26 replies to this topic

[Loomis]

Wow! Here's some fascinating news from the "Showbiz" section of this week's Camden Town Examiner, a London local paper. Seems casting on BOND 21 is well underway, and that Moneypenny will have.... a boyfriend! And at least one person thinks the script is terrible!

Anyway, I've typed this up exactly as it appears:

Camden comic won't be Mr Moneypenny

by Jay Arthur

A Camden-based actor and comedian left an audition with the makers of the James Bond films feeling neither shaken nor stirred.

Ian McNamara Wrexham-Smith currently appears in the smash hit farce Touching Cloth at the Noel Coward Theatre in Hampstead Road, and performs standup every Friday night at the Turtle's Head pub in Chalk Farm Road. And he's not about to leave Camden for Hollywood, at least not with the next Bond adventure.

"I accepted an invitation to read for a role in what was described as a British thriller called The Silent Treatment," he explains. "When I turned up, I found out that it was actually the forthcoming Bond film."

Bond may be one of the biggest brand names in entertainment, but the 32-year-old McNamara Wrexham-Smith was singularly unimpressed.

"They were kind enough to let me read two, or maybe three, pages of the script," he deadpans, "but it was more than sufficient to tell me that it really wasn't my sort of thing at all. Nothing but cheesy wisecracks and action. Awful, truly awful. I just looked at them and said: 'You're having a laugh.'

"It turned out that they had me in mind for Miss Moneypenny's boyfriend. But I just couldn't keep a straight face. I want to do work I'll be proud of. I want to be able to look my children in the eye. I mean, it's unlikely I'll ever have kids, since I'm gay, but the principle still stands.

"They didn't end up offering me the part, which was unsurprising since I basically laughed in their faces throughout the audition. My friends think I'm crazy, and that I should really have gone all-out for it, but Bond most certainly isn't the reason I went into this business of ours."

McNamara Wrexham-Smith, whose role as an incompetent conference organiser in the BBC comedy series The Office was left on the cutting room floor, insists he has bigger fish to fry. Later this year he hopes to start shooting his first feature film, which he has co-written and will direct.

"It's called Once Upon a Time in the West End," he says, "and it's a comedy about London's gangland. It's sort of like Lock, Stock meets A Fish Called Wanda. Well," he chuckles, "that's what the financiers think, at least. We're hoping to get Geena Davis to star."

[SPECTRE ASSASSIN]

That's a funny article, Loomis. Boy, was the script really that awful?

[Kingdom Come]

Not another film about London's Gangland. All these people from London who are in films or associated with films, are possesed by London. There seems to be no where else. Interesting tit-bit. I hope there is no b/f for Moneypenny as I want to see her developed not a b/f.

[Agent 76]

pure tabloid trash!

funny though...

[DLibrasnow]

Really did we expect anything else from Purvis and Wade?!

[Gabe Vieira]

Ya, tabloid crap. But I would like to see Moneypenny with a boyfriend for once instead of hitting on Bond all the time.

Edited by Gabe Vieira, 01 April 2004 - 12:43 AM.

[Johnboy007]

With the script in the works for about a month now (supposedly), how could they be audtioning actors using a "Bond21" script. Isn't it still a little early in development for that?

[Dmitri Mishkin]

Not knowing whether the Camden Town Examiner is a tabloid or not, I would have to say

If it is a tabloid, it's pretty poor nonsense they've come up with this time.

If it's not a tabloid (and indeed the work of the world's best writers, Purvis and Wade), it's pretty poor nonsense, yet again. A boyfriend for Moneypenny, Might as well add Robinson's aunt, or M's husband (with drink in hand).

Either way, I can't wait for some stronger news on 21 and its script. Hope it's progressing alright given all we've heard and all we know.

[Turn]

Wow, Purvis and Wade are quick. From not having a script two or three weeks ago to having casting calls already.

At least they aren't still using Beyond the Ice as a cover name.

[Tarl_Cabot]

Is this an April fools Joke Loomis? That unfamous,unwealthy actor would certainly accept a check to a Bond film, no matter how awful it is; three pages of script doesn't meerrit a review, even if it's pervis and Wade's crap.

Anyway, it was funny.

[MrDraco]

intresting little piece of gossip..sounds like the i hear while looking in the girls locker room LOL...humm but from wade and pervius...who knows these days, i like to consider Die Another Day the 'rapture' of good ideas...LOL j/k

[Dmitri Mishkin]

Is this an April fools Joke Loomis? That unfamous,unwealthy actor would certainly accept a check to a Bond film, no matter how awful it is; three pages of script doesn't meerrit a review, even if it's pervis and Wade's crap.

Anyway, it was funny.

Ahh yes, April Fool's. Must already be the day in the UK (as I write this, it's only 11pm March 31 in Vancouver). Nice joke anyway.

Well, the idea of Moneypenny's partner appearing didn't seem TOO implausible given the "inventive" "writing" "team" of Purvis and Wade.

Edited by Dmitri Mishkin, 01 April 2004 - 07:20 AM.

[Jim]

Jay Arthur? As in J Arthur Rank? As in cockney rhyming slang for wank?

Touching Cloth? Turtle's Head? Mmm-hm.

[Genrewriter]

That is certainly a big clue indicating a prank. Although, there is an American sportswriter by the name of Peter Schmuck. Rather good writer, though you can imagine he wakes up every day wishing he had a pseudonym.

[Loomis]

I've seen this guy doing standup at the Comedy Store in London - hilarious. He's got this persona of a really tactless guy who just has no idea how incredibly insulting he is the whole time. A bit like Dame Edna Everage, I suppose.

And a boyfriend for Moneypenny? I don't know, KC, it might be a good idea. Thinking about it, Samantha Bond's Moneypenny seems like the only Moneypenny who would have a boyfriend. But what kind of boyfriend? A villain who's only dating her in the hope of getting MI6-related info? A good guy? A small, one-off role, or someone who'll become a regular character? It would be interesting to see where they took the idea, IMO.

But I bet Eon never bargained for this slagging! What with mocking comments from McNamara Wrexham-Smith and David Bowie, methinks they're not really having a good week!

BTW, while I'm sure that the BOND 21 script is far from 100% finished, I'm equally sure that the filmmakers already have a plot, characters, concepts, etc. I have no trouble believing that they're already auditioning for key roles.

Oh, and the Camden Town Examiner is indeed a tabloid, but then again so are most local papers.

I'll try and get a scan of the article put up later today, just to prove that I didn't, y'know, make it all up.

[Scottlee]

Moneypenny has sort of already had a boyfriend, or at least a love interest. She had that theatre date in Goldeneye. You never saw him on screen, though.

[Tim007]

LOL. A simple April's fool day joke.

But with Purvis & Wade this scenario could actually become true

[Jim]

If it is a joke, it's laced with just enough depressing plausibility to cause thought.

If it's not a joke...

Well, if it's not a joke, they do have the habit of casting people and then figuring out the script "a little" later (or, in the case of TWINE, not at all). So it might have been a bit of a previous Bond film he was being asked to test to (it's not reported that the script included the Moneypenny boyfriend bit), rather than anything "fresh".

(But, I suppose the naysayers would suggest, how could one tell after 20 lots of the same old thing?)

And if there is some sort of script, given that the last two have had "some sort of script", it may well be "complete". After all, the epileptic gibbon P+W get to run across the keyboard must be quite well trained by now.

[Loomis]

Hey guys,

I'm having a great deal of trouble doing a scan of the article, so here's the next best thing. I've managed to track down a pic of the ludicrously self-important actor who mocked the makers of the Bond films and who definitely won't be appearing in BOND 21 now.

You'll love this photo. He's such a funny little fellow, and so camp!

Enjoy:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000112/

[Loomis]

Oh, and by the way:

As Piccadilly's rather inhospitable, let's focus only on Leicester Square.

[mattbowyer]

Damn you to hell.

[Atticus17F]

"Touching Cloth" and "The Turtle's Head"... Best laugh I've had all week!

[ChandlerBing]

I'll bet Moneypenny's boyfriend gets killed and Bond goes after the bastards who did it. This time, it's beyond personal! It's pure karma!

[Slaezenger]

Interesting tit-bit.

..You mean tid bit.

[Slaezenger]

Camden comic won't be Mr Moneypenny A Camden-based actor and comedian <snip> Ian McNamara Wrexham-Smith currently appears in the smash hit farce Touching Cloth <snip> "It turned out that they had me in mind for Miss Moneypenny's boyfriend. But I just couldn't keep a straight face. I want to do work I'll be proud of. I want to be able to look my children in the eye. I mean, it's unlikely I'll ever have kids, since I'm gay, but the principle still stands.  They didn't end up offering me the part, which was unsurprising since I basically laughed in their faces throughout the audition. My friends think I'm crazy, and that I should really have gone all-out for it, but Bond most certainly isn't the reason I went into this business of ours."

...Let me get this straight. A comic who does comedy -- currently starring in a farce -- laughs in the faces of the producers of Bond -- because he "couldn't keep a straight face" while auditioning? Since when do comics do anything other than deliver "cheesy one liners"? Sorry, but his exanation doesn't grok...

Slaezenger

[Kristatos]

Loomis, i am totally ROTFL!!!