PURVIS AND WADE

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Purvis, Neal (September 9, 1961–     ), and Robert Wade (1962–     ): British screenwriting duo who collaborated on the screenplays for The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die. As Purvis quipped after the release of Skyfall in 2013, “We have been doing it longer than Ian Fleming was writing Bond.”[1]

Purvis and Wade, the latter of whom was born in Penarth, Wales, came to the attention of 007 producer Barbara Broccoli after they worked on director Jake Scott’s period action comedy Plunkett & Macleane (1999), costarring future Bond player Robert Carlyle; Broccoli called their script “dark, witty, sexy and inventive.”[2] The duo made their screenwriting debut on the crime drama Let Him Have It (1991), which featured Bond players James Villiers (For Your Eyes Only), Vernon Dobtcheff (The Spy Who Loved Me), and Serena Scott Thomas (The World Is Not Enough). They also collaborated on the screenplay for the spy spoof Johnny English (2003), starring Rowan Atkinson.


[1] Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, interview by ODE Entertainment, YouTube, February 18, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcrCdVOoosg.

[2] Steven Priggé, Movie Moguls Speak: Interviews with Top Film Producers (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), 27.

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