MGM/UA= Brain Dead or Merely Stupid

[Furious D]

I just heard that MGM/UA has decided to shoot itself in the foot yet again. This ghost of a once major studio has been kept afloat pretty much singlehandedly by the 007 Bond movies. Now they've decided to destroy the franchise.

Word is that they won't let Pierce Brosnan make one final Bond film like they had originally planned. They've fired him, despite his popularity and the profitability of the Bond franchise.

It seems some exec at MGM/UA has had a brainfart. They know that 007 movies are profitable, but they think that they'll be even more profitable if they dump all the exotic locations, film them in and around LA, and replace Brosnan with an American Bond.

They've forgotten why people buy tickets to see the Bond movies. They go to see a suave and debonair Limey travel to exotic locales, seduce beautiful exotic women, and have lots of big chases and shootouts.

Dump the Britishness and the locales, and you might as well be making Lethal Weapon 5. You'll only be giving people one more reason to hate Americans.

Who the hell are they going to hire to replace Brosnan and make 007 a Yank? Ben Affleck?:eek:

Who's running MGM/UA now? Michael Eisner?
:mad: :mad: :mad:

[The Baron]

Oddly enough, there has never been an Englishman who's played Bond.

Connery - Scot

Moore, Brosnan - Irish

Lazenby - Australian

Dalton - Welsh

An American Bond? Perhaps they'll cast LL Cool J, and call it Super Bond T-N-T.

Those idiots!:mad:

[Furious D]

Originally posted by The Baron
Oddly enough, there has never been an Englishman who's played Bond.

An American Bond? Perhaps they'll cast LL Cool J, and call it Super Bond T-N-T.

Those idiots!:mad:

A slight error in your estimate there. Roger Moore was from an old London cockney family. In fact he was a childhood friend of Michael "Maurice Micklewhite" Caine. Moore got his posh accent from his work as a child actor. Caine told a story about when they were called up for a tour of National Service Moore got sent to Officer school because of his accent and Michael Caine was sent to the Infantry because of his.

I read all the Bond books when I was a kid and Bond himself was Scottish, like his creator Fleming. That's why I used the term 'British' to describe him, because it encompasses all of the Isles. Without that 'British Charm' to quote Brosnan's appearance on the Simpson's 'he's Just another American Yahoo.'

They won't even let Brosnan leave on his own terms. I tell you if I had the cash, I'd buy MGM/UA and fire everyone, preferably with a cannon. I could pull a better run studio out of my shiny white ass.:mad:

[Peter_Lowry]

An American Bond would kill the franchise. No one will watch it, except Americans I guess.

I was under the impression that British Actor Clive Owen (Beyond Borders, Gosford Park and the upcoming King Authur) was going to be the next Bond after Brosnan. I guess the report was false, which is a shame cause I think Owen would have made a better bond than any American ever could.

Peter

[Furious D]

Originally posted by Peter_Lowry
I was under the impression that British Actor Clive Owen (Beyond Borders, Gosford Park and the upcoming King Authur) was going to be the next Bond after Brosnan. I guess the report was false, which is a shame cause I think Owen would have made a better bond than any American ever could.

Peter

That was the rumour a few months ago, and he would have been a good choice. But both him and the studio deny it.:(

There are some other good candidates out there: Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, if he was a little older, and a dozen or so as yet unknown British/Australian/Irish actors out there. But MGM/UA's seems determined to sink the franchise that's kept the studio afloat thru 40 years of deliberate managerial incompetence.

During the late 60's Kirk Kerkorian bought the then troubled studio. All he really wanted was the name for his hotels, so he deliberately hired a former TV exec who was fired from CBS for incompetence to run the studio into the ground in order to justify him selling off the assets like the valuable backlot and film library piece by piece. It seems that action has set the tone of management for the company ever since. It's a low down crying shame.:mad:

After it merged with the equally crippled United Artists in the 70's the only thing keeping it going was almost guaranteed income from the Bond pictures. Now they're going to ruin that too.

As for it appealing only to Americans? I think the key to Bond's appeal was that he was foreign to Yanks. He was a suave sophisticated Brit who drove great cars in exotic locales and had hot babes from all over the world hanging around. He was a dose of international spice in a buffet of cinematic meatloaf, that's the secret of his success.

[KevinCarr]

Since MGM is considering such a stupidly self-destructive act of hubris, let's give 'em something to consider just for fun... Who would all the fans would recognize as the absolute worst choices for an American Bond, but studio execs would actually consider casting because of their celebrity status...

My pick for the worst (in no particular order and not including the aforementioned Ben Affleck)...

1) Ashton Kutcher
2) Josh Hartnett
3) Nicolas Cage
4) Tom Cruise
5) Paul Walker
6) Chris Tucker
7) Johnny Depp
8) Owen Wilson
9) Adam Sandler
10) Screech from "Saved by the Bell"

[Furious D]

MGM/UA is now backing off from reports about Brosnan's dismissal and say that they are 'in negotiations' with him over his final Bond picture.

Hmmm... I smell a rodent...

This whole thing could have been what is called a trial balloon. That's where they leak a statement from a deniable source and gauge the public reaction. It may have been a tactic in getting Brosnan to renegotiate his contract more in MGM/UA's favour, or to see how people would react to their future plans. Let's hope they get their shit together and keep Bond alive.

[Bongwater]

If they nabbed Clive Owen, they'd double their money. Pierce Brosnan is a poof.

[judex]

As a Bond fan from way back, frankly I gave up on the Bond series a long time ago. Of course, I always wanted the producers to get closer to the gritty feel of the books.

So pretty much after On Her Majesty's Secret Service, I have been disappointed by the Bond series in general. After the dark days of Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton gave me some hope. A more human Bond. The stories were darker. Bond made mistakes.

But the public spoke. Dalton was out Brosnen was in. Now, he hasn't been bad. Definately a huge improvement over Roger Moore. But damn it, I wish they would get back to the basics, cut down on the glitzy over-the-top action and get down to more of a From Russia With Love feel.

An American Bond. Why doesn't that surprize me. Thank God, the producers backed off of that one. Let's just gut what's left of the original Bond that was embodied so well by Sean Connery in the first three films.

[Bongwater]

In retrospect, I can't watch any of the Bond films except Dr. No.

[Peter_Lowry]

Originally posted by judex
After the dark days of Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton gave me some hope. A more human Bond. The stories were darker. Bond made mistakes.

I have to agree with ya there Judex, I also think Timothy Dalton was the best post Connery Bond, and it's a shame they only made two movies with him... I would have enjoyed watching him star in a few more.

While GoldenEye was quite entertaining, I thought the rest of the Brosnan movies were complete crap... especially Snooze Another Day, possibly the worst film of 2002.

Hopefully they'll go back to Clive Owen and given him the role of 007 (along with a very lucritive contract) on a sliver platter.

Peter

[Carl]

The PC approach to Bond (no female objectification, no smoking, etc.) seen in the last few entries has really taken the teeth out of this property. I'd like to seen a clean slate: Cast a no-name actor and make it a period (60's) piece. Further attempts to Americanize this character will result in his ultimate demise. Anyone remember the 1954 TV version of 'Casion Royale' starring Barry Nelson? There's a good reason . . . it sucked!