BOND 24 And 25 To Continue To Build Universe

One of the great things, at least in my opinion, has been how the rebooted James Bond franchise has moved away from episodic adventures of the classic British superspy and towards a franchise where each installment has consequences and a lasting effect on the character. Quantum Of Solace, the second film in the rebooted series, was a direct sequel to 2006’s franchise relaunch Casino Royale and followed up many plot lines left dangling at the end of that film. The world building continued in 2012’s Skyfall, which filled in much of Bond’s personal history as well as restored many classic elements of the franchise – specifically the return of Miss Moneypenny and gadget creator Q.

Skyfall screenwriter John Logan has been drafted back to service to help craft the upcoming, still untitled 24th James Bond adventure as well as the 25th installment and this past week, while at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to promote his upcoming horror TV series Penny Dreadful, he sat down with the folks at IGN to dish a bit about what might be in store for agent 007 when his next film hits movie screens in 2015.

Logan first stared that plot specifics were of course being kept top secret, joking “All I can say about Bond is that I’m happily writing it. [Skyfall and Bond 24 director] Sam [Mendes] would rappel through the window and kill me.”

He also stresses that through Bond 24 and Bond 25, the franchise will continue to take classic elements from both the film series and Ian Flemming’s novel from which the movies sprang and contemporize them for modern audiences.

My goal is to write a great movie that’s appropriate, to build on what we did on Skyfall, but make it its own unique animal. The themes, ideas and the characters from Skyfall can obviously continue on, because it is a franchise, and it is an ongoing story. So I think there’s resonance from Skyfall in the new movie.

I grew up on the Bond movies. The first one I saw was Diamonds Are Forever, when I was a kid. I just loved them to pieces. I love all the elements, from the books — mostly from the novels; going back to Ian Flemming is where I started with Skyfall — and there’s certainly elements of the movies and the novels that we’ve brought into the new movie, as they did into Skyfall.

As to whether one of those elements may be the return of classic Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, which franchise producers Eon Productions recently finally locked down the rights to, Logan remained coy, replying “You know, I think our villain’s appropriate to the story we’re telling.”

The fact that IGN’s report states that Logan was talking about not just the upcoming Bond 24, but the following Bond 25 as well, harkens back to rumors that the films were going to be joined together in telling one, larger canvas story.