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I would say movie studio bosses check sites to see what people think,they publish poll in magazines,they have actor making quotes.The fact is they have already made their minds up.Daniel Craig has signed on for two more movies,lets say five years time Idris Elba will be 45 and has had talks with Barbara Broccoli, didnt Gerard Butler say the same.
So is your spelling ;)
A certain former member managed to write the simple past of 'to dumb down' as dumb downed, and more than once I dare say. ;-)
You must be joking. He is making Arguments, not comparisons. You really don't know how to read...
Yeah but Bond was based on a book, I don't see how a comic book characters and a character from a book be any different (and James Bond did become a comic book character too). I don't see any difference Bond turning black then how Nick Fury became black. I sense racism and hypocrisy on this thread, some of you may not use the N-word but I do sense some racism. I don't see you going after EON for making Felix and MoneyPenny for being black and don't give me "they're not important characters, so it's OK" excuse, it's hypocrisy that you would hate to have a Black Bond but not hating a black Nick Fury.
Tell me how Nick Fury, a fictional espionage comic book character and James Bond, a fictional espionage character is any different beside being in the espionage business and yes I've heard people calling James Bond a superhero BTW.
If a black man can experience the same up-bringing as Bond himself, can he not portray the character accurately?
A lot of the comments on here are just plain racist, backed up by the age-old argument of 'it's political correctness gone mad!' (see Stewart Lee). You can be wary of cultural influences on the character, but skin colour is neither here, nor there.
What is Nick Fury's background? Is it explained over 12 novels what his background is, what makes him tick? Is he an Imperialist, white, old-fashioned, British upper-class snob who enjoys the finer things in life like Bond does?
Minor characters can be updated and modernised, as they are secondary, insignificant almost. I'm all for that. No problems whatsoever.
Bond himself however is the main character - essentially an Imperialist dinosaur, who thinks the British Empire still reigns supreme. Start messing around with his ethnic background and he is no longer the Bond that snobby, upper-class Fleming wrote about.
Bond was not a super hero. He was a flawed hero, a blunt instrument, hired to kill people.
You sound ignorant, and I doubt you've ever read a Bond novel. Stick to your comic books and super heroes, and don't start using the racist card....it makes you sound pathetic.
Would you have any issues with Bond being Chinese, Arabic or Jewish? If not, then you have no grasp on who and what Bond really is. You are just looking for a generic action spy hero who could be any race, and any gender probably.
@jetsetwillly I respect your POV here because I know you're a big Fleming fan, but really, Chinese, Jewish and Arabic is different. He can be black and still be the same character, just with a different skin colour. Chinese and Arabic, you're not just changing his appearance, you're changing his nationality.
Anyhow, here are my thoughts from the other thread.
I'll weigh in on this. I'm black myself (mum born in England with Nigerian parents and my dad is Jamaican) and the way I see it is this: No, Bond wasn't originally written as black. But he also wasn't originally written as a gadget totting one liner cracking playboy, he didn't have blonde or brown hair, he didn't have sex as much as he does in the films, etc.
I'm also pretty sure he was meant to be English until Connery came along, because Fleming didn't talk about the Scottish/Swiss ancestry in the early books (and apart from Skyfall has that ever been mentioned in the films anyway?)
My point is, the character of Bond is always changing, his personality and appearence.
If you're a complete Fleming purist that hates Craig and Moore, fair enough, but if people are willing to accept all the different portrayals and how they look then I'm not sure why so many are against a black Bond.
Would Fleming like it? No. But then he didn't like Sean Connery or the first two films, so I don't think Fleming would like the films much at all.
People talk about boycotting the franchise if it ever happens, and I think that's an extremely OTT reaction. People are fine with a black Felix and a black moneypenny so why not at some point in the future, a black Bond?
I'm not saying make him black for the sake of it. But if at some point in the future there's a brilliant actor who aces the screentests and happens to be black, I say go for it.
You're not changing the character anymore than he's already been changed. You're not changing his gender, you're not making him a dwarf or a woman or a paraplegic, he's still James Bond 007, except this time, it's not his eye colour or hair colour changing along with his personality, it's his skin colour. And I don't see anything wrong with that.
Shaft isn't a good comparison either because he's only ever been played by one actor anyway (Samuel Jackson was playing his nephew or something if I remember right). Nobody but Roundtree should play Shaft.
Sorry, for a minute it looked like you were telling me what I was looking for. As the black community are the most integrated in the UK, and don't generally have the baggage of alternative religion, I think it's more likely a black man would suit the role than an oriental actor. Honestly, I don't want to get into a discussion with you. I've read your previous comments, and as convincing as I am at making people see sense, you do not strike me as someone who is willing to listen to alternative points of view. I think this is a very complex issue, but reading your comments it's as simple as picking the colour to paint your spare bedroom.
Please lets not start that again.
No, you're right, you can't. Unless of course, you're attempting to put forward a case couched in inherently racist rhetoric.
Although I agree it's not something I think we'll see for a while, I don't think the Shaft comparison works. For one thing, Shaft has only ever been played by one actor.
Another good point which @thelordlfashheart made in the other thread is that Shaft is sort of defined by his race. Bond isn't. Shaft is the black private dick, Bond is the suave British secret agent. It's not really the same.
Si you're throwing insult and I think you're the one ignorant, are you caucasian, yeah that's what I thought. I myself am a Asian and I'm not racist, and I take it you don't read comic book or have any interest in DC or Marvel Comic. He may not be a superhero to you, but other sources have made Bond a superhero:
http://www.superherohype.com/heroes/james-bond
He may not have a superman-strength, but he does use whacky gadget like Batman and Tony Stark/Iron Man so that qualify him as a superheroes probably on the same level as them. God even The Shadow was considered a superhero and yet he didn't have any superpower:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow
What made you I think I don't read James Bond novels because I already read like couple of Bond novels both Fleming and non-Fleming one (Raymond Benson, and Carte Blanche)
and what the hell does Nicky Fury not having a novel have to do with James Bond and novel. Why are you throwing in Nicky Fury " Imperialist, white, old-fashioned, British upper-class snob who enjoys the finer things in life like Bond does", what does that have to do with your justification. You're just throwing random crap and probably justifying your preference for your White Bond racism. The imperialist crap you're throwing, it's outdated, last time I check UK no longer colonize India, nor Hong Kong, nor Jamaica. I don't see Bond in any continuation novels wanting imperialism back or something like that.
Two if you count Sam Jackson.
Good point about Bond not being defined by his race in the way Shaft is but even so, while not many audience members really KNOW Bond (he's a bland but somewhat complex character at the same time) they do at least accept that he was created as a white man.
I can't help but feel that a black James Bond would open up a can of worms amongst both the public and hardcore fans.
It would cause some controversy and it probably won't happen anytime soon but I think in the future, at some point in my lifetime, it could happen. And if it does, that's fine, if it doesn't, also fine.
Really? I didn't know that. I thought it was a remake.
That's more to do with the novels and fair enough if you're a Fleming purist but most of the time the films are fairly different anyway.
I always assumed it was but I watched it a few years ago and it is a different character.
Having a black actor play Bond would be like an Asian playing Julius Cesar.
Apart from the awkward problem of Casaer being real. Nice try though.
Race itself is a very complex issue, this is why it is best not to tamper with it, unless it absolutely vital and necessary to do so.
If Bond was written as a black man, then I would have equal issues with him suddenly being white - it goes both ways. I could never accept a white actor playing Shaft.
I think you are making a bigger deal of this than what it is. The character of a franchise that has lasted 60 odd years now, including the novels, is set in stone, IMO, the same way Robin Hood is and Sherlock Holmes is.
If Beverly Hills Cop was suddenly rebooted, with a white guy playing Axel Foley, I'd have issues with that too.
If you thinks that makes me racist, then so be it. I can live with that.
Care to say why?
No. Nothing like that at all. For one thing Caeser was a real person.
I don't know anything about Nick Fury as a character? How was he written? What was his background? Is it explained fully, like Bond's character is?
I don't think it makes you racist, I know it does.
'Author's original conception' - really? This is your argument. So a black guy playing the character exactly as Fleming intended is worse than Moonraker? Last time I looked, the only connection between the two were the names James Bond, and Hugo Drax.
As many have pointed out before, Bond is not a character who is race specific. Sherlock was time specific, not anymore. Idris Elba could play the new Sherlock and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference, unless of course you were offended by the colour of his skin.
And again, AXEL FOLEY! Are you just plucking black characters out of your arse? Come on man, give me a fucking break.
I'd have more respect for you, if you came out and said, 'I'm white and for that reason, I selfishly want Bond to remain white, as he's my role model'. At least this is, in some strangely misguided way, plausible.