33 replies to this topic

[Leon]

If they re-introduce Q I would like to see Stephen Fry given the role. He would give a real weight to the character with just the right properness and natural attention to detail. Q should be an older man who is extremely intelligent - the relationship with Bond genuine, yet with that element of disapproval of Bond's occasional crass or arrogant nature.

Fry is a well known English face, ok, but he is well known in a very special way - basically he is widely regarded as everyone's favourite grandfather, but he is also genuinely fascinated and knowledgable of technology and gadgetry - he seems the natural choice for a new Q. He is famously a dry comedy genius but is also a superb serious actor. The new Bond films need as much class and and craft brought to the other roles as possible, along with a script to back it up of course, to give Daniel Craig the chance to fully shine as Bond, as he is able to.

Physically he would add a cuddly but respectable gradeur to the character which would make his re-incarnation fresh and interesting as well as familiar and natural.

Anyone who isn't familiar with him check a bit of this vid out:

[Quantumofsolace007]

I'd prefer Simon Russell Beale.

[blueman]

Forget Q. Nameless flunkies seen for 2 seconds work better.

[Dustin]

Fry would have made a great ally of Bond. A station head, Dikko Henderson or even M. Q I'm not sure we'll see again as such.

[dinovelvet]

He pretty much did it already...

[Pussfeller]

I've often thought that Stephen Fry would make an excellent one-off Henderson-type character, some sort of eccentric foreign bureau chief or a diplomatic nabob, especially in a place like India, the Middle East, or East Asia. That kind of character would play to Fry's shtick of lyrical absent-mindedness, which would make a good counterpoint to Bond's brusque effectiveness. I think he would be badly miscast in the role of Q. It wouldn't play to his strengths.

[Dustin]

Forgot about that, haven't seen that film. Doubt there's a Q role for Fry in a Bond now.

[Bondian]

I concur, Leon.

He strikes me he could be a kind of 'Bondian' character (maybe a bit of Fleming), and has the chops to play 'M' and 'Q'.

Maybe if the next film is on a very tight budget ( less than a packet of chips ) he could play, Bond, 'M' AND 'Q'.

Stephen Frys' Bond...

Int. M's Office; Night.

M "You don't like me. You think I'm a bean counter"

Bond "If you've been a bean counter, what are you know?"

Q "Oh, bugger off - 007".

[Jim]

I'd prefer him writing Bond books to being in Bond films.

[The Shark]

No. He's become too much of a public institution.

[Dustin]

At the moment I'd be happy about any new book by Fry. But a Bond book would be absolutely the greatest! I'd buy the bloody limited edition bound in Brioni cloth with the real Continental Bentley. Even if the Bentley happened to be mint with orange rally stripes.

And I'd drive the thing.

Without a paint job.

Edited by Dustin, 04 April 2011 - 08:33 AM.

[Conlazmoodalbrocra]

I wouldn't be opposed.

[sthgilyadgnivileht]

No. He's become too much of a public institution.

It's a good suggestion as I think Fry as Q could work, but I tend to agree with Shark. Q works best for me when he's an institution all of his own - which Desmond Llewellyn certainly was in that character.

[MkB]

If they re-introduce Q I would like to see Stephen Fry given the role. He would give a real weight to the character with just the right properness and natural attention to detail. Q should be an older man who is extremely intelligent - the relationship with Bond genuine, yet with that element of disapproval of Bond's occasional crass or arrogant nature.

That's funny Léon: a while ago, I wrote somewhere on this board that I could see Hugh Laurie as Q
(for those who are not familiar with Fry and Laurie: they've worked together for years, and Laurie became famous in the UK as Fry's sidekick well before he became world-famous as House MD)

[TheREAL008]

I suppose it would be a good fit, but I don't see it personally.

[solace]

Ermm....no.

[Captain Tightpants]

I don't think he'd be the right choice for Q. Not unless the re-wrote the character, because I just don't think he'd fight right in the vein of Desmond Llewellyn. If Fry was cast as Q, then I think Q would have to be more of a manager than a hands-on type of character. I could see Fry-Q as a schoolmaster-like person, overseeing a division of geniuses who aren't really that big on social interaction. He'd be more of an adminstrator, presenting gadgets to agents rather than inventing them.

But even then, I still agree with the sentiment that he'd work better in the Dikko Hendersen mould. Maybe as a sector chief who was once running the most sought-after stations in the spy world (ie Moscow, Berlin), but as the Cold War ended, he got reassigned to a region that sees very little action (like running the Indian Subcontinent station out of Bhutan) and is now semi-retired and fully absorbed into the local culture.

[Dustin]

That's an interesting character you describe there, Tightpants. I'd say something like that would be just up Fry's alley.

[Captain Tightpants]

Well, Fry-Q as an adminstrator rather than an inventor is something I've toyed with before. I'd see him as being a quartermaster in the army recruited to MI6, possibly because of a disability; in the expanded Fleming universe, there was a Double-Oh who was retired to sector chief after his eyesight deteriorated to the point where he failed his firearms proficiency test, so I think something like that could work for Fry-Q: retired from the army, but his talents were put to good use at MI6.

Most of Q-branch would be populated by genuises and near-geniuses who are able to make cutting-edge spy gear, but they aren't really big on social interaction because some of them have Asperger's Syndrome. I was reading Born On A Blue Day by Daniel Tammet, a savant, and he was describing the way he likes everything to be ordered; for example, he has to have exactly forty-five grams of porridge in the morning. I imagine that the workers in Q-branch would like a similar, highly-structured routine in their day-to-day lives, and with his army background as a quartermaster, Fry-Q would be able to bring the order and predictability that they like to their daily lives. He would be very much like a headmaster, concentrating more on running the department rather than building the equipment. He would present it to agents and conduct briefings simply because the people in his office do not like interacting with others too much.

And as a running gag, nobody would be entirely sure where Q-branch was located inside Vauxhall Cross. M would always have to call Fry-Q to his/her office rather than having Bond visit Fry-Q in the laboratory.

[Leon]

I would settle for seeing him in a Head of Station role, as long as it was a well fleshed out character and interesting, rather than just a flat famous-face cameo or something with silly lines. I just think his household name status happens to be of a certain special kind that would only back up a re-imagining of Q and give it something fresh while still maintaining the same solid values, intelligence, witt and properness.

I actually think that if this was tried by another lesser known face who had to act it more than it coming naturally and gracefully, it would only damage the character of Q, which is, at this stage, elevated on a high pedestal and needs to be given credence.

Stephen Fry also happens to be a big Ian Fleming fan.

[jaguar007]

I don't think he'd be the right choice for Q. Not unless the re-wrote the character, because I just don't think he'dfight right in the vein of Desmond Llewellyn.

Honestly, I don't think they should recast Q unless they re-wrote the character. Having somebody trying to copy what Llewellyn did before would just fall flat (like Cleese did)

[Captain Tightpants]

I would settle for seeing him in a Head of Station role, as long as it was a well fleshed out character and interesting, rather than just a flat famous-face cameo or something with silly lines.

While Fry is a comedian and was the funny one in Fry & Laurie, I'd really like to see him in a serious role. And one as far removed from V FOR VENDETTA as possible.

[Dustin]

I would settle for seeing him in a Head of Station role, as long as it was a well fleshed out character and interesting, rather than just a flat famous-face cameo or something with silly lines.

While Fry is a comedian and was the funny one in Fry & Laurie, I'd really like to see him in a serious role. And one as far removed from V FOR VENDETTA as possible.

Of course there has only recently been a splendid adaption of The Quiet American with Michael Caine. But when rereading the book the year before last I constantly pictured Fry as Fowler and I feel sure he would be great in that or a similar role.

[Jackanaples]

Fry is indeed a big fan of Ian Fleming. Fleming and Bond have gotten a few mentions from him over the years on QI. As much as I love Fry though, I don't want to see him play Q. I don't want to see Q at all. In the 21st century, that character is superfluous to requirements.

The last time James Bond used any gadgetry that wrested a "Wow!" from the movie audiences was the Lotus Esprit turning into a submarine in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. In 1977.

Gadgets and gizmos and inventive gimcrackery are so prevalent now that if anyone doesn't have a smart phone or several helpful items like it, the general consensus is that they must be Amish. My iPhone has probably three times times the functions Derek Flint's lighter had, and the number is increasing all the time.

There are websites devoted to gadgets:

www.gizmodo.com

www.thinkgeek.com

www.wired.com/gadgetlab/

and that's just three of them that I personally go to. There are many, many more. Boing Boing regularly features them, as does Slashdot, and I'm sure you can all think of several others that I haven't mentioned yet.

High tech gadgetry was one of the things that made James Bond stand out from other movie heroes back in 1960's and 1970's. It was cool, it was of the moment, and at least for the first few films audiences had never seen anything like it before.

But that moment has passed. In the 21st century EVERYONE HAS ACCESS TO Q BRANCH. Gadgets are commonplace. They're banal. And sadly, if you seek to make Bond's gear so advanced that it retains its exotic quality -you end up with the invisible car in DIE ANOTHER DAY. Basically, it's a losing proposition.

I'd be interested in knowing why anyone thinks the movies need the character anymore. To me getting rid of the character was one of the smartest choices EON made with the reboot.

Getting back to Stephen Fry, I agree with Jim: I'd be much more interested in seeing him write about Bond than as an actor in one of the movies. A few years ago I was terribly excited by the rumor that he'd been chosen to write the centenary novel. No such luck though.

Edited by Jackanaples, 16 April 2011 - 12:05 PM.

[HellIsHere]

Ralph Fiennes should be Q.

[Davy]

I don't think the Craig Bonds lend themselves to a Q like character but I trust we would get a character closer to the early Connery era than the comic gadget inventor of the later years.

[Lt. Garfield]

not a bad idea

[Gt Munn]

I personally think that Colin Firth would make a great Q if we were ever forced to have a new one. Besides being an incredible actor, he certainly has great timing, and would have the ability to portray the very dry humor of Q. He also brings forth a sense of credibility that Desmond Llewelyn portrayed so well. I must say though, that I'd probably lean toward never having Q again. I also realize having an academy award winner in the role would be unlikely. On second thought, having Academy award winner Sam Mendes directing is would have been thought unlikely, not to mention twice nominated Ralph Finnes rumored as a villain and rumored Bardem whom already has.

Edited by Gt Munn, 05 May 2011 - 05:02 AM.

[Captain Tightpants]

Firth might be interesting as M, actually. We've seen Bond deal with a female M, but how about a younger M?

[Dustin]

That's an interesting idea. Would have even more potential if it wasn't clear if the younger M hasn't been "active" in some function before. The old M was a sailor with active duty under his belt, which I always felt made their relationship special. Bond was a different generation, but he and M had been through similar situations and Messervy would have understood (albeit not approve) many of Bond's experiences. That particular understanding has been missing with Dench, at least in this form. Would be nice to have a different chemistry there again.