when James Cameron was shooting his fantastic 1994 action comedy True liesshared his thoughts on the James Bond franchise, and clearly not a fan. Indeed, True lies was meant to highlight the things he didn’t like about the 007 movies.
Arnold Schwarzenegger he initially pitched the idea to Cameron after seeing a 1991 French action movie titled The Total!. That film told the story of a family man who had become a secret agent. Cameron loved the idea and developed it in a way that could act as a subversion of the James Bond franchising.
Cameron once said in an interview with Yahoo: “When I saw it, I understood it. [Arnold] had to do [the idea] of “I am a husband and I am a father, but I am also this icon of masculinity”. He referred to it as, ‘What if James Bond were to go home to his wife and his family?’ “
The director then came up with the idea of adding a comedy to the story and explained: “Arnold knew I could handle the action. But I had never done a comedy! So I came up with crazy things like him doing tango with this. exotic girl he meets at this villa party [Arnold] the script, and on the sidelines I put an arrow next to the tango and wrote: “This is your most dangerous stunt”. I think she took it to heart, because she learned how to tango!
True lies turned out to be fun! It’s probably my all time favorite action comedy. Anyway, when it comes to Cameron’s harsh criticism of James Bond, this is what he said in an interview with Movieline (via: Cheat Sheet) in 1998:
“The James Bond films are rotten at their core. The boy is a womanizing drunkard. He’s a complete bastard, he really is. It’s a male fantasy: I’m married and faithful, but I’d really like to be that guy and have a different woman every night. If you’re going to do a comedy, don’t just send out gadgets. What you send out is the moral center, or the immoral center of it. What would it really be like to try to live that fantasy? It won’t work because that’s not what most men really are.
“This struck me as a hysterical premise. What if James Bond was married and fucked?
What do you think of Cameron’s thoughts? James Bond and the films of the franchise?
by Joey Paur
Source: Geek Tyrant
