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The James Bond Film Discussion Thread (With Bonus Lazenby!)

I live a couple of miles from where Dalton grew up in Derbyshire. People used to say he still drank occasionally in a local pub (assume visiting family) although never seen him myself. They also say Sean Bean drank in the same pub from time to time which maybe more likely as he was friends with a fellow cast member from Sharpe who lived (still does) locally.
No idea about Tim, but Sean Bean does like a nice pub. Friend of mine met him in the bar of the Slieve Donard hotel in Newcastle, County Down, a few years ago. She was a big GOT fan (this was after his time on the show had ended) and it was her birthday; he was happy to pose for photos and couldn’t have been nicer, apparently.
 
Thinking about budgets and turnaround, and I know there is a lot of difference between TV and film, but after initially being quite wary given how much I love the book and the 1973 film, I gave the Day of the Jackal tv show a try and thought it was fantastic (yes it's overlong but that was my only real problem with it).

Six months ago if you'd suggested Redmayne as Bond I'd have laughed in your face but he's really good as a trained assassin.

This isn't about suggesting him as Bond (judging by all the things Barbara and co have said given he's 43 now he's probably too old) but it is about how lavish and action packed the ten episodes of the show were. It took 7 months to film and cost, according to Wikipedia, $100 million.

I appreciate it probably didn't include any marquee stunts, though it does have some cracking car chases, but I do wonder how you can make essentially a 10 hour action/thriller movie for $100million yet a 2 and a half hour film costs almost three times as much?

I'm naive I know :lol:
 
Of course when (if!) Bond #26 gets made it should be cheaper in one respect at least given historically actors don't get paid truly big bucks to be Bond until subsequent movies.

Let's ignore Connery because no one knew the franchise would take off at the start so he really was paid peanuts, and we'll also ignore Lazenby because he only did one film.

Moore was paid a million for each of his first three films but this was quadrupled by the time he got to Moonraker and by the time AVTAK came out he was on five million + a percentage of the profits.

Dalton's fee jumped from 3 to 5 million

Brosnan initially only got $1.2 million for Goldeneye but by Die Another Day he was on $16.5 million.

And Craig was paid a little over three million for Casino Royale but got $25 million for NTTD (and probably a % of the profits as well)

I can see the new guy being offered somewhere in the region of 3-5 million for his first film but this will presumably rise with each subsequent film.

It's come a long way since Connery got $17,000 for Dr No!

Note: I don't know for sure these are completely accurate figures (I've seen Brosnan's initial fee cited as high as 4 million by some sources) but on the whole I've seen figures akin to these cited enough over the years to assume they're ballpark accurate at least.
 
Thinking about budgets and turnaround, and I know there is a lot of difference between TV and film, but after initially being quite wary given how much I love the book and the 1973 film, I gave the Day of the Jackal tv show a try and thought it was fantastic (yes it's overlong but that was my only real problem with it).

Six months ago if you'd suggested Redmayne as Bond I'd have laughed in your face but he's really good as a trained assassin.

This isn't about suggesting him as Bond (judging by all the things Barbara and co have said given he's 43 now he's probably too old) but it is about how lavish and action packed the ten episodes of the show were. It took 7 months to film and cost, according to Wikipedia, $100 million.

I appreciate it probably didn't include any marquee stunts, though it does have some cracking car chases, but I do wonder how you can make essentially a 10 hour action/thriller movie for $100million yet a 2 and a half hour film costs almost three times as much?

I'm naive I know :lol:
I also loved DOTJ and of course there was a Bond connection with Lashana Lynch. The opening credits and song were also pure 007.

Eddie is perhaps a little too offbeat and unconventional a leading man to be a typical James Bond, but to be fair, Craig showed that you can succeed outside of the tall, dark and handsome template.

I would probably be more interested in seeing what a Bond film written by Ronan Bennett would be like!

Inside joke - Richard Dormer lives about half a mile from me and drinks in our local, so when they were hunting his character, I couldn’t help but think “try the Northern Lights, bar, Belfast, he’s never out of there FFS.”
 
I'd agree Eddie Redmayne is perhaps a little unconventional, and yes so was Craig but I suspect the next Bond will be more conventionally handsome.

Maybe. ;)

Watching The Agency and I do like to hope that somewhere in the multiverse there's a slew of Fassbender Bond films!
 
I'd agree Eddie Redmayne is perhaps a little unconventional, and yes so was Craig but I suspect the next Bond will be more conventionally handsome.

Maybe. ;)

Watching The Agency and I do like to hope that somewhere in the multiverse there's a slew of Fassbender Bond films!
Is The Agency worth a watch? It was a choice between it and Black Doves for our most recent binge and as I’d heard more buzz about Black Doves, we went for it. It’s superb, by the way, and has a Bond connection in Ben Whishaw.

I agree about the next 007 likely being more a traditional handsome leading man, which is why I’m not buying the Josh O’Connor rumours.
 
Is The Agency worth a watch? It was a choice between it and Black Doves for our most recent binge and as I’d heard more buzz about Black Doves, we went for it. It’s superb, by the way, and has a Bond connection in Ben Whishaw.

I agree about the next 007 likely being more a traditional handsome leading man, which is why I’m not buying the Josh O’Connor rumours.
I'm really enjoying The Agency. It's something of a slow burn, and maybe leans a little more towards Tinker Tailor than James Bond. Which doesn't mean it lacks action, and I'm only around halfway through so it might liven up significantly, but as I say it's very much my jam!

Hoping to watch Black Doves soon, does it live up to the hype?

I really can't see O'Connor as Band.

Also I'm wavering on Taylor-Johnson. Loved him in Bullet Train but thought he was a bit ropey in Nosferatu. That said Bond has more akin to Bullet Train than Nosferatu but I've always found ATJ a touch inconsistent. Liked him in many things and thought he was rubbish in others.
 
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I recently finished watching "The Americans" (great show BTW) and then watched TSWLM. I love Bond, I have ever since I was a kid, but after watching these back to back (and being well versed in the works of LeCarre, Deighton and the non-fiction works of Macintyre), I realize how silly and over the top Bond is compared to real world espionage. Even Craigs more down to earth Bond is still way more visible and over the top than a real spy. It leads me to conclude that Bond, even in Flemings writings, is more of a detective than a spy. He is sent in for a short time to solve something and then when that mission is over he returns to being a work a day civil servant (we see this more in the books than the films),
All that being said, I still enjoy watching the movies and hopefully we get something fresh shortly from EON.
 
Yes if you want a realistic portrayal of espionage don't rely on (ah yes your reputation precedes you Mr) Bond :lol:

Worst spy ever!

One of the things I always liked about Dr No was how much like a detective Bond feels, it's an aspect I'd like to see more of in future films.

Not that is hasn't featured in other films (Bond's search for Scaramanga, Bond in the Bahamas in CR etc)
 
"You are just a stupid policeman." Even Dr. No felt disappointed by Bond's abilities in the end.

Bond just sticks out like a sore thumb wherever he goes. Can't help himself. Isn't the idea not to draw attention toward one's self? He needs to be more like the guy pushing the broom in the corridor, or the guy you see in the supermarket pushing a cart full of frozen dinners and Diet Cokes.
 
"You are just a stupid policeman." Even Dr. No felt disappointed by Bond's abilities in the end.

Bond just sticks out like a sore thumb wherever he goes. Can't help himself. Isn't the idea not to draw attention toward one's self? He needs to be more like the guy pushing the broom in the corridor, or the guy you see in the supermarket pushing a cart full of frozen dinners and Diet Cokes.
So, Jimmy Bond in Casino Royale? ;)
 
"You are just a stupid policeman." Even Dr. No felt disappointed by Bond's abilities in the end.

Bond just sticks out like a sore thumb wherever he goes. Can't help himself. Isn't the idea not to draw attention toward one's self? He needs to be more like the guy pushing the broom in the corridor, or the guy you see in the supermarket pushing a cart full of frozen dinners and Diet Cokes.
That certainly informed Roger Moore's performance. From an interview he gave toward the end of his life:

I played it slightly tongue-in-cheek because I never quite believed that James Bond was a spy because everybody knew him, they all knew what he drank. He’d walk into a bar and it would always be, "Ah, Commander Bond, martini, shaken not stirred." Spies are faceless people.
 
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