James Bond: No Time to Die Director Pitched Version Set Entirely in Bond’s Head

Earlier this year we all would have assumed that by the end of April we would have seen the 25th James Bond movie No Time to Die, and watched Daniel Craig ride off into the sunset as the character for one last time. The COVID-19 coronavirus changed everything though, delaying the film into November of this year and giving Craig even more total time as Ian Fleming’s character. Though director Cary Joji Fukunaga has previously said they’re not using this extra time to fine-tune the editing of the movie, the filmmaker has revealed one of his original ideas for the film that would have made it the most unique Bond of all time.

Speaking in an interview with friend and fellow filmmaker Miranda July for Interview Magazine, Fukunaga revealed that he had an idea for the film that would have seen most of the entire movie taking place in Bond’s head. Near the ending of the previous movie SPECTRE, Bond is captured by Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld forces needles into his head with that brief scene being the moment that Fukunaga’s movie would take place.

“I swear to god, I had an idea that this movie could all be taking place inside the villain’s lair from the last film,” Fukunaga said. “There’s this scene where a needle goes into James Bond‘s head, which is supposed to make him forget everything, and then he miraculously escapes by a watch bomb. And then he and Léa blow up the place, and go on to save the day. I was like, “What if everything up until the end of act two is all inside his head?”

Sadly it doesn’t seem like Fukunaga was able to make a Bond movie that was as cerebral as that idea, and though he’s quoted as saying more time to edit No Time to Die “would have been lovely” he reassured fans that “the movie is great as it is.”

Tickets went on on sale on Monday, March 2 for the movie when it was still set for an April 10th release date, but just two days later the film was officially pushed back to November 25th, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This came as a big surprise to many fans, though some were asking the studio to delay the film, but according to a previous report on the matter could end up saving the film’s producers money in the end despite an upfront monetary hit.

(H/T Collider)