Previous Debate: Will there ever be another Roger Moore-like Bond?

Pretty simple question, but one I find interesting. Will it happen? Why or why not? Could they ever get away with another Moore-like Bond? Would they ever want to? Or was Moore 'legend', and no-one could do his Bond better?

What say you, Bond and Beyond?

I would vote "maybe" because who knows what the future holds, but I think not.
I think Roger Moore's Bond was something that was made for the 70s. Totally camp, silly sexual, and over the top fun. It just wouldn't fit in with today's culture.
That said, everything comes back, right? Who's to say we won't have a Bond like that again?

I certainly hope not, Moore was an ok Bond but nothing great.

The way things are I don't think they'll be another Moore or another Moore-style Bond film. So I guess the vote is...No.

I would vote "maybe," too.

It's difficult enough to predict three years into the future let alone into the infinite void.

With the latest "dark and gritty" trend amongst popular blockbuster heroes, the Moore-esque Bond is gone for good.

In the meantime, EON will continue to convince audiences that James Bond is a now a character with deep feelings and politically correct ways, despite only being able to smash peoples' faces into walls and grin during grim scenarios.

I can't see them adopting the Moore approach again. He captured the zeitgeist of the 70's quite well although he took the character to a pastiche level from the Connery and Lazenby era.

I don't see his interpretation being repeated, certainly not under Babs and MGW.

I went with no for the simple reason that Moore is Moore and owns his particular type of Bond performance and untouchable English gentleman accent in a way which would be very difficult to top. They tried it anyway to some degree with the Brosnan films, but with a half-American leading man, a composer merely dishing out lame pastiches of the killer tunes Rog moved to, a slew of one-liners which just seemed like lame variations of better lines used with Rog, a lack of exciting new ground for the series to conquer and the female-friendly agenda of the producer, Brozzer's partial Rog recreation never stood a chance of matching the real thing. And future Rog imitators will suffer the same fate.

The Brosnan type Bond will return, I'd guess, but it will again be more a case of a new actor incorporating a fair bit of Rog imitation into his act rather than a full-on return to stuff like double-taking pigeons and California Girls providing classic humour, as the cinematic landscape nowadays is just too bloody sour for anyone to ever have the balls nor the wit to bring that kind of stuff back to Bond. Rog will never be topped at what he did best as Bond. Hell, even some of his more serious moments have been tough to top since he left.

So, in short, they'll return to elements of Moore's repertoire, but they won't go the whole hog with it.

Quote :

So, in short, they'll return to elements of Moore's repertoire, but they won't go the whole hog with it

Quite. Though I think a lot of this is do with how women are seen in today's society as well. During his reign, many of his women were easily conquered, and they seemed to play on that. These days, unfortunately with the likes of Green's Vesper, it may be harder to return to such a light hearted, sleazy characterization of Bond that Moore developed, without offending the feminists and whoever else may be sensitive for one stupid reason or another.

Currently the attitude is towards these dark, brooding, angsty heroes -- within that trend I don't see a Moore-esque Bond returning, but who knows? You can't predict popular trends. If camp comes back, maybe a more jokey Bond will to.

I'm guessing there'll be a more jocular and light-hearted Bond film eventually. Emo-Bond and his meddlesome M-other won't last forever. Many critics who were fond of CR expressed the view that QOS took the dark n' gritty angle too far. So while the uniquely 70's Moore-isms won't be there, there'll still be a Bond film one day that, hopefully, doesn't take itself too seriously.

Indeed, these things run in cycles. Babs' EON is nothing if not adept at following trends. I wouldn't be surprised if we got an OTT comic book style Bond designed to appeal/compete with the Zach Snyder/Frank Miller/Michael Bay milleau.

It's interesting to note that arguably the only film since Moore's tenure to go as 'OTT' as his movies (DAD) feels obliged to have Bond imprisoned and tortured for 14 months (and have M tell him she regards him as a liability as a result) before it gets to the outrageous stuff.

No, I don't think so. Light-hearted elements will surely return some day, but not a Moore-calibre Bond. He's too unique. I actually can't think of a single Hollywood actor with as much tongue-in-cheek irony and grace as Moore.

Might be worth asking whether people would take a Moore style Bond film next time around over something similar to Quantum Of Solace, given the lukewarm response to that film.

Would people actually welcome a return to the Moore type of Bond film over what we currently have?

M wrote:

Might be worth asking whether people would take a Moore style Bond film next time around over something similar to Quantum Of Solace, given the lukewarm response to that film.

Would people actually welcome a return to the Moore type of Bond film over what we currently have?

After QOS, I'd certainly like to see a Bond film that's pure entertainment and doesn't take itself too seriously. It doesn't have to be slapstick or a full blown comedy, but a liberal dose of wit and joviality wouldn't go astray. Let's leave the melodrama and psychobabble at the door and just have a hedonistic secret agent going after the bad guys in exotic locations.

Pat on the back to Louis Armstrong for asking such an easily answered question.

Lazenby. wrote:

stuff like double-taking pigeons and California Girls providing classic humour, as the cinematic landscape nowadays is just too bloody sour for anyone to ever have the balls nor the wit to bring that kind of stuff back to Bond.

I'm not sure many would consider that stuff 'classic humour'. =P But you're spot on with that second bit, things are too sour for a sillier Bond film... at least right now.

I don't know what to make of the Brosnan run. It's certainly the goofiest run outside of Moore's. But was it a genuine attempt at going back to that kind of Bond? Even though Purvis and Wade called Die Another Day their Moonraker, the two films really aren't that similar. No-one ever said 'we're going back to Moore here'. Brosnan wanted to be Connery, but instead came off like a second-rate Moore mixed with fourth-rate Dalton. It didn't help that the scripts he got were just about as even. Can a genuine cycle between Bonds be noted, or does one simply appear to exist? Obviously the series has gone overboard once in a while, then recovered (YOLT-OHMSS, MR-FYEO, AVTAK-TLD, DAD-CR). That's been well-established. But YOLT and DAD were hardly the Bond films Connery or Brosnan wanted to make. Will any new Bond ever find himself more at home in a MR than in a FYEO?

I'm tempted to think we're not going to have another Moore. I doubt anyone will ever sit down and say 'let's do a new age Moore film'. No, the films that directors want to emulate are the 60s entries, and the Bond that actors want to be is Connery. I just don't think Moore's approach is built into the series' DNA and will likely never be seen again as a valid take on the character.

But, as many have said - who knows?

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if we got an OTT comic book style Bond designed to appeal/compete with the Zach Snyder/Frank Miller/Michael Bay milleau.

This would be far from ideal, but I can think of worse things to happen. I think an adaption of Fleming's TSWLM would work well with that kind of film.

not on Babs watch?
Babs and co will follow the money, where ever it leads...

everything goes in cycles, so there will certainly be another "Bond-lite" like Roger Moore at some time in the future

but only "another Rog" in the sense that Pierce Brosnan was "another Rog"

there will only ever be one "Rog"
:king:
(and we really do need to find a "smiley" with a raised eyebrow)

Yes, but only because "ever" covers an awfully long period of time.

I don't think I can see another Moore type Bond.

Throw a Roger Moore type of character into a Craig type of film and you would just get a sloppy, uneven mess of a film. They could go back to the carefree, laid back, near parody thing....but since Austin Powers and all that I don't think anyone would take the Bond films seriously at all.

Perhaps the next Bond will be a little 'lighter' than Craig, but not to the point of Roger Moore.

That being said, Moore was anything but a clown (haha, Octopussy). He had his head on his shoulders and was serious when he needed to be. The funny thing is that I prefer his more elderly, subtle performances (FYEO, OP, AVTAK) than his earlier ones (LALD, TMWTGG).

But anyway, to answer the question: No, I do not think there will ever be a Moore type Bond again.

Then the question arises, however:

SHOULD there be another Moore-type Bond?

My Bond actor ratings go like this:

1. Sean Connery
2. Daniel Craig
3. Timothy Dalton
4. Pierce Brosnan (Who may switch with Roger Moore soon, we'll see....)
5. Roger Moore
6. George Lazenby

The thing is, however, I like all the Bond actors...all of them have been good in the role. So even though Moore and Lazenby are at the bottom, that does not mean I dislike them!

I think Roger Moore HIMSELF did a good job as Bond; it was the movies around him that were the problem. (See: Tanya Roberts, Beach Boys Music, Slide Whistle, George of the Jungle sound effect, all of The Man with the Golden Gun, Jaws falling in love, Magnificent Seven music, JW Pepper, that silly cop from A View to a Kill, Bibi Dahl etc.) The elements surrounding him were substandard...perhaps those elements had to do with Moore's involvement in the film but as far as performances strictly go, from The Spy Who Loved Me onwards, Roger Moore played James Bond well.

SJK91 wrote:

I think Roger Moore HIMSELF did a good job as Bond; it was the movies around him that were the problem. (See: Tanya Roberts, Beach Boys Music, Slide Whistle, George of the Jungle sound effect, all of The Man with the Golden Gun, Jaws falling in love, Magnificent Seven music, JW Pepper, that silly cop from A View to a Kill, Bibi Dahl etc.) The elements surrounding him were substandard...perhaps those elements had to do with Moore's involvement in the film but as far as performances strictly go, from The Spy Who Loved Me onwards, Roger Moore played James Bond well.

no perhaps about it

most of those elements would never have been there if Rog had not been on board

they reflect his often juvenile sense of humour, as increasingly displayed in the latter years of the Saint and during The Persuaders

OHDEARGAWDIHOPENOT! *shudder*

Didn't like him as Bond. At all.

No because Barbara Broccoli is a miserable pretentious hack who is obsessed with Daniel Craig. :D

It's possible that there will be a lighter bond after Craig departs.