Sony leaks reveal wants for Idris for next Bond

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/19/exclusive-sony-emails-reveal-studio-head-wants-idris-elba-for-the-next-james-bond.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page


After paragraphs of background info, there are two lines that explain the findings:

thedailybeast wrote:

It seems Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal is a big fan of the idea, too.

An email sent on January 4, 2014, from Pascal to Elizabeth Cantillon, former executive vice president of production for Columbia Pictures, which distributes the Bond films, simply says, “Idris should be the next bond.”

Someone get me a vomit bag.

I'd actually join bjmdds's new site "idriselbaisnotbond"

Reporter either lacks critical thinking skills or is being disingenuous. Pascal thinks Idris would make a good Bond. Something I'd wager is said about every remotely successful British actor in Hollywood at some point in their career. That's a far cry from what the headline says.

Who the hell is Idris Elba anyway?

I know! No fucking clue who he is. Wasn't there some talk of Colin Salmon potentially being Bond, and Brosnan backing him as well?

Wasn't there someone around here who knew something of Michael Fassbender getting the gig after Craig?

FieldsMan wrote:

Wasn't there someone around here who knew something of Michael Fassbender getting the gig after Craig?

Never knew, but at least now we're talking about a contender, I like him. He had some Bondian moments in X-Men First Class.

bitchcraft wrote:

FieldsMan wrote:

Wasn't there someone around here who knew something of Michael Fassbender getting the gig after Craig?

Never knew, but at least now we're talking about a contender, I like him. He had some Bondian moments in X-Men First Class.

Haven't seen X-Men, but his few scenes in Inglourious Basterds gave me a glimpse of what it could be like. Right build, right hair colour ( ), thin cruel lips like Fleming described, right age and great acting chops. I want Craig to finish up after SPECTRE just so Fassbender - if he is his successor - can start.

Fassbender would have been good but I think he's too famous at this point and too tied to other big names. I don't want Magneto to also be 007.

As for Idris Elba, no. He's obviously too old. I'm pretty sure he's Craig's age. It would just be stupid.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next Bond is black. Doubt it'll be Elba, though.

Charles Venn is British and has experience in spy films. Might not be a bad choice, but could be too old by the time Craig's done.

I've already been pushed to the edge of fandom with some of the questionable decisions Babs Coltrane has made in the Daniel Craig era, and he's white. Hire Idris Elba (or any black actor for that matter) and I will be completely gone from the series, as will millions of fans. I mean, this isn't an idle threat. It's not a trolling post. I will quit this series.

No, I take that back. I won't have quit the series; the series will have quit me. James Bond is not black. Therefore, whatever black actor playing is playing 007 will not be playing James Bond; he'll be a fraud and an imposter.

Bond is not black. He is not a woman. He is not gay. If you want these attributes in a spy series, expand the 00-universe and create new movie adventures with other 00-agents and I will gladly support those films. But I will not support a black 007, no matter how "racist" that makes me.

EON better not doubt my conviction (and the conviction of others). Casting a black actor will destroy the 007 series.

Somebody needs to take this series away from Babs and Amy; they can't be trusted.

Easy, GS. SPECTRE won't release for another year, so there's plenty of opportunities for rantitude to come. We don't want you to have an aneurysm before the really good stuff - like Craig's arse being the first promotional still - gets released.

Was waiting for your contribution GS! They, to a degree, got away with a black Leiter and black Moneypenny, but the main character? It won't work, and it's not about being racist. It would be akin to changing Jay Gatsby to an Hispanic.

FieldsMan wrote:

Was waiting for your contribution GS! They, to a degree, got away with a black Leiter and black Moneypenny, but the main character? It won't work, and it's not about being racist. It would be akin to changing Jay Gatsby to an Hispanic.

I'm just so sick of people falling all over themselves to have a black version of anything that is already popular and successful. It's as if the success isn't merited or is somehow illegitimate if a hit movie or tv series doesn't feature a black person. But I digress.

My first introduction to a black character in a Bond film was NSNA, back in the theaters in 1983. Not having yet read the books, and having only started getting into Bond earlier that summer with Octopussy, I had no concept of who Felix Leiter was (or should be). I liked Bernie Casey a lot, and thought his chemistry with Connery was probably the second best thing about the movie (other than Barbara Carrera). To this day I still think his Leiter is ranks among the top three with Lord and Van Nutter.

Problem I have with Jeffrey Wright is two-fold: #1 he's not cool like, well, Casey, Nutter,  or Lord. He looks like he's an accountant; a pencil pusher with a desk job. #2 EON's commitment to going back to the novels and Fleming was already on shaky ground with the hiring of Craig; adding Wright to the mix was like pouring salt in an open wound. Wright was to Craig what Linder was to Connery. EON was talking out of both sides of their mouth. If you're going to be faithful to the books, be faithful to the look of ALL THE CHARACTERS. But no, Craig nor Wright looked anything like what Fleming wrote.

If we hadn't have had Wright as Leiter, I might've warmed up to Naomi Harris a bit more, and perhaps I still will. But I just can't help being wary of a production company and studio that uses the Bond series as a way to push a social agenda. I had forgotten this travesty:



Every time I see it it makes my blood boil. I said it back then, and I'll say it again: would people be cool with this video if Craig's Bond decided to put on black-face so that he could "understand" what it felt like to be a colored person? When is Babs Coltrane and her neutered step-brother going to get back to making entertaining Bond films instead of trying to push her social/political conscience on the rest of us?

Does Amy Paschal get a pass on her "racist" email to Scott Rudin because #1 she's donated thousands of dollars to the Obama campaign(s) and the DNC? Does she get a pass because she once commented to Babs Coltrane that Idris Elba should be the next James Bond?

If Sean Connery or Cubby Broccoli were alive today they'd slap Babs for what she's done to this once proud and historic franchise. This "EQUALS" video is a mockery of everything the James Bond series ever stood for. You can literally feel the guilt and the shame seeping out of Bab's pours pores; almost as if she feels embarrassed to be the producer of this series and to enjoy the immense wealth and privilege that she inherited from a character that made "sexism" fashionable and entertaining. Babs is preaching feminism and using Bond as an intellectual and emotional punching bag; a property that she can exploit to push a social agenda, then turn around and sell out her sisterhood for a billion dollar payday. What a hypocrite!

Vesper wrote:

Reporter either lacks critical thinking skills or is being disingenuous. Pascal thinks Idris would make a good Bond. Something I'd wager is said about every remotely successful British actor in Hollywood at some point in their career. That's a far cry from what the headline says.

Who the hell is Idris Elba anyway?

He played Stringer Bell in "The Wire". At least, that is the role I most associate him with.

But he has a proper Hollywood career now. He had roles in "Prometheus", "Pacific Rim" and both of the Thor features.

Anyway, based on some of the Sony leaks, I very much doubt we will see a black Bond or a female Bond any time soon, so I wouldn't worry my pretty head over it, GS.

What a dismal display of prejudice in this thread. Forget Elba's skin colour, because unless Eon's making a period Bond adaptation it's entirely irrelevant.

Fact is, Idris Elba looks a lot more like my idea of the cinema version of 007 than Daniel Craig does. Idris is 6' 2", dapper and cool, none of which I would use to describe Craig, whom I suspect despises the James Bond character and his world.

Sad thing is, I always thought Elba's main problem in playing Bond would be his age, but reading this thread I can see that it's ignorance that he's going to need to combat most of all. It's a real shame, because Elba could be the best since Dalton. Elba has an arrogant masculinity that we've not seen for a long time.

And, seriously, none of you has watched Luther? Here he is with Ruth Wilson. Not casting her in a Bond film would be an equally big mistake.

Erica Ambler wrote:

What a dismal display of prejudice in this thread. Forget Elba's skin colour, because unless Eon's making a period adaptation it's entirely irrelevant.

Fact is, Idris Elba looks a lot more like my idea of Bond than Daniel Craig does. Idris is 6' 2", dapper and cool, none of which I would use to describe Craig, whom I suspect despises the James Bond character and his world.

Sad thing is, I alway's thought Elba's main problem was his age, but reading this thread I can see that it's ignorance that he's going to need to combat most of all. It's a real shame, because Elba could be the best Bond since Dalton.

And, seriously, none of you have watched Luther?

Call me prejudice all you like, I'm with Gravy on this one. Bond isn't black. I've got no problem with suave and dapper Idris being cast as another 00-agent and a new character altogether in the MI6 hierarcy....just as Colin Salmon was. But put him as 007 and I'm gone.

What does it matter if Bond is black? Continuity between most Bond films is tenuous at best. It'd just be another standalone adventure and I think it would give the series a shot of testosterone that's been missing for a long while.

Erica Ambler wrote:

What a dismal display of prejudice in this thread. Forget Elba's skin colour, because unless Eon's making a period Bond adaptation it's entirely irrelevant.

Fact is, Idris Elba looks a lot more like my idea of the cinema version of 007 than Daniel Craig does. Idris is 6' 2", dapper and cool, none of which I would use to describe Craig, whom I suspect despises the James Bond character and his world.

Sad thing is, I always thought Elba's main problem in playing Bond would be his age, but reading this thread I can see that it's ignorance that he's going to need to combat most of all. It's a real shame, because Elba could be the best since Dalton. Elba has an arrogant masculinity that we've not seen for a long time.

And, seriously, none of you have watched Luther? Here he is with Ruth Wilson. Not casting her in a Bond film would be an equally big mistake.

Well I'm certainly not opposed to it, I'm just realistic about what kind of "chances" EON and Sony would be willing to take.

I'm going to guess that a studio where the higher ups exchange mildly racist emails about the POTUS might not be fertile ground for somewhat enlightened ideas about the racial identity of (pre-existing) characters.

I have been meaning to check out Luther.

Erica Ambler wrote:

What does it matter if Bond is black?

It would be a pathetic PC move on an already established character. Bond is a Brit and white. That's defined and shouldn't change.

And those who say I'm racist can kiss my big white looking ass.

The same people who chant for Idris as Bond would be shitting black bricks if an Obama biopic was made starring Jason Statham. Or Jet Li as Malcolm X. No sir, black roles mustn't be touched but black actors must be shoe-horned into established white characters because it's the right thing to do.

I'm looking forward for Craig to play Martin Luther King in the biopic project.

bitchcraft wrote:

Bond is a Brit and white. That's defined and shouldn't change.

It already has. Bond's been played by an Aussie and an Irishman. Elba's more British than them, what does his skin colour matter? The only criterion here should be his ability to play the part.

bitchcraft wrote:

And those who say I'm racist can kiss my big white looking ass.

Just name the time and place.

Must say I'm in agreement with Ms Dog.

This and I've never been mad on him as an actor. (Or Statham, come to think of it)

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Must say I'm in agreement with Ms Dog.

You want me to kiss you arse as well? I may have a prior engagement.

There's no need. I have others for that purpose.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Sad thing is, I always thought Elba's main problem in playing Bond would be his age, but reading this thread I can see that it's ignorance that he's going to need to combat most of all. It's a real shame, because Elba could be the best since Dalton. Elba has an arrogant masculinity that we've not seen for a long time.

I also liked your idea of casting Paterson Joseph in the Peep Show thread.

I think he shares that same type of masculinity as Elba. He's not as tall, but taller than Craig, at 5'8''. (I refuse to believe Craig stands at 5'10''.)




LUTHER is great, though. Elba would be my #1 choice for a black Bond. Shame that his age may ruin his chances.

If there was to be a black Bond, you couldn't do better than Elba. I'm sure he'd be terrific.