A brief history of the 007 franchise and why this announcement is so exciting: For those who primarily know Bond from the Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan eras, youve missed out on some of the series best: From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and On Her Majestys Secret Service. Three out of four of those movies involved an organization named SPECTRE, whose leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, was set up to be one of the most cunning and imposing villains Bond ever faced. In the books, Ian Fleming created an informal SPECTRE trilogy that ran from Thunderball to On Her Majestys Secret Service to You Only Live Twice. In Thunderball, Bond foils Blofelds huge plot to annihilate the world. In OHMSS, Bond finds the love of his life and gets married; then his bride is murdered in front of him, per Blofelds revenge. In the YOLT novel, Bond is a broken man and goes on a quest of personal vengeance to take down Blofeld. Its a perfect arc and one that the movies have drawn inspiration from over the years. Unfortunately, a few things happened that prevented the movies from capturing this arc properly: the producers established a winning formula of gadgets, girls, and exotic locales, and thought that You Only Live Twice would work better to follow the huge smash of Thunderball. Blofeld became an overly campy bald guy with a secret base inside a hollowed-out volcano, i.e., the clear predecessor to Dr. Evil. But whatever, these things happen. The real tragedy is that Sean Connery peaced out from the series for the moment, leaving OHMSS in the hands of George Lazenby, and as a result, the most faithful Bond adaptation fell short in the eyes of many and didnt do as well at the box office, making the producers think that people didnt want a gritty, believable Bond. Which explains most of the films of the 70s and 80s. And thanks to a ongoing lawsuit by one of the guys involved with Thunderball, SPECTRE has not been a part of the Bond universe in any meaningful way since the 60s. Occasionally theyve tried to build something similar, like with QUANTUM a few movies back, but its not the same. Daniel Craig is the best Bond since Connery -- in some ways hes a better Bond, more human and faithful to the original. But the films since Casino Royale have lacked a cohesiveness to vision and a satisfying master plan... until now? Only wishful thinking until we know more, but this is a very promising development. If they were to do their own Craig-era equivalents of Thunderball, On Her Majestys Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice, those three movies could be some of the best Bond movies ever. Trusting that theyre pulling the Star Trek Into Darkness bit of Hes not that iconic villain, hes this guy because Christoph Waltz would be the perfect Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Welcome back, SPECTRE. uproxx/filmdrunk/2014/12/the-official-title-cast-and-car-for-the-24th-james-bond-film-have-been-announced/
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 17:04:56 +0000
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