Late directors who should mave made Bond films
Ricardo C.
Posts: 916MI6 Agent
This is a thread about the directors who should have made Bond films but have passed on.
1. Alfred Hitchcock
If I really have to convince you why the master of suspense should have directed a Bond film; Then I will find you, break your head open, and feast on the gooey insides. Really, this man was doing Bond movies decades for they began. Just look at The 39 Steps; A pure Bond film with the shadow originization, colourful villian, and stylish plot. North by Northwest, again, that was the very foundation of James Bond just three years before Dr.No. Hell, From Russia With Love ripped off the biplane sequence from Northwest. Also reading Fleming's Moonraker, it moves along like a Hithcock thriller. I orgasm of the thought of Alfie Hitch making a loyal apatation of the 1955 James Bond novel.
2. John Frankenheimer
Probably the only director who was asked to BE James Bond. Yes, the 6'3 Frankenheimer was asked to put on the tux. I don't know if he would have been a good fit but I know for damn sure he would have made a hell of a film. Anyone who has seen 'em should take a look at The Manchurian Canidate, Ronin, and Black Sunday which features two former Bond villians, Robert Shaw and Walter Gotell. Definetly one the great suspense and action directors our time and branching out of the genre to make surreal films like Secounds and character dramas like The Iceman Cometh. Too bad he wasn't asked, would have been to see JF behind the lense for a Bond film.
3. J. Lee Thompson
Half of you are asking "Who is that ?" and the other half, Charles Bronson fans, are going "Oh THAT guy". Well he's not one of my favorite directors but he did direct some great, great movies such as Cape Fear and The Guns of Navarone. I would have liked to have seen him direct instead of Lewis Gilbert; Particularly The Spy Who Love Me and Moonraker. Now I like the fact that Gilbert caputured the locales beautifully in his films, but he put in too much camp when he did the Moore films. Thompson would have kept that larger than life atmosphere but definetly would have kept of more the manly Bond Guy Hamilton had in Sir Rog's first two.
1. Alfred Hitchcock
If I really have to convince you why the master of suspense should have directed a Bond film; Then I will find you, break your head open, and feast on the gooey insides. Really, this man was doing Bond movies decades for they began. Just look at The 39 Steps; A pure Bond film with the shadow originization, colourful villian, and stylish plot. North by Northwest, again, that was the very foundation of James Bond just three years before Dr.No. Hell, From Russia With Love ripped off the biplane sequence from Northwest. Also reading Fleming's Moonraker, it moves along like a Hithcock thriller. I orgasm of the thought of Alfie Hitch making a loyal apatation of the 1955 James Bond novel.
2. John Frankenheimer
Probably the only director who was asked to BE James Bond. Yes, the 6'3 Frankenheimer was asked to put on the tux. I don't know if he would have been a good fit but I know for damn sure he would have made a hell of a film. Anyone who has seen 'em should take a look at The Manchurian Canidate, Ronin, and Black Sunday which features two former Bond villians, Robert Shaw and Walter Gotell. Definetly one the great suspense and action directors our time and branching out of the genre to make surreal films like Secounds and character dramas like The Iceman Cometh. Too bad he wasn't asked, would have been to see JF behind the lense for a Bond film.
3. J. Lee Thompson
Half of you are asking "Who is that ?" and the other half, Charles Bronson fans, are going "Oh THAT guy". Well he's not one of my favorite directors but he did direct some great, great movies such as Cape Fear and The Guns of Navarone. I would have liked to have seen him direct instead of Lewis Gilbert; Particularly The Spy Who Love Me and Moonraker. Now I like the fact that Gilbert caputured the locales beautifully in his films, but he put in too much camp when he did the Moore films. Thompson would have kept that larger than life atmosphere but definetly would have kept of more the manly Bond Guy Hamilton had in Sir Rog's first two.
Comments
I want Phillip Noyce to make a future Bond film too, before he dies of old age, because back in 1991, one year after the release of The Hunt for Red October John McTiernan would not continue what he started. Paramount Pictures wanted to have a Jack Ryan trilogy and so they turned to Phillip Noyce. I haven't seen Red October in a very long time but when I was watching Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger (maybe I'm not the right person to critique this,) but I couldn't tell the difference between John McTiernan's directing style and Phillip Noyce's directing style...I'm thinking if EON productions could convince Phillip Noyce to do Bond 23, it'll be the closest we'll ever get to a John McTiernan directed Bond film, since the man himself is gonna be in prison for a very long time.
Edit: I know Steven Spielberg and Phillip Noyce are still alive but look at them! They're so old that they could die at any give moment!
You don't know that. Look at every Indiana Jones film he made before Indiana Jones IV. He wanted to make a Bond film back then but Chubby Broccoli wouldn't give him the time of day! And besides Spielberg can't be any worse than the directors who made Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Quantum of Solace.
I know. But I edited my original post and said that Steven Spielberg and Phillip Noyce look like they could die at any moment because, you know, they're so old. Find a recent picture of Noyce and Spielberg and they have a head full of gray.
LOL ! That is a rather rash assumption.
If EON Productions had taken the company in this direction back in 1967, we probably could've avoided Guy Hamilton's two awful Bond films (LALD and DAF) and his one mediocre Bond film. (TMWTGG)
Let me think.
After OHMSS, the producers should have turned creative control over to Peter Hunt and Richard Maibaum. Those two were a partnership made in heaven for the James Bond franchise.
That having been said, I would offer up:
John Boorman
Mike Hodges
John Guillermin
Roy Ward Baker
At the risk of alienating everybody here, Guy Hamilton and Lewis Gilbert should have been retired after their initial entries in the series because their judgment was poor to say the least, and John Glen shouldn't have directed any. He had no storytelling sense. Although I appreciated the energy and realism he brought to the series, other directors could have brought energy and realism to the series who had a storytelling sense as well.
I've always been more concerned with the writing than with the directing. After OHMSS, the Bond films were derailed by bad ideas and bad writing. Richard Maibaum is largely responsible for any good writing that managed to stay in all the way up to Licence to Kill in 1989. The series needed good writing. It still does.
Richard
Remember this a thread about Late directors, Richard.
I think Gilbert did a great job with all of his work but I think his strongest film was his initial outing. As for Glen, you are correct. I'd admire his work as a secound-unit director but as a director he seemed to bring nothing to the table. When I saw him interviewed on he Bond DVDs, all he seemed to be interested on is staging the action. Terence Young or Peter Hunt talked about the atmosphere and the characters.
Well it's natural to be more concerned with the writing. This series is not dictated by a directors vision.
Richard
Well that would be good for the "Incapacitated directors who should have made Bond films" topic.
I'm a great believer that Michael Winner (this is the early Winner, the pre-Death Wish one who made decent thrillers and swinging sixties comedies) would have made a good director. I think he would have appreciated the quirkiness of the early 70s Bond much better than the rather flat Guy Hamilton.
I also think Roger Corman might have made a fair fist of 007, although I do worry the large budget would drive him to distraction, but at least you'd see it on the screen!
Basil Deardon might have been good for one of the early ones.