The PIERCE BROSNAN Appreciation thread - Discuss His Life, His Career, His Bond Films

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  • TheBondFan wrote:
    When will we see a trailer for November Man?

    It's meant to be out this year so probably fairly soon.
  • My all time favorite Bond. He was as charming as Connery, as funny as Moore and, at times, as cold as Dalton. He really took all the best and most memorable parts of the other Bonds and made the rold his own.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    I am still very excited about November Man - I can't wait!
    I like Pierce in many kinds of films: romantic drama or comedy, action/drama, and for sure in thriller/crime/espionage films.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,969
    @4EverBonded, you and I both. I'm hoping we get a trailer for 'November Man' this month. I'm excited to see how the finished film looks.
  • Pajan005Pajan005 Stockholm, Sweden
    Posts: 432
    I wonder why Brosnan wasn't back for the Percy Jackson sequel. The actor that replaced him didn't seem like the same character.
  • Creasy47 wrote:
    @4EverBonded, you and I both. I'm hoping we get a trailer for 'November Man' this month. I'm excited to see how the finished film looks.

    Yes! I've been waiting on a trailer for a while.
  • More pressure? Yes, definitely Brosnan. TheLivingRoyale put it succinctly.
    Craig, too, but it was not as heavy on his shoulders as Brosnan when he stepped into Bond's shoes. tux.

    With Craig and the other actors, they were taking over a popular series, which wasn't the case with Pierce. I think that Brosnan must have had an enormous amount of pressure playing James Bond. As much as I like Dalton and his two films, the series was derailed by LTK and dead-in-the-water in the late 80s/early 90s. Brosnan brought the series back to life and made James Bond relevant again for a whole generation of younger fans.

    Even if you aren't a fan of the Brosnan era, he still deserves credit for raising 007 from the dead.
  • NicNacNicNac Administrator, Moderator
    Posts: 7,582
    More pressure? Yes, definitely Brosnan. TheLivingRoyale put it succinctly.
    Craig, too, but it was not as heavy on his shoulders as Brosnan when he stepped into Bond's shoes. tux.

    With Craig and the other actors, they were taking over a popular series, which wasn't the case with Pierce. I think that Brosnan must have had an enormous amount of pressure playing James Bond. As much as I like Dalton and his two films, the series was derailed by LTK and dead-in-the-water in the late 80s/early 90s. Brosnan brought the series back to life and made James Bond relevant again for a whole generation of younger fans.

    Even if you aren't a fan of the Brosnan era, he still deserves credit for raising 007 from the dead.

    Well, yes he does.

    I would argue however that Craig had a more difficult job than Brosnan. Whilst Brozzer had to take over a potentially ailing series, and couldn't have been blamed if it didn't work out, Craig had to take over a healthy series and a popular Bond (Brosnan). Regardless of what hard-core fans think, the series and PB were still on a high, and Craig was suddenly this unknown entity who was pushed forward at a time when , on the face of it, it was unnecessary.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    Well said @NicNac.
  • Samuel001 wrote:
    Well said @NicNac.

    Yes, good points. They both had their issues. Probably Roger Moore had the easiest time.

  • Posts: 19,339
    Agreed...and he had to face the 'Daniel Craig is not Bond ' crowd,being called a Blonde Bond and 'The name's Bore,James Bore'....talk about pressure..
  • barryt007 wrote:
    Agreed...and he had to face the 'Daniel Craig is not Bond ' crowd,being called a Blonde Bond and 'The name's Bore,James Bore'....talk about pressure..

    That site is still around. I guess they didn't see Craig's box-office numbers.
  • More pressure? Yes, definitely Brosnan. TheLivingRoyale put it succinctly.
    Craig, too, but it was not as heavy on his shoulders as Brosnan when he stepped into Bond's shoes. tux.

    With Craig and the other actors, they were taking over a popular series, which wasn't the case with Pierce. I think that Brosnan must have had an enormous amount of pressure playing James Bond. As much as I like Dalton and his two films, the series was derailed by LTK and dead-in-the-water in the late 80s/early 90s. Brosnan brought the series back to life and made James Bond relevant again for a whole generation of younger fans.

    Even if you aren't a fan of the Brosnan era, he still deserves credit for raising 007 from the dead.

    He certainly does. The public may still love Brosnan but a lot of hardcore fans (though not all, like us Brosnanites) seem to put him down. Without him it's debatable whether the franchise would have made it through the 90s.

  • barryt007 wrote:
    Agreed...and he had to face the 'Daniel Craig is not Bond ' crowd,being called a Blonde Bond and 'The name's Bore,James Bore'....talk about pressure..

    That's actually why I think Brosnan had more pressure. Everyone was slagging off Craig before he got the part. Everyone expected him to be terrible so the only way was up. With Brosnan, he was the popular choice, everyone was expecting him to be great. People had high expectations of him, he'd been linked with the role for years. Plus the series was in a much worse place than it did when Craig took over. If CR flopped they'd probably start again (maybe bring back Brosnan for a DAF type scenario) but if GE flopped it could've meant the end of the series. It needed to be a hit so Bond would be relevant again.
  • edited February 2014 Posts: 381
    Anyone who watched Layer Cake could see that Craig would make a great 007.

    Each Bond actor needs to fit the zeitgeist of his era. In the 90s, audiences wanted a meterosexual James Bond with matinee idol good looks, and in the post September 11 00s/10s, audiences craved a no-nonsense, meat-and-potatoes killer who will often ignore bureaucratic procedure to get the job done. Daniel Craig was the perfect Bond for this time in history, as was Brosnan.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    if GE flopped it could've meant the end of the series.

    I don't think that could ever happen. All it would mean is in another few years another actor gives it a go and EON would have tried again. The public love for Bond is too much as it is.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    Ten years ago today, news broke of Brosnan being 'axed' as 007. Here is the original article:

    Pierce to be replaced by younger 007
    By Nicole Lampert, Daily Mail, 9th February 2004

    He is the most successful 007 of all, but Pierce Brosnan is being pensioned off as James Bond.

    Producers have decided that, at the age of 50, he is not attracting enough young fans and will be recruiting a successor before the next film.

    Names in the frame include Jude Law, Christian Bale, Orlando Bloom, Colin Farrell and Hugh Jackman.

    Brosnan was `optioned` to make one more Bond film, meaning he would do it if producers still wanted him. But he has been told that the option will not be taken up for the 22nd Bond movie, due to be made next year.

    In some ways he is a victim of his own success. The massive £705million box office takings for his four-film run and, in particular the £250million triumph of his last appearance, Die Another Day, has left producers wondering how they can possibly go one better.

    So instead of trying to, they have decided to take a step back and recreate the early days of Bond with a younger actor.

    `Bond reached a peak in Die Another Day - one of the most succesful films ever - but now we have the opportunity to re-energise the franchise and take it to even greater heights,` said a source at Eon productions.

    `We will go back to the first days of Bond - maybe even his first mission. We want to attract more young fans and we think that having a younger Bond will help.`

    Brosnan`s sex symbol status was not helped by pictures taken at a family barbecue last October in which he betrayed signs of middleage spread.

    The decision for a change was given added impetus when Britney Spears approached producers to ask for a role in the next movie.

    They realised the 22-year- old singer would look more like Brosnan`s daughter than his love interest.

    The source added that Brosnan was happy with the decision. `Pierce felt Roger Moore did one too many Bond movies and he wants to move on while he is still considered alongside Sean Connery,` he said.

    Brosnan took over as Bond in 1995, in GoldenEye. He was contracted to do three films, with the option of a fourth. That option was extended to include a fifth after the success of The World Is Not Enough, his third film which came out in 2000.

    Roger Moore did his last Bond film, A View To A Kill, when he was 58 while Sean Connery was just 41 when he called it a day in Diamonds Are Forever, though he made a one-off comeback at 53 in Never Say Never Again.

    Brosnan has already shown that he is more than just a one-trick pony with acclaimed roles in The Thomas Crown Affair and The Tailor of Panama. A spokesman for Eon said that Brosnan may not be part of future plans.

    `We are always looking to target younger audiences,` he said. `We want fans who will still be watching in 40 years. We are looking at what direction we want Bond to go and when that decision has been made, that will determine the cast and plot. No decisions have been made.`

    Brosnan is most Bond fans` second favourite actor in the role, according to David Black, chairman of the James Bond International Fan Club.

    `I think most fans still see Connery as the best Bond, with Brosnan coming second,` he said. `It depends who you grew up with. Older fans prefer Sean while the younger ones prefer Brosnan.`

    Of the candidates to take over, Hugh Jackman, who starred in X-Men, was the most fancied by fans, he said.

    http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=1140

    There may have been errors there and so much more but ultimately, it was true.

    This is what some forum members thought at the time and only one proved to be right:

    Although I myself could have never imagined something like this 3 days ago, it does seem strangely logical for me now. After ruining the series (or what the rumours call "injecting new blood into it") with "Die Another Day" by trying to attract the youngest of the youngest, prematurely kicking Brosnan out and replacing him with one of the freshmen in Hollywood action cinema is a perfectly plausible step for revitalizing the franchise in the 21st century. So, all in all, I don't want to believe it, but I am afraid it is credible. - A. F. Schumacher

    http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond21_brosnan_rumour_discussion.php3?t=&s=articles&id=0385

    Ten years on, how do you feel now?
  • edited February 2014 Posts: 12,837
    Samuel001 wrote:
    Ten years on, how do you feel now?

    I still feel that he deserved one more so he could go out on a high note. I feel pretty bad for him. I think DAD was mainly the fault of the producers. They hired Tamahori, Purvis and Wade, and then sat back and watched as that trainwreck unfolded. Instead of stopping all these terrible decisions they supported them.

    When they realised that they'd f***ed up badly, Brosnan was used as a scapegoat (look everyone, new Bond, new direction!) despite him still being popular enough and young enough to do another.
  • I also wish that Brosnan had made another film. I'm actually surprised that they didn't make one more with him in 2004, they still could have gone w/ craig in 2006 for CR. Say what you will about DAD, but it was a massive hit and a follow-up would have been popular too.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    In was also that EON at long last had the rights to Casino Royale and after thinking about what to do after Die Another Day had no idea. It made sense to make the great book they were now able to. That and others factors already mentioned meant that was always the way forwards no matter what happened.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Thought I'd bump this as there's been much more Brosnan hate than love lately thanks to a few members so I'd like to even it out a bit.

    I was watching TWINE the other day and while it has it's flaws, I noticed just how good Brosnan was in the film. Yeah yeah he overacts at times and there's the "shoulder" bit and blah blah blah, but I think he gives a great performance and that the character is very interesting in that one.

    In GE and TND, Brosnan is pretty cold and ruthless. He seemed willing to sacrifice Natalya on the train in GE. He got over the death of Paris very quickly in TND. He brutally killed Alec, Kauffman and Carver (and for some of them you could argue that he didn't have to), and then there's the countless henchmen he shot with machine guns over the course of the films.

    There's the bit where Natalya asks him "how can you be so cold?" and he says something like "I have to to survive". And that's Brosnan's Bond. He's a killer and he's so used to it that it no longer even affects him. After experiences that would make a massive impact on most people, he just makes a quip (like throwing the goon into the printer in TND). And that's because he's so used to killing. It's just part of the job.

    He starts off like this in TWINE. In the bankers office he's pretty cold and ruthless ("I'm giving you the opportunity to walk out with your life"). But then when he meets Elektra he seems to start to struggle a bit because he's found someone he actually, properly cares about. He knows he shouldn't give a shit about her and he knows he shouldn't trust her because it's just a mission but he does fall for her and she does bring out a softer more caring side to Bond than we've seen before in the Brosnan films.

    You can see this when he kills her. A member on here once complained because Bond didn't kill her straight away, saying Connery or Craig would've ended it then, but that's not the point. The point is that he doesn't want to kill her. The same bloke who happily chucked his former best friend of a satellite, who got over the death of his on/off girlfriend in 5 minutes and who seemed prepared to sacrifice an innocent girl is now struggling to kill the baddy. He does of course and that's what makes it even more tragic. Not only does Elektra die but a part of Bond dies with her. Any humanity he'd had left is gone. He's back to being a remorseless sociopathic killing machine again who carries on because it's all he's really good at.

    I thought this was very well done and I thought Brosnan did a great job playing a darker Bond that was struggling with his softer side.

    Excellent post dear sir. Although I wouldn't call Bond a sociopathic killing machine. ;-)
  • @thelivingroyale, good points. Brosnan rocked.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Pierce Brosnan to play the Bond he should have been in 'November Man'
    http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=11251&t=mi6&s=news
  • Murdock wrote:
    Pierce Brosnan to play the Bond he should have been in 'November Man'
    http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=11251&t=mi6&s=news

    That looks fantastic, and it will be something to tide us over until Bond 24.

  • Posts: 6,396
    Cool photo of Pierce in November Man:

    PierceBrosnan_NOVEMBERMAN-resize.jpg

    http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=40102
  • Posts: 11,189
    He seems to still destroy every vehicle he gets into.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,969
    Brosnan looks so insanely cool in that photo for 'November Man.'
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Looks like this might be Brosnan's Licence to Kill! ^:)^
  • Cool photo of Pierce in November Man:

    PierceBrosnan_NOVEMBERMAN-resize.jpg

    http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=40102

    He could still play 007.

  • Posts: 6,396
    He looks very good for a 60 year old, in fact he looks better far than Connery, Moore, Lazenby and Dalton looked at 60.

    But no, he could not still play Bond.
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