There is strong speculation in the Press and with Bookmakers that the next "James Bond" could possibly be black!

The next Bond film is being speculated as the last for Daniel Craig and two of the hot favourites as possible eplacements are British actors Idris Elbe the black star of the crime drama "Luther" and red headed Damien Lewis, star of the "Homeland" series..

Both possibilities seem to be causing uproar with Bond purists especially the possibilty of a Black Bond with critics stating its nothing but PC madness and that Flemming would be rolling in his grave.

Having been a fan of the rather dark crime drama “Luther”, out of those two choices , I am intrigued at the thought of Elbe playing Bond and would prefer him to Damien Lewis, who I don’t think has the “ menacing presence” required…

I think the stage has been primed for this by black actor Colin Salmon who played Charles Robinson, MI6 Deputy Chief of Staff in Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Interestingly enough, at different times, both Salmon and Elbe have been supported as possible black Bonds by Pierce Brosnan..

Still its amazing how much the race card is being played rather than who might be the better actor for the role..

Rupaul

He'll probably look like this guy.

Racial issues are intentionally politically created diversions that are designed to divert our attention from where it ought to be.

Can ya pop him like a zit?

Didn't Tracy Morgan do an SNL skit on this? All I remember is one of the Bond girls was Back Door Galore.

As long as the next movie about Martin Luther King, Jr. stars a white man as MLK, I'm cool with it...

Do you mean Astronaut Jones, Kay?

Rocket...Im taking a rocket....got my suitcase...ill be there sooooon...

"Um hmm....yeah...dig it...now why dont you get out of that dress and show me that fat azz!"

Or do you mean The Ladies Man by Tim Meadows?

I remember him doing something kinda ad lib, where he went into a a James Bond senario. But astronaut Jones was good!

Also like Brian Fellows!

Evertother word in the script will be mutha fkker

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/jmcxny/chappelle-s-show-black-bush---uncensored

I doubt there will be a black Bond.

There's one thing Hollywood loves more than political correctness and that's money. A black Bond would kill the franchise and they know it. They make far too much money off of it to torpedo their cash cow.

Actually one of the most vocal opponents to Elbe is a black actor who played one of the early Bond villains opposite Sean Connery in Dr No and he said virtually the same thing. He also added that the Bond stories were written by a white writer featuring a white character and the part should not be played by a black. regardless of whats PC...

Its funny, but quite a few people I've spoken to imply don't
see an issue over Elbe as after all he is "British"...

It got me thinking, and its perhaps the real reason for starting this thread, we don't really have "Hyphenated Brits" in the way you guys have "African-American"...We have blacks who are British and blacks who are some other nationality....

Regardless who plays Bond next, Craig will be a tough act to follow and it will be interesting to see which way the writers take the franchise..

How about a white Super Fly? How about a white Shaft?

But they are roles defined by their colour/culture...

Bond is supposed to be British and an Officer in the Royal Navy Reserve..Colour would have been an issue when Fleming wrote the books, but not really today..

Who ever plays Bond has to portray certain traits/characteristics; providing they get that right, colour really doesn't come into it?

Keep in mind though even though Bond is a British character the largest market for the movies is the U.S. Brits might not mind it but we're inundated with political correctness over here & don't want to be preached to when we're paying for entertainment. It's kind of like the Timothy Dalton years where they decided to make Bond more of a metrosexual & took a bunch of sex out of it, he wasn't sleeping with anything that moved. People lost interest because Bond is supposed to be a male chauvinist pig, that's who he is.

I'm in England often with my job & it's interesting to see the differences in racial interactions over there. You guys don't seem to have the black thug culture that we have. I think it's because their numbers are smaller and they integrate into mainstream society better than here. There aren't enough of them to form their cliques. What I see a lot more in Britain is what we'd call "white trash", young white thugs all covered in tattoos, often with shaved heads that make asses of themselves everywhere they go.

Some the inner cities and larger towns have a "ghetto" problem, although in many places these areas also to have white trash who seem to want to be "[bleep]"..

Don't get me started on tattoos..there popularity over here has exploded in recent years and everybody (ie all sections of society) seem to be having them..If you look at people under 25, they seem to be almost compulsory. And not just one or two either, but large areas covered...

How far do you want to get away from the character that Ian Fleming created? As the franchise moved away from the basic plots and characters throughout the years the movies suffered.

Craig had the good fortune to be cast as Bond as the producers decided to return to Bond's roots with Casino Royale that rolled into Quantum of Solace.

Even Skyfall began with more of a spy scenario when Bond was taken out by friendly fire. This was Flemingesque.

Now we have a Black Moneypenny? Why not just give the cute girl an original character, she need not be Moneypenny. Want a Black MI6 agent? Create one and make unique movies with that character. All a Black Bond would be is shameless pandering to a movement that denigrates tradition in favor of a cultural rewrite.

Pierce Brosnan is a flaming, ultra liberal, narcissistic buffoon. And yes, I've met him, thus my opinion.

Ed

I don't know about Brosnan, but Connery is very anti gun and has campaigned on behalf of the anti's in the past..I loath him for being so hypocritical...

I think race is just a bigger issues to you guys..

If the next movie was supposed to be a period correct film set in the 1950's, closely based on one of the original books, I'd agree, but the film franchise has only ever paid lip service to Flemings work..

He's not very anti-gun when he's at his cabin in Interior Alaska!

Ed

Fits perfectly with the image our President portrays.

So M beingf a woman, Moneypenny being black and Fe
Ix being black didn't bother anyone...but Bpond being anything other than white is a problem?

Pete,

It is bigger because the dynamic both socially and politically is much bigger here. The issue is far too complex to even scratch. However, one such simple exam is that as cities elect more and more Black councilmen and women, there is a movement and demand that public buildings and roads named after historical caucasian figures be renamed after a Black figure. Not just MLK, which is ubiquitous, but even local figures who had nothing else going on other than color. No great service, no great deeds, just born black.

Take our international airport. Named for former Mayor William B. Hartsfield. The family of Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, demanded that the airport's name be changed to Maynard Jackson International Airport. That met with resistance, so the compromise became Hartsfield-Jackson.

Seems that some 10 years later, it is still familiarly known as Hartsfield Airport -because it has been so for 50+ years- and the Jackson family is all pissy about that. The city is now demanding we all call it by its proper name.

Why couldn't Jackson have a new building named after him? Why can't a black MI6 agent have his own name and his own movie? Is it because of the fear that it would never reach the heights of James Bond, so in the interest of social engineering we will just piggy back on historical success?

I am fatigued by all of it. Luckily, you seem spared.

Oh, crap. Guess what's eventual.

Please let it be Halle Berry.

Madea goes to MI-6! Now that would be funny.

We have Denzel Washington and Samuel L Jacksons that cold kick the crap out of any of the Bonds. Who cares.

My vote is for Don Cheatel..


Don is so black he makes Wesley Snipes look like Ron Howard.

I'm ok with it, if they remake Shaft and star either Pierce Brosnan or PeeWee Herman

Seriously?
Not interested one bit in the further nigrafucation of white culture.
Too much of that already. Segregation Now and Forever.

Idris Elba


He has killer eyes....





He is a extremely handsome man, and quite talented as an actor from what I have heard and read....





Lynn

Let him be 008, and give him his own franchise. If the scripts are good, I'll buy a ticket to every one. No need to remake Bond. Why not Caitlyn Jenner as Bond? Seems all the rage these days. She can lez it up with Moneypenny and fight the Moral Majority. Rosie O'Donnell can be Felix Leiter. I'm sure Fleming wouldn't have objected...

Ha, ha,ha. Too true.

Bingo!

George, is that you? Thought you were dead.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/sept98/wallace.htm

Why not, they've already changed just about everything else in our culture, hell it was bad enough when Roger Moore (another FAKE Bond) boinked that colored chick in one of his films and then to add insult to injury a FEMALE "M". I mean please/

Just about anybody would have been better than Moore! As for Dame Judy Dench playing M that was an inspired bit of casting (Think Maggie Thatcher) as was the introduction of her replacement in Skyfall..

Sean Connery, Bernard Lee and Porsche; there are no substitutes...

Pete E - I love tv from the UK but the PC nonsense seems as media rampant as it is here if the lessons on social acceptability in most of the shows I see coming from there are any indication. The revisionist stuff is pretty glaring and hard to swallow at times. Absolutely stellar entertainment but I cringe to see the polit-preaching, that seems to be driven by exec's not the writers, inserted.

Agree on Judy Dench and big kudos, to Daniel Craig. I really could care less who played 007 in the past and found the arguments over who was best very El Camino vs Ranchero. A few minutes in to Casino Royale had me hooked. I don't envy anyone trying to follow in Craig's shoes no matter what color he is. If Craig, being as good as he is, was black I would be just as big a fan as long as setting was present day.

Best 'villain' ever - Javier Bardum as Raul Silva. Not silly over the top or living in a volcano chiseled out to look like a bust of himself - nor pools of sharks with frickin' lasers. Just creepy enough.

By the magic of the internet I have now watched several episodes of his tv series "Luther". Very good actor, excellent presence on the screen, he would definitely make a strong contender to fill the role of Bond.

I think we are pretty much on the same page on this..IMHO, The old Bond films haven’t aged very well and tend to make me cringe with their over the top sets and ham performances by some of those involved.

As for the possible replacements for Craig, I suspect this is all just a bit of hype generated by the Studio to keep peoples interest..There has been similar speculation in the past and the Studio rarely end up picking the Media’s favourite.

As you say, whoever they pick will have a tough act to follow, all I ask is no more Timothy Dalton or Roger Moore types!

Edited to add they could rein in the product placements as well!

What I would really like to see is a remake of the Ipcress File, with a modern day Harry Palmer..

M

Moneypenny



Then how about Robert Carlyl as Bond...
He can play the "living with AIDS" Bond.

Dalton was considered as Bond as far back as 1968 for OHMSS, but was only 22. Moore was better than he was, as was Lazenby.

Idris Elbe would be a fantastic Bond. he is a incredible actor, and exudes the "cool" factor necessary for a Bond character. I have zero issue with this.