462 replies to this topic

[SecretAgentFan]

If I remember correctly, the two-parter rumor was built upon John Logan´s treatment.  

 

Since Logan´s script was re-worked extensively they maybe tossed that idea out, too.

 

Of course, they will always plan ahead and keep repeating the mantra of "to make one is difficult enough already".  And I think they would never waste Blofeld on one film.  SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

[RMc2]

 

 

 

I'm increasingly convinced that's what we have to look forward to in Spectre and Bond 25. There will be another 3 year gap and more talk from Mendes about finishing the story he started. 

 

 

 

SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

 

Yeah, the way things are going, it looks like you're right: introduce Blofeld as a 'twist' in SPECTRE, then Mendes returns to finish the arc in Bond 25. If a character in SPECTRE doesn't turn out to be Blofeld in disguise, I wouldn't be surprised if they've already cast a major star as Blofeld for a hush-hush cameo at the end.

[Shrublands]

If I remember correctly, the two-parter rumor was built upon John Logan´s treatment.  

 

 

 

I think that the treatment bit was an assumption - A number of journalist (one at Deadline) said that they had info that Logan had been hired to pen Bond 24 and 25. 

This was because of an idea he pitched whilst making Skyfall. 

 

I think that Idea might have been having the two films as a sort of reimagine of Fleming's OHMSS and YOLT. 

[stromberg]

 
I'm increasingly convinced that's what we have to look forward to in Spectre and Bond 25. There will be another 3 year gap and more talk from Mendes about finishing the story he started.

 
 

SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

 
Yeah, the way things are going, it looks like you're right: introduce Blofeld as a 'twist' in SPECTRE, then Mendes returns to finish the arc in Bond 25. If a character in SPECTRE doesn't turn out to be Blofeld in disguise, I wouldn't be surprised if they've already cast a major star as Blofeld for a hush-hush cameo at the end.

Wasn't Craig in Morocco with a friend back in October? Doesn't this friend look an awful lot like a possible Blofeld? I'm certainly not the one to go after tabloid trash and early rumors, but my money is on Mark Strong.

[Harmsway]

SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

That's exactly the kind of story that I doubt Mendes would agree to do. He's not going to make a film that's merely a prelude for the "real" encounter. If he's going to make a film called Spectre, he's going to get his money's worth.

[JCRendle]

Doesn't this friend look an awful lot like a possible Blofeld? I'm certainly not the one to go after tabloid trash and early rumors, but my money is on Mark Strong.

He's a bald actor, I wouldn't say that was an awful lot like a possible Blofeld, Blofeld's more than a bald head.

[Shrublands]

I think Oberhauser is Blofeld. But this is not going to be a big twist in the film in and of itself.

The surprise in store is how he is both, it's not a straightforward assumed identity. 

[Vauxhall]

I think Oberhauser is Blofeld. But this is not going to be a big twist in the film in and of itself.
The surprise in store is how he is both, it's not a straightforward assumed identity.

Agreed.

[Marcin]

I think Oberhauser is Blofeld. But this is not going to be a big twist in the film in and of itself.

The surprise in store is how he is both, it's not a straightforward assumed identity. 

 

Exactly, Shrublands. Franz Oberhauser is not an alias, since as a child he was known by that name. So, either Blofeld is an alias or nickname or.. well.. we get a soap opera style scenario, where Hans Oberhauser is a foster father to both Bond and Franz, who at some point discovers his true identity (Ernst Stavro Blofeld, that is), his ancestry etc. 

Assuming of course that Waltz's character really is Blofeld, not just a character based on Fleming's supervillain. 

[kneelbeforezod]

Lots of very cool ideas but I think some of you are overcomplicating things. Occam's razor haha: the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Waltz is Blofeld. I just can't imagine them hiring an actor like Waltz, putting him at the head of the Spectre table, and then not have him be Blofeld. Waltz is not the kind of actor who would accept a part as a big red herring. As obvious as all this is to *us*, on a Bond forum, I think Waltz as Blofeld will be a nice surprise for millions of viewers who don't follow these things so closely. 

[SecretAgentFan]

 

SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

That's exactly the kind of story that I doubt Mendes would agree to do. He's not going to make a film that's merely a prelude for the "real" encounter. If he's going to make a film called Spectre, he's going to get his money's worth.

 

 

... but maybe - and I´m wildly speculating, of course, but still...  I think Mendes has already secured a deal with EON to return for Bond 25.  And that´s when he will go all in with Blofeld.

 

 

 

 

 
I'm increasingly convinced that's what we have to look forward to in Spectre and Bond 25. There will be another 3 year gap and more talk from Mendes about finishing the story he started.

 

 
 

SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

 
Yeah, the way things are going, it looks like you're right: introduce Blofeld as a 'twist' in SPECTRE, then Mendes returns to finish the arc in Bond 25. If a character in SPECTRE doesn't turn out to be Blofeld in disguise, I wouldn't be surprised if they've already cast a major star as Blofeld for a hush-hush cameo at the end.

 

Wasn't Craig in Morocco with a friend back in October? Doesn't this friend look an awful lot like a possible Blofeld? I'm certainly not the one to go after tabloid trash and early rumors, but my money is on Mark Strong.

 

 

Mark Strong denied being involved in SPECTRE - but, of course, that might be another PR denial.   Still, is Mark Strong a , um, strong enough name to play this iconic character?  I imagine he does have the acting chops - but wouldn´t Sony insist on a really big name here?  If you have two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser... and Mark Strong as Blofeld...  

 

Well...

[Shrublands]

It would be such an odd way of going about it, and utterly counterproductive.

You have a film called Spectre, you reintroduce the Spectre organisation, you show the head of the organisation in the film and get Christoph Waltz to play the part.

Everyone is set up for the return of Blofeld and for it to be Waltz.

Then you turn round and call him Oberhauser (and only Oberhauser). The audience just scratches their head and says "But isn't he supposed to be Blofeld?" 

I think the idea of someone like Mark Strong walking in late in the day and saying "No, I'm Blofeld!" (or whatever) would make the situation even worse. 

[tdalton]

 

 

SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

That's exactly the kind of story that I doubt Mendes would agree to do. He's not going to make a film that's merely a prelude for the "real" encounter. If he's going to make a film called Spectre, he's going to get his money's worth.

 

 

... but maybe - and I´m wildly speculating, of course, but still...  I think Mendes has already secured a deal with EON to return for Bond 25.  And that´s when he will go all in with Blofeld.

 

 

 

 

 
I'm increasingly convinced that's what we have to look forward to in Spectre and Bond 25. There will be another 3 year gap and more talk from Mendes about finishing the story he started.

 

 
 

SPECTRE is more likely to deal with Bond discovering that Quantum was part of or swallowed by SPECTRE, with the real enemy being not Oberhauses (who is only No.2) but Blofeld.  They might not even show Blofeld´s face at the end.

 
Yeah, the way things are going, it looks like you're right: introduce Blofeld as a 'twist' in SPECTRE, then Mendes returns to finish the arc in Bond 25. If a character in SPECTRE doesn't turn out to be Blofeld in disguise, I wouldn't be surprised if they've already cast a major star as Blofeld for a hush-hush cameo at the end.

 

Wasn't Craig in Morocco with a friend back in October? Doesn't this friend look an awful lot like a possible Blofeld? I'm certainly not the one to go after tabloid trash and early rumors, but my money is on Mark Strong.

 

 

Mark Strong denied being involved in SPECTRE - but, of course, that might be another PR denial.   Still, is Mark Strong a , um, strong enough name to play this iconic character?  I imagine he does have the acting chops - but wouldn´t Sony insist on a really big name here?  If you have two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser... and Mark Strong as Blofeld...  

 

Well...

 

 

I wouldn't think that Strong is a big enough name for Blofeld if you're keeping him a secret while putting Waltz out there as the kind-of Blofeld stand-in during the advertising of the film.  If they're going that route, and doing some kind of reveal towards the end of the film, then when that chair swings around you need somebody of the stature of, for instance, Anthony Hopkins, for that to really work.

[JCRendle]

What if a line of dialogue goes

 

"SPECTRE have been in the shadows for many years, we've been watching, manipulating, secretly running governments all over the world. We have had many great leaders. Maibaum, Harwood, Mather, Blofeld, White, but they are all in the past. I am the power now. My name will spread fear throughout the criminal underworld. I am Oberhauser"

[tdalton]

That would be one way around it, and better than some of the alternatives, but I wonder what name-dropping Blofeld in that way would do to the already tenuous timeline in which Craig's Bond is operating.  It might also lend some credence to the awful Codename Theory, as Blofeld would have lived and headed-up SPECTRE at some point in the past.

[Call Billy Bob]

Or how about this: Ernst Stavro Blofeld was a German count in the mid-1800s who founded the secret organization that is now SPECTRE, currently headed by one Mr. Oberhauser. Similar to JCRendle's idea, but you give Blofeld a time and place that can't possibly be confused with the previous films.

[stromberg]

Or how about this: Ernst Stavro Blofeld was a German count in the mid-1800s who founded the secret organization that is now SPECTRE, currently headed by one Mr. Oberhauser. Similar to JCRendle's idea, but you give Blofeld a time and place that can't possibly be confused with the previous films.

But that would kill off any chance to get the Blofeld character back into the Bond movies (because he died 150 years ago). And I doubt they'll have vampires or other undead folk in a Bond movie (invitation goes out to everyone to my Bond collection bonfire if this ever happens).

[tdalton]

 

Or how about this: Ernst Stavro Blofeld was a German count in the mid-1800s who founded the secret organization that is now SPECTRE, currently headed by one Mr. Oberhauser. Similar to JCRendle's idea, but you give Blofeld a time and place that can't possibly be confused with the previous films.

But that would kill off any chance to get the Blofeld character back into the Bond movies (because he died 150 years ago). And I doubt they'll have vampires or other undead folk in a Bond movie (invitation goes out to everyone to my Bond collection bonfire if this ever happens).

 

 

Agreed.  It would seem to me that, if you were going to go through the trouble of reintroducing SPECTRE and teasing Blofeld's involvement by giving Oberhauser a very distinct Blofeld-style introduction in the teaser trailer, that you'd want to reintroduce Blofeld at some point.  If you're going to have SPECTRE, then you have to have Blofeld, otherwise, why not just make up a brand new villainous organization?

[Shrublands]

Agreed too. Why just throw Blofeld away like that?

[stromberg]

Hmm... other options:

 

- The world knows him as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but he really is Franz Oberhauser? That would be outright idiocy...

 

- Waltz is Blofeld. Being his Doppelgänger, he killed Franz and assumed his identity for some Angelo/Derval reason. Or maybe he just needed a new identity. And it takes his childhood friend James to find out about it and to defy his evil plans. Blofeld knows Franz entire life story - except for the dark secret he shares with Bond... I'd buy that one, but only if it's done really, really good.

 

- Waltz plays a double role. Blofeld and Franz are in an agreement to act as one person, thus being able to be at two places at the same time. Lame. Unworthy.

 

- since so much about this movie seems to be reminiscent of LALD, why not a "Mr. Big"-style unmasking? ***ducks***

[tdalton]

- Waltz is Blofeld. Being his Doppelgänger, he killed Franz and assumed his identity for some Angelo/Derval reason. Or maybe he just needed a new identity. And it takes his childhood friend James to find out about it and to defy his evil plans. Blofeld knows Franz entire life story - except for the dark secret he shares with Bond... I'd buy that one, but only if it's done really, really good.

 

I think that this is probably the best option out of those that people have come up with so far.  Granted, like you said, it would have to be done really well to work, but it's the only one that wouldn't really leave the audience rolling their eyes or laughing at the twist.

[RMc2]

I'm betting on the twist reveal being either:

 

 

- Waltz is Blofeld/Oberhauser (dual identity)

 

- The Dark Knight Rises (you know what I mean...)

[JCRendle]

He's batman?

[Vauxhall]

He's batman?

Robin.

[tdalton]

He's batman?

 

They should hire Bale to play Blofeld.  Have the only thing we see of him be the back of his head and a hand or two, like in the 1960s films, but he talks in the Batman voice.  

[Guy Haines]

I go along with the idea that Blofeld is a man who uses multiple identities. He did so in the books - Comte de Bleauville, Guntram Shatterhand, even one we never saw him as, one Serge Angstrom. He uses these to stay one step ahead of the authorities - and in the case of de Bleauville, to buy respectability.

 

"Oberhauser" could be one of these identities, and I think there may be something in the idea that Blofeld has assumed the identity of the real Franz Oberhauser, having extracted everything he could out of him first before killing him or, as with Willard Whyte in DAF, "holding him in cold storage". Why Oberhauser? It might be to do with Bond - an elaborate plan to exact a personal revenge on the man who destroyed Quantum. It might be a co-incidence.

 

But it wouldn't necessarily surprise me if the twist in the film is that "Oberhauser" isn't the man Bond knew in his youth and that the secret referred to in the teaser trailer is something only Bond and the real Oberhauser would have known - and this proves to be Blofeld's undoing.

 

One other thing. In the short story Octopussy the death of Oberhauser senior is caused by one man's greed for a cache of Nazi gold. Suppose Blofeld set himself up by befriending both Oberhauser, father and son, who were themselves in search of this cache, they found it, Blofeld killed them for it and assumed the younger man's identity? Another loose connection to the Fleming source material there.

[SecretAgentFan]

To reveal that Oberhauser is Blofeld would be the "been there, done that"-solution and... sigh... disappointing.

 

To have Waltz deny that he is Blofeld publicly and then reveal that as a lie would be even more annoying.

 

I still try to talk myself into believing that SPECTRE is about SPECTRE becoming SPECTRE, just as CR was about Bond becoming Bond.  So what, if at the end we get a (new) Blofeld (who isn´t Waltz)?  It would be perfectly fine for me, since SPECTRE seems to be about Bond and Oberhauser, and QUANTUM being a pre-version of SPECTRE.  All this time, Blofeld was in the background, letting things develop, spiking the battle with some well-placed ideas.  That´s how he has always worked in the beginning.

 

And, true to tradition - why wouldn´t EON and Mendes have Blofeld first appear only as a shadowy figure we only hear but never really see?

 

Hey, wait - if Anthony Dawson can appear in DR.NO and voice Blofeld in FRWL and TB... which actor could do this for SPECTRE?  Hmmm...  

[Shrublands]

 

 

To have Waltz deny that he is Blofeld publicly and then reveal that as a lie would be even more annoying.

 

 

Naomie Harris denied she was playing Moneypenny on several occasions during the making of Skyfall.

[tdalton]

 

 

 

To have Waltz deny that he is Blofeld publicly and then reveal that as a lie would be even more annoying.

 

 

Naomie Harris denied she was playing Moneypenny on several occasions during the making of Skyfall.

 

 

Hopefully they've learned from that, because it was rather annoying to hear her consistently deny it when it was pretty obvious (and confirmed to be true after the film premiered) that she was playing Moneypenny.  It would be a bit much to pull that same stunt two films in a row, IMO.

[sharpshooter]

I wouldn't be too hard on Harris or Waltz, and I wouldn't really call it 'lying' per se. It's them trying to stop people from having presumptions about the plot, even if they seem obvious to us. Like Steven Moffat admitting he fibs about Doctor Who plotlines to throw people off the scent. The actors are simply following the decisions made by the production team in relation to marketing. And at the end of the day, I suspect Waltz will technically be proven right in his comments from a certain point of view.