Raimi Malek’s casting is looking as though it won’t happen (unfortunately; he’s simply amazing in Mr Robot).
But if we assume for argument’s sake that they want an actor that’s in roughly the same age range and very broadly of a similar ethnicity, then how about Oscar Isaac. He’s got great chops and a commanding presence (superb in Ex Machina)?
And you could watch Star Wars and Ex Machina back to back and not notice it’s the same guy. Definition of the phrase - “nicest thing you can call an actor in a performance is unrecognisable”
That is an inspired option, with all the right acting chops.
It would be nice if the current regime at EON understood this. They move these films closer and closer to M:I territory with each successive film. Bond hasn’t been a loner in a while.
That’s the downside of casting high-profile performers in supporting roles. There’s a feeling that they shouldn’t be “wasted” by giving them only a dozen lines.
The Mission:Impossible films are very much Tom Cruise’s show. I know a lot of long time fans are annoyed that’s there’s so much emphasis put on Ethan and much less on the rest of the team. So it’s weird to think that someone could look at those films and think the team element is in any way the key to their success or the element that needs to be replicated.
I would tend to disagree with the above.
Yes, Tom’s star power is all pervasive and to be sure, being the Producer also lets news channels know just who is controlling the end product, directorial decisions aside.
But devoid of the above, I think the team element is spot on. Everyone has a role to play and it works.
Of course, Tom Cruise is the big draw of the M:I franchise. But at least since the fourth entry the team aspect was built up. Ethan Hunt can only function with their support.
Bond can and should function by himself. And through Q´s gadgets, of course.
And a huge army of US soldiers/ninjas going by the conversation above.
Yeah, but not throughout the film, please.
If anything it should be in spite of his team, or at least in leu of any back up. And this doesn’t mean to the extremities of going rogue - just autonomous; surely that’s the essence of a ‘license to kill’.
In SP M explains what differentiates Bond from the competition:
“To pull that trigger, you have to be sure. Yes, you investigate, analyze, assess, target. And then you have to look him in the eye. And you make the call. And all the drones, bugs, cameras, transcripts, all the surveillance in the world can’t tell you what to do next. A license to kill is also a license not to kill.”
I’d add Teams to that list, just like those whom back up Ethan Hunt. In the end they don’t take a vote on whether to shoot someone - the individual makes the decision. These morality moments are there in MI, but they’re a side show to the Team aspect.
However, they’re central theme for Fleming’s Bond; the effect such responsibility has upon an individual, be it M, or Bond. Mirroring that is usually the delight the villains takes in killing. Again, all this is present in other action franchises, but in Bond his License to Kill makes it the core theme; he’s not called in to Ms office to be sent out to trick, coheres, or manipulate (as is usually MI’s initial mission). He’s sent out to verify and eliminate a threat. Hunt is an all American hero. Bond is the establishment’s orphaned antihero.
Trying to explore that is diminished by a ‘team-up’ aspect to a narrative. And that’s not to say that Bond has to be cerebral and ponderous, dark and unrelentingly depressing. In fact it’s exposing these dark themes which makes the sardonic humour work, relieving tension with some much needed wit.
I say please leave the teaming-up to the teaming-up franchise and let Bond be Bond.
As has already been said by MajorB, the whole Team aspect being skewed into the Bond narratives is because they’ve gotten high profile thesps into the supporting roles. This problem occurred in the Brossa films, giving M unnecessary stories just because they had the wonderful Dench on the payroll. The only time the character really warranted more story was SF, because she died. Now they’ve gone and given themselves that headache x3.
I love the current supporting cast - if only they could refrain from trying to muddy the waters with their ensemble, but that’s not business.
This is just me, but M, Moneypenny, and Q being out in the field is not a new concept under Craig’s regime. YOLT, TSWLM, TMWTGG (as examples) all had them out in the field with Bond, and Q has been out there many times, most prevalenty in LTK. But I get the concern of the perception of too much emphasis on team versus Bond as a lone agent. Hopefully we’ll see him a little stronger, and a little less reliant on others in this film.
But Bond has not been reliant on others - all of Craig’s films demonstrated that Bond knew better in all circumstances. He essentially only used Moneypenny and Q to do the googling for him.
Please, I’m not trying to be argumentative, I honestly want to understand your point. When you say he has not been reliant on others, do you mean strictly the MI6 team? Because Bond has had to rely on others many times in the films, the CIA guy stopping the bomb in GF, and Domino killing Largo in TB as examples.
The issue, as i see it, isn’t his reliance or otherwise upon the team, but how much participation they have in the story/action. In all of those Connery/Moore/Dalton films you cited they may well appear on location, but only in a briefing/chastising/equipping capacity. Whereas TWINE and SP have seen them playing an unnecessary part of the action (SF justified it).
And btw, you’re not being at all argumentative, it’s a forum after all 
And that exposition breaks the movie making cardinal rule: Show, don’t tell.
Here’s the Wikipedia definition - and i wish the more blockbuster screenwriters would stick to it:
Show , don’t tell is a technique used in various kinds of texts to allow the reader to experience the story through action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the author’s exposition, summarization, and description.
One of my favourite Bond scenes is CR’s post fight ‘cuddle’ in the shower. We don’t need anyone to tell us how they’re feeling because the acting, direction, set etc. say it for them. Granted exposition of plot is a whole lot easier with 2 characters talking about it, but any old screenwriter can do that.
Surely that’s why the writers of billion dollar franchises are payed astronomical amounts to come up with smarter ways to exposit. Well, looking around perhaps there’s indeed a gap in the marked for great writers, but Show , don’t tell should at least be the aspiration.
I agree, I was referring specifically to this forums idea that Bond is becoming more team focussed under Craig.
There was this role playing thingy back in the 80s, and Bond of course also got his own version of it (with Raymond Benson writing some of the initial stuff, if memory serves???). The basic formula for these adventures, a kind of ‘bible’ for the gamesmaster, states various dos and don’ts for the campaigns to have that Bond feel. One of the first rules was that M, Q or Moneypenny only pop up in the field as a rare occurrence, and that their supporting roles are entirly that: supportive and end of. A briefing, equipment, funds.
I think this basic rule is simply the result of the Bond adventures being about Bond. The rare occasion when the books take a different perspective it’s usually somebody commenting on Bond, like in FRWL. Or, in Thunderball’s case, to make the story work at all.*
Even when Bond is part of a bigger operation - the Navy divers attacking Largo, Marc-Ange’s men attacking the Piz Gloria - the reader follows Bond and everything else is just ‘stage’ for Bond’s actions and thoughts. We’re in a car with Bond driving, not with Bond and X, Y or Z.
*Take the Blofeld chapters out of Thunderball and the story falls apart. All that stuff about Blofeld’s career and his SPECTRE makeup brilliantly disguises what an astronomical coincidence it is that Bond should run into part of the operation (and spoil it already in a minimal way) before he’s even given the briefing by M.
Which the characters in CR, QOS, Skyfall and SPECTRE are doing…Much as they do in From Russia With Love, Thunderball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever (“Oh by the way, M has been trying to get a hold of you, that Franks fellow escaped”), The Man With The Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker (where M goes into the field 3 TIMES), Octopussy, The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill (where M goes to Miami to ask a question he easily could’ve phoned about). I would suggest the cast don’t get much more to do than they have before, so much as you notice them more because it’s people you know from other things.
Actually, SPECTRE slips in a showdown solely for M. Insofar, this is perhaps the point of divergence where M/Tanner/Q are perceived as their own team inside their part of the adventure.