The new James Bond film’s script wasn’t entirely finished until filming was all wrapped up, admits No Time To Die’s director.
With the film comfortably ensconced at the top of the UK box office chart with little sign of budging just yet, No Time To Die has proven to be a hugely successful James Bond movie already.
But it’s also one that came together quite late in the day. It’s well known that Danny Boyle was originally in place to direct the movie, but left after creative differences with production company Eon. In then came Cary Joji Fukunaga, who also co-wrote the movie’s screenplay.
And with the movie heading to America this weekend, Fukunaga has been on the international leg of the film’s press tour. In conversation with Esquire Middle East, he’s revealed just how down to the wire No Time To Die got.
When Boyle left the movie, pre-production carried on whilst the search for a replacement for underway. As such, scenes were loosely put together, with the understanding that whoever directed would be able to shape them however they needed.
“The only set which was really ready to go was M’s office in MI6”, Fukunaga has revealed. “I knew more or less in the outline that I made what I wanted to have happen in that section, but none of the body of the script had been written yet. Luckily, I was sitting there with some of the greatest actors in the world”.
He added that “I was writing dialogue that was intentional enough, but vague enough, that I could apply it to a number of different things happening in the third act”, noting that “with Bond, we were still writing when we’d wrapped. I was even writing in post!”
Bond films have a habit of pushing things to deadlines, but this all sounds like it pushed it harder than most. Still, it all seems to have worked out.
No Time To Die is playing in cinemas in the UK now.
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