I'd thought it was the Mirror, but either way it's veracity is questionable. It's interesting mainly because he isn't one of the usual suspects who gets a mention every six weeks or so, but he obviously isn't a complete unknown either. Not that I couldn't see them going with a complete unknown. I mean maybe not George levels of "Who the hell is he?" but maybe more a Connery/Dalton/Craig than Moore/Brosnan Also as I say if they've started the auditioning process that's a positive as well so I'm hoping that at least that part of this is true, even if Taylor-Johnson wasn't actually one of the auditioned actors.
One of the first stories I found was from Esquire, which linked to the Sun. Linking to it, but I won’t link directly to the Sun. Perhaps the Mirror got there first, of course https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a42081944/aaron-taylor-johnson-bond/
More realistically, as the films got further and further away from Fleming's novels, they felt like they were jumping on whatever the Hollywood bandwagon du jour was, especially Moore's films in the '70s: Live and Let Die: Blaxploitation The Man with the Golden Gun: Kung Fu films (with the first oil crisis shoehorned in) The Spy Who Loved Me: Women's Lib in entertainment (Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels) Moonraker: Sci-Fi (Star Wars, Close Encounters)
And TSWLM also had a dominant water and ocean theme which dialed into the blockbuster status of the first Jaws. In addition to having a villain named Jaws.
Something else in Live and Let Die, can't be a coincidence that 007 is rocking a .44 magnum two years after Dirty Harry came out and the same year Magnum Force did. Realistically the constant reinvention is part of what's kept the franchise going as long as it has. Who ends the film by killing a shark
No doubt. But there's definitely a shift from the 1960s, when Bond was the trend-setter spawning imitators (Matt Helm, In Like Flint, The Avengers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., etc.), to the 1970s where Bond is imitating whatever's hot at the moment.
Oh absolutely, in the sixties for the most part* Bond was leading, but he's been following ever since arguably. Licence to Kill can be seen as a response to things like Lethal Weapon, and Craig's films obviously take stuff from Bourne and Nolan's Batman trilogy and maybe even the MI films (though I'd also counter argue that Bourne, Mission Impossible and Nolan's films aren't averse to riffing on Bond either) *My one caveat to the Bond as a trendsetter in the 60s is always FRWL which, love it though I do, feels a trifle more old fashioned than every other Bond film of the era and very clearly takes a lot of cues from things like North by Northwest. I do wonder if Bond will ever be the trendsetter again, or whether he even can be given how little there can be left to do with the spy genre that's truly original. And just to widen my earlier comment about imitation being part of Bond's continuing success, it is only part of it, and ironically as much as moving with the times is a factor, nostalgia is too. Familiar tropes are as important as what's hot, and it's the merging of the two, along with the fact that people accepted other people could play Bond, that's got it this far, and though people bang on about Bourne and MI the fact remains that the Bourne film that didn't star Damon flopped, and that it's highly unlikely the MI franchise will continue once Tom hangs up his running shoes.
Bond also switched to cigars with Moore taking over the role. A very '70s sensibility started to take root with DAF but kicked into the stratosphere with LALD. We wouldn't see Bond smoking another cigarette until, I believe, Timothy Dalton in TLD which also saw the return of an Aston Martin for the first time since Bond's was glimpsed in the background of Q Branch in Diamonds.
Moore smoked cigars in his first two films; after that, I can't recall him smoking at all. He had a cigarette case that turned into a microfilm viewer in TSWLM, and was getting ready to smoke one when Anya blew knockout gas in his face, but I don't remember him actually lighting up in any of his films between TSWLM and AVTAK.
Apparently Moore gave up smoking cigarettes following a telling-off from Tony Curtis on the set of The Persuaders, but he continued to smoke cigars.
He didn't, I don't think. Earlier today I was thinking he smoked in FYEO or Octopussy during a dinner scene with Kristatos or Magda but he just ate food in both films.
One of the biggest reasons (in addition to the overt comedy) most of Moore's run was Bond-in-name-only.
That's very good but obviously so subjective and some glaring omissions for me. "You've had your six" "I'm just a professional doing a job." " So am I." CR's PTS "Don't you want to know why?" The cello! Bond in a tank! The rooftop in YOLT "I certainly wouldn't have killed you before" "Last rat standing" And of course Tracy's death
I was going to do this on Twitter once but it's interesting to consider the outlier Bonds. IE the one Bond to do something or the one Bond NOT to do something Rog is the only 007 who never drives an Aston (The Cannonball Run doesn't count) Craig is the only Bond who never smoked. Rog is the only Bond to go into space Any others spring to mind?