Can Bond BEAT the Spectre of Skyfall?

007’s last outing, 2012’s Skyfall, became the highest grossing Bond of all time

T’S James Bond’s greatest challenge yet: how do you follow up the biggest British film of all time?

007’s last outing, 2012’s Skyfall, romped into the record books becoming the highest grossing Bond of all time, cracking over a billion dollars worldwide and becoming the biggest film ever in the UK.

Released on the 50th anniversary of the first Bond movie, Dr, No, Daniel Craig’s third outing as the secret agent earned more than £100 million in the UK, riding a crest of post-Olympic Games’ patriotism. 

 

Craig has more input into the screenplays than any previous Bond

 

Director Sam Mendes managed to celebrate Bond’s heritage while crafting a character-driven spy thriller that explored 007’s lonely psychology and threw up some big surprises, not least the death of Dame Judi Dench’s M. Critics adored it as much as audiences. It won two Oscars and the 2013 BAFTA for Outstanding British Film. Gulp.

Top that, 007. “What the fuck are we going to do?” says Craig, summing up the feeling amongst cast and crew after Skyfall’s success. “I think everyone was just daunted, understandably. Like ‘it’s the biggest British movie of all time’. Where do we go from there? There was a massive amount of pressure at the beginning.” The first thing to do was re-secure the services of Mendes. 

The director, who won an Oscar in 2000 for his first film, American Beauty, was an inspired left-field choice but was reluctant. Exhausted by Skyfall (“I felt a massive amount of pressure,” he says) and anxious to return to theatre he said no, citing commitments requiring his “complete focus over the next year and beyond.”

Craig was jittery. After the muddled Quantum Of Solace, directed by Marc Foster, the star did not want to risk throwing away all the good work with Mendes. 

 

In the story Bond goes rogue on a mission to uncover Spectre

“I felt like we got into a real groove. We’d started something on that movie and I was so keen to finish it.”

He and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson played the long game, reeling Mendes back in by agreeing to postpone production: at one point the new film, Spectre, was schedule for release last summer. There was also talk of making two Bonds back-to-back, an idea also shelved. Says Mendes: “That was verging on the insane; one is more than you can cope with, let alone two.” The clincher was the story. 

Craig has more input into the screenplays than any previous Bond and he worked closely with writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who were re-hired after initially being dropped after Skyfall; American John (Gladiator) Logan scripted the first draft was deemed unsatisfactory. “Story was always the way in for me,” says Mendes. “And once we located that, I felt a sense of ownership.

Once you’ve got that, you’re in, whether you like it or not.” What could be more enticing than the title? Spectre marks the return of the legendary organisation led by the most iconic Bond villain, Ernst Stavro Bloefeld, not seen in a Bond film since Diamonds Are Forever (bar the “unofficial” 1983 Never Say Never Again). 

A long standing contractual dispute over the rights to Spectre (short for Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) was finally resolved in 2013 permitting the criminal group’s return. The filmmakers seized on the opportunity.

In the story Bond goes rogue on a mission to uncover Spectre to which he has an intriguing personal connection revolving around the villain, Frank Oberhauser, played by Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz (Nazi Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds). 

Spectre is released on October 26

Oberhauser is son of Hannes Oberhauser, a ski instructor and friend of Bond’s father who became something of a father-figure to 007 after the death of his parents, as mentioned by Ian Fleming in short story Octopussy.

This makes Franz a kind of step-brother to Bond - his evil alter ego - and despite official denials he is almost certainly Blofeld. The face-off between the pair will be a highlight, combining an iconic villain with a story that digs deep into Bond’s past, with two actors at the top of their game. “In Skyfall we got to Bond aged 12 when his parents died but what happened after that?” asks Mendes. “What happened during his adolescence? Spectre is a kind of retrospective creation story in a way.” 

As well as being thrillingly personal the story promises to be up-to-the minute topical as it explores the relevance of Bond and old-school spycraft in the era of digital espionage and drone warfare.

 

MI6 is under threat from a power-hungry politico, Max Denbigh, played by Andrew Scott, Moriarty in TV’s Sherlock. Denbigh is the head of CNS, the Centre For National Security, and he wants to dismantle MI6 and pension off spies like 007.

“But there is still a place for the 00 division to go in and do the dirty work,” says Ralph Fiennes, the new M. It’s the first time Bond has had a male boss since Timothy Dalton in 1989’s Licence To Kill and in honour of this Mendes recreated the oak-panelled Whitehall office occupied by previous Ms Bernard Lee and Robert Brown. It’s all in the spirit of nodding to tradition while updating it. In Skyfall the filmmakers reintroduced Q and Moneypenny and in Spectre we’ll have the first villain’s henchman of the Craig era. 

Played by man mountain Guardians Of The Galaxy star Dave Bautista, he is called Mr Hinx. “He’s the best henceman we could ever hope to have” says Craig. Spectre also has the first Bond “woman” in 50-year-old Monica Belluci’s Lucia Sciarra, who tangles with Bond after the murder of her Mafioso husband.

“I can’t say I’m a Bond Girl because I’m too mature. I say Bond lady,” she says. French actress Lea Seydoux, 30, plays Dr. Madeleine Swann, a more traditional Bond girl who is kidnapped by Spectre. What about the stunts? 

Skyfall had a spectacular pre-title sequence set in Turkey but producer Michael G. Wilson believes Spectre’s is even more eye-opening, a helicopter pursuit 30ft above Mexico City during Day Of The Dead celebrations.

“This is maybe the biggest of any sequence we’ve ever done,” he says. With a rumoured budget of £200 million Spectre is by far the most expensive Bond (Skyfall cost £150 million). Audiences will get a whole lot of Bond bang for their buck.

Spectre is released on October 26