Did the Jason Bourne films frighten the Bond producers? (1 Viewer)

[David Coleman]

Just throwing this out.

I've loved both the Bourne films and though they are a different type of spy film it does kinda show a better way of doing it!

I do believe that the Bond producers were eager to change the direction of the franchise to update it along the lines of Bourne?

Any thoughts?

 

[Beau]

This is just my opinion, but I feel people are giving the Bourne series too much credit for the directions EON is going with the Bond series. The Bond series has always seemed, to me at least, to go back and forth between serious spy thillers to silly action flicks. After You Only Live Twice, we got On Her Majesty's Secret Service; after Moonraker, we got For Your Eyes Only; after A View to a Kill, we got The Living Daylights. I guessed, judging from history, when I was walking out of the the theater after Die Another Day that they would take the down-to-earth serious spy film route for the next film. That's just the way I see it, though.

 

[Andy Sheets]

The Bond films have always been influenced by trends, and I do agree that the popularity of the Bourne films, along with the "back to basics" approach of Batman Begins, have had a strong influence on the new film being produced.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

With these worldwide grosses, I'd say that that the Bond series doesn't want to be influenced by the Bourne films.

Die Another Day - $431 million

Bourne Identity - $189 milllion

Bourne Supremacy - $220 million

The Bourne films have a very soft non-USA box office, which would be deadly to the Bond series, so I can't imagine why they'd want emulate them. Aside from their silly editing style, the Bourne films are basically descendants of From Russia with Love and The Ipcress File.

Beau's post is essentially correct.

 

[James@R]

Common sense will quickly tell you that they have nothing to fear from the Bourne series- as the responses in this thread have pointed out. But the question was not "should they", but "do they"?

They are definitely afraid of Bourne and they have been ever since Supremacy opened with more money than Die Another Day. (Again, common sense should have told them that one was a 'part 2', while the other was a 'part 20'.)

This new installment is more than just the series following the latest trend. If that were true, they would just make a Bond film similar to the early films like From Russia With Love, or incorporate the trendy aspects into their own formula. Instead, they are copying Bourne pretty blatantly, while tossing out many of Bond's most popular elements.

The script features a greater reliance on modern technology than we've ever seen before (ie. the plot is advanced via info gained with cell phones, internet, CNN; etc). The film itself features documentary-style, shaky camerawork- a first for the series. And the character of Bond is now a short, stocky guy with blonde hair.

Ultimately, they're not afraid of the Bourne films making more money, but that they will make Bond films seem outdated. And they've been trying to update Bond ever since Licence To Kill. Each film has been touted as having a new gimmick: Either the love interest was Bond's equal, or the villain posed a modern threat, or Bond was more vulnerable, or he'd be tortured, or the mission would be a personal one for 007, etc.

It's almost as though they feel a need to make excuses for continuing to produce Bond films. This was never more apparent than when Michael Wilson recently spoke about how tired he has gotten of making them.

 

[Malcolm R]

They shouldn't be afraid of them, but they should be studying them closely to see how an exciting spy thriller is really done.

 

[Mark Hawley]

Pretty much all Bond films since License to Kill have had a "this time it's personal" vibe.

 

[Matt Pasant]

And I think License to Kill is the only one that pulled it off primarily because of the actor portraying Bond at the time. Brosnan never seemed to pull off the tortured, vulnerable, this-time-its-personal vibe.

 

[James@R]

Yes, this will be the sixth consecutive film in which the mission is a personal one.

 

[Pete-D]

No way IMO.

I think maybe "Batman Begins" may have made EON more comfortable in going with a "Bond Begins" type route though.

But really I'm not a huge fan of the Bourne films to be honest ... to me one of the things I love about the Bond films is the excess in terms of over-the-top villains, action sequences, women, and cars.

Granted, yes, sometimes it can get a bit carried away, but no guy wants to be Jason Bourne, really. Everyone wants to be James Bond.

If they ever get to a 5th or 6th Bourne film, I think that franchise will definitely falter.

 

[James@R]

Exactly. This is why I think it's a mistake to try and turn Bond into an Everyman. It defeats the whole purpose.

Anyway, while Batman certainly had a big influence, Bourne was still the main catalyst for the re-boot idea. When Supremacy was shooting/nearing release, there were lots of rumblings on Bond websites that the producers were very interested in what Bourne was up to.

 

[AlexCremers]

Can't stand most Bonds but love the Bourne movies, especially the first one.

 

[mattCR]

Look, I'll admit, I find the Bourne films superior in almost every way to the last set of Bond films. But the thing is, I think the two franchises should stay different. The one thing that Bond needs to realize is that it has to avoid laughable storylines.

I am really sick of storylines and events that are so laughably stupid/ridiculous that they go beyond any suspension of disbelief.

That's what Bourne does well. It setup a situation that you could "buy in" and played it out. While Bond has always been a bit of an espionage fantasy, they have to get rid of this over the top science fiction type element that has really driven the films to lose audience.

 

[Andy Sheets]

It would seem to indicate that the Bond producers have gone too far when people lately (including Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass) have taken to describing highly-trained ex-CIA assassin Jason Bourne as an everyman compared to Bond