The new James Bond Movie will be entitled Casino Royale due out in 06/07.

I was thinking (Yes something IS burning) how funny the movie could get if the action takes place on the Mississippi Gulf Coast Casinos. I mean James Bond might meet his match with the Southern Bubba's. They could reprise the role of Sheriff J.W. Pepper, (played by Willie Nelson, no less).......


how far can we take this?

I've lost all hope that they might actually base the movie on the original book and since the book takes place all in one French town, I think it's pretty unlikely that much will be left of Fleming's work once the script is finalized.

But, please, no J.W. Pepper reprise.

Jim

Being a serious Bond fan, I too miss and hate they way they change the stories, but our world had changed and Bond would have to change with it.

The very first CR was film by CBS Playhouse for TV and an American named Barry Nelson played JB, it was as close as posssible to the book that TV woud allow. IF you read the book, he's beaten so badly he requires a long hospital stay and in From russia with Love, almost died from the poison in the shoe/knife. The first 6 or so movies they followed as close as they felt they needed to, but now it's anybodies game.

Jake

So who's the new Bond?

Last I heard, Brosnan was returning.

Being a serious Bond fan, I too miss and hate they way they change the stories, but our world had changed and Bond would have to change with it.

The very first CR was film by CBS Playhouse for TV and an American named Barry Nelson played JB, it was as close as posssible to the book that TV woud allow. IF you read the book, he's beaten so badly he requires a long hospital stay and in From russia with Love, almost died from the poison in the shoe/knife. The first 6 or so movies they followed as close as they felt they needed to, but now it's anybodies game.

Jake

I wish they would concentrate on stories, the Fleming stuff was good reading. And they should make them take place in the 50's. Real spy stuff (danger!) rather than the gadgets. I've still never seen the CBS Playhouse version... the only Bond I've never seen. Did you see about the new video game of From Russia With Love? I saw some screen caps, and it looks great. I'm not a video game player, but it looks fun. Plus, Connery actually came back and did the voice of Bond! How can you go wrong there?

The very first CR was film by CBS Playhouse for TV and an American named Barry Nelson played JB, it was as close as posssible to the book that TV woud allow.

Very close except for the fact that Bond was American and Felix Leiter was British. Peter Lorre made a great villian, Le Chiffre.

I actually have this show on tape.

Jim

They included the Barry Nelson CR on the disk for the Peter Sellers CASINO ROYALE DVD.

No, Brosnan is definitely out, he priced himself out, plus MGM has been pushing for a younger guy anyway (MGM supposedly wants a 20soimething, like the lil blond guy from LOTR and POTC, if you can believe that lunacy.)

www.Commanderbond.net has lots of info on the frontrunners, who seem to be the NIP/TUCK guy and a few others, including some guy named Goran or Goric from recent years of ER. Unfortunately Clive Owen doesn't seem all that interested, though I imagine if you can get past his ears he'd be awesome in the role.

The script has been finished for awhile and it is supposed to be extremely faithful to the novel, to the point of retaining the novel's famous last line, which tells me they probably won't wreck at least one major part of the story.

The very first CR was film by CBS Playhouse for TV and an American named Barry Nelson played JB, it was as close as posssible to the book that TV woud allow. IF you read the book, he's beaten so badly he requires a long hospital stay. . . IIRC, in the novel, Bond is tortured by being whacked repeatedly on his private parts with a tennis racket or some such thing. Don't think that little detail would have made it to television in the Fifties. Today, of course, that kind of sadistic violence is no big deal in movies — just don't you dare show Bond smoking a cigarette!

IIRC, in the novel, Bond is tortured by being whacked repeatedly on his private parts with a tennis racket or some such thing. Don't think that little detail would have made it to television in the Fifties. Today, of course, that kind of sadistic violence is no big deal in movies — just don't you dare show Bond smoking a cigarette!

Actually, it is a chair with the seat missing that he is tied down to after being stripped naked.

Then a carpet beater is used on his parts.

That's pretty damned rough in ANY era.

The screenwriters already gave an interview indicating the torture sequence IS going to be retained, but I have my doubts that they can do it right and still keep the mandatory PG13.

I'll be interested in seeing how they structure the film, since the main villain is dead at the end of act 2 in the book, with Bond's recovery and the love story making up the last few chapters (that's also when Bond gets a great chapter of philosophizing about the nature of evil, something I'd have loved to see Clive Owen or Timothy Dalton get to play.)

But I agree that the smoking is going to be a hard sell; supposedly MGM has already been lobbied to NOT let Bond smoke again. I think the Eon people want it and MGM doesn't ... so the usual studio/production impasse, just with a different topic.

But I agree that the smoking is going to be a hard sell; supposedly MGM has already been lobbied to NOT let Bond smoke again. I think the Eon people want it and MGM doesn't ... so the usual studio/production impasse, just with a different topic.

EON can do whatever it wants and MGM/UA-Sony has no say over it. They are just the distributors. It would be like Fox telling Lucas what he can put in a Star Wars film. Even if MGM is putting up the money, what are they gonna do?, refuse to make it? EON has always had total creative control. They own the franchise.

EON can do whatever it wants and MGM/UA-Sony has no say over it. They are just the distributors. It would be like Fox telling Lucas what he can put in a Star Wars film. Even if MGM is putting up the money, what are they gonna do?, refuse to make it? EON has always had total creative control. They own the franchise.

Total control? Not quite. If that were the case, then they'd have taken the property elsewhere 25 years ago, or sometime between now and then, when UA had its problems and got swallowed up by MGM. THAT is when the budget ceilings went in on the Bond films, and that is a clear indication that the pursestrings ARE definitely with MGM, and that MGM continues to exert a lot of pull. All of the Bond films in the 80s, after MGM nabbed UA, were made for very nearly the same price, between 30 and 35 mil, and this was a decade when the price of an average budget film went up considerably more. This budget issue IMPOSED on Eon and ENFORCED by MGM is what drove the Bonds out of Pinewood to Churubasco for LICENCE TO KILL, even though that probably cost them more with the bribes and such, as was the case with DUNE a few years earlier.

Try reading the John Glenn book to get a look at the MGM/Eon situation -- he was only there in the 80s but it was clear enough even then.

My guess is that when Eon has a different take on creative matters than MGM, that the latter just tightens the budget a bit more, or does something to alter the schedule just to mess with them. I don't think the 20something Bond is Eon's idea, to name a current one.

Then there was TOMORROW NEVER DIES, the only Bond movie I've still never gotten through (even the awful ones, MOONRAKER and VIEW TO A KILL and the second half of DIE ANOTHER DAY, I usually see a few times -- Not TND though.) Sela Ward cast as Bond's old girlfriend (excellent casting choice.) Then somebody decides she is too old, she gets canned before shooting and they wind up with Terri Hatcher (ironic, given that Sela Ward turned down the Susan part in DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES before it went to Ward) ... a PREGNANT Terri Hatcher at that!

You'd probably need to do research to prove it, but that switch (on a movie that was totally screwed up by any number of other aspects, from directing to writing to rewriting to rewriting the rewriters) was almost certainly MGM messing with Eon, since Brosnan would have killed to play scenes with a really good actress and a class act like Ward.

I have plenty of reason to not love Eon ... mainly for Broccolli the First's revisionist attitude about all things Bond and for shoving Moore down our throats for so long ... but they do at least care about the Bond character. IMO, that is not true of anybody at MGM, so I think it is ongoing battle between these companies.

Probably still rumors, but last I heard Quentin Tarantino was very interested in directing Casino Royale (maybe it's the torture scene)...

Dunno if he'll get the job, but after seeing what he did with the CSI season finale, this may be the jolt that the Bond franchise needs to be interesting again.

Probably still rumors, but last I heard Quentin Tarantino was very interested in directing Casino Royale (maybe it's the torture scene)...

Dunno if he'll get the job, but after seeing what he did with the CSI season finale, this may be the jolt that the Bond franchise needs to be interesting again.


The Bond people always ignore QT's overtures. They signed Martin Campbell to direct CR a long ways back, and he is screentesting the final four contestants this month. Ages, if you can believe this, range from 47 to 22! The young ones look like WB runnersups. The only decent candidate now is the ER guy. I'm seriously depressed.

The Bond people always ignore QT's overtures. They signed Martin Campbell to direct CR a long ways back, and he is screentesting the final four contestants this month. Ages, if you can believe this, range from 47 to 22! The young ones look like WB runnersups. The only decent candidate now is the ER guy. I'm seriously depressed.

The Goldeneye director? Ugh...
I guess he's competent enough (in a bland, nothing spectacular way). Definitely not expecting any memorable scenes out of him. Sadly, the franchise stuntwork has become more and more cartoonish, to the point of idiocy (wind surfing the tsunami in Die Another Day was the last straw for me). For once I wish they would go back to the fomula used during the first 4 movies, where things were exciting and at least plausible...

GoldenEye is one of my favorite Bond films, for many reasons. For one, I really like Brosnan as Bond -- I had been expecting a Roger Moore-ish portrayal out of him, and what he's done with the part has never failed to impress me, and is about as far away as it could be from Moore. Some of the criticisms I've heard of Brosnan (here and elsewhere) leave me scratching my head, wondering if everyone has actually seen the same films I have.

The stunt work has been over-the-top for forever and a day (Hey! That sounds like a possible title for them! ;) ), and I personally don't care if they use CGI, real stunts or a combination of the two. Sure, the "real" stunts used real people -- but I was always aware they weren't done by the actor, and that what it looked like was happening wasn't, in fact, real.

But aside from that, I like that GoldenEye shows us several things we hadn't seen previously. The tank chase, the tank versus "Darth Train" (although my ex-wife nailed it when she said it looks more like Sam the Eagle), the jumps in the teaser, and a bad guy who was nearly Bond's real equal, and who'd had the same training.

Qapla'

SSB

Most obvious stuntman ever: In Octopussy, when Bond is on the outside of the Khan's plane. The guy is looking RIGHT at us, in plain sight, and looks nothing like Moore!

Great stunt, though.