Last Friday, at a family wedding, I was introduced to one of the editors on the new James Bond movie 'Casino Royale'. Being quite a Bond fan, I was very keen to hear his thoughts on the new flick. This isn't the first one that he's worked on, so he was a mine of fascinating stories. What got me most excited was that he told me about a scene from the upcoming movie, which if it makes it to the final cut, might just be the most extreme thing seen yet in any Bond movie. And it's pure Ian Fleming.
More Bond than Bond
The Brosnan era was a curious thing: whilst the Irishman's performances got better and better, the scripts got worse and worse. Die Another Day was possibly the worst of all the twenty Bond movies. It was truly execrable stuff, worse even than A View to a Kill. As if this wasn't bad enough, Matt Damon's Bourne movies shat all over Bond. They were cleverer, grittier, cooler. And they had that key ingredient that the Brosnan movies didn't have: a decent score. John Barry's signature music has been badly missed since The Living Daylights.
I can't speak to the score of the new Bond flick (worryingly they've persisted with David Arnold again) but it does seem that they've made a decent, honest effort to make an Ian Fleming movie. The key to this, for me at least, is that Casino Royale contains a scene from Fleming's original novel which I never thought would make it to the big screen.
More Bourne than Bourne
Without ruining the movie, the scene involves the villian LeChiffre having a quiet word in Bond's ear and making the spy talk by the means of some rather gruesome testicular torture. It involves a wicker chair, a rope and a large 'thwocking' sound. At least some of this seems to have made it into the trailer (where LeChiffre asks Bond if he will 'yield'). And it's straight from the Fleming school: a nasty torture scene at the hands of a scarred villian. We don't know just how much we'll see, how rough it will get or if the scene will even make it into the final cut.
With the third Bourne movie in production - The Bourne Ultimatum - Casino Royale needs to deliver. It seems promising - a proper heavyweight for Bond, a smaller, less CGI-dependant budget and a seemingly concerted effort to go 'back to basics'. And some bruised nads.
Your either a really poor Bond fan or a really lousy liar…or Both.
An opportunity to talk with one of the editors of the latest James Bond film Casino Royal. I wonder which one he worked on before this one…since the last 4 Bond films have all had different editors listed in their credits I’m thinking NONE.
So I guess we should not be at all surprised that the only thing you choose to share with us non wedding guests was the torture scene.
This is directly from Flemings book, that’s why it’s pure Fleming. The fact that the producers have talked about this scene and the director has talked about this scene really kills the notion of this being some juciey bit of news that might be cut from the final print. I am not going to address your misguided opinions on David Arnold’s music or the merits of Pierce Brosnan’s Bond movies. Suffice to say that everyone has an opinion on the Internet, even when its such an obviously plant.
About bloody time! With invisisble midget lasers and such, Bond was moving too far away from his creator's vision, now, if just the average movie goer can "get it." Craig will be great..............
Well once I see Casino Royale I will judge from all the prievous Bond movies. All of the old 007 were good. It may be the Best Bond ever.
daver,
your selective reading of my post is intriguing. i said 'one of the editors'. every movie has dozens of editing staff. i spoke to one of them. but of course in your rush to to pass judgement, you seem to have overlooked this.
i'll reserve the right to express my opinion on david arnold. i don't think he's up to the job. his scores for the last three bond movies were poor. just plain poor and the movies suffered for it. his solution to the difficult question of how to score a bond movie, is to fill every moment with screeching, declamatory brass sections.
compare this to the subtle tension which john barry used to fill the space in his scores - hanging a tense framework around each scene without being invasive. good movie music should be unnoticeable in the theatre. but listenable on it's own. sadly, arnold's is neither.
'plant'? what plant? if you're trying to suggest that this is a viral marketing plant, i suggest you take a quick perusal of some other entries on this blog (or on the rest of blather). i think you'll quickly see that simply isn't the case.
You're out of your depth son. Birdbath is more than just some fanboy, and he's clearly eloquent and intelligent. Stop being a cynic, or I'll send Rosa Klebb around.
http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_2062153.html
Hooray for everybody! All the nasty bits have been cut so it's 12A!
Of course, I still think it's totally unacceptable to see this man shoot people dead. Maybe if he shot at the ground in front of them like the A-team did.
get a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!