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Fassbender's Bond
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1/Waiting in the hotel room.
2/The bar with the German beer.
3/And the winner - swimming to the yacth!
However, since CR, EON are at least trying to step up their game and not go through the greatest hits motions like they did with Brosnan. Also, we now live in a world where there's a lot of good television and movies that at the very least touch on the spy/espionage culture and the Bond movies need to be at the forefront of this. We have movies like Dark Knight, Inception, X-men first class that have all been inspired by Bond's influence, it's time for Bond to take charge again and I do believe that Fassbender will likely be considered as Craig's successor. Craig has reintroduced a certain quality back into Bond, something that's been missing for a very long time. Brosnan imo wasn't a very strong actor and I dont see Fassbender fitting the Brosnan bracket. Fassbender is very much in the Craig bracket of acting.
I'm definitely up for Fassbender being the next Bond. The resemblance between him and the drawing of Bond that Fleming commissioned is uncanny, plus Fassbender seems to have great acting chops.
The first is that I never make a judgement on an actor's performance until I actually see it. To use some examples (I'm dating myself) think of Steve Martin doing his "wild and crazy guy" standup and films like The Jerk. Who would have know that he would be capable of a straight performance like that in Pennies From Heaven? The same can be said for Robin Williams in Awakenings or Jim Carrey in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Or think of Matt Damon or Leonardo DiCaprio - who would have guessed that they could have bulked up and been credible as tough soldiers or agents?
When I first read that Craig had been cast as Bond I thought it was a joke. To be fair, CNN pulled what looked like the absolute worst pic of Craig they could find and put it up against the most glamourous pic they had of Brosnan. But then I saw Casino Royale and thought damn, this guy is the best Bond since Connery. So who can tell?
The second point is that just because someone "looks" like Bond (which leads to the question - which Bond?) doesn't mean that they'll give a good performace as Bond. I don't buy into the idea that a slavish devotion to the "Bond of the books" makes for a good Bond or Bond film. I mean, do we really want a racist Bond? Most audiences today would laugh at the idea of Bond smoking three packs a day and then being able to run down a subject. Escapism is fine, but even that has its limits.
Sherlock Holmes has been a part of pop culture for over a hundred years and I dare say Bond will too. Not because Bond will be trapped in amber but because it's a great base concept that can be tweaked with different interpretations. Think of how different Connery was from Moore, or Moore from Dalton, or Dalton fron Brosnan, etc. So a wide range of actors and performances already encompass what is "Bondian".
This reminds me a bit of people saying that if John Hamm could learn how to do an English accent then he should be the next Bond simply based on how he looks as Don Draper in Mad Men. I think there are far more important qualifications to being a good Bond than looking good in period clothing or looking like an old commisioned drawing of Bond. Remember, Fleming was originally horrified by the idea of Connery as Bond. Seems like that worked out pretty well...
The bar scene in X-men is a prime example of this. He looks, acts and exudes Bond!
I would agree that Layer Cake turned out to be Craig´s Bond audition, yet he was by no means ´pure´ Bond in that film. If at all, he was the opposite of Bond. He had a few scenes where he could show off his body, and a few where he held a gun. But basically he played a clever coward not used to violence.
First and foremost he has the right look. Tall dark and handsome. That is what Bond looks like, as envisioned by Fleming and portrayed by the original screen Bond Connery.
Secondly, he can act quite well. He has a decent range. It is very easy to see him as playing a Connery style Bond, probably moreso than anyone who has actually succeeded Connery.
As for Craig in Layer Cake, his character was indeed "a clever coward who shunned violence" but the character still had obvious Bond traits and Craig did show potential as being able to play Bond in that role, however IMO Craig never should have been considered, simply because he doesn't have the right look. The look does matter. Bond has a distinct look.
With Craig established in the role however, I would like to see him continue as long as he wants until mandatory retirement age of say early 50's. I don't like changing up the actor unless they can't play the role credibly. eg I would have been happy to see either Moore or Brozzer fired early, as neither could fight, but Craig can at least play the role with some gravitas and humour, so he can stay as long as he wants, although I still never would have hired him in the first place. I would have insisted on someone like Cavill or Fassbender, who both had the right look and could play the role. However both will be too old by the time Craig retires. Eon should be looking at actors who are currently in their early 20's, AND WITH THE RIGHT LOOK, to replace Craig when the time comes.
Time to go back to 'real' basics and with that I mean a touch of fifties/sixties, of the books and the 'look'!
I really would love to see Fassbender as Bond, but who knows with Babs.
http://hunter-funemployment.blogspot.com/2011/06/x-chix-nazi-hunter-review.html
This reminds me of conversations on the internet a long time ago when a lot of people were saying that Patrick Stewart MUST be cast as Blofeld. Not because of his acting skills, but because he was the highest profile bald actor at the time. Yeesh.
Anyway, by the time the other two X-Men films have been made, Fassbender will be two well known in my opinion and will likely not even want the Bond role.
You start by considering only the actors with the right look and age and then pick the best of that bunch.
It's a simple methodical process.
==Isn't this how casting calls work. They put out the sheet, advertising the basic requirements for look, age, ethnicity etc and then pick the best of those who meet the basic requirements.
Casting Bond should be no different.
The combination of Fassbender and MacAvoy on the other hand seemed as if Bond were split into two bodies - MacAvoy being the suave, light-hearted element, Fassbender being the focussed, driven element. As for the looks, on stills Fassbender may have a distinct Bond look (and as thin as he is in X-Men, he might even fit the height-weight-combination described by Fleming), but as a moving, living man, he didn´t remind much of Bond, though I would neither deny him the range nor would I object to him playing Bond. Actually he looks very young in X-Men, so he wouldn´t look too old if he would take over from Craig in five years.
In fact, I wonder why they didn´t hire him for CR, he would have been just the right age to play rookie Bond, and I doubt he wasn´t mature enough then.
I've also heard the suggestion that Fassbender should team up with Matthew Vaughn for a Bond film. I think that's a bit of a mistake, myself; FIRST CLASS was a great film, but I just think pairing actors and directors together on the back of recent success is a mistake. I think I'd prefer to see Fassbender as Bond in a film directed by David Fincher, Danny Boyle or Christopher Nolan before on directed by Vaughn.