James Bond ‘Skyfall’ Adds Helen McCrory, Ola Rapace To Cast As Cameras Roll

COMMENTS (19)

• I very much prefer when production teams don’t announce their cast until shooting starts. It makes it hard to actually complain and makes whoever is looking forward to the movie to just wait patiently. It saves potential audiences time in which they could be doing something else.

  Comment by Jill — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 7:20pm PST  Reply to this post

• Cannot wait until this trilogy of non-Bond movies is complete year year. Hopefully they haven’t killed the franchise. The last movie/s felt more like faker Bourne movies.

  Bond used to set the standard of action, wit, girls, gadgets, etc.

  EON took Tarantino’s idea of doing Casino Royale, but never used him- someone who understands and APPRECIATES the history.

  Let’s hope they don’t butcher the choice of the next actor to portray Bond. Hopefully Fassbender or Jackman.

  Comment by Denny — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 7:36pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Bond used to set the standard of action, wit, girls, gadgets, etc.

    Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson are the problem with Bond today- and have been ever since Goldeneye brought the series back from the dead. They have only one strategy when it comes to this series: Copy whatever’s popular, then throw money at the screen and hope something sticks.

    It doesn’t sound as though they’ve learned from any of their mistakes on Quantum of Solace. (I’m actually a bit surprised they’re going with such a ridiculously inflated budget again. Did no one at EON understand what the whole MGM ordeal was about?)

    Comment by adam — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 9:34pm PST  Reply to this post

    • “Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson are the problem with Bond today- and have been ever since Goldeneye brought the series back from the dead.”

      Yeah, right. The “problem” is that they brought Bond back from the dead in 1995, just as the “problem” is that they cast Daniel Craig, reinvented the series again, and and out-grossed almost every previous Bond film.

      Every studio should be beset by such terrible problems. You may not have liked Quantum (and I’ll agree it was a mess), but Broccoli and Wilson have reinvented the series twice, and kept it alive – and popular – as the series approaches its 50th anniversary.

      As I said, there isn’t a studio in Hollywood that wouldn’t like these kinds of problems.

      Comment by A producer — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 10:23pm PST  Reply to this post

    • “They have only one strategy when it comes to this series: Copy whatever’s popular, then throw money at the screen and hope something sticks.”

      Wrong, old cgap. The Bond films have been copying what’s popular since at least the early ’70s, long before Wilson and Babs were in control: Live and Let Die (blacksploitation), The Man With The Golden Gun (kung fu), The Spy Who Loved Me (“Jaws”), Moonraker (Star Wars).

      I hope you’ve learnt your lesson.

      Comment by M — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 10:27pm PST  Reply to this post

      • If you want to get technical, the series has been copying others since You Only Live Twice was forced to adopt the over-the-top style of the 60s spy craze. (An odd scenario, considering that craze had been kickstarted by the early Connery films.)

        The fact remains that Broccoli and Wilson have a lousy track record when it comes to this series, with only two of their films generally considered to be any good. Yes, they’re great at rebooting with a new actor. It gives them a nice gimmick to rally around. They’re also good at keeping the brand alive, but releasing a product every few years is not the same as being a good filmmaker.

        They had no real plan when it came to following either Goldeneye or Casino Royale- despite all their PR spin about reinventing the franchise. Brosnan was slowly transformed into Ethan Hunt, while Craig was reduced to a generic Bourne rip-off.

        Comment by adam — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 10:45am PST  Reply to this post

  • It’s time that someone finally called bullshit on Tarrantino’s self-promoting claim that he “gave the idea” to Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to make Casino Royal.

    EON/Danjaq have controlled Bond since 1962. It’s ridiculous to even think that in all years that followed – and all the films – it had never occurred to them to make Casino Royale.

    Really, can you imaging them saying “Gee! Why didn’t we think of that?”

    The truth, as anyone involved with the franchise knows, is that the rights to Casino Royal were excluded from Cubby and Harry Saltzman’s original contract with Fleming, as they had already been sold for the 1953 television version.

    It was only in the grand deal that allowed Sony to distribute “Bond 21″ that the rights became available — and thus, at the very first opportunity, they finally got to make Casino Royale.

    Tarrantino trying to get some kind of credit for this is utterly delusional.

    Comment by A former MGM executive — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 10:15pm PST  Reply to this post

    • correct spellings: TaRantino, Casino RoyalE.

      Comment by opps the guy is braindead — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 12:42am PST  Reply to this post

      • Sorry about the spelling. I was posting fast.

        Comment by A former MGM executive — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 9:21am PST  Reply to this post

• its curious casting. Mendes good director but i have doubts about this project.

  Comment by yu-ma — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 8:28pm PST  Reply to this post

  • In this Mendes version, Bond, suffering from deep depression at mid-life— finding it tough to kick the smoking habit whilst attending AA meetings brought on by the overabundance of Vodka Martinis over the years; impotent and angst ridden as the NY Times has printed a front page story over a “rough interogation/torture” episode involving OO7 captured on a cell phone and running endlessly on CNN and U-Tube— has a mental breakdown and is committed by M to a mental health hospital for analysis.

    SKYFAIL script apparently has many emotionally charged scenes with a near catatonic Bond, the result of the Thorozine injections and the Electro-Shock therapy, and the staff psychologist, a fetching Dr. Ima Freud.
    Word is Craig gets to really gnash his teeth and act all balmy-like as the Broccoli kids are going for the Academy Award gold with gusto!!

    Mendes has paired down the stunts to meet the drama, and have gotten rid of the Aston Martin for a jet propelled wheelchair that Bond deftly uses as he careens around the hospital grounds chased by the cute psychologist’s male nurses.
    Hot stuff!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by DJT — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 4:31am PST  Reply to this post

• oh man I cannot wait to see how Roger Deakins shoots a Bond film!!!

  Comment by Andy — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 9:10pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Roger Deakins recently switched from motion picture film to the Arri Alexa, which most of the pros think is the best of the digital motion picture cameras. So this might be the first digital Bond.

    IMHO digital still has a rather dead look. I think it the randomness of film grain, in every film frame that make motion picture film more aesthetically pleasing, especially in regards to skin tone.

    Comment by Joe Brown — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 6:22pm PST  Reply to this post

• History shows that when Broccoli & Co. deviate from established Bondian convention, fans and critics go nuts, but the effect on BO is inconsistent. LICENSE TO KILL, the second Dalton, was essentially a Miami Vice movie almost devoid of Bondian syntax. It performed relatively poorly, got Dalton removed from the role, and led to a six-year reappraisal of the franchise. But QUANTUM OF SOLACE, a messy Bourne in mufti which passed off incoherence as style, was a huge success. Go figure.

  Comment by TomF — Monday November 7, 2011 @ 10:32pm PST  Reply to this post

  • the six year gap had nothing to do with the performance of LTK. and Dalton was Bond until 1994 when he gave up the role himself.

    Comment by another smartass — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 12:44am PST  Reply to this post

• I didn’t know about the Casino Royale rights situation.

  Nevertheless, there is no question that Bond is less Bond than ever. I am not talking about the claimed grittiness- I am talking about the magic inherent in the first three- Dr No, From Russia with Love and Goldfinger. It is hard to match those, especially given the parodies and societal shifts away from sexiest, the Cold War, etc.

  Yet, Broccoli and Wilson could do very simple things to add immensely to its reinvention.
  Unlike in for the 40th anniversary for Die ANother Day, they should actually have an homage (next year is the 50th Anniversary) to past bonds. ie a cameo by Connery, Dalton, Moore, Brosnan and even Lazenby. (At least Connery).

  An actual car chase- unlike Casino which consisted of a crash and a ride around a round-about.

  Bond actually having sex with a woman and treating her like shit.

  A villain’s lair that evokes Ken Adams original designs.

  A story that begins and ends (unlike Quantum).

  The types of characters that made the older movies memorable- Scaramanga, Oddjob, Jaws- Sheriff JW Peppers.

  Hopefully they read this and make the necessary adjustments. In all fairness, it is a difficult film to pull off.

  Comment by L — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 1:32am PST  Reply to this post

• Danjaq/Eon wanted to make Casino Royale years earlier. They didn’t have the rights until about two years before they made it!

  Comment by Jason — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 2:30am PST  Reply to this post

• Goldeneye was great and Tomorrow Never Dies was real good. World was ok but after that they got too silly with Die Another Day. Then they felt people wanted to a Bourne movie that was total different from Die. Don’t tell the people what they want. EON isn’t telepathic. All the flavor of a global folk hero is gone. I heard it might be back in this one. Let’s hope. Connery and early Brosnan is where it’s at

  Comment by Joe — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 7:05am PST  Reply to this post

• Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson have a great tack record from 1995 on. Their hits in casting and movies are pretty right on. While ‘Quantum of Solace’ has received much bad press, it was a great follow up to Casino Royale. Marc Foster injected a breath of fresh air into the franchise and made a Bond movie that was fast and fierce – just what the story called for after the events in Casino Roayle.

  The writers strike did not help and he could have used more than 5 weeks to edit it but on the whole it was a great art house James Bond film.

  Comment by Dave R — Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 11:24am PST  Reply to this post