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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And a mouthful of marbles. I never could understand the murderer when he talked.
Wasn't Bill Murray kinda like that (edgy) in, "The Man Who Knew Too Much"? I only saw it once.
Subtle as a cement pair of shoes, you mean.
We should start a "Timothy Dalton is the best James Bond Club". Would you like to be president?
EEK! He's gross.
I noticed again the other night that Connery's last Bond movie (the one he came back for), "Never Say Never Again" is almost a remake of "Thunderball". Same character names
(Domino, Largo, takes place on a boat, etc, etc.)
If you watch Die Another Day on DVD, Brosnan does the commentary track, where he suggests this very thing himself.
I like the actor and his character, but I think it would be better to just give his current character a bigger role, rather than switch him to be Bond. I think the new M started out bad, but grew into her role pretty well. The same can be done for this character. Its probably steadier work to be 008 than 007 anyway.
James Bondji
I saw it on Thanksgiving. The Sophie Marceu character makes the film for me. And the last scene of her torturing (putting the screws to) Bond then him killing her.
talk about wrong casting. The franchise must be in real trouble.
Timothy Dalton should win an Oscar and beat Sean Connery over the head with it.
Do you remember when Sean Bean played 006 in one of the Brosnan movies? He got killed (but not really). Became the bad guy.
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LOL! Sure! But it will have to be a CINO (Club in name only). Wold you like to be VEEP?
You bet!
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