[Movies] Robert Wade Discusses Writing James Bond Movies & His Work on Skyfall Posted by Larry Csonka on 02.20.2013
See what he has to say…
- Bond screenwriter Robert Wade recently spoke about his work on the film's franchise. Here are the highlights…
On The Finale of Skyfall: The idea for the house came very late in the day. The original third act – which was in place for a year or more – was in a European city. And it didn't have any resonance. And when we had the idea of Bond taking M to the home where he spent his unhappy childhood, it suddenly made sense. Everything clicked into place.
On The Challenges of Writing a Bond Movie: What we found when we suddenly ended up writing James Bond movies was that you work much harder than if you're doing something similar. The reason why some of those Bond-a-like things didn't last is because people think ‘Oh, that works for Bond, so we'll do that.' And that's a lazy approach. If you're actually doing Bond yourself, you can't repeat yourself or be lazy. You've got to strive to do something different.
On Bringing Back Q and Moneypenny: We wanted to bring Moneypenny back. And we felt it was time because the last movie was a bit grim and unrelenting. And the nice thing about Q and Moneypenny… we deliberately didn't have them in Casino Royale because we wanted to get rid of all the familiar elements and concentrate on Bond. But now that that story has been played out, it was time to give the audience some fun. And Daniel [Craig] wanted more fun and more playfulness. Less grimness.
On Doing Another Bond Movie: Well it's nice not thinking about it, because we've thought about it nearly every day for 15 years. But it would be nice to look at it all again after a break. But it's not our decision – you can't just say ‘Oh, I think I'll write another Bond movie.' It is a question of if you have something fresh to say about it. And I think we did say quite a lot with the ones that we've done.
