It's Just Movies

— by BEN FOWLER —

“Quantum of Solace” was a strange beast; at once cold and uninterested in getting the audience into the story, and yet leaving us wanting to reach some closure or conclusion to the Vesper/Le Chiffre/Quantum saga. So if the (obvious) interest is there for a sequel, why are we still waiting for any concrete news?

In December, new Bond writer Peter Morgan said that pre-production of the film, currently running on the working title “Bond 23,” was on hold until February. The delay is due to the expected sale of studio MGM, which distributes the Bond series for EON Productions. When asked about the current status of the next 007 film in February’s issue of Total Film magazine, Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli stated “Well, our timeline’s a little up in the air what with the situation at MGM, so we have to be flexible. We just don’t know enough about the situation to comment, but we know it’s uncertain.”

Debt-ridden MGM expects the first takeover bids to be received in the coming weeks.

Sadly, beyond that, there is little other official news on the production to report on or dissect. Asked about the state of pre-production and the artistic direction of Daniel Craig’s third outing as 007, Wilson told MI6 it was too early to know how the film will shape up; “Well … we’ve hired the writers and we’ve been working with them but it’s just too early to say anything,” he said. “You know, often at this stage, I find myself saying, ‘Oh, we’re gonna do this and that,’ then six months from now you’ll say, ‘That isn’t in the film at all — you told me it was …’ I think we’re at the stage where a lot of ideas are floating around that sound very good, but whether they make the final cut, who knows?”

What we DO know is that Daniel Craig is expected to return as MI6 agent James Bond. Responding to questions after his performance in Broadway play “A Steady Rain” in October, he stated that he expected to “start the end of next year.” Judi Dench is also expected back as 007’s boss M. With scriptwriting duties falling to regular Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade with aforementioned Bond newbie Peter Morgan.

One piece of interesting (but still unofficial) news is that England-born director Sam Mendes (who previously directed “American Beauty” and “Road to Perdition”) is in talks to helm “Bond 23.” As of Jan. 7, and at the time of going to press, Sam Mendes had been hired as a “consultant” for the film. Watch this space for further announcements.

But now we turn it around. What do we, the fans, want to see? Barbara Broccoli says she wants Camille Montes, played by Olga Kurylenko in “Quantum of Solace,” to return in some shape or form. Felix Leiter (played by Jeffrey Wright) has always been a particular favourite of mine, and his relationship with Bond is one I think needs exploring further. What about the evil organisation Quantum? What do you want to see happen to the modern day version of SPECTRE? Daniel Craig himself tantalisingly said in 2008 to Collider that he wanted the film to “try and find where Moneypenny came from and where Q comes from. Let’s do all that and have some fun with it.”

And I think we can all agree that after “Quantum of Solace” and, to a degree, “Casino Royale,” Bond is in serious need of some fun.

The image above is from http://www.onegirlcreative.com/popart.htm.

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Follow Ben Fowler on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Localboy99.