The newest James Bond movie is a film that has had a lot of trouble making it this far. First Daniel Craig had to be convinced to return to the role. Then the movie's original director left the project. The script ended up going through numerous hands in order to become something that everybody was happy with. Even once filming began under new director Cary Fukunaga, there were even more difficulties as Daniel Craig was injured on set. This movie has had issues, but Fukunaga says scheduling has not been one of them.
There have been many rumors regarding what's been happening on the set of Bond 25, and one of the more curious ones recently indicated that the production schedule for the film has been something of a mess. The rumor accuses director Cary Fukunaga of showing up late to set and, in order to not fall further behind schedule, crew has been asked to work late and over weekends, including the recent Father's Day Weekend. Fukunaga recently decided to address the rumors via Instagram and he claims that any especially long hours that anybody has been working has all been part of the planned schedule and come from dedicated individuals. According to Fukunaga...
There’s not a minute on this job that isn’t scheduled, and even during a shoot day, in the hours before call, between takes and setups, and after we wrap there’s always a line of dedicated and hard working department heads hungry to prep our next sequences, no one sleeps on this kind of job. So sure it’s hard, but it’s still the best job in the world and I’d never disrespect the hardest working cast and crew.
It's rare for somebody in a position like that of the director to even address rumors like this. There are often these sorts of stories that come out from the set of high profile films and whether there's any truth to them or not, most directors just put their head down and get the work done. However, Fukunaga apparently decided that something needed to be said about this one, probably because the rumor indicates that Fukunaga isn't showing the crew much respect, and that idea clearly upsets him a great deal.
Fukunaga almost certainly decided to address these reports because they clearly don't paint him in a very good light. The initial rumor claimed that Fukunaga showing up late to the set was due to the man sitting around and playing video games, which certainly doesn't sound good. The director categorically denies that this part of the rumor is true. While Cary Fukunaga is absolutely a fan of video games, he says that he hasn't been able to touch them in months, which is frustrating, because he still hasn't had a chance to beat Red Dead Redemption 2 yet...
As for my PS4 relationship, if my RDR2 progress is any indication, it’s been stunted at 63% for months and if anyone spoils the end for me before I wrap on B25 I’m going to be pissed.
Fukunaga still has a sense of humor about the whole thing, but at the same time, it has to be a little frustrating for stories like this to be coming out. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Cary Fukunaga isn't holding up a multi million dollar production to play Red Dead Redemption 2. One doesn't get to his position in Hollywood by making decisions like that.
However, because of the various issues that Bond 25 has had, it probably makes stories like these seem more plausible which may be why the director felt the need to respond to the story rather than simply ignore it.
There almost certainly have needed to be changes to the schedule, if nothing else, Daniel Craig's on-set injury would have required things to get shifted around during the period where he was unavailable due to the medical treatment that was required.
The injury, combined with Rami Malek's own schedule, led to rumors that "key scenes" planned between the two, Malek is set to play the film's villain, would not be able to be filmed, but Malek has said that changes to Bond 25's schedule have ensured there won't be any problems...
The key scenes is something that was fabricated. But the thing is, Daniel was injured, so they are shooting what they can. I talked to Cary yesterday and the schedule has been altered. I know that. But with a franchise like this, I think they have it together. They have it figured out by now.
It's possible that the need to rearrange the schedule due to Craig's injury led to the delays and working weekends that was originally reported. While such things certainly aren't fun, they are sometimes unavoidable and are far from unusual when it comes to making movies of this size. While everything is always planned out in advance as Fukunaga says, there are also always unexpected things that get in the way that require adjustments.
Whatever changes that have been necessary, they don't appear to be serious enough to impact the release date. The film is still set to bow in April of 2020, although, that date was chosen after the film did see one release date delay. The film was originally set to debut in February. It's unclear exactly why the move was made, though it may have been because of reported difficulties coming up with a final script.
Bond 25 is a movie that a lot of people have fought hard to make. Daniel Craig literally hurt himself trying to get the project done. Since we know little about the movie at this point, it will be very interesting to see what the final result is. Movies that go through these sorts of trials either fall victim to them, and end up with a lesser product, or the cast and crew fight together to make something special. We'll find out which one Bond 25 will be next year.
And then, once it's all done, hopefully Cary Fukunaga can get to finish Red Dead Redemption 2 without it being spoiled for him.
