Colin Salmon
Posted on 12/02/2004 6:32:50 PM PST by aculeus
A leading black actor, 6ft 4in Colin Salmon, emerged last night as a front-runner to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in the next 007 adventure.
Noted for a deep, commanding voice, the 41-year-old actor already has a recurring role in the Bond series as Charles Robinson, M's suave chief-of-staff.
The chance to promote him, while startling, would not be unexpected. The Broccoli family, who are casting the film, the 21st in the series, are said to fear that the films have become anachronistic.
They told Brosnan they wanted to "go in a new direction".
Initially, this was taken to mean that they were turning away from the special effects and high-tech gadgetry to update Casino Royale, Ian Fleming's first Bond book.
The feeling is that despite the vast profits from the last movie, Barbara Broccoli, whose father Cubby made the early Bonds, and Michael Wilson, her step-brother and partner at Eon Productions, are anxious to make a more hard-boiled thriller.
Speculation about Salmon, who was born in Luton, stems from a sudden rush of unusually large bets on him. Warren Lush, a spokesman for Ladbrokes, said yesterday: "They have come out of nowhere, with sums like £500 apiece. These are huge bets for what is really a novelty wager.
"The suspicion is they may be being placed by people, or spies out there, in the know. So we have temporarily closed the book on the next Bond, as we don't want to get out fingers burned."
Until now, the favourite was Dougray Scott, whose play, Becket, closes in London's West End in a fortnight. Ewan McGregor was also a runner until he accepted his latest stage role.
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Colin Salmon
this is a joke right?
That's supposed to be Bond? Why not just cast Ellen DeGeneres as Bond?
SNL joked about the idea of a black Bond a while ago. Tracy Morgan said he was "Lamont Bond."
Outrageous! Discrimination against disabled midget tri-sexual lesbians!
Bring back Connery, there's a new direction.
My favorite rumor was that Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill") was going to direct Casino Royale and keep Pierce as Bond.
Damn right.
I was kinda partial to Bill Cosby in "I Spy".
Actually he's a competent actor who's appeared in several BBC dramas.
Very English and debonaire in his diction, dress, etc.
I'm not much for Bond films but he'd work for me.
As I said, it was getting silly anyway.
Pat Boone to play Shaft?
This is like having a white Shaft. It don't work.
Wesley Snipes could do it. It wouldn't be Bond but it would be amusing.
Colin Salmon? There's something fishy about this.
LOL! Black Bond. How about a white John Shaft?
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