Throughout its 60 year-existence, the James Bond franchise has flirted with reality on occasion, but one of the major driving forces behind the spy saga’s longevity is its willingness to embrace the far-fetched and fantastical.
As much as we don’t want to see the iconic series go full Die Another Day again anytime soon, a grounded and 100 percent realistic adventure for 007 would lose a great deal of the essence that made the IP such a pop culture monolith to begin with. And yet, studio bigwig and producer Chris Fenton would love to see some topical spy balloons make an appearance.
Fenton, who’s been credited on several effects-heavy blockbusters including Rian Johnson’s Looper, Transcendence, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Iron Man 3, and the reprehensible Point Break remake through his role as a production executive at DMG Entertainment, spoke to Semafor about Hollywood’s desire to regain a foothold in the Chinese market, when he revealed his thoughts on modern-day espionage epics like Bond and Jason Bourne.
He said it was time for a project where the aforementioned JBs “finally face their most realistic onscreen modern day villains – ones who may be using sophisticated spy balloons to drop catastrophic EMPs over the United States or ones who’ve smuggled a nuclear device into the heart of Taipei during a key U.S. Congressional Delegation visit.”
Let’s just call the timing a coincidence when spy balloons are all the rage these days, but with another reboot of MI6’s finest agent on the cards, we’re not exactly going to rule out the prospect of Q handing Bond several outlandish gadgets to take down a floating ball of hot air that threatens to wreak untold devastation.