25 replies to this topic

[OHMSS]

I think it would be good for EON to try to recruit a wide spectrum of screenwriters to submit treatments for a new Bond film. I know from documentaries that this used to be what EON did. They would bring in lots of people to do rewrites. I like Purvis and Wade but maybe the formula would be better if their job was just to piece together the details from other peoples fresher ideas.

So who would you like to see have even a small say in the writing of Bond 21?

My personal vote would have Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insommnia), and Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) take cracks at it. What about a David Mamet or Steven Soderburgh taking a shot at it. Come to think of it, Soderburgh might make one hell of a great Bond director/writer. He certainly has a knack for story/humor and pacing that Bond needs a shot of.

[B5Erik2]

Who Should Write the Script for Bond 21?

Me.

Seriously, I could do a damn good job - I've even taken screenwriting classes. Most importantly, I know Bond.

OK, it isn't going to be me. Hell, I could write the best Bond script ever and it wouldn't be me - so who should write it?

MICHAEL G WILSON AND BRUCE FEIRSTEIN! Together they could write a fantastic script that combines classic Bond with a modern edge. It would have the balance that would result in a film that most Bond fans could agree on as a GREAT Bond film (like a Goldeneye, as an example).

They get my vote - for whatever that's worth....

[00Kevin]

purvis and wade have each done an awesome job so far, I say keep them, but this belongs in the bond 21 forum

[zencat]

I think Purvis and Wade have a lock on the job and that's fine by me. They did a great job with DAD. (And I'll move this to the Bond 21 forum.)

[Evil Doctor Cheese]

I hope Purvis and Wade stay on too, Zencat. They did a great job on TWINE. Seriously... they have huge potential if they stay away from the huge plot twists that sometimes you can see coming from a mile off. A little less plot, a little more baddy and they're onto a winner. I love the writing on DAD... P&W are superb screenwriters (I can't wait for Johnny English... their real skill lies in the gags)... they need to have better action sequences that make more sense. The flaws in DAD and TWINE were not due to the writing. Mr Armstrong and the directors can take the flack for that. I;m a big supporter for P&W to take residency in the Bond writers' chairs... they needed to make a few mistakes before they make the ultimate Bond movie they know they can write... it's coming in Bond 21. I can feel it in my waters. Yay P&W!

[Harmsway]

I definitely want Purvis & Wade to return to a point. They can definitely hammer out the basic lines of a fantastic story, and put Bond in some great situations. Just look at TWINE. Their ideas were great. Now they do lack in some areas, but those can be fixed.

Their dialogue needs working, and their quips and innuendo aren't nearly as classic as past Bond films. While the innuendo isn't so bad, persay, they're just so blatantly obvious. I'd like to see more Connery-like innuedo. And where the heck are the lines like "Do you know a lot about guns? No, but I know a little about women." They've dissapeared and have been replaced with pure innuendo. Not to mention their quips aren't all that great. Feirstein should be hired to polish some dialogue - cause he's written some great lines that were never used.


Somewhat off subject, but anyway...
What was missing from DAD was some line like this:

GRAVES: How does it feel to know that everything you thought you had accomplished was nothing. You lived through all that pain, all that suffering just because you thought you had succeeded. You're a failure, Mr. Bond.

They could write it better, but it should've been in there in one form or another. It's a good taunt.

[zencat]

I've yet to track down P&Ws first draft of DAD (or any draft for that matter). I'd love to read it. It's hard to judge a screenwriter by the finished film.

[Evil Doctor Cheese]

Totally agree zencat. You only have to look at Fierstien's first draft of TND to see how good he was as a screenwriter! There was only the "Family jewels" gag that was any good... and they got rid of it! And I suppose the finished film, as I've said in my last post, is more the product of the director than the screenwriters... poor direction can quash what sounded or reads great on the page. You only have to see how many people loved the book to see a more literal acceptance of P&W's script rather than Tamahori's interpretation of it.

If you get any drafts pass them on.

[zencat]

Originally posted by Evil Doctor Cheese
Totally agree zencat. You only have to look at Fierstien's first draft of TND to see how good he was as a screenwriter!

Same goes for the first draft of TWINE by P&W and the first draft of GE by Michael France. I love first drafts.

[mrmoon]

Why not Zencat?

[bondy66]

This may seem crazy, but I think Spielberg could do a great job, since they are already just handing out the franchise to any directors, Spielberg could do nicely, you never know. He wanted to do Bond before he did indiana jones but George Lucas Convinced him otherwise. He is a good director and I don't think he would get too far off track. But anyway, a good writer would be oliver stone, michael G wilson, or even tom clancy , I don't know if he writes screenplays but It would be interesting.

[OHMSS]

I like Purvis and Wade quite a bit but I would rather have a lot of different screenwriters take a stab and then keep just the best lines/scenes/and plot ideas for the final script. Obviously the director has a large hand in how the film turns out, but the plots and one-liners are bordering on stale. What if 15 different great screenwriters were paid to take a stab with Purvis and Wade doing the piecing and re-writes?

[JimmyBond]

I dont want to see a lot of ideas merged into one film. If people are complaining now about how Bond films seem unfocused, this will give them more reasons to bitch. Plus it makes for bad movies, look at Lethal Weapon 4.

Get Purvis and Wade back, and maybe one other person to do some touch ups.

[M_Balje]

Bruce Feirstein (Goldeneye) with

Tom Mankiewicz (Live and let die) or Christopher Wood (TSWLM)

[Sir James]

Purvis and Wade are the only people I want writing Bond, except Fleming of course. They have brought back the Fleming the flair put in modern wrapping.

[daman3755]

There are many talented men and women out there that could write a hell of a Bond script. Purvis and Wade have proven they should say in the creative chairs - their work on DAD is just awesome. (Like I've said many times over, their earlier draft used for the novelization is much better than the finished product. Perhaps Bruce Feirstein had a hand in the final film script?) John Logan, Rich Wilkes (never he wrote "XXX")...the list goes on. Logan could do a good job if given the task. You'd have to find a man knowledgable of 007 to write a good script, not an amateur who knows jack squat.

[Vodka Martino]

Me.

[B5Erik2]

I still say Michael G Wilson & Bruce Feirstein.

No one knows the character of Bond the way Wilson does, and Feirstein has done such a good job with his previous Bond scripts, that I think the two of them would do a great job.

A lot of the dialog in DAD was poor (especially the stuff from Iceland on), and half of the one liners were DOA. Purvis & Wade's fault or Tamahori's fault? I don't know - I don't want Purvis & Wade OR Tamahori back.

Give me Wilson & Feirstein writing Bond 21 with John McTiernan directing. THAT would make for one hell of a great Bond film!

[PaulZ108]

I wouldn't mind seeing P&W return. They did fine with TWINE and even better with DAD.

Or that author (whoever he was) who wrote that script that was on CBn a while back.

[Dmitri Mishkin]

My vote is for Purvis and Wade. They did a great job with DAD.
With these two, we've had Bond go to some interesting, unexplored places and some (mostly in DAD) of them have been very refreshing. I don't find them stale at all.

I didn't enjoy the direction they took with TWINE. I felt Bond had become over-dramatized as well as over-complicated for the nature of a Bond film. But with DAD, I think P&W have returned the series to many Fleming elements, and I've enjoyed that.

I'd like to see them come back albeit with the conditions that they

1) lose the obvious plot twists / "traitor" angle that we've had for both of their films now (and 3 of 4 Brosnans). This plot device is getting tiresome and all too obvious; and

2) give the Bond girl some real intellect! Both Natalya Simonova and Wai Lin were given semi-intellectual to credible lines in GE and TND (Natalya in questioning 007's lifestyle on the beach; and Wai Lin in explaining that she got to work with a "decadent agent of a corrupt Western empire" implying that she had some understanding of the politics and historical friction between Western and Communist ideological systems this century). Conversely, Christmas Jones, Jinx, nor Miranda Frost have many or any credible lines to speak of! They are cardboard characters, wooden and devoid of charisma. Give them something to work with. Thankfully, Elektra King was the exception here, but one wonders if her strong character was Dana Stevens' doing or P&W themselves, as Stevens' was brought in to "touch up" the female roles in the TWINE. But P&W have demonstrated that they are capable of writing intelligent dialogue, so why aren't they doing this for the Bond girls? GE I felt had a Bond girl who brought credibility to the role and balance to a Bond film in the mold of XXX in TSWLM. I'd like to see that kind of woman in the next film.

Those are my beefs with P&W. The two know their Bond, and they've improved with DAD. But I'd like to see them take it to the next level.

[jamie wilkins]

when trying to find ideas for tomorrow never dies, the producers got a load of people in a room for the weekend to come up with an idea. I think its a good way of doing it. I would like to see what ideas Tom Mankiewicz and Christopher Wood could bring to the bond films. Although i would rather have some one else write the fianl script they both have experience and imagination and have written lots of other non bond stuff.

[jeff319]

I personally think that Purvis and Wade should be fired. The dialogue in DAD was so inane, so lacking. Do these guys even know how to write innuendo? It's sad how blatantly obvious the sex jokes are, and they pale in comparison to the classic lines from the Connery/Moore films.

My solution? Get Bruce Fierstien and Michael Wilson together and hammer out a decent script. Oh, and ditch the PC Bond women vibe. I was irritated by Halle Berry's "Look at me, I'm an empowered female" performance, and I didn't want to see her fighting alongside Bond.

[Mister Asterix]

If Mickey G. and Babs can't hammer out a deal with John C. Cox then my vote will go to having Wade and Purvis back.

[JimmyBond]

Bruce Fierstien is someone I want to stay far away from the Bond franchise. He's a horrible script writer, he has no idea how to structure a story, let alone write interesting characters. Just look at his first draft for "Tomorrow Never Lies"

Get P&W back, we can't really judge how theyll do until we see their third film, just like we can't really judge how a actor is as Bond till he makes three films.

[Harmsway]

Feirstein can write excellent dialogue and quips, which isn't P&W's strong suit. Feirstein shouldn't write the story, but he should touch it up a bit.

[Felix_Leiter]

Andrew Kevin Walker maybe? He's guy who wrote Seven (Se7en), Sleepy Hollow (screenplay), The Ambush (BMW movie), etc. He's pretty good.