Apropos of nothing... Martinis are actually best stirred...not shaken. Want effervescence? Drink Champagne...
Someone has done the experiment to see which is better and also offers a theory for why Bond prefers shaken over stirred: Shaken or Stirred: Which Makes the Best Martini? - Drinkhacker
President Bartlet: Can I tell you what's messed up about James Bond? Charlie Young: Nothing. President Bartlet: Shaken, not stirred, will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth. The reason you stir it with a special spoon is so not to chip the ice. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it. —The West Wing, "Stirred" (3x18)
If I remember correctly, Fleming's Bond does not have a regular drink. He drinks all kinds of hard liquor in the novels, and the Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred, was actually the films' simplified nod to the more elaborate Vesper drink Bond comes up with in Casino Royale.
Actually reading the novels, Bond drinks far more Bourbon/Whiskey than he does martinis. Its usually in either Old Fashioneds or with soda. https://flemingsbond.com/category/drinks/whisky/
Since this seems to have morphed into our general Bond discussion thread, I'll just put this here: Christopher Nolan was in discussions to direct the next James Bond While nothing can go forward at the moment due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, not to mention Nolan going around the world plugging Oppenheimer, it looks like the biggest sticking point will be Nolan's creative freedom. No surprise there.
Though Nolan might be ideal. OHMSS is his favorite Bond film and Inception took a lot of visual cues from it.
I'm torn on the notion of Nolan. On the one hand he's a phenomenal director whose made some of my favourite films of all time, he's a big name, British and a Bond fan. But... Oppenheimer was fantastic, and Dunkirk was fantastic, sandwiched between then is Tenet which was, IMO, utter shite. Now Tenet is his only real misstep for me, but it's also clearly the most Bond like film he's ever done. Also he can overcomplicate his plots (to put it mildly) and, Dunkirk aside, we'd probably be looking at another long drawn out film. And creative control will be a huge factor, having had their fingers burned over Danny Boyle will Eon want to go down that route again? The upside is of course that they could be looking at a slam dunk hit? For me Bond #26 needs to be a lean, fun, back to basics 120 minutes action romp. But what do I know
Every so often, I recall seeing rumours of them opting for a sort of placeholder Bond - that’s to say putting a big name actor in to do one film, while they draw breath and prepare to resume the series proper with the film after that. Which I never thought made much sense. But it’s probably the only way I can envisage Nolan directing the next 007. Whatever about eg letting him do one with an actor who’s established in the role and whose films have found their tone and voice (he might have been ideal for NTTD, for example), it’s hard to see them giving effective creative control (casting, direction etc) to the next iteration of Bond to a director who is unlikely to hang around for more than a single movie. Unless he was going to do a trilogy, like his Batman series.
Well there was talk of him doing two films, and if you filmed them back to back you could have a novelty not seen since the early 70s, a Bond film coming out in consecutive years! The only trouble with a placeholder Bond is, what if he's really popular? On the flipside you could hire someone who's too old to play Bond long term, a Hardy, an Elba, a Murphy or a Fassbender? Fighting against this is Eon's apparent desire to hire a new guy who can be Bond for many, many years to come.
Yeah, like I say, I never thought the idea made much sense, unless it was, as you say, to get an actor who wouldn’t otherwise want to commit to a franchise or was too old to do so. But all it would do at this time would be to further delay getting the series proper back on track properly - and speaking of age etc, neither Barbara nor Michael or getting any younger…
I imagine Michael will retire first given he's nearly two decades older, but yes their involvement seems finite. And heck, I had the notion of doing a trilogy with someone like Cillian Murphy while you waited for one of the younglings to age into the role so it's a perfectly acceptable notion!
Nolan would be a very wise choice for the reasons stated above. A visionary director who is a true Bond fan--with OHMSS close to his heart--is the kind of sense & talent the franchise needs.
If it were to happen then I'd love to be a fly on the wall during the discussions around creative control!
It occurs to me that the “Bond” franchise has a lot of the makings of a “Star Trek”-ish Bond. Moonraker II? Bond as “Kirk-Card” MI6 as The Federation M as Admiral (take your pick) Spectre as “insert Federation Antagonist” here 10 Forward (or what have you) as the inevitable Casino Q as Scotty-like Moneypenny as… and on and on…
I think it might’ve been Charlie Brooker who said that Captain Kirk in the original series was like James Bond, if Bond let himself go a bit…
I always thought there was a fairly obvious parallel between the recurring characters in the Bond films and Knight Rider. Michael = Bond Devon = M Bonnie = Q KITT = Felix Leiter + gadget-laden car rolled into one