It's almost No Time To Die - 007 things you can do to get ready

By: Greg Bechtloff

Published:
2020-02-29

007 things to do before watching No Time To Die

This is it Bond fans! We are dangerously close to the release of the 25th James Bond film, No Time To Die. The excitement is building for what will be the epic entry in the Bond series that wraps up the run of Daniel Craig’s story arc.

We are all familiar with the long and frustrating journey that has taken us from the aftermath of Spectre in 2015 to this moment.

Daniel Craig is not going to do it! Daniel Craig is going to do it. Maybe Yann Demange will direct it. No, Oscar winner Danny Boyle has pitched a cool idea that they are going to run with. Its going to involve Russians. That guy from Cold War will be the villain. Nope, its not going to be Tomasz Kot and Danny Boyle has bailed.

On and on it went. Once the film finally got rolling it abruptly stopped again when Daniel Craig was injured.

Thankfully all that is in the rear view mirror and the movie is almost here. Not even that sinister and quite Bondian superflu coronavirus (did Blofeld create this in Piz Gloria?) is going to stop this juggernaut.

To fill the time in this dwindling gap between the opening of the new movie, From Sweden With Love presents 007 things you can do to enhance your viewing experience of No Time To Die.

001: Watch True Detective

No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga does not have as large a directing track record as such recent Bond directors like Martin Campbell or Sam Mendes did.

Fukunaga’s main claim to fame is directing the outstanding 2014 HBO serial True Detective which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Louisiana state police on the trail of a twisted serial killer. The screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto along with Fukunaga’s forceful directing made something that we have seen many times before seem new and vital.

That “new and vital” element will be an excellent tonic for the Bond series to those people who felt that Spectre was not as strong an entry as Skyfall was.

Watching True Detective will give you a feel for how Fukunaga handles drama scenes as well as suspense and action.

Clues can be found even in smaller things. For instance, True Detective has lots of aerial shots of cars driving through the Louisiana landscape. We have already heard that drone shots of the Aston Martin cruising around London will feature in No Time To Die. Coincidence? No.

002: Listen to past Hans Zimmer soundtracks.

For the first time ever, a score has been thrown off a James Bond film. While this is a first for a Bond film, this does happen to movies from time to time. Iconic Bond composer John Barry has had his music taken off various films for differing reasons.

The music that indie composer Dan Romer did for No Time To Die was allegedly too “out there” for a major studio action film. This goes to show that Romer was never a good choice all along. Especially coming after the high profile scores that A List composer Thomas Newman did for Skyfall and Spectre.

Revered composer Hans Zimmer was brought in late in the game to fix this. Zimmer is an accomplished Oscar winning composer who can musically do anything in any genre; comedy, action, drama, horror, epics, you name it.

You can definitely use this waiting period to revisit some past Hans Zimmer scores to get an “ear” for his sound and what he may bring to No Time To Die. His Bond score will most likely pay tribute to John Barry but will also definitely be a Hans Zimmer score. Expect electronics mixed with orchestral elements. Plus guitar!

The music for Inception comes to mind here as a good starting point. If you recall, that film had a sequence set at a mountain hideout. Zimmer said at the time that they screened OHMSS in order to see what John Barry had done with his music for the ski chases in that film.

The score for Inception also featured a collaboration with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Marr has re-teamed with Hans Zimmer for No Time To Die. Zimmer and Marr on a Bond film, the inheritors of John Barry and Vic Flick!

One Zimmer score that has an almost identical genesis as NTTD is Zimmer’s music for Blade Runner 2049. That film had an original composer whose music was taken off. Zimmer was brought in to fix it.

Not only was there a time constraint but the brief was very challenging. The sequel to Blade Runner had to pay tribute to the famous music that Vangelis did for the original film but must be its own thing as well. Sound familiar? Listen for yourself, but Hans Zimmer sure as hell was able to do that. I think history is going to repeat itself for No Time To Die.

Hans Zimmer has a large amount of scoring credits so there is a lot to sample. I suspect though that the ones to really pay close attention to are the scores he did for Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

You do not have to be a super critic to see how much The Dark Knight influenced such Bond films as Skyfall and Spectre. Hans Zimmer’s driving music (especially over the Batman-y action scenes) will probably carry over to his Bond action music.

The scores that Zimmer did for The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Inferno also seem like some cues could be temped over a Bond film. Those films based on Dan Brown thrillers share a similar space as James Bond films. They featured globe trotting action, suspense and ticking bomb scenarios.

Do yourself a favor and at least listen to something that Hans Zimmer has done. He’s worth it.

003: Read Casino Royale (1953) - the original book that started it all

If you have never read an Ian Fleming novel then why not now? The first Ian Fleming James Bond story is not a long book but its legacy looms over all the subsequent Bond novels and all the James Bond films.

Maybe its like The Bible. You may know all the stories that came out of it but have actually never read it. You need to take the plunge and read Fleming to really sit at the grownup’s table of Bond fandom. You will not regret it.

004 – 007: Watch the prior Daniel Craig films

Publicity at the time went out of its way to tell us that Quantum of Solace (2008) was the direct sequel to Casino Royale (2006) which had never happened before in the Bond series.

They are not saying that about No Time To Die but its pretty apparent to anyone who has been following this film that Bond 25 owes a lot to Bond 24, Spectre.

This waiting period makes it the perfect time to revisit the prior Daniel Craig Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre. No Time To Die seems to be the sequel to all of them. Not being up on what happened in the prior films would definitely be a handicap.

Whose grave is that in Italy in the new film? Who is that guy in prison that Bond is questioning? Where did this Madeleine Swann person come from? What is that portrait of Judi Dench? See what I mean.

With the recent release of all the Daniel Craig Bond films on 4K, you can get totally up to speed for No Time To Die and also watch those films like you have never seen them before. The picture is stunning if watched on a large 4K TV. You will probably notice things that you have never noticed in all the previous times you have seen those films.

So, get cracking 007!

Countdown to No Time To Die premiere

For the latest official announcements on No Time To Die, visit the official website.

Tags:

Tag Cloud