Cary Fukunaga was only just announced as the new director of the James Bond franchise but we don't waste any time here at CinemaBlend. Our own Corey Chichizola had a chance to speak with Fukunaga earlier today at a press event for his new Netflix series Maniac and Corey asked him how he felt about taking over such a storied franchise. As one might expect, he's really excited about it. According to Fukunaga ...
It's too early to say. I'm just really honored to be part of it, and super excited.
While so much of Hollywood today is focused on building franchises, one of the longest running of them is James Bond, covering 24 previous films over the last 56 years. James Bond is one of the most popular characters in fiction, so it's little surprise that Cary Fukunaga feels honored to now be part of it.
Cary Fukunaga is a surprising choice as a new James Bond director, if only because his name wasn't one of those that was being rumored. Still, while we may not have seen the decision coming, it's a welcome announcement. Cary Fukunaga is a talented and creative filmmaker and it makes the future of James Bond feel full of potential. We don't know what we're going to get, but we can't wait to find out.
The other reason we don't know what we're getting is that the script for the new James Bond movie has gone back to the drawing board. While the script was being handled by Danny Boyle's go-to screenwriter John Hodge back when Boyle was on board to direct, when Boyle left over the ever-nebulous "creative differences," the script was handed back to longtime Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. These changes have combined to cause a delay in production, as the film, which was previously set to release in November of 2019 is now set to open on Valentine's Day in 2020.
That only put the movie back by about 90 days, so expect Cary Fukunaga to still hit the ground running, as the movie is set to go into production next March and quite a lot will need to happen between now and then. One assumes that Fukunaga, the screenwriters, the producers, and Daniel Craig, have all talked things through and are on the same page, in order to prevent another set of creative differences. At the same time, I certainly hope that Fukunaga is given enough of a free hand to create his own sort of James Bond movie, as that sounds like something I would want to see.
Are you as super excited as Cary Fukunaga is that he's taking over Bond 25? Let us know in the comments section.
