Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Film Stew: Bond Brouhaha
Even though the next James Bond film won’t begin shooting until 2005, the Internet has been stirring this month with an abundance of juicy 007 missives.By Richard Horgan
Partly because the topic of James Bond is such an appealing change-up question for journalists and inter-viewees, and partly because Albert “Cubby” Broccoli’s daughter and stepson like to float trial balloons in the media about potential new directions for the franchise, Her Majesty’s Secret Service has been all over the front pages lately.
During recent promotional activities for Kill Bill, Vol. 2, Quentin Tarantino told journalists he’d love to turn the next untitled installment, Bond 21, into a low-budget Casino Royale-flavored black and white mood piece set in the 1960s, while Bill buddy Michael Madsen insisted that his Malibu neighbor Pierce Brosnan had been bought out of a possible fifth and final contribution to the Bond series.
It’s all part of that ten percent of questions asked at Hollywood media gatherings by journalists eager to unearth an appealing tidbit about unrelated things such as new romances, dream projects or, god forbid, something more arcane, like QT’s favorite toy when he was a child. And so, even during promotional activities surrounding the Ben Affleck movie Paycheck last December, someone asked Uma Thurman whether or not she would like to be a Bond girl.
Her reply, blasted across the Internet via contactmusic.com and picked up variously as a stand-alone item was, “When I was growing up, they always said Bond girls were anti-feminist and that was not a good thing to be. But I thought that Bond girls were the toughest, sexiest, most fun, and, to me, they were like completely awesome. I thought, 'Bond girls are bad.'" Not quite what the item’s headline, ‘Uma Wants Bond Girl Role,’ suggests.
After being launched in the UK by a February 9th Daily Mail article, the Brosnan is-he-in-or-is-he-out dialogue revved up in Hollywood last month when the actor and his After the Sunset director Brett Ratner appeared together as guests on the AMC show Sunday Morning Shootout, in which Variety Editor-In-Chief Peter Bart and Hollywood producer Peter Guber filter industry topics du jour through their contrasting personalities. Looking very much like he had just wandered in from a morning dip on Broad Beach, Brosnan indicated he was aware of the rumors that the Broccolis were considering new blood and that, personally, he wasn’t too concerned if it went one way or the other.
Many jokes about Brett Ratner’s colorful dating life later, that seemed to be it. But the spectacle of a Hollywood leading man handling brazen media manipulation by the Broccolis with flair is too appealing a story to let go of. As a result, the open dialogue of Brosnan’s Bond future has remained very much in the media spotlight, with pieces tying this information into the beginning of the Mexico shoot of the actor’s latest film.
“The producers last year invited me back, and I said `Yes','' exclaimed Brosnan in an April 2nd AP Newswire item. Ironically, in The Matador, the 50-year-old Irish actor plays an over the hill hit man. “They [Bond produ-cers] now seem to be in a malaise of confusion as to how to go forward…They know where to find me if they want me for the next one.”
As an aside, if you think handling a global water cooler discussion of your career is as easy as Brosnan makes it appear here, think again. A few days later, in a somewhat extraordinary April 4th New York Times Bill Carter feature article, Late Night host Conan O’Brien and especially his manager, Gavin Polone, were surprisingly vocal about not being included in the overall process by which NBC chose to secure a lengthy new contract extension for Jay Leno. By renewing Jay through 2010 and confirming it to Conan via the media, the network is clearly telling their 12:30pm clean-up man whom they are placing their bets on.
“A big question is looming," O’Brien said at the top of the article. “It's the elephant in the room that no one is talking about… What's next?"
What’s next for the Bond franchise is always of tantamount importance to fans of the series, compounded by the fact that a span of 20 films has allowed for more than a fair share of wrong turns, such as George Lazenby being cast in Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Denise Richards playing a nuclear scientist in When the World Is Not Enough.
Thanks to the Internet, it’s now a lot easier to find the pulse of rabid film fan communities. In 007’s case, one of the destinations of choice is the UK-based community CommanderBond.net, where some 2300 hardcore fans debate all things Bond.
On April 9th, the web site erupted over same day news that Ian Fleming Publications was planning a new series of prequel books focusing on James Bond foiling bad guys as a teenager attending Eton in the 1930s at Eton. The novels are to be written by BBC comedy star and thriller novelist Charles Higson. “I don't want a Young Bond book," wrote commanderbond.net member Loomis. "Neither do I want, for instance, James Bond Versus Dracula, a Bond/Lara Croft crossover, or a Bond novel set in some Tolkien-style fantasy world…"
Even Jonathan Ross, a personality on BBC Radio 2, Higson’s home turf as it were, took the fans’ side the following day, Saturday April 10th, during an interview with the man suddenly in the Bond hotseat:
ROSS: James Bond for kids?
HIGSON: Yep.
ROSS: Shame on them and shame on you!
HIGSON: No it’s very… it’s proper… cause…
ROSS: James Bond is for grownups!
HIGSON: But it’s James Bond as a kid.
ROSS: No don’t do it Charlie.
HIGSON: I’ve done it.
ROSS: Don’t do it.
HIGSON: It’s a very, very good book...
ROSS: Then don’t send it in.
HIGSON: Well, it’s done.
ROSS: I don’t want to see James Bond as a boy.
HIGSON: Don’t read it then…
But James Bond as a boy is, relatively speaking , very much where the Broccoli Jr. clan might be heading with theBond 21 feature film. If, that is, Brosnan neighbor Mike Madsen is once again to be believed.
As part of his Kill Bond, Vol. 2 activities earlier this month, reported for example on April 6th, 2004 by our good friend Bruce Kirkland, Madsen kept mentioning that Brosnan had told him he was being replaced by an "Australian actor." Speculation immediately returned to Hugh Jackman, the star of another franchise, X-Men, whose name has been previously and erroneously bandied about.
But no, said web sites Moviehole.com and Mi6.co.uk in the following few days. The Australian that Madsen is talking about is not Jackman, as everyone in the media is intimating, but rather his 25-year-old countryman Heath Ledger, a seemingly more robust match for Bond installments 21 through 29. Although he is certainly not tearing up the box office with his most recent film Ned Kelly, the Robin Hood tale is nonetheless a vivid reminder of the actor's natural born ability to convey physical action on screen.
But perhaps Higson, the man charged with writing the new Young James Bond novels, can redeem himself by solving the problems surrounding Bond 21. His late lamented BBC program, The Fast Show, is Johnny Depp’s single favorite piece of entertainment and Higson’s partner, Paul Whitehouse, is someone Captain Jack Sparrow once deemed an inspiration and “the greatest actor of all time.”
To paraphrase BBC Radio 2 talk show host Jonathan Ross, ‘Do it, Charlie. Do it.’ Get Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and husband Michael G. Wilson to cast Johnny Depp as the next 007.
[Every Wednesday, Hollywood Spin takes an opinionated look at Hollywood media, PR and marketing related matters. To reach the author, please email rhorgan@filmstew.com. To comment on this week’s topic, please go to our Hollywood Spin Discussion Board.]