James Bond would have killed M in Daniel Craig’s third turn as the British superspy, had producers not turned down a script from Oscar-nominated screenwriter Peter Morgan.
Wow. That would’ve made her even more grumpy.
A new book details Morgan’s pitch for “Once Upon a Spy,” which would’ve come before “Skyfall.” Some of the story’s elements surfaced in that film, including past mistakes coming back to haunt M (Judi Dench), and having her die at the end, according to The Guardian.
But what director Sam Mendes and producers weren’t so hot on was the idea that Bond would have been the one killing her.
In the book “Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films,” by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, Bond screenwriter Robert Wade said Morgan’s mistake was writing something closer to the style of spy writer John le Carre, instead of Bond creator Ian Fleming.
“(Co-writer) Neal (Purvis) and I are pretty well steeped in Fleming,” said Wade, according to Digital Spy. “I think Peter was more interested in Le Carre. It just didn’t work. We always found (the script) really, really difficult to make credible or satisfying. It was very dark … The only thing that remained was that M’s past comes back to haunt her and she dies at the end.”
“Once Upon a Spy” reportedly would have included flashbacks to M’s Cold War days, working for MI6 in Berlin. The book says she would have had an affair with a KGB agent, information that the agent’s son would have blackmailed her with three decades later. Bond would have handled the villain, but also would have taken out M.
According to The Guardian, Wade and Purvis rewrote Morgan’s screenplay into something called “Nothing Is Forever,” which eventually became “Skyfall.”
Tony Hicks writes celebrity commentary for the Bay Area News Group. Contact him at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/tonyhicks67
