The BJMDDS General Discussion Thread......

[Kristatos]

Pond of Wood loses another 983 screens tomorrow, dropping it down to 891 screens. CR was still playing on 1543 screens in its 7th week.

[bjmdds]

Right on the money Kris. A tremendous amount of drop of theatres at Christmas. It's all over now but for the final tally except Japan. It will be 15th by tomorrow in the USA. It should be pulled within 10-14 days totally now. Theatres won't run a film with zero to 5 people attending a film. No $650 million for this pile, as was expected worldwide. Even internationally it failed to ignite CR's take, and with no competition to boot for 6-8 weeks. When was the last Bond film to vanish this quickly, and after such a tremendous opening weekend? The word got out, the film is below par Bond, and Craig has taken a HUGE hit as the pilot of this off course plane.

[LilleOSC]

How might these numbers impact Bond 23's development?

[Kristatos]

How might these numbers impact Bond 23's development?

It'll probably get a smaller budget, and I doubt Marc Forster will be asked back (though he's said he doesn't want to do another Bond film anyway). Hopefully Dan Bradley won't either, as he seems to be as guilty as Forster, if not more so, of QOS's confusing style of direction.

[katied]

I'm not high on Forster or Bradley returning. As far as the smaller budget, it wouldn't be a *much* smaller budget but it might affect the end result(IOW Bond 23)

[stockslivevan]

Who will direct will be quite interesting. Most filmmakers of recent years have had success to their own right, even Lee Tamahori had some credibility before DAD (doesn't seem to be getting that back after xXx2 and Next). Too bad there's no inside filmmakers in EON eager to take the directing duties like Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Peter Hunt and John Glen (mostly average or mediocre but TLD was quite an exception). The only person working with the films now who has directed is Paul Haggis and even he commented that he wasn't quite ready for a big film like Bond. Funny, he would be the first person to have writing and directing credits for a Bond film. You could argue the closest person to have the most power over a Bond film was Michael G Wilson, who had writing and producing credits for five films straight. Granted he worked with Cubby and Maibaum, but that's still pretty d**n close.

[Kristatos]

Who will direct will be quite interesting. Most filmmakers of recent years have had success to their own right, even Lee Tamahori had some credibility before DAD (doesn't seem to be getting that back after xXx2 and Next). Too bad there's no inside filmmakers in EON eager to take the directing duties like Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Peter Hunt and John Glen (mostly average or mediocre but TLD was quite an exception). The only person working with the films now who has directed is Paul Haggis and even he commented that he wasn't quite ready for a big film like Bond. Funny, he would be the first person to have writing and directing credits for a Bond film. You could argue the closest person to have the most power over a Bond film was Michael G Wilson, who had writing and producing credits for five films straight. Granted he worked with Cubby and Maibaum, but that's still pretty d**n close.

What about Vic Armstrong? He's worked his way up through the ranks, in fine EON tradition, from Connery's stunt double in YOLT to Second Unit Director on the Bond films from TND to CR. He's directed before, too, albeit only an obscure Dolph Lundgren action movie (The Joshua Tree, later renamed Army of One to avoid confusion with the U2 album and accompanying documentary of the same name) and a couple of episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Time to promote him to directorial duties on Bond 23?

[stockslivevan]

Correction, he only did second unit for TND-DAD. And no, I wouldn't want him to fully direct a Bond film, even second unit or whatever. Too bland, not much excitement in the sequences he directed. Hell I can't recall a memorable sequence outside Bond. At least John Glen, while a mediocre director, had some good stuff to offer such as in his work in OHMSS.

[bjmdds]

The Spike channel is showing Dr. No, FRWL, and GF. Showtime is showing CR. What a delight watching Connery's Bond vs. the morbidly depressed Craig's. Eon should watch their 'own' films to get ideas of where to take Bond and not mimic the Bourne franchise's approach. By the way, Craig looks worse as Bond every time I watch him.

[LilleOSC]

Yeah, Spike has been showing a Bondathon all week. I still don't understand the appearance of Craig's Bond. Why did Craig have to be so muscular in CR? Didn't Fleming describe Bond as having a slim build. As mentioned in another thread, he seems more like Red Grant than James Bond. Also, why was it so hard for Daniel Craig to dye his hair?!

I was asked to dye my hair brown to play this role but it was out of the question.I suggested instead that I could cut my hair really short to create a more brutal appearance.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... t-dye.html

[katied]

Not that I'm defending DC or anything,but dyed hair makes him look strange.Especially when it's very dark(like in Infamous,or Sylvia)

[bjmdds]

Stranger than usual. Looked way out in Infamous.

[Terry]

QOS was supposed to be the knockout blow for the Craigers with $200+ million in the US, BAFTA nominations, Bond mania etc.

Just because it didn't reach those expectations doesn't mean it was a total disaster. Disappointing after CR, yes, but not an utter disaster like TMWTGG or LTK to warrant doom and glooming, the end of Craig era, and all that junk. It made over $500 worldwide, that pretty much solidifies Craig's position as a popular Bond actor. After two films that drew in a lot of audiences, Craig may as well be standing next to the three other popular Bond actors, Connery, Moore and Brosnan. This is something (very unfortunately) Dalton couldn't do. QOS may not go on to be the big Bond favorite like CR was, but even then Craig still got most praises from the reviews that trashed QOS, which says something.

So now Craig stands next to Connery, Moore, and Brosnan as a new popular Bond. You folks may not like it one bit and will find anything to debunk it as much as possible. But money talks, in this case, over $500 million. A whole billion when you combine both his films. Oh yes, EON will want to keep a track record like that.

Dalton, or even Brosnan for that matter, did not have the blanket promotional hype that surrounded the Craig films. All things considering QoS hasn't pulled up many trees and was met with the worst critical reception of any Bond film I can remember. Eon and Craig have gone backwards. Now we are faced with the bizarre prospect of a more traditional Bond film with Q, a few jokes, Moneypenny, a lighter approach - all with Daniel Craig!

Sooner or later someone will have to reboot this half-baked reboot. Which is ironic.

[Kristatos]

The Spike channel is showing Dr. No, FRWL, and GF. Showtime is showing CR. What a delight watching Connery's Bond vs. the morbidly depressed Craig's. Eon should watch their 'own' films to get ideas of where to take Bond and not mimic the Bourne franchise's approach. By the way, Craig looks worse as Bond every time I watch him.

It was nice to see films other than Brosnan's on basic cable for a change. No, I haven't joined the ranks of the Brosnan bashers, it's just that his films get shown way more often than those of his predecessors. To look at the TV schedules sometimes, you'd think that only four Bond films were ever made.

[Kristatos]

Correction, he only did second unit for TND-DAD. And no, I wouldn't want him to fully direct a Bond film, even second unit or whatever.

Well, have no fear. EON is run by people who think like you do, so someone who's been making Bond films as long as I've been alive doesn't have a snowflake's chance in hell of being asked to direct as long as there are arthouse directors out there who don't have a clue how to stage an action sequence but whose name sounds good when dropped at North London dinner parties.

[bjmdds]

Fox News just listed the worst films of 2008 and guess what was number 3?..........are you ready?..........The Bourne Mimicry, aka, QOS.....I have more than a quantum of solace with that honor being bestowed on this pile of non-Bondian rubbish......congrats to Fox news on their keen perspective....the gang at MI6 and CB.net will bury this news somewhere on their websites so few will notice it, or undermine Fox news' list.

[Kristatos]

Fox News just listed the worst films of 2008 and guess what was number 3?..........are you ready?..........The Bourne Mimicry, aka, QOS.....I have more than a quantum of solace with that honor being bestowed on this pile of non-Bondian rubbish......congrats to Fox news on their keen perspective....the gang at MI6 and CB.net will bury this news somewhere on their websites so few will notice it, or undermine Fox news' list.

Or relegate the news to a single sentence after several paragraphs about Mamma Mia making number 9 on the list.

[stockslivevan]

Fox News just listed the worst films of 2008 and guess what was number 3?..........are you ready?..........The Bourne Mimicry, aka, QOS.....I have more than a quantum of solace with that honor being bestowed on this pile of non-Bondian rubbish......congrats to Fox news on their keen perspective....the gang at MI6 and CB.net will bury this news somewhere on their websites so few will notice it, or undermine Fox news' list.

FOX NEWS? Wow, what a credible source. I don't think anyone really cares for what FOX NEWS thinks. They're a bunch of hacks.

[LilleOSC]

The sentence in bold from that FOX News story stood out to me:

Daniel Craig without Milk of Magnesia, Judi Dench actually saying this line: “But can I trust you, James?” She should have said, “Can I get you an aspirin?” The Bond girls were sexless, the theme song was monotonous and loud. The title meant just about nothing. The audience was asked to recall a dead character from another movie that was two years old. Where were the gadgets? Where was the fun? MGM was smart enough to release this one in Europe and around the world two weeks before Americans started carping about it. By then, the Bruccolis couldn’t get steamed, they’d made their money. But they also diminished a noble franchise in the process.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,471526,00.html

[bjmdds]

Fox News just listed the worst films of 2008 and guess what was number 3?..........are you ready?..........The Bourne Mimicry, aka, QOS.....I have more than a quantum of solace with that honor being bestowed on this pile of non-Bondian rubbish......congrats to Fox news on their keen perspective....the gang at MI6 and CB.net will bury this news somewhere on their websites so few will notice it, or undermine Fox news' list.

FOX NEWS? Wow, what a credible source. I don't think anyone really cares for what FOX NEWS thinks. They're a bunch of hacks.

Stocks, without realizing it your response just validated my assessment at the Python's other web home. Do you want more facts? QOS is now 19th in the USA behind Nixon/Frost and Milk! How's that for facts? The film is doing dreadfully now and might never top CR here without inflation factored in, straight up. All in all, a big hit to Eon's arrogant ego that this trash could fly at a huge profit as a Bond film. It will do Iron Man numbers, with a bigger cost to produce. D-O-N-E! I cannot see how Bond fans accept this enthusiastically. It puzzles me.