Home Entertainment New SPECTRE production vlog may confirm leaked script details

New SPECTRE production vlog may confirm leaked script details

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When you’re making a movie about the world’s greatest superspy, some covert ops is expected. And so Spectre, James Bond’s latest movie adventure, was shrouded in secrecy until it’s big reveal last year. But even that reveal didn’t give away any major details about the film’s stories or it’s characters. And then Sony got hacked (gee thanks, James Franco and Seth Rogen!).

Due to the leaked emails in the now infamous “Sony hack”, a draft of the script made its way online along with some troubling emails from Sony and MGM execs about their displeasure with certain plot elements. But that was months ago, and was not the final draft so surely the writers would have addressed all their bosses’ misgivings by now, right? Well, maybe not.

As the movie is still very early in production, we’re nowhere close to a trailer and have only seen some on-set pics like the one above thus far. But now director Sam Mendes has released a new production vlog, talking about why he returned to the Bond director’s chair for a second time after the record-breaking Skyfall and gives us a nice behind-the-scenes look at how these characters relate to each other in this world. Note: the abovementioned plot point isn’t given away blatantly here, so can watch it without any fear of spoilers.

Let the speculation begin! At around the 0:23 mark, Mendes mentions that the main story arc of Spectre “is also tied to the second part of a crucial story involving Bond’s childhood.” And now we really start heading into SPOILER territory. Even though I’m going to keep the details as vague as possible and also not mention most of what was in the leaked Sony emails, if you don’t want to read about one of the plot points discussed then you should leave now. The rest of you can scroll past this recently released pic of Dave Bautista as henchman Mr. Hinx.

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Now there were many aspects of the script draft that was leaked, and you can go read a full breakdown of it over on Gawker. The pertinent bit of info here is that the Sony and MGM execs all really liked what they saw. Right up until a third act plot twist involving Christoph Waltz’s villainous Franz Oberhauzer, which apparently leads to an “awful ending” that is “boring and uneventful” and mainly because of Oberhauzer – who also uses the alias of Heinrich Stockman – not being “a particularly compelling villain”. A villain, who it is revealed, is actually one of James Bond’s foster siblings from when he was still a child of the state. This family connection is apparently one of Oberhauzer’s main motivations for going after Bond, even though it’s very poorly explained and executed in a very lacklustre way, which led to the execs wanting to get it fixed (which we assume/hope happened in some way).

Up until now, of course, there has been no confirmation that any of this made it into the final draft of the script, and yet, here is Sam Mendes talking about how Bond is searching for a man who has some link to his childhood. Now a while back, a rumour popped up at a number of sources that Waltz’s Oberhauzer was actually just the alias of a new modern-day Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who in the classic movies was of course Bond’s cat-stroking nemesis. The fact that the movie’s title was then revealed to be Spectre, the same name of the global terrorist organization run by Blofeld in the old films, certainly added weight to this rumour.

Could it be that the writers’ direct response to the Sony/MGM criticism about the lame duck twist and third act, was to go for maximum fan service and now reveal Oberhauzer to actually be Blofeld? I’m not sure how I feel about potentially tying Bond and his arch-nemesis together like this. The fact that Blofeld was busy with his own nefarious machinations and Bond just stumbled into his plot, or was given some mission that ended up leading to SPECTRE always made for much better viewing I believed. Bond’s track record when it comes to plots that are all personal, on the other hand, is very shaky (see: License To Kill).

What do you guys think? Would you like Waltz’s character to be revealed as Blofeld? And if so, how do you feel about them being foster brothers?

Last Updated: March 3, 2015

One Comment

  1. I think Waltz would make an awesome Blofeld! He can play a calculating villian with such aplomb (his role in “Inglorious Basterds” was one of the highlights of that movie!). Would love to see him in the iconic role.

    Reply

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