Cary Joji Fukunaga had unique No Time To Die plot idea

Cary Joji Fukunaga pitched a version of 'No Time To Die' that took place inside James Bond's head.

The 42-year-old director helmed the 25th movie in the 007 franchise and revealed that he thought of an idea where the plot takes place inside the mind of Daniel Craig's spy, inspired by a scene in 'Spectre' when Bond escapes being tortured by Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) with the help of Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux).

In a conversation with fellow filmmaker Miranda July for Interview magazine, Cary said: "Miranda, 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 Lea 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?'"

Cary also explained how producer Barbara Broccoli was the driving force behind the female influences on the action blockbuster.

The film - which will be Daniel's last outing as Bond - features new 00 agent Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch, and Ana de Armas as CIA agent Paloma, whilst 'Fleabag' creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in to make changes to the screenplay.

Cary explained: "Barbara Broccoli, one of the main producers, is either the first or second most successful female producer. Feminism is something she has slowly been turning up the dial on for decades.

"The inclusion of a new 00 agent had come from Barbara. I only found out through working with her that she had wanted to do a spin-off of Jinx, which is Halle Berry's character in 'Die Another Day'.

"The female characters in the film, who they are and what they stand for, was definitely something Barbara had in mind. And Phoebe - who is a brilliant writer regardless of her gender, but is writing really fun and more fully-fleshed out female characters than anyone else right now - brought a lot of ideas about how to make the characters we already had that much more interesting."

'No Time to Die' was originally scheduled for release in April 2020 but was postponed worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It is now set to hit cinemas in November.