Veteran 007 screenwriting duo Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, two of the writers behind the new Bond movie ‘Skyfall’, were interviewed in the UK’s ‘Sunday Express’ on October 14.
In an exclusive interview for the newspaper, showbiz columnist York Membery spoke to the pair about their plot for the new Bond movie and about their film writing careers generally.
The interview opened with a discussion of how, at one stage, Purvis and Wade faced their own 007-style race against the clock to deliver the screenplay of the new Bond movie to the producers in Los Angeles. It was 2am in the morning UK time, and they had to deliver the screenplay by first light. Neal Purvis said there is nothing like a deadline ‘for concentrating the mind’.
However, not only did the duo deliver the untitled script on time, but inadvertently created the eventual title. Wade explained: ‘We needed a haunting place name. I just plucked it out of the air, and it turned out to be something that struck a chord with the filmmakers’.
The interview revealed that work on the film that would become ‘Skyfall’ began in early 2010, when the two writers travelled to New York to discuss the movie with director Sam Mendes and Bond star Daniel Craig.
Purvis said: ‘Everyone agreed that we wanted to pitch Bond against a villain who was a similar age and possessed the same strength of character, making it a battle of equals’.
They also said that Craig and Mendes had strong views on the direction the new Bond film should take. According to Purvis: ‘Daniel wanted a bit more humour in this film. While Sam made it clear that he didn’t want it to be too introspective. He wanted a traditional big Bond film, but with a cracking story. Above all, he wanted it to be entertaining’.
A decision was also taken to include some of the more traditional Bond elements and characters, such as gadgets man ‘Q’. Robert Wade said: ‘The result is that there has been a deliberate swinging back to the classic Bond we all know and love’.
According to the ‘Express’, the next project for the two screenwriters is ‘Corsica 72’, a gangster crime drama.