WhatCulture! attended a BAFTA Screenwriters lecture talk last night with Bond 23 screenwriter John Logan who hinted that a very iconic Bond villain might be ready to make his debut in the Daniel Craig series and actually his first big screen appearance since Max Von Sydow played him in Never Say Never Again 28 years ago!
Rather interestingly, during the talk last night Logan was reminded by an audience member of a quote that he said some ten years ago that, in his opinion, “Bond should always fight Blofeld”. When pressed on this he gave a wry smile and said “Bond should always fight Blofeld”.
We won’t know if Logan was leading us on a merry dance with that enigmatic response for a few months to come, but bringing back one of Bonds oldest foes may just be what the franchise needs. The character wasn’t used in the Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan 007 era and we’ve missed his devilish ways! And certainly the Craig movies have been building towards a large overarching figurehead who is the head of QUANTUM and it would be a great way for director Sam Mendes to finish off this current trilogy with Bond’s version of The Joker or Professor Moriarty.
Whilst Logan wouldn’t give away any actual plot details, he did tell us that the production has two weeks rehearsal time scheduled into it which is unheard of in the film industry these days and even more so on a big budget action movie such as the Bond franchise. This would certainly indicate that a fresh approach is being taken with the latest installment and may hopefully lead to something more exciting than 007’s last outing.
For more Bond 23 info read our writer Tony Greenway’s fantastic Bond 23 guide of what we know officially and what we can only guess at this stage for the next James Bond movie.
And as for who could play Blofeld if he does appear in the film? Well how about this guy…
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8 Comments
Blofeld is such a great villain. I think it would be cool to reintroduce younger audiences to the original 007 bad guy.
Sadly, I think this means nothing.
That would be very cool indeed if the head of the organisation (calling it Quantum, thereby tying it into the last movie’s title was really cheesy) behind the last two Bond movie’s plots was indeed a modern incarnation of Ernst Stavros Blofeld, although I hope the producers wrap up the tussle between Bond and the shadowy syndicate in the next movie, stretching it out to a fourth installment would really be pushing it, that being said, I’m really stoked about this movie, Sam Mendes is going to knock this one out of the park…
I really genuinely thought that Quantum of Solace was going to feature a ‘birth of Blofeld’ type narrative, with Mathieu Almaric’s villain winding up bald (due to his hair being burnt off in the fiery finale) and scarred. Almaric could’ve made a great slimy Blofeld, and his character would have been orchestrating Quantum into something SPECTRE-like, perhaps too ‘cheesy’ for the nu-Bond, which, personally, I’m not too jazzed about.
Then again, I rather controversially think the only Bond film that stands up on its own – stripped of the concession that “Oh, it’s a Bond film” – is Goldeneye.
Sure, there are some other good ‘Bond films’, but I think that Goldeneye is one of the few that is also just a ‘good film’.
Goldeneye is just an action film. A good action film but it’s not a good Bond film. You can’t beat the first seven films.
In my opinion, one of the very best Bond movies — which is truly on par with Sean Connery’s first four 007 outings — is CASINO ROYALE (2006), starring Daniel Craig. Many friends and acquaintances of mine agree, that it’s the only Bond flick which also works splendidly as a movie, without singling it out as a Bond flick per se. Indeed, CR is one heck of a great ride (to which I personally return a few times a year), and I can only hope that Sam Mendes will aspire to those heights with Bond 23.
Seal for the meaner, leaner Blofeld, as argued here:
http://recoveringhopper.blogspot.com/2011/09/bond-23.html
I think Logan’s comment was facetious but if Blofeld does return, I hope they do the SPECTRE/Blofeld trilogy like in Fleming’s novels.