Cool subliminal foreshadowing of the film's climax, in a Bond movie that isn't often praised for its visuals.
The relevant portions:
>In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today show on Tuesday morning, Knight was asked if a casting decision had been made after Oldman threw his support behind Slow Horses co-star Jack Lowden.
>“I cannot speak about this subject. Much as I would dearly love to,” Knight chuckled, adding that he felt like he was “doing my duty for King and country” by taking on Ian Fleming’s spy franchise for Amazon MGM Studios.
>BBC presenter Anna Foster prodded Knight further. “Presumably you know who it is when you’re writing it. Does that make a difference?” she asked the Peaky Blinders creator.
>“It does make life a little bit easier if you know who that person is, but also you have to write the character, not the actor,” Knight responded.
>Foster tried one more time. “So they told you at the beginning before you started writing, or do they tell you halfway through?” she asked. Knight laughed: “I refer you to my previous answer.”
>He continued: “The thing with Bond is it’s its own universe, and it’s its own franchise. So there are certain rules. I mean, obviously you have to move it along, but I love where it sits. I love that it’s British. I love that it’s not DC or Marvel … So I feel a responsibility to the text.”
(h/t u/mssnatalie for the link)
The relevant portion from Belloni's Puck newsletter (paywalled):
>Speaking of young stars...: Test deals are going out for the actors vying to play James Bond for Amazon MGM. Those lists of contenders circulating online are bogus, but in the next couple weeks we should know who's actually gonna formally audition for director Denis Villeneuve. The tests won't happen until later this fall, so anyone who says they know who Bond is now... doesn't.
"Test deals" are contracts actors sign prior to their screen tests where terms of their agreements are negotiated beforehand. Meaning once an actor is chosen, they can be announced more quickly, since matters such as pay have already been decided.
Matthew Belloni has been one of our MVP reporters this cycle. His scoops have included Pascal and Heyman as the new producers, the directors that were in contention, the details of Villeneuve's contract, and that casting would begin over the spring and summer of this year. In other words, he's a reputable source.
From BBC News, about two weeks before Craig was announced as the next Bond actor:
>The protracted process of choosing a new James Bond is coming to an end, according to Hollywood paper Variety.
>Screen tests will end this week and four relatively unknown actors are in the running, Variety has reported. The contenders are Layer Cake actor Daniel Craig, 22-year-old Henry Cavill, ER star Goran Visnjic and Australian Sam Worthington, Variety said.
>The 21st James Bond film, Casino Royale, will be based on Ian Fleming's first novel and released next year. Producers are thought to be looking for someone younger than the 52-year-old incumbent Pierce Brosnan.
>Writer Paul Haggis recently told the Hollywood Reporter: "We're trying to reinvent Bond. He's 28 - no Q, no gadgets." In the 1953 Casino Royale book, the spy was introduced as a more youthful, realistic and cold character than he has since become in the films.
>Daniel Craig, 37, is best-known for playing poet Ted Hughes opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in Sylvia and taking the lead role in gangster film Layer Cake. He is due to appear with Nicole Kidman in alien thriller The Visiting and in Steven Spielberg's drama Munich, about the massacre at the 1972 Olympics.
>Contenders
>Sam Worthington, 29, got his big break last year when he won an Australian Film Institute award for his role in small-town coming-of-age saga Somersault.
>Croatian actor Goran Visnjic, 33, plays Dr Luka Kovac in US TV drama ER and has appeared in films such as Elektra and The Deep End.
>And Henry Cavill, from Jersey, has had roles in movies including The Count of Monte Cristo and I Capture the Castle.
>Numerous other actors have been linked with Casino Royale including Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Hugh Jackman, Clive Owen and Dougray Scott.
>The spokesperson for James Bond production company Eon was unavailable for comment.
He's the hottest name in Bond gossip right now, and I'm struggling to get a sense of...what he looks like. Lowden looks different in every picture I've seen him in. He looks like Sam Neill in one. Richard Madden in another. Simon Pegg. YouTube film symbolism analyst Rob Ager in the top right corner...
At 36 years old, he's at the upper range of actors reportedly being considered. If anything's for certain, his face seems to be widening with age, and his appearance is heavily dependent on the choice of lens, lighting, and angles. That's true for many actors of course, Craig included, as seen in the comparison in the comments section.
Point being, it's hard for me to picture how Lowden would look as Bond. He doesn't have the dark allure I typically want to see in Bond actors. And yet I've heard nothing but praise for his skill (I've personally only seen him in Dunkirk). So if he is chosen, I'd of course wait to see what they cook up for him appearance-wise in the final film, before making any judgements.
Bond casting chatter amongst the tabloids and social media is higher than usual at the moment. So here's a hub to discuss the general state of things under one roof. Not just for who will play James Bond, but if you'd like also for villains, Bond girls, the MI6 crew, etc.
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The latest relevant news/gossip updates:
Also:
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This megathread will help keep the main feed tidy, as we've seen several posts pass through the queue today that don't meet the sub's requirements under Rule #7:
>So that the sub doesn't become overrun with casting ideas or frequently discussed topics regarding the next movie, we ask that users elaborate on their Bond 26 thoughts in greater written detail. Otherwise, you may wait to make your Bond 26 posts on Fridays, when this rule is always relaxed.
>Casting ideas must be accompanied by the actor's name, either in your post's title or body text. Don't post a lone image without naming the actor.
Over to you.
This tells us Amazon MGM is continuing the numbering scheme from EON. In other words, the next film isn't "Amazon Bond 1" as some have speculated it might be.
A filming date of 2027 should allay doomer fears that we won't be getting a movie until 2045.
And is there anything to glean from the genre listing? With it being labeled a thriller first? (In the same directory, No Time to Die for example is listed as "action adventure.")
I love how this track could've been lifted straight from Skyfall.
Compare to the likes of Enjoying Death and New Digs and Day Wasted from Thomas Newman.
Link to moderator application: https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesBond/application/
…………………..
As our community continues to grow, and in anticipation of what could be a busy autumn season as activity picks up on the next Bond film, we are hoping to bring aboard at least two additional moderators.
This is a volunteer position for Bond fans. Being a mod here should feel fun, never like a chore. And we encourage frequent and open communication with each other in our chat channel.
We are looking for candidates who:
Requirements:
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The application contains an overview of these details, followed by a series of questions that will help us determine your suitability for the team. There aren’t necessarily any right or wrong answers to every question, so do give us your honest thoughts.
Thank you for your interest!
Let's look at the evidence.
None of this is to say Craig's tenure was all sunshine and rainbows. He didn't always go around like Marlo Thomas in That Girl.
For example he spoke of struggles adjusting to the level of celebrity that came with becoming Bond (something Sean Connery also struggled with and famously contributed to him quitting the role after being hounded in his private life while in Japan). But he had shed those struggles by the time Skyfall came around.
Learning from Connery's burnout, he on occasion requested greater time off between films. (Yet the blame for gaps between films in large part goes to issues beyond his control—namely MGM's bankruptcy in 2010 and the Covid pandemic in 2020).
On two occasions he could've chosen to delay the films but didn't: during the aforementioned 2007 writers' strike, and after seriously injuring his knee during a fight scene with Dave Bautista in Spectre. In the latter example, he pushed through filming the rest of the movie with a blown-out knee. Shortly upon finishing he was asked if he wants to do another Bond movie, to which he responded he'd rather "slash my wrists."
It was with this comment that it became a meme that Craig hated Bond, was ungrateful, yada yada. Folks didn't take into consideration that with his off the cuff "slash my wrists" remark, he was venting frustration over having filmed with an extremely painful knee injury. Something Craig later confirmed in an interview with Stephen Colbert, where he playfully agreed with Colbert's assessment that asking him if he wanted another Bond movie right off of filming the last one would be like asking a mom who just gave birth and has a 4 inch episiotomy if she'd wants another baby.
The anti-Craig sentiment in some corners reached new heights upon the release of No Time to Die, in particular because of its ending and Craig's revelation in postgame interviews that he had joked with Barbara Broccoli about ending his tenure this way going all the way back to the night of Casino Royale's premiere.
It's fair for folks to agree or disagree whether they liked this choice to end on, but it wasn't a matter of hating the character. Rather it was about doing something novel with the character and bookending Craig's own contained story within the franchise.
So, a few remarks regarding very human frustrations from time to time—some of which were wildly misinterpreted, and failed to take into account Craig's nervous curmudgeony schtick (something he brought to his Bond performance by the way) while doing interviews—versus a wealth of evidence demonstrating that Craig was perhaps the most committed James Bond actor of all. I know which side I land on.
Was that you, Auric?
After a busy week I'm half exhausted and half under the weather, and therefore having a quiet day in. A nice opportunity to update my ranking and answer your questions.
Analyze, interpret, yell at me, ask me absolutely anything that comes to mind. Thanks, and over to you...
The relevant portions...
>Turner has led commercial hits and daring indies but firmly within the lane of a rising talent. To emerge as a true movie star...requires that presence, that mystique, that’s hard to articulate and harder still to find nowadays, as attention spans scatter and fandoms shrink into niches. “I can’t explain it, but I know it when I see it,” as Clooney puts it.
>Industry power players believe Turner holds that quality. Now comes the moment where audiences need to show up and agree.
...
>Gluck believes Turner is approaching a similar turning point: “He can do anything.”
>Clooney thinks so, too. He says that if he had his way, Turner would become the next face of one of global cinema’s most revered, bankable franchises — as has been hinted at in tabloids and whispers around town for months. “I hope Callum ends up being the next Bond. I think he would be a great Bond,” Clooney says, unprompted.
>“He’s tall and handsome and charming and British, so he’s the perfect guy to do it.”
>Turner won’t give me an inch on that score. “I know as much as you do — really, I know as much as you do,” he says, after I mention Amazon MGM’s recent announcement that casting for the new James Bond film, to be directed by Denis Villeneuve, had officially begun. Is he at least interested in taking the gig, should it be offered? Turner laughs to himself, looking down at his sneakers. “I’m not going to comment on that.”
>Betting markets such as Kalshi have Turner as the clear favorite. Jacob Elordi is thought to be in the hunt — “He certainly looks like a great Bond. I mean, why not?” his Saltburn co-star Rosamund Pike recently told GQ — and Sunset Boulevard‘s Tom Francis reportedly auditioned for the coveted role. No one can hide from this rumor mill. So what can Turner say about the breathless speculation?
>“I’ll tell you what’s so funny about the Bond thing: Even your best friends ask you, people text you that you haven’t spoken to for 10 years — and you know nothing!” Turner says. “It’s such a weird thing of something happening and nothing happening at all. I genuinely know nothing. I just find it quite amusing.”
...
>When asked for his list of dream directors, Turner smirks and says, “You want me to say Denis?” referring to Villeneuve, who will direct the next Bond (and yes, he is on it).
Prior to Denis Villeneuve being hired to direct the next Bond film, I had seen Enemy, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and the two Dunes. Then following the announcement, I spent the next several months catching up on the rest of his English language filmography plus Incendies (and giving Arrival another go). So I think I have a full sense of Villeneuve's directing style across different genres.
To continue my Bond 26 homework, I need to watch something written by Steven Knight. I haven't seen any of his projects; I'm completely blind except for second hand judgements of his works, positive or negative.
I must add that I'm not a huge TV person, so I'd prefer movie recommendations. I know there are some Peaky Blinders films. Do they have a low barrier to entry for someone who hasn't seen the series?
Beyond those, what are the best options for gaining a sense of Knight's dialogue and storytelling?
Thanks for your help!
