Above Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell. Featured the late great Alan Rickman as General Frank Benson in EYE IN THE SKY.
Dear Barbara Broccoli and Michel Wilson,
I hear Sam Mendes has officially stated he will not direct the next James Bond thriller and that you are on the hunt for a new helmer. No-brainer Barb, Memo to Mike: Look no further than Gavin Hood whose latest film EYE IN THE SKY is a gripping, compelling, adrenaline producing, thinking persons thriller.
On the strength of this superb, intelligent thriller, EYE IN THE SKY, it seems bleedin’ obvious that Gavin Hood and writer Guy Hibbert would be the perfect team to give a fresh boost to Bond.
Noting your predilection for Oscar winning directors, allow me to remind you, Hood helmed the Academy Award Winning Film, Tsotsi and furthered his reputation with Rendition and Wolverine.
Kill Chain was the original title for the film, perhaps you can use it for the next 007, and Guy Hibbert’s script poses important questions: Through centuries of warfare, the general in the field has always been in command of the decision whether to shoot or not to shoot. With computerised warfare, images are now sent to everybody’s desktop all over the world, and all these different people want input. Who has the power to make that decision, to press that button? Is it the politicians, or the general in London, or the general in the US, or the commander in Kenya? The people about to be killed in this super suspenseful story include a Kenyan, two Brits and an American, so who makes the decision?”
EYE IN THE SKY begins with an aerial tracking shot cleverly establishing its title and its temper. On the ground, a young couple and their only child, a hoola hoop happy daughter, are getting on as best they can considering their neighbourhood is under control of Al Shabaab.
A house in the neighbourhood has become a target in the sights of Western coalition because a British citizen turned terrorist has been tracked there. Initially, it’s a capture not kill operation, but ground intelligence discovers the meeting to be the launch of an imminent suicide squad operation and the mission is upgraded to a kill shot.
However just as the Las Vegas-based drone pilot prepares to launch a powerful Hellfire missile at the house, the hoola hoop girl is spotted in the kill zone, sparking an international debate at the highest levels of government about whether saving one child’s life is worth the almost certain death of hundreds of others.
Shot in virtually real time, EYE IN THE SKY becomes a white knuckle, edge of the seat race against time. While the ethics are thrashed out by politicians, lawyers and soldiers across England and America, sole agent on the ground initiates the innocent’s safe passage.
The cast of EYE IN THE SKY is exemplary. Helen Mirren headlines as Colonel Katherine Powell, the British commander who has been tracking the traitor terrorist for six years. Her steely and resolute character makes the term Iron Lady redundant, turned to rust, bit the dust. Barbara and Michael, cast Mirren as M post haste!
Sadly, you have missed the opportunity of casting the magnificent Alan Rickman as a Bond villain, but his untimely death has at least left a fitting legacy in his final screen role as Lieutenant General Frank Benson. His commanding response to a politician with the line “Never tell a soldier he doesn’t know the cost of war” is delivered with such power and gravitas, it defines his very character.
There is a bank of British talent on show – Jeremy Northam, Iain Glenn, Monica Dolan and Richard McCabe – all contenders for your OHMSS franchise.
Aaron Paul is very fine as the American drone pilot who faces a crisis of conscience as the capture caper escalates into a kill and Academy Award nominee Barkhad Abdi is spectacularly splendid as the local operative who risks everything to try and get the girl to safety.
Zinger cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, recent lenser of Cinderella and Locke, brilliantly renders bunkers and boardrooms in contrast to the exteriors under an African sky. Editor Megan Gill, who teamed with director Hood on Rendition and Tsotsi keeps the pace and tension taught and terrific, and composers Paul Hepker and Mark Kilian, also collaborators on Rendition and Tsotsi, supply a tense and evocative score.
And so, dear Barbara and Michael, gathering this team for the next Eon production, would seem an immensely sensible way to go. In the absence of a Bond film this year, EYE IN THE SKY admirably and thrillingly fills the vacuum.