Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

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  • #61
    Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

    Originally posted by entlassen View Post
    um, but obviously they're ethnically African, not English. I could have been born and raised in Japan but that wouldn't make me ethnically Japanese, would it?

    Fleming was an Anglo-Scot. His creation was likewise an Anglo-Scot, though with a Swiss mother. How would they explain a black Bond? Fleming would roll in his grave.

    Not sure what's so complicated about this.
    What does "ethnically African" mean?
    If you really like it you can have the rights
    It could make a million for you overnight

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    • #62
      Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

      Originally posted by entlassen View Post
      Bond is not a blank slate that can be played by anyone. He's a specific character with a specific heritage and a specific worldview, and they're all Anglo in origin. And I say this as someone who's not Anglo myself.

      Just as a character like Zatoichi is distinctly Japanese, Bond is distinctly English. It's a question of culture and heritage. If you destroy that then you destroy who the character is.
      Could a young DeNiro play Bond? Or a young Kirk Douglas?
      If you really like it you can have the rights
      It could make a million for you overnight

      Comment


      • #63
        Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

        Originally posted by BattleDolphinZero View Post
        You think they change the race of a character when Will Smith gets involved?

        What do you think that entails? Let's take Tonight He Comes a spec that was turned into Hancock. Will Smith says "yes", you have a green light, do you think someone did a race pass?

        No.

        Because it didn't matter.

        I mean, someone might cast a like-raced wife if Denzel or Will is doing a movie but that's a casting afterthought.

        Look, no one is gonna change anyone's mind on this thread. There are people who think Bond needs to be specifically white and there are people who don't.

        As the demographics in America change, so will our perceived value of race. If things continue the way they're going, white people will become a minority soon. After that Latinos (in like 60 years or something) will become a majority. And after that, specific Latino groups will rise in numbers. I don't know if Hollywood will still be making movies but if they are, Bond will be speaking Spanish.

        What are you talking about? I'm not talking about changing the race of other characters to "match" the lead. That would be stupid. I'm saying if a spec script is written with a lead character who is white, but Will Smith says he's interested in the part, then no one has a problem with that lead character becoming black. However, that's an entirely different scenario than Bond.

        I don't have a problem with people having the opinion that Elba would be a good Bond...I have a problem with someone saying it's "stupid" or "ignorant" to feel that they should keep the integrity of the source material intact. Like you said, no one is going to change anyone's mind...but to call the opposing opinion stupid is...well, stupid.

        I don't think Bond will ever be speaking Spanish.

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        • #64
          Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

          Yet nobody has a problem with setting his stories in the present day. Or that he's played by a blond actor with blue eyes.

          Idris Elba is English. Maybe he doesn't fit the stereotype of the classic Englishman, but neither does Daniel Craig. And I'm not even sure Fleming wrote Bond as the stereotypical Englishman either.

          Anyway, who cares. The novels and the films are two different things.

          Idris Elba would be an awesome James Bond, even if it never happens.

          Will Smith would be an awesome Thomas Magnum, if they ever remade Magnum P.I. into a movie.

          As for Bond ever speaking Spanish, he already does: movies are dubbed in Spain. "Me llamo Bondo. El Bondo." :P

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          • #65
            Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

            Originally posted by CthulhuRises View Post

            I don't think Bond will ever be speaking Spanish.
            I doubt it too. Was just making a general point.

            Again, though, going to the integrity of the Bond character -- James Bond now is very different from James Bond 40 years ago. And though I doubt there will be a James Bond 40 years from now (or maybe there will), it's not hard for me to imagine that he'd be very different from the one today...including his skin color.

            Sh!t changes.

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            • #66
              Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

              Originally posted by Dr. Vergerus View Post
              Yet nobody has a problem with setting his stories in the present day. Or that he's played by a blond actor with blue eyes.

              Idris Elba is English. Maybe he doesn't fit the stereotype of the classic Englishman, but neither does Daniel Craig. And I'm not even sure Fleming wrote Bond as the stereotypical Englishman either.

              Anyway, who cares. The novels and the films are two different things.

              Idris Elba would be an awesome James Bond, even if it never happens.

              Will Smith would be an awesome Thomas Magnum, if they ever remade Magnum P.I. into a movie.

              Actually, Craig more closely resembles Flemming's physical vision of Bond than anyone else has...

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              • #67
                Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

                Originally posted by Dr. Vergerus View Post

                Anyway, who cares. The novels and the films are two different things.

                Idris Elba would be an awesome James Bond, even if it never happens.

                Will Smith would be an awesome Thomas Magnum, if they ever remade Magnum P.I. into a movie.
                100% agree

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                • #68
                  Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

                  Originally posted by CthulhuRises View Post
                  Actually, Craig more closely resembles Flemming's physical vision of Bond than anyone else has...
                  I haven't read the books, but this is what the Wikipedia says:

                  Fleming decided Bond should look a little like both the American singer Hoagy Carmichael and himself[9] and in Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking ... Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold."

                  So, from that description and the picture of Hoagy Carmichael, I'd say the actor that most closely resembled Fleming's idea of Bond was Connery.

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                  • #69
                    Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

                    Originally posted by odocoileus View Post
                    What does "ethnically African" mean?
                    ???
                    It means that his racial heritage is African. What do you think it means? The English are a mix of Ancient Celtic and Germanic tribes that migrated to the island after the Roman occupation.

                    Could a young DeNiro play Bond? Or a young Kirk Douglas?
                    Could they? Yes, but it'd be a serious case of miscasting.

                    Toshiro Mifune: one of the greatest actors ever. But James Bond? No.

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                    • #70
                      Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

                      Originally posted by BattleDolphinZero View Post
                      100% agree
                      Even the Will Smith as Magnum part?

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                      • #71
                        Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

                        Originally posted by Dr. Vergerus View Post
                        Even the Will Smith as Magnum part?
                        Yep.

                        Especially with that.

                        But he's too big to play Magnum.

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                        • #72
                          Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

                          Originally posted by BattleDolphinZero View Post
                          Yep.

                          Especially with that.

                          But he's too big to play Magnum.
                          Don't crush my dreams, man. To me, not only would it be perfect casting, it'd actually be the only actor I can picture in that role and not falling short of Tom Selleck's charm and charisma.

                          Will Smith as Magnum. Helen Mirren as Higgins.

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                          • #73
                            Re: Idris Alba: The First Black James Bond???

                            Originally posted by CthulhuRises View Post
                            The character was written, described, and (and in the case of Electro) drawn as a white character.
                            Obviously, you never read any of Ian Fleming's books from which the James Bond movie franchise is based. There was never any mention of the race of Bond in the books...just that Bond be British (Idris Elba is British).

                            BTW, I also hearing that the producers of the Bond movies are considering two African America directors: Tim Story (the two Fantastic Four movies); and F Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen, The Italian Job).

                            I think that white America -- in particular -- has a problem thinking outside the box. Remember, it's 2012 -- not 1912.

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                            • #74
                              Re: Idris Elba: The First Black James Bond???

                              ...and meanwhile we have a grinning dwarf playing 6"4" Jack Reacher

                              Hollywood will "show me the money" regardless of race age or gender
                              I heard the starting gun


                              sigpic

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                              • #75
                                Re: Idris Alba: The First Black James Bond???

                                Originally posted by Kid Rasta View Post
                                Obviously, you never read any of Ian Fleming's books from which the James Bond movie franchise is based. There was never any mention of the race of Bond in the books...just that Bond be British (Idris Elba is British).
                                I have read the books. To even insinuate that Fleming intended Bond to be anything other than White is ludicrous. Fleming wrote Bond as an Englishman who has deep roots in Scottish nobility. Furthermore his mother was Swiss. Swiss, Scottish, English... all White.

                                BTW I hope you never read Live and Let Die.

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