Where is this poll of which you speak?
As title
With Hollywood types scratching their heads over who'll be the next James Bond, El Reg called on our finest asset - the beloved readers - to propose a successor to Daniel Craig, and you didn’t disappoint. The proposals ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous - anyone would think this wasn’t a serious exercise. And as …
I nominate Idris Elba. I think that if 007 is to be kept fresh and interesting then it needs to be periodically reinvented - and Idris could make for a seriously gritty, hard as nails, bad-ass Bond. Slimy and sleazy have been done to death - I want to see a Bond who I can imagine standing up to torture or beating the crap out of his opponent. Idris is that man.
Or, and to amp the controversial (quite a lot), I’d pay to see Jamie Bond - played by Rachel Weisz, Naomie Harris or Kate Winslet. That would take quite a lot of reinvention since a female Bond would need to be significantly more intelligent than her male counterparts, since she’s unlikely to be able to overpower stronger opponents through brute force alone. Which isn’t to say that she couldn’t muster serious violence, if required…
Why would a female super-spy character need to be shoehorned not just into the Bond mold, but the actual character as well? I suppose it might suit some sort of marketing angle, but why not just invent a new franchise, or do a proper spin-off with a new independent character?
@AC, I’m up for that as well - but by leveraging the bond franchise, the film is likely to get more traction and more viewers. Let’s face it, you could well have said the same about the new Ghostbusters film - but if that film had been made under a different name I don’t think that it would have generated the interest and buzz (both positive and negative) that it did. And yes, the 2016 Ghostbusters is regarded as a commercial flop (despite being an excellent film), but it still made $224m vs. costs of $144m - which I’d call hugely successful, and probably more successful than it would have been if it had been called something other than Ghostbusters.
The Bond films can get boring very quickly unless they’re regularly reinvented. And their reinvention is what keeps them interesting, relevant and exciting. I think it’d be great if they underwent a big reinvention this time!
@AC - because he’s proven, a known quantity, he has star quality. But yes - I agree. Cast someone else. Cast someone unknown. I don’t really care - as long as the actor has screen presence and believablility. Oh, and I’d prefer it if it wasn’t just another white bloke.
>Why do people keep banging on about Idris Elba? It's like you all think he's the only black, british actor out there.
Elba has come top in quite a few "World's Sexiest Men" polls by various magazines - and being irresistible to women is a core Bond characteristic. Of the two gentlemen you cite, Gyasi looks too good natured - though does wear a suit well - and the other looks too youthfully cheerful.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is more eligible, though he himself has suggested an American of Mexican descent, Micheal Pena - though perhaps just to throw the journalist off the question (can't blame him). I'm not sure that a franchise character is Ejiofor's cup of tea, either.
There is an element of 007's character that suits his being non-white (or non-English): His feeling of never quite being a part of the establishment he serves.
Female Bond has already been done in Besson's Nikita. Personally, based on her role in Leon, I'd love to see Natalie Portman reprise the role as an adult.
However, Bond has always had strong female characters, with even a slight role reversal in Spectre for Monica Bellucci.
Shit! Natalie Portman and Monica Bellucci in one post. That's mean done for the day. Where's the kleenex icon, when you need it! I guess this one'll have to do instead! :-)
In any case, the actor matters much less than decent scripts: both Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan were great selections but they were giving fucking awful scripts and even worse directors.
BS meter on full alert!!!
My wife is five foot five, has Black Belts in 6 different Martial Arts (including Kupso and Cilat). On top of that, she's trained in the use of Samuri Sword, Staff, Kali Sticks and trident daggers. There's not a Bond Baddie on the planet who could last two minutes against her.
some upcoming american (wannabe) star who'll make a complete pigs ear of speaking proper English (even Mr Connery made it sound gorgeous).
Then they'll give up after one film that bombs at the box office.
Then they'll offer it to Idris.
That the movie biz folks.
I thought the milk tray man was George Lazenby?
No. George Lazenby was Big Fry.
IIRC the ad said "Big Fry comes into town..." and featured Big Fry with a massive chocolate bar on his shoulder. I'm guessing this ad was produced by a team that had just enjoyed a long lunch and had to have something ready for a client presentation at 9:00 tomorrow.
Seriously, in these days of tiresome "reboots" (re-hashes might be a better word) because either people are running out of ideas or the big money is running scared of trying anything new, it would be just as daft to change Bond's colour, gender or anything else.
If you want a female secret agent, come up with a character and background that will do justice to the idea, the same for a black agent (who doesn't have to be a John Shaft alike) don't try to force the Bond character to conform to a change simply for change's sake.
@Graham Marsden - Why not 'force the Bond character'? He's been a comic slimy perv (Moore), a potential family (Australian) man (Lazenby), a thug (Craig), by turns suave and bored (Connery), pointless (Dalton) and outclassed by his gadgets (Brosnan). All very different characters - and different from the character in the books too (educated, upper class). Changing the colour of his skin is a minor change by comparison, and if you're going to change the colour of his skin - why not change Bond's sex too?
As to changing nationality, why? The thing is that there are many secret agent films with American stars (Bourne and Hunt being the most obvious). France has Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath. I'm not familiar enough with spy films from other countries - but I feel sure that each must have its own spy adventurers. But there aren't many British black, asian or female spies - and, last time I checked, the British nationalities do seem to include quite a few women and non-whites. So why shouldn't our greatest fictional hero represent them too?
And yes, if you want him to be gay, I'm fine with that too.
Because we learned this week from the iPhone launch that apparently in Cantonese the number 7 sounds so similar to "penis" that it can be the source of much hilarity.
"The name's Bond. James Bond. Double-oh-penis. Stop laughing please."