Here are two words I thought I’d never use in one of my articles – “Daily Mail”. But in a recent story the paper has drawn attention to perceived production difficulties at the (presumably top secret) offices of Bond 24. The challenges appear to arise from the rehiring of long-standing screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade in order to give SKYFALL scribe John Logan’s script some snazz. While the expression “too many cooks spoil the Martini” springs to mind, the Bond franchise is really the wrong one to be looking at if we’re talking multiple authors. Star Daniel Craig once admitted that QUANTUM OF SOLACE had been partly cobbled together by himself and the director during a writers’ strike. And the films are no stranger to the path of the pudding, hence TOMORROW NEVER DIES. Putting Purvis and Wade back on the payroll has led to the shoot being delayed till December – though there was also the not-inconsiderable matter of Sam Mendes’ recent Cabaret staging to contend with before the show could get on the road.
Perhaps more interesting is the reason specified for the veteran team’s comeback:
Purvis and Wade have been asked to ‘punch up’ the script and sprinkle in more gags, emphasising the witty repartee between Daniel Craig’s 007 and Naomie Harris’s Miss Moneypenny, and focusing on the interplay between Bond and Ralph Fiennes’s M.
This could be seen as the world’s drunkest, sexiest secret agent heading back to his Moore/Brosnan roots. With Moneypenny and Q reintroduced there was a suggestion SKYFALL was a rebirth of the classic template, so will this edge further into quips and gadgets? I for one certainly hope so, for while I admire the stripped-down Craig (steady now) entries, I associate Bond more with the outlandish and tongue-in-cheek. The series probably isn’t going that far yet, but it may fall on the next tuxedo-wearing actor to take the adventures on a new course. So while this is a storm in a teacup, it does throw light on some intriguing dilemmas for Eon in the years ahead.
Source: Daily Mail
