Aman Goyal
Years after its inception, a highly anticipated spy film has survived development hell! The Cinemaholic can reveal that Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Avenging Silence’ is back in the works at his production company Space Rocket Nation. The project’s filming is scheduled to start in Tokyo, Japan, in 2025. The screenplay, penned by Robert Wade and Neal Purvis, will be a loose adaptation of Ian Fleming’s ‘Dr. No’ and William Burroughs’ ‘Nova Express.’
The story revolves around a highly skilled European spy who is rendered mute after a failed mission. Six years after the incident, a former Yakuza, now a retired businessman in France, hires him to eliminate the leader of a powerful Yakuza family in Japan. Reluctant to fly, the spy boards a cargo ship to Tokyo, but an explosion forces him to battle against the waters of the Sea of Japan on a life raft.
As the narrative progresses, this silent journey forces the spy to face numerous challenges as he attempts to gather four symbolic clues—representing conquest, war, famine, and death—to find the whereabouts of the Yakuza boss. In the meantime, his target, infamous for the mass killings of his rogue followers, is rumored to be planning a return to the criminal underworld after years of isolation. The spy’s mission becomes a grittier journey across Japan, filled with internal and external conflicts, as the deadly climactic confrontation with the syndicate awaits him.
Refn had originally conceived the project in 2016, shortly after being approached to helm ‘Spectre.’ The filmmaker’s works are celebrated for stylish action sequences and transformative character arcs. His unique visual style, characterized by vivid color grading influenced by his color blindness, is evident in films like ‘The Neon Demon‘ and ‘Only God Forgives.’ Known for his collaborations with Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen in the ‘Pusher’ trilogy, ‘Bleeder,’ and ‘Valhalla Rising,’ Refn gained widespread acclaim with ‘Drive,’ which earned him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival and a BAFTA. ‘The Avenging Silence’ also succeeds the Ryan Gosling movie as only the second film the filmmaker has not written himself.
The connection between ‘The Avenging Silence’ and the ‘James Bond’ franchise extends beyond Fleming’s novel. Wade and Purvis, who scripted all five Daniel Craig ‘Bond’ films from ‘Casino Royale‘ to ‘No Time to Die,’ bring their experience to the project. Their writing credits also include the last two Pierce Brosnan installments, ‘The World Is Not Enough’ and ‘Die Another Day,’ as well as the ‘Johnny English’ series, which are a testament to their expertise in the espionage genre.
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