Granted the one in the shot has the same plates as the as the "classic" one. Though it's hard to tell if the person on the left is Bond or a passenger--with the classic one having the normal UK right hand driver, and the CR having driver on left.
Ok, this is to be taken with a grain of salt. But one of the posters on CommandBond.net (and let me interject, he's been right about a lot of things in the past) insists that Ralph Fiennes is going to be playing the new M, and may potentially play the part in future Bond films as well.
Yeah its kinda been floating around for a little bit. It would make sense, Dench can't go on forever, and I think Finnes has potential to be a very good M...if it's true... Be annoying if he was M but then replaced for the next film though...unless the idea is that he's a bad/villainous M? Ooh that would be interesting.
I'm too lazy to go check, but I thought it was the other way round. Am sure I read an interview where he said that they asked him to audition but he wasn't interested. Of course, just 'cos he said it doesn't make it true!
There might have been other factors like how much they were willing to pay, what the role entailed. We don't know whether they had "Casino Royale" as we know it lined up when they asked him or the script was basically Die Another Day II. There are all sorts of potential factors involved. Maybe he didn't want to play a newbie Bond, but step into the shoes of Brosnan or Connery's more experienced Bond. All I can say is he'd have been perfect (not that I'm complaining about their final choice). Alex
^ Oh, you're absolutely right about the other factors. I remember around 2004 all sorts of rumours about where the franchise was going and who was to take over - names like Eric Bana, Julian McMahon, Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Owen and others being in the mix. There was talk of a 'one-off' big name actor to make one movie while they looked for a longer-term replacement for Brosnan. I used to be in the pro-Owen camp but I now think that his mumbling, slightly off-beat persona wouldn't be suitable. He's better in the likes of Children of Men or Croupier as a reluctant hero than he is as an action hero in the likes of King Arthur.
I was quite actively involved in Wikipedia around the time that whole casting thing was going on and I helped maintain the list of actors being considered and it got ridiculously long and featured everyone from Colin Salmon to some Czech actor I'd never heard of before. I think Daniel Craig's name was one of the last to be added, now I recall. King Arthur was a bit of a stretch, but there is no really "right" way to play Bond. Craig could be seen as being far more introverted a Bond than Connery; Moore was debonair and a punster. Lazenby was a kindler, gentler Bond. Owen's take might have worked fine. Or he might have adjusted his persona to fit the role. On a side note, I just bought the Blu-ray for a BBC mini-series called The Hour starring Ben "Soon to be Q" Whishaw. I just had to laugh where twice in the opening 10 minutes his character refers to a female colleague as Moneypenny and she calls him James! (The joke is actually a bit of an anachronism for a series set in 1956; the books were out but the whole Moneypenny/Bond dynamic wasn't really established until the movies). And based on watching the first episode of The Hour, he's gonna make one hell of a good Q. Watch him to be a contender for 12th Doctor Who as well. Alex
^ Yes, The Hour was a good show but full of anachronistic references and expressions. I wasn't sure how much of a stretch the 'Moneypenny' joke was, I assumed that maybe the books were popular in 1950s Britain. And The Hour also featured Dominic West, who was also supposedly up for 007 last time round. I think the Czech actor you referred to was actually the Croatian Goran Viznic of ER fame. IIRC, he was supposedly down to the last 4, along with Craig, Henry Cavill and someone else whose name escapes me right now. The last one always seemed a stretch because he was pushing 50 at the time.
Was it James Purefoy? I always thought he'd make a good Bond, but definitely too old now unfortunately.
^No, it was someone much less famous. Purefoy was certainly up there in the fans' wishlist but I'm not sure how far, if at all, the producers considered him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actors_considered_for_the_James_Bond_character is he on this list? Interesting to see Iain Glen is on the list, he can be quite steely!
^ Ewan Stewart. Thank God for search engines! http://commanderbond.net/2849/names-on-bond-shortlist-revealed.html I should stress that this was just a rumour and I've no way of knowing how accurate, if at all, it was. His agent probably spread the story about to get him some publicity! I'd also forgotten that Alex Lachlan was on the list. Interesting list you linked to btw. I hadn't seen a lot of those names on it before (and I hadn't heard of some of the actors before). I would like to have seen Dougray Scott get a crack at it but didn't think he'd been auditioned. OTOH, I'd always heard that Colin Firth was keen to play 007, but that article suggests he'd turned it down as he wasn't interested. As for Iain Glen - this probably goes in the 'too much information' file but I remember, after Dalton left, having a dream that Glen had replaced him. My dream even had me watching a motorbike sequence from Glen's debut movie, a bit like the chase in Never Say Never Again. I nearly put a bet on him, on that basis. But I didn't! Incidentally, my searching did turn up this pic of Henry Cavill's audition from 2005. Doesn't look very Bondian, does he?! http://www.thebookbond.com/2011/04/photo-of-henry-cavill-as-james-bond-in.html And this series of pics from the OHMSS auditions (sadly it doesn't include the father of comedian Des Bishop, which inspired Des' 'My Dad Was NearlyJames Bond' show) http://ghostradio.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/photos-unpublished-james-bond-auditions-stills/
Ewan Stewart is an odd one, I can seem him having the grittiness but...well at the risk of being indelicate, would they have insided on a wig? And at that age you wonder how many films they'd have got out of him. Cavill really does look too young there, and the long hair isn't very 007. Then again screen tests seem to be a very strange beast, I remember watching Jackman's for X-Men 1, and he isn't that good, but then obviously they knew what they were looking for. I'd never have though of Glen before but now it makes a lot of sense. He is 50 now but looks younger. I may be alone in this, but I can really see why they thought of Burt Reynolds. The macho Burt Reynolds from Deliverance, if he could have pulled off a passable English accent, with maybe a hint of the witty Reynolds ala Smokey/Cannonball...not saying I wish he'd done it, just that I can see why they considered him.
Cavill is perfect for Superman and I think Craig has been perfect for 007. Things have worked out just right, IMHO. Yeah, I can see what you mean about Burt. I love Burt in Deliverance. They also considered Newman and Redford around this time, so he'd have been as apt as either of them. And more appropriate than Eastwood, also said to have been considered. I sometimes compare Connery and Moore to American box office stars of their respective times. The biggest US star of the 1960s was Steve McQueen. Curt, intense, macho. Not that he's like Connery but they have certain things in common. And in the 1970s, it was Reynolds. Tongue-in-cheek, virtually winking at the camera, just like Moore. Again, not that Rog is particularly like Burt but they both reflected tastes in movie starts at the time.
I still think Cavill will end up playing Bond at some point. Maybe after he's done as Superman and Craig is done as Bond. By then Cavill would be in his mid-thirties, which would probably make him better suited for the role in the producers' eyes. His Bond would probably be more akin to Moore's and Brosnan's, which could be a nice change of pace after Craig's Bond, as long as the movies don't get stupid again.
I can't see Bond producers casting an actor who played another iconic role as 007. Especially if Man of Steel is successful and sequels are made.
As successful as Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan were on TV before their time as Bond, their roles never were even remotely as iconic as that of Superman. In a big movie adaption to boot.
True enough. I didn't mean to suggest they compared to Superman. I just meant that Moore and Brosnan weren't exactly unknowns before they became Bond.