Bond 25 (2019)

I think the lines between the two mediums are somewhat blurred now, with the likes of Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Night Manager, Stranger Things, Walking Dead, etc. feeling much more cinematic with their production values and superior writing.

Even Hiddleston has returned to television after appearing in some of the biggest blockbusters in recent years.

Now's the time for some true-to-Fleming period pieces in serial form.

Agreed... You could probably break each novel into two parts, then each season would be 6 episodes/3 novels.

I reckon even 1 novel per short-ish season (say 4-6 episodes) could work.

Yeah that would probably work better structurally. There really isn't a through line running from each novel, except for OHMSS-YOLT-TMWTGG perhaps.

Regardless, straight adaptations of the novels would be heaven.

The only difficulty may be in finding someone suitable to play James Bond...










































































Oh wait, no there wouldn't.

Nah, he's not blonde enough, hulking enough or resemble Putin enough.

FieldsMan wrote:

I think the lines between the two mediums are somewhat blurred now, with the likes of Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Night Manager, Stranger Things, Walking Dead, etc. feeling much more cinematic with their production values and superior writing.

Even Hiddleston has returned to television after appearing in some of the biggest blockbusters in recent years.

I can't believe I just saw "The Walking Dead" and "superior writing" in the same sentence.


I would definitely be up for a James Bond tv series based on Ian Fleming novels.

And I agree that Michael Fassbender would be the man to do it.

He recently said that he's not interested in playing him on the big screen -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37848263

Walecs wrote:

FieldsMan wrote:

I think the lines between the two mediums are somewhat blurred now, with the likes of Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Night Manager, Stranger Things, Walking Dead, etc. feeling much more cinematic with their production values and superior writing.

Even Hiddleston has returned to television after appearing in some of the biggest blockbusters in recent years.

I can't believe I just saw "The Walking Dead" and "superior writing" in the same sentence.


I would definitely be up for a James Bond tv series based on Ian Fleming novels.

And I agree that Michael Fassbender would be the man to do it.

To be honest, I haven't seen The Walking Dead, but I thought it rates just as highly as the other tv shows, hence my mentioning of it.

BI wrote:

He recently said that he's not interested in playing him on the big screen -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37848263

Please let it be a red herring.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

He recently said that he's not interested in playing him on the big screen -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37848263

Sometimes in life you need to step up and do things even if they don't interest you.

Well, I binge-watched THE NIGHT MANAGER over the weekend and was suitably impressed across the board.

I wouldn't say that it was a warm-up or an audition for 007, but there were moments in the film where I could hear Timothy Dalton come out of Hiddleston just a little bit. I think Hiddleston gives us something to work with.

To stay consistent with my beliefs that Craig was not the right look for 007, I'd have to turn Hiddleston down as well, because he's nothing like what Fleming described. But he's certainly more suave and sophisticated than Craig...less thuggish and brutish...and I could live with Hiddleston as Bond. Might even get me excited again for the series.

Still, first choice for Bond by a hair has to be Aidan Turner, but Hiddleston is a wholly acceptable alternative. I don't think James Norton could do it; I've seen too much of him in Grantchester and I'm just not buying him.

I wasn't sure if Hiddleston could pull off the 'ruthless' thing that Bond requires ... and then he killed poor old 'Corky' with his bare hands.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I wasn't sure if Hiddleston could pull off the 'ruthless' thing that Bond requires ... and then he killed poor old 'Corky' with his bare hands.

Was it just me or did THE NIGHT MANAGER seem like a loose-remake of LICENSE TO KILL?

Both films were centered around personal revenge; Bond avenges Felix's maiming and Della's murder (with Sophie being Night Manager's version of Della). Bond/Johnathan infiltrate the villain's criminal organizations and methodically go about trying to create chaos and get each member to turn against each other or put suspicion in the mind of the main villain to kill his employees. Both films have an ending involving tanker trucks and/or 18-wheeler freight trucks. In LTK Bond blows up the tankers one by one; in TNM Pine blows up the transports all at once.

Both films involve arms deals and henchmen to the main villain being suspicious of Bond/Pine.

Both films feature a tall, good-looking woman with a boyish haircut (though I have to admit, I thought TNM's Jed was going to turn out to be some sort of spy, but instead her character just sort of turned into....nothing). Comparing Pam to Jed is an apples-to-oranges situation.

I did like the use of locations on TNM. They didn't seem to fake anything from what I can tell. Would like to have seen maybe a bit more action sequences but I guess they were trying to keep it grounded in real life as best as possible.

I thought there was a fair bit that was 'Bondish' about TNM, but the LTK similarities didn't strike me at the time. Good spot, Gravy.

I saw the parallels, and was happy to find that Le Carre's novel was released after Licence to Kill was released.

Here's my first choice for lead Bond Girl in BOND 25: Sarah Gadon.









Right now I'm catching her in 11.22.63, the mini-series adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name.

She could melt a cheeseburger from across the room.

@Gravity I approve her!

I approve, also.

I'm watching Black Sails at the moment. I'd be more than happy if Hannah New is cast as a Bond girl.

FieldsMan wrote:

I approve, also.

If you do a Google Images search of her not every picture you find is Bond Girl-worthy. In some she kind of looks like a teenage girl. But the ones where she's really made up from head to toe (I'm assuming professional modeling shots) really take her to the next level.

She was one of the two better things I liked in "11.22.63" (the other being the guy who played Lee Harvey Oswald; I thought his performance was on the money; James Franco I didn't really care for, and the movie was a decent, thought not very inspiring, adaptation of the Stephen King novel).

I'd like to get back to where we have at least two Bond Girls per movie with decent roles and screen time. The Craig films have had 2 Girls per film, but one always seems to have the bigger role and the other one has a shockingly minute amount of screen time. Solange, Strawberry, Severin and Lucia all seem to have been in and out in about 5-7 minutes. It's truly been a case of the haves and have-nots.

I could see her more in the Kara Milovy type role; not sure if she could pull off a Fatima Blush or a Xenia Onatopp. Maybe Magda....or someone myserious, cold, or aloof. Maybe a Goodhead type character.

Hannah New would do well in a Anya Amasova/Natalya Simonova role. Or if she was a villain, perhaps Miranda Frost or Elektra King.

Posting here since a conversation has already started about the next Bond..... Though he has played a Bond villain (and arguably one of the worst ones), the idea of Toby Stephens becoming Bond #7 is really growing on me. As I've posted, I'm smashing out Black Sails at the moment, and Toby Stephens' performance is outstanding. A suitably nuanced, connected performance of a flawed character who is the right age and ethnicity for the character of Bond - not to mention that age has both matured and hardened him that he would really suit playing 007. And his voice has so much gravitas these days that it's no wonder that Fleming's estate keep calling him back for the radio plays.

Could a former villain play James Bond in the Eon series?

He's 47. Seems unlikely.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

He's 47. Seems unlikely.  

Exactly, even more so considering Bond movies now got a "3-4 year cycle". He will be 50 if not older when Bond 25 comes out.

I didn't know he was close to 50... The wonders of make up and good lighting I suppose...