How is that sexist? Didn’t I say I had no problem with a female lead? I was just thinking out loud. I’m pleased that we have a female Doctor Who and female Jedi in Star Wars. I would have made exactly the same choices had I been in a postion to do so. And and I’m looking forward to The Rhythm Section way more than I am looking forward to No Time To Die.
Is a broad assumption targeted at women, one that ignores the plight of any woman in any industry. You then follow it with a list of gender stereotypes. Definition of sexism.
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I wasn’t targeting women, I said feminists - which, in a recent survey, only 37% of women claimed they were. And even then, I obviously don’t mean every single one. I’ve spoken to a good few who say they want a female Bond, and others who say the same on the internet. If some of them want to gender-swap Bond so that one of the most popular characters of all time will be a woman - well, it’s no bad strategy and I’m sure it would be very effective, and I haven’t spoken against it.
I also can’t see the list of gender stereotypes I’ve supposed to have listed. I said that Golden Age-style detective fiction has more women protagonists than men, which it does - Miss Marple, Miss Silver, Mrs Bradley, Mrs Jeffries, Mrs Pargetter, Phryne Fisher, Maisie Dobbs, Daisy Dalrymple, Kate Shackleton, Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss, Posie Parker, Amory Ames, Molly Murphy, Georgie Eugenie, Agatha Raisin, Carole Seddon and Jude Nichols, Sophie Sayers, Vicky Hill, the list goes on (I know this because I read them - something I’m unlikely to do if I were sexist). I also said such characters are “considered” more brain than brawn - hence, not by me - though most characters, male or female, who populate such stories usually are. And that’s without mentioning that one of the main characters in the story I am currently writing is a woman, and probably the cleverest and most capable in the whole thing. Or, even, that many of my favourite films have women as the main characters - including The Lady Vanishes, Flightplan, Underworld, See No Evil, Crow Hollow, Wild Target, His Girl Friday, The Net, The Hunger Games, Star Wars: Rogue One, Rebecca, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Dead Calm, Panic Room, Night Train to Munich, Chase a Crooked Shadow, Chicken Run, Notorious, Last Holiday (2006), Happy Go Lucky, Sleeping Car to Trieste, While You Were Sleeping, The House At the End of the Street, Made In Daganham, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and plenty more.
I also said:
I’ve also added that I’d have cast a female Doctor too, I’m glad Star Wars has Rey, and that I’m looking forward to to The Rhythm Section way more than I am looking forward to No Time To Die - which, considering this is a James Bond forum, must account for something.
Not wishing to start an argument at all, of course, I’m just clarifying things.
Peace and love.
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Is there a lack of female spy/action protagonists?
Salt, Nikita, Battle Angel Alita, Charlie’s Angels, that Black Widow flick, Red Sparrow, Atomic Blonde, Kill Bill, Alien…
And those are just the ones I remember without digging deeper into the genre; I suspect there must be much more I never even heard of. So I’m not sure feminist demands are really mainly about onscreen representation - at least not if this is reduced solely to screen-time.
The problem with the above examples is, they are often just the same as their male counterparts and seldom allowed to deviate from the genre’s tropes and laws. There is a lack of female protagonists who are not reduced to two dimensional types. Actual women facing problems and not responding in the usual action manner, karate punch, kung fu kick, gangster shooting their .50 calibre porn automatic.
Therefore I’m not convinced feminists want a short cut - what they want is their own direction; a short cut is already there, see above. It just leads nowhere.
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I’m really looking forward to the Black Widow film - I’ve been hoping for one since Avengers in 2012 (I also half-expected Ilsa from M:I gets a similar spin-off, but I’ve run out of hope for that one). I can’t believe it’s taken Marvel so long. When you think they could have swapped out, say, Thor: The Dark World for it. I remember wondering what the whole Budapest backstory was about with Hawkeye, but it was never followed up on. As a Charlie’s Angels fan - well, it’s coming off the ill-fated TV show from a few years ago, so I’m approaching it cautiously. Hopefully, there will be an interesting team dynamic and good detective work like in the early seasons of the original show. I always liked it when one of them had to go undercover, with all the tension that brings, so hopefully we’ll see a bit of that too.
I’m not sure it’s a problem if the female characters in action films respond in the same way as men. Most of the time, such characters are reacting to a situation that they have been plunged into and are simply behaving the way anyone would, regardless of their gender. I don’t think introducing plot points which specifically involve a woman’s gender is neccessary when the men’s gender is seldom addressed in such films either. Male characters are unable to deviate from the genre’s tropes either, and that’s not always a bad thing, or one which is easily resolved. If it’s Keanu Reeves in John Wick or Jodie Foster’s own vigilantism in The Brave One, it all boilds down to being an action film, with all its expectations.
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I think it’s a great point that hijacking established male brands isn’t the best way to approach representation of women in film. The many failures scream that and it only serves to make it harder to fund films with female protagonists.
Let’s be honest, studios aren’t funding ghostbabesters because they believe in the cause. They’re clearly trying (failing) to cash in on a zeitgeist.
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Funny to see an ‘Eon productions’ logo on a trailer after all these years. I didn’t know they had a logo! 
Looks intense but pretty good stuff.
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Looks good. Intense, well filmed action sequences. I’m intrigued
http://filmmusicreporter.com/2019/11/13/steve-mazzaro-scoring-reed-moranos-the-rhythm-section/
So… EON has already a working relationship with Hans Zimmer…
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Ouch! Nolan’ll be miffed if they don’t pop their bond cherries together.
But I think CJFs artistic sensibilities will provide great inspiration for Zimmer. Hope this happens.
He’s currently working as composer on 4 different projects, I dont see him having the time. Would like to be wrong on that though…
Saw a 30sec spot for TRS on TV tonight, but couldn’t find it on YouTube to post here. “From the Makers of James Bond” was pretty prominent. Jan 31 still given as the date. Looks good!
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Oh thank god, finally marketing kicking into gear and in the right way
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The posters are up on the London tube. The image is nice - going for a classy European angle (no offence to the US), but the tagline was pretty cheesy; something about ‘witnessing the birth of an assassin’ – sorry, the tube door closed before i could take it all in 
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Work harder to read it!!
But, yes, it probably is very generic,
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This is really starting to annoy me. In the article Broccoli says:
And that’s exactly what’s been done here. Unlike a lot of people in Hollywood she’s actually putting her money where her mouth is. But is there any mention of The Rhythm Section in the article? Nope, it’s all focused on the idea of a female Bond. People seem to think that a female bond is some kind of step forward for women but the idea is overshadowing actual female led projects.
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I wouldn’t say “People seem to think”. That just refers to some clickbait which started the topic which was kept going by lazy online reporters and enraged message boards.
I’m sure that even despite the denial of EON articles about the next Bond being female will keep on being posted. That’s just life in the internet age.
But I’m glad that EON spoke out officially now (I remember that BB already denied it previously but - hey, this is the internet age and the flood of information quickly steamrolls over any facts). And I LOVE their idea of casting a wider net, including the possibility of a Bond of color. Not (just) to stick it to those nationalist right wingers (already whining about it) but also because it reflects the reality of Great Britain today.
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It is a shame that THE RHYTHM SECTION had the bad luck of being delayed until now. But I’m afraid it was always going to be largely overshadowed by Bond anyway, even if it hadn’t been pushed back. The only way for a non-Bond Eon spy film not to fall down the Bond hole would be to make it a spin-off - and even then most of the public focus would be on 007.
THE RHYTHM SECTION now needs to be an interesting, captivating little thriller that finds and entertains its audience not because of but in spite of Bond. Fingers crossed here.
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