Bond producers admit If you can't beat him, hire him!
Columbia and EON have have smartly hired The Bourne Ultimatum's stunt director to handle the action sequences of the next James Bond movie!
The Hollywood Reporter carry the news that Columbia Pictures and EON have hired The Bourne Ultimatum's stunt director Dan Bradley to work on the currently untitled next installment of the James Bond franchise as a second unit director. He has been hired to deliver the same kind of stunning sequences for 007 like the car chase scene and the rooftop chase/fight scene in Bourne... two of the big highlight's in the movie that totally blew away this summer's competition. I like this move. It shows the studio aren't afraid to say "Yeah, so Bourne's sequences are cooler than ours, so let's make them more like they do" and instead of hiring someone to imitate the scenes, they actually go out and hire the man responsible. You have to swallow your pride in the movie industry and we will all benefit from this move. The Bond action sequences were still pretty cool in Casino Royale, especially the opening sequence where Bond is chasing that runner up the huge crane (a scene which I'm adamant should have been the pre-credit sequence. It was so much better than that black and white crap they gave us) but there's no doubt Bradley's work on Bourne is the best in the industry at the moment and hiring him could take Bond a little closer to Bourne's level. Bradley has also worked on the next Indiana Jones picture, the last two Spider-Man movies, the last two Bourne movies and Three Kings among others in this capacity and is regarded as one of the best in the business. Despite Bond's great revival last year, it's clear Jason Bourne after The Bourne Ultimatum is the level that Bond strives to be at. This move might bring them a little closer to the franchise and is the most encouraging thing I've heard for Bond 22 so far. Just give us a frikkin' title god damnit, I'm sick of calling it Bond 22!