17 replies to this topic

[scaramanga]

Got this from 007.ea.com:

Reprising his role from The World Is Not Enough, John Cleese stars in the Agent Under Fire television commercial, which begins airing today on MTV, MTV2, ESPN, ESPN 2, Comedy Central, TNT, and TBS. You're certain to catch the ad during basketball on TBS, WWF Wrestling, and the special airing of A View To A Kill on TBS.

[Blue Eyes]

You're right, very cunning. There's an interesting anomoly in the game that I want to work out. Q is played by Cleese but there is a character of R as well on the official website. Is this Cleese as well? Or are we going to have an assistant from now on much like we did with Smithers in the Moore era?

I really wanna see this advert!

[scaramanga]

Blue Eyes (05 Dec, 2001 12:19 p.m.):
You're right, very cunning. There's an interesting anomoly in the game that I want to work out. Q is played by Cleese but there is a character of R as well on the official website. Is this Cleese as well? Or are we going to have an assistant from now on much like we did with Smithers in the Moore era?

I really wanna see this advert!

From what I've gathered from the EA website, the character of "R" looks nothing like John Cleese. Shame.

[scaramanga]

This is a render of what 'R' looks like in the game.

[Mister Asterix]

scaramanga (05 Dec, 2001 07:51 p.m.):
From what I've gathered from the EA website, the character of "R" looks nothing like John Cleese. Shame.

I suspect that it's a licencing issue, if the character looked like Cleese then Mr. Cleese would get a cut of every game sold. Probably for the same reason Bond's pistol is a Wolfram P2K (that looks remarkably like a Walther P99).

I, for one, don't like the idea of a character named 'R'. Bond's joke calling Q's successor 'R' was mildly funny but it has just made it confusing for the novice fans and a headache to explain it all the time. And EA Games isn't helping anything either. I wish instead of a character named 'R' that doesn't look like John Cleese, that they used a character named 'Q' that doesn't look like Desmond Llewelyn.

[Blue Eyes]

You see this is what I'm confused about. In a press release it said Cleese would provide the voice of Q! But there's also an R in the game. So what the heck is going on??

[scaramanga]

Whats even more worrying is the fact that EON have fully endorsed this game. Is it possible Cleese will play or be referred to 'R' in Bond 20 and not 'Q'?

[Blue Eyes]

Well Cleese has already said that he's playing Q, he better be! I wont' be a happy camper if he's R.

[PaulZ108]

I bought the game and I've beaten it. In some old old screenshots, it is John Cleese we see as R but Cleese has been omitted from the game completely and we have the "dying old man" R you see above, with an obnoxious voice sounding nothing at all like Cleese. The game is excellent though (while it lasts, it's a little too easy) and the graphics are nothing short of stunning. The music carries little bits from Barry and Arnold scores and the vehicles (hidden Lotus Esprit, Z8, DB5) are awesome. The villains (bar Nigel Bloch, whose "muahuahuahua you die now Bond!" is very cartoonish) are interesting and the girls are great. The whole Greek mythology-named bits are interesting as well, such as Zoe Nightshade's name (Zoe was king midas' daughter), Poseidon (god of the sea) underwater base, and the Cyclops oil drilling rig, and the "Calypso" weapon.

Only really bad parts is that the multiplayer gets old fast and the game is too easy and a little too short, but otherwise well worth the money.

I saw the commercial too BTW. I especially like how Cleese flicks the tie aside to reveal the lipstick print. The Zoe "oh James" scene at the end was funny when she pushes him down and off of the screen(it doesn't appear in the game though, unfortunately. the ending is rather uneventful).

[PaulZ108]

An early version where Cleese is indeed in the game. The same scene appears (naked woman in shower turns out to be R getting your attention with "the latest in holograph technology"), but of course with a more detailed shower and the new R.

[Blue Eyes]

I can't believe that they removed Cleese! How infuriating!

[scaramanga]

Thanks for posting that PaulZ108, did something like that happen with the Mission: Impossible game, where Tom Cruise objected to his face being used in the game? I'm sure it did. Maybe that's the case here?

[Blue Eyes]

What happens in the ad MKKB?

[R]

Blue Eyes (05 Dec, 2001 11:47 a.m.):
What happens in the ad MKKB?

The one ad I've seen has Cleese as Q holding up various pieces of destroyed equipment and complaining to Bond, intercut with scenes from the game. My favourite one is when a technician hands Q a steering wheel, and Q says "And just what did you do with the rest of this?"

It also struck me that using Cleese in the games is actually a very good way of preparing a significant portion of the Bond target audience for his full role as Q in Bond XX. When games players see and hear Cleese on the big screen, it won't be as much as a shock because they've already experienced him as Q in at least three games beforehand.

Cunning, eh?

[James Page]

Hopefully they'll put it up for download on the AUF website.

[Mister Asterix]

You might want to keep an eye out for it at adcritic.com. They sometimes will carry ads like that if the ad agency submits them.

[Blue Eyes]

I really hope it ends up online, I'd love to see it!

[mkkbb]

I saw this Sunday night. It is quite good, and the graphics for the game look amazing. (It is showing in the UK as well, I'm in the UK).

John Cleese plays the part of "Q" (or "R") very well and look forward to seeing him in the new films.