Knight Teases New James Bond Film Approach

While many are focused on the casting of the new James Bond, a lot of questions are still swirling about what direction the franchise will take under Amazon’s control.

One possibility that has not been floated is that the series might try a period piece set in the 1960s like the original novels.

New comments from “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight, who is penning the new film, may have shot down this possibility.

Speaking with Screen Daily, Knight says he’s been doing research for the new film with “the SAS and even more secret outfits” and has been in touch regularly with them:

“I am talking to them about what they do every day. It’s all real. The author… was living that life. In the war, he was doing those things. He knew people doing that stuff, going out there and killing people. Ian Fleming was such a great writer. To be a writer, you have got to know about people.”

Knight also says he can reinvent James Bond as the brand is fairly bulletproof and has undergone enough reimaginations over the years:

“Bond has been bulletproof. People have been able to make mistakes and variations, quite elaborate variations, and the character has survived because the core of it is like a diamond. You can’t touch it. The person you are talking about is folklore.

You’d be watching as a kid with your dad. The certainty, the confidence and the escape from something, everybody buys into that. That’s the thing with Bond, everybody wants it.”

Knight has just completed a documentary about Oasis that will be released by Disney in the autumn.