Monday, July 11, 2011

Bond 23 Casting News

Well, it's been years since I've been able to talk about a new Bond film (since 2008's Quantum of Solace, to be exact), but some casting details (or, possibly rumors) have begun to surface. A few days ago there was some hub bub on the internet because actress Naomie Harris was cast as the first black Miss Moneypenny. As a life-long Bond fan, I don't mind this color-blind casting, since we are now in the 21st century and the race of M's secretary has no real effect on her character. What matters is that she is charming, likable, beautiful, and has good chemistry with whoever plays James Bond. Nobody is ever going to replace Lois Maxwell, but Naomie Harris seems like the best choice to play the character that we've seen in years. I think she'll be good.

And according to this article, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes have signed on to play as of yet unconfirmed and unexplained roles. Both are fantastic actors, and I'm guessing they're going to be villains. Anyway, I'm hoping they'll be villains, since that would be awesome.

Judy Dench has committed to reprising her role as M, but that comes as no surprise, since she has been playing the character since Goldeneye came out sixteen years ago. I don't blame them for keeping her on since she is very good in the role and has already acted against Daniel Craig twice, but personally, I'm ready for another actor to breathe life into the role since I never really loved her portrayal. Now that Felix Lieter and Miss Money Penny are black, I think it's ok to go back to having M portrayed as a stuffy British man. I hope that doesn't offend anybody.

Oh, and apparently Sam Mendes has signed on to direct, which honestly doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence in the production. He's very famous, very rich, and very respected, but I don't think he has every been apart of something that hasn't sucked. Yeah, that's right... I said it. He makes very beautiful looking films that are completely hollow in story and lacking in actual characters. But still... it's a Bond film.

1 comment:

Justin Garrett Blum said...

Sam Mendes...yeah, that seems a weird fit, but whatever.

You know what would be awesome? If Steven Spielberg directed a James Bond movie.