Approaches for Mark 007 Day When the Next 007 Remains a Secret?
It's Bond Day, if you weren't aware – the fifth of October is recognized as a worldwide festivity focused on all things 007, because of it marking the date of the world premiere of Dr No, starring Sean Connery, in the year 1962. Consider it similar to the Star Wars celebration, with fewer furry aliens and a whole lot more elegant confidence.
A Muted Observance Currently
Yet this time around, the advent of the 007 celebration seems somewhat anticlimactic. Not long has passed following the acclaimed director was revealed to direct the next Bond film earlier this year, and shortly after since the screenwriter Steven Knight was brought on board to pen the screenplay. But there’s been little to no sign from that point of the new 007 getting unveiled, with minimal clarity about the direction this venerable franchise will proceed. The only information are unconfirmed reports via the Hollywood trades implying that the producers intend to cast a comparatively fresh-faced UK performer, possibly a person of colour yet will not be female, a franchise star, or somebody slightly known.
Bad News for Bookmakers
Naturally, this is unwelcome developments for the numerous gambling platforms who have been making a pretty penny over recent months by attempting to persuade bettors that the selection process is among Callum Turner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Henry Cavill, Theo James, Leo Woodall and that hunky guy in Saltburn who’s secretly Australian.
Going Back to the Unknown
Interestingly, the previous instance the 007 series opted for a complete unknown was in 1969, when George Lazenby for a short time carried the Walther PPK. Prior to that, Sean Connery was not famous: he had taken some small movie parts along with some stage and modelling work while also employed in fitness and milk delivery in Edinburgh prior to accepting the starring part in the first film. The creative heads intentionally rejected an established star; they wanted someone fresh whom audiences would believe as the real 007, instead of an actor playing Bond.
Employing this strategy again may end up as an ingenious move, similar to how it worked during the franchise's infancy.
The Villeneuve Factor
Yet hiring the director Denis Villeneuve means that there's no room for error in any way if this new Bond ends up as wooden. Amplifying the exploding pens and double entendres is not feasible when your new director is a solemn auteur known for genre films renowned for dense futuristic stories where the dominant feature is the audience’s own existential dread.
A bruiser in a dinner jacket … Daniel Craig in 2006’s Casino Royale.
Updated Vision for the Franchise
Nevertheless, in numerous aspects, hiring Villeneuve reveals a great deal we should understand about the new post-Daniel Craig direction. We won't see any invisible cars or sexual innuendos, and the return of the southern lawman back any time soon. All of this is, of course, quite alright for those who prefer your James Bond with a modern twist. Yet it fails to indicate this new version on Britain’s suavest state-sponsored assassin will stand out from the 007s from the recent past notably if the next chapter opts not to place the plot back to Ian Fleming’s original 50s and 60s setting.
Redefining Every Period
Craig stood out at once as a different type of elegant secret agent when he arrived on the scene in 2006’s Casino Royale, a tough character in formal attire who would never be seen in a stealth vehicle, or exchanging suggestive lines with Denise Richards during bomb disposal. He made Pierce Brosnan’s gadget-addled smoothie that just a short time before had been considered by some as the best Bond since Connery, look like a karaoke Connery overheated and ruined. This pattern is familiar. After Connery came Lazenby, Then Brosnan took over from the underappreciated Dalton, and cheesy late-era Roger Moore followed brilliantly dead-eyed and callous early Roger Moore. Every era of 007 alters the prior, however, every version remains distinctively the iconic spy, worthy of celebration. It feels odd, as we apparently celebrate the current 007 Day, that we are being invited to honor a character that is not yet chosen.