Katheryn Winnick may be what we're looking for. I saw her in this movie 'Cold Souls' where she plays a Russian actress who steals Paul Giamatti's soul (don't ask). When I saw the movie she looked and sounded 100% Russian to me, but then I look on the imdb and find she's Canadian. Then I discover "she holds a third-degree Black Belt in tae kwan do, a second-degree Black Belt in karate and is a licensed bodyguard." Now those are some skills that may come in handy for a Bond film, wouldn't you say?
Has anyone seen Killers? It looks like that's her most high profile role to date.
I've seen Killers - good movie that, at least in the Nice segments, has a touch of the Bondian to it. Isn't she Booth's girlfriend in 'Bones' too?
* Though I'd happily support having Rutger Hauer 'return' as the Head of Quantum, might it not be an interesting idea to do without a leader but instead be a sort of round-table organisation run through vote and consensus of its most powerful members (of which Klebb and Kronsteen/White could be two). Then instead of committing regicide as it were to gain power, Blofeld would instead be ushering in a whole new era, a more autocratic (and, he believes, more effective) way of running what will soon be renamed SPECTRE.
* My vote is for Milla Jovovich as Tatiana Romanova, especially if she's a Quantum member as suggested.
I agree on the possibility of having a 'senior council' - it would make things interesting and a bigger power shift to an autocratic organisation. I like Jovovich, but fear she's just not quite right for the part - and a bit over exposed after the Resident Evil 'blockbusters'. Maybe we should keep her in mind for Tracey - we'd need a bigger name for that role, I imagine.
Here's some ideas about how to pull everything together - put feel free to toss it out if you don't want it, alter it if you see fit.
Istanbul - Bond is in Istanbul for a typical PTS sequence that ultimately ties into the rest of the movie somehow (and, possibly, ties somehow into Doctor No too - perhaps he's following a chain of money from South Africa). Whatever it is, the lead is ultimately fruitless, but it shakes Quantum up enough to make Bond (and not just the wider intelligence community) a specific threat.
Quantum - After the events of the previous movies (and, more specifically, the failed endeavour in Doctor No), there is a rare meeting of the Quantum council that occurs at a public location (perhaps Bethesda Fountain in Central Park in New York). Although we do not see all of the members of the council, we understand that there are aboutt twelve - included in the number are Mr White, Rosa Klebb and her advisor, Kronsteen, and the six foot five and immaculately dressed Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Quantum are in discussion about their next move: Klebb suggests targeting Bond as a specific threat as he is a continuous thorn in their sides after he has sabotaged their endeavours in South Africa and Bolivia. Blofeld argues against the targeting of Bond - arguing it as a costly and pointless endeavour. He is ultimately overuled when the majority of the council members vote in favour of Klebb's plan - a derivation of the old honey trap.
MI6 - M calls Bond in to MI6 after he has recuperated from the injuries he has sustained in Istanbul - a new lead has erupted out of nowhere with regards to the Quantum investigation. A female employee of the organisation has sent a message to MI6 explaining that she will defect to them and bring with her a file revealing information about the organisations hierarchy - and that she has requested that Bond be the one to bring her in. Her name is Tatiana Romanova and she's a businesswoman in Moscow. M bemoans the amount of paperwork that will ensue when the woman gets brought in - but Tanner points out that until she gets a new assistant, it will be HIM, and not HER, that has to do the paperwork.
Moscow - Bond checks in with his contact at the Moscow offices of Universal Exports, a beautiful woman going by the name of Moneypenny ("Is that your real name?" questions Bond. "What do you think?" she replies.) who gets him into contact with Tatiana at her place of work. However, Russian Intelligence are after her to and he has to evade them (it would be suggested that Blofeld is trying to sabotage the plot and has alerted the Russians to Tatiana himself) eventually ending up on the Trans-Siberian express to Beijing. A lot of the movie occurs on the train - and it turns out that Tatiana was always supposed to lure Bond onto the train with the idea that one of the fellow passengers (who boards further down the line) is Red Grant.
Beijing - Some of the action takes place in Beijing too. The information that Tatiana planned to reveal is unveiled as ultimately pointless - hanging out a few of the lower ranking members of the organisation as a smokescreen. Tatiana still defects (or, given we've done a traditional finale in Doctor No, she could get killed by Grant) - and Kronsteen and Klebb, who step into the arena in Beijing, are killed too.
Quantum - After the failure of the plot to lure in Bond, the loss of Kronsteen, Rosa Klebb and Grant and the defection of Tatiana, the Quantum council is reformed - this time during the Last Night of the Proms at the Albert Hall in London. Blofeld is incensed that his warning against the plan was ignored, he saw the events coming (and manipulated events towards them by alerting the FSB to Tatiana) and during the 1812 Overture, he takes the opportunity to shoot Mr White dead at the canon shots at the end of the music - "The king is dead, long live the king ..."
