Did a video on a the James Bond casting news

[JSchlansky]

I discussed 20 of the actors that are being considered as the new James Bond in this video
I would be interested in hearing anyone's top pick for James Bond, especially if it isn't one mentioned in the video.

[Bojangles]

I would have changed the Idris Elba part of your script to this:

Idris Elba: the character continuity in 007 has always been weird. The character changes age, height, eye color, hair color, even accent. So skin color is just one more variable that could be changed. Some people take objection to that particular change, while others aren't racist.

Cumberbatch bit was funny.

Bond would be too easy for Hardy. A waste, you're right. It should be a mid-level star with untapped potential. I don't really know or care who that is though.

[CMonster]

I had actually heard a rumor about Elba being Bond after Skyfall but then Craig had it again for Spectre. I actually really wanted to see Elba as Bond.

Aside from personally not really being a Clive Owen fan I did agree with most of what you said. "Kit Harrington. No." You nailed it.

[CosmicMonkey]

There was a panel discussion on this same topic this morning on public radio here in Canada. The consensus opinion was that instead of recasting, the James Bond character itself should just be put out to pasture, since no recasting could ever possibly make such an outdated character contemporaneously relevant . Other suggestions included giving Idris Elba his own spy franchise that wasn't James Bond, spinoffing the series to follow Naomi Harris as Miss Moneypenny, or a reboot of the series set in 1960s, where such rampant sexism and British Imperialism was more at home.

While Idris Elba would be my top choice for a recast (and has been, in fact ever since I first watched The Wire back in 2007, long before the rest of internet discovered him). In general, I have to agree with the panel with the fact that there are preferable options to maintaining the series' status quo. I myself, am very partial to a (gloriously aesthetic) 60s reboot, and the success of Mad Men should show that it such a film could be financially successful.

So, to expand the topic; What do y'all want to see with franchise? Recast? If so, with whom? Or would you like to see the franchise go in a different direction? If so, where?


Edit: I forgot that a lot of NPR stations rebroadcast q later in the evening, so it's possible this discussion not be new to some of you Yankees, But I heard it, this morning, while in Canada, so I stand by what I originally said.

[MacSwell]

I've kinda had it with Bond but the films are still smashing the box office so I guess he's not going anywhere. The character has changed too much with the times though, and now he's quit smoking, majorly cut down on the shagging and is just more of a Jason Bourne style hero

I think they should go with a total unknown for the next Bond. None of the current favourites seem remotely compelling options. Lady Bond is a bloody terrible idea.

[CMonster]

I mean if Bond should be reset in the past, I say go all out and add a little actual British history to Bond. In WWII one thing the Brits were quite good at was using spies to counter German spies and convert spies to be double agents. Do a 1940's Bond, he can undermine fascist regimes and spy on some offshoot Nazis trying to make their way to Argentina. Gadgets could be simple, but impressive for the time period. He could meet Christopher Lee. I'd watch that.

[bowfinger]

Great vid. Loved the fasstastic hashtag, and the comment about him. Didn't look like he was enjoying himself in Apoc.

I think Owen missed his chance for good when Craig was cast, and now he is too old for it. But for those of you that want to see him in a kind of similar role and somehow managed to never hear about it, do check out the BMW short film ad series, called the Hire.

As for who will be Bond, I cast my vote as "don't care."

[JSchlansky]

Thanks for the feedback everybody. They will keep making Bond films as long as they are successful financially, but I do wish there were more spy films out there. Spies, much like ninjas, are inherently cool and pop culturally viable, yet there are the Bond films and the Bourne films and that's pretty much it for serious spy series. There are plenty of spy parodies and you get the occasional light espionage thriller, but I would like to see a new hardcore spy series take prominence.

[paulofilmo]

The myth of Bond self-destructed in Goldeneye,
"I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War . ."
Daniel Craig is the resurrected zombie Bond. Rugby player shaped fashion shoot.


I've done well espionagally. Found the mini-series "The Honourable Woman" (2014) (heartachy interesting drama), and rewatched "The Day of the Jackal" (1973) (lithe, brutal, ingenious).