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Eastwood as 007? Just one of the worst James Bond film ideas

Dusty Ayres

Dusty Ayres

Commodore
The Express newspaper in the U.K., on its Web site, has run a short item that Clint Eastwood says he was approached by 007 producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman about playing James Bond after Sean Connery quit the role.

The California-born star was approached by Bond bosses to play the superspy when Sean Connery quit the franchise, but he turned the role down.

And Eastwood insists he made the right decision – because he didn’t want to see the iconic character portrayed by an American.

He says, “I thought James Bond should be British. I am of British descent but by that same token, I thought that it should be more of the culture there and also, it was not my thing.”

There aren’t many additional details presented. But, as the Cinema Retro Web site says, if this is true, it probably happened between the release of 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, where Broccoli and Saltzman seemed convinced they needed an American 007.

If that’s the case, it only one example of the worst James Bond movie ideas that were seriously considered. By that, we mean ideas that were REALLY, REALLY close to being reality, at least closer to reality than 007 fans would prefer.
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Eastwood as 007? Just one of the worst James Bond film ideas that were seriously considered
 
Wow that would have been terrible. Not because Clint's American, he just wouldn't be right for Bond, even if he could have pulled a British accent off. I'd never heard this before, heard Burt Reynolds was considered, but never Clint.

Actually I can see why Reynolds was considered. Trouble is people think of the Bandit/Cannonball run Reynolds, if it was Deliverance Reynolds, and he could do the accent I think he could have been good. Not a terrible actor, has the right look, can do humour and can also play a real tough guy. I'm not saying he'd have been good or bad, just that I can see why he was thought of.
 
^I'd heard that Reynolds, Paul Newman and Robert Redford were all considered, as was James Brolin (who very nearly got cast). But I can't see any of them as 007, though as you say, Burt might have been passable, if he could do the accent.

Clint would be all wrong though. He's too blue-collar and too, well, Clint. There has been an Irish, Aussie, Scottish and Welsh 007, so if an American could do the accent, there's no reason why he couldn't play Bond. But the number of Americans who can do the accent is very small.
 
The Express is known for fabricating entertainment related stories to fill its pages. In the last year of Buffy, it ran a story saying that singer and ex star of Neighbours Holly Valance had been approached to replace Sarah Michelle Gellar. When Enterprise was in development, it ran a story on how the new captain was almost called Jeffrey Archer (a notorious name in the UK), which was wrong - although 'Jeffrey' and 'Archer' were both considered, they were never knowingly considered together.
 
Captaindemotion said:
^I'd heard that Reynolds, Paul Newman and Robert Redford were all considered, as was James Brolin (who very nearly got cast).
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Drop the "nearly." :) Brolin actually cast, for about four days. Then Moore decided he wanted to do Octopussy after all, and Brolin was fired.

Adam West was another actor who was offered the role and declined. (This is mentioned in Back to the Batcave.)
 
What a lot of people don't know is that the first onscreen Bond actually was played by an American. The debut episode of the '50s anthology series Climax! was a live adaptation of Casino Royale starring Barry Nelson as hardboiled American secret agent Jimmy Bond, who was assisted by a debonair British agent named Leiter. He went up against no less than Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre (and against the technical glitches of live television such as lights and mikes not coming on in time and prop guns misfiring).
 
Let us please forget the 1967 version of Casino Royale with 7 James Bonds, nearly as many directors (5, I think), and Jimmy Bond played by Woody Allen.
 
I never heard Eastwood's name in connection with the recasting for Diamonds Are Forever, but it's true that a number of American actors were approached about the Bond role between '69 and '83. Apart from Brolin in Octopussy, the other time we actually got close was in '71, when John Gavin was approached to do Diamonds. Then they got Connery back at the last minute for $1 million.

Depending on which version you hear, it wasn't that Broccoli and Saltzman actually wanted to cast an American, but that they were under pressure from United Artists to do so (presumably because after the disappointment of Lazenby in OHMSS, they wanted a "bankable star" in the role). Either way, it's just as well that it never came to pass.
 
Mr. Laser Beam said:
^ For slapstick comedy, maybe. Adam West as 007...that's worse than Eastwood. :eek:

"To the Bondmobile!"
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That's because you're thinking of Adam West as his typecast role of Batman. If you look at shows he did before Batman came along, he was known as a serious actor. And in 1968 when this would have come up, the real serious typecasting hadn't really kicked in.

If one remembers that his Batman was a sitcom for all intents and purposes, dismissing him from playing a "serious" role like Bond (note the quotes - Bond at times wasn't too far removed from Batman) would be the same as disqualifying Michael Keaton from (ironically) playing Batman after years of sitcoms and comedy films. And Tom Hanks is considered one of the top dramatic actors around, after being typecast as a comedian in things like Bosom Buddies and Big.

To West's credit, he too felt Bond should be played by a Brit (so of course they hired an Australian for OHMSS, so never mind!). But for whatever reason neither Salzman nor Broccoli were married to the idea. An American actor no one's ever heard of named John Gavin was cast as Bond for Diamonds Are Forever until Connery was lured back, and as noted, James Brolin of Marcus Welby MD fame was was set to replace Moore for Octopussy.

First I've heard about Eastwood, but then again back in the day - and this was before Dirty Harry - he was making incredible impact in the Leone westerns.

It does certainly put the whole "Daniel Craig is not Bond" movement of a few years back into perspective. You can't tell me anyone would see James Brolin as a better choice for Bond than Daniel Craig!

Alex
 
23skidoo said:
That's because you're thinking of Adam West as his typecast role of Batman. If you look at shows he did before Batman came along, he was known as a serious actor. And in 1968 when this would have come up, the real serious typecasting hadn't really kicked in.

If one remembers that his Batman was a sitcom for all intents and purposes, dismissing him from playing a "serious" role like Bond (note the quotes - Bond at times wasn't too far removed from Batman) would be the same as disqualifying Michael Keaton from (ironically) playing Batman after years of sitcoms and comedy films. And Tom Hanks is considered one of the top dramatic actors around, after being typecast as a comedian in things like Bosom Buddies and Big.
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Absolutely. Adam West was a fine actor, as well as a handsome, suave leading-man type. The reason he's perceived as an inveterate ham was because the Batman producers hired him to play the role in a hammy, campy way, and he did a brilliant job of it. I'm sure he could've done a dramatic role just as well.

(I think it would've been marvelous to see a serious Batman show starring the same cast as the sitcom. Aside from Burt Ward, this was a really spectacular collection of talent and they could've done a fantastic job with it.)

For what it's worth, Sean Connery was in the comedy Darby O'Gill and the Little People before he was Bond. Pierce Brosnan was favored for Bond because of his performance in the comedy/mystery Remington Steele. And get this: Roger Moore first played James Bond in a 1964 comedy sketch on a BBC show called Mainly Millicent.
 
Would you believe that Cary Grant was also considered to be James Bond:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvTeq2jUyDs&feature=fvw[/yt]
 
Didn't Fleming have Grant in mind as his ideal actor for the role? However, Grant would have been too old for the role in the 1960's -- he was born in 1904.
 
One Bond I would've like to see would've been Sam Neill. He almost got the role in 86 when Moore left. (His screen tests are some of the Living Daylights extras).
 
Dusty Ayres said:
Would you believe that Cary Grant was also considered to be James Bond:
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Why wouldn't anyone believe it? As someone else said, he was one of Fleming's ideal actors to play the role. IIRC, I read an interview with Cubby Broccoli where he said that they would have cast him in Dr No but his salary would have been as large as their entire budget.

Grant had the looks, charm, voice and was requisitely debonair and dashing to play Bond, while also having the darkness needed. He would have been too old by the time they began to make the movies but watch North By Northwest and tell me it's not a prototype Bond movie!
 
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