayed by Elias Koteas. With that said, though, I think that there could be a couple of interesting ways of incorporating a second henchman into the scene (if we decide to even go with the scene, I was just throwing it out there as a way of trying to connect the two storylines), and I'd be more than willing to incorporate him into the scene.

[terminus]

To be honest - it really doesn't fit with what I had in mind, although elements of it certainly could be used in the St. Petersburg sequence. Here is what I'm picturing so far - it may require a few small changes to the outlines of the action sequences. Some pieces are glossed over, but it explains how I imagine the pieces fitting together - as always any and all suggestions and constructive criticism is welcome:

• London: Quinn and 'Mr Roberts' chase Wright, a low level MI6 employee through the streets of London. He tries hiding - but is found and eventually cornered in Mitre Square. It is clear that Wright has been funelling information to Quantum. Quinn promises not to shoot him, but keeps her gun held on him. 'You promised not to shoot me' says Wright. 'That's true, but lucky for me - HE didn't' - as a gunshot rings out.
  
  Wright falls to the ground, dead - shot by 'Mr Roberts'.
  
• TBC: Felix and a CIA team are investigating the apartment of 'deceased' Quantum operative Marcus. One of the CIA operatives is revealed to be a fake when they try and swipe something from a hidden safe. Felix gives pursuit across the city - the fake operative dies and Felix finds the swiped item is an MOD ID card for 'Doctor Emeric Hildebrand'.
  
• TBC: This is a relatively standalone sequence designed to introduce us to Bond. After which, Bond is recalled to MI6.
  
• MI6: M briefs Bond - A body found several days earlier in Mitre Square has been identified as Eric Wright, a low level MI6 operative. M is also aware of the CIA operation - and the discovery of Doctor Hildebrand's ID card. The two events might appear unconnected - but the flight taking Doctor Hildebrand from Point A to Point B crashed and Hildebrand presumed dead. Wright was the MI6 operative responsible for arranging Hildebrand's transport.
  
  M believes that Quantum may have had a hand in the crash of the plane - and believes that it is possible that Hildebrand's death might have been faked. At the close of the briefing, M brings up a blurred picture of a woman from a security camera in London - it is obviously Quinn. 'Too much of a coincidence'.
  
  Quinn has been spotted boarding a flight to St. Petersburg. Bond is ordered to follow her - and see what he can dig up. Bond points out Quinn would never leave an obvious trail like that - it's all a trap. M knows this.
  
• St. Petersburg: Bond arrives in St. Petersburg - alone at first - where he has support from Aiofe Daly, the desk officer for St. Petersburg. The pair flirt - and even sleep together. But, during the investigation, they locate Quinn - who is meeting with Mr. White. Bond places a call in to M - he's going to need some support in the field. At which point we introduce Goodnight and Hastings - they plan to intercept Mr. White the following evening during the Scarlet Sails. A tense sequence follows - Bond and his fellow agents, with support from Aiofe over bluetooth earpieces, stalk Mr. White. In turn, Quinn stalks Bond.
  
  Aiofe is killed - her throat slit. Support ceases. Goodnight is shot in the knee - but manages to evade any further injury. Hastings, however, is savagely killed. Bond confronts Mr. White - a situation erupts where only one of them will make it out alive. (borrowing from elsewhere:) Mr White: 'You should have killed me when you had the chance', Bond: 'I should've. I won't make the same escape again'.
  
  Mr White dies.
  
  The following day - Quinn has vanished and M is giving Bond an almighty bollocking. The Double-Oh Section has been decimated. Lucky for Bond, because if it wasn't, he'd be drummed out of the service. However - they need Bond to follow a lead that was dug up in St. Petersburg (it is possible that Hastings managed to find something out before he was killed) - connecting Quantum's abduction of Hildebrand to the highest echelons of government in Nambola. It's a mission that will require great tact and political sensitivty - 'God help us' says M.
  
• Nambola: Bond arrives in Nambola as part of a trade delegation to the space tourism launch centre that the European Space Agency are setting up in the country. He meets Vera at a ballet recital - where he sees Yelena dancing and observes Henrik - and uses Vera to get him into a private function afterwards where he meets Henrik in-person as well as Henrik's thuggish manservant, Mesquito. Bond is charmed by the politician, but can't help but not trust him. Henrik is more interested in Yelena - whom he invites to his presidential residence. Bond places the presidential palace under observation, observes Yelena leaving the following morning, noticeably perturbed and perhaps bruised (I know CT disagreed on the possibility that Henrik would abuse Yelena) which causes Bond to follow her - charming her into having lunch with him at which point he digs for information on Henrik.
  
  Yelena confirms Bond's thoughts - that Henrik is almost schizophrenic, perfectly polite and socıalısed in public but an absolute animal and brutish in private. Yelena didn't witness anything that could connect Henrik to Hildebrand - but Bond asks her to go back into the spiders lair, placing a limited range bug onto a computer terminal. This she does - allowing Bond to hack into the computer system and dig up files connecting to where Hildebrand has been stowed away.
  
  Bond tracks down Hildebrand - and an orchestrated sequence of capture and escape proceeds. Bond learns that Hildebrand hasn't been exactly uncooperative with Quantum when he betrays the agent to Henrik. At the same time, Henrik learns that Yelena planted the computer bug and has her arrested on espionage charges.
  
  Bond learns what Henrik is up to - to use the chemical process that Hildebrand has developed on governmental stockpiles of gold to turn them into worthless lead. Whilst turning the Nambolan stockpiles of lead into gold - crashing the economies of first world countries and causing Nambola's wealth to octuple overnight. Noble aims - furthered by unfortunately ignoble methods.
  
  Bond and Yelena must escape.
  
• Germany: Bond stops the dispersal of the chemical 'weapon' in Germany.

[tdalton]

To be honest - it really doesn't fit with what I had in mind, although elements of it certainly could be used in the St. Petersburg sequence.

Fair enough. I just didn't want us to get as far down the line as we did last time without everything being tied together, which is why I threw the idea out there.

I'm also thinking that maybe, since there's a vast number of characters in this particular story, it might be a good idea to do away with the henchman that I had proposed and let the henchman proposed by coco1997 serve as the film's sole henchman. It appears as though Mesquito has more to do within the plot structure, and with Quinn's henchman only having a small (and mostly off-camera) role in terms of where the story currently stands.

[terminus]

I'm sure there's enough room for 'Mr Roberts' to exist as a character in his own right. I pictured him as being in St. Petersburg too - possibly the one who kills Hastings or injures Goodnight.

[tdalton]

I'm sure there's enough room for 'Mr Roberts' to exist as a character in his own right. I pictured him as being in St. Petersburg too - possibly the one who kills Hastings or injures Goodnight.

It still seems to me that we're probably going to end up with two fairly thin characters when, if one were taken out of the story and the other absorbed his parts of the story as well, it would lend for a stronger and potentially much more memorable henchman.

Just my opinion, though. Whatever everyone else decides, I'm fine with.

[terminus]

True - I mean, we could eliminate 'Mr Roberts' or push him into a simple cameo gunman to retain the coolness, imho, of the pretitle sequence as it has been written. But I can't imagine Mesquito appearing any earlier than Nambola - I'm picturing him, possibly because of his name, as a Scarpine sort of character. He's definitely not associated with Quantum, though.

At present, we've not much of Nambola fleshed out - so very little description of how Mesquito interacts with everyone. There's an action sequence in there somewhere too. I'd imagine that once we've got that action sequence down, it's possible we'd have more thoughts about how Mesquito interacts with people.

[tdalton]

True - I mean, we could eliminate 'Mr Roberts' or push him into a simple cameo gunman to retain the coolness, imho, of the pretitle sequence as it has been written. But I can't imagine Mesquito appearing any earlier than Nambola - I'm picturing him, possibly because of his name, as a Scarpine sort of character. He's definitely not associated with Quantum, though.

I think that the best way to go would be to eliminate the character and then go back and retool the PTS so that Quinn (or perhaps even a different villain) is the sole villain operating in the sequence. Some of the novelty of the PTS would be taken away, as Quinn would have to eliminate Wright herself, but it wouldn't necessitate the need for a cameo appearance by someone who, if his only purpose is to hide in the shadows for that one scene, would lead the audience to think he's a more important part of the story than he really is. I think that if the character were left solely as a cameo in the PTS, that would leave the "audience" with a whole bunch of questions that wouldn't be answered over the course of the film.

The initial suggestion on my part was to have this character and Quinn serve as a team, both bent on revenge against Bond. The way the story is currently structured, there really isn't enough room to develop both the character and his relationship with Quinn within the confines of the plot while also giving due time to the other characters. I think that, with the way the story currently stands, the PTS needs to be tweaked to eliminate the henchman rather than having him serve in either a cameo role or limp on into the main body of the story as a rather thin character.

Edited by tdalton, 30 October 2010 - 11:07 PM.

[Captain Tightpants]

Okay, my turn for round three--

THE HILDEBRAND RARITY

1 Bond - Daniel Craig

2 Bond Girl 1 (Main ie Vesper/Camille): Inna Korobkina as Yelena Minkova, a Belorussian prima donna ballerina performing in an adaptation of The Daughter of the Snows. She falls in with Bond after surviving an assassination attempt in a case of mistaken identity, having been poisoned with grayanotoxin (a poison derived from honey pollinated by the rhodendron flower). She always wears a scarf to conceal a surgical scar running around her neck after she had an operation on her thyroid, also known as a "Chernobyl necklace"; she survived the accident at Pripyat as a young girl. When the scarf has been removed, it looks as if someone has tried to decapitate her.
3 Bond Girl 2 (Minor ie Solange/Fields): Kerry Condon as Aoife Daly, MI6 logistics agent assigned to St Petersburg (think Nicky in the Bourne movies).
4 Bond Girl 3 (Background Girl): Jeany Spark as Vera (attache to the Space Tourism launchsite in Nambola if we decide to go that route, if not then just a receptionist at a hotel)

5 Henchman: Jason David Frank as Mesquito, a bodyguard/hired gun in the employ of President Sephotho

6 Villain: Giancarlo Esposito as Henrik Sephotho, the President of Nambola
7 Villain 2: Jesper Christensen as Mr. White
8 Villain 3: THE HEAD OF QUANTUM (to be decided by group consensus)
9 Villain 4: Melanie Laurent as Quinn; Elias Koteas as "Shaw" (TBC)

10 Other Figures: Wolf Kahler as Dr. Emeric Hildebrand

11 M: Timothy Dalton
12 Moneypenny: Emily Blunt

13 Ally 1: Yvonne Strahovski as Mary Goodnight, 008
14 Ally 2: Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter
15 Ally 3: Max Minghella as Geoffrey Hastings, the new 0011, orphan, ex-RAF, idolises Bond, who sees an uncomfortable amount of himself in the younger man, though with an optimistic belief in the cause that he has since lost.

LOCATIONS - CHINA IS NOT TO BE USED, NOR ARE LOCATIONS IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

16 Pre-Titles Location: London
17 Location 1: St. Petersburg, Russia, during the Scarlet Sails, the high point of the city's White Nights Festival.
18 Location 2: Cathederal da Sé, São Paulo, Brazil
19 Location 3: Nambola (An African country [fictional, of course] and former Dutch colony bordered by South Africa, Angola and Botswana. About sixty percent of its income comes from diamond mining but there is also a thriving gold mining industry too - that said, it is still considered, in comparative terms, to be a third world country. This could be the country that Henrik Feliz is the leader of).
20 Location 4: Germany (because they have the second largest stockpile of gold outside of the US)

KEY PLOT POINTS

21 Villains Plot: For centuries, many scientists have attempted to find a method of converting lead into gold and vice versa. This has been impossible - until now. A scientist, named Hildebrand, has discovered a chemical process that does the impossible - using a rare chemical isotope/compound known as 'The Hildebrand Rarity'. Our villain seeks to use this process to turn governmental stockpiles of gold into lead - significantly increasing the prices of his own gold stockpiles whilst also creating new-gold using the process.

22 Pre-Title Sequence Stunt: Eric Wright (Stephen Moyer), a high-level MI6 agent, is being stalked through the streets of a city. He can't see his pursuer, as she is hidden in the darkness, with only a silhouette that is visible. She stalks him for several minutes, as Wright ducks into several establishments trying to lose her. Eventually he is cornered in an abandoned square when he's shot in the leg by another unknown assailant. He's left immobilized, allowing the woman to catch up with him. When she's revealed to the audience, we see that it is Quinn. She holds a gun on him, demanding the whereabouts of James Bond, Agent 007. He initially refuses, but gives the information up after Quinn promises not to shoot him. When he gives up the information, she continues to point her gun at him, prompting him to beg for his life. "You promised you wouldn't shoot me." "You're right, I promised that I wouldn't shoot you. Luckily for me, he," she says, motioning off into the darkness, "didn't make that promise." A gunshot rings out, Wright falls to the ground, and Quinn walks back into the darkness, where she is joined by a man we see only as a silhouette.

23 Major Stunt 1: Felix Leiter and the CIA are monitoring the apartment of the deceased Quantum agent Marcus (a brief remark lets us know that they know that he was killed in the Grenadines), hoping that, though slim odds, Marcus will have left something in his apartment of great value to Quantum; lo and behold, an "agent" slipping something out of a safe and into his pocket is revealed, at the last second, to be a fake; upon being stopped outside of the apartment door, he shoots his pursuers and barrels out through the hallway window.

Felix, fed up with his cramped quarters, the bureaucratic slowdowns, and the seeming incompetence of his fellow agents, rips off his headphones and runs out of the ramshackle surveillance house (located conveniently near the apartment complex) after the henchman -- and we now see that Felix is running on a pair of Cheetah running legs, giving him a leg up on the pursuee. (Felix footage would be made up of a trained Cheetah legs runner, seen only from behind, close shots of Jeffrey Wright from the legs up, and wide shots painstakingly synchronized of both Wright and the runner, digitally spliced together.)

After a pursuit across busy streets, footpaths, and up the breakdown lane of a highway, the henchman is finally cornered near a ledge halfway up an overpass -- and traffic below is fast. The goon takes his last few shots at Leiter, who ducks and slides across to the henchman, bumping into his ankles with the Cheetah legs. The henchman, now off balance, drops his gun and careens over the side, but Felix, supporting himself with one elbow, reaches up with his legs and scissors them between the goon, keeping him pinned, upside down, to the ledge.

Slowly, painstakingly, with his other arm, Felix reaches into the operative's inside coat pocket to fish out what he stole from Marcus's apartment, but the goon thinks fast -- as Leiter pulls it out, the henchman pulls Felix's gun from its holster, but it's too late; Leiter has the goods. With his other arm, Felix unstraps the Cheetah legs from his thighs, sending them -- and the trapped goon -- down into the busy traffic below.

Felix hauls himself up as best he can and looks over the ledge, wincing at the sight of his gorgeous Cheetah legs smashed to bits within the pulpy remains of the Quantum henchman, then looks at what he's retrieved from the dead man's pocket. We don't see what he has clearly, but shock sweeps across Leiter's face; he quickly pulls out his walkie-talkie and radios his superiors, saying that the Quantum man is dead, but they've got a new, and more dangerous, lead.

"Dangerous to who, Leiter?"
"To us!"

Reverse shot of Leiter's trembling hand, as sirens wail in the background, and we finally see his morbid prize: A Department of Defense identity card, registered to one Dr. Emeric Hildebrand.

24 Major Stunt 2: An assault of some kind involving the whole Double-Oh Branch, ideally involving Mr White who is killed. However, in the process, 0011 is also killed and 008 (Goodnight) is heavily injured, leading to her retirement from active service.
25 Major Stunt 3:
26 Finale Stunt:

STUFF

27 Bond's Car (inc. car gadgets):

28 Gadget 1:
29 Gadget 2:

PRODUCTION

30 Director: Christopher Nolan

31 Music By:

32 Themetune Sung By: Depeche Mode
33 Themetune Written By: (if different from themetune singer and soundtrack writer)

34 Titles Designed By:
35 Description of Titles:

[coco1997]

Nice choice, CT. The locations alone make this 'feel' very much like a Bond film--and the relative gritiness is something I can definitely see director Christopher Nolan capturing expertly. I'm quite happy I chose him as director, as this seems like the exact kind of Bond movie he'd give us.

EDIT: Having looked up some pictures from Sao Paolo on Wikipedia, man, that is one fantastically Bondian city.

[terminus]

Tres interessant, CT.

That would certainly be interesting for the Felix chase sequence

tdalton doesn't seem to have posted his third submission - maybe he's thinking