RUMOR CONTROL...THESE ARE THE FACTS

[Matt]

I completely spaced on the fact that Hopkins was in MI2. That makes sense.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Hopkins got something like $5M to appear in M:I 2. Back when it was territorial and if you did Bond, you couldn't be in Mission: Impossible or vice versa.

Then again he was Nolan's first choice for Alfred. So you can't win them all.

[Matt]

it is rather shocking that we never got Hopkins in one of the Bond films.

[Anderson]

GIMME THAT WHAT IF EPISODE.

Production was set to start in 1990 in Hong Kong, for a release in late 1991.^[14] It would have featured a terrorist attack on a British nuclear facility in Scotland threatening to cause World War III, Bond traveling to East Asia to investigate corrupt businessman Sir Henry Lee Ching along with jewel thief Connie Webb, and Bond fighting his former mentor Denholm Crisp. It also would have featured the Chinese Ministry of State Security.^[11][15][16] The script was further rewritten by William Osborne and William Davies. After the Gulf War, they moved the opening scene from a cyberattack on Scotland to Bond failing a mission in Libya. The film then would have focused on a high-tech stealth fighter being stolen by a Chinese People's Liberation Army general, a British industrialist, and American mobsters in order to stage a nuclear attack and coup d'etat against Mainland China while leaving the industrialist in control of Hong Kong.<sup>[11]

More.</sup>

A 17-page plot synopsis was written for what would have been Dalton’s third outing as James Bond. The plot involved high-tech robots which were going to be designed by Walt Disney Imagineering. Anthony Hopkins, a friend of Dalton’s would play the main villain. And Whoopi Goldberg, who was dating Dalton at the time, was involved as well.

The first draft of the script that would become GoldenEye was written by Michael France. In the original script, the villain was an older man named Augustus Trevelyan. He had been the head of MI6 instead of a double-0 agent. Through flashbacks we learn that Bond passed up a chance to kill him which resulted in the death of two other agents. So he had a score to settle with his former boss.
France’s script also includes a different plan. Trevelyan still utilizes a satellite which fires a magnetic pulse. But in the original script his target was the World Trade Center instead of London. This version of the script was written before Dalton had left the project. When Brosnan was hired, several rewrites followed.

[Matt]

I think every Bond actor has been good to varying degrees, even Lazenby and Moore. I have an extreme fondness for Moore as he was 'my Bond' when growing up and three of my favorite Bond films belong to him.

The big whiff, as far as I'm concerned, is Dalton. His take was ten years too early, and John Glen did him a disservice in terms of direction. I wish he'd gotten a 'good' film out of his run instead of an ok entry and a pile of dogshit.

I'm a fan of Craig overall as he's pretty convincing in his fighting scenes (especially when compared to Brosnan and Moore) but he's really only had one GREAT entry, and that was his first one. It's been downhill from there. My hope is that NTTD is a sufficient enough capper that I can say that his run was 'good'.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Craig is Dalton if Goldeneye happened in 1992 and he got to make more movies. You might have gotten another hit, but it was going to be a lot of poor scripts and zero committal to direction. For those that don't know, at one point Whoopi Goldberg, Anthony Hopkins and a robot were part of Goldeneye.

And by the time it finally got going circa 93-94, very few filmmakers among those approached wanted Dalton. He was viewed as damaged goods.

It was such a sticking point that caused MGM to put pressure on the Broccolis to start over (AKA: finally lock down Brosnan).

[Captain Russ]

I would like a moratorium on terms like “dour, grimdark, and boring” to describe much more nuanced issues with established characters being taken for a ride into the graveyard of creativity, but I will undoubtedly find a way to see this latest Broccoli sodomy session as it sounds like it had a hell of an adventure on the way to the public screen.

That said, Craig had one very solid outing and lesser and lesser ones in the wake of colossal expectation for more of what that initial return to the origin point seemed to indicate (shame to see that cut short by the writer strike).

I still laugh at the casual stroll of an action scene when he escaped Blofeld’s base in Spectre. If anything could visually articulate a better summation for the dire state of the series, I don’t know how it could achieve more by caring less than that last one.

[Abraham Smashington]

Craig is Dalton if Goldeneye happened in 1992 and he got to make more movies. You might have gotten another hit, but it was going to be a lot of poor scripts and zero committal to direction. For those that don't know, at one point Whoopi Goldberg, Anthony Hopkins and a robot were part of Goldeneye.

GIMME THAT WHAT IF EPISODE.

[Abraham Smashington]

I'm pro-Craig 100000%.

Although I see the point of people wanting a less dour Bond who loves killing bad guys, fucking anything that moves and breaking Q's toys.

Pretty much this. I don't need some bland pissed off Bond. I want a fun Bond with fun gadgets fucking shit up. Die Another Day is more entertaining (NOT BETTER) than any of the Craig flicks IMO.

That being said, the fact we got Mads in a Bond movie and he was great makes me give a slight pass to Casino. Otherwise the rest of them can eat it.

[Anderson]

Craig is Dalton if Goldeneye happened in 1992 and he got to make more movies. You might have gotten another hit, but it was going to be a lot of poor scripts and zero committal to direction. For those that don't know, at one point Whoopi Goldberg, Anthony Hopkins and a robot were part of Goldeneye.

[Abraham Smashington]

Counter point: Craig is not only the best Bond, but the only good one since Connery.

GTFO. Brosnan and Dalton want a word with you.

[FilmNerdJamie]

I'm pro-Craig 100000%.

Although I see the point of people wanting a less dour Bond who loves killing bad guys, fucking anything that moves and breaking Q's toys.

[BillyG]

Counter point: Craig is not only the best Bond, but the only good one since Connery.

[Abraham Smashington]

CRAIG SUCKS. His Bond flicks are so fucking boring and dude has zero charisma in these movies.

[Anderson]

Let's talk Bond, since I've been Sopranos heavy this week.

  Spoiler: It's been a long road to this point. 

This is one of the most fascinating movies I've seen changed violently over the last 3 years. Hell, WandaVision had fewer changes.

Bond does die.

Bond also uses his watch to make someone's fake eye explode in their face. I liked that. Felt brutal, but with a Roger Moore style pun at the end.

They filmed four endings, but only chose to go Bond dying when they added onto the finale in November 2020.

Still not a big fan of the reworked nanobot precision disease angle. It's a lot more complicated from where they started and the difference between Blofeld dying and the last setup with Bond throws all logic out the window.

Also, the movie feels about 30 mins too long and Nomi is like Jinx (Die Another Day) on Xanax. They wanted strong female character, but didn't feel confident to give it to Paloma (the character that worked).

Outside of Casino Royale and Skyfall, I've been ready for the Craig era to end for almost 9 years.