Cary Fukanaga Had An Idea to Make No Time to Die Take Place Entirely in Bond’s Head

Cary Fukanaga’s No Time to Die could have taken James Bond in a very different direction, going entirely into Bond’s head. Fukanaga spoke with Miranda July for Interview Magazine and talked about his experience making the film and the idea he had to have the entire thing take place during the scene in Spectre where Bond is captured by Blofeld at the latter’s base in the Sahara. Highlights from the interview are below:

On if he was a Bond fan before this film: “Yeah. I don’t think I’d seen every single James Bond film, but I was pretty well-versed on it. I don’t think I became a fan of the franchise until Casino Royale. Prior to that, my only in-depth James Bond experience was at my cousin’s house playing Golden Eye.”

On his alternate idea for the story: “I swear to god, I had an idea that this movie could all be taking place inside the villain’s lair from the last film. There’s this scene where a needle goes into James Bond’s head, which is supposed to make him forget everything, and then he miraculously escapes by a watch bomb. And then he and Léa blow up the place, and go on to save the day. I was like, ‘What if everything up until the end of act two is all inside his head?'”

No Time to Die is set to release on November 12th and is Craig’s last go as the iconic secret agent.