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Haggis Returns for Bond 22
Paul Haggis, contributor to Casino Royale's script, returns to pen Bond 22
News Category: Quantum Of Solace (2008) NewsPosted on May 23, 2007 1:14 PM
Paul Haggis, a contributing writer for 2006's Bond blockbuster Casino Royale, is returning to help pen the script for Bond's next adventure - 007's twenty-second outing.
The Los Angeles Times first reported the breaking story today:
Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning writer-director of "Crash" and co-writer of "Casino Royale," is cementing a reputation for ruthless efficiency and resourcefulness as distinctive as 007's. Sony has finally lured Haggis back to work on the script for the "Royale" follow-up, temporarily titled "Bond 22," which is slated for release on Nov. 7, 2008.
Haggis is currently in the editing room finishing up "In the Valley of Elah," a drama inspired by real events that he wrote and directed about a career officer investigating the disappearance of his soldier son after he returns from the most recent Iraq conflict. He has additional projects lined up as producer, director and/or writer, so the Bond producers must have dangled, shall we say, very seductive creative and financial incentives for him to return to the Bond juggernaut.
Haggis has more than earned whatever he's being paid to rework the "Bond 22" screenplay by regular Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade ("The World Is Not Enough," "Die Another Day"). His rewrite of Purvis and Wade's "Casino Royale" script helped to revitalize the aging franchise and give it the edgier credibility it needed to hook a new generation of fans and score the franchise's biggest box office - $588 million worldwide. (Don't cry for Purvis and Wade; they keep getting the Bond assignments and they're writing the new "Barbarella" screenplay that Robert Rodriguez just signed on to direct for Universal on Monday.)
Last year, director Roger Michell ("Venus") and screenwriter Ted Griffin ("Ocean's Eleven") were briefly attached to the "Bond 22" project, and Haggis had turned down the offer to helm it. Now, there are whisperings that four directors are in the final running for the gig - action vets Tony Scott ("Déjà Vu," "Spy Game"), Jonathan Mostow ("Breakdown," "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines"), Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball," "Stranger Than Fiction") and Alex Proyas ("I, Robot," "Dark City").
After 20 years in television, writing for shows such as "The Facts of Life," "thirtysomething" and "L.A. Law," Haggis jumped from the TV gravy train to become the first screenwriter to write successive best picture winners, "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash." He's pushing hard to deliver his cut of "Elah," which bows in September as a potential Oscar magnet, to Warner Bros. as he prepares to careen back into Bond's world, which is on its own insistent timeline (the producers had to bump the release date once already).
But, like the famed British superspy, Haggis is unlikely to buckle under the pressure - even the heart attack he suffered during the "Crash" shoot slowed him down for only two weeks. In any case, it's nothing some well-shaken martinis and exotic locales wouldn't cure.
Haggis is currently in the editing room finishing up "In the Valley of Elah," a drama inspired by real events that he wrote and directed about a career officer investigating the disappearance of his soldier son after he returns from the most recent Iraq conflict. He has additional projects lined up as producer, director and/or writer, so the Bond producers must have dangled, shall we say, very seductive creative and financial incentives for him to return to the Bond juggernaut.
Haggis has more than earned whatever he's being paid to rework the "Bond 22" screenplay by regular Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade ("The World Is Not Enough," "Die Another Day"). His rewrite of Purvis and Wade's "Casino Royale" script helped to revitalize the aging franchise and give it the edgier credibility it needed to hook a new generation of fans and score the franchise's biggest box office - $588 million worldwide. (Don't cry for Purvis and Wade; they keep getting the Bond assignments and they're writing the new "Barbarella" screenplay that Robert Rodriguez just signed on to direct for Universal on Monday.)
Last year, director Roger Michell ("Venus") and screenwriter Ted Griffin ("Ocean's Eleven") were briefly attached to the "Bond 22" project, and Haggis had turned down the offer to helm it. Now, there are whisperings that four directors are in the final running for the gig - action vets Tony Scott ("Déjà Vu," "Spy Game"), Jonathan Mostow ("Breakdown," "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines"), Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball," "Stranger Than Fiction") and Alex Proyas ("I, Robot," "Dark City").
After 20 years in television, writing for shows such as "The Facts of Life," "thirtysomething" and "L.A. Law," Haggis jumped from the TV gravy train to become the first screenwriter to write successive best picture winners, "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash." He's pushing hard to deliver his cut of "Elah," which bows in September as a potential Oscar magnet, to Warner Bros. as he prepares to careen back into Bond's world, which is on its own insistent timeline (the producers had to bump the release date once already).
But, like the famed British superspy, Haggis is unlikely to buckle under the pressure - even the heart attack he suffered during the "Crash" shoot slowed him down for only two weeks. In any case, it's nothing some well-shaken martinis and exotic locales wouldn't cure.
Well if this isn't the right step for the next Bond movie I don't know what is...
Bond fans can definitely rejoice in this move. I applaud the producers and upholders of the franchise for making some excellent decisions regarding 007 - both in Casino Royale and now this.
Well done!
