Casino Royale with Cheese?

Oh great...

[From IMDB News]Casino Royale will be the next James Bond movie, but it will not be directed by Quentin Tarantino, nor will it star Pierce Brosnan. [...] published reports said today (Friday) that Martin Campbell, who directed 1995's GoldenEye starring Brosnan, had been chosen to direct the new Bond movie. Today's Los Angeles Time reported that the screenplay will be written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who wrote the screenplays for the last two Bond movies.

The Bond series has become particularly dreadful of late, and I know a lot of movie nerds had pinned their hopes for the series on the possibility of Tarantino taking over, which I admit is an interesting prospect, but not one that I ever imagined coming to pass. The series is in dire need of a revamp, although audiences could seem to care less that the films have become laughably formulaic, amateurishly written, and devoid of drama. Sadly, this announcement seems to indicate that the trend will continue for at least the near future, if not longer.

It's hard to say why I care, except that the potential for great films are there. Then again, when you remove any potential for character development by making it impossible for the lead to be changed in any way at the end of the film, then the films are essentially an exercise in maintaining the status quo. (The last time I can recall any substantial effect on Bond was when they killed his wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.)

But worrying about drama in James Bond is, I suppose, like griping about the physics in Spider-Man. It's a bit silly. Still, at least the Spider-Man movies are fun. That's more than I can say for Bond...