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Maybe it was never in the script but talked about, or like you say an internet myth that gained some legs.
I am guessing Bond and Tola didn't hit any hot tubs? LOL!
Well, nah no hot tube for the male version (lol), was other scenes with him but with the same (original) purpose (but I don't tell more to not "spoil" you if one day you want to read Scripting 007).
What if M had been recast for Daniel Craigs first film CR?
It was announced as a reboot and as such it was clear the producers were clearing the deck. No Moneypenny, no Q and no Tanner. At least not to start Craig's era. But they needed an M. The original plan was to cast a new actor in the role. Barbara even went so far as to have a lunch with Judi Dench to share this news. Legend has it when Barbara went to state that they had found a new James Bond and the plans for a reboot, Judi replied "when does filming start?". Barbara didn't have the heart to tell her she wouldn't be a part of it and so Judi returned as M. Although the character was written differently.
But what if Judi had accepted not being in the new film. What if the producers re-cast M for Craig. Do you think that they would have kept M female? Or would they have gone with a male actor?
We may not think this makes much of a difference, but by Daniel's third film it was decided to kill off M. This had more emotional weight since Judi had been playing the character for well over a decade. Would the plot of SF killed off M? Would it have had the same impact as the new actor would only have been in two films before being killed off?
So lets discuss, what if M had been re-cast for CR? how would it impact Craig's films and would it have changed the plot of SF?
But also in CR and QOS some things only works because Judi Dench M. Inspecialy the whole Mother and trust issues with him that started with Twine. Trust issues be in first place why she been in the court and look there going to replace her in Skyfall. Severine in court be only replament i can think about to keep Silva running and driving trow London. There is something in that scene when Silva take the car that writers/eon whant we see. Her speach saying so much, i always name it Judi Dench M told truth whyle she was lying.
Emotions of some scenes like empty chair/missing bullet in QOS (the empty chair also symbol of Mr White his death) and little bit earlier tricker finger sound when Judi Dench name pop up in maintitle or her name in a star who been atacked in CR maintitles. All examples of hinting of her death. Skyfall self with Judi Dench name over graveyard, the bell of death sound (turn later also be hint of Bond Death).
Without Judi the dynamic between Bond and the M character would need more screen time to bring the emotion to the death.
Interesting thoughts.
I guess a new M is a good idea after all!
;)
It's a good movie until the third act. Bond's plan never made sense and also...it didn't work.
You can have stupid plans but they have to work.
If they'd gone for male M, I suspect they would have been criticised for ditching Judi Dench in favour of a male actor.
Based on this premise, I'm more curious to see who could have been chosen, in 2006, to play M. If we start from the idea that the character would have remained feminine and that a famous actress would have been chosen, Maggie Smith would have been the obvious choice from that time. Vanessa Redgrave could have been another possibility.
He could have been a young Sir Miles!
As far as how would it have impacted "Skyfall", I think that Hopkins' "M" could have been somewhat a surrogate father to Bond; by the time he died the loss would have been just as devastating as was Judi's.
Same. As much as I like Fiennes, I hope Eon won't try to repeat what they did with Dench.
I'd liked to add a topic myself in here if you would permit me? 😊
I ran out of topics or what if's. If you have one, PM and I will feature it!
What if the Brosnan Bond films had been a reboot?
Even though there was a 6 year gap between LTK and GE, the producers picked up where they left off. This Bond acted like his predecessors. He drank, was misogynistic and generally marched to his own drum. The character was seen driving a DB-5 with no back story. Granted he got a new M, but his Q remained from the other films.
But what if the producers had decided to reboot with Brosnan in GE. After all back in 1986 Wilson and Maibaum had written a script that showed a younger Bond. Cubby famously said "no one wants to see Bond before he became Bond." (or words to that effect)
What would the implications have been if they had re-booted Bond with Brosnan in 1995. One assumes that Desmond would be gone and a new Q would have joined the new M and Moneypenny. No dressing down from M in the briefing scene. What else might have been?
Do you think a Brosnan reboot would have worked?
It’s a bit tricky gauging because reboots as we know them today with the likes of Batman Begins or CR ‘06 weren’t quite around like that. The Bond series had had soft reboots of sorts with DAF, LALD, TLD and OHMSS, but none consciously restarted a new ‘timeline’. As was said, I don’t think Cubby or even anyone else were all too keen on seeing a film about how Bond became 007.
It may well have ended up like CR - a Bond adventure showing one of the character’s earlier missions but with him more or less established (so in effect the idea of Bond in GE being a ‘relic’ of the Cold War could have been replaced with him being a new agent in a post Cold War world… maybe just rejig the PTS/Alec’s ‘death’ and it’s doable). But I’m not sure how much they would leaned into it.
They were more or less obligated to keep Llewelyn on into GE, for continuity. They didn't have any other options, really, because I don't think Brown ever had the impact that Lee did as M.
Yes, it would have. I think Alec Trevelyan would have been a mentor, not a similar age as Bond.
What if Jeffery Deaver (or another author) had picked up the threads of Carte Blanche in the modern era for the book series?
Do we think modern book readers would have responded to a Bond literary series of novels. Deaver certainly was bold to base his Bond in the modern era. Some love it while others found it to be lacking. What if IFP had commissioned Deaver to proceed with a series? Or had signed another author to continue what Deaver had started?
What was more difficult was the Cape Town locale and the characters operating there.
I'm not a good judge for how it would be received, still I'd be interested in Deaver trying European, Asian, or Central and South American locations in a similar approach if he had the inspiration for it.
https://www.thebookbond.com/2017/04/jeffrey-deaver-turned-down-second-bond.html
He did have some great villains. One of who survived at the end. Felicity Willing could have come back. I view Carte Blanche as a "Year Two" (from DC Comics) for Bond. We could have also dug deeper into Bond's parents' history. Maybe Charmian Bond could have made an appearance.
He'd be a worse version of John Gardner I think.
Not to take away from his great book at all though: he did a great job updating Bond's world and putting a realistic spin on what Bond does (ODG is a great new name as well). Maybe the slightest bit lazy with Bond's Afghanistan backstory but still really good work and I come back to it every once in a while.
A worse version of Gardner? I am not sure I see that. Gardner played fast and loose with Bond and some of his habits. I saw what Deaver was doing as building some new aspects of the character. He took risks and they all didn't pay off.
I think it is an interesting idea of modernizing Bond but not aligned with the cinematic Bond but a new take. I would have loved to have seen this developed out more.
What if Gary Oldman played Blofeld in Spectre/No Time To Die?
Surely after the hype of seeing the casting of Christophe Waltz as Blofeld for SP. People were excited and enthused, many called it perfect casting. Then we got the performance and it was found to be lacking. Was this all on Christophe or was it on the script? Either way the performance was sighted as one of the troublesome aspects of the film.
Would a different casting choice made a different film? Or would it have saved the villain from being a disappointment? We know Oldman is a talented actor, how would his Blofeld looked on screen?