Title Change
27th June 2019
MI6 can reveal the working title that was dropped from the Bond 25 launch event
By MI6 Staff
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MI6 can exclusively reveal that Bond 25 did have a title prior to the launch day on April 25th in Jamaica, and it was not any of the rumours the media had been running with such as 'Eclipse' and the perennial 'Shatterhand.'
During a discussion between the producers and studio partners the night before the live stream at Ian Fleming's house Goldeneye, the tentative title was considered weak and 'not Bond enough' and pulled from the event. A title treatment had been created. The late decision to go into the event the following morning without a confirmed title left product Michael G. Wilson to give a less than accurate answer about not usually having titles when they start films.
'A Reason To Die' was attached to Bond 25 right up until the night of April 24th. Whether or not the production will come up with a new replacement title that is preferred by everyone remains to be seen. The MI6 Twitter feed teased the news yesterday and reaction to the title was mixed.
The title does have some Bond heritage. In Ian Fleming's 1963 novel 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', there is the passage where Draco asks Bond for help with Tracy: "My friend, you have heard the whole story and now you have seen the evidence. Will you help me? Will you help me save this girl? It is my only chance, that you will give her hope. That you will give her a reason to live. Will you?"
A longer version of the title, 'A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die', was a 1972 Italian spaghetti western movie starring James Coburn, Bud Spencer, and Telly Savalas.
So far, Daniel Craig's tenure has avoided the James Bond trope of using variations of 'die/live/kill' in the titles.
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