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JAMES BOND director?

However, if we're speaking of Craig replacements, even though I loathe the idea, I am partial to Michael Fassbender. He has a certain edge to him, as 300 and Hunger displayed, but he also has that British sort of elegance and properness, as displayed in Inglourious Basterds that's very fitting for Bond. I would say if the producers are going for a Bond more like the Bond of the Roger Moore movies (but not as extreme... maybe closer to Pierce Brosnan) then I think Fassbender would be an excellent choice.


Funny that you speak of his British elegance and properness - he's German born, raised in County Kerry, Ireland! Which nearly ruled him out of his Basterds role, as Tarantino wanted Germans playing Germans, Brits playing Brits, Yanks playing Yanks etc. But Fassbender was the only one to nail the George Saunders quality that QT wanted for Archie (all the English actors auditioning played him like Michael Caine apparently).

Fassbender would probably be great at anything he turns his hat to, though. I think he has an air of Christian Bale - who would also have been a good Bond - about him, but with more versatility. They look a little alike and they've each even starved themselves in the interest of their roles - compare Bale's Machinist with Fassbender's Bobby Sands in Hunger.

I don't think Fassbender would play 007 a la Moore though - I'd imagine his take would be more in line with Craig, perhaps a Craig/ Brosnan hybrid.
 
^ Not really. The studio weren't happy with Dalton in the lead, after LTK's underwhelming US performance. OTOH, Cubby Broccoli was convinced he was a good Bond and that that movie's performance wasn't Dalton's fault. Dalton's tenure was part of the delay in relaunching the franchise.

When they finally got the mess sorted it, it was announced that he had chosen to go, in order to spare his blushes and let him leave with dignity. In reality, Eon weren't going to be able to get a new 007 movie made with Dalton in the lead and his departure was a condition for getting the series back onscreen.
 
^ Not really. The studio weren't happy with Dalton in the lead, after LTK's underwhelming US performance. OTOH, Cubby Broccoli was convinced he was a good Bond and that that movie's performance wasn't Dalton's fault. Dalton's tenure was part of the delay in relaunching the franchise.

When they finally got the mess sorted it, it was announced that he had chosen to go, in order to spare his blushes and let him leave with dignity. In reality, Eon weren't going to be able to get a new 007 movie made with Dalton in the lead and his departure was a condition for getting the series back onscreen.

Which was crazy, because both of his films were good. In fact, The Living Daylights is my most favorite of all the films.
 
^ Yeah, Dalton got an unfair rap. When TLD came out, he rightly got great reviews, being hailed as a return to Connery-esque form after the pantomime of the Moore years (the later ones especially). Much like how Craig's debut in CR was received.

LTK was written to Dalton's strengths, but they arguably overplayed the grittiness and lack of humour (not unlike QOS). That movie did poorly at the US box office and Dalton got the blame. But the reality was that quite a few movies got creamed that summer, going up against Batman and Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade; Star Trek V, Ghostbusters II. LTK would probably have performed no better with Pierce Brosnan in the lead. And LTK did no worse in the non-US market than any of its predecessors.

Notably, no Bond movie since has ever been given a summer release. I think had Dalton made another couple of movies and had they been released between October - December (as have the Brosnan/ Craig ones), they would have done fine at the box office.

Having said all that, I think Brosban was a better 007, so I'm glad he took over for Goldeneye. Dalton had his strengths, but he couldn't deliver a one-liner to save his life and he looked uncomfortable in the love scenes.
 
^ Yeah, Dalton got an unfair rap. When TLD came out, he rightly got great reviews, being hailed as a return to Connery-esque form after the pantomime of the Moore years (the later ones especially). Much like how Craig's debut in CR was received.

LTK was written to Dalton's strengths, but they arguably overplayed the grittiness and lack of humour (not unlike QOS). That movie did poorly at the US box office and Dalton got the blame. But the reality was that quite a few movies got creamed that summer, going up against Batman and Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade; Star Trek V, Ghostbusters II. LTK would probably have performed no better with Pierce Brosnan in the lead. And LTK did no worse in the non-US market than any of its predecessors.

Notably, no Bond movie since has ever been given a summer release.

Oh yeah, the summer of 1989. I remember it well. It seemed like my friends and I were going to the movies every second day that summer. Ironically, Licence To Kill was one movie I missed. Didn't see it til it came out on video six months later.

But I did manage to make it to Batman, Last Crusade and Star Trek V three time each.:lol:
 
I wonder who would make the most awful James Bond movie? Could you imagine a BOND movie directed by Tim Burton? Yikes...

Rob
 
Michael Bay as Bond director? Triple the babes, triple the product placement, with so much camera movement and quick cuts the action scenes are incomprehensible (but you'll always see the American flag waving prominently in the wind).
 
^ The action scenes in QoS certainly seemed to have a bit of Bay about them ... Of course, Bay would have to change Bond to an American; working on The President's Secret Service rather than Her Majesty's Secret Service or for the CIA instead of MI5.
 
Fun fact: Michael Bay was one of the directors brought in to discuss doing Phone Booth, and the first thing he wanted to do was take the story outside the phone booth.

How about Mel Gibson's three-hour, R-rated James Bond? Where Bond shoots a guy in the face and you actually see what a bullet does to a face. Where the camera doesn't look away during the torture scene. Where Bond isn't just working for MI5, he's fighting for England's freedom. :)

And of course Bond has to die at the end.
 
^Surely England would be the bad guy in a Gibbo 007 movie (The Patriot, Braveheart). Or possibly the Jews!

Actually, Robert Scorpio, what about starting that thread dealing with the worst directorial candidates for a Bond movie after all?
 
BOND director nightmare...

If tomorrow they announced that the issues at MGM/United were solved and a new BOND movie was in the works, what director, if attached to the movie, would totally dampen your excitement?

Tim Burton is my obvious, as some of you know. What would be some if your BOND NIGHTMARE DIRECTORS...

Rob
 
Re: BOND director nightmare...

Ken Loach:

James Bond, a right-wing, washed up alcoholic spy (played by ex-Coronation Street actor Bruce Jones) is put out to pasture in Liverpool by his spymasters. He meets Getya Kitoff, an illegal immigrant working as a stripper in a badly paid strip joint. Bond teams up with her, sees the error of his right-wing ways and helps her defeat her evil exploitative boss and form a union in the strip club.

Tim Burton:

James Bond (Johnny Depp) is a timid spy, in awe of his boss M, played by Christopher Lee and his scary secretary, Moneypenny, played by Helena Bonham Carter. Q is played by Michael Keaton. Look out for Danny Elfman's unique gothic take on the 007 theme.

Oliver Stone:

In which James Bond is revealed to have been the dangerous rogue agent behind every conspiracy since the assassination of JFK, including the RFK and MLK assassinations and the decision to omit the squid from the movie version of Watchmen.

Zack Snyder:

Lots. Of. Slow. Motion. Action. Thus making the Bond movies twice as long as usual. And lots of loving shots of Bond's perfectly honed torso.

Uwe Boll:

Relax. It would still be better than Moonraker or View to A Kill.

Joel Schumacher

Nippes on the tuxedo. No Bond girl but a male teenage sidekick (played by 30-something Orlando Bloom).

George Lucas:

A CGI London and a cringeworthy scene where Bond tells the new Bond girl (played by a CGI creation) how much he hates sand.

Ron Howard:

Licenced to Put to Sleep.
 
Re: BOND director nightmare...

Brett Ratner, not because I think he would be that bad, but I wanted to be first to mention him!

Lars Von Trier, graphic disturbing scenes take place on a chalk lined floor, all of which is commentary on how the USA sucks.

Neil LaBute, James Bond becomes one misanthropic commentary on gender relations. (Okay, some would debate that's what it's always been.)
 
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