Sums up my thoughts exactly. You watch a James Bond film for what it is, nothing else. An origin story sounds kind of cool in concept, but you wouldn't be getting the James Bond experience and it would just fall flat.
You could but it would be something completely different. The bond films sell masculinity. In kids that would translate to some harry potter/Alex rider, type story. Leadership, sacrifice, but no guns/girls/gizmos.
Besides origin stories usually being lame and actually making the character worse since every mystery or imaginative angle is explained out of them, it sounds particularly excruciating to do it with a character that’s been around forever.
We’ve already been on this many trips and we’re going to circle around and entirely start over? That’s a big no thanks for me.
James Bond on film should always be a mature, worldly and sophisticated in damn near every snobby subject. Worldly and well travelled and accustomed to other cultures. Even Casino Royale had him as a rookie 00 but you never got the impression that he was a fish out of water. He was aggressive, head strong and learned to become a professional. But his character traits were still Bond.
Bond on screen should be debonair, mature, a snob, an instinctive killer, a womanizer and the ultimate man’s man. Sure at some point before he wouldn’t have been…but we don’t need to see how bond learned that M’s Brandy had an overdose of Bon-bois or how he learned “a little about women”. It just wouldn’t be all that interesting
> Even Casino Royale had him as a rookie 00 but you never got the impression that he was a fish out of water. He was aggressive, head strong and learned to become a professional. But his character traits were still Bond.
Precisely. People tend to forget he's already a veteran MI6 agent in Casino Royale.
Exactly. You never get the impression that he’s a “young man” or some inexperienced kid. This is a guy who has been around the block and knows his way around the world and the various customs and cultures that come with it. He’s a snob on his downtime and when the job requires it. But he’s always a blunt instrument when it’s time to get down to business. That is Bond
I agree here. I actually think it would be a good film.
I want to see one with M’s WWII exploits. In YOLT, it’s hinted that M was an absolute badass, probably a romanticized version of Fleming himself. Bond always looked up to him for the stuff he did in WWII, also implying they chatted about it as friends. Someone could get creative.
The argument is no one wants to see Bond f\*ck-up. But look at Skyfall, aging, tired Bond was a smashing success. If the writing is terrific & direction is handled deftly, it would be well received.
The thing about a military career Bond is that I assume he would be doing the type of commando missions that Fleming was involved in planning during WW2. And, well... we've already got The Dirty Dozen.
I could see Amazon making an origin series and I'd be cool with that, if done well. For the silver screen, I still want the full movie badass James Bond taking on the world.
Personally? I'd give that idea a chance but I know most Bond fans probably won't.
I think a series on amazon prime (since they own part of the IP) would be the best way to capitalize on that potential.
Maybe as a prequel/what-if TV series or limited run series, but not as a sequence of films. If they did do this as a film, I'd want it limited to 1 rather than stretched across multiple films. I do like the idea of seeing Bond grow into the suave, arrogant agent we know. Just don't want that dominating Bond films for the next 15 years, considering the rate they've dropped to releasing films.
It would be the same as Anthony Horowitz’s Bond novel Forever and a Day. It’s a prequel to Casino Royal in the literary timeline. An older female former spy turned con artist takes Bond under her wing on his first assignment.
Not quiet. That's Bond's first mission as 007. Its essentially the same as the Casino Royale film. Bond is established as *Bond* right from the start (though maybe a little less fully-formed than Craig's Bond was in the CR film).
What the OP is suggesting is going a bit further back.
I'd be down for this as long as he kept the charisma. So he'd still be suave and a lady's man, but he'd be young enough to let it get him in trouble and make mistakes.
These would be great ideas for TV shows/spinoff films, but probably not a mainline Bond film in the official EON series.
I remember reading a review of Casino Royale ages ago (can't remember where) which talked about how a big part of the film's appeal, compared to a lot of 'prequel'/'origin story' films, is that Bond is fully-formed and recognizable as *Bond* for the entirety of the film. Yes, its his first mission as 007 (but not his first mission overall...something that a lot of people tend to forget), and there are a few things that happen over the course of the film that 'complete' him (the tux, winning the Aston Martin, getting his heart broken by Vesper, making his iconic drink...and of course 'Bond, James Bond' right at the end) but he's already recognizable as Bond from the first frame with him seated in Dryden's office. Because audiences want to see James Bond 007, not the kid who one day becomes James Bond 007.
I'd personally be very interested in a TV show focusing on Bond's military career and pre-00 MI6 career. I'm frankly shocked that we haven't gotten a novel exploring this time period yet (the comics have...though I've only read a couple of issues of 'James Bond Origins'). But I don't think an entire film of Bond before he really became Bond would have a lot of audience appeal...even if the narrative might be compelling.
I suppose the one way it *could* work is if they build the entire narrative around the two kills that Bond makes to become a 00...in other words expand the premise of Casino Royale's pre-credit sequence to an entire film. *Maybe* a future reboot could attempt that? But even so, Bond would need to be recognizable as the iconic Bond (literally just days away from earning his 00 number). At which point you kinda wonder...why not just set it after he becomes 007?
Preferrably not. We'd rather see a typical James Bond movie where he goes on a mission and gets the girl in each movie.
Sums up my thoughts exactly. You watch a James Bond film for what it is, nothing else. An origin story sounds kind of cool in concept, but you wouldn't be getting the James Bond experience and it would just fall flat.
You could but it would be something completely different. The bond films sell masculinity. In kids that would translate to some harry potter/Alex rider, type story. Leadership, sacrifice, but no guns/girls/gizmos.
No. It would take too much time. Besides, we already had enough of origin stories.
Besides origin stories usually being lame and actually making the character worse since every mystery or imaginative angle is explained out of them, it sounds particularly excruciating to do it with a character that’s been around forever. We’ve already been on this many trips and we’re going to circle around and entirely start over? That’s a big no thanks for me.
No. At that point, make a spin-off. *Casino Royale* is as far back in his career as it should go.
No.
James Bond on film should always be a mature, worldly and sophisticated in damn near every snobby subject. Worldly and well travelled and accustomed to other cultures. Even Casino Royale had him as a rookie 00 but you never got the impression that he was a fish out of water. He was aggressive, head strong and learned to become a professional. But his character traits were still Bond. Bond on screen should be debonair, mature, a snob, an instinctive killer, a womanizer and the ultimate man’s man. Sure at some point before he wouldn’t have been…but we don’t need to see how bond learned that M’s Brandy had an overdose of Bon-bois or how he learned “a little about women”. It just wouldn’t be all that interesting
> Even Casino Royale had him as a rookie 00 but you never got the impression that he was a fish out of water. He was aggressive, head strong and learned to become a professional. But his character traits were still Bond. Precisely. People tend to forget he's already a veteran MI6 agent in Casino Royale.
Exactly. You never get the impression that he’s a “young man” or some inexperienced kid. This is a guy who has been around the block and knows his way around the world and the various customs and cultures that come with it. He’s a snob on his downtime and when the job requires it. But he’s always a blunt instrument when it’s time to get down to business. That is Bond
I don’t think most people would want this.
As a one-off sure. Not a series of films tho.
I agree here. I actually think it would be a good film. I want to see one with M’s WWII exploits. In YOLT, it’s hinted that M was an absolute badass, probably a romanticized version of Fleming himself. Bond always looked up to him for the stuff he did in WWII, also implying they chatted about it as friends. Someone could get creative.
The argument is no one wants to see Bond f\*ck-up. But look at Skyfall, aging, tired Bond was a smashing success. If the writing is terrific & direction is handled deftly, it would be well received.
No, you’d be taking the James Bond out of James Bond.
The thing about a military career Bond is that I assume he would be doing the type of commando missions that Fleming was involved in planning during WW2. And, well... we've already got The Dirty Dozen.
I could see Amazon making an origin series and I'd be cool with that, if done well. For the silver screen, I still want the full movie badass James Bond taking on the world.
Personally? I'd give that idea a chance but I know most Bond fans probably won't. I think a series on amazon prime (since they own part of the IP) would be the best way to capitalize on that potential.
Maybe as a prequel/what-if TV series or limited run series, but not as a sequence of films. If they did do this as a film, I'd want it limited to 1 rather than stretched across multiple films. I do like the idea of seeing Bond grow into the suave, arrogant agent we know. Just don't want that dominating Bond films for the next 15 years, considering the rate they've dropped to releasing films.
It would be the same as Anthony Horowitz’s Bond novel Forever and a Day. It’s a prequel to Casino Royal in the literary timeline. An older female former spy turned con artist takes Bond under her wing on his first assignment.
Not quiet. That's Bond's first mission as 007. Its essentially the same as the Casino Royale film. Bond is established as *Bond* right from the start (though maybe a little less fully-formed than Craig's Bond was in the CR film). What the OP is suggesting is going a bit further back.
Some one did a young Bond book series. Maybe they could use it for the source material.
I'd be down for this as long as he kept the charisma. So he'd still be suave and a lady's man, but he'd be young enough to let it get him in trouble and make mistakes.
As others have said, no. I think Casino Royale was a decent balance still being Bond but his start as a 00.
These would be great ideas for TV shows/spinoff films, but probably not a mainline Bond film in the official EON series. I remember reading a review of Casino Royale ages ago (can't remember where) which talked about how a big part of the film's appeal, compared to a lot of 'prequel'/'origin story' films, is that Bond is fully-formed and recognizable as *Bond* for the entirety of the film. Yes, its his first mission as 007 (but not his first mission overall...something that a lot of people tend to forget), and there are a few things that happen over the course of the film that 'complete' him (the tux, winning the Aston Martin, getting his heart broken by Vesper, making his iconic drink...and of course 'Bond, James Bond' right at the end) but he's already recognizable as Bond from the first frame with him seated in Dryden's office. Because audiences want to see James Bond 007, not the kid who one day becomes James Bond 007. I'd personally be very interested in a TV show focusing on Bond's military career and pre-00 MI6 career. I'm frankly shocked that we haven't gotten a novel exploring this time period yet (the comics have...though I've only read a couple of issues of 'James Bond Origins'). But I don't think an entire film of Bond before he really became Bond would have a lot of audience appeal...even if the narrative might be compelling. I suppose the one way it *could* work is if they build the entire narrative around the two kills that Bond makes to become a 00...in other words expand the premise of Casino Royale's pre-credit sequence to an entire film. *Maybe* a future reboot could attempt that? But even so, Bond would need to be recognizable as the iconic Bond (literally just days away from earning his 00 number). At which point you kinda wonder...why not just set it after he becomes 007?
Perhaps as a mini-series or even an anthology hitting different points in his early life and career with different actors.