Posted on 12/02/2004 6:32:50 PM PST by aculeus
A leading black actor, 6ft 4in Colin Salmon, emerged last night as a front-runner to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in the next 007 adventure.
Noted for a deep, commanding voice, the 41-year-old actor already has a recurring role in the Bond series as Charles Robinson, M's suave chief-of-staff.
The chance to promote him, while startling, would not be unexpected. The Broccoli family, who are casting the film, the 21st in the series, are said to fear that the films have become anachronistic.
They told Brosnan they wanted to "go in a new direction".
Initially, this was taken to mean that they were turning away from the special effects and high-tech gadgetry to update Casino Royale, Ian Fleming's first Bond book.
The feeling is that despite the vast profits from the last movie, Barbara Broccoli, whose father Cubby made the early Bonds, and Michael Wilson, her step-brother and partner at Eon Productions, are anxious to make a more hard-boiled thriller.
Speculation about Salmon, who was born in Luton, stems from a sudden rush of unusually large bets on him. Warren Lush, a spokesman for Ladbrokes, said yesterday: "They have come out of nowhere, with sums like £500 apiece. These are huge bets for what is really a novelty wager.
"The suspicion is they may be being placed by people, or spies out there, in the know. So we have temporarily closed the book on the next Bond, as we don't want to get out fingers burned."
Until now, the favourite was Dougray Scott, whose play, Becket, closes in London's West End in a fortnight. Ewan McGregor was also a runner until he accepted his latest stage role.
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Dalton was the role. Connery is the ultimate, but for a believeable Bond....Dalton.
"Experienced, rested, tanned and available!" And already has a license to kill.
Yes he was in that and yes, he is quite good. He was a cop and Jane Mirren's lover. on Prime Suspect.
He has nothing in common -- other than skin color -- with various African-American actors mentioned on the thread.
You think Timothy Dalton was HOT. You really aren't in a position to judge!
We might pass that compliment on to Sean. I'm sure he'll be glad to hear it.
I think.
Helen Mirren?
:-)
Why not Bill Murray as 007? He can play it a little psycho-edgy. We're not quite sure if he is entirely sane and he laughs hysterically when he takes on the evil-doers. Would like to see Bill go into Pakistan and hunt down Bin Laden, taking out scores of terrorists in the process, all the while cracking wise.
I love Sean Connery, Moore was OK (and I grew up with Moore being Bond), Brosnan is good and I think Timothy Dalton did a pretty good job, as well.
My husband is a Bond fanatic. We have all the movies and have seen them umpteen times. And while I like Colin Salmon in the role he already plays, I can't see him as Bond. But then Judi Dench as "M" took me a movie or two to get used to. However, John Cleese seems to be a good replacement for Desmond Lewellyn as "Q".
One of the stations had Bond movies on for two days straight at Thanksgiving. I think we saw, "The World is Not Enough" three times (which definitely IS enough)!
"Lamont Bond." LOL LOL Way too funny!
There's a book out on the Bond franchise. Everything you may or may have wanted to know about it.
According to them (during book promotion tour), the Bond storyline went South when Fleming
sold the rights, and the producers sacrificed story for gadgets.
As the article indicated, the producers want to reverse the trend, that is more story, less gadgets.
Somehow, casting a black Bond is like a product flair, such as "The Wiz".
Casting a black Bond will also draw attention from the story AND the money the producers
saved in coming up with special effects and new gadgets. And probably, writers.
The Bond cachet ended with "Diamonds are Forever", IMHO.
I though I heard not long ago Jackman was being considered. Did you hear that, too?
Come on you have to understand...James is what all of us men hope to be instead of programmers, managers, accountants, lawyers, etc. So, we all hope women see us as Sean and not Tim...understand.
Cool, let's do a movie where a white man plays Martin Luther King or Malcolm X and see how far PC gets without starting riots.. Unbelievable.
I never knew you were into archeaology...lol.
Based on the article (I haven't seen the later films) yes.
BTW I am amazed at the popularity of this article. Must be a slow news night.
.
Nothing much after Thunderball is worth buying the DVD.
Damn straight I'm married...check out my bank account at the end of every month...$0.00 where did the money go...I have not idea...but there is a new pair of high-heels lying around here somewhere...
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