Posted in: MGM, Movies | Tagged: mgm, movies, no time to die, ralph finnes, spectre

Ralph Fiennes Fought Against Turning M Into A Villain in Spectre

The Daniel Craig era of James Bond movies have been hits or misses, and, unfortunately for all involved, Spectre was very much one of the misses. The story was very much leaning into the cinematic universe type of storytelling as they linked all of the previous movies together to tell one complete story. One of the ways that story was told was bringing in Blofeld to the Craig era. Ralph Fiennes joined the franchise in the previous movie, Skyfall, which was one of the hits of the franchise. While on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Wrap), Fiennes talked about what drew him to the series in the first place.

"Sam Mendes, as we know, directed 'Skyfall' and the pitch was very attractive at the time," Fiennes noted in explaining how he came to be a part of the franchise in the first place. "Judi Dench's M dies and you're set up as the next M, and I thought great. I also loved Daniel's Bond and I just respected Sam's intelligence and the approach to it and what he was doing with it. 'Skyfall' was a great script."

However, Fiennes did clash with director Sam Mendes when it came to Spectre. Apparently, there was initially a plot point that would have made Fiennes' M the new Blofeld and the villain of the piece, which Fiennes was not so keen on.

"I think I can say now that I had to fight off an attempt by Sam in 'Spectre' to make M – I said I don't want to play M and then you turn around and make him the bad guy. M is never the bad guy. So I had to have some pretty intense discussions with Sam saying, 'This is not fine with me…' It was like he was Blofeld or something, but that was a red line."

Fiennes appeared in the last Craig-era James Bond film earlier this year, No Time To Die, and is also currently starring in The King's Man, which is out in theaters now after something like ten different delays.

As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in "The King's Man."

The King's Man, directed by Matthew Vaughn, stars Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, with Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance. It will be released on December 22nd.

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