6 replies to this topic

[Jim]

Suitably corrected, but I'm still suspicious about the amount of detail the draft goes into.

Furthermore, although I appreciate it's just an excerpt, the amount of "action": James Bond 20, working title Tomorrow Never Dies 2: What a Carve Up!

Another thing. James Bond seeks and obtains revenge against the man who killed his parents, chasing him through the streets of New York. Pierce Brosnan is Bruce Wayne is James Bond is Batman. Thought I'd seen something similar. What next; in two more films' time he obtains a sexually ambivalent male assistant and then one more film and it all collapses horribly?

Still think callin a villain Saten is...comical.

[zencat]

the007tv (07 Aug, 2001 09:09 a.m.):
Once again, Bond20.com provides you an exclusive piece of news about the movie. Some people don't believe us, but we are sure of what we present you for 2 weeks as a draft of Bond 20 screenplay. We give you another sequence from the movie and this is the last time we do. Now we'll see in 2002 who was right.
Clint

Hello Clint,

I must say, you seem to have your hands on a VERY interesting piece of Bondiana. I really don't know what to think about "Final Assignment" anymore. There are things here that just scream "fan fiction" and as I've pointed out elsewhere there are a few baffling stylistic choices that I don't think a professional screenwriter would use. Then again, every screenwriter as his/her own style and there are things here that make me sit up and take notice and wonder if this isn't indeed a genuine draft of Bond 20 (in some early form). I'm now completely on the fence about this script. So on the fence I'm going to stop reading. It's time to put up the spoiler walls.

But thank you for sharing it. You've got a really nice Bond website, BTW.

[White Persian]

Well...still don't buy it.
Illiteracies like "I would of (sic) watched" don't strike me as the work of a pro. So much of the rest is cliched and derivative - especially the subway chase, which we've seen countless times before.
It strikes me as suspicious, too, how many rumours seem to have crept into the treatment. Brosnan is quoted as wanting to film a death scene for Bond...Bingo, Bond "dies" in the picture. Rumours of an ice fall scene... hey presto, an ice climbing sequence.
I guess we will see who's right in 2002, but I'm sure hoping for something a lot better than this.

[Jim]

OK
As noted, few too many "could ofs".
A villain called Saten? Hmm.
A completely unfilmable fantasy chase in helicopters through Manhatten? Don't be too noisy, you'll wake Godzilla.
The biggest giveaway is that all the action is meticulously described, as if somebody is transcribing the script upon seeing the films in the mind's eye. Screenplays generally don't do this. The writer would be usurping the director's job and also that of the stunt arrangers etc. On the whole, there would be "They fight" or "helicopter chase" or "pointless penny whistle sound over a car jump" and that's about it.
Same point goes for the references to camera angles et cetera. What's a director to do?
The dialogue is convincingly appalling though.
On balance....naaah. I'd say I'd believe it when I see it, but I've already seen it: Speed, Godzilla, countless others too numerous to mention.

[James Page]

All,

I have more details from the EON insider that are not published Bond20.com. He contacted MI6 to dispell the rumours.

I'm currently formatting up the article, it should be on MI6 in 30 minutes!

=
J

[zencat]

Jim (07 Aug, 2001 06:39 p.m.):
The biggest giveaway is that all the action is meticulously described, as if somebody is transcribing the script upon seeing the films in the mind's eye. Screenplays generally don't do this. The writer would be usurping the director's job and also that of the stunt arrangers etc. On the whole, there would be "They fight" or "helicopter chase" or "pointless penny whistle sound over a car jump" and that's about it. Same point goes for the references to camera angles et cetera. What's a director to do?

That's a bit of a myth. Good screenwriters do describe action in detail. You're not gonna get away with just writing, "helicopter chase". But you're right in that pros DO NOT specify camera angles overtly. Good writers suggest camera angles within the writing and in a more subtle way...

ON Wonder Woman as she BRUSTS through the skyscraper window, exploding shards of glass into the air... She PLUNGES to her death, hair trailing behind her... But somehow she is clam, cool, her clear blue eyes focused on something fast approaching from below...

That's when her perfectly manicured fingers CATCH HOLD of a flagpole...

WW jerks to a sudden stop -- one thousand feet above the HONKING traffic of Manhattan. Dangling...

(Sorry, I'm on a total Wonder Woman kick at the moment.)

But see how I suggested multiple camera angles in this action without ever saying it? Then the director, or more likely, the storyboard artist, gets the ideas all by himself.