Judi Dench Wants To Quit Bond Movies

Sweepy the Cat

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1206668

I think she should leave in Bond 24

jetsetwilly

Pinch of salt for table 5, please.

1) If Judi Dench wanted to leave, she would. She's Judi Dench. It's not like she can't get any other work.

2) They say she did GoldenEye, plus seven other films; so unless Robert Brown had a naughty secret, it seems the fact checker wasn't working that day.

Loeffelholz

Yeah, this is just a bit of bovine scatology---a grabber for the casual news consumer.

Mind you, she's pushing what? Seventy-three? She won't be doing them forever, so...

http://www.ajb007.co.uk/index.php?topic=30362

Kill Dame Judi's M in #23 :v

sniperUK

Good,then can we please have an M who stays in their bloody office and runs MI6 not one agent.

8420

Dench rules she shouldn't go yet.please done leave Judi please.

Lady Rose

Loeffelholz wrote:

Kill Dame Judi's M in #23 :v

From your mouth to Gods ears ............ |)

Agent Wade

I say she's had a good run. 6 movies. That's more than most Bond actors. I can see her doing one more and then retiring. It would be a nice round-out for her character and may even open up a chance for a break in the implausible continuuity for those who can't see how a new lady M for Brosnan was the first M Bond ever had from CR. (Hint: she was called back to duty during the Brosnan run, if that makes you feel any better.)

Truthfully, she's really showing some age, particularly in her face cream scene.

If she wants to go, let her go. She did a great job. Now we can get someone new to give Bond yet another interesting dynamic. Lots of demographic options left.

Moonraker 5

She was the saving grace of QoS for me, and I'm more than happy for her to go on for a few more yet.

But as for this article, yes, best served with a very small, very salty, pinch.

(Oh, and I'm sure it's not Dame Judi who's insisting on being out in the field rather than behind her desk. I think that decision might be a bit above her level. That quibble lies in the direction the films are going, there's nothing to say her successor will be any less adventurous.)

scaramanga1

Moonraker 5 wrote:

She was the saving grace of QoS for me, and I'm more than happy for her to go on for a few more yet.

But as for this article, yes, best served with a very small, very salty, pinch.

(Oh, and I'm sure it's not Dame Judi who's insisting on being out in the field rather than behind her desk. I think that decision might be a bit above her level. That quibble lies in the direction the films are going, there's nothing to say her successor will be any less adventurous.)

I couldn't agree more. She has been excellent IMO - I'd like to see her do at least two more if possible.

Thunderbird 2

Another one for the salt pinch please! - Also this Thunderbird is currently pursuing a flight of pigs cruising at fifty thousand feet!

Pardon the sarcasm. - I pay no attention to rumours. If something happens it happens. No point "what iffing." - You'd never get anything done!

bigzilcho

Loeff...kill M?

To quote Fanning in OP: "Have you gone mad?"

Or has SPECTRE finally recruited you?

Hold on...Rosa Klebb's office is calling...Loeff, its for you.

It seems there aren't enough super-villians in the Bond universe who are tageting Bond and MI6.

Apparently, AJB is being used as a recruitment centre by nefarious forces. (Quantum, perhaps?)

Loeff, old man...come back in from the cold. We're your friends.


"In Washington, the President said he was entirely satisfied---"
"That makes two of us."

yodboy007

I really hope Dench hangs it up after QOS. She has been a fantastic M and got to work with two Bonds. She is the second-longest tenured behind Bernard Lee. But, at age 73 I feel it is time to retire while she still looks decent. I would hate to see M as a feeble and aging old lady.

I think the next M should be in his mid-50s so he can stick around for 15 or so years (7 or 8 films) and become the M for another generation. He will hopefully work with Craig once or twice as well as Bond actors #7 and #8. The new Moneypenny and Q who will appear in Bond 23 should also be played by young enough actors to stick around for a generation with the new M.

Robert Brown should have gotten to play M at least six times in 1991 and 1993, but we all know what was going on then. He only did four films and worked with two Bond actors. Perhaps had he done six films he would be remembered a bit better as the M of a specific generation.

The main reason Dench needs to quit now is for continuity reasons. It is bad enough that she presided over Brosnan and "prequel-boy" Craig. I want Craig to work with the new M at least twice so proper continuity can be established. The next M should work with Craig as well as the next few Bonds that follow him. Just like Lee was known for working with Connery, Lazenby and Moore the new M should work with two or three Bonds to establish new continuity.

Barbel

yodboy007 wrote:

I think the next M should be in his mid-50s so he can stick around for 15 or so years (7 or 8 films).

I wish: 7 or 8 Bond films in 15 years... luxury. :007)

Loeffelholz

bigzilcho wrote:

Loeff...kill M?

Damned right. And as soon as possible. I've explained it all before, in the link above and elsewhere. The Craig Era is about pushing boundaries and tipping the apple cart. What better way to cement this than by killing the head of MI6? Dame Judi's done Shakespeare---think of the death scene, that "dying breath" utterance to her problematic knight errant? B-)

She's not going to be doing it until she's ninety, is she?? Let's get a proper dramatic flourish from her exit, rather than just changing Ms between films.

Combined with an assault on Bond in his own home (which I advocate in the 'May' thread), I can't think of a better way to 'up the ante' with Quantum in #23.

bigzilcho wrote:

To quote Fanning in OP: "Have you gone mad?"

Or has SPECTRE finally recruited you?

It's "Quantum" now, silly boy :v

bigzilcho wrote:

Hold on...Rosa Klebb's office is calling...Loeff, its for you.

Tell her I'm busy with our scheme, re: Napoleon Plural :v

bigzilcho wrote:

It seems there aren't enough super-villians in the Bond universe who are tageting Bond and MI6.

No...there aren't. And we need to get the message that they mean business. Dench's M is starting to make a fuss about Quantum with the PM. She must go...

bigzilcho wrote:

Loeff, old man...come back in from the cold. We're your friends.

Really?...you should have been me for the past two weeks here )

Barbel

Loeffelholz wrote:

She's not going to be doing it until she's ninety, is she??

Damn well hope so! Or longer...

Loeffelholz

Barbel wrote:

Loeffelholz wrote:

She's not going to be doing it until she's ninety, is she??

Damn well hope so! Or longer...

Won't that be riveting; they can wheel her around in one of those wheelchair/life support systems, like Captain Pike in the original Star Trek series...be tougher to get her to the four corners of the globe to bitch Bond out in person---wheezing like Darth Vader thru an oxygen mask...

And if---God forbid!---she expires of her own accord, they can use the wax figure from Tussaud's, and dub the voice with an impersonator.

Colonel Shatner

We should get a younger and more dynamic M by Bond 24, with Dench hinting about retirement in Bond 23 like poor Desmond Llewelyn.

We could have Anthony Stewart Head, Jason Isaacs or ironically Timothy Dalton as a male M. For a female M we could have Tilda Swinton. Q could be played by Simon Pegg who played a similar character in Mission Impossible 3.

Barbel

Now you're just being silly, Loeff. Sure, she's older in QoS than in GE- how not? But she still presents a believable figure as M, with a character more rounded than any predecessor in the role. M is a pretty much ageproof character anyway.

Loeffelholz

Anything to keep her in her office {[]

Nobody lives forever...all I'm suggesting is that the series do something spectacular and remarkable when the time comes (and it will) for a change to be made.

Barbel

Loeffelholz wrote:

Anything to keep her in her office

Now there I'm with you. As I said earlier in a different thread:

Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions present
JUDI DENCH as Ian Fleming's M in
QUANTUM OF SOLACE
also starring
Daniel Craig as her employee...

Barbel

Loeffelholz wrote:

Nobody lives forever...

That would be a good title for a Bond story- say, QUANTUM put a price on his head... )

Loeffelholz

Indeed! Gardner's estate would likely want a share... ) But Quantum going after Bond is a story I'd pay to see.

I love Dame Judi, truly I do. And I find her Craig-Era M much more interesting than her previous version. But I fear that she's becoming a crutch for the creative team---which isn't healthy---and soon she'll be too old to kill.

And that would be a tragedy :v

Krassno Granitski

sniperUK wrote:

Good,then can we please have an M who stays in their bloody office and runs MI6 not one agent.

You win the thread!!!

DrMaybe

Judi Dench Wants To Quit Bond Movies


Well, goodbye. She served her gimmicky purpose. Now it's time for an Alaskan gymnast to play "M".

Barbel

DrMaybe wrote:

Now it's time for an Alaskan gymnast to play "M".

Well, Alaskans have been in the news a lot lately- one in particular...

DrMaybe

Barbel wrote:

DrMaybe wrote:

Now it's time for an Alaskan gymnast to play "M".

Well, Alaskans have been in the news a lot lately- one in particular...

And 4 years from now, she'll be a Trivial Pursuit question.