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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I don't watch prime time TV so I don't know who he is.
On the contrary, Dirty Harry wasn't a cop totally devoid of any morals. Shaft may have been the black community's attempt to imitate the Harry Callahan character, but it doesn't even come close.
Well, it's certainly clear you've never touched an Ian Fleming novel.
"Thhhakennnnnnnn Not Sthhhuurrdddddddd"
Agreed. One of life's Dirty Little Secrets is how many black Africans cannot stand the stereotypical African-American. I've met Kenyans, for example, who spoke English with Brit accents, attended English style prep schools in Kenya and who were outraged by the "brothers" crap.
This guy could play Bond or any upper class Englishman with panache.
He's cute. He might make a good James Bond.
#346 looks gay.
A black James Bond isn't going to cut it.
If color is so important then why not have a 1/2 black and a 1/2 white guy?
Unfortunately, black folks in the USA themselves have bought into that image. Those who don't "keep it real" are ostracised and mocked as "Uncle Tom"s and "Oreos".
The best soundtrack of all
The best villain of all; who loves ya baby!
The best villain of all part II (women)..Irma Bunt
The best bond girl of all.Diana Rigg (yes his wife)
The best DVD audio commentary of all
The best car chase scene of all (on ice)
The best tearjerker of all (Tracy!)
The best opening line of all ("This never happened to the other fella")
OHMSS is in my most rewatched top 10 of all time
Here are the others!
Zulu
Assault on Precinct 13
Arsenic and old lace
The warriors
Once Upon A Time In America
Glory
The Long Good Friday
Predator II
The Sound of Music
"SNL joked about the idea of a black Bond a while ago. Tracy Morgan said he was "Lamont Bond."
I remember that and all his requirements for doing a Bond film. First thing was NO DOGS! I guess that James Bond would be afraid of dogs!
Big mistake. If they want to go in a new direction go with the character they have alreay developed for Mr Salmon. I would like to see a movie with that twist. In fact there have been several Bond characters that would be good followon movies. I predict loss of $$ on this decision.
That's Vanilla Ice, baby! LOL
No one will ever replace Sean Connery for me!
Because 007 isn't actually a real guy- it's an identity adopted by a series of British super-agents.
Is that from the coma episode?
"Sir, you have a threesome at 3, a foursome at 4 and sex with George Clooney at 5. I'm not here to judge."
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