For weeks now we’ve known that Amazon & MGM are hunting the next James Bond after Daniel Craig’s farewell in ‘No Time to Die’. The choice will be pivotal: they don’t want just an actor for a single film, but someone capable of leading an entire new era with potential spin-offs. It has also been confirmed that Denis Villeneuve will direct the first film of this phase. The question is the approach, and Tarantino has a suggestion.
For Bond’s Future, It’s Time to Return to Ian Fleming
It is well known that the American filmmaker, the creator of works such as ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘The Hateful Eight’, was once interested in taking charge of the Bond franchise. That attempt didn’t pan out, but it made clear that he is a big admirer of Ian Fleming’s novels. So, when a few months ago he was asked what the tech giant should do with James Bond, he didn’t hesitate to share what his strategy would be.
“What I think they should do [after Daniel Craig], and I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, is that many of the books have truly classic names and very classic adventures. And in most cases, in many of them, they never adapted the book. They never adapted the real stories. They took the premise and perhaps Bond girl or the villain, and then they went off on their own. (…) I think they shouldn’t make remakes of the films, but adapt the books directly, but doing them exactly as they were written. And all those films would be completely new.”
In short, Tarantino believes that now is the moment for Bond, 007, to secure its future by not looking at its cinematic past but at the literary one, since in his view there is enough unreleased material there, and so different from what we’ve seen on screen that the saga would feel even refreshing in the current landscape. “They are very, very hard stories”, says the director of Inglourious Basterds. The question is whether Amazon will want to pursue this path, given that they have someone of Villeneuve’s stature at the helm.
In fact, the screenplay is being written by Steven Knight, a screenwriter not exactly known for offering light tales, but rather quite forceful, with successes like ‘Eastern Promises’. He is also the creator of ‘Peaky Blinders’, and in some recent statements he made clear that he understands the Bond mythos and what it means for millions of viewers around the world. We’ll see what comes out.
Via | Deadline
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