As principal photography on Bond 25 continues in London, production on the eagerly anticipated James Bond sequel has been plagued by high profile behind-the-scenes issues and incidents before the cameras even started rolling this year. From creative disagreements and departures to injuries causing production to temporarily shut down, Daniel Craig's fifth installment as the iconic British super-spy has already developed a degree of notoriety for being cursed due to the constant parade of troubles.
Now, CBR is breaking down all of the publicly-known behind-the-scenes problems with the production of Bond 25, that have gone public from pre-production to its most recent issues.
Danny Boyle's Departure
After a lengthy search for a director after Spectre and Skyfall filmmaker Sam Mendes officially declined to return to the franchise, Danny Boyle, the Academy Award-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire signed on to helm the production in April of last year. Boyle co-wrote a script with collaborator John Hodge, with principal photography announced to begin in December 2018 for a November 8, 2019 release.
However, producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli issued a joint statement with returning star Daniel Craig in August 2018 that Boyle would be departing the production due to unspecified "creative differences." With the production in a state of flux, current filmmaker Cary Fukunaga signed on to replace Boyle as director while longtime Bond screenwriters Robert Wade, Neal Purvis, and Paul Haggis returned to rewrite the film's script.
Release Date Shuffle
As part of the announcement of Fukunaga joining the production, the release date for Bond 25 was pushed back to February 14, 2020 to accommodate the creative change-up behind-the-scenes. Fukunaga teamed with The Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter Scott Z. Burns to make further changes to the script in the lead-up to filming.
Impressed by her work creating the television series Killing Eve, Craig had Phoebe Waller-Bridge additionally polish up the script as principal photography began to make the characters and dialogue more relatable and inject some humor into the proceedings. All these changes delayed the film's release date again to its current date of April 8, 2020.
An Injured Daniel Craig
Less than a month into principal photography, production slowed to an unexpected halt when Craig twisted his ankle while filming an action sequence on location in Jamaica. The stunt had Craig running at a full sprint when the actor twisted his ankle so badly that it required him to undergo surgery and sit out of the production for a full month as it carried on filming scenes without him.
The timing of the injury was also quite poor, since it occurred on what was scheduled to be the final week of filming in Jamaica before the production relocated to London for the majority of its filming at Pinewood Studios where the franchise had long called home.
Uncontrollable Controlled Explosion
Even back in its native England, bad luck continued to follow Bond 25 when another stunt went horribly wrong. While filming a series of controlled explosions on set in Pinewood Studios, the blasts proved more powerful than estimated and resulted in damage to the studio. While no one was hurt on set, an unidentified crew member would suffer minor injuries outside of the building.
While the exterior of the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios was reportedly damaged, production resumed as normal after a brief break as Craig continued to recuperate from the injuries he had endured filming in Jamaica.
The Voyeur
The most recent incident surrounding the production of Bond 25 is a bit more disturbing, when a hidden camera was discovered planted in one of the women's bathrooms at Pinewood Studios. An unidentified man was arrested in association with the hidden camera and charged by the British government for voyeurism.
From creative differences and numerous rewrites to the film's script to stunts gone wrong and criminal actions, Bond 25's production has been notoriously hellish. With principal photography expected to continue through the summer, including locations in Italy and Norway, hopefully the production will overcome its early troubles in what is widely expected to be Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond. Hopefully, the rest of the action, twists crimes and injuries around Bond 25 will only appear on the big screen.
Directed and co-written by Cary Fukunaga, Bond 25 stars Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen and Rami Malek. It is scheduled for release on April 8, 2020.