posted
With the announcement of the cast of the latest James Bond movie, I thought it would be a good time to start a thread. Just me musing on some stuff, feel free to join in (and expand it past just Casino Royale).
For those who haven't heard:
Daniel Craig as James Bond An interesting choice, mainly because he’s a lot rougher than most expect of James Bond. He has the Fleming eyes though, and from what I’ve seen him in he can be quite charismatic when he wants to (Munich, Layer Cake). Should be able to portray the justified arrogance which has made James Bond a cinema icon.
Eva Green as Vesper Lynd French lass with a very exotic look; Bernardo Bertolucci's described her as “so beautiful it’s indecent.” She won much acclaim for her role in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers and was apparently good in Kingdom of Heaven (which I haven’t seen), though a lot of her screen time ended on the cutting room floor (I’ve heard Fox cut almost an hour of what Ridley Scott wanted).
Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre While he breaks from the book’s description (he’s not overweight, hairy or sweaty) he has a great stare and villainous look. He has won many Danish awards and was underused in a very “meh” King Arthur (he was Tristan…the guy with the hawk). Looking forward to him making Auric Goldfinger seem like a loving father.
Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter “A black Felix? Hey, it worked in Never Say Never Again.” A very cool casting decision, as Wright is apparently a really great actor. He’s won a Golden Globe and nabbed a Tony in the Broadway production of Angels in America. I’ve only seen him in the beginning of The Manchurian Candidate where he had a small but good role, but I’m hoping that he’s been signed to a multi-film deal (it’s nice that Felix is back).
Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis I couldn’t think of a better face to deliver one of my favourite bits of dialogue ever written by Ian Fleming (and one I pray they retained in the movie): “Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.” He laughed. “But don’t let me down and become human yourself. We would lose such a wonderful machine.” I’ve never seen him in anything but he’s well known in Italy and a friend has told me that he was great in Hannibal.
As far as the script goes, Casino Royale is the last Fleming novel to officially be made into a movie (the previous Casino Royale – a truly terrible movie – was a spoof) and so has the basis which the best bond movies had (my quick top five: 1. From Russia With Love 2. Goldfinger 3. Thunderball 4. Dr. NO 5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service). Director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, The Mask of Zorro) has said that a little over the last half of the movie will be pretty much the book, with the first act being original.
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are the writers on this, and while I liked their work on The World Is Not Enough, the dialogue they wrote for Die Another Day strongly contributed to it being such a terrible movie (I don’t care if they were told to write like that, nothing excuses: Guy randomly walks up. “Hello, I’m Mister Kil.” “Now there’s a name to kill for.” Guy randomly walks away). Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) has been doing the rewrites on the script though, and apparently there is going to be a movement back to the intelligent Connery quips and less of the Roger Moore cheesiness. Shocking. Positively shocking.
If anyone wants to spoil themselves, Latino Review has done an early review of the first act.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to it, and after compiling all that for you guys, the least you could do is tell me how you feel.
Is Bond dead? Re-Bourne?
Discuss.
[ February 17, 2006, 07:29 PM: Message edited by: Lord Solar Macharius ]
Posts: 254 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I've decided to just embrace my latent dislike of Bond. It's only any good on a bank holiday when it's raining outside and there's nothing better to do. The last film was so painfully bad (esp. the water ski-ing scene), that anything they do this time around will probably be better.
I do like how scary looking Daniel Craig is. A blond Bond, though? I don't know about his acting as I've never seen him in action. I hope he can bring something cool and new to the role.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I personally dislike a lot of Bond movies, mostly from the Roger Moore era. The good ones (ie. the ones worth watching) are from the sixties. The books are also generally pretty interesting, though Fleming had said that Casino Royale was really the only one where he had anything to say.
Posts: 254 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Bought a stack of Ian Flemming's Bond thrillers the other day from my library for about a quarter each. I plan to start reading Casino Royale pretty soon. =)
Posts: 722 | Registered: Jul 2004
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