KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, AUGUST 16.2010 / ENTERTAINMENT
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MOVIES
Issues abound for new Bond film
Cast members Daniel Craig and Ola Gurleylenko pose at a photocall to promote the James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace" at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm. Sweden on Oct. 14, 2008.
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LOS ANGELES — Problems Many problems.
The obstacles littered in front of a new James Bond movie may be more devilish than anything one of the film franchises' many villains could have dreamed up. In addition to financing woes and increasingly crowded talent schedules, there's this nagging fact: The script isn't ready.
Last week a fresh speed-bump was laid on the road to the 23rd film in the Bond franchise when "Quantum of Solace" and "Casino Royale" star Daniel Craig formally committed to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." David Fincher's remake of the Swedish-language best-seller won't begin shooting until later this year, meaning that Craig wouldn't be free until later in 2011 at the earliest. Even then, he'd need to navigate around promoting Jon Favreau's "Cowboys & Aliens", which he's currently shooting (and which could also spawn a sequel, on which the actor has an option).
Craig's moves away from Bond, meanwhile, come as MGM sits in a state of financial limbo. The company has accrued nearly $4 billion in debt and has received a sixth debt forbearance on interest payments until Sept. 15 and is unable, in the meantime, to fund new movies. Legal agreements apparently prevent the Bond film from being extricated from the studio by Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, the tight-lipped pair who control the franchise through their EON Productions company.
But while MGM's financial woes have been a focus of much of the news coverage — which alternately have had the movie "canceled" and "suspended" — sources say that those difficulties have not been the only hold-up. The secrecy valued by EON scares off most public comment on the film's status, but sources familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity say that discussions among producers and the creative team hampered the process.
Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes worked on the script last spring, the sources said, polishing the contributions of "Frost/Nixon" screenwriter Peter Morgan. Morgan, in turn, had rewritten parts of an earlier screenplay by Bond veterans Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.
EON typically develops scripts before sending them to the studio that will finance and distribute the given film. That has yet to happen with the new Bond, which is to be financed and distributed by MGM.
The creative issues around the new Bond are notable because it means that even if MGM's financial wrinkles were ironed out — in the form of a potential Time Warner acquisition of MGM, a corporate
link-up with Spyglass or Summit Entertainment or, perhaps, the arrival of a white-knight outside financier for Bond — it would mean the movie would still not be ready to go. And by the time it was, it could run into actor scheduling issues, extending an already long layoff.
Switching Bond actors is not believed to be on the table — though as the delay wears on, it's not lost on some observers that Craig will go deeper into his 40s before a new film is shot. (He turned 42 in March.)
The exact script issues on the new Bond remain shrouded in mystery, but the difficulties aren't entirely surprising given the abundance of top creators and a franchise with ever-more complex mythology. Moreover, the new Bond film has always been framed as the third in the trilogy that began with "Casino
Royale." And with the need to wrap up many dangling plot lines — in this case, Bond's quest for resolution after the death of romantic interest Vesper Lynd, among other
ers — the third movie in a trilogy is typically hardest to lock down.
comment.
MGM declined to comment. A call to EON's office in London was not returned, and the Santa Monica office of EON holding company Danjaq also yielded no comment.
In addition to financing woes and increasingly crowded talent schedules, there's this one nagging fact: The script isn't ready.
The stakes are high for numerous players with Bond, which was given a jolt with "Casino" and "Solace," which earned more than $1.1 billion around the globe. And
it heartened fans, who found in Craig's Bond a darker, subtler take that moved away from some of the spy-movie cliches and over-the-top special effects associated with earlier versions
Even with MGM difficulties looming it wasn't supposed to turn out like this. When Mendes and Morgan came on to the film early in the year, MGM officials were quietly hoping the movie would be in production in the summer, for a release in 2011.
While his camp has not ruled out a return to Bond, Mendes has begun preparing a new movie, "On Chesil Beach."
'X-Men' director: Superheroes fading
Last members of the movie "The First Avenger" pose for a photo during a panel at Comic-Con International July 24 in San Diego.
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The clock is ticking on the superhero craze in Hollywood, according to Matthew Vaughn, the director now filming "X-Men: First Class" for Fox in London.
"It's been mined to death and in some cases the quality control is not what it's supposed to be," Vaughn said. "People are just going to get bored of it."
Vaughn, who produced, directed and co-wrote "Kick-Ass," says he pounced on the chance to make a film about the uncanny mutants from Marvel Comics because he expects the current boom in superhero cinema to fizzle out in the near future.
"I've always wanted to do a bigbudget superhero film and I think we've kind of crossed the Rubicon with superhero films," Vaughn said. "I think (the opportunity to do one), it's only going to be there two or three more times."
Next summer, "X-Men: First Class" will join "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Thor" and "Green Lantern" in a parade of costumed heroes in big-budget films at the cineplex.
"Then," he added, "the genre is going to be dead for a while because the audience has just been pummeled too much."
Vaughn said audience fatigue is already starting to set in. The
subject material can't sustain the Hollywood trample, he said, and the inevitable box-office duds and derivative projects will mark the end of the gold rush by studios.
The 39-year-old filmmaker (who is married to German model Claudia Schiffer) is known for a candor that is rare in Hollywood circles.
He had been in talks to direct the third "X-Men" film but that didn't work out (he instead went off to
"It is a crowded room." Vaughn said "It's too crowded."
make the underrated "Stardust") and the superhero project went to Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour"), who delivered "X-Men: The Last Stand," the 2006 film that became the biggest money-maker in the franchise despite far more sour reviews than the two previous films.
Vaughn didn't shy away from slagging on Ratner's film: "As it happens, I could have made something a hundred times better than the film that was eventually made," Vaughn told the Daily Telegraph. "It sounds arrogant, but I could
Vaughn made his mark in movies as the producer of three Guy Ritchie films — "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Snatch" and "Swept Away." He made his directorial debut with "Layer Cake" in 2004. "X-Men: First Class," starring James McAvoy as Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherd (aka Magneto) is due in theaters in June 2011.
have done something with far more emotion and heart."
ACROSS
1 Beer ingredient
5 Stage award
9 Edge
12 Entreaty
13 Mentor
14 Lawyers' org.
15 Typical fast-food entree
17 Performed
18 Tramcar loads
19 Get up
21 — Rouge, LA
24 On the briny
25 Flubs
26 $10 portrait
30 Afternoon social
31 Old phot coloratio
32 Roman trio
33 Rodents often kept as pets
35 Typeface
36 Rind
37 Quirks
38 Minty beverage
40 Tom Joad, e.g.
42 Gorilla
43 Wood nymph
48 Neither partner
49 Paradise
50 Mrs. Dithers, in "Blondie"
51 Type units
52 Zilch
53 TV trophy
2 — carte
3 Moon vehicle,
for short
4 Forbiden acts
5 Shrek,
e.g.
6 Insects
7 Rage
8 The
Urals
divide it
9 Geiger
counter's
trigger
10 Wading
bird
11 Put
together
16 Coffee
vessel
20 Kin
(Abbr.)
DOWN
1 Speed-
ometer
abbr.
21 "Little Women" woman
22 Geometry calculation
23 Wine-vat workers
24 Writer Kingsley
26 Shoe part
27 Spring mo.
28 Hog call
29 Little lice
31 King of horror
34 Witness
35 Savage
37 Tease
38 Tarzan's mate
39 "Once — a time, ..."
40 Portent
41 Welles portrayal
44 Commo-
tion
45 — Kippur
46 Branch
47 Rotation duration
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