By James Bond’s 25th outing has been hit with a ton of creative snags over the years. From Danny Boyle exiting the production to writers Pervis and Wade being hired, fired, and then rehired, it doesn’t seem like a day goes by without something negative affecting Daniel Craig’s possible final mission. Just yesterday, it was reported that the latest chapter for England’s favorite secret agent would be getting a rewrite from The Bourne Ultimatum (among many others) writer Scott Z. Burns.
According to the report, it seems Burns’ work won’t be a simple tweaking of a current script, but a complete rewrite. There’s no word on what was so bad about the feature, but I’m guessing it failed to tie past films together. Both Apple and Amazon have expressed interest in creating a cinematic universe for Bond, which I don’t think is a good idea, but could be a possible explanation.
Apparently hiring Burns almost didn’t happen. Producers behind the film had been in contact with him for months, but Burns was busy with his latest project, The Report. With production on that film now out of the way, Burns has the time to dedicate to reworking Bond 25. He is set to spend the next four weeks in London writing for an undisclosed amount of cash.
I won’t deny the pedigree of Burns (he has churned out quite a few of the biggest action hits from the last decade), but all of this behind-the-scenes turmoil leads me to believe Bond 25 is going to be a bit of a trainwreck. It doesn’t help that Spectre wasn’t an especially interesting film, half-heartedly attempting to tie together the previous Craig outings. Maybe this latest will prove everything was worth it, but I’m pretty skeptical now.
Scott Z. Burns Hired To Rewrite ‘Bond 25‘ For Director Cary Fukunaga [Playlist]
