By Lee Pfeiffer
As much as we hate people who say "We told you so...", well- "We told you so" when it came to the future of the James Bond film franchise. Eon Productions has announced, in a brief press release, that production will begin on the 23rd official 007 epic later this year. Daniel Craig will star and Sam Mendes will direct, based on a script by Neal Purvis, Rob Wade and John Logan. Scripter Peter Morgan, who contributed to early concepts for the film, is out of the project, as previously reported here last week. The film is untitled as of now and is simply known as "Bond 23". It's anticipated that most of the studio work will be done at Eon's long-time home, Pinewood Studios near London.
Many in the media doubted the future prospects for the Bond franchise due to the complicated financial mess at MGM, which co-owns the series. However, even when magazines like Entertainment Weekly were providing ludicrous cover stories that sounded the death knell for the Bond movies, we confidentally not only predicted they would be resurrected, but that Eon would definitely have a new film out to capitalize on the 50th anniversary of the film series in 2012. The MGM debacle might actually have been a blessing for the producers, as it's given them plenty of time to prepare the new film which will star Daniel Craig in his third appearance as 007. Following the enormous success of Casino Royale in 2006, the follow-up film Quantum Of Solace was rushed into production. The result was that, although the movie was a major boxoffice success, most fans and critics felt it fell below its potential.
Artistically speaking, the Bond films have actually thrived when there has been an extended gap between release of the movies. After the release of You Only Live Twice in 1967, the series was beginning to feel tired. Even Sean Connery retired from the role of Bond, sick of the ever-increasing reliance on gadgetry. Producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman took their time crafting the next movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which was not released until two-and-a-half years later. It is now regarded as a film that reinvigorated the series. Similarly, after Broccoli and Saltzman split up following the release of the anemic Man With the Golden Gun in 1974, Broccoli did not release his first solo effort, The Spy Who Loved Me, for two-and-a-half years. The film was an enormous success with both critics and the public. Following the release of Timothy Dalton's second- and last- appearance as Bond in 1989's Licence to Kill, Eon and MGM became embroiled in protracted legal battles that kept the franchise off the screen until GoldenEye in 1995. In the interim, pundits and know-it-alls predicted the end of the series in the post Cold-War era. However, the introduction of Pierce Brosnan as the new Bond proved to be an enormous success. When the Brosnan era ended in 2002 after the bland Die Another Day, the producers did not get the next film off the ground until Casino Royale in 2006. It remains the most highly acclaimed Bond movie released to date. Our guess is that, if history is a guide, the next Bond movie will live up to expectations.
For more click here