The Film Thread

[tonyh29]

27 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

there have been like 6 different actors that all look different and sound different. the colour of the skin is surely not important.

its a valid point , but I guess they could all kinda slot into the backstory by the fact they are white

Bond films didn't tend tend to put dates on events , but Bond was born in 1920,  so for the original films he almost certainly had to be white 

The  film franchise is now based in current times ( cybercrime  and technology  being used point to this ) and clearly Bond isn't 100 years old  , so yes some artistic license with the story can be had  , but having made a point of reaffirming his background under the Craig era  , although  its a little easier to believe that a Black man could have gone to Eton , could have become a naval commander   .. it's still a difficult sell for the producers 

 

as @mjmooney said  a new main character (007 ?)  NOT called Bond. The lead can be male, female, old, young, white, not white, gay, straight, trans, whatever .. I think people would go and watch it ( except the nutters of course) ....  but as long as he's 007 AND James Bond I don't think it can be anything other than a white man .. even if he is a fictional character 

[Chindie]

1 hour ago, Phil Silvers said:

Yes this, Hardy is the favourite but would cost whatever his fee is from day 1 too, very doubtful for me although he is the favourite, he gets type cast already, so doubt he'll fancy it, plus he is in demand and probably tied up on planned projects already for years.

Hardy is just fan casting wish fulfilment. He might once have been on the wishlist but now, despite not having been the 'face' of any major franchise, he's too big for the role. He's also probably too old for them now as well.

The next Bond will be someone early thirties, who has either been in a successful TV role or some lower profile movie roles, who will be 'owned' by the role. Whether that's a white guy or not, shrug.

[tomav84]

10 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

its a valid point , but I guess they could all kinda slot into the backstory by the fact they are white

Bond films didn't tend tend to put dates on events , but Bond was born in 1920,  so for the original films he almost certainly had to be white 

The  film franchise is now based in current times ( cybercrime  and technology  being used point to this ) and clearly Bond isn't 100 years old  , so yes some artistic license with the story can be had  , but having made a point of reaffirming his background under the Craig era  , although  its a little easier to believe that a Black man could have gone to Eton , could have become a naval commander   .. it's still a difficult sell for the producers 

 

as @mjmooney said  a new main character (007 ?)  NOT called Bond. The lead can be male, female, old, young, white, not white, gay, straight, trans, whatever .. I think people would go and watch it ( except the nutters of course) ....  but as long as he's 007 AND James Bond I don't think it can be anything other than a white man .. even if he is a fictional character 

i guess my point is that the casual bond watcher (where the majority of the films revenue comes from) both doesn't know nor care about the 'backstory' so i don't really think there's anything for the producers to 'sell'

yes they reaffirmed the background but that was a few films ago now and guarantee if you surveyed the cinemas over the next few days, i reckon the % of attendees that could name the school bond went to would be small.

i might be wrong...the number of bond purists could be bigger than i'm imagining it to be and casting idris elba could kill the series

[Follyfoot]

1 minute ago, tomav84 said:

i guess my point is that the casual bond watcher (where the majority of the films revenue comes from) both doesn't know nor care about the 'backstory' so i don't really think there's anything for the producers to 'sell'

yes they reaffirmed the background but that was a few films ago now and guarantee if you surveyed the cinemas over the next few days, i reckon the % of attendees that could name the school bond went to would be small.

i might be wrong...the number of bond purists could be bigger than i'm imagining it to be and casting idris elba could kill the series

[Mark Albrighton]

I think the next film should be James Bond fighting Jason Bourne throughout (“JB v JB”) and the film ends with George Smiley turning up and giving both of them a thorough talking to about assimilation and not drawing attention to oneself being an important part of their work and that all these unseemly theatrics must stop at once.  

Smiley then finishes his cup of tea and bids them both a good day.
 

[Phil Silvers]

@Designer1 is 1/3 on Paddy Power to be the next James Bond, really hope he gets it.

[tonyh29]

4 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

@Designer1 is 1/3 on Paddy Power to be the next James Bond, really hope he gets it.

his demands that its filmed in black and white in Korean with subtitles will probably rule him out 

Edited September 29, 2021 by tonyh29

[Phil Silvers]

Just now, tonyh29 said:

his demands that its filmed in Black and white in Korean with subtitles will probably rule him out 

The Brocoli's couldn't afford him anyway.

[Follyfoot]

slightly off topic, there used to be a character in one of the Viz rip off's called Jane Blonde or something who was a big titted young lady with the strip centred around and her sexual exploits. She shagged a UFO full of aliens in a deal to save the earth in one strip if I recall

Why the hell I remember this worries me

Edited September 29, 2021 by Follyfoot

[Phil Silvers]

4 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

slightly off topic, there used to be a character in one of the Viz rip off's called Jane Blonde or something who was a big titted young lady with the strip centred around and her sexual exploits. She shagged a UFO full of aliens in a deal to save the earth in one strip if I recall

Why the hell I remember this worries me

[Zhan_Zhuang]

There seems to be this massive clamour for there to be a change around the Bond actor...

If he or she has to be black. Then why not an Asian actor? Or even Hispanic? Where do we draw the line, surely you can't keep everyone happy?!

On one hand yes it ticks another box to make the change but equally Bond is very much of a time, quintessentially British and defined by the novels.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Zhan_Zhuang

[Davkaus]

I've always found the clamour over who plays Bond to be a bit much when I think most of us can agree it's a series of movies that ranges from dreadful to mediocre.

At least he's not a **** comic book character though  

Edited September 29, 2021 by Davkaus

[villa4europe]

DC said it perfectly himself i think on graham norton - go write a good film and give financial backing to a film that features a black man or a woman in the lead

they dont have to make bond anything, what they need is a pair of bollocks to do something new

dont make for example idris elba the new james bond, go and create a new vehicle for idris elba and fully back it 

[ferguson1]

Perhaps MGM, Broccoli or whoever need to decide whether to continue with a James Bond franchise or a MI6 / 00 franchise?

If they sway towards the latter, then it would be a lot easier and less controversial for any person or persons to be lead role. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by ferguson1

[Follyfoot]

11 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

Perhaps MGM, Broccoli or whoever need to decide whether to continue with a James Bond franchise or a MI6 / 00 franchise?

If they sway towards the latter, then it would be a lot easier and less controversial for any person or persons to be lead role. 

Highly unlikely they would move away from a multibillion franchise to risk it on something untested I would think
 

Bond is Bond Until people stop paying money to watch it

[Stevo985]

3 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

If Elba is supposed to seamlessly slot into the role as Bond and we are lead to believe he was the son of a Scottish  / Swiss couple who worked for an arms company and holidayed in Chamonix  .. leaving an orphan who went to Eton and finishing school in Geneva before rising to the rank of Commander in the navy .. then I think its somewhat of a harder sell 

I don't see anything in here that means he couldn't be black

[ferguson1]

2 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

Highly unlikely they would move away from a multibillion franchise to risk it on something untested I would think
 

Bond is Bond Until people stop paying money to watch it

I totally agree. It was only from reading the last few pages on here, that made me think how else could they evolve the 00 series. Personally I still think there is a place for James Bond in movies. 

[Chindie]

The Broccolis have flirted with spin offs before - plans were pretty far along for films based around Michelle Yeoh's character from Tomorrow Never Dies and for Halle Berry's character in Die Another Day. One of them iirc had a director in place and pre production started when it was canned.

But certainly the studio isn't against expanding the series. They've just not committed to it yet. I would not be surprised if they gave some thoughts about spinning off the series following this one especially as there's 2 pointedly different to Bond characters in this one in eye catching roles...

Although this being Craig's final one might be an issue with a spin off, unless they choose to do it in such a way as to have the connection to Bond being irrelevant. Like a CIA agent perhaps. Cough.

[HanoiVillan]

There's a number of wonderful ideas in this thread, but sadly the nature of intellectual property law has created the current situation and the situation will not change unless western countries rethink 'rights', or the company producing the films produces so many stinkers in a row that they go bust and the rights become worthless.

The discussion about who should play Bond perfectly indicates the problem, which is that since the first book was punlished in 1953 and the first film released in 1962, there never would have been any doubt or question about the race of the protagonist, just like there wouldn't have been any question about the workplace drinking or casual sexism or the entire concept of spying primarily involving humans travelling to different countries and pretending to be different people as the prime thing they did in their job. The world has changed hugely since the early 1950s, so it's hardly a surprise that it's a struggle to make Bond 'relevant' for modern audiences. The only reason why Bond needs to be white or male or even British is tradition, and fealty to the character from a large fanbase; having changed actor so many times and having moved beyond an era when he could plausibly have been the same person just getting older, he's clearly just a collection of traits. You could easily just change one of the traits.

The way the films feel out of time to me is at a more fundamental level than the race or gender of the actor though. The Cold War ended 30 years ago, and clearly most valuable spying these days is done by either computer programs or boring people in offices having meetings about what those programs find, rather than hunky men in well-fitting suits shagging their way round the world. When we see the actual world of spying, it's not glamorous or sexy, it's either corrupt or useless or laughable. The recent record of British intelligence has basically been assisting Americans with renditioning War on Terror suspects, then a number of very serious terror attacks in our major cities that they either didn't manage to stop or even in one case seem to have basically created in the first place. Meanwhile, the one country who clearly really are sending humans to do spy shit overseas, Russia, have managed to poison three defectors and in the process a small town, and when the world got a chance to see the individuals responsible, far from being suave-and-sexy-but-lethal sophisticates, they turned out to be middle-aged dipshits in leisurewear with a laughable story about visiting a cathedral spire.

You could solve this problem with @mjmooney's perfectly sensible plan for a modern spy thriller called whatever and starring whoever, and a series of films set when they were actually set that featured the actual character of James Bond. Sadly, however, the way rights work means there's a company whose entire business is sweating the rights to various Bond trademarks and does nothing else, and these people don't need to try new things or create new characters or show any invention or talent or gumption in any way, all they need to do is throw the wodges of cash they have at making yet another film that includes all the trademarks, forever and ever, amen, until the heat death of the universe.

[desensitized43]

2 hours ago, Chindie said:

Hardy is just fan casting wish fulfilment. He might once have been on the wishlist but now, despite not having been the 'face' of any major franchise, he's too big for the role. He's also probably too old for them now as well.

The next Bond will be someone early thirties, who has either been in a successful TV role or some lower profile movie roles, who will be 'owned' by the role. Whether that's a white guy or not, shrug.

Really think it'll be Rene Jean Page.

Edited September 29, 2021 by desensitized43