The old saying goes, a camel is a horse designed by committee. Another saying is, too many cooks spoil the broth; well it seems EON has brought in another cook to work on the chaos soup that is Bond 25.
That chef’s name is Phoebe Waller-Bridge; apparently Ms. Bridge was brought in at Craig’s insistence. Her claims to fame are two television programs, one called Fleabag a comedy wherein Ms. Bridge writes, produces and stars as the titular Fleabag, described as an “angry, confused and sex addicted young woman living in London,” so a real laugh a minute show. I haven’t seen or even heard of the program until the news hit she was brought in to work on Bond, so I can’t comment on the quality of the product, but on the face of it I don’t see how working on a program of this type qualifies one to write on Bond.
Ms. Bridge’s other credit is writing and producing a program called Killing Eve. It’s much more in line with Bond, in that it deals with espionage. It follows the exploits of a MI6 officer tracking down a sociopathic Russian assassin. Again, I haven’t watched this program ether, because if I wanted to see a fictionalized account of a mentally disturbed Russian agent getting hounded by equally troubled individuals, I’d watch the news outlets dissect Donald Trump’s latest disjointed tweet.
So, since I’m admittedly not familiar with Ms. Bridge’s work, I’m not going to comment on whether or not she’s a good addition. I will say it does not bode well that yet another writer is being brought aboard this late in the production. Remember Scott Z. Burns was just hired to overhaul the script a mere two months ago. That same script was started by Purvis and Wade, while also reportedly getting helped along by Paul Haggis. Not to mention how much if any of John Hodge’s treatment survived after he and Danny Boyle kicked rocks out of the halls of EON.
That’s the collective works of at least four, five, maybe six writers (seven if you count Boyle) slapped together over the course of a year. We’re back to that camel I mentioned at the start, a lot of ideas thrown at the wall and god knows what’s stuck. With only a year to go until the film’s scheduled release, time is running out to winnow the wheat from the chaff. I have a feeling this film will be the photo negative of Quantum of Solace, that film was a jumbled mess because it had no writers (due to a strike) and this one will be a mess for exactly the opposite reason.
It took me three goes to watch Spectre without nodding off. I’m not holding my breath for the next one to be any better.
Skyfall felt like an old fart’s attempt to be trendy. The cinematic equivalent of your grandad squeezing himself into leather trousers.
Quantam was a headache with no character or wit to soothe the brow.
Casino Royale might just have been tolerable, if they’d omitted the supposedly “realistic” car crash. And if Dalton had been in it. He could have told Judi Dench to “piss off”
I’m not holding my breath ether my friend, even once the role is recast. The could clone Connery and I’d still be dubious since Babz and co. will still be in charge!