Jan 29, 2016

Tradecraft: Purvis and Wade Working on Refn's Spy Movie?

Deadline reports that frequent James Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (who have had a hand in every 007 script since 1999) are teaming with Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) on a movie set in Asia "with both thriller and action elements." Last summer it was reported that Refn hoped to make a Tokyo-set spy movie called The Avenging Silence, which would be thematically linked with his previous films Drive, Only God Forgives and Valhalla Rising, featuring a similarly stoic and violent male protagonist to those films. Could this be the Asian-set project Purvis and Wade are boarding? Their spy cred (which in addition to 007 includes Johnny English and the forthcoming Len Deighton miniseries SS-GB) would make them ideal candidates, especially given that they have previously collaborated with Refn on a new Barbarella script he is attached to direct. And if it is indeed The Avenging Silence they've come aboard, their involvement would seem to indicate that Refn is going for a more mainstream feel again with this one (like Drive, which was written by Our Kind of Traitor scribe Hossein Amini), as opposed to the almost oppressively esoteric Only God Forgives (which I liked, but I seem to be in the minority), which the director penned himself.

1 comment:

Le Samourai said...

This could be very interesting. I'm a big fan of Refn's work. And by the way, I happen to love 'Only God Forgives', which I think can be best understood as a horror film of sorts.