No Time to Die, the 25th Bond movie and Daniel Craig’s last outing as 007, comes out in April. In advance of that, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson gave an interview to Variety that comes across as half reckoning with the end of Craig’s tenure and half reckoning with the constant public pressure to do something different with the character after 50 years of white dudes in the role. Broccoli and Wilson are half-siblings, the children of OG Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, and I am WAY more interested in the way their family works than anything they have to say about James Bond. As we know from the royal family, the inner workings are always more fascinating than the public show.
Sadly, the Broccoli-Wilsons are too controlled and professional for that—although there is a suggestion that Wilson’s levity irritates his sister, DO GO ON—so we’ll have to make do with boring old Bond. It’s all the usual stuff on that front: Daniel Craig is really done, even if they wish he’d stay on forever; Daniel Craig was a surprising choice for Bond;No Time to Diewill be a satisfying conclusion to Craig’s (very uneven) era of Bond. We’ll see about that last one in a few months, but it is true that back in 2006, whenCasino Royalecame out, Craig was an against-the-grain choice for Bond. That was back in the olden days, when “not classically handsome” was considered diverse.
Now, however, people are demanding a bit more from a new Bond in the 21st century. The constant refrain of “Idris Elba for Bond” isn’t just a desire to see Idris Elba being suave in a suit. It’s a lot that, but at heart, the “Idris Elba for Bond” campaign is about the audience’s desire for something NEW. Bond has been so consistent for over 50 years that casting a blonde guy was a shock. I personally support Dev Patel for Bond because I think, besides being a great actor andconvincing with spy stuff，帕特尔（Patel）提供了一个有趣的机会，可以审问邦德的根源，以此作为英格兰殖民过去的象征。伊恩·弗莱明（Ian Fleming）创造了邦德（Bond），以维护英格兰的特殊幻想，成为国际化的超级大国，代表了世界其他地区的文明巅峰。想象一下，来自英格兰前帝国殖民侨民的纽带，以及这可能如何挑战弗莱明的力量幻想。詹姆斯·邦德（James Bond）接近他的第60个电影年，立即新鲜和新鲜。
也有一个稳定的社交媒体drumbeat来重新想象一个女人。但是，西兰花缩减了她对邦德“是男性”的断言。她继续说，“I believe we should be creating new characters for women—strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.”
This is a common refrain whenever discussing increasing opportunities for women, especially in big-budget studio blockbusters. Why not just make something new with women, instead of remaking something old with women? Well, in the current IP-crazed studio environment, it’s harder to make something new with ANYONE, let alone with women. Also, qualifying what women are eligible to make is limiting and reductive, and that is the kind of status quo thinking that holds back progress. But there is an interesting detail in this interview that adds a new dimension to Broccoli’s comments. It turns out that she wanted to make a spin-off centered on Jinx, the American spy/Bond girl played by Halle Berry in 2002’sDie Another Day.MGM deep-sixed it, though, apparently over an $80 million budget.
2002 was much less hospitable to women leading big budget action movies—not that now is all that hospitable, either. But it was definitely even less common eighteen years ago. Given that Broccoli really did try to make a female-led spin-off happen, why not try again now? Lashana Lynch will be playing a new 00-agent inNo Time to Die. Perhaps she is eligible for a spin-off? Or how about Ana de Armas, who will play a CIA agent? Or even just a brand new character who exists in the same world as Bond? There are options, is what I’m saying.
Options, and an audience actively hungry for more women in action movies. Would some people complain about a female-fronted Bond spin-off? Sure. You know who they are. But if one of the new female characters breaks out, why not spin her off? Hell, why not bring back Halle Berry as Jinx? She was AWESOME inJohn Wick Chapter 3.哈莉·贝瑞（Halle Berry）仍在踢屁股并取名，她仍然可以成为动作电影的头条新闻。如果芭芭拉·西兰科利（Barbara Broccoli）确实意味着她认为，为邦德宇宙中的女性创建新角色比性别 - 塑料债券更有趣，那么让我们看看。做一个女性领导的衍生产品。因为在那之前，所有这些都是谈话，而且谈话很便宜。谈话是借口。停止找借口并进行工作。
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