All change in the world of Bond? It’s only window dressing
Phoebe Waller-Bridge being added to the writing team will do nothing to modernise this cultural relic
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Your support makes all the difference.The producers have recruited Fleabag writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge to add some modern naughtiness to the writing team, but a cursory glance at the press junket announcing the latest James Bond film in Jamaica confirms that it’s business as usual. Post #MeToo, it does seem a bit gauche to showcase an uncomfortable-looking Daniel Craig in a line up of glamorous women wearing cocktail frocks and high heels on a lawn next to a beach.
The new film is described as a “free remake” of an earlier Bond classic On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, with Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek playing the villain. Craig is said to have recruited the Fleabag writer to give the film a contemporary polish, but it will take more than some potty mouthed chat and sadistic stabbings to drag this outmoded concept into the 21st century. Craig is a fine actor, but the scripts and escapades in recent Bonds seem more of a challenge to his physical prowess than his brain power. Apparently, the producers no longer refer to "Bond Girls" but "Bond Women" – whatever, these females are still little more than set dressing.
I doubt any of them will get to say anything as memorable as Craig’s wife Rachael Weisz playing the bisexual Lady Sarah Churchill in The Favourite – telling Queen Anne "who did your makeup? You look like a Badger."
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