It is a worry that they see fit to suck up to the administration by firing money at them though, hopefully the Bond film won’t be compromised by his wishes by things like shooting in the US etc.
Mr MartiniThat nice house in the sky.Posts: 2,738MI6 Agent
They may be a little more strict with how much they spend on future movies though? Bond 26 might get a modest budget, but nothing huge. If B26 is a success, they may throw more money at making Bond 27.
Some people would complain even if you hang them with a new rope
I think Bezos will ensure money is no object for Bond26, the budget will be whatever the producers and director want it to be. It could be GoldenEye and YOLT rolled into once, a reintroduction and a Connery era like Bond extravaganza.
I think the recent revelations about Epstein and the Russians will make Russia as the enemy even more relevant, so SMERSH returning would seem to be a given now, and the Bond trope of the billionaire who wants world domination is more realistic than ever before.
I don't think Russia being shown as an enemy is a given at all, especially as Bezos is sucking up to someone who is on their side. I would say that the history of Bond movies -blockbuster movies in general- almost never making a nation state the main opposition make that notion seem extremely unlikely, in fact.
It doesn't have to be the main opposition. Only in the same way it is with, FRWL, TSWLM, FYEO, OP, AVTAK, or TLD. Or North Korea with DAD.
Bond sort of uses the nation states as a backdrop but also as villians in a somewhat indirect way. Remember in Spy, Bond is chased down the slope by actual Russian agents. Bond eventually teams up with the Russians however.
In AVTAK, we have the same chase at the beginning and Zorin is a kind of a Rogue Soviet Mind.
FRWL, Russia is being played by SPECTRE just as much as Mi6.
FYEO, Kristatos is hired by the KGB to recover the ATAC.
OP, we see a Rogue Russian General.
TLD, we have Koskov as a Rogue Russian General taking in a unsanctioned scheme to kill agents and make millions. However Pushkin and Bond work together to thwart him.
In DAD, we have a Rogue North Korean Colonel using diamonds to destroy the DMZ and take over South Korea. However the Older North Korean Generals are not in line with this.
If Amazon truly wanted to make Bond relevant, they would tap into some of this. China and Russia are the obvious candidates for a plot like this. Again, they don't have to be the main baddies per say, but invent a rogue element that has splintered off from them, and perhaps Bond has to work with a Russian or Chinese agent to take them out. I could see that working.
Also, we have General Gogol who is portrayed as a kind of friendly Rival. I could see something like this with a Chinese General.
Lifestyle guide to the products and locations featured in the James Bond films.
SMERSH was and lately is a real Russian organisation, so making it an alternative to SPECTRE can get problematic. Making it the overarching enemy organisation would easily also make Russia the villain for several movies too. They could make the organisation and imaginary version of itself, something it can be argued Fleming did, but it would be strange disconnecting it completely from Russia is pretty much a villain in real life, but I still don't like it.
I think the best solution would reference SMERSH like they did in TLD to honour Fleming, but not make it the main enemy.
Another point is that Putin has started SMERSH up again (from 2024) and they are active in Russian occupied Ukraine to crack down on suspected Ukrainian agents. Using the name of a very real organisation that persecutes resistance fighters and brave real brave intelligence agents on occupied territory in a fictional entertainment setting is questionable in my opinion, especially if it plays a major part in the plots.
I am extremely confident that Russia will be the enemy, SMERSH will be Bond's opposition, the leader of Russia will not be called Putin, they'll have another name but they are basically Putin and we'll hear references to Kompromat and blackmail. It's inevitable at this point.
It's not inevitable at all in my opinion. It's possible Russia will play a part like the USSR did during the cold war. Then the cold war was the backdrop of the plots, the sea the evil billionairs swam in.
Fighting Al-Qaeda was clearly not inevitable in the Brosnan and Craig movies, so why is Russia inevitable as the main enemy now? We did get le Chiffre financing terrorists, but Bond didn't fight terrorist organisations.
It's not impossible they mention real elements during a briefing in M's office or something like that, but giving context to explain the stakes does not mean the enemy is supposed to be real. In the last Mission Impossible, Russia is involved but only to make the plot more realistic. The villain has no flag, and it is not a problem in my opinion.
Yeah, no Mission Impossible film in the whole 30-odd years has featured anyone acting for a nation state as the baddie, in much the same way that no Bond film has really (the closest they come is probably YOLT where Spectre is briefly mentioned to be working for China; or FYEO where Kristatos has been contracted by the KGB, but in both cases it's not the country directly). I don't see that changing now, especially for the reason @kristopherm3 mentions.
Bond is always better when it stays away from real world politics, that why SPECTRE made such great villains during the 60s. It means the movies date better when you watch them in years to come. The Afghanistan section of TND is now a bit of a hard watch given how the west betrayed that country and Bond's Mujahideen buddies would now be Taliban. Some of Bond's enemies have worked for a nation state for money such as SPECTRE hiring out their services to China in YOLT or Kristatos for the Russians in FYEO or they have been nation state servants that have gone rogue like Orlov, Zorin and Col. Moon and that works much better
yeah you get rogue actors working against the state’s wishes, which is kind of a have-your-cake-and-eat-it solution: you get to have, for example, a Russian baddie, but without actually overtly accusing the Russian state.
Back with Mission Impossible, it’s kind of funny that it took until the fourth film before the baddie wasn’t another IMF agent gone bad.
Bond allies in TLD may have turned into Taliban a few yeats later, but there are other possibilites. Remember the US quickly found allies among the enemies of Taliban in Afghanistan after 9/11. Kamram Shah may for example have joined the northern alliance.
While I don't want Russia to be the villain in futue Bond movies the conflict can be used in other ways. The villain can for example use the Russian shadow fleet to transport people or objects he wants to move in secret. Or Bond could discover the activities of the villain when he's shadowing a Russian secret agent. Q could hack a Russian spy satelite to find something NATO surveilance didn't detect. And so on.
Callum Turner refuses to comment on James Bond rumour at the Berlin film festival 3 days ago. I'd say he's probably talking to Amazon but I'd imagine he may not be the final choice.
The latest rumor is that Jacob Elordi has absolutely, positively been offered the role. I have to admit, I wouldn't have problems with him--in part because he looks kinda like George Lazenby--but I'll believe it when I see it.
It's a rumour coming from very dodgy sources though. He may well end up getting it, but I'm not buying that particular rumour- especially as he's got a film out right now and it's very handy for that to have a 007 story out there.
And other ‘sources’ say Lauren Sánchez Bezos has been given (or she demanded) the task of picking the next actor for Bond and that she positively ruled out Elordi immediately 🤷🏻♂️ crazy times 😁
Comments
Well, Amazon has just splurged $70m on the universally panned Melania documentary, money that could have been spent on the Bond film.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Bad judgement, but I don't think the budget of Bond26 will be slashed because of the Melania documentary.
It is a worry that they see fit to suck up to the administration by firing money at them though, hopefully the Bond film won’t be compromised by his wishes by things like shooting in the US etc.
They may be a little more strict with how much they spend on future movies though? Bond 26 might get a modest budget, but nothing huge. If B26 is a success, they may throw more money at making Bond 27.
Could be. I think GE and CR had more modest budgets than the movies that came right after.
I think Bezos will ensure money is no object for Bond26, the budget will be whatever the producers and director want it to be. It could be GoldenEye and YOLT rolled into once, a reintroduction and a Connery era like Bond extravaganza.
I think the recent revelations about Epstein and the Russians will make Russia as the enemy even more relevant, so SMERSH returning would seem to be a given now, and the Bond trope of the billionaire who wants world domination is more realistic than ever before.
I don't think Russia being shown as an enemy is a given at all, especially as Bezos is sucking up to someone who is on their side. I would say that the history of Bond movies -blockbuster movies in general- almost never making a nation state the main opposition make that notion seem extremely unlikely, in fact.
It doesn't have to be the main opposition. Only in the same way it is with, FRWL, TSWLM, FYEO, OP, AVTAK, or TLD. Or North Korea with DAD.
Bond sort of uses the nation states as a backdrop but also as villians in a somewhat indirect way. Remember in Spy, Bond is chased down the slope by actual Russian agents. Bond eventually teams up with the Russians however.
In AVTAK, we have the same chase at the beginning and Zorin is a kind of a Rogue Soviet Mind.
FRWL, Russia is being played by SPECTRE just as much as Mi6.
FYEO, Kristatos is hired by the KGB to recover the ATAC.
OP, we see a Rogue Russian General.
TLD, we have Koskov as a Rogue Russian General taking in a unsanctioned scheme to kill agents and make millions. However Pushkin and Bond work together to thwart him.
In DAD, we have a Rogue North Korean Colonel using diamonds to destroy the DMZ and take over South Korea. However the Older North Korean Generals are not in line with this.
If Amazon truly wanted to make Bond relevant, they would tap into some of this. China and Russia are the obvious candidates for a plot like this. Again, they don't have to be the main baddies per say, but invent a rogue element that has splintered off from them, and perhaps Bond has to work with a Russian or Chinese agent to take them out. I could see that working.
Also, we have General Gogol who is portrayed as a kind of friendly Rival. I could see something like this with a Chinese General.
Maybe; I'd still be surprised if the situation were mentioned at all, and I think to say that SMERSH being featured 'is a given' is a real stretch.
SMERSH was and lately is a real Russian organisation, so making it an alternative to SPECTRE can get problematic. Making it the overarching enemy organisation would easily also make Russia the villain for several movies too. They could make the organisation and imaginary version of itself, something it can be argued Fleming did, but it would be strange disconnecting it completely from Russia is pretty much a villain in real life, but I still don't like it.
I think the best solution would reference SMERSH like they did in TLD to honour Fleming, but not make it the main enemy.
Another point is that Putin has started SMERSH up again (from 2024) and they are active in Russian occupied Ukraine to crack down on suspected Ukrainian agents. Using the name of a very real organisation that persecutes resistance fighters and brave real brave intelligence agents on occupied territory in a fictional entertainment setting is questionable in my opinion, especially if it plays a major part in the plots.
I am extremely confident that Russia will be the enemy, SMERSH will be Bond's opposition, the leader of Russia will not be called Putin, they'll have another name but they are basically Putin and we'll hear references to Kompromat and blackmail. It's inevitable at this point.
It's not inevitable at all in my opinion. It's possible Russia will play a part like the USSR did during the cold war. Then the cold war was the backdrop of the plots, the sea the evil billionairs swam in.
Yeah I'm also struggling to see how it's inevitable. I would even say it's pretty unlikely.
Fighting Al-Qaeda was clearly not inevitable in the Brosnan and Craig movies, so why is Russia inevitable as the main enemy now? We did get le Chiffre financing terrorists, but Bond didn't fight terrorist organisations.
If anything, it seems less likely given how cozy Bezos is to the Trump regime.
Probably will involve a villain not aligned with any particular nation or political affiliation.
It's not impossible they mention real elements during a briefing in M's office or something like that, but giving context to explain the stakes does not mean the enemy is supposed to be real. In the last Mission Impossible, Russia is involved but only to make the plot more realistic. The villain has no flag, and it is not a problem in my opinion.
Yeah, no Mission Impossible film in the whole 30-odd years has featured anyone acting for a nation state as the baddie, in much the same way that no Bond film has really (the closest they come is probably YOLT where Spectre is briefly mentioned to be working for China; or FYEO where Kristatos has been contracted by the KGB, but in both cases it's not the country directly). I don't see that changing now, especially for the reason @kristopherm3 mentions.
Bond is always better when it stays away from real world politics, that why SPECTRE made such great villains during the 60s. It means the movies date better when you watch them in years to come. The Afghanistan section of TND is now a bit of a hard watch given how the west betrayed that country and Bond's Mujahideen buddies would now be Taliban. Some of Bond's enemies have worked for a nation state for money such as SPECTRE hiring out their services to China in YOLT or Kristatos for the Russians in FYEO or they have been nation state servants that have gone rogue like Orlov, Zorin and Col. Moon and that works much better
yeah you get rogue actors working against the state’s wishes, which is kind of a have-your-cake-and-eat-it solution: you get to have, for example, a Russian baddie, but without actually overtly accusing the Russian state.
Back with Mission Impossible, it’s kind of funny that it took until the fourth film before the baddie wasn’t another IMF agent gone bad.
Bond allies in TLD may have turned into Taliban a few yeats later, but there are other possibilites. Remember the US quickly found allies among the enemies of Taliban in Afghanistan after 9/11. Kamram Shah may for example have joined the northern alliance.
While I don't want Russia to be the villain in futue Bond movies the conflict can be used in other ways. The villain can for example use the Russian shadow fleet to transport people or objects he wants to move in secret. Or Bond could discover the activities of the villain when he's shadowing a Russian secret agent. Q could hack a Russian spy satelite to find something NATO surveilance didn't detect. And so on.
Shadowfleet is a not-bad title even! 😁
Callum Turner refuses to comment on James Bond rumour at the Berlin film festival 3 days ago. I'd say he's probably talking to Amazon but I'd imagine he may not be the final choice.
Whatever is happening he knows what the smart reply to those questions is.
The latest rumor is that Jacob Elordi has absolutely, positively been offered the role. I have to admit, I wouldn't have problems with him--in part because he looks kinda like George Lazenby--but I'll believe it when I see it.
It's a rumour coming from very dodgy sources though. He may well end up getting it, but I'm not buying that particular rumour- especially as he's got a film out right now and it's very handy for that to have a 007 story out there.
I sincerely hope it isn't true
And other ‘sources’ say Lauren Sánchez Bezos has been given (or she demanded) the task of picking the next actor for Bond and that she positively ruled out Elordi immediately 🤷🏻♂️ crazy times 😁
Well, they'll have a real problem if they go with Elordi.