James Bond. Doctor Who. Two of Britain’s incredible contributions to my geeky life. While the two characters will never meet on-screen Skyfall director Sam Mendes compares the secret agent to the Time Lord. The Director was part of a recent press conference in Turkey and told Collider.
“That’s why I mentioned the word in the press conference, “regeneration” rather than “evolving,” because I feel it is like, you know, we have Doctor Who…there’s a geek answer…we have Doctor Who and I was brought up on the idea of Doctor Who, who at the end of his final episode, he dissolves and a new actor pops up and he regenerates and it’s a whole other character: sometimes it’s an old man, sometimes it’s a young man, but he just changes. I’ve always loved that idea.”
Mendes goes on to discuss Daniel Craig’s performance as 007 and compares other action film franchises.
“I think that what’s interesting is you have an actor who is capable of playing the consequences of his actions as well as fulfilling those actions with great elan and cool and that is always more interesting. That’s not to say that what I’m looking at or what I want to look at is a kind of navel-gazing depressive [laughs] because that’s not what Bond will ever be. He’s a doer, not a thinker. And I think you have to understand that. I also think he doesn’t walk amongst us. He’s not Bourne , he doesn’t walk the streets. He’s a lone wolf. You have to keep him separate for most of the movie. It’s a very particular area he has to exist in.
But, there’s a reason why the most interesting, to my mind, franchises now are The Dark Knight and Bourne because there are characters at the center who are, to some degree, in conflict about what they do and are pushed right to the edge. That is one of the wonderful things about what’s happened to these movies recently is that audiences have embraced movies that go darker and more personal. Having said that, they all have the thrills and spills you expect, as well. It’s about a balance.
For more of the interview here’s the link.
