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Apple, Amazon Join Race for James Bond Film Rights
- frik 9y agoCan we get a 'British Gentleman' as actor for reboot of James Bond franchise? like previously Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan All the James Bond USP got lost in recent years - where is the humor, the British gentleman behavior, the spectacular but not unrealistic script, etc ? So is James Bond really about a blond short humorless brutallo with little charisma? I don't think so.
- NIL8 9y agoI agree. I enjoy the new ones, but they're missing exactly what you described. It's what made a James Bond movie unique.
- rodgerd 9y agoSomeone who's never read the books, I see - and, by citing Roger Moore as "unrealistic" inhabits a reality where surviving re-entry in a disintegrating space station is a thing!
- modeless 9y agoIdris Elba is the only person I want to see as the next Bond.
- _pmf_ 9y agoPeter Dinklage would be my favorite.
- pkroll 9y agoThere's precedent, of a fashion: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200642 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200642
- ablation 9y ago100% agreed with this. He would be a superb choice.
- pamqzl 9y agoSure, as long as we can have a white Shaft. Seriously though, Britishness (in the genetic sense) is a fundamental part of James Bond's character. He isn't just British by citizenship, he's emblematic of Britain.
- croon 9y agoAnd North America is about revering and being one with nature, respecting and worshiping Wakan Tanka. Things change, evolve and adapt, both for good and bad. Idris Elba would be great.
- rahoulb 9y agoI disagree. Firstly, maybe in the 60s, the idea of a black person being "British" would be scoffed at; today, with 3 or 4 generations of genetics here() and black people representing Britain at many levels, I don't think it would be a problem for most. Secondly, 007 has always been an outsider and not a member of the Establishment - that's part of why he does things differently to the other 00s (although another commenter says that's not part of the books, only the films - I've not read them so can't say). () ignoring the fact that there have been significant African populations in cities such as Liverpool and Bristol since Elizabethan times
- coob 9y agoThere's no such thing as 'Britishness in the genetic sense'. Idris Elbra is as British as they come.
- ablation 9y agoNot sure where to even start with this comment.
- ajmurmann 9y agoI'd love to see the humor come back. I think nobody would be better suited to do that than Quentin Tarantino. The only movie that would get me more excited than a Tarantino directed bond movie (ideally set during the cold war) would be a Lynch directed Lord of the Rings.
- pleaseGodNo 9y agoUgh, god. Not Tarantino. Not for a Bond movie. Jesus fucking christ. Anything but that. I absolutely love more than 50% of Quentin Tarantino's movies, and place the truly great movies eye to eye with Stanley Kubrick movies. But fuck no. Not James Bond. If that ever happened, Tarantino would transform himself into an even bigger douchebag and disappointment than Kevin Smith. It would be a modern pop culture tragedy.
- JetSpiegel 9y agoYou can see this today. Kingsman is a Bond film as directed by Tarantino. It's about as awful as it seems.
- pkroll 9y agoI'd watch Kingsman 10 times before I'd watch Quantum of Solace again. And I didn't hate Quantum of Solace: Kingsman is just much more fun.
- jentulman 9y agoMy bond dream team would be a screenplay/script by Charlie Higson and Mark Gatiss and directed by Edgar Wright.
- rahoulb 9y agoOf course, Charlie Higson has form there as well
- moomin 9y agoSomething that I always feel the need to point out: Bond in the books is a British gent, Bond of the movies isn't and never has been. He's a member of the lower orders who passed. The villains are pretty much always onto him as not fitting, but he styles it out. Sean Connery being Scottish worked perfectly for this. Kingsman, not a bond movie but understanding the genre completely, makes the theme explicit.
- croon 9y ago> where is [...] the spectacular but not unrealistic script, etc ? It's much more realistic now, but that's part of the problem. The Bond we remember is a remnant from the 60s (I know it's older), with that era of geopolitics, scifi (and sex-/racism), complete with razor frisbee hats, cyborgs, zero gravity laser battles, and a super villain dying through floating up to the ceiling and popping like a balloon. I loved those movies too, and while I didn't like the direction at the time, GoldenEye was a perfect update to that genre (at the time). While I think Casino Royale was a great movie, it was not a great Bond movie. I have yet to see the new one, but the first Kingsman movie is the best Bond movie since GoldenEye, by bringing the elements that make a Bond movie to modern filmmaking.
- dingaling 9y ago> zero gravity laser battles Oddly when I first saw the movie version of Moonraker that scene shattered my suspension of disbelief. Up until that film most Bond gadgets had been reasonably believeable as achievable by a sufficiently funded organisation. But suddenly secret fleets of Shuttles, space stations and laser-equipped Space Marines? Nope.
- mhb 9y agoPerhaps Ian McShane: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0574534/ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0574534/
- mortenjorck 9y agoSome observers feel that the franchise, by only limiting itself to theatrical movies, remains vastly under-utilized by 21st century standards, where expectations are to exploit IP across all mediums, push out merchandising for all age brackets and have spin-offs and cinematic universes. As unlikely as it may seem for Apple to be bidding on the rights to 007 in the first place, it seems vastly less likely for Apple to use them for anything less focused than a franchise of films or an iTunes-exclusive TV series. Disney-level, cross-media IP exploitation has to be among the most foreign concepts I can imagine for the company.
- achamayou 9y agoNot sure why they'd think that, there's been video games (some good ones, even), there are regular limited edition watch releases, perfume, there's plenty of product placement in the movies themselves (cars, bikes, drinks...). Could they do much more of it without going over the top? It's not that clear.
- smegel 9y ago> spin-offs and cinematic universes. I suspect it is about this. TV shows, spin-off movies based on Felix... But I think that would tarnish the brand. Bond has always been about long-awaited epic movies, not yearly re-hashes of the same stuff.
- shmerl 9y ago> But the emergence of Apple — which is considered such a viable competitor that Warners is now pressing MGM hard to close a deal — and Amazon shows that the digital giants consider Bond one of the last untapped brands (like a Marvel, Pixar or Lucasfilm) that could act as a game-changer in the content space. So Apple want to get into film publishing business? Expect them to become DRM sick even more than they are now.
- morganvachon 9y agoI generally agree with your posts but in this case I think you're forgetting that Apple (specifically, Steve Jobs) was squarely behind the big push to remove DRM from online music sales about 10 years ago[1]. Apple forced all the major and several indie record labels to remove DRM over the following years. That's not "DRM sick", that's about as healthy and consumer friendly as it gets. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20070207234839/www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic https://web.archive.org/web/20070207234839/www.apple.com/hot...
- shmerl 9y agoIndeed, but that was a long time ago. Today they are pro-DRM way more. For instance, Apple Music has it.
- morganvachon 9y agoAll music streaming services use DRM, out of necessity; it's a service of convenience. You don't buy the songs, you listen to a broadcast of them. Consumer ownership doesn't apply, and if you do want to buy DRM-free songs, Apple and many other digital music vendors will gladly sell them to you. That way you don't have to use Apple Music or any other encumbered service.
- shmerl 9y agoDRM has nothing to do with convenience or streaming. There are DRM-free services which provide convenience of streaming all the same (Bandcamp for example). You probably meant that DRM is related to renting (which again, is completely orthogonal to streaming, see above). I find the concept of digital renting to be weird in itself anyway, and the fact that it drags DRM along demonstrates it.
- daviddumenil 9y agoThis article reads like a thinly veiled attempt by MGM to encourage two more bidders into the race.
- Animats 9y agoCharles Stross points out that too many major real-world figures are like Bond villains now.[1] [1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2017/07/paging-agent-007.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2017/07/paging-a...
- gehsty 9y agoDisney seem to be the only company capable of taking stewardship of such huge important characters in a way that keeps fans happy. They seem to understand that they need to respect the history of the IP and allow the brand to grow in as high quality way possible. Look at Marvel and Star Wars, both huge success stories. In fact if Disney got Bond, the only mega IP / Brand / Universe I can think of outside of their control would be Harry Potter, and as a huge Harry Potter fan, I’d much rather HP was with Disney than Warner Bros.
- ryanwaggoner 9y agoDC Universe?
- gehsty 9y agoI guess, I’m not that big into comic books, most of my exposure has been through cinema and the DC universe movies have overall been very disappointing... Characters like Superman and Batman are up there with the biggest & best of them though. Who do you think would be a good steward for the DC Universe?