289 replies to this topic

[Vauxhall]

Noticed I've just been beaten to it, but deserves its own thread... Baz says Christoph Waltz has signed on for BOND 24, and that's official as I need.

Interesting he also says there will be some filming in Mexico. First I've heard of that.

Some interesting quotes in the full article:
http://www.dailymail...ng-nemesis.html

 

 

 

Christoph Waltz, the two-time Oscar-winning actor, has jumped on board the 007 Express.

 

He will play a ‘significant’ role in the untitled Bond 24 movie that will begin filming early next month.

 

However, I am told that the part is a complex one. ‘It’s not immediately evident whether the part’s friend, or foe, or a bit of both,’ a person who has knowledge of the screenplay told me.

 

Although someone else on the production let slip that the character Waltz has signed up for is ‘extremely cunning’. ‘A nemesis of sorts,’ they continued.

 

So will Waltz be the movie’s big bad guy?

 

‘Not so fast . . . just because he has played bad guys in other movies doesn’t mean he’s going to be the baddie here,’ a Bond 24 spook told me, in a clear bit of misdirection. 

 

I gather that Bond himself, in the guise of Daniel Craig, has already met with Waltz. So have producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

 

Other cast members, including Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Lea Seydoux and Rory Kinnear, will meet for a script read-through in just under three weeks.

 

Director Sam Mendes wants his screenwriters on hand to talk through some of the film’s breathtaking action sequences. 

 

The team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are likely to be there, and will be joined by Jez Butterworth.

 

It is thought that Mr Waltz has already met Daniel Craig, who will play Bond again in the new movie 

 

Butterworth was contacted by Mendes, an old friend, and asked to give the Bond 24 script a polish and fine-tune some of the action scenes.

 

The picture will shoot on locations in Mexico, Austria, Morocco, Italy and London.

[univex]

Mexico? Globetrotting much?

 

About Christoph: so happy about this bit of casting, guy´s a chameleon. Mendes is really calling some talent in, big names. Who would´ve dreamed we would have Fiennes, Finney, Bardem, Waltz, ... in a Bond film? Wonderful!

[S K Y F A L L]

Wow. I know this will make a lot of people happy. Big news.

[007jamesbond]

Can he play a villain role......not familiar with him 

[Vauxhall]

Can he play a villain role......not familiar with him

He absolutely can, and he's got the awards to say so. Check out INGLORIOUS BASTERDS and DJANGO UNCHAINED.

I'd say it's not certain he's an out and out villain though. Baz gives the impression there are grey areas in his character.

[Trevelyan 006]

I am beyond excited about this bit of news. His recent work with Tarantino has been nothing short of stellar and has shortly become one of my favorite actors because of it! What a talent-rich film we have to look forward too... It really is amazing. BOND 24 here we come! 

[Matt_13]

WOW.

[Pushkin]

Great news!

[Matt_13]

Also interesting to note that Logan does not seem to be involved at all anymore.

[x007AceOfSpades]

When I first heard this I was absolutely shocked and excited. I'm quite excited for Waltz in Bond.

 

 

Also interesting to note that Logan does not seem to be involved at all anymore.

Not surprised to be honest after the initial reports of bringing in Purvis & Wade and now Jez Butterworth because the script was in bad condition.

[SecretAgentFan]

So... another Oscar winner... and a German(-speaking) actor...

 

Tradition is important for Bond films.

Edited by SecretAgentFan, 14 November 2014 - 05:33 AM.

[Dustin]

This is great news! I first saw Waltz in an obscure TV series from the 70s and literally countless roles in different films and genres since. Actually I'm not convinced his two Tarantino films did his abilities as actor justice, this man is capable of much more.

[SecretAgentFan]

I think so, too.

 

When Waltz was mentioned months ago on this site (yes!) as a possible choice I was critical, however, because it seemed so obvious. But I have come around on this.  One might also argue that Bardem was not a surprising choice after "No country for old men" - and for SKYFALL he created a splendid villain that was very different from his Oscar-winning role.

 

 

Also interesting to note that Logan does not seem to be involved at all anymore.

 

That is really interesting - Logan seems to have parted ways with Mendes.  Mendes is even selling the production company that does "Penny Dreadful".

Edited by SecretAgentFan, 14 November 2014 - 06:14 AM.

[007jamesbond]

could he be playing Blofeld? I would think someone like him won't be one movie and that all. I don't think he will be a physical match....more of Largo/Goldfinger/Dr.No like villain 

[Hansen]

A pretty too obvious choice in my opinion, especially if he has to play Blofeld.

A great actor but typecast when it comes to vilains.

I would have preferred a more suprising option

[thecasinoroyale]

This isn't "official" official, yet, is it?

 

I myself like to wait for that big announcement.

 

 

 

 

BUT it's obviously 90% true, so it seems the calibre for Bond villains is on the up after Javier Bardem! Here's hoping for a great villain who's not TOO serious and 1 dimensional.

[x007AceOfSpades]

Also interesting to note that Logan does not seem to be involved at all anymore.

 

That is really interesting - Logan seems to have parted ways with Mendes.  Mendes is even selling the production company that does "Penny Dreadful".

Wow, something went wrong...

[Turn]

I have to agree with Hansen. I'll reserve my enthusiasm for now given Waltz equals a modern go-to villain in films these days. His being cast in a villain role is almost as unsurprising as saying the Craig era is copying the Bourne films. I'm not complaining we have a high-caliber actor involved, just how transparent and unsurprising it is.

 

With Bardem, his Oscar-winning role in No Country for Old Men was obvious in its villainy, but he hasn't really played multiple such roles, whereas Waltz is comparable to if they cast Walken now or in the last decade. It's too obvious. I want the unexpected these days, like casting Craig as opposed to the obvious physical model for Bond.

[tdalton]

I'll agree with Hansen and Turn.  This really isn't all that inspired of a casting choice, given Waltz's history of playing the villain.  Hopefully they given him a villain that's a departure from the types of villains we've been getting in the past few films, because EON really hasn't shown much imagination in the villain department recently.

[rubixcub]

I probably wasn't the first person to proffer Waltz as a contender, but here's an earlier post where I mentioned it:

http://debrief.comma...-3#entry1264790

 

There was some other post, that I can't find now, where I went down the list of European actors who've recently won Oscars (using the notion that Javier Bardem was to be the beginning of a new trend), been nominated for Oscars, or been nominated for other major film awards, and it included Waltz, Jean Dujardin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender, and Daniel Bruhl.

 

It's funny, before the Ejiofor story originally broke, I was practically waiting for a Waltz rumor to come up in the press, leading to his actual announcement.  From the list of recent winners -- Waltz, Colin Firth, Christian Bale and Jean Dujardin -- Waltz is the most obvious choice.  Too obvious, really.

 

When the news blurb broke about John Travolta asking to play the villain and being politely turned down by Barbara Broccoli, on the basis that they were "going in a different direction" with the next villain, we all seized upon that quote and wondered what the "different direction" was.  Some speculated a female villain.  Some speculated it was just a nice way of saying "not interested" to Travolta.  But then came the first story about Ejiofor, and the quote made sense -- the villain was going to be of African descent.

 

Ejiofor made sense, not only coming off the recent success of "12 Years a Slave" with an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win for Best Actor, but also a key factor of late -- his age.  I realized that Waltz was not only too obvious a choice, but also that he was over 50.  While this was common in the novels and particularly the early films, where the villains represented the "sinister father figure" who looked down on Bond's "childish heroics", it's been practically erased in recent time -- the last "sinister father figure" we had, arguably, was Jonathan Pryce in TND 17 years ago, who turned 50 the year of the film's release (granted, only 6 years older than Brosnan, but with his gray hair and erudite manner, I think he was likely made to seem older still than Bond).  The recent villains were all "bad brother" types close in age to Bond, typically in their early 40s, so by this logic, Waltz didn't fit the trend and was therefore all but an impossibility.

 

And now he's back.  I'm pretty happy about it, honestly.  Yes, he plays villains a lot, but at least we know that he can do it and do it well.  His work with Tarantino showcases his characters as wordy, cultured, and fiendishly clever -- just like an old-school Bond villain the likes of Dr. No or Hugo Drax.  And that makes me excited.  We may have a return to the "sinister father figure" of Fleming's novels, and that return to tradition is, IMO, a welcome change of pace.

 

Here's an interesting thought, though: they were originally going with a 38-year-old British actor of African descent (is there a more compact way to term that?  African-British?), and now they're going with a 58-year-old white Austrian.  That's a racial and 20-year age difference.  Do you think that they were casting this role colorblind and age-flexible throughout, OR did the role undergo a major shift in the rewriting process, from "bad brother" to "sinister father figure"?

 

Dave

[S K Y F A L L]

 

Also interesting to note that Logan does not seem to be involved at all anymore.

 

That is really interesting - Logan seems to have parted ways with Mendes.  Mendes is even selling the production company that does "Penny Dreadful".

Wow, something went wrong...

 

Perhaps they had differences about the script...

[Von Hammerstein]

Yay!!!!! I wanted Christoph Waltz to be a Bond villain since I saw him as Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. The guy is just an amazing actor.

[seawolfnyy]

 

Also interesting to note that Logan does not seem to be involved at all anymore.

 

That is really interesting - Logan seems to have parted ways with Mendes.  Mendes is even selling the production company that does "Penny Dreadful".

Wow, something went wrong...

 

It would definitely seem that something bad happened behind the scenes. I wonder if we'll ever know.

 

Back to the threat topic, Waltz is an excellent casting. He's charismatic and would be a great foe for Craig (although it doesn't necessarily say that he will be playing a villain). Anyone else think he'd make an excellent modern-day Marc-Ange Draco?

Here's an interesting thought, though: they were originally going with a 38-year-old British actor of African descent (is there a more compact way to term that?  African-British?), and now they're going with a 58-year-old white Austrian.  That's a racial and 20-year age difference.  Do you think that they were casting this role colorblind and age-flexible throughout, OR did the role undergo a major shift in the rewriting process, from "bad brother" to "sinister father figure"?

 

Dave

Well the article never explicitly says that Waltz will be playing the villain....

[Mr_Wint]

It will be interesting to see what Waltz will come up with as a Bond-villain. Perhaps it all feels a little bit too predictable, as we know his style so well now. But Waltz is still a very skilled and charismatic actor. I think it would be good if he wasn't as flamboyant as he normally is, since we just had that kind of villain in SF. But let's remember that Javier Bardem's performance was nothing like expected, so let us wait and see what Mendes will do with Waltz.

One thing is that Waltz has the right age to be the main Bond villain, so I hope that's what will happen. I've had a concern that they will cast someone in their early 30s. That is usually the idiotic direction EON goes in when the Bond actor gets old - compensate with a younger villain and younger girls (AVTAK, DAD).

[sharpshooter]

Yay!!!!! I wanted Christoph Waltz to be a Bond villain since I saw him as Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. The guy is just an amazing actor.

He is, and we should consider ourselves lucky the franchise is attracting this type of talent. 

[Matt_13]

My thoughts exactly. Typecast or not, we're lucky to have someone with his level of charisma on board. I also didn't know that Mendes was selling his Penny Dreadful production company. Something must have gone very wrong.

[DamnCoffee]

It's nice to be in that stage of life where I say to myself "Wow, such-and-such would be great as a Bond villain!" and it actually happening. Delighted at the Christop Waltz news, it'll be nice for Craig to be up against someone more older instead of equal age. Whole new dynamic. First time in years. Since Elliot Carver in fact (but we won't mention that)

[rubixcub]

It's nice to be in that stage of life where I say to myself "Wow, such-and-such would be great as a Bond villain!" and it actually happening. Delighted at the Christop Waltz news, it'll be nice for Craig to be up against someone more older instead of equal age. Whole new dynamic. First time in years. Since Elliot Carver in fact (but we won't mention that)

 

Hard to believe it actually happened.  Seemed like one of those "too good to be true" ideas that get bandied about here from time to time.

 

Side note: aw, I liked Elliot Carver (villain-wise): megalomaniacal, arrogant, condescending -- a villain you can love to hate.

 

Dave

[Guy Haines]

I'm more interested in what has been written about the character he's playing, whoever he is. Christoph Waltz always seemed to be one of the names in the frame for Bond 24, at least so far as this site is concerned.

 

So, what did the "inside source" in Baz Bamigboye's article mean by "a nemesis of sorts"? A good guy turned bad guy as in Aris Kristatos? A "bad guy" turned good guy" like Milos Columbo? A "bad guy turned good guy who in the end turns out to be bad after all"?

 

Are we in for a complex, conflicted villain? Or, as I suspect, did the inside source suddenly realise that merely revealing that an actor well known for his villainous roles was in Bond 24 would lead fans to put two and two together, and tried to backtrack on the role the actor had been signed for.

 

I expect we'll know more in a month!

[Lionheart]

What I'd like to hear now is that Lambert Wilson is added to cast, and that he and Christopher Waltz stars as the Spang brothers...

 

:-)

Edited by Lionheart, 16 November 2014 - 04:07 PM.