If Dalton had continued...

Well actually, if Dalton had continued (and the MGM legal troubles had not existed) he probably would have starred in "Property Of A Lady" in 1991. But who knows how he would have done in Goldeneye, it would have been cool to see him in scenes with 006, Brosnan was still finding himself in the role, but Dalton would have been great in the more grittier confrontational scenes with 006.

 

I think Dalton should have gotten in on the Bond game in the early 1980s with For Your Eyes Only. I'm not saying FYEO is a bad film, but Roger Moore's age was really starting to show. Plus getting in then would have given Dalton even more of a chance to establish himself as Bond.

 

Moore's age worked in FYEO, it was still working, sort of, in Octpussy (at least the chemistry between him and Maud Adams worked fine). But as Bond, he was already too old. In A View to a Kill, he was way too old and utterly unconvincing as Bond. I would have liked Dalton probably as early as Octopussy.

Dalton would have started to be a bit old with Goldeneye, and since the movie was supposed to be a "reboot" (well, sort of), I think it was better to have a new actor to establish in the role. I wish he had done Property of a Lady though (with less ci-fi elements than it had in the original script), he could have ended his Bond career with a more typical Bond than LTK.

 

As far as I know, GoldenEye was written for Dalton. The beach scene ("It's what keeps me alive") seems perfect for him.

 

Was it? I know there was the script of Property of a Lady thatw as meant for him in 1991, but I think they were all hoping he would step down for Goldeneye.

 

I think the script for GoldenEye was written for Dalton in 93/early 94, before he stepped down. It is a definite fact that Cubby Broccoli was happy with Dalton and wanted him to stay, so I think he comissioned the script for him at that point. Many of the film's financers wanted Dalton out though, so I think he left at taht point, and obviously the script went thru some rewrites. The original versions are better than what ended up onscreen. 006 was written for Anthony Hopkins!

GoldenEye starring Timothy Dalton as James Bond and Anthony Hopkins as Alec Trevelyan. Imagine...

 

It would've been awful IMO if Hopkins played Trevelyan. I love the man, but he was not right for it. I could see Hopkins as M if they ever decide to make him a man again.

 

I would have prefered an older 006, or better, 006 a henchan of an older Janus (they could have been the opposite numbers of 007 and M,r espectively). But I was never a fan of Hopkins when he plays badguys, he was even then too well known, and he has a tendency to ham it up. His Van Helsing was terrible (and VH should NOT have been a sadistic badguy, but I digress). There are a lot of respected British actors who could have been an older mastermind villain that were not celebrities.

 

He played M in all but name in Mission Impossible II, and he was perfect.

 

Well I don't want to predict financially (but I suspect it would have done not nearly as well and Bond 18 and Bond 19 would have been quite different).

As for the film, well I don't think it would have been as good. Brosnan was so good in that movie because he was in a changed world and everyone tried to knock him down but he wouldn't give them an inch. His stare downs of 006 and his retrospection on the beach would become the aspects that defined Brosnan's Bond even in the less edgy ones (the Paris scene in TND, the Elektra relationship and M storyline in TWINE, his tortured catpure and his renegade violence and sex in DAD).

Dalton should have had one more, but I am very glad it was not GE. I think Bond 18 (TND) should have been very different though. And Fierstein should have rewritten DAD and Campbell should have directed (imagine, if he had maybe someone like Jones could've played a retooled Jinx instead of the dreadful Berry).

Oh well.

 

Feirstein is an awful screenwriter. Look at his original TND draft if you need any convincing - it's appalling. The good bits of TOMORROW NEVER DIES weren't even his. GOLDENEYE was only riding on Michael France's much superior first draft, and Feirstein didn't help TWINE at all.

The best Brosnan screenwriter? Michael France, all the way. It's a shame his GOLDENEYE draft was never filmed. But it was written with Dalton clearly in mind, though it was a much better film than either of Dalton's entries. Had a much greater Bondian flair to it. It was a much more epic film than the end product was - and that might have been why it was chopped down so much (GOLDENEYE had some restrictive budget limitations).

 

Hm, that is interesting. I haven't read the scripts and I know his TND (I was aware of only he writing it) was dreadful overall, but I thought he wrote Goldeneye based on France's story and that TWINE was also his (after Wade and what's his name got their hands on it).

Whatever the reason, DAD needed a massive rewrite and a different director at the very least though.

 

Nah, Feirstein *barely* touched TWINE at all. It was mostly a product of P&W and Dana Stevens. For what it's worth, I think P&W's original draft of TWINE was superior to the finished product by a decent margin. Still flawed, but not anywhere near as bad. He also doesn't deserve that much credit for GOLDENEYE - it was more a product of Michael France and Jeffery Caine.

Indeed - it was mostly Tamahori's fault, though. P&W were just acting as they were told for a lot of it.