Tag: Sam Mendes

SKYFALL & Directing 007

courtesy 007.com and Sony/MGM

Could Skyfall mark the beginning of a new run within the James Bond franchise? Sam Mendes is winning rave reviews for the latest 007 adventure and there’s talk he may return. Co-writer John Logan is slated to return as the sole writer for the next adventure. As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the James Bond movies I wanted to look back at the stellar runs of some key directors.

The James Bond franchise is known for a director helming several 007 films.  Terence Young directed Dr. No and From Russia, With Love (my all-time favorite) took a break and was back for Thunderball.

Guy Hamilton directed Goldfinger, the film that is best known for setting the formula for 007’s adventures that followed it. Hamilton didn’t return until Sean Connery’s final (yes, I’m not including Never Say Never Again) film, Diamonds Are Forever and ushered in the Roger Moore era with Live and Let Die then The Man With the Golden Gun.

Lewis Gilbert directed Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice and Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.

John Glen has the longest run directing 007 with For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View To A Kill, The Living Daylights and License to Kill. Glen closed out the Roger Moore era and helmed Timothy Dalton’s two 007 films.

Martin Campbell directed the James Bond relaunches  Goldeneye (Pierce Brosnan’s first) and Casino Royale (Daniel Craig’s first.) 

I was immediately excited and surprised when it was announced Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road, Jarhead) would direct Skyfall. Mendes and Daniel Craig share a love of James Bond films saying they discussed Live and Let Die and From Russia, With Love before starting work on Skyfall. It was a huge surprise when the Oscar-winner was named director of Skyfall. Indications are he will not return.

“It’s been a fantastic experience, but it’s been completely exhausting,” he told AceShowbix , “Do I want to do another one? I’m a shadow of my former self. [laughs] No, I don’t know. I felt like everything I wanted to do with a Bond movie, I put into this film.”
I would have to be convinced that I could do something that I loved and cared about as much if I was to do it again. I think the great risk of repeating oneself is that one doesn’t have the great store of ideas that you have when you first tackle a subject.”

Here’s hoping the producers can entire Mendes to renew his license to thrill.

Here’s a follow-up as we wait for the next film: SPECTRE and Directing 007 – the sequel.

By Editor

How THE DARK KNIGHT Inspired SKYFALL Director

 

Daniel Craig in Skyfall courtesy MI6-HQ.COM

  How did Batman influence the latest James Bond adventure?

  Skyfall is already scoring great reviews. Director Sam Mendes tells IndieWire he was “directly inspired” by Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.

  “In terms of what [Nolan] achieved, specifically ‘The Dark Knight,’ the second movie, what it achieved, which is something exceptional. It was a game changer for everybody,” he explained about how it influenced his approach.

  “We’re now in an industry where movies are very small or very big and there’s almost nothing in the middle,” he continued. “And it would be a tragedy if all the serious movies were very small and all the popcorn movies were very big and have nothing to say. And what Nolan proved was that you can make a huge movie that is thrilling and entertaining and has a lot to say about the world we live in, even if, in the case with ‘The Dark Knight,’ it’s not even set in our world. If felt like a movie that was about our world post-9/11 and played on our fears and discussed our fears and why they existed and I thought that was incredibly brave and interesting. That did help give me the confidence to take this movie in directions that, without ‘The Dark Knight,’ might not have been possible. Because also, people go, ‘Wow, that’s pretty dark,’ but then you can point to ‘Dark Knight’ and go ‘Look at that – that’s a darker movie, and it took in a gazillion dollars!’ That’s very helpful. There’s also that thing – it’s clearly possible to make a dark movie that people want to see.”

Skyfall hits U.S. theaters November 9th.

Christopher Nolan has expressed how a classic 007 film influenced Inception and his potential involvement with the Bond franchise. You can read that here.

By Editor

New Skyfall Videoblog: James Bond Filming in London

 

courtesy 007.com

  London has a major role in the new James Bond film Skyfall. Director Sam Mendes, Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench discuss filming in the iconic city in a new videoblog courtesy 007.com.

  “Bond opens a few doors,” Craig explains about the access the crew received.

  “Sam and I wanted to make it British,” Craig reveals, “and it’s not some flag waving thing that either one of us is interested in…it’s just about basing Bond in Britain.” 

  Take a look:

  Skyfall is set in England, Scotland, China and Turkey. Skyfall opens November, 2012.

By Editor

James Bond Action and Emotion in “Skyfall”

Skyfall photo courtesy Empire

  When the Oscar winning director of American Beauty takes on 007 fans might be worried that James Bond may be getting emotional instead of kicking — but Daniel Craig tells MTV not to worry. The actor says he and director Sam Mendes found a balance between action and drama in Skyfall.

  “I sat down with Sam Mendes two years ago, three years ago — now it’s getting on four — and we discussed what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it, and he’s one of the biggest Bond fans around,” said Craig.

Skyfall set photo courtesy Empire

“He’s not out to do an angst-ridden movie, some chamber piece about people’s emotions,” Craig continued. “It’s a Bond movie. But we both agreed that if he cast the film, which he did really well, and we brought in older characters and new characters, that we’d have something really rich and sort of exciting to watch.”

For the full story and video here’s the MTV link.

 

“Skyfall” Bond Girl Like a Female 007

 

AP Photo/Joel Ryan. Daniel Craig and the new Bond girls.

New Bond Girl Naomie Harris is sharing her excitement for the role and how she sees her character. 

 “I never thought it was a possibility, so it’s hugely exciting to be a Bond girl. I’m loving it. I love Sam Mendes. He’s a fantastic director. And Daniel Craig is incredible to work with, so I feel incredibly lucky.”

 Harris plays a MI6 field agent named Eve and tells ContactMusic about how she sees her role and the training to play a female spy.

 “My character would like to see herself as a female bond but I don’t think anyone’s really a match for Bond.”

“I kickbox and do a lot with guns. I started off terrified by the sound of a gun let alone having any idea how to hold one but now I really enjoy it.

 Harris, presented at the First Light Awards 2012. First Light provides funding and expertise to enable five to 25 year olds to make their own short digital films and media projects. I’m sure the awards and this actress providing encouragement the next generation of British filmmakers. The film’s director Sam Mendes was a judge for the competition.

Thanks to MI6 and Contact Music for the stories.

I’ve loved Naomie Harris since 28 Days Later. If she can handle a gun the way she worked that machete then looked out bad guys in Skyfall!

 

In another interview

“My character would like to see herself as a female bond but I don’t think anyone’s really a match for Bond.”

Skyfall Director on Daniel Craig’s James Bond

Daniel Craig in Skyfall courtesy MI6-HQ.COM

  The official 007 site posted a video blog from Skyfall Director Sam Mendes. The Director revealed his longtime love of the James Bond series and how Daniel Craig in Casino Royale saying “it reminded me of the way I felt when I watch Sean Connery movies.”

James Bond Writer’s Oscar Nomination

Courtesy MI6-HQ.COM

  The writer penning the next James Bond adventure is nominated for an Academy Award. John Logan co-wrote Skyfall and has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Hugo.

  If Logan wins that would mean even more Oscar gold for the cast and crew of 007’s new adventure. Oscar winners Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Dame Judi Dench are past of the cast. Oscar winning Best Director Sam Mendes is the director of Skyfall. 

 For more on Skyfall visit MI6.

New James Bond Film Like Goldfinger

 

AP Photo/Joel Ryan. Daniel Craig and the new Bond girls.

  Goldfinger is the gold standard for many James Bond fans. The third movie has the most iconic villain, henchman and Bond girl – Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob and Pussy Galore. Those three roles along with the thrilling pre-credit sequence, Shirley Bassey theme song and Q’s car – in a way set the blueprint for future Bond movies.   

  Producer Michael G. Wilson teases that 007’s next adventure Skyfall will have  “magical 1960’s feel.”

 “Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig are taking it back to a 60’s feel – more Sean Connery. I think that’s what the fans wanted,” Wilson tells The People.

  “There’s a magical Goldfinger feel surrounding it all,” Wilson added and also teased that he’s trying to get all six Bond actors together to mark the film’s release and the franchise’s 50th Anniversary in 2012.

  Thanks to NME for the Wilson interview. In an earlier post – Craig discussed why he wanted Sam Mendes as the director for Skyfall and the Bond films they both enjoyed.