James Bond Scriptwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge: Bond 25 Film Must “Treat Women Properly” Even if Bond Doesn’t
Jorge Arenas
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Newly announced James Bond scriptwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge recently discussed her approach to Bond 25’s script noting that the film must “treat women properly.”
Waller-Bridge spoke to Deadline about the film and the James Bond franchise:
“There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not [the Bond franchise] is relevant now because of who he is and the way he treats women. I think that’s bollocks. I think he’s absolutely relevant now. It has just got to grow. It has just got to evolve, and the important thing is that the film treats the women properly. He doesn’t have to. He needs to be true to this character.”
She did admit in the interview that she appreciated Daniel Craig’s incarnation of James Bond, but also admitted that she appears to have only tweaked the script rather than provide an actual re-write.
“When I saw his Bond for the first time, there was a wryness to his performance that I really loved. So, I was really excited about writing dialogue for him. I mean, the script was there. It’s already there. I think it’s unfair to say that I’m writing the script.”
Waller-Bridge specifically discussed that she wants to make Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, and Ana de Armas’ characters feel “like real people.”
“I just want to make sure that when they get those pages through, that Lashana, Léa and Ana open them and go, ‘I can’t wait to do that.’ As an actress, I very rarely had that feeling early in my career. That brings me much pleasure, knowing that I’m giving that to an actress.”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is only the second female writer in Bond franchise history to be credited on a script. The first was Johanna Harwood who wrote both 1962’s [easyazon_link identifier=”B009GEPRZE” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Dr. No[/easyazon_link] and 1963’s [easyazon_link identifier=”B011MHBBSO” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]From Russia With Love[/easyazon_link].
The upcoming James Bond film, simply called Bond 25 at this stage, reportedly brought on Waller-Bridge to give the film a “makeover for the MeToo era” according to a report from Daily Mail. Subsequent reports indicate Waller-Bridge was brought in ensure viewers understand the film’s plot which involves genetic warfare.
Daily Mail reports an executive told them, “The movie’s premise is genetic warfare, which is fascinating — but you gotta boil it down and make it accessible.” The executive added, “And that’s why Phoebe was hired. She has somehow made sense of it.”
Early reports also note that Bond will be retired and living in Jamaica with his 007 moniker given to a woman. The movie will see Bond forced to come out of retirement and aid the woman on one of her missions.
Bond being retired was confirmed by 007 producer Barbara Broccoli who stated, “Bond is not on active service when we start the film. He is actually enjoying himself in Jamaica. We consider Jamaica, Bond’s spiritual home. He starts his journey here and we’ve built an extraordinary house for him.”
Bond 25 stars Daniel Craig as James Bond, Ralph Fiennes as M, Rory Kinnear as Tanner, Ben Whishaw as Q, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, and Rami Malek.
Bond 25 is expected to be released on April 8th, 2020.
What do you make of Waller-Bridge’s comments? Do you think she will give the film a “MeToo makeover?”
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