{"id":1169,"date":"2007-12-13T14:29:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-13T14:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/forster-on-being-unique-among-bond-directors\/"},"modified":"2007-12-13T14:29:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-13T14:29:00","slug":"forster-on-being-unique-among-bond-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/forster-on-being-unique-among-bond-directors.html","title":{"rendered":"Forster on being unique among Bond directors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
The New York Times<\/a><\/i> had an interesting profile the other day of Marc Forster<\/a>, the German-born Swiss director of The Kite Runner<\/a><\/i> and the next James Bond movie<\/a>, among others. An excerpt:<\/span><\/p>\n

The ability to generate suspense from some of the more aberrant emotional states may serve him well in his new assignment, because Bond, as played in his most recent incarnation<\/a> by Daniel Craig in \u201cCasino Royale<\/a>\u201d (2006), seems, Mr. Forster said, \u201cvery isolated, a man who\u2019s damaged in some way.\u201d Mr. Craig\u2019s Bond felt to him like \u201ca completely new interpretation of the character,\u201d he said. \u201cThis James Bond is darker, more tormented. He\u2019s humanized, in a sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that, he said, is the quality that will allow the franchise to go on. \u201cIn the \u201960s and \u201970s, when Sean Connery and Roger Moore were playing the role, a large part of the appeal of the James Bond movies was the travel to exotic locations, but that\u2019s not such an attraction anymore,\u201d Mr. Forster said. \u201cPeople travel a lot more now, and with the Internet they\u2019re more aware of what the rest of the world is like. In a way the most interesting place for a James Bond movie to go is inward \u2014 deeper into Bond himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mention of the \u201960s and Mr. Connery was an abrupt reminder that, even more than Mr. Forster\u2019s \u201cnon-Commonwealth\u201d status, what really sets him apart from every previous Bond-movie director is that he is the first to have been born after<\/i> the swingin\u2019 heyday of the series. The canonical Connery Bonds \u2014 \u201cDr. No,\u201d \u201cFrom Russia With Love,\u201d \u201cGoldfinger<\/a>,\u201d \u201cThunderball\u201d and \u201cYou Only Live Twice\u201d\u2014 were all history by the time Mr. Forster entered the world in 1969. . . .<\/p>\n

That he is the first director of a Bond movie who\u2019s too young to remember the originals hadn\u2019t dawned on him, either, until it was pointed out to him. That may be the most interesting thing about this not intuitively obvious marriage of filmmaker and film: After 45 years or so of 007 we\u2019ll finally get to see what this dinner-jacketed warrior looks like through the eyes of a director whose points of reference are not \u201cThe 39 Steps\u201d and \u201cNorth by Northwest\u201d but \u201cAliens<\/a>\u201d and \u201cDie Hard<\/a>.\u201d (Those are the pictures Mr. Forster names as some favorite action movies.) How does James Bond strike somebody for whom the character is not merely mythic, but remotely<\/i> mythic, like Beowulf?<\/p>\n

But Marc Forster has another idea about why he\u2019s the right choice for \u201cBond 22,\u201d and why it\u2019s the right movie for him. \u201cYou know, James Bond\u2019s mother is Swiss,\u201d he said. \u201cThat will make it all worthwhile.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obscure snarky soundtrack-buff quip of the day: If Forster cites Aliens<\/i> and Die Hard<\/i> as his two main influences, will his James Bond movie climax with the same piece of James Horner music that was used in the final scenes of both of those films?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times had an interesting profile the other day of Marc Forster, the German-born Swiss director of The Kite Runner and the next James Bond movie, among others. An excerpt: The ability to generate suspense from some of the more aberrant emotional states may serve him well in his new assignment, because Bond, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nForster on being unique among Bond directors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The New York Times had an interesting profile the other day of Marc Forster, the German-born Swiss director of The Kite Runner and the next James Bond\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/forster-on-being-unique-among-bond-directors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forster on being unique among Bond directors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times had an interesting profile the other day of Marc Forster, the German-born Swiss director of The Kite Runner and the next James Bond\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/forster-on-being-unique-among-bond-directors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-13T14:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/R2G2pJDkcVI\/AAAAAAAAA7Y\/oWZ2RUk9qgM\/s400\/kiterunner-forster.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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