Just when you think that Casino Royale, the 21st James Bond movie, is just an excuse to keep proposing new Bonds, it is announced that the film has a new screenwriter – none other than Paul Haggis has been brought on board to rewrite the current script.
What a coup for this guy. You know that last name caused him pain in grade school, and now he’s writing James Bond. Of course I doubt long-time Bond producer Barbara Broccoli will allow Haggis to include his planned ending, where Bond’s Astin-Martin rear ends a black guy’s car and they come to a realization about race relations right before Miss Moneypenny bites her own tongue off.
The film was being written by the same guys who scripted the last two shitty Bond movies, so my feelings about Haggis’ other work aside (I despise Crash and think Million Dollar Baby is as phony as Clint is old), at least he’s a good writer. I don’t know enough James Bond to say that the series has never had a really good screenwriter, but having caught Live and Let Die on AMC last week, I feel like I am not going out on a thin limb by making that claim.
Martin Campbell, who directed the last Bond I liked, Goldeneye, and the last Banderas I liked, Zorro, is directing this one. As always, the search for the new Bond is underway.