BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge is being wooed to help write a future James Bond film
Phoebe Waller-Bridge attends the the GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2019. Waller-Bridge is being licensed to work on a future James Bond film
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is being licensed to work on a future James Bond film.
The award-winning writer and actress is being wooed to contribute to the script for Bond 26, which is still years away.
Waller-Bridge was hired by 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, at Daniel Craig’s behest, to ‘add a layer’ to the screenplay for Bond 25 — or No Time To Die — which has been shooting in Jamaica, Scotland, Norway, Italy and London.
The idea was to allow her to punch up the dialogue spoken by the female characters. But soon she was writing for the blokes, too. And then delving into scenes involving genetic warfare. ‘Ian Fleming’s Bond is a red-blooded male, and to some ears he lives in such a misogynistic world we had to be sensitive to the changing moral landscape,’ an executive close to the production told me.
‘Phoebe’s contribution was great — far greater than we’d anticipated. She’s the saviour of Bond, really,’ I was told. ‘She was across the entire script.’
007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson British Academy Cymru Awards
No Time To Die opens here on April 3 next year; and heaven only knows when the next Bond after that will go into production. But Waller-Bridge is being asked to join the Bond family and contribute. How much she’ll actually work on Bond 26 will depend on who directs it. Will Cary Joji Fukunaga return or will it be someone else?
007 producer Barbara Broccoli at the Fleabag play press night
One thing’s for sure, though: there will be a new actor to play the complex British intelligence officer. Craig has said No Time To Die will be his last outing as 007. ‘Yes, he’s saying this is his last movie as Bond, sadly,’ Broccoli told me back in April.
Waller-Bridge is the star with the golden pen. Her BBC TV show Fleabag won three Emmy awards in Los Angeles at the weekend, in a night when British-based stations (the BBC and Sky) snared a ton of top prizes.
I speak to a lot of folk who work on Bond. A few months ago they were grousing about this and that. Now, they’re happier than I’ve known them in years. ‘Phoebe’s been having the best time; and the joy has sprinkled down,’ my source told me.
‘At first, no one knew what was going on. Now everyone’s happy. This is going to be a great Bond.’
I hope so.
007 producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli with actor Daniel Craig at the Bond 25 Film Launch at Ian Fleming's Home, Goldeneye, Jamaica
(From left to right) Lea Seydoux, Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris and Lashana Lynch announcing Bond 25 at Ian Fleming's home, Goldeneye, Jamaica
It’s never too late for an ageing Boy Friend to get a makeover
Amara Okereke will play the ingénue Polly (the poor little rich girl ... a role made famous by Julie Andrews on stage and Twiggy on screen).
The Boy Friend, Sandy Wilson’s romantic musical written in the Fifties, but set in the Twenties, is going to have ‘a little overhaul’ before it opens at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London.
First staged in London in 1953, the show, about British ‘gels’ attending a finishing school in Nice, is a charming piece. But David Babani who runs the Chocolate Factory and Matthew White, who will direct, have been concerned about a number called It’s Never Too Late To Fall In Love that’s sung in the third act by Lord Brockhurst (who’ll be played by Adrian Edmondson) to a girl less than half his age.
‘You’ve got a 62-year-old trying to serenade a 17-year-old, so the scene’s going to be slightly retuned, with permission from Wilson’s estate, for the #Me Too society that we now live in,’ Babani told me.
Actress and model Twiggy, as she appears in the film 'The Boyfriend', 1971 (left and right). The film follows the demure stage manager, Polly, played by Twiggy, as she is put under the spotlight to take the place of the injured leading lady
‘It’s just about making The Boy Friend, that was written in a very different time, palatable for the time we are in now, with the values that are, quite rightly, very current.’
Would people recoil at such a scene? ‘We think so, yes,’ Babani said. ‘Therefore that won’t be occurring, in our production.’
He added that ‘it’s our responsibility to deliver a revival that works for today. If not, you’re just presenting museum pieces in a vacuum.’ But he added, pointedly: ‘There’s a difference between reinvention and bastardisation.’
The cool company stars Janie Dee as Madame Dubonnet, the principal of the aforementioned school. Tiffany Graves is Hortense the French maid; Amara Okereke will play the ingénue Polly (the poor little rich girl ... a role made famous by Julie Andrews on stage and Twiggy on screen).
Dylan Mason is Tony, the mystery messenger boy full of surprises; and Jack Butterworth is playboy Bobby van Husen.
Issy Van Randwyck has signed on for the role of Lady Brockhurst in the show which starts performances on November 22. The A-list creative team includes choreographer Bill Deamer and designer Paul Farnsworth.
The cool company stars Janie Dee as Madame Dubonnet, the principal of the aforementioned school
Director Sam West has gathered a tremendous ensemble at the Menier for Laura Wade’s comedy of manners, The Watsons, including Grace Molony, Paksie Vernon, Jane Booker, Joe Bannister, Louise Ford, Rhianna McGreevy and Isaac Forward. Wade uses Jane Austen’s unfinished novel to explore how we lived then (1803), and now.
Laura Wade’s comedy of manners, The Watsons, uses Jane Austen's unfinished novel to explore how we lived then (1803), and now
English playwright Laura Wade. Her latest play The Watsons comes to London after rave reviews in Chichester last year
Watch out for...
Current Jamie star Layton Williams leaves the West End company on January 4, to lead the touring production
Dan Gillespie Sells, Tom MacRae and Jonathan Butterell, the key creative team behind musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, who are joining producer Nica Burns in the hunt for an actor to play the schoolboy at the centre of the show, which is extending its run at the Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue until August 29, 2020.
There will be open calls for potential Jamies at the Crucible in Sheffield on October 8, and at the Apollo in London on October 10. Burns told me that being able to sing is top of the wish list. ‘Voice is number one. If they can’t sing, they can’t play it,’ she said.
Along with the open calls, actors can send a tape or video of them singing the first 16 bars of the opening number Don’t Even Know It to jamiecasting@nimaxtheatres.com. Casting directors will contact applicants they want to meet. Current Jamie star Layton Williams leaves the West End company on January 4, to lead the touring production.
Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre in London. Dan Gillespie Sells, Tom MacRae and Jonathan Butterell, are the key creative team behind the musical
Layton Williams starring in Everybody's Talking About Jamie (left and right). There will be open calls for potential Jamies at the Crucible in Sheffield on October 8, and at the Apollo in London on October 10
Producer Nica Burns told me that being able to sing is top of the wish list. ‘Voice is number one. If they can’t sing, they can’t play it,’ she said
Renee Zellweger is heading our way for Monday’s London premiere of Rupert Goold’s movie Judy, about Judy Garland’s last concerts at the Talk Of The Town. Zellweger’s the Oscar front-runner in the best actress category and I have a sneaking sense it could land a best picture nomination, too. Wednesday marks the start of the BFI’s London Film Festival. When I was a kid I dreamt of watching pictures at the festival. And now I do.
Renee Zellweger stars as Judy Garland in the Rupert Goold's movie, Judy. The film follows Judy's last concerts at the Talk Of The Town
