Cary Fukunaga’s Original Bond Idea Was All in His Head

The new Bond has been pushed back to November and while those of us who preordered tickets just got our money back, we still have to wait to see the 5th and final appearance of Daniel Craig as the secret MI6 agent. 

The hype around the movie was already pretty loud. 

People wanted to see how this film fit after the disappointment of Spectre. 

But while we wait, we can theorize about the Bond films that were never made. 

In Interview Magazine, Cary Fukunaga sat down with Miranda July for an extensive chat. This is what he had to say about the ideas behind Bond, and what he originally wanted to do instead of the film...

“Miranda, 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?'”

Ahh yes, the old "It was all a dream" scenario. 

I'd be lying if I didn't say that there are many times I have wrestled with whether or not things like this were able to be accomplished in my own screenplays. Using the dream scenario is so hard to pull off, because it means the stakes and risks we see done by the characters don't actually have repercussions. 

Unless you have some Nightmare on Elm Street rules, where if you die in dreams you die in real life. 

Recently, The Leftovers did a whole dream/secret agent episode and it was one of the best of the series, so it is possible to make them good. 

But you have to really dig into the promise of the franchise to see that doing that in Bond that might feel like a cheat. We like to see Bond in real danger. It's part of why so many practical stunts get prioritized. 

Still, I love what Fukunaga did with Maniac, and how he handled everything that was "internal" on that Netflix show. 

While we may never get a chance to see the "It was all a Dream" Bond, we can picture it in our minds. 

And maybe that's the point anyway.