So, I’m pretty excited to see Spectre. I know, it’s still some 250-odd days until the movie actually hits theaters, but of all the blockbusters coming out this year, it is arguably the one I am most looking forward to — yes, more than Avengers: Age of Ultron, and even more than Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mission: Impossible 5, both of which I am really itching to see. I just love the Bond franchise, I think that’s what it really comes down to, and with the cast and crew director Sam Mendes has assembled, well that’s just icing on the cake for this cat.
As Mendes tells in a new video blog from behind the scenes of Spectre, which you can check out at the bottom of the post, what it really comes down to for him is story; story is what brought Mendes back for a second Bond film and story is what really drives the movie, what propels the characters forward and makes Spectre worth making. And what is the story, exactly? Well, no firm details, but it sounds as if the film will both reach backward into Bond’s past and look forward at his future.
“In Spectre, what you have is a movie entirely driven by Bond. He is on a mission from the very beginning. He is on the hunt, on the trail, of somebody. You don’t know why, you don’t know what he’s doing there, and that sense that something is out is also tied to the second part of a crucial story of Bond’s childhood. … I think what’s interesting about what’s happened post-Skyfall is Bond is the one who has more experience than [M, Moneypenny, and Q] do, and I think he’s got a greater wisdom. And that’s very much what the movie is about, it’s about whether or not to pursue the life he has always pursued, whether he matters, is he going to continue or not?”
As for M, Moneypenny, and Q — played by Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw, respectively — “I felt like I had initiated [them] and I wanted to tell the next stage of their stories and develop them as characters much, much more. … They all in different ways risk their careers and risk their livelihoods.”
Honestly, Mendes could have told us these characters were all going to sit around chin wagging about bits ‘n bobs over high tea and everything would be tickety-boo to me, but the fact Spectre is going to, you know, be about something leaves me quite pleased. Spectre hits theaters November 6 (so not tomorrow), but go ahead and check out the video below, leave a comment if you please, and then you can be on your merry way. Pip pip!
