9 replies to this topic

[JCRendle]

I like Rory Kinnear's Tanner through the three films, but I feel he was very much tied into Dench's M. He seemed like her right hand man - her Moneypenny, if you will - but

Spoiler

following Dench's M's death and Fiennes becoming the new M with his own Moneypenny, I feel like Tanner would feel out of place in the new world order.

I know Tanner's direct from Fleming, but Kinnear's interpretation was different enough to be a different character. What do you think?

Spoiler

Should Kinnear's Tanner stay on with the new boys or is it time for him to move on?

[QOS4EVER]

Kinear wasn't with M in Casino Royale.

[AgenttiNollaNollaSeitsemän]

Spoiler

He does seemed like being Dench-M's male Moneypenny, but I'd like him to stay under the new M, perhaps as M's contact to the PM, like Geoffrey Keens Freddie Gray but without Grays grumpy old man personality.

[thecasinoroyale]

I think that, from what happens in 'Skyfall'...

Spoiler

As we see him working well with Q helping Bond and M out at the new MI6, Mallory certainly is impressed with their work so I think he will take Tanner on and he will report to Mallory out of the bullding, like he does with M now, and Moneypenny will stay inside.

[Vauxhall]

I pretty much agree TCR.

Spoiler

I'd argue that Tanner's role in SKYFALL was the most effective use of the character we've seen in the Bond franchise - escorting Bond to the bunker, briefing Bond while he was training, accompanying M to her meetings and inquiry, helping Q lay the breadcrumbs, drinking a beer... Hopefully Rory Kinnear stays and they continue to flesh his role to form a friendship of sorts with Bond. With a new M, Q and Moneypenny on board, there's a strong body of MI6 staff. I expect Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris will be the toughest to pin down to long filming stints though, so their roles may continue to be necessarily brief, leaving a decent opportunity for Rory Kinnear.

[thecasinoroyale]

For the MI6 staff, I don't mind them somehow being short, but important, on screen. I mean let's not forget back in the day, M and Moneypenny and even Q had little screen time, but they were important roles and brought a sense of comfort to audiences knowing the same Bond team are behind the films.

If new actors are brought in for each role every film, it will lose of the continuity I think, so if we can keep the staff mentioned above in your Spoiler Tag Vauxhall, including Tanner, I will be happy if they don't out-do the role, but simply add a spark to the film like they all did in 'Skyfall', and it worked without being too in your face.

[Tony_OO_Black]

Yeah I reckon Tanner will fit fine, if they keep him around with Fiennes, Whishaw & Harris.

I hope they do; one thing I missed with CR & QOS is that feeling of a team behind Bond, the MI6 crew - it's great to have that reintroduced, for however long before the next Bond potentially shakes it all up again.

[Pussfeller]

Personally, I hope they don't revive the "remote-control Bond" dynamic of CR and QOS. My least favorite aspect of those films is the constant cutting back to mission control and the MI6 elves hunched over computers. By all means show the team, and have a nice block of scenes early in the film in which Bond interacts with the MI6 crew, but once he's been M'ed and Q'ed and Moneypenneyed he should be cut loose for the rest of the film.

[thecasinoroyale]

Agreed Pussfeller - it worked before and can work like that again. I think the quality of actor nowadays always seem to decide their screen time. If they are a high-class actor, they must be shoe-horned into the film as much as possible. Fiennes in 'Skyfall' wasn't in it as much as I thought, but he held lots of scenes together, and with him him to return in future films, the screen time must be used for narrative strength, as it was here.

[Tony_OO_Black]

I reckon they'll strive to work them all organically into the plot, as they did here.

We saw that Mallory is an action man himself on the quiet, so you could find M chipping in mission wise with Bond at times. Moneypenny certainly can hold her own, and they may have her function as a secondary Bond Girl like here as she grows into a field agent. Q they already worked in as a technical aide, and there's no reason they won't do that again.

Obviously it'll always be Bond alone primarily, but having the team there connected to the story worked really well in Skyfall, better than the old-style 'gets his orders, flirts, visits Q-Branch, gone'. All that stuff needs to evolve with Bond, not stay stuck in the past.