Steven Knight

Steven Knight has been selected to write the next Bond film. Knight is a veteran writer and director with a long raft of credits. His screenplays include Closed Circuit, Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises, Locke and Hummingbird. He is best known though for creating the television show Peaky Blinders. His recent work includes SAS Rogue Heroes and The Veil so he is no stranger to espionage and action stories. Knight is said to have been chosen by the director Denis Villeneuve. "It has always been on my bucket list and it’s fantastic to be invited to do it — I can’t wait to get started," Knight told the BBC. "I’m hoping that, being a Bond fan for so many years, it will be imbued into me and I will be able to produce something that’s the same but different, and better, stronger and bolder. I very quickly discovered what it was about and became very excited and hopeful. And then the process is you do some meetings, you discuss some ideas and then you find out you’ve got it. I found out a while ago."

Knight's admission that he was hired a while back indicates that things are moving fast behind the scenes and a lot faster than they ever did during the Daniel Craig era of EON's last years. We now have producers, a director and a writer. I really don't know much about Steven Knight to be honest. I have never watched Peaky Blinders or SAS Rogue Heroes and I'm not familiar with many of the films he has written. He is highly respected though and seems to be quite versatile and capable of different types of stories. Perhaps the best thing about this new Amazon era is that Purvis & Wade have finally, like our favourite milkman Necros, got the boot.

The fear, from my point of view, is that Bond 26 will end up feeling like another Daniel Craig film (only without Daniel Craig obviously). I don't want another gloomy Bond film again set in the real world with some depressed miserable unshaven Bond moping around and constantly retiring. We've surely had enough of that after the last era. What I don't want is another Skyfall or No Time to Die type film. I'm tired of the dour and worthy Bond films of the type we got in the last era. These films have little rewatch value for me because they aren't much fun. The best template for me would something like The Living Daylights - which has plenty of action and gadgets and style but is still relatively 'straight' for a Bond film. If they could make something like a modern version of The Living Daylights but make it much more exciting and grand scale than Daylights was that would be great. it would be ironic - in a nice way - if MGM Amazon made a Bond film that felt more like a Bond film than the last batch of EON Bond films.

We are still no closer to knowing who will play Bond in the next film. There seem to be no reliable leaks on who they have in mind. The names which seem to be mentioned the most at the time of writing are Harris Dickinson, Callum Turner, Josh O'Connor, Tom Holland and Jacob Elordi. None of these candidates strike me as obvious James Bonds. I might be wrong but none of them are doing it for me at the moment. Harris Dickinson looks like a posh public schoolboy. Callum Turner is a bit, well, weasel like and ferrety in terms of his looks and talks in a Tim Westwood rap voice (he'd be by far the least articulate 007 ambassador the series has ever had if he was cast). Josh O'Connor seems a bit bland and has sticky out ears. Jacob Elordi is handsome but freakishly tall. For some reason Elordi always reminds me of the magician David Copperfield. It could be the case that these actors would be brilliant as Bond and I'm completely wrong but at the moment I'm just not seeing it. As for Tom Holland, I can't take that rumour seriously. It must be a joke or a case of crossed wires. 

A candidate I wouldn't be adverse to seeing chucked into the conversation is Leo Suter - who reminds me somewhat of a younger James Purefoy. Suter is 31 years old, 6'2 tall and English. He showed in the Vikings television show he can do the muscle man action stuff but he can also be suave and charming in other roles. He is the lead in the upcoming reboot of the detective series Lynley. Suter is exactly the sort of person that Cubby Broccoli would have tested for Bond back in the day. I would be quite happy with Suter as Bond but I suspect for the people making this new film he would be seen as too safe a choice and too much of a television actor. I get the impression they might want someone more 'hip' and offbeat who is seen as a rising star and a more daring choice. I suppose you could say people like Callum Turner and Elordi fit that remit more than Suter - which probably explains why they keep being mentioned. We shall see in due course who exactly the studio and producers want as the next Bond. MGM Amazon need to find an appealing actor who would be good for at least three or four films. One would presume that an extensive round of screentests will take place before this decision is made. The only thing left then will be to host a press conference on a nuclear submarine or something unveiling the new Bond. And then people can start arguing about whether they've buggered it up and cast the wrong person. It's all a traditional part of the fun of being a Bond fan.

- Jake

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