Bond is back! Well, he will be...

Picture: Twitter/007

We have known for some time that the next Bond film in the official canon will be the 25th, mostly because the last, Spectre, was the 24th, and also because Eon Productions had been cleverly trailing the hashtag #Bond25 ahead of today’s somewhat slick streamed “reveal” from Goldeneye, the Jamaican house where James Bond came to literary life at the typewriter of Ian Fleming.

In truth, today's event didn’t actually reveal all that much that wasn’t already known or strongly rumoured: Daniel Craig will return for the fifth and final time as 007, Ralph Fiennes will be back as M, Ben Whishaw will again play Q and Naomie Harris will return as Moneypenny. All solid bets there and little different to the days when Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewellyn and Lois Maxwell played, M, Q and Moneypenny against successive Bonds. Perhaps a little surprising, though understandably with no plot-revealing context to explain, is that Léa Seydoux will return as Dr Madeleine Swann, Bond’s love interest in his last outing.

Picture: YouTube

With the principal cast assembled with director Cary Joji Fukunaga at Goldeneye, little was being given away about the plot, beyond co-producer Barbara Broccoli saying that: "Bond is not on active service when we start the film, he is enjoying himself in Jamaica, [which] we consider [to be] Bond's spiritual home. We have built an extraordinary house for him, he starts his journey here. There is quite a ride in store for Mr Bond." Beyond that, and the fact filming would be done in Jamaica, Norway, Italy, London and Pinewood Studios, there was nothing more forthcoming. There wasn't even a reference to the rumoured title of "Shatterhand".

In the past, Bond productions have been signalled with a press event at Pinewood, but today's streamed event, fronted by Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, had a makeshift feel about it, which will not do much to settle Bond fans' anxiety about a delayed film and a script that has only recently had scribbler-du jour Phoebe Waller-Bridge of Fleabag fame added to the writing team. The only additional details we could glean is that Rami Malek, fresh from winning an Oscar for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, will also appear, presumably as a baddie since he appeared on video during the reveal declaring that he "won't give Mr Bond an easy ride".

Picture: YouTube

Although the reveal, taking place today, April 25, was clearly a clever wheeze by the Bond PR team (“Bond 25, the 25th - geddit?”), the exercise was much needed. After director Danny Boyle walked away from the project, and Fukunaga was appointed some time later, producers Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have had to mount some spin control as an information vacuum has developed. Bond films have, in recent years, been released in November ahead of the Christmas season, but with principle photography only just starting, it’s a safe bet that the pledge today of 25 appearing “early next year” will be closer to Easter 2020. All seemed calm today, but Broccoli and Wilson know that the stakes are high for a film that could have even been out before last Christmas, had Craig been tied down to committing to it sooner, and the directorial situation not become so messy under Boyle (with reported differences of opinion over plot direction including Bond being killed off).

Much has been made of the fact that it will be almost five years between Spectre and 25, with Daniel Craig passing his 50th birthday in that time. Looking lean and buff today during the reveal, his age shouldn’t be a issue for the new film, but given that Bond should, ideally, be played by an actor in his mid-30s, the idea of Craig bowing out with this film is probably the right one, shame as it would be, seeing as he has, against expectations, been an excellent 007.

Picture: YouTube

But if the weight of expectation is heavy on Craig’s shoulders, it’s nothing compared with that weighing on Fukunaga and now-veteran Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who are joined by Scott Z. Burns and Waller-Bridge to deliver the script. You don’t stretch the world’s longest running film franchise to 25 movies without raising the stakes of failure. By and large the Bond canon has been of a high quality (Octopussy not withstanding), and the introduction of a grittier approach with Craig has ensured that his four so far are right up there with the best of those by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan. Connery, in particular, is still regarded as the benchmark: I recently rewatched Goldfinger and From Russia With Love and, despite being the second and third oldest, respectively, they still held up extremely well. But don’t discount Lazenby’s sole outing, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, or Dalton’s brace, all of which took the Bond character closer to Fleming’s literary ideal. Craig may be short(ish), blond and blue-eyed, but he has carried off Bond as a steelier individual than Brosnan’s exquisitely suited smoothie, perfect for an age when Matt Damon’s younger Jason Bourne started to show old Bond a few new tricks.

Overall, though, and despite the pre-production turbulence surrounding Bond 25, Broccoli and Wilson, know what they’re doing and have been doing it a long time. The appointment of Sam Mendes to direct Skyfall and Spectre was a masterstroke that paid off with two gripping, well executed, quintessential Bond films that carried a noirish air about them. Fukunaga has a lot to live up to, and the quality threshold surrounding him is exacting. He has the right cast ingredients, let's hope Wade and Purves’ script, with Waller-Bridge’s help, supports them, and Daniel Craig can leave Bond behind next year in a high. I, for one, can’t wait.

Bond will be back…eventually

Coming out of the shadows...at some point: Daniel Craig as James Bond

So Bond 25 is back on track, sort of. A month after Danny Boyle walked away from the project amid “creative differences” (supposedly, killing off Daniel Craig’s Bond to have the character regenerate, Doctor Who-style, as the next Bond, or something like that…), Bond supremos Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli - together with Craig - have this morning announced the appointment of up and coming director Cary Joji Fukunaga to helm the much delayed next instalment in the franchise.

While it’s good to know that Bond 25 has a director again, filming won’t commence until 4 March next year, with a worldwide release date of Valentine’s Day in 2020, according to the official tweet, thus breaking the recent production and release cycle of Bond films opening before Christmas.

While this is unlikely to affect audience interest, the delay in appointing Boyle’s replacement and, rumoured, significant rewrites on the script Boyle had favoured, which reportedly had a strong reflection of current global relations with Russia, will mean that it will be more than four years between the new outing and the last, Spectre.

With Daniel Craig already agitating to leave the role after the last film and its physical demands on him, the fact that today’s announcement is jointly from Craig, Wilson and Broccoli is somewhat significant. Craig will turn 50 just two days before filming begins at Pinewood - 31 years older than the youngest Bond on his opening day (George Lazenby).

41-year-old Fukunaga made his name as director of Season 1 of True Detective, brilliantly working with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as they investigated an occultist murder in the American Deep South. How that translates to James Bond will, obviously, remain to be seen. Plenty of Bond fans have hoped for a return to a director like Martin Campbell, the New Zealander in charge of Pierce Brosnan’s GoldenEye and Craig’s 007 debut, Casino Royale. Others - namely me - had hoped that Sam Mendes could have been persuaded to direct Craig one last time, after his triumphant work on Skyfall and the sadly under-appreciated Spectre.

Mendes was something of a gamble as a Bond director, being steeped in the theatre and with cerebral films like Road To Perdition and American Beauty to his name, rather than a back catalogue of action-adventures. But as he proved, with the Bond franchise having to adjust to competition from both the Mission: Impossible series and the darker Jason Bourne films, Mendes’ approach was perfect. And, with him stepping away after Spectre, he left the door open for a director of similar tone, Christopher Nolan. The mind only boggles as to what a Nolan-directed Bond would be like, if his Batman trilogy is anything to go by.

So, we wait with interest. 14 February, 2020 seems an awful long way away…

'Tis the season for speculation

We are now in the thick of the 'Silly Season', that summer tradition when nothing of any great note happens and, as a result, the media resorts to non-stories to pep up* an otherwise moribund news agenda. This summer has been somewhat different, however: the front pages have been consumed by nationwide political dysfunction, from Theresa May's aversion to coherent governance to Jeremy Corbyn's abject inability to provide any form of recognisable opposition. To distract from all this we've had Boris Johnson on manoeuvres and the ever-manic circus that is the 45th President of the United States. The only summer consistency has been on the back pages, with their bi-annual rumour mill surrounding the football transfer window, some of which came good, some didn't, but which always managed to fill the void evacuated at the end of the World Cup by actual news.
*Not to be confused with 'Fake news'.

Showbiz doesn't need a silly season, as most of it is silly all year round. But if it does allow a periodical lapse into speculative fantasy, it is over the unanswered future of the James Bond franchise. What we do know is that Daniel Craig has agreed to a fifth and final outing as 007 (for now known only as 'Bond 25'), which will commence filming, presumably, later this year for release in November 2019. What happens after Craig - who'll be 51 when the film comes out - hangs up his Walther PPK, is still open to speculation. As this blog has commented before, the lead character in cinema's longest-running action franchise is one of the most sought-after, which means there's been no shortage of names linked to it, from James Norton and Tom Hiddleston to Tom Hardy and even Gillian Anderson. But the one name that seems to remain fixed in the speculation is that of Idris Elba.

Ever since he first emerged as The Wire's sinister but sophisticated Stringer Bell, Elba has demonstrated an immense screen presence, not to mention a broad range of roles. He is supremely blessed in the charisma department. The question is, is he Bond? Could he be Bond? His tweet the other day - "My name's Elba, Idris Elba" - sent the media - and Bond fans - into a frenzy, reopening the debate about his Bond candidacy and even suggesting that he was not-particularly cryptically telegraphing the fact he had the job in the bag. The official line from Eon Productions is that there isn't a line...yet. Presumably they are focusing on producing Bond 25, still more than a year away from cinema screens. But given their responsibility as custodians of the Bond cinema legacy, and that it had been possible, since Spectre was released in 2015, that Craig wouldn't make another film, surely they've been giving some thought as to who will pick up the licence to kill next.

A few days ago it was reported that Bond supremo Barbara Broccoli had suggested that "it is time" for a non-white actor to play Bond. This, inevitably, has got a lot of people up in arms, not necessarily for racist reasons, thankfully, but for the fact that Ian Fleming's literary creation was somewhat specific and, in most people's minds, manifested perfectly by Sean Connery in Dr. No in 1962. George Lazenby's casting for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (before Connery returned again), was also pretty on the money, much like Timothy Dalton (who captured Bond's more brooding nature) and Pierce Brosnan. Roger Moore and indeed Craig both successfully challenged the idea that Bond couldn't be dark haired (or, in Craig's case, tall), but to date ethnicity hasn't been a matter of discussion.

Just as Jodie Whitaker's casting as the new Doctor Who caused a minor rip in the space-time-continuem, people are very protective of the Bond legacy. Personally I think Elba would be a brilliant choice: from The Wire to Luther, Elba has demonstrated a tremendous screen presence, underpinned by gallons of charisma. The actor certainly would fit the part from all those perspectives. My one doubt, surprisingly, is not the colour of his skin. It's his age. At 46, Elba is, today, older than even Roger Moore when he took on the role, which means that by the time photography would begin on Bond 26, he we will be closer to Daniel Craig's age now. The actor has, himself, also suggested that he may be too old to play Bond (especially with Craig suggesting the physical demands as being a reason to quit, as the series has modernised to compete with the more raw Bourne and Mission: Impossible series). Thus, it's still possible that Elba is simply undertaking a massive wind-up by his tweet. And given the usual tightlippedness surrounding any of the Bond films until they're announced, it's unlikely that Elba would be damaging his chances of being hired by telegraphing it so prematurely.

The reality is that the Broccolis have no need to project their next Bond, just yet. By the time 25 appears, it will be four years since Daniel Craig's last outing, and given his initial reluctance to do a fifth film, the producers, writers and, especially, director Danny Boyle, are going to have to pull something magical out of the bag to keep things fresh. Which is why some are suggesting that the next Bond might have to be an even younger actor - perhaps rebooting the series again with a Millennial-age 007, taking the approach of The Young Indiana Jones or The Young Montalbano. But for now, let's see how this all plays out. A post-Craig James Bond film is still a long way away: it's just that with precious little to write about, the Elba speculation is doing a nice job of filling up otherwise threadbare news pages. Not to mention this blog.

For Queen and country: who will be the next Bond?

The BBC's cracking new organised crime drama McMafia has created a dilemma for the Beeb - what if its star, James Norton, gets poached to be the next James Bond? It's an interesting question: Daniel Craig has agreed to one more outing as 007, but by the time the film currently known only as 'Bond 25' appears on its target date of November 8, 2019, he will be 51 - two years older than Pierce Brosnan when his last, Die Another Day, was released (although Sir Roger Moore was 58 when he finally hung up the Walther PPK with A View To A Kill).

Age should not necessarily be a barrier, of course, but with the series becoming grittier and more physical for the lead actor since its reboot with Craig and Casino Royale in 2006, his seemingly petulant 2015 statement that he’d “rather slit his wrists” than do another Bond may have had some foundation. Craig's tone has, though, since changed (a lucrative contract will do that, of course) and it is believed that he will again be joined by Naomie Harris as Miss Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q and Ralph Fiennes as M, with Yann Demange, directing. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade - who’ve written the last six Bond films - are also said to be working on the script.

As with the previous productions, the film's name and cast will probably only be revealed at a press event roughly a year before the movie opens, so late this year. Between now and the actual release date we will have to speculate on the plot, although apparent leaks have suggested that it will see Bond quit MI6 and get married. Not exactly the basis of a ripping action flick, though if it follows the plot of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in which the newly-betrothed 007 quickly becomes a widower, then there are grounds for revenge and the usual mayhem can ensue.

Assuming, though, that '25' will be Craig's last Bond film, the race has already begun to replace him. After much (credible) speculation about Idris Elba (too old), Tom Hardy (too brawny and probably already too old) and Tom Hiddlestone (too fey), James Norton has emerged as a standout candidate. His current portrayal of Alex Godman, the English-raised son of Russian mobsters in McMafia, has possibly provided the same Bond audition as Layer Cake did for Daniel Craig (I rewatched it recently - he basically was Bond...). Ironically, McMafia's New Year's Day BBC1 premiere drew an audience of six million - a million more than the ITV premiere of Craig's last Bond film, Spectre. At least the BBC know they’ve got a couple of years to cram in more of its dramatisation of journalist Misha Glenny's non-fiction book before its star gets poached by the Broccoli family.

Picture: Nick Wall/BBC/Cuba

That said, as easy as it is to see the Cambridge-educated Norton as Bond on the back of his brooding role (not to mention well-cut tailoring) in McMafia, it is an altogether more gentle performance that marked him out for me as a possible 007: Diane Keaton's cocky but charming son in the soppy-but-amusing Hampstead. Throw in his more recent psychopathic turn in Line Of Duty, and you've got the perfect candidate to give James Bond a new lease of life in the next chapter of the longest running - and best - series in cinema history.