The 26th James Bond Film

[Deck Rickard]

Damn, Bale. Well, glad he didn’t take the role then instead of playing it once and jumping ship like Lazenby or spending years trying to get out of a multi-film contract.

 

[Filmfreak]

I think he would be good in the role but I'm glad he rejected it. That way it resulted in us having both the best Batman and the best Bond at the same time.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Without the success of Batman Begins I am not sure we get the "completely reboot it with Daniel Craig" idea for Casino Royale (even though the book was the first from Fleming, it doesn't portray Bond as a new 00 like the film does).

I am also predicting that Bond 26 is going to take cues from The Batman. Younger, handsomer actor like Pattinson, and maybe chasing Matt Reeves like directors for the new films in that actor's tenure.

 

[Airwings]

All good choices, but boring. We kind of *know* was we’re getting from them as Bond.

Just makes me happy we got Daniel Craig when we did.

All of them are really talented actors so they would have handled the role in a good way.

I wouldn't say they're boring choices. I can imagine Clive Owen, for example, to be a quite physical 007 (if he and the director agreed on that).
The actors that don't have the classic (pre-reboot) Bond look would give the film a special feel compared to the previous adventures (which in fact Craig also did). I'm referring to Guy Pearce and Jude Law. The two would have played a somewhat untraditional Bond in terms of appearance.

But Jason Isaacs then, he had the true classic Bond look.
That doesn't mean he would portray the 00-agent that way. Maybe he would hade done something different with the character?

Ewan McGregor? I can't see him going for something that's overly action-packed if it's also a super serious story. He is not edgy enough.
Guess his version would be more elegant, soft-spoken and laid-back than even Brosnan.
(haha, now I feel I'm also dissing Sangster, lol, but I am not)
What I mean is that Ewan wouldn't suit anything close to the Craig films or Dalton's LTK. But he would really have fit perfectly in something more entertaining, like The Spy Who Loved Me. That style will make him shine in front of the camera..
I know these kind of spectacles aren't liked by everybody. But they're not all bad films. We just need to be in the right mood for them.

I will be happy to be proven wrong here regarding the actor. I haven't seen that many of his films.
He's a kind of actor that excels at a certain style. Can I mention Michael Bay's The Island? It felt like McGregor drowned in the explosive car chase which was made totally in the director's typical way. But he was better in more calm scenes.
It could be that I also base this opinion too much on his performance in Mortdecai which I saw several years ago. The agent he portrayed there was really über-british, if I remember correctly.
As we see in the picture below, he's also clean cut and well-dressed.
It was a true Ewan McGregor character.

 

[antsman41]

Please find a director who has read (all of) the novels and really/truly loves Bond as a character and his world.

 

[Airwings]

I am also predicting that Bond 26 is going to take cues from The Batman. Younger, handsomer actor like Pattinson, and maybe chasing Matt Reeves like directors for the new films in that actor's tenure.

Maybe but The Batman is very very dark. Why should they go that way? I rather see a more adventurous 007 next.

A young handsome lead will be good. It's very likely to happen.
I'm on it as long as it's the actor isn't as brooding as Pattinson but can have a little fun with the character.

I think MCU will be some inspiration. How?
The Earth-based stuff, I mean.
Skip the sorcery, skip the cosmic angle, skip the mighty superpowers. Use what's left!
Then we get some highly trained agents on missions. Gadgets will work to some extent (but not as crazy as a flying metal suit)
There can also be a political element, like in Cap 2.

Some parts of Black Widow's solo outing feels like something of a Bond film. Do I even need to mention the villain's high tech lair?

This is not the type of Bond film people here want to see. Just reading this post will give them nightmares about Moonraker and Die Another Day, lol
Will there ever be that kind of Bond adventure again?

 

[Doctor Jones]

All of them are really talented actors so they would have handled the role in a good way.

I wouldn't say they're boring choices. I can imagine Clive Owen, for example, to be a quite physical 007 (if he and the director agreed on that).
The actors that don't have the classic (pre-reboot) Bond look would give the film a special feel compared to the previous adventures (which in fact Craig also did). I'm referring to Guy Pearce and Jude Law. The two would have played a somewhat untraditional Bond in terms of appearance.

But Jason Isaacs then, he had the true classic Bond look.
That doesn't mean he would portray the 00-agent that way. Maybe he would hade done something different with the character?

Ewan McGregor? I can't see him going for something that's overly action-packed if it's also a super serious story. He is not edgy enough.
Guess his version would be more elegant, soft-spoken and laid-back than even Brosnan.
(haha, now I feel I'm also dissing Sangster, lol, but I am not)
What I mean is that Ewan wouldn't suit anything close to the Craig films or Dalton's LTK. But he would really have fit perfectly in something more entertaining, like The Spy Who Loved Me. That style will make him shine in front of the camera..
I know these kind of spectacles aren't liked by everybody. But they're not all bad films. We just need to be in the right mood for them.

I will be happy to be proven wrong here regarding the actor. I haven't seen that many of his films.
He's a kind of actor that excels at a certain style. Can I mention Michael Bay's The Island? It felt like McGregor drowned in the explosive car chase which was made totally in the director's typical way. But he was better in more calm scenes.
It could be that I also base this opinion too much on his performance in Mortdecai which I saw several years ago. The agent he portrayed there was really über-british, if I remember correctly.
As we see in the picture below, he's also clean cut and well-dressed.
It was a true Ewan McGregor character.

Oh, God, Clive Owen and Jason Isaacs would have been perfect.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Maybe but The Batman is very very dark. Why should they go that way? I rather see a more adventurous 007 next.

A young handsome lead will be good. It's very likely to happen.
I'm on it as long as it's the actor isn't as brooding as Pattinson but can have a little fun with the character.

I think MCU will be some inspiration. How?
The Earth-based stuff, I mean.
Skip the sorcery, skip the cosmic angle, skip the mighty superpowers. Use what's left!
Then we get some highly trained agents on missions. Gadgets will work to some extent (but not as crazy as a flying metal suit)
There can also be a political element, like in Cap 2.

Some parts of Black Widow's solo outing feels like something of a Bond film. Do I even need to mention the villain's high tech lair?

This is not the type of Bond film people here want to see. Just reading this post will give them nightmares about Moonraker and Die Another Day, lol
Will there ever be that kind of Bond adventure again?

I think people are down for a fun Bond movie. But Black Widow is definitely not the way to go (or Moonraker or Die Another Day for that matter lol). The first Kingsman in tone (PG-13 version) would be a fun modern take where it can be high adventure but with well done filmmaking.

 

[Drizzle]

I'm curious to see the direction they go with the next Bond movie because maybe I'm being narrow-minded but to me it feels like they've explored everything they could with the character regardless of who's playing him. After all, the franchise has been around for 60 years. The only drastic change I can think of is if they give it an R-rating but in the end how different would that be from Kingsman if they go with a lighter tone than the Craig movies?

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Maybe but The Batman is very very dark. Why should they go that way? I rather see a more adventurous 007 next.

A young handsome lead will be good. It's very likely to happen.
I'm on it as long as it's the actor isn't as brooding as Pattinson but can have a little fun with the character.

I think MCU will be some inspiration. How?
The Earth-based stuff, I mean.
Skip the sorcery, skip the cosmic angle, skip the mighty superpowers. Use what's left!
Then we get some highly trained agents on missions. Gadgets will work to some extent (but not as crazy as a flying metal suit)
There can also be a political element, like in Cap 2.

Some parts of Black Widow's solo outing feels like something of a Bond film. Do I even need to mention the villain's high tech lair?

This is not the type of Bond film people here want to see. Just reading this post will give them nightmares about Moonraker and Die Another Day, lol
Will there ever be that kind of Bond adventure again?

I was mostly referring to the type of actor they might cast (a more Robert Pattinson type) or a Matt Reeves equivalent for a director. I wasn't talking about replicating the tone, necessarily.

What The Batman did was modernize things (The Riddler live streams his crimes as opposed to sending a tape to the news or hijacking the TV signal like older Batman stories), but it also brought back a more gothic and film noir type of Gotham and style of storytelling. It didn't reinvent the wheel on Batman, but it modernized his world to make it more relatable to ours.

I can see the Bond producers wanting to do the same with the franchise.

I'm curious to see the direction they go with the next Bond movie because maybe I'm being narrow-minded but to me it feels like they've explored everything they could with the character regardless of who's playing him. After all, the franchise has been around for 60 years. The only drastic change I can think of is if they give it an R-rating but in the end how different would that be from Kingsman if they go with a lighter tone than the Craig movies?

I think focusing on "being original" can be a dangerous trap to fall into. Afterall, The Batman didn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but still felt very much like a modern take on Batman while still keeping a lot of the classic elements.

 

[-Arya-]

I'm curious to see the direction they go with the next Bond movie because maybe I'm being narrow-minded but to me it feels like they've explored everything they could with the character regardless of who's playing him. After all, the franchise has been around for 60 years. The only drastic change I can think of is if they give it an R-rating but in the end how different would that be from Kingsman if they go with a lighter tone than the Craig movies?

Skyfall said everything that needed to be said with Bond in the modem age. My preference would be to go with Old Man Bond who’s long retired and has to come back into action. Nobody would do something like that though.

 

[Drizzle]

Skyfall said everything that needed to be said with Bond in the modem age. My preference would be to go with Old Man Bond who’s long retired and has to come back into action. Nobody would do something like that though.

Unpopular opinion but I'd watch an Old Man Bond with Brosnan. He deserved a better last outing than Die Another Day.

 

[-Arya-]

Unpopular opinion but I'd watch an Old Man Bond with Brosnan. He deserved a better last outing than Die Another Day.

Hell Yes

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Skyfall said everything that needed to be said with Bond in the modem age. My preference would be to go with Old Man Bond who’s long retired and has to come back into action. Nobody would do something like that though.

The problem is that the "modern age" changes. Skyfall came out during the Obama administration, and a lot has happened in the world since then.

This is why they will never run out of stories to tell for Bond movies.

 

[-Arya-]

The problem is that the "modern age" changes. Skyfall came out during the Obama administration, and a lot has happened in the world since then.

This is why they will never run out of stories to tell for Bond movies.

It’s not *that* different. We still have the same issues with technology and surveillance now just as we did a decade ago.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

It’s not *that* different. We still have the same issues with technology and surveillance now just as we did a decade ago.

Brexit
The rise of authoritarianism around the world
online radicalization

No Time To Die already kind of gave us an Old Man Bond story (Craig Bond retires, is forced out of retirement, has to play a father figure to a little girl, and has to make a heroic sacrifice at the end). Skyfall kind of tells an Old Man Bond story too, with the whole "Its a young man's game" and "we've both been playing it long enough" stuff. What would a Brosnan version of that do differently?

 

[Gold Samurai]

I remember all the crazy rumors about who would be the next Bond. The UK tabloids are the worst.

They'd have names thrown out like Robbie Williams or someone C level star just to make a buck. It's worse than the Superman casting rumors.

Unpopular opinion but I'd watch an Old Man Bond with Brosnan. He deserved a better last outing than Die Another Day.

Damn the logic. He deserves his "Andrew Garfield" moment.

Q invents a machine that can cross universes and Brosnan pops out with Moneypenny throwing a cigar at him to make sure he's real

Moneypenny- I thought you have reflexes

Bond- I do...just not for cigars.

 

[Silvermoth]

It’s funny people are talking about the perils of technology. My pitch for a Bond movie would be Q’s mentor goes megalomaniacal and Bond and Q have to take them down. The mentor is played by Kate Winslet and includes locations such as Seoul, Estonia and Chengdu

 

[Airwings]

Damn, Bale. Well, glad he didn’t take the role then instead of playing it once and jumping ship like Lazenby or spending years trying to get out of a multi-film contract.

We can't be sure if he first signed a contract for several films, but then changing his mind and wanting to leave before the contract was fulfilled..
Why would he agree to play a role he wasn't interested in?

Personally I think he would have done as he did with Nolanverse: stick around for a trilogy.
Compare it with Craig walking away from 007 after Skyfall.

I think he would be good in the role but I'm glad he rejected it. That way it resulted in us having both the best Batman and the best Bond at the same time.

Well, we'll never know if Christian Bale would have been "best Bond".
If I had a time machine, then I could go back and change the past

 

[Airwings]

I think you are overstressing the brutish elements, just as others are over stressing the gentleman aspect. Bond was never really "brutish", that is a bit of revisionist history from people trying to justify Craig's less orthodox looks. Bond has always been a gentleman adventurer in the classic British imperialist model, hence all of the comparisons to Saint George in the books. But gentleman in the Fleming sense is not necessarily one of manners, but one of station and social class. Bond is described as handsome throughout the books. When Vesper compares Bond to Hoagy Carmichael (who was a heartthrob singer), it is in the sense that he is good looking and manly like Carmichael, but she differentiates him on his coldness of personality and bearing. The cruel mouth and cold grey eyes. Bond is also a little darker of skin than your typical white Englishman of the 1950s/60s given the tan Bond picked up on his adventures.

Dalton was pretty much perfect in terms of having the look that Fleming described. While not as close to the book description in terms of physical details, Connery had that exact same blend of rugged attractiveness and cold, detached personality.

They have aged out of the role now, but the likes of Michael Fassbender, Aidan Turner, and others in that mold would have been perfect 5-10 years ago.

Bold text: I believe you're right.
Now there are some people that are so in love with Craig's Bond so they want the next actor to portray the "same" version

 

[Airwings]

Please find a director who has read (all of) the novels and really/truly loves Bond as a character and his world.

Wouldn't that be limiting the alternatives a lot?
How many among the directors who have entered the business during the last 10-15 years, have read every one of Fleming's old spy novels?

Oh, God, Clive Owen and Jason Isaacs would have been perfect.

They would, but also a couple of the other names could have suited the role very well.

 

[DKDetective]

Oh, God, Clive Owen and Jason Isaacs would have been perfect.

Before Craig was cast, as a teen who had just read the Fleming novels, Clive Owen was my personal fancast in 2004/5. There was a lot of fan support for him in the role given his performance in Croupier:

He very much had that Hoagy Carmichael look that Fleming described. However, looks are not everything and we got very lucky with Craig. As much as Owen is more of the literary Bond's spitting image, I think Craig is both a better actor and has more of the charismatic "star" quality. Owen was also already verging on too old being 41 when Casino Royale was shot in 2005.

 

[Iceman]

He does have a very good look for Bond, yeah.

 

[Filmfreak]

Well, we'll never know if Christian Bale would have been "best Bond".
If I had a time machine, then I could go back and change the past

Um, sure, but I didn't say that. I said him not taking the role resulted into us ending up with both the best Batman (Bale) and the best Bond (Craig).

 

[Doctor Jones]

Before Craig was cast, as a teen who had just read the Fleming novels, Clive Owen was my personal fancast in 2004/5. There was a lot of fan support for him in the role given his performance in Croupier:

He very much had that Hoagy Carmichael look that Fleming described. However, looks are not everything and we got very lucky with Craig. As much as Owen is more of the literary Bond's spitting image, I think Craig is both a better actor and has more of the charismatic "star" quality. Owen was also already verging on too old being 41 when Casino Royale was shot in 2005.

He's excellent in Croupier. For me it's apples and oranges. But I do think Owen is just as skilled in his own way. He's more like Dalton who really can do the hard boiled thing really well and can convey the more book accurate Bond. Craig has that magical combo of the fidelity of the source material but having that movie star charisma that you're referring to like Connery did. I think Owen would have been a great Bond if they went in a slightly different direction for CR.