Apparently there’s a more important casting that needs to be done before we finally find out who’s going to be the next James Bond.
Bond movie producer Barbara Broccoli revealed as much to The Hollywood Reporter while accepting the 2022 Pioneer Award at the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation.
Broccoli revealed that when producers are coming up with Bond stories, they start with the villain and work their way backwards.
“We always sit down with our writers, and we start by thinking about “What is the world afraid of?” We start by thinking about, “Who’s the Bond villain?” We try to focus on that as the sort of uber story, and then we want to also look at Bond’s emotional life, and what he’ll be facing personally that he hasn’t had to deal with before. So he has two big issues in the films — one is the geopolitical one and the other is the personal one.”
Broccoli also reiterated that the Bond casting, whoever it will be, is a decade-long job and comes with a lot of baggage. For that reason, they want to make sure they get it right. Producers also try to not let the rampant speculation about the actor affect them.
“When we get to a point, like we are now, we have to think about the trajectory of the Bond films and the storylines and where we want to take them. So, that’s really the main focus at the beginning. Once we have a sense of where we want to go, then we’ll start thinking about casting. We’re not just casting someone for one film. We’re casting someone hopefully for a decade, at least. It’s a big decision to make, and we’re nowhere near making that decision.”
The article had a few other gems as well. For example, Broccoli said that there’s been a push to put Bond on the small screen. “We have resisted that,” she said. “Many years ago, we did do an animated children’s thing, but we’ve resisted doing anything, because you know, we really like to put all of our efforts into the theatrical features.”
Finally, Bond movies are usually tied to current world events, to a certain degree. Broccoli said she wasn’t sure just yet what direction that would take.
“We always sit down with our writers, and we start by thinking about “What is the world afraid of?” We start by thinking about, “Who’s the Bond villain?” We try to focus on that as the sort of uber story, and then we want to also look at Bond’s emotional life, and what he’ll be facing personally that he hasn’t had to deal with before. So he has two big issues in the films — one is the geopolitical one and the other is the personal one.”
As soon as we find out who the new Bond is, we’ll let you know.
