"James Bond 23" officially slated for 2012!

[Lonemagpie]

Captaindemotion wrote:

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^I think I read that Finney is one of M's superiors, though whether he's a politician or a securocrat, I don't know.

That'd pretty much make him Foreign Secretary

[Captaindemotion]

Lonemagpie wrote:

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That'd pretty much make him Foreign Secretary

They should have done a Janet-Brown-in-FYEO and had Jon Culshaw impersonate William Hague.

[KB24]

The thing about MP being Bond's age is that today there would seem to be some sort of crutch as to why she is out of 007's reach. We talked ages ago about if there were a lovely black actress cast as Penny. It would be so awesome for us to see the progressive thinking in the series, but it is also kind of backhanded- oh you finally have a black gal working at MI6 and she is the one chick that Bond can't/won't/doesn't bag? No fair! It is the Live and Let Die Syndrome- the black women who sleep with Bond die, and Jane Seymour has to be a virgin so long as she is with Yaphet Kotto. I'd hate to see what could be nice casting also be a miscasting for today's Moneypenny. Does what I mean make sense?

Since the series has gotten a bit a way from traditional Bondian aspects that some of us like and want back, I think either Q or Moneypenny have to be older or back to the way it was in some way. If it can't be Q now, it should be MP. By the way, I don't know who the guy is playing Q, I've never seen him in anything and perhaps part of my problem with him is that he does look like he belongs on the show MI-5 instead of in a 007 movie. The new young tech guys they have now on MI-5 seriously are not as good as the original Malcolm and Colin. I'd like to see someone like that as Q, but eh.

[Starkers]

I liked Tariq in Spooks, did miss Malcom and Colin but times have changed, and whilst it would have made sense when the show started that the techiest guys were those who probably got into computing when it was a new and very unfashionable thing and were almost like eccentric old sorcerers in a way, technology has become far more widespread now. Hell there are primary school kids who are probably more at home with computers smartphones etc than I am, and I'm only 41!

And I don't think a black Moneypenny is a bad thing. Heck being shagged by 007 isn't exactly the height of female empowerment, and I kinda liked the way Samantha Bond played it (most of the time.) A sort of "You could have me, but I'm not going to let you have me." kind of thing.

[Captaindemotion]

McCrory's character is revealed and it's not Moneypenny. Also seems to lend support to the theory that Finney is the Foreign Secretary, if you ask me

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/225...crory-revealed

[KB24]

Oh boo!!! But that doesn't quite rule her out as the next M, if she's someone in parliament with a a 6 background.

[Samurai8472]

Spy pics of the filming of scene 172

of Skyfall show Bond on a rooftop, having shaved off the stubble he's had in previous pictures. These pictures may be bigger spoilers than they seem, given how late in the film this would be. By comparison, Bond was waking up in the hospital post-torture in scene 172 of Casino Royale.

[Starkers]

I'm just wondering how awesome it'd be if Dench was bowing out and Finnes was going to be M from now on...

Although it'd be cooler if they got Peter Firth

[Captaindemotion]

KB24 wrote:

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Oh boo!!! But that doesn't quite rule her out as the next M, if she's someone in parliament with a a 6 background.

In reality, whatever about the Bond-verse, people like M tend to come from the security services, rather than a political background.

[KB24]

^ Oooo so maybe this is the bit that goes back to M's past? Some Dench/ McCory bad brew? I do like the idea of Fiennes being M, but why go back to a the proverbial old white guy? I'd love for the next M to be a woman again or Colin Salmon. Wow, it would be neat if M were younger than Bond, some sort of security wiz, or at least someone slightly younger or chosen over Bond creating resentment. Although frankly, it might be nice to see what would happen if Bond were ever promoted, if briefly.

I think then we're also back to Harris possibly becoming Moneypenny. If she is a good action equal agent in this film, why couldn't she be promoted to M's secretary? I know that sounds like a bad fem thing, secretary and all, but it is a very high position. I would so love to see some Naval uniforms and rank establishments for this one, and a tossing of that naval hat!

[Starkers]

Well currently MI5 and MI6 are headed by older white guys, and for pretty much their entire history this has been the same aside from Stella Rimminton and Manningham-Buller (who were both MI5). We've had Dench as M for over 15 years now and it is probably time for a change, and I think it should be a man again, and probably a white guy simply because that would be most likely in the real world, at least at present. Salmon would make a good M at some point I think, though personally I'd go with an Asian actor like Ace Bhatti.

Bond will never become M, he's a blunt instrument, a hired gun, an assassin rather than a spy, and he wouldn't want the job anyway!

[KB24]

Yes can you imagine Bond having to temporary take over as M in a crisis or have to pretend to be M on a mission? I think that could be fun, especially if he royally screw it up!

I know the real world services are older white guys, but since when was Bond ever true to the realism? 007 needs to keep up with the times, that is why there was a female M to begin with, so if a black man as M is not next, then a black 007 would be the next logical step. Which I would love, but I'd love Fassbender as Bond more.

No other rumors on who Fiennes plays, though? I don't suppose he could be M's son? We know she has children, it would be great to see them. Although I confess this idea of an M backstory or past element does worry me, as that was another iffy aspect to The World Is Not Enough.

Eh. I'm tired of speculating. I want a trailer!

[Starkers]

That might take a while...

Rumour mill suggests Finnes might have a white cat

[Captaindemotion]

http://www.timeout.com/london/featur...sive-interview

Craig speaks with characteristic candour about Skyfall, CR and QoS

You’re about to start shooting the new Bond film. How do you feel about it? Is there a sense of ‘Hell, here we go for the next seven months…’ just because it’s such a massive undertaking?

‘Yes, there’s definitely some of that, but I’m genuinely really excited because we’ve got a script. The deciding factor for doing [COLOR=#0099ff]“Casino Royale”[/COLOR], even though I was umming and aahhing, going [puts on moody voice] “I don’t know if I want to do it”, was that they showed me the script and I thought: Fuck, I’ve got to do this. And I think this one is better. I really do. It’s a totally original story. I read it and it just works as a story. It sounds like a simplistic thing to say, but you read it and you go: “Oh yeah, I get that, yeah, and oh, yes, yes, okay,” and that’s unusual.’
It seems that the script is sometimes an after-thought on huge productions.
‘Yes and you swear that you’ll never get involved with shit like that, and it happens. On [COLOR=#0099ff]“Quantum”[/COLOR], we were fucked. We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers’ strike and there was nothing we could do. We couldn’t employ a writer to finish it. I say to myself, “Never again”, but who knows? There was me trying to rewrite scenes – and a writer I am not.’
You had to rewrite scenes yourself?
‘Me and the director [[COLOR=#0099ff]Marc Forster[/COLOR]] were the ones allowed to do it. The rules were that you couldn’t employ anyone as a writer, but the actor and director could work on scenes together. We were stuffed. We got away with it, but only just. It was never meant to be as much of a sequel as it was, but it ended up being a sequel, starting where the last one finished.’
It was still a massive commercial success though. So it wasn’t a failure in that sense.
‘No, quite. Thank God it worked, and it worked like gangbusters. But for me personally, on a level of feeling satisfied, I would want to do better next time. That’s really important to me.’
To give a better performance?
‘No, the whole film. If you’re going to do that sort of stuff, you’ve just got to get it right. You’ve got to give it your best shot. When you’ve got all that talent, everyone gunning to make it good, you’ve got to get it… For fuck’s sake, it’s a Bond movie. You want people to go, “Whooah!” – a sharp intake of breath during a movie is never a bad thing.’
Did you have anything to do with getting [COLOR=#0099ff]Sam Mendes [/COLOR]on board as director?
‘I did, yes, I did. He’s English, he’s Cambridge-educated, he’s smart. He’s lived with Bond all his life, he grew up with Bond the way I did. We grew up at exactly the same time, and I said to him, “We have to do this together, we have exactly the same reference points, we both like the same Bond movies and we both like the same bits in the same Bond movies we like.” We sat down and we just rabbited for hours about “[COLOR=#0099ff]Live and Let Die[/COLOR]” or “[COLOR=#0099ff]From Russia with Love[/COLOR]”, and talked about little scenes that we knew from them. That’s how we started talking about it. That’s what we tried to instill in the script. He’s been working his arse off to tie all these things together so they make sense – in a Bond way.’
I love that Sam Mendes’s last film was ‘[COLOR=#0099ff]Away We Go[/COLOR]’ – his most indie film yet.

‘Yes, that’s true, and now he’s making a $200m Bond movie. He’s an OCD control freak and I mean that in the nicest possible way, as all directors are. David Fincher included. They are all absolutely single-minded and all they want to do is get it right. On a movie like this, you need that – maybe I shouldn’t call him an “OCD control freak”: it’s a joke, but you need someone with lots of different heads – there’s a producing head, a directing head, a special-effects head, a publicity head. More than any other movie, you need someone with all that going on, and he just does, he’s a manager, a great manager, and one of the skills doing a Bond movie is about is managing a lot of people, saying, “Okay, do that, that’s got to be done, and I’ll do that.” It’s a tricky fucking job to do.’

It sounds like you’ve become even more involved behind the scenes as time has gone on.

‘I said from the very beginning to Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [Wilson, the producers and guardians of the Bond franchise]: “If you give me this responsibility, I can just walk on that set and pretend to be James Bond,” but they allowed me to be involved more. It’s naturally progressed. I don’t want to get in people’s way, I just want to encourage things along. Sam got involved and then we got Roger Deakins [the director of photography], for fuck’s sake, who’s shooting it. The air is rare, and we’ve had the chance to employ some brilliant people. Win or lose, we’ve done the best we can because we’ve put the right people in the job. Pool the best talent you can, give them a good time and do the best we can – now I sound like a fucking politician!’

Did you worry about becoming public property – tabloid fodder – when you took on Bond?

‘Yes, in some respects it’s unavoidable, you can’t deny it. In some respects, I still fight with it now. I can’t go to war with paparazzi. The Daily Mail loves saying – [putting whiny voice on] “He never smiles” – yeah, because I know you’re fucking taking pictures of me, that’s why. Because the Daily Mail comes to mind every time I see a camera. I challenge anybody to fucking smile. I’m just not that person.
‘But I do get it, you can’t just come out and be angry. There’s no fucking point. You’ve got to live your life. I know I’m not that person. I’m never going to arrive at an airport after a 12-hour flight and go, “Oh, hi everyone, it’s so great to see you!” I can’t do it. You’ve got to live your life, you’ve got to enjoy it. And this is a great time, I’m playing James Bond. That’s what makes me secure about it, I’m having a lot of fun with it and getting a kick out of it, and people have a perception that I’m grumpy all the time.’
I remember when they announced you as Bond they had you speeding down the Thames on a boat. You obviously decided to swallow your worries about exposure to the press for that…
‘They wanted to fly me in on a Harrier jump jet! I remember thinking: “Okay, in for a penny…” But the safety regulations stopped that idea. The irony was, I got down to the river, to the military speedboat, and there was this marine giving me a lifejacket. And I was like, “Do I have to wear a life jacket?”, and he was like, “Yeah, you’re not getting on this boat without one.” But what about my suit!

‘It was a strange transition that time. I had no idea what was going on. Who could I ask? “Hey, Pierce [Brosnan], what’s it like?” I did do that. And he was just: “You’ve got to go for it.” There’s nothing that he could say that could be of any use whatsoever.’
Did you worry about being seen forever as Bond?

‘I weighed everything up and the only reason not to do it was fear. The fear of losing everything else. And you can’t not do something because you’re afraid. Well, you can, jumping off cliffs and things like that, but to be afraid of losing something because I was going to play James Bond is kind of nonsense. That’s how I convinced myself. I thought: Even if it goes wrong, hopefully I’ll earn enough money to live on an island when I’m old and get a leathery brown tan! And drink cocktails in the afternoon. Which sounds quite good to tell the truth.’

[KB24]

Hehe. I really hope this one gives Craig the meat he deserves. You watch some of his earlier films and keep thinking, when is his big thing going to happen? You see him as Bond in Quantum, and just feel sad at the waste