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Danny Boyle reveals what would have happened in his unwanted Bond film that led to ‘creative differences’

‘They just lost confidence in it,’ he said

Jacob Stolworthy
Tuesday 17 May 2022 12:13 EDT
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No Time To Die - Trailer

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Danny Boyle has finally revealed what his unwanted Bond film would have consisted of.

He was due to direct Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007, before Boyle parted ways with the project due to creative differences with the Broccoli estate.

Boyle previously told The Independent: “We just fell out about the way the script was going. I think that obviously, being as they are, they want it their way and normally a director would accept that and go along with it.

“But I have this relationship with my writer [John Hodge] that’s quite intense, passionate and loyal and I would not change him – precisely because I really liked what he was doing. Our idea was good, but they didn’t think so.”

Now, in a brand new interview with Esquire UK, Boyle has shed light on what his script for the unmade Bond film was about.

“Weirdly – it would have been very topical now – it was all set in Russia, which is of course where Bond came from, out of the Cold War,” he revealed.

“It was set in present-day Russia and went back to his origins, and they just lost, what’s the word... they just lost confidence in it.”

Boyle added that, despite thinking they want something different, the producers “don’t really want” anything too untraditional.

Danny Boyle has opened up about why he got fired as Bond director
Danny Boyle has opened up about why he got fired as Bond director (Getty Images for BFI)

“They want you to freshen it up a bit, but not really challenge it, and we wanted to do something different with it,” he said.

Cary Joji Fukunaga was eventually hired as the director of the film, which became No Time to Die.

Boyle’s next project is a TV show about the Sex Pistols, which will be available to stream on Disney Plus from 31 May.

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