96 replies to this topic

[Royal Dalton]

John Lone would be good. I reckon he would have played the villain, Sir Henry Lee Ching, in the 1991 Bond film, if it had been made.

[Bondesque]

I disagree Loomis. The role in Batman would be very different from a Bond film (or at least should be)but I still like your choice as well. Daniel Day Lewis could trump them all.

[Guy Haines]

I actually think Damien Lewis would make a far better James Bond.

I think you are right, although he keeps ruling himself out, supposedly because "the public" couldn't accept a "ginger James Bond". The same public who would never go to see a "blond James Bond" either.

So I made the suggestion assuming that if he ever ended up in a Bond film, it would most likely be as Bond's opponent. You know how it is. All those fans and critics out there thinking that only "tall, dark and handsome" counts as Bond.

[Von Hammerstein]

Christoph Waltz; his portrail of Hans Landers is the stuff of legend

I quite agree. I've said before on this board that I would love to see him play my namesake, Von Hammerstein. I'll go one further though and submit that Hans Landa was a Bond Villian. He was sophisticated, suave, but cold and calculating. You only saw him loose his temper once when he killed the actress. Watch his interrogation of the farmer in the opening minutes, with only a pen, a pipe and couple glasses of milk he totally breaks the man, then executes the Jewish family, and then in a very sporting manner allows Shoshana to escape. His negotiation of his surrender and end of the war was pure Bond villain confidence. Waltz would be perfect. We've had an Oscar winner (Halley Berry) play a Bond girl, it's time for one to be the villain!

[Harmsway]

Nah, Watanabe would carry baggage from having played Ra's Al Ghul in BATMAN BEGINS.

And, frankly, Watanabe isn't that interesting.

I daresay most of the choices in this thread are far, far too obvious.

[Guy Haines]

Christoph Waltz; his portrail of Hans Landers is the stuff of legend

I quite agree. I've said before on this board that I would love to see him play my namesake, Von Hammerstein. I'll go one further though and submit that Hans Landa was a Bond Villian. He was sophisticated, suave, but cold and calculating. You only saw him loose his temper once when he killed the actress. Watch his interrogation of the farmer in the opening minutes, with only a pen, a pipe and couple glasses of milk he totally breaks the man, then executes the Jewish family, and then in a very sporting manner allows Shoshana to escape. His negotiation of his surrender and end of the war was pure Bond villain confidence. Waltz would be perfect. We've had an Oscar winner (Halley Berry) play a Bond girl, it's time for one to be the villain!

He wouldn't be the first. Christopher Walken won an Oscar for his performance in "The Deer Hunter", some seven years before he appeared in AVTAK. And Benicio Del Toro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the film "Traffic", some eleven or so years after his knife wielding role in LTK.

I've not seen Christopher Waltz, but from your description above he certainly sounds as if he could be a Bond villain. Looks it too.

[Bondesque]

Daniel Day Lewis and Mel Gibson are obvious choices? I think not. Mel would be killer in a baddie role and it would be a first in his career. He could match Craigs intensity and it could be epic.

As for DDL, he would be the prefect leader for Quantum and possibly the most talented actor ever to play in a Bond film!

[The Shark]

Daniel Day Lewis and Mel Gibson are obvious choices?

No, but far too well known.

Did anyone suggest Mads Mickelson or Mathieu Almaric on these boards? I personally don't think they were right for their respective roles, but that seems to be EONs modus operandi right now for villains. Relatively unknown European character actors.

[Guy Haines]

Daniel Day Lewis and Mel Gibson are obvious choices?

No, but far too well known.

Did anyone suggest Mads Mickelson or Mathieu Almaric on these boards? I personally don't think they were right for their respective roles, but that seems to be EONs modus operandi right now for villains. Relatively unknown European character actors.

As it was back in the 1960s. Not just European but British and American character actors as well. All good, but none were that well known. Gert Frobe, for example. Famous in West Germany, but until Goldfinger came along, few outside of his native land had heard of him.

Call me a cynic, but casting a good but relatively unknown actor as a Bond villain is cost effective. You get a good performance without the financial and other baggage that signing a "star name" brings.

Which means that the next Bond movie villain is probably someone well known in his/her homeland, but unknown to all but a few outside.

[Bondesque]

That is a good point, however the thread is who do you want to see play the villain. I think Mel of DL would be great. I know it is unlikely, but do you think they would be good or bad if cast?

[Messervy]

Michael Caine

[Guy Haines]

Michael Caine

Maybe, but I see him more as "M" now. Imagine him dressing down Bond after yet another one of "Q"'s gadget laden cars has been destroyed - "Bond, you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

[Zorin Industries]

Michael Caine

No (!)

[Messervy]

It's just that I like him so much, I'd love to see him in a Bond movie. And since I consider the current M to be perfect, he would then have to be the villain.

Although, by the time we get Bond 23, Michael Caine might be well over 100 years old ...

[Trident]

Ulrich Tukur

Some of you may know him from The White Ribbon, Eden Is/In West, John Rabe or The Lives Of Others. I've already seen him in a number of villainous roles, serial killer, sex attacker and so on. But what convinced me of his potential was a German film called 'Greed' where he plays a con artist sailing on a huge system of investment fraud.

Tukur plays that role, based on real-life events, with enormous charm, charisma and cruelty, a 'lovely' monster, a monstrous crook, a completely amoral and coldblooded deceiver, cheating the rich and the poor with the same good-humoured joviality and taking literally all they have. Tukur would be an extremely nasty, evil and disturbing villain who could indeed 'kill with a smile'.

[PotterBond007]

I think Michael Caine is better off as a good guy. Now for a bad guy, I'd say Terrence Stamp. He kinda fits as a bad guy. Or perhaps Willem Dafoe. I think he voiced a villain in a Bond Game. He might work.

[AMC Hornet]

Dream casting:

Kevin Spacey or John Malkovich I could see playing any number of John Gardner's Villains - Jay Autumn Holy (aka Jason St. John-Finess), Kolya Chernov, Vladimir (Father Valentine) Scorpius, Bassam Baradj... or Timothy Dalton as David ("The Man With The Glass Head) Dragonpol (I'm sure the latter is who Gardner had in mind when he wrote Never Send Flowers).

But any of them are as likely to turn up as villains as Christopher Walken or Louis Jourdan would be ( or, say, Timothy Dalton as Rasillon on Doctor Who).

[Von Hammerstein]

Christoph Waltz; his portrail of Hans Landers is the stuff of legend

I quite agree. I've said before on this board that I would love to see him play my namesake, Von Hammerstein. I'll go one further though and submit that Hans Landa was a Bond Villian. He was sophisticated, suave, but cold and calculating. You only saw him loose his temper once when he killed the actress. Watch his interrogation of the farmer in the opening minutes, with only a pen, a pipe and couple glasses of milk he totally breaks the man, then executes the Jewish family, and then in a very sporting manner allows Shoshana to escape. His negotiation of his surrender and end of the war was pure Bond villain confidence. Waltz would be perfect. We've had an Oscar winner (Halley Berry) play a Bond girl, it's time for one to be the villain!

He wouldn't be the first. Christopher Walken won an Oscar for his performance in "The Deer Hunter", some seven years before he appeared in AVTAK. And Benicio Del Toro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the film "Traffic", some eleven or so years after his knife wielding role in LTK.

I've not seen Christopher Waltz, but from your description above he certainly sounds as if he could be a Bond villain. Looks it too.

I forgot about that. I love Walken, I think he's a genius, but his Max Zorin was somehow lacking. Of course, many find AVTAK an entirely lacking entry in the Bond canon on many fronts, ie Roger was too old, Tanya Roberts was a poor choice for a Bond girl, etc. If you haven't seen Inglourious Basterds you're missing something. It's not typical Tarantino and yet it is, but it's one of best WWII movies I've seen in ages, you really do owe yourself the treat of Hans Landa, and Brad Pitt is great too. Hes played so many pretty boy type characters in recent years, you sometimes forget that he can really act.

[Guy Haines]

Christoph Waltz; his portrail of Hans Landers is the stuff of legend

I quite agree. I've said before on this board that I would love to see him play my namesake, Von Hammerstein. I'll go one further though and submit that Hans Landa was a Bond Villian. He was sophisticated, suave, but cold and calculating. You only saw him loose his temper once when he killed the actress. Watch his interrogation of the farmer in the opening minutes, with only a pen, a pipe and couple glasses of milk he totally breaks the man, then executes the Jewish family, and then in a very sporting manner allows Shoshana to escape. His negotiation of his surrender and end of the war was pure Bond villain confidence. Waltz would be perfect. We've had an Oscar winner (Halley Berry) play a Bond girl, it's time for one to be the villain!

He wouldn't be the first. Christopher Walken won an Oscar for his performance in "The Deer Hunter", some seven years before he appeared in AVTAK. And Benicio Del Toro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the film "Traffic", some eleven or so years after his knife wielding role in LTK.

I've not seen Christopher Waltz, but from your description above he certainly sounds as if he could be a Bond villain. Looks it too.

I forgot about that. I love Walken, I think he's a genius, but his Max Zorin was somehow lacking. Of course, many find AVTAK an entirely lacking entry in the Bond canon on many fronts, ie Roger was too old, Tanya Roberts was a poor choice for a Bond girl, etc. If you haven't seen Inglourious Basterds you're missing something. It's not typical Tarantino and yet it is, but it's one of best WWII movies I've seen in ages, you really do owe yourself the treat of Hans Landa, and Brad Pitt is great too. Hes played so many pretty boy type characters in recent years, you sometimes forget that he can really act.

It is out on DVD now, so I'll have to get around to seeing it.

[Guy Haines]

I'd like to suggest two American actors who I think could do Bond villainy justice.

Ed Harris - has played various interesting characters and would, I think, create a complex Bond villain. Portrayed one of my favourite real life heroes, Gene Kranz, the "never say die" flight controller in "Apollo 13".

William Sadler - the cold, utterly ruthless Colonel Stuart in Die Hard II. Articulate and quite capable of taking on John McClane. That line he came out with in the film - "History is merely a matter of dates" - could have come from a Bond villain. I know it is twenty years on since Die Hard II, but if he's still in the villainy business........

[PotterBond007]

Anyone for Julian McMahon? I think he'd be good. Was a particularly vile Dr. Doom. Also I agree with everyone who says Liam Neeson, he'd be good. Or even John Hurt. He was quite evil as Chancellor Sutler in V for Vendetta.

[Frankie]

Benicio del Toro would be good.

He already was a Bond baddy.

[Frankie]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned John Malkovich.

[The Shark]

Far too well known. He's already played a Bond villain parody (with the most awful French accent) in Johnny English.

[Harmsway]

IIRC, years ago there were storyline rumors that a potential Mission Impossible 4 movie was about a villain that was blackmailing world leaders into performing degrading acts in public or else risk having their cities nuked or their oil supplies destroyed.

Wasn't that essentially the storyline of Anthony Burgess' THE SPY WHO LOVED ME script?

EDIT: Yes, it seems I was right.

[Guy Haines]

Benicio del Toro would be good.

He already was a Bond baddy.

Several actors - Charles Gray, Maud Adams, Joe Don Baker among the best known - have appeared in Bond more than once, in different roles. There's no reason why an actor who played a previous Bond villain couldn't return as a different one. Especially after a gap of over twenty years.

[The Shark]

Personally I'd prefer to see Sarah Douglas as a villainess, in her current state.



Much scarier.

[Harmsway]

I think EON should go back and pilfer some of Burgess' ideas!

Me too. They're deliciously absurd.

[The Shark]

Eleanor David is another excellent candidate for a Bond villainess. A highly underrated stage actress, most well known to mainstream audiences as Pink's wife in THE WALL, and a psychopathic syringe wielding socialite killer in MIDSOMER MURDERS.

[jaguar007]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned John Malkovich.

Someone did, about 7 posts prior to yours.