This is a thread to talk about James Bond.
James Bond Thread: movies, books and comics news
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KKKUUUURGAAAAAAAN
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So I watched Dr. No last night. Hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. As expected, it was very slow compared to later Bonds, but everything is still there. Some half-remembered bits were quite weird, like the whole “there is a dragon on this island!” thing that retrospectively feels like it should’ve been in a Scooby Doo comic and not in a James Bond movie. Or how there is a lot of showering first when the bad guys catch them.
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I heard that Fleming at first did not like the casting of Connery, then things changed when the finished product came.
Connery is my favorite Bond… even though he said some controversial things like hitting/slapping a woman.
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After From Russia With Love, they went with Goldfinger. I like Goldfinger for its many elements, but it did take the franchise away from more realistic espionage and into movies with Bond having to take down some megalomaniac who wants to sabotage and take over the world. Part of me wishes that instead of Goldfinger, they went with a smaller scale plot. Just saying.
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I heard that Fleming at first did not like the casting of Connery, then things changed when the finished product came.
Apparently, he wanted his cousin Christopher Lee to get the role since Lee had the bearing and experience from WW2. Peter Jackson told a funny story about filming Lord of the Rings and directing Lee about the scene where Saruman gets stabbed in the back. Lee stopped him and said, “I know exactly what it sounds like when one is stabbed in the back.”
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I heard that Fleming at first did not like the casting of Connery, then things changed when the finished product came.
Wonder what he’d have thought of subsequent Bonds.
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I heard that Fleming at first did not like the casting of Connery, then things changed when the finished product came.
Apparently, he wanted his cousin Christopher Lee to get the role since Lee had the bearing and experience from WW2. Peter Jackson told a funny story about filming Lord of the Rings and directing Lee about the scene where Saruman gets stabbed in the back. Lee stopped him and said, “I know exactly what it sounds like when one is stabbed in the back.”
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Journalist: “Would you like to be cast as James Bond?”
Actor: “Yes. Obviously.”
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After Daniel Craig, I think the producers should go in a completely different direction with the new James Bond actor. I nominate SNL’s Pete Davidson.
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I might be kidding. You never know…
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Once, I’d have said Tom Hiddleston, both for his acting chops and for his passing resemblance to this sketch of Bond:
But I’m starting to like Richard Madden:
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Who would be your pick to play James Bond next?
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Serious question for the group:
Who would be your pick to play James Bond next?
Someone I’ve never heard of.
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Yeah, Someone I Never Heard of would be a cool choice. I hear he’s a really good actor, too.
Honestly, I’d like to see a more diverse Bond at this point. Craig was the old warhorse; he should be the last Bond of the old kind. In their place, I’d go for a black actor, and for a young one – use the idea of Bond being a legacy name to bring in a new generation.
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In their place, I’d go for a black actor,
I’d prefer an original Black Bond, rather than racebending.
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I think race mattered to the Bond that we used to have, the cynical, mysogynist, brutal killer – the “blunt weapon”, as it was put in the best Bond movie, that Britain would point at its enemies. That guy could only be a white male. But I think this version of Bond has reached its pinnacle with Daniel Craig; in Casino Royale, and the first third of Skyfall, they were very aware of who he was and worked with it. But they missed a step and let Sam Mendes rewind the clock on that. But anyway, they’ve done pretty much all they could with that idea of Bond and I think it’s time to go with a different version. I’d like to see one that’s slicker, more suave, cleverer, more aware of the world and of himself – and also less broken, less needlessly brutal, and instead funnier and enjoying himself. Tom Hiddleston would be good casting for such a Bond, but that’s a version of the character that could have any skin colour and be any gender, really. So I think it’d be fun to see them go for that.
And I wouldn’t racebend him either, but rather use the idea that’s been around anyway, that “James Bond” is a codename for a specific, one-of-a-kind position for an MI6 agent. “So you’re the new Bond now, huh?”
Not that I think any of this is going to happen. Well, maybe the change in character. If they’re smart. I really do think it’s the only way to go forward with him now.
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“So you’re the new Bond now, huh?”
I think this kind of thing would be a bit of a clanger and I hope they don’t address it explicitly. It just draws attention to something they don’t need to draw attention to.
I think this is as far as they’ve ever gone with that:
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Here's my Connery from last night's @Drink_and_Draw. @urbanbarbarian shamed me so I had to go back in and hand letter the logo. I hate doing logo work, thus I hate @urbanbarbarian pic.twitter.com/fw7Q7Z6NaY
— JoeQuesada (@JoeQuesada) November 6, 2020
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And in other “English actor would be up for playing James Bond” news:
Remember only 2 out of 6 (official) Bonds so far have actually been English. Connery Scottish, Lazenby Australian, Dalton Welsh and Brosnan Irish.
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the new Bond
He can play brutal, psychotic, charming, intelligent.(and that is just his character on Prodigal Son) The picture is from Passengers. One of few pictures of him cleancut. He enjoys being shaggy it seems
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Here’s your chance to co-own the rights to James Bond!
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/28/no-time-to-die-bond-crowdfunder-nationalise-007
Yesterday a GoFundMe page, started by a Coventry internet user known only as Team Bond, sprang into life. Its goal? To purchase the rights of No Time to Die from MGM so that we can all watch it by Christmas.
It’s a noble cause. After all, now that everybody knows how much MGM wanted Netflix to pay for it, the film has a solid market price. And that’s why the GoFundMe has a target of £607m.
At the time of writing, the campaign has raised £15.
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In fairness, that article is from October.
They’re probably up to £20 by now.
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James Bond film No Time to Die delayed again over Covid
Lots of time to die.
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Especially if you’re a cinema chain.
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Liam Neeson says Natasha Richardson told him not to play James Bond or ‘you’re not going to marry me’
https://ew.com/movies/liam-neeson-says-natasha-richardson-told-him-not-to-play-james-bond/
What might have been…
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Still waiting on that Jinx spin-off, guys.
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Years ago, Tarantino said that he would do a Bond film but have it set in 1964or so. Apparently that’s how Quentin would make it work.
I guess he isn’t the only one who would like to “freeze”the Bond storytelling. Personally, I prefer the early Connery movies, the again I would freeze a lot like the X-men to the Claremont/Byrne era, DD with Miller, Prince to his Revolution/Purple Rain days, etc.
I guess it is a nostalgia thing, but storylines and characters have to move on and be relevant. Bond these days has to compete with other spy and action movies, Bond has to watch his womanizing and can no longer go through 3-4 women a film like Kleenex.
In the beginning of “Goldfinger” when Felix Leiter met Bond at this resort and was about to talk to him about Auric Goldfinger, Bond dismissed this bikini blonde who was hanging all over him saying that she must leave now, this is “ManTalk”. And he smacked her ass as she left.
It is a change but we all have to get used to it.
As for a black Bond with that actor from Bridgerton?
We will see. I don’t like the backlash and hate replies of the black woman character who is said to have taken over Bond’s number of 007 after he retired in the story. -
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On the other hand, Mad Men was set in the ’60s, competed with the other drama shows and seemed to do okay. The setting in and of itself is not an issue so much as the quality of the material.
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I think freezing Bond in 1964 isn’t a bad idea. And it’s not nostalgia, it’s just that Bond’s character fits the 50s/60s better than it fits the 21st century. His entire personality is a product of those times, of the era he grew up in and now works in. And sure, you could update his personality to make him a touchy-feely me-too era millennial, but then is it really still Bond?
On the other hand, contemporary audiences may not care for new movies with old attitudes.
Mad Men worked because the characters were actually complex and audiences were given time to explore them and watch them develop. Can you really do that with Bond in 2.5 hours? Is bond a character you want to do that with?
I think a lot of what made Bond special in the early years was that he was traveling to exotic places that most people had never seen before, except for maybe pictures in a magazine. He was always with gorgeous women. There were incredible action sequences and stunts.
Nowadays, travel to those exotic locations is lot easier and you can google pictures and videos of beautiful women. Action movies are incredibly common. I don’t think changing the time period will really make a difference. I think James Bond movies are still successful so out sides of a new lead every decade or so, what is really broken that needs to be fixed? I think the franchise stays relevant with the times while keeping true to its roots.
I’m not seeing an issue here.
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As for a black Bond with that actor from Bridgerton?
We will see. I don’t like the backlash and hate replies of the black woman character who is said to have taken over Bond’s number of 007 after he retired in the story.Lashana Lynch opens up about ‘really mean, dark’ reactions to her ‘No Time to Die’ casting
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But the question keeps coming up: why force a woman into a man’s role when you can just write a role for her instead?
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‘No Time to Die’ director reflects, says Sean Connery’s James Bond basically ‘rapes a woman’
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I don't think it is stated enough how the plot of Die Another Day revolves around North Koreans faking their death, then replacing their bone marrow and DNA reconstructed so they can resemble white, upper-class British men as revenge on the man who "killed" them.
Just bizarre.
— Mathew Buck (@FB_BMB) October 9, 2021
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This was kinda interesting:
https://www.travelperk.com/james-bond-expense-report/
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Essentially, what does Bond represent? What is he an icon of?
To many, he is the quintessential white British male, mainly of the Cold War era. That explains all the hatemail Latasha Lynch recieved when new came out of her being the new 007. (James retired and her character took up the number but I digress)
These days, many say Bond also has to compete with the quick reflex action heroes like the Bourne franchise, Mission:Impossible, the Taken movies, etc… But should he really?
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That bit at the end? “James Bond will return” – yeah, right. Short of a reboot, I don’t think so.
Bond reboots all the time, I don’t see any reason to think that will change with the next iteration.
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Oh, probably. But I think there’s an opportunity with Lynch for a Bond spin-off.
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I read that hoping it would be an X-Factor style show to determine who would be the next Bond. Sadly it’s not that interesting.
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I get what you are saying but I don’t know if I can picture Bond as a black man driving like that and not being stopped by police, or going to check into the most elite European hotels casinos, other predominantly white venues and not being given the run around. Add to all that all the usual “microaggressions” that people of color get.
Don’t get me wrong. Cinema could use a black action hero in the lead part (and not as a side kick), but Bond… well…
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Maybe but also fiction can change those stereotypes. Kirk kissed Uhuru on screen in a time that was illegal in various places. It doesn’t have to always follow the trends but can lead them.
We’ve seen this a bit with Doctor Who, can a woman or person of colour be treated the same across the span of history? No. It is a light touch approach but they have addressed that, Martha Jones being deemed ‘exotic’ in 1600s England for example.
Bond being non white could also push that narrative and that is important because the arts tend to be drivers of progress, the first time I heard being gay was a thing was on Dynasty of all places and the character was sympathetic.
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Dynasty WOKE MOB coming in here (there (then)), white genociding all us straight men!
Eh, it’s a living…
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As it is now, there is some viewer backlash
All those shows ended a long time ago. Sex and Friends both ended 20ish years ago. The most recent one is Girls, and that wrapped five years ago.
I’m not saying the criticism isn’t valid, it most definitely is, I’m just saying it’s fairly old news.
Besides, and more importantly than nitpicking, I don’t understand at all how that matters to James Bond being cast as a black actor. Why does the viewer backlash of a 20 year old tv show’s depiction of an american city as predominantly white matter to the casting of a british movie hero? Are the people that lashed back at the lack of black people in NYC the same people who wouldn’t be able to stand a black James Bond? Unlikely.
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We’d also have to view it within the context of British society rather than New York sitcoms from 1998.
The largest ethnic minority in the UK is south Asian, the current chancellor (finance/treasury secretary) of the UK is a multi-millionaire of Punjabi ancestry who went to Winchester private school, Oxford and Stamford.
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It’s only logical that MI-6 would have different Bonds for different missions. Trouble in Hong Kong? Send 007.1, the Chinese-English agent. “The name is Bond. Zhang Wei Bond. Trouble in Cuba? Send in 007.2, the Latino-English agent. “The name is Bond. Hector Marίa Gonzalez Lopez Bond.”
I don’t know, I have it on good authority that Sean Connery’s Bond was able to disguise himself as a Japanese man beyond all detection.
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Bridgerton is different, it’s using the ‘colour blind casting’ concept that people like Branagh at the Royal Shakespeare Company instigated. As they are all period pieces with very little diversity you bar almost all non-white actors from being able to work on them and a horrible career disadvantage. So he had a choice of forever maintaining a system that locks people out or just decide to ignore the accuracy since we do suspend disbelief in a lot of fiction anyway.
Shonda Rhimes used elements of that casting approach in her contemporary TV shows and then continued it in Bridgerton.
Bond would not be the same, there are people of colour in the UK secret services, a woman as head of MI6 in the films actually followed after the reality when Stella Rimington was boss. I’m not naive enough to say the UK has full equality, yes he is more likely to be randomly pulled over for driving a flash car, but it’s also not a massive stretch of reality to present a story where he isn’t. You could even address it as they did with Judi Dench as M.
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Things change.
When Fury and the Howling Commandoes were introduced in a WW2 setting the US armed forces were segregated racially. When Millar and Hitch were asked to restart the concept in the early 2000s the leading US general in Colin Powell was black. Times move on and in 1960s Britain the idea of a female head of MI6 or a non white agent were fantasy, in 2022 they aren’t.
To be fair Kitt as Catwoman was very progressive, 60 years on that can and has been accused of being ‘woke’.
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It’s The Sun; take it with a whole bag of salt.
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