It’s wild to think that Tom Cruise will have been in the role of Ethan Hunt for almost half the duration of the entire James Bond franchise. His first ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie was back in 1996, and his eighth and final outing is due in 2024. That will be a tenure of 28 years, or in Bond movie terms, the span from ‘Dr. No’ through to ‘Licence To Kill.’ 007 had gone through four leading men by then.
It’s with this context that it’s not unreasonable to expect the actor replacing Daniel Craig could have a much more productive run over a 15-20 year tenure. Films every 2 years may be too much to ask these days, especially as EON likes to have a year off and work on side-projects rather than jumping right back into the next production, but given the new financial stability of MGM through Amazon’s ownership, these gaps are now purely a choice. But without a change at the top, there are no signals that we’ll see the halcyon days of five-films-per decade any time soon. Who would have thought that the 1980s would be the last time we would see that?
How do you feel about the long gaps between films now? Does it make the wait all the sweeter, or would you prefer the conveyor belt system of the earlier days of the franchise where, if you didn’t like the new film, you needn’t worry much as another one will be right around the corner?
News
Amazon Prime subscribers in the US finally got access to the James Bond catalog this week, long after the UK launched the series free-to-view. Amazon has a few glitches in the American roll-out, however, as ‘Spectre’ is inexplicably not included (it’s stuck as a $3.99 rental) and ‘Thunderball’ is the only advertised 4K film. ‘No Time To Die’ is also now available to watch on Prime. Of course, none of these streaming services include the wonderful bonus content we’ve had over the years, starting with the Special Editions in the late 90s and then the Ultimate Editions in the mid-2000s. Hold on to those discs!
Daniel Craig will be back as southern detective Benoit Blanc in a follow-up to ‘Knives Out’ later this year. Netflix put everyone out of their misery yesterday by announcing the title is ‘Glass Onion’ and not ‘Knives Out 2’ - which would make no sense. It comes from another song title, this time by The Beatles. It’s also the name given to a wide flat bottomed glass bottle in the 17th century. Craig and the all-star cast wrapped the film months ago, but Netflix is holding the film back for the Holiday season.
Another former James Bond also has new-movie-news this week as we got our first look at the ‘Black Adam’ trailer and costume for Pierce Brosnan’s character Dr Fate. The Warner Bros superhero movie, starring Dwayne Johnson in the titular role, opens in cinemas on October 1st.
Listen
Fresh off the international success of ‘Live And Let Die,’ director Guy Hamilton was charged with a fast turnaround follow-up for Roger Moore. The result was the oft-derided and lowly ranked ‘The Man With The Golden Gun',’ which EON themselves once called “regrettable.” Has the adventure improved over time? We ask the James Bond & Friends panel of Bill Koenig, David Leigh, and Sean Longmore as the film heads back into UK cinemas this week.
Watch
If you were one of the millions who played ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the Nintendo 64 back in 1997 (and the years after), you may be interested to know that a feature-length documentary charting the making and impact of the game will be released later this year. ‘GoldenEea’ will be released later this year, and a new trailer launched this week:
MI6 Archives
On this day in 1972, a special ‘Spend A Night With James Bond’ event was held in cinemas across the USA to re-release ‘Dr. No,’ ‘From Russia With Love,’ and ‘Goldfinger’ in a mini-marathon. Five days later, ‘Goldfinger’ would debut on ABC television in the USA.
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Dr. Llewella Chapman has a new book coming out in October dedicated to the making of ‘From Russia With Love.’ It’s bound to be a fascinating insight into the James Bond film that had, perhaps, the most production troubles until the Daniel Craig era. You can pre-order now via Amazon UK or Amazon US.
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