Long-time Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade talked Bond in an interview about the forthcoming BBC drama SS-GB.
The pair, who first joined the Bond family with Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and who were drafted in to address SPECTRE’s script problems, wrote the five-part mini-series based on Len Deighton’s 1976 novel.
The book is an alternate history set in 1941 in which the UK is occupied by Nazi Germany.
But before getting into SS-GB the pair talk about their work on James Bond and the future of the series. Speaking about Bond 25, Purvis tells the Telegraph:
I’m just not sure how you would go about writing a James Bond film now. Each time, you’ve got to say something about Bond’s place in the world, which is Britain’s place in the world. But things are moving so quickly now, that becomes tricky. With people like Trump, the Bond villain has become a reality. So when they do another one, it will be interesting to see how they deal with the fact that the world has become a fantasy.
That strongly suggests they haven’t been contacted by Eon Productions for Bond 25. But while they think it will be hard to write the next Bond film, perhaps it is simply that they have run out of ideas after being involved in the series for two full decades.
They also discuss their work on SPECTRE. Originally they had retired from 007 after Skyfall, only to find their services required to address problems with John Logan’s script. Regarding the end if the film:
Would he walk off to a new life with the comely Madeleine Swann on one side, or slink off to M on the other, back to a life in the shadows? Purvis and Wade had him choose the latter: in the end, they were overruled.
Key takeaways
- Purvis & Wade aren’t discarding the possibility of returning for another Bond, but believe the next film “will be quite different”.
- The duo believe writing the next Bond film will be a hard job in today’s reality.
- Bond’s decision to start a new life with Madeleine Swann was imposed on them, most likely by Sam Mendes and/or Barbara Broccoli.
Source: Telegraph
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