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Could Timothy Dalton play James Bond again?


47 replies to this topic

#31 IrishCrown

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Posted 08 August 2002 - 02:45 PM

Tim Dalton will not be Bond again because he is not a box office draw. Pierce Brosnan is more of a draw and is quite popular with the public, something Dalton never was able to achieve, and apparently had no desire to do so. People were not lining up around the block in 87 & 89 to see the new Tim Dalton movie. The people who did were Bond fans pure and simple. They wanted to see Bond, no matter who it was. They were the same people who turned out in 69 to see OHMSS. Why would Dalton come back as Bond anyway? Connery did so he could raise money for his charity and because there was a really big outpouring for his return. Is there really a big outpouring for Dalton? If you're going to want Dalton back, why not bring Clinton back as President again? Clinton seems to bring out the same type of powerful love him or hate him kind of feel.

#32 00Kevin

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Posted 23 August 2002 - 08:04 PM

I would love to see a former bond actor back, expecially dalton, but the problem is, he himself doesn't want to be bond anymore, unless everything we've heard from the media ia a lie. so i afraid it will not be so, unless the REALLY REALLY REALLY want him back after brosnan

#33 Tanger

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Posted 23 August 2002 - 10:33 PM

I don't know if any of you have seen the movie 'Possessed'. I caught the premiere of it last night and I must say, Timothy Dalton now aged 52, looks better than he did in 1989 at 42.

I say give him another go. In fact, he's fast becoming my favourite Bond.

#34 Predator_007

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 08:55 AM

Originally posted by Tanger
I don't know if any of you have seen the movie 'Possessed'. I caught the premiere of it last night and I must say, Timothy Dalton now aged 52, looks better than he did in 1989 at 42.


.... but did he do his trademark goofy/raving psychotic performance?

Seriously, I'm really not sure what Dalton gave to his two films. Admitedly, they are not absolute classics in themselves, but Dalton played Bond with all the subtlety of chainsaw. I've said it on another post, he is a stage actor. His skills (and I do think him skilled) are perfect for the stage and connecting with a live audience, but so often in the two Bonds he did he forgot that an actor has to be subtle as the camera will do the rest ... the quick glance, the subtle tick, the slight move of the hand etc., not the whiplash turn of the head (watch the films and you will see), the vein-bursting grimace, the loved-up google eyes (TLD especially).

Sorry for starting this up again, but really Dalton doesn't deserve a second chance and Eon can ill-afford it ....

#35 ChandlerBing

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 02:48 PM

I agree with you. Dalton was not right for Bond. He had all the subtlety of William Shatner as Captain Kirk. And yes, Shatner started out as a stage actor, too. There's the stage and then there's the film stage. There is a difference.

#36 Mourning Becomes Electra

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 04:38 PM

Predator, LOL on the "loved up google eyes" (sounds vaguely familiar :))

Seriously in the U.S. recently TLD and LTK (worse and worse the more I see it) have run recently on cable several times and the more I see both the more they cement my opinion on TD as Bond. Interestingly, my mother saw TLD for the first time (for the record she prefers Connery), and pronounced his interpretation as "fascinating and certainly different" and then wondered when he was going to break out the prozac to deal with all those violent mood swings and bizarrely overwrought arm/facial ticks and movements.

Really he wasn't like this in say The Rocketeer (although he chewed the scenary and seethed ALOT in Wuthering Heights) so he must know how to tone it down for the big screen, so I believe this was very much his conscious choice to make an edgier Bond with emotions. That's all very well and good, very Fleming, but he's completely over the top and out of control in many scenes, he veers wildly from mood to mood and often plays Bond as if in some psychotic fugue state with hightened emotions that sometimes had little relation to the actual plot circumstances and completely obliterates the concept of Bond as a cool professional. But my mother was right, sometimes it IS fascinating to watch, I just don't find it very Bond.

As for his return, well it's been said above, why would MGM or Eon do that? He'd be 60 by then and he wasn't a huge box office draw as Bond when he was 40. So why? His situation and Connery's are completely incomparable. Yes he has his loyal fans who'd love it, but then so does Lazenby and he's not going to be Bond again either.

As for this distinction between stage and film yes it exists but I've sat in the front row and seen far more subtlety on stage even in Jacobean revenge tragedies. And I believe all the actors who played Bond were initially trained for the stage except Lazenby. It's more the rule than the exception when it comes to British trained actors. Just look at the current Bond cast; Dench, Stephens, Pike, Bond all stage actors and recently. Dalton had been doing films since 1968's The Lion In Winter (magnificent film), it's not as if TLD was his first film, by then he'd been doing fiilm and TV for almost 20 years.

#37 JimmyBond

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 05:41 PM

Wow, woudlnt it be great to see what BP had to say :)

On topic though, I dont think it was Dalton's fault he was not liked the by the public, he just came in at the wrong time. Sure, becoming Bond at a different time wont change the minds of some of you, but after Roger left, many people wanted, and thought Brosnan was going to be in the role.

No amount of acting will erase Brosnan from the minds of all those people, and thats what happend.

#38 Predator_007

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 10:22 PM

Sorry MBE, I should have really quoted you from ajb where we had this very discussion! :)

I'm intrigued over your mother's thoughts on the fascinating and very different Dalton portrayal of Bond ... That description can cover a multitude of sins!

However, I do have to say that the current 'stage actors' in the series are a great deal more versatile (and have actually learnt how to tone down their act in front of the cameras - obviously haven't seen Pike 'in action' yet though).

Again I have to reiterate for any nascent BPs out there that I like TD, just not as Bond.

#39 Mourning Becomes Electra

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 10:49 PM

Predator, would the fact that she now refers to him as "Prozac Bond" give you an idea? Oh well if it makes BP feel better (if he's lurking) she still refers to Moore as "Smarmy". :)

I saw Pike in her BBC mini-series Love In A Cold Climate and she was quite good, changing from slightly silly schoolgirl to elegant reserved woman, all played with a nice crisp intelligence and restraint. Then again I saw PB in the BBC mini-series Nancy Astor that he did back in 1981 after 10 years of theater training and stage work and he was bloody marvelous. Of course those were both TV performances, not film, but they were restrained and nuanced. And as said Dalton was excellent in the superb The Lion In Winter back in 1968. So while theatre actors can tend to be well overly theatrical, they needn't be so. Dalton hasn't been that over the top in much of his other work so IMO it had to be a considered choice for Bond.

#40 killkenny kid

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Posted 12 September 2002 - 01:19 AM

I guess I'm not the Bond fan I think I'm am. What proposed third Dalton film, and who is Connie Webb?

#41 Jim

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Posted 12 September 2002 - 07:49 AM

Not so much could TeeDee play it again, but would he? Seems to have put some distance between himself and the series (if not entirely by design) and doesn't seem to mention his involvement (not that his interviews are abundant any more, poor chap).

#42 ChandlerBing

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Posted 12 September 2002 - 02:46 PM

Why would Dalton play Bond again? He's widely regarded as a failure as Bond, regardless of what his fans say. When Connery came back, there was a mass outpouring of support for this to happen. Dalton has his fans, obviously, but this will never happen. There's more of a chance of Roger Moore playing Bond again than Dalton.

#43 gkgyver

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Posted 30 September 2002 - 07:57 PM

Dalton would definitely deserve one more movie. Of course, he's not Connery and he's no Brosnan, but he was better than Moore and Lazenby. I don't think he should do an official Bond movie, but a TV movie would also do the job.

#44 Spectre001

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Posted 01 October 2002 - 06:52 AM

Without reading all the replies and just answering the question:

NO WAY!

Not that I don't think he was a good Bond but that was 13 years ago...Onwards and upwards!!!

#45 White Persian

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Posted 06 October 2002 - 10:24 PM

I'd dearly liked to have seen Dalton continue as Bond, both over the hiatus (Colonel Sun could have been a great follow up to LTK) but frankly I can't see him returning at 56, and I don't think he'd do it even if offered.

I DO think he'd make an interesting villain though.

And I'd love to hear him record audio tapes of the Fleming originals.

#46 brendan007

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Posted 07 October 2002 - 06:04 AM

as much as i dislike Dalton in LTK, i think he did a good job in TLD, so maybe he shouldve done at least one more, but its probably for the best that he didnt.
as for returning, hell no!

#47 Loomis

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Posted 07 October 2002 - 07:15 PM

Originally posted by White Persian
I'd dearly liked to have seen Dalton continue as Bond, both over the hiatus (Colonel Sun could have been a great follow up to LTK) but frankly I can't see him returning at 56, and I don't think he'd do it even if offered.

I DO think he'd make an interesting villain though.

And I'd love to hear him record audio tapes of the Fleming originals.


Yes to the wish-he'd-done-more idea, and another yes to the audio tapes idea, but I would never, never, never want any of the former Bonds to play a villain (or any other character, for that matter, with the one obvious exception of 007) in a Bond movie. For actors to play different roles in different Bond films (e.g. Maud Adams, Joe Don Baker, Charles Gray) is fine, but to have a previous Bond turning up as someone else. It would just be wrong, almost ... incestuous.

#48 Joyce Carrington

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Posted 10 October 2002 - 05:05 PM

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Dalton was great in the eighties, but not anymore!!!