Brosnan fired from Bond brand

[Viktoria]

ENTERTAINMENT Thu, October 14, 2004

Brosnan fired from Bond brand

BRUCE KIRKLAND, SUN MEDIA


NASSAU, Bahamas -- Pierce Brosnan did not quit his most famous role as agent James Bond, he was fired. And there is no going back, the 51-year-old, Irish-born, four-time 007 says. "It's over, it's over, it's absolutely over," Brosnan says this week in Nassau, where he sits with media to promote his latest film, After the Sunset, a heist comedy which slightly parodies his role as a super-secret agent.

Brosnan says he was willing, even eager, to do a fifth and final Bond, adding that 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson had asked him to return, although no contracts were signed. Brosnan's last Bond movie, Die Another Day in 2002, was the 20th official instalment in the franchise, which started with Sean Connery in Dr. No in 1962.

"They invited me back right before I went to present that film. They said: 'We're so happy with the success, we want you to come back!' I went on the road a happy man, you know. I thought we'd get a fifth and no more. That would be it, really.

"And then one day the phone rang - I was here (in Nassau shooting After the Sunset) - and my agents told me that the goal posts had moved and that they had changed their minds." Brosnan says this with a weary tone, with a sigh.

"It's very hard to find the truth in that town (Hollywood) or in this business at times," Brosnan says. "But it was their prerogative to change their minds. They can do it!" And they might have done it "to go younger," Brosnan says.

"It was disappointing. It was surprising. And I accepted the knowledge (that his run as 007 was over for good) after 24 hours of being in shock."

Brosnan has been extremely reluctant to go on the record about the Bond issue. For TV interviews in Nassau, Brosnan had publicists order TV hosts to avoid the issue. No such orders were given to print media. Then, pressed by Sun Media, Brosnan says: "To bring up Bond ... (he frowns) ... I did my time in the trenches on that movie (franchise) ..."

But offered a chance to finally put his version of the events on the record, Brosnan did. Part of the story, he says, is that he always knew the end was coming.

"If you have that thought ruminating in your head - knowing that things are going to change, knowing that you're going to get older, knowing it only lasts a certain amount of time playing a certain role - then you clearly prepare yourself for what's down the road, even though you don't know what's down the road. But you prepare yourself emotionally.

"(So) you know something's going to be finished, it's going to be over. And it comes with a great disappointment, but it also comes with a great satisfaction of having achieved the success with it that I had achieved."

Brosnan claims he harbours no bitterness. "None, none, none! It's not worth having. If I did, it would make all the great decade, the four films, the lovely success, meaningless. Bitterness against whom, and for what reason?"

But he admits there is some satisfaction in seeing the franchise stumble, with the next Bond movie postponed for at least a year. "Go figure!" Brosnan says with a wry grin.

[Ace]

My head hurts!

He was in the Bahamas filming After The Sunser last winter! Unless he's talking about when he was doing pick up scenes that we might know about but I don't think there were any except in L.A.

So what's been all this stuff for the last 10 months? PB has never said he quit in that time just that negotiations broke down so it fits but he has said he'd still like the role if they called which also fits because well business changes. But he never said it was "over" either in such a resigned accepted feeling so it looks like it took him more than 24 hours to get over the knife in his back.

But what's with MGM and EON? Why all the we don't have anything set, so far as we know he's still our Bond stuff they were saying earlier this year or laater this year talking about how no decisions had been made on casting?

As for them having no Bond for next year... well all their fault and just PATHETIC!

Ace

[Yuliya]

The article says he said last week, while promoting his last film. It's too late to do last-minute scenes. I wonder if he even was in Nassau last week. Why promote the movie in Bahamas? Well, except it's nice there.

It's all very confusing. But I don't like it anyway.

[Ace]

The entire press junket for After The Sunset was held at The Paradise resort in The Bahamas, which meant almost all TV, mag and newspaper interviews for the film's promotions (except TV interview shows like Letterman) and they screened the film there. Salma took 2 days off from shooting a filming Mexico to be there.

Ace

[IcyCalm]

I tried to take the loss of Bond for Pierce with some grace here, but something I realized today has finally set me off: the fact that he found about it on location via a phone call from his agent, not EON directly. This is history repeating itself. As we all know, that’s how he heard the bad news in 1986.

The author of another article I read ends by saying that PB has too much “class and elegance” to show bitterness. Since I haven’t a fraction of said class or elegance, I intend to write to EON, MGM, and their new partner/parent company Sony, expressing my displeasure at their shabby treatment of Pierce.

EON Productions
Attn: Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Rd, Iver Heath
Bucks, England
SL00N+1
011-44-01753-659100

Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Studios
2500 Broadway St.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
[phone]

Sony Corp. of America
550 Madison Ave.
New York City, NY 10022

Knowing how fiercely possessive EON is about their family business, I doubt that either MGM or Sony would dictate principal casting for Bond. (MGM is $2B in debt, and Sony leads a 5-member consortium to buy them out.) My cynical mind suspects this is about money, not creative disputes. Apparently the take on DAD approaching half a billion dollars worldwide (counting DVD media) wasn’t good enough for EON. Was it only 8 years ago that Pierce single-handedly saved their drowning franchise? I think he even accepted a smallish salary for Goldeneye so that they could spend more on blowing up Severnaya, St. Petersburg, and the Cuban satellite installation. Pierce is honorable and decent - he just wouldn’t have demanded more than was fair to do Bond 21 – he’s a producer himself! It is a galactic understatement to say they owe everything to him. (As to the age factor, forget about it: he doesn’t look or act a day over 35, and I know 14 year old girls who go all fluttery upon seeing him.) Beyond all these arguments, they broke their promise to him, let him publicly twist in the wind, and then didn’t have the decency to call him directly.

The letter I send to EON will include a print of PB lovingly hugging Barbara.

IcyCalm

[Barbara]

It gets better IcyCalm.....

Julian McMahon from Nip/Tuck on the FX channel is filming the new "Fantastic Four" movie. He was asked about the rumors of him being offered the role, and he said something to the effect of "I'd like to answer that question, but I can't. We'll see what happens later on."

I think this came from Moviehole, and if it is true, I will barf.

JM is a great actor, but not for Bond.

Our last prayer is that ATS opens big, and Sony realizes what they are losing.

-- Barbara

[Ace]

Actually the B.O. take alone for DAD was near 1/2 a billion, $435m, with DVD and TV it was closer to one billion.

Basically the money his four films have made have made EON stronger financially to the point where they don't need MGM or Sony to finance the Bond films. Wilson said this before DAD. So yes this casting decison was all theirs. But they've always been cheap and hamfisted with the actors playing Bond. They truly believe that the actor is a replaceable cog, even if past history has proved otherwise. They don't want to pay what is fair market value, they never have, even if it means cutting off their nose to spite their face.

They don't really need more letters to know it's an unpopular decision, they could just read any paper or look thorugh any film (not even Bond) board on the net (and we know they do it or their lawyers do). They don't seem to care and are hiding out, not releasing any information or statement on the matter. No doubt with the extra year they're hoping it will blow away and the public will be so desperate for any new Bond they won't care.

At this point I think bridges have been burned to the extent that there's no going back. Babs and Michael are so hands on on the films, on the set everyday involved in every aspect of production that if there's bad blood, working for and with them for a year plus with filming and promotion would probably be hellish.

As for the latest Bond rumor du jour. Julian McMahaon, blech. He's mediocre but then that makes him great compared to the block of wood he used to be on soaps. But then he isn't much worse or more inappropriate than most of the actors on the "list". I'm pretty much beyond caring who the next Bond actor will be.

Ace

[sparklingblue]

Ace said:

I'm pretty much beyond caring who the next Bond actor will be.

Same here.

And I agree with everything IcyCalm said.

[Barbara]

And yet in the midst of all of this, Pierce Brosnan's own official web page says...nada.

-- Barbara

[steeleinc]

I wouldn't have seen the last 4 Bond movies if PB hadn't been doing them, so I don't really care who the next one is cause I won't go see them anyway. I do think it's a shame that the TV/movie industry is so impersonal in the way they 'dismiss' their actors/shows. Aren't they aware that a little courtesy goes a long way?

[IcyCalm]

Geez, Ace, I was unaware DAD had earned that much scratch – nearly one billion you say? Makes EON’s behaviour all the more insane! Nothing makes sense to me anymore (just 10 minutes ago the Red Sox beat the Yankees out of playing in the World Series, how crazy is that?)

Yes, as you say, the bridges of Pinewood must be in cinders by now. In the unlikely event they beg him to come back, Pierce would. And being the surperlative actor that he is, his hurt would never show, neither on screen nor off the set. He’d do it for Bond, for us.

I know our letters of protest aren’t going to have any effect on the insensitive EON Productions. A letter-writing campaign from fans did save the first Star Trek series from early cancellation, but that was in the late 1960’s. Back then there were no pc’s (but we did have guys on the moon, secretaries, The Beatles, and reliable cars you could purchase for $1000). No, I just want to do SOMETHING, if only to vent my frustration over this travesty. Nobody hurts my guy and gets away with it.

Soon we’ll all watch Pierce appear on TV and in print to promote ATS. People will ask him about Bond and he’ll be the consummate gentleman. At least now he’s free – he’s already done 3 films in rapid succession. My guess is he’s plotting as we speak, of how he can blow the lid off the movie industry, performance-wise. As Buddha once said - or was it Kurt Vonnegut - who once said success is the best revenge.

But way beyond my desire to reprimand EON, I really wish we could let Pierce know how we feel, that we are all well aware of the richly UNndeserved double-whammy he’s received from the Broccoli’s, first the father, now the daughter. Perhaps they’d say he was paid to do a job. Not nearly enough, for what PB brought to the table, I say, not nearly enough. Remington Steele executives are always blamed for losing Bond for him the first time, but couldn’t a movie studio easily buyout a contract for a TV series that was being cancelled anyway? This is just pure betrayal.

I’m gonna avoid broccoli for a year or so.

- IcyCalm

[Ace]

To be fair to Cubby, he was willing to let NBC have him for 6 additional episodes. But NBC insisted on a full 23, actually thinking that Bond could film around all those episodes. Cubby said no of course, and NBC threatened PB with a $20m breach of contract lawsuit, then more than half the budget for Living Daylights. So really not a contract anyone could afford to buy out. Then NBC cancelled the show again after 6 episodes, anway. No, it was just NBC to blame in that case, greedy nasty weasels.

(and I'm just pretending that Red Sox thing didn't happen... and crawling into my cave to hibernate until spring training)

Ace

[IcyCalm]

Ace, you are not the Taipan for nothin'. You're right, I really should be fairer to Cubby. He was nice to PB once he got him onboard. But as he came out the big loser in '86, I can't help think that they somehow should have fought harder for him.

Can't sleep either, after that Yankee game? To be honest, I prefer Boston over NY, but for the Sox to win like this is contrary to logic, history, the laws of physics, and probably some religions. More evidence of a world gone mad.

-IcyCalm

[Ace]

From Hello Magazine, dated November 2nd, with Gabrielle Donnelly, reported online by Mi6.co

Pierce Brosnan said goodbye to his role as James Bond 007 when negotiations came to a halt...

"Once and for all, as far as my connection goes, Bond is over. If you ask me how did it become over, well, it's hard to find the truth in a town called Hollywood. In the middle of negotiations, everything stopped. I got a call and my agent said, "They've ceased negotiations". I said, "Why? How?". I never really got an answer, but the producer said they didn't know how to continue and I said, "Fair enough. Goodbye". It was good while it lasted. I wish them well, I wish the next man well. And that's what really happened."

I wasn't asking for a percentage. I was asking for a good honest fee in the realms of how much money they make and how much blood, sweat and tears I put into the role. Well, I thought it was fairly honest, anyway. I did hear on the street I might have outbid myself but I don't think it was about the money. Was it about getting a younger man? That's very possible, although nobody came to me and said, "Goodbye. We're getting a younger man!"

The Broccoli's are a powerful family in the sense they have complete control of this movie so they can do whatever they want. My contract was for four films and that's what I did.

"The Bond image will stick with me for the rest of my life. Bond is so iconic and so big and has been in our society for such a long time that any man who plays Bond and does so successfully will carry that. I’ll be one of the Bond's and I'm very comfortable with that and very proud of the ten years I spent doing this. But it's over for now and, when they get the next guy, I'll fade quietly into my career as an actor."

Life After 007

"I will say that as surprised as I was and as saddened as I was by the way the Bond thing came down, there's also this tremendous sense of liberation, of not having this job you do every two years or so. I have my own film company, and the fame I've gained from Bond has already allowed me to do other films. And now that I don't have the safety net of Bond, it does kind of spur me on as an actor to find really meaningful work and to challenge myself, and that’s where you find me at this moment in time."

[curious george]

Great attitude!

cg

[sparklingblue]

I suspected that he would be nothing but gentlemanly about it--although they don't deserve it.