Washington Post: Here’s what we’re missing when we discuss Idris Elba and James Bond

[Totenkindly]

She pulled it off. Sort of a return to more traditional Shirley Bassey styled themes. Apparently Amy Winehouse would've been the producers' likely choice if she hadn't croaked.

Could have been interesting. It's always a crapshoot.

For example, while Jack White and Alicia keys are considered decent artists, their cut for Quantum takes a lot of hate. But that's because they did something that sounded really different.

I might be going out on a limb, but it seems like the Bond fan base is kind of traditionalist actually. Songs that play into that tend to do better; songs that don't use the original branding fare less well. The one song I can think of that both follows AND breaks the mold and yet is considered one of the best Bond songs ever is "Live and Let Die" by McCartney.

(Few people really discuss Octopussy's "All Time High" either... it was big on the radio at the time, but I think it's skipped over a lot today.)

Anyway, it's why there's always crap too when the role gets recast.

I have major issues with the Abramsverse, but the new cast is not one of those issues. They did the jobs they were hired to do.

The cast is pretty stellar IMO.

I was shocked at how well the new cast channeled the old cast, even if they didn't quite look the same. Pine's creepy -- he even got the swagger and the voice nuance correct. Urban didn't even look like Kelley, but he got the voice tone / attitude down.

 

[Qlip]

Man, why do you geeks have to always multiverse things? Not everything fits together, deal with it.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Could have been interesting. It's always a crapshoot.

For example, while Jack White and Alicia keys are considered decent artists, their cut for Quantum takes a lot of hate.

I might be going out on a limb, but it seems like the Bond fan base is kind of traditionalist actually. Songs that play into that tend to do better; songs that don't use the original branding fare less well. The one song I can think of that both follows AND breaks the mold and yet is considered one of the best Bond songs ever is "Live and Let Die" by McCartney.

Anyway, it's why there's always crap too when the role gets recast.



The cast is pretty stellar IMO.

I was shocked at how well the new cast channeled the old cast, even if they didn't quite look the same. Pine's creepy -- he even got the swagger and the voice nuance correct. Urban didn't even look like Kelley, but he got the voice tone / attitude down.

I liked both the Jack White.Alicia Keys one (though the movie itself was meh) song and the Chris Cornell one.

 

[Totenkindly]

Man, why do you geeks have to always multiverse things? Not everything fits together, deal with it.

No.


... actually, I like Abram's take. Although I was pissed at Into Darkness on first viewing. The movie comes across better if you forget ever watching The Wrath of Khan.

I liked both the Jack White.Alicia Keys one (though the movie itself was meh) song and the Chris Cornell one.

Quantum was pretty meh as a movie.

I'm a big fan of Cornell's song -- but again, I think it sounds like a Bond song, it got the audial branding correct. I deal fine with "Another Way to Die" nowadays, but I actually had to listen to it about twenty times (it was on my Bond playlist) before I took to it.

 

[Qlip]

No.

I will rebut by providing evidence that Bond is not a timelord. He only lives twice.

 

[Totenkindly]

I will rebut by providing evidence that Bond is not a timelord. He only lives twice.

Maybe he didn't become a spy until he was on Life 11-12!

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'm a big fan of Cornell's song -- but again, I think it sounds like a Bond song, it got the audial branding correct. I deal fine with "Another Way to Die" nowadays, but I actually had to listen to it about twenty times (it was on my Bond playlist) before I took to it.

I was disappointed in it at first despite being a Jack White fanboi because I didn't think Alicia Keys's style fit, but now I think it works wonderfully.

A door left open, a woman walking by
A drop in the water, a look in the eye
A phone on the table, a man on your side
Or someone that you think that you can trust
It's just another way to die

 

[Qlip]

Maybe he didn't become a spy until he was on Life 11-12!

Just wait until they hand both the Doctor Who and Bond franchise to J.J. Abrams, then your faith will be rewarded beyond your imagination.
I'll just let go of it now...

 

[Totenkindly]

Doctor Who / Star Trek / Star Wars / James Bond / Terminator / Harry Potter / Hunger Games Mashup.... December 2020.


(yes, there's another way to die.)

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Could have been interesting. It's always a crapshoot.

For example, while Jack White and Alicia keys are considered decent artists, their cut for Quantum takes a lot of hate. But that's because they did something that sounded really different.

I might be going out on a limb, but it seems like the Bond fan base is kind of traditionalist actually. Songs that play into that tend to do better; songs that don't use the original branding fare less well. The one song I can think of that both follows AND breaks the mold and yet is considered one of the best Bond songs ever is "Live and Let Die" by McCartney.

(Few people really discuss Octopussy's "All Time High" either... it was big on the radio at the time, but I think it's skipped over a lot today.)

Anyway, it's why there's always crap too when the role gets recast.

I like when traditional meets contemporary in the music and films. "A View To A Kill" and "Live And Let Die" are good examples of this in the theme songs and John Barry's blend of his classic 60's brassy style with (then) newer-sounding synth beats in The Living Daylights score foreshadowed what composer David Arnold would try in the 90s Bonds with his techno-orchestra mashup.

The cast is pretty stellar IMO.

I was shocked at how well the new cast channeled the old cast, even if they didn't quite look the same. Pine's creepy -- he even got the swagger and the voice nuance correct. Urban didn't even look like Kelley, but he got the voice tone / attitude down.

I especially love Karl Urban as McCoy



I also can't confirm Amy Winehouse was in the running, but it seems to have been a popular rumor for a while and apparently David Arnold had expressed strong interest in working with her, although it would've been Thomas Newman working with her had she lived to work on the Skyfall theme. I think Arnold wanted to work with her on Quantum but the producers chose White and Keys. I really hated that song.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I like the Chris Cornell song. Good melody and his voice is a decent match to the style.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I think the problem with ALL TIME HIGH is the singer and the instrumentation. The melody itself is quite lovely. There was a decent cover version with Jarvis Cocker on vocals
I'm always a bit biased to anything John Barry had a hand in composing.

 

[kyuuei]

She's dead.

Obviously you're not a true Bond aficionado!

PS. No one disproved that Bond is actually a Time Lord.

I haven't kept up with the Craig saga here, Quantum of Solace was so awful I couldn't get through the first 20 minutes of it.. and I'm not the person that quits on movies and I AM the person that watches "Thankskilling" during Thanksgiving.

Still, I find it pretty impossible to believe he can't be used.


[MENTION=19700]Starcrash[/MENTION]

First, jeeeeezus christ that was an awesome breakdown and thanks for that.

This theory debunking only works if you exclude the idea that anyone can take on this mantle at any time. Saying the 007 is the code name already works great.... but I was more thinking the idea was they are OBVIOUSLY not the same person each and every time. Lots of gadgets? Sure. Time lord that uses cliche's like 'I can't interfere with time and stop bad guys before they murder innocents because it doesn't make me look as cool'? Doubt it. What seems far more plausible to me is one of two things: that they take on the mantle of the person themselves....

(A spy getting trained to memorize the background of their predecessors (especially something as easily remembered as "you used to have a wife, she died") seems far more reasonable than "James Bond is magically younger, also we've known about time travel this whole time, Also that time we were trying to fire Daniel Craig for being a rogue spy in that one movie was pretty worrisome because you know, time travel in the hands of a potential rogue spy." I don't see it as much. )

.... Ooorrr that they make the Bond name a code identity in and of itself sometime after the saga of dudes-that-all-look-semi-the-same-but-not-really-but-it's-passable-because-hollywood.

What REALLY makes me exclude the time lord thing is this: You really don't need to be a total bad ass and do crazy stunts last minute if you're a time lord. It makes the whole EVERYTHING badass that he does seem so silly when he could have just identified his target, gone through just enough to figure out his location at a particular time, and gone back in time and replayed the scenario in such a way where he can take the dude out with a sniper rifle or something.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I haven't kept up with the Craig saga here, Quantum of Solace was so awful I couldn't get through the first 20 minutes of it.. and I'm not the person that quits on movies and I AM the person that watches "Thankskilling" during Thanksgiving.

Still, I find it pretty impossible to believe he can't be used.


[MENTION=19700]Starcrash[/MENTION]

First, jeeeeezus christ that was an awesome breakdown and thanks for that.

This theory debunking only works if you exclude the idea that anyone can take on this mantle at any time. Saying the 007 is the code name already works great.... but I was more thinking the idea was they are OBVIOUSLY not the same person each and every time. Lots of gadgets? Sure. Time lord that uses cliche's like 'I can't interfere with time and stop bad guys before they murder innocents because it doesn't make me look as cool'? Doubt it. What seems far more plausible to me is one of two things: that they take on the mantle of the person themselves....

(A spy getting trained to memorize the background of their predecessors (especially something as easily remembered as "you used to have a wife, she died") seems far more reasonable than "James Bond is magically younger, also we've known about time travel this whole time, Also that time we were trying to fire Daniel Craig for being a rogue spy in that one movie was pretty worrisome because you know, time travel in the hands of a potential rogue spy." I don't see it as much. )

.... Ooorrr that they make the Bond name a code identity in and of itself sometime after the saga of dudes-that-all-look-semi-the-same-but-not-really-but-it's-passable-because-hollywood.

What REALLY makes me exclude the time lord thing is this: You really don't need to be a total bad ass and do crazy stunts last minute if you're a time lord. It makes the whole EVERYTHING badass that he does seem so silly when he could have just identified his target, gone through just enough to figure out his location at a particular time, and gone back in time and replayed the scenario in such a way where he can take the dude out with a sniper rifle or something.

That adds a whole new dimension to the codename theory. Perhaps some shady cold war era mind-control/brainwashing would be used to help new Bonds take on the persona.

The time lord comment I made in my post was really more of a joke and not intended seriously; myself having seen other people make that suggestion, both jokingly and seriously--it was just a nod to other geeks who over-analyze films. (Incidentally, Timothy Dalton played a time lord in Doctor Who, so who knows? )

 

[ceecee]

I came across this earlier...

Next James Bond Actor - Who Will Be the Next James Bond Actor?

While I love the idea of Idris Elba, he'll be 43 in a few days. Even he feels that time is past. No Michael Fassbender either and they're betting on Tom Hardy but there are other ideas. Scrolling through that list, I found a few I had never considered. One I love is Rodrigo Santoro. He isn't typecast since he's barely recognizable as Xerxes in the 300 movies. However, he is playing Jesus in the Ben Hur reboot so..I don't know. I like Rupert Friend as a possibility too.