John Logan Talks Skyfall

20th November 2011

It was first announced back in January that American screenwriter John Logan would be joining regular scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade to finalize the shooting script for the 23rd James Bond film, now titled "Skyfall". With all the cast and crew raving about the quality of the work at the kick-off press conference, with Daniel Craig going so far as to say it excited him even more than "Casino Royale", the expectations for the film are high. In a quick trip back to New York City between time on the set at Pinewood Studios, Logan sat down with Collider.com this week to discuss his work on 007.

"Skyfall" director Sam Mendes has known Logan for fifteen years, and the writer explained how he came to work on the project: “[Sam Mendes] said there’s this great script by Purvis and Wade that existed, but he wanted me to come onboard and I did the ultimate thing you never do which is I said ‘Yes. I don’t care what you pay me, I don’t care what I have to do, yes,’ because I grew up—the first Bond movie I ever saw was 'Diamonds are Forever', I remember every moment of it.”

With the experimental idea of making a direct sequel to a Bond film on the last outing "Quantum of Solace" falling a little flat, everyone at the press conference was keen to stress that "Skyfall" would not be following on from the last film so closely.

Logan explained that to say it's not following on is one thing, but all Bond films in some way are sequels due to the franchise canon. “It has nothing to do with being a standalone film, as far as I’m concerned, because I don’t think these films are standalone, I think they’re part of a legacy," Logan said. "When I was working on it I was deeply aware as much of 'Quantum of Solace' and 'Casino Royale' as I was of 'Thunderball', as I was of Ian Fleming in the 50’s writing it, you know you’re a float in a parade.”

Writing a franchise film can be a blessing and a curse to a screenwriter: starting out with a well proven formula but still having to make something original and different. Logan said that he did not feel restricted by the history of the preceding 22 films: “What was particularly thrilling about this is the freedom, because I had the fear that you would going into a franchise movie that you have to put all the toys back in the sandbox, but I’ve never felt anything but completely free as a writer to explore different material, to explore different ideas with these characters and this world. It’s been amongst the best experiences I’ve ever had on a movie.”

The script of "Quantum" was hampered by the writers strike, which often left director Marc Forster and Daniel Craig adjusting scenes at short notice, and the final film relied a lot on action. But with the longer writing time on "SkyFall", and having Mendes involved for a year before cameras rolled, Logan says making the blend of action and drama work has been foremost in their minds. “It’s a very collaborative process, and Sam is front and center on everything. He’s got an amazingly exciting adventure mind, which not all filmmakers do... The important thing for me is making sure that the action belongs in that movie, cause there’s such a thing as a Bond kind of action, and then there’s a subset of that which is our Skyfall kind of action, they all have their own definitions.”

Many thanks to Steve. Click over to Collider to watch the interview video.