Talking About The Future Of James Bond With At The Flicks

If you know me – or you read Movies In Focus – then you’ll be aware that I’m a big fan of the James Bond franchise. My love of the James Bond movies goes back so far that I can’t even remember watching a Bond film for the first time. If I had to guess, the first one I saw was either Goldfinger starring Sean Connery or Live and Let Die with Roger Moore – but I have no concrete evidence for that. I do know for sure that the first Bond flick that I saw in the cinema was A View to a Kill. What an experience that was for a kid.

I even remember when Pierce Brosnan was cast as Bond for The Living Daylights and how he lost the role because of his contract with the TV show, Remington Steele. I saw that film when it hit screens in 1987 with Timothy Dalton in the role, but was monumentally miffed when I couldn’t see Licence to Kill at the cinema because it was a 15 certificate in the UK (I was too young!). 

That was 1989 though – the year of Batman and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade – so I was well served for films. Then there was the long six-year drought for Bond until 1995’s GoldenEye – the Martin Campbell-directed franchise relaunch which finally saw Pierce Brosnan take up the Walther PPK. If you want to hear me talk about GoldenEye, then check out episode 73 of the Movies In Focus podcast where I talk to Martin Campbell about seeing the film for the first time as a 15 year old.

Anyway, to sidestep a whole litany on my history of James Bond, I recently talked about James Bond with Jeff and Graham from the brilliant At The Flicks Podcast about our hopes, dreams and fears concerning where Bond should – and could – go now that the Daniel Craig era has ended and the James Bond franchise has been sold by EON Productions to Amazon MGM Studios.

It’s a great conversation that can be read below, or wherever you get your podcasts.