Pitch Time: Bond 26

Daniel Craig’s time as James Bond has come to an end. Even though the end of No Time to Die’s credits says ‘James Bond Will Return,’ the 25^th Bond film ended on a conclusive note, so Bond 26 will be a hard reboot. Seeing that I am a Bond fan and have ambitions to be a filmmaker I thought I would discuss what’s next for the franchise.

In the podcast discussion I had with Jean Henegan and Duncan Casey, I said if you put five Bond fans in a room, they will tell you five different things they would want from a Bond film. The series has told grounded spy stories to big epic adventures. There are debates amongst the fandom about the direction of the franchise. I personally prefer Bond films to be more grounded, realistic, and focus on character development, but there are people who have seen the Craig-era as too serious and po-faced. Other fans love the more over-the-top style of the Connery and Moore years and a film like The Spy Who Loved Me is held in high regard amongst the whole of the fandom.

However, all fans can agree that all Bond films should have certain traits and tropes. We want to see a sharply dressed spy who looks good as he takes on the baddies, have top-notch action and stunt sequences that used in-camera effects, and have some glamour along the way. What fans and non-fans want is to see a good story well told.

Daniel Craig’s era as 007 was marked by the character having a long-running arc across his films. All his films were tied together, even if Skyfall worked better as a standalone film. My instincts tell me that the series is going to have more standalone films with less connectivity between them. If the series tried to tell a long-running arc it will probably just be a repeat of the Craig-era. The series strengths are its ability to adapt and evolve, be able to have standalone films, and allow filmmakers to put their own stamp on the franchise.

Since Bond 26 will be a hard reboot, there may be some calls for it to be an origin story. This will be a mistake because Casino Royale (2006) was a perfect origin story and Skyfall explored some of Bond’s childhood. Another origin story may end up being The Amazing Spider-man which retold the same story. Like Spider-man, Batman, and Superman, Bond’s origins as a Double-00 are set in stone. The only way another origin story could work is if it shows Bond’s time being recruited by MI6 or just before Bond became a Double-00 but this would be a regressive step for the franchise.

The first action EON will do is cast a new actor as Bond. This will probably happen in 2022 as a way to celebrate the franchise’s 60^th Anniversary. EON has learned that long gaps between Bond films have been beneficial to the franchise. Skyfall was a critical and commercial juggernaut and No Time to Die has similar success at the time of writing (at least internationally). We probably won’t see Bond 26 until 2024 at the earliest. Most Bond fans will believe quality over quantity will be the best approach for the franchise.

I would cast a young actor, someone in their late 20s or early 30s. By the time Bond 26 is in production the actor who will have aged into the role. Some top picks would be Jack Lowden (Mary, Queen of Scot, Fighting with My Family) and Regé-Jean Page (Bridgeton). Popular candidates like Tom Hardy and Idris Elba would be too old for the role. My logic is a young actor could play Bond being a young agent and they can grow into playing the agent in his prime. During the Craig era there was never a film showing Bond at his peak. He went from a brash young agent in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace to someone considered over the hill in Skyfall.

The appointment of the director is equally as important. There are three options for EON. They could carry on hiring prestige directors like Sam Mendes and Cary Joji Fukunaga which has proven to be successful for them. Denis Villeneuve has said he would love to do a Bond film and has ideas if he ever gets offered the role. Christopher Nolan is famous for being a Bond fan and his films have been influenced by the franchise. It would be a bold statement if EON hired someone of that calibre. Option two is to get a director who lightens the series up and make a classic-style Bond adventure. Directors that would fit that mould would be Edgar Wright and Matthew Vaughn. Or the franchise could go for one of the modern action directors who revitalised the genre, like Chad Stahelski (John Wick series) or Gareth Evans (The Raid). Imagine what they could do with a massive budget.

As stated earlier I prefer more serious and grounded Bond films and that’s the direction I would take the franchise. Franchises like Marvel Cinematic Universe, DCEU, and Fast & Furious series offer loads of over-the-top action, and constant humour. James Bond could act as an alternative to this. Bond could focus on realistic plots and character drama. Bond can counter franchises that are overly dependent on CGI effects. A Bond film like this could still have the tropes fans love, i.e. a villain with a grand plan, a formidable henchman, plausible gadgets, and a sprinkling of humour. Bond would be a suave agent who would remain cool and calm in the face of danger.

Films like On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Casino Royale, and No Time to Die have all explored Bond’s serious relationships. They all show Bond is unable to have a happy ending. Any future Bond film would struggle to have 007 in a serious relationship because the conclusion is going to be the same. Bond is cursed to live alone. However, the series could explore Bond’s character. He would have complex morality because he’s job is to kill people for Queen and Country. The franchise has explored this in small ways like in The Living Daylights and Tomorrow Never Dies. I would expand on this, by showing Bond in an impossible situation, like having to chase down a henchman or rescue some civilians.

Paul Greengrass has criticised Bond, saying he’s ‘an imperialist right-wing fuckface’ and believed he was a character who enjoyed killing. I would go out of my way to disprove this assessment. I would make Bond a character who only kills when he has to and he sets out to protect life, and freedom. The best way to describe the moral greys Bond works in is from the John le Carré novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and the film adaptation. The head of The Circus said ‘our work, as I understand it, is based on a single assumption that the West is never going to be the aggressor. Thus, we do disagreeable things, but we’re defensive. Our policies are peaceful, but our methods can’t afford to be less ruthless than those of the opposition, can they?’ This could be applied to Bond’s work.

I have a loose idea for a Bond film. My idea for the pre-title sequence is Bond gets sent to a refugee camp or a village on the front line of a war zone so he can extract an MI6 agent or source posing as a humanitarian worker. However, the agent refuses to leave the people they’re helping, and Bond’s morality is put into question when the camp/village is attacked by a group of mercenaries. This will lead to Bond investigating the main villain of the film, the owner of a private military company who on the surface perform security operations and act as auxiliary support for Western militaries. But in reality the company performs wet work for Western agencies and performs operations for multinational companies and shadowy organisations i.e. SPECTRE.

My idea for the main villain is he’s an ex-soldier turned businessman who operates in Cape Town. I pictured Sharlto Copley in the role because he is one of South Africa’s best-known actors. He would be able to perform as a sharply suited businessman and be a physical threat because of his special forces training. His role in Elysium is a good example of the type of villain he can be. It would be good to see Copley be allowed to use his natural accent.

I envisioned the main henchman being an ex-Gurkha for the British or Indian army. He would be a huge fella who still uses his regimental kukri. His discipline and tactical knowledge would make him a formable threat.

For the Bond girl role I have a few ideas. The idea I like the most is the Bond girl being a young Nepali woman who wants revenge against the Gurkha henchman because he betrayed his unit, which her father was a member of. It would be a similar role to Melina and Camille from For Your Eyes Only and Quantum of Solace. This character would have agency and I could picture there being a powerful moment when she tells the henchman he doesn’t deserve to have a kukri. An actress that could fit the role is Shadow and Bone star Amita Suman because she’s a young British-Nepali actress who can perform with intensity, although I’m sure there are probably other actresses from a Nepali background that could do the role.

Another idea I had for the Bond girl’s role is she is a soldier working for the PMC and turns because of their actions. She would be a hard-as-nails character who is effective in conflict. She could twist the usual Bond girl role by being a sex-positive character who is happy to have a causal relationship with Bond. The alternative is the Bond girl is a peace activist or aid worker who could question Bond’s profession and ethics. The final idea I have for the Bond girl is she’s a ranger at Kruger National Park who protects the animals from hunters linked to the company. This would be the hardest character to fit into this film, but I could picture Rose Williams in this type of role.

In my Bond film I would look at themes of war, conflict, and morality, and be a criticism of private enterprises involved in warfare and espionage. It could be one of the most politically charged Bond films so anyone making it would need to be handled with the greatest sensitivity. Regardless of politics the aim of the filmmakers is to make a good film.  Whatever happens fans and non-fans will want to see a good, entertaining film regardless of story and tone.