Perhaps I missed something but I don't remember she clearly talked about a 'mid-thirties' Bond. She just said the guy shouldn't look too young, otherwise it would affect the credibility of the character.
An English accent would be expected from a person from England. A British accent would be expected from a person from Britain. The island called Great Britain includes Scotland and Wales as well as England. A Scottish accent is a British accent, and so is an English one and a Welsh one.
Edit: I've left out Ireland because that complicates matters.
I think there will be an announcement indeed, perhaps even before Christmas. But I'm afraid many of us will be disappointed as it will be something like a 'Bond 26' logo with a release year (2026 or 2027). They could have done that for the global Bond day.
Not sure we can criticise them for something which hasn’t happened. Also not sure they’ve ever released a logo without a title, I think the first announcement is always the director.
Your post reminded me of a time I was in Colorado and I said something like "a British actor like Sean Connery" and one guy said exactly these words, "Sean Connery isn't British, he's Scottish!". Gave me a good laugh, then I had to explain that the island of Great Britain and the nation of Scotland are not two geographically different places.
Yes, Connery had a Scots accent (I'd argue he softened his accent for Bond), but every Bond since, even that Australian chap, has played it with an English accent. Though Dalton's Welsh accent can be heard every now and then with some words and phrases.
Oh but Fleming put Bond's family in Scotland, I hear you cry, but you don't understand that in Scotland, posh, upper middle and upper class Scots, who go to private schools, even ones in Scotland, sound English. This is because the upper classes in the UK speak with what is called "received pronunciation" or the "Queen's English". They don't have regional accents.
A good example of this is Ancient Apocalypse's Graham Hancock, interviewed here by Jesse Michels.
In this interview, Hancock says he is a Scot. But to anyone he sounds English, and that is because he speak with received pronunciation.
They teach it at drama school too, which is why Sir Patrick Stewart sounds like he does and not where he is from, Yorkshire in northern England.
Of course, Bond went to Fettes College, a private boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland.
I recognise Fleming wanted Bond to be international, Scottish father, Swiss French mother, educated in Edinburgh and Oxford, spent part of his childhood in Canterbury, England, and Fleming, if I remember correctly, did not say where Bond was born. The Germany idea has been a post-Fleming concept.
So, I expect Paul Mescal, if he is Bond, to have an English accent. The accent we briefly hear in the Gladiator trailer sounds more "standard southern" English than received pronunciation. I'd argue Daniel Craig has a standard southern accent though he is from Chester in the north west of England, just south of Liverpool.
I don't understand what upper class etc Scots sound like??? Have you not noticed where I'm from?
Sure, Mescal can have an English accent. Whoever gets the part can have one. Or a Scottish one. Or a Welsh accent. A British accent covers all of those, saying an English accent like you did doesn’t.
If you do live in Scotland I don't know how you can't know that posh Scottish people sound English.
Off the top of my head I can think of three people I have known who are Scots and went to private school and sound English. The received pronunciation accent is very similar to the standard southern accent, it is nothing like a Scots accent, even the soft accent of Edinburgh, which from my experience is the softest of Scots accents.
I would add that Fleming wrote Bond as an upper class gentleman, as Fleming saw himself, so Bond, if true to the literary Bond, is going to have that private school received pronunciation 'English' accent. That's all I'm trying to say.
No, he's English. Half English, half American in fact (probably full American nationality now). Has never regarded himself as Welsh, doesn't call himself Welsh, grew up in Derbyshire... English.
Here you go, he's even quoted here as saying "I'm not really Welsh other than being born there"
But I've given evidence to you before of when you're wrong about something and you've insisted I've made it up or am lying, so I'll be amazed if you accept that.
Anyway, Barbel told us not to derail the thread and I'm afraid I've been guilty of that, so I'm leaving this here. Maybe we can start another thread about Bond nationalities or something, but this one is about Bond 26.
1/Interesting concept, especially considering Bond's widowhood. Tracy is my favorite female character of the series and I appreciate the various references after OHMSS. That could be done in the new movies.
2 & 3 are very close (3 is a special case of 2), and the most likely ways indeed. Hard/soft is defined by the cursors to adjust. Another origin story wouldn't particularly thrill me, but if espionage and geopolitics are very well included in the stakes, why not.
4/Giving Fleming the finger. Giving a fan of the literary universe like me the finger. No, thanks.
5/Risky exercise (retcon?). Furthermore, I want the next Bond's fate to remain indefinite. Not keen on thinking the guy on screen will one day be scattered on an island because of a nuke.
6/Giving Craig the finger. Not sure Broccoli and Wilson would accept to destroy the symbolism of the whole Craig era.
7/Not credible at all (Brosnan is 71). I prefer watching Sean in NSNA.
Berger would be the second German born director after Marc Forster, whose IMDB bio says he was born in Bavaria in southern Germany, but elsewhere he is described as German-Swiss.
Looking at his IMDB profile, Berger directed Deustchland '83 which I thought was great and is about Cold War spying.
His version of All Quiet on the Western Front also received a lot of accolades, but I haven't seen it.
Are announcements ever tied to special days? Certainly not in the last 19 years. I suppose anything can happen, but still feels like everyone's just reading tea leaves.
And you know how Bond felt about tea...
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,918Chief of Staff
He didn’t direct all of Deutschland ’83, just the first 5 episodes…having said that, it was a great series…be interesting to see what he does with Conclave - based on the book by Robert Harris.
Apparently, Amazon/MGM has lots of IP they can use for TV/movies, and lots of money, but they don't have the production facilities, stages etc, but Sony does, it owns Culver City Studios. So the claim is that the deal, that would include Bond, and this other guy states again that Sony wants Bond, would be a long term wide ranging TV and film production agreement that would include a rebooted Stargate and Bond.
It does make sense. One good thing for Bond if it happens is, finally, everyone involved, is not suffering existential financial problems and the next phase for the seventh Bond actor would be on a firm footing, and there wouldn't be, I imagine, the situation we appear to have now of Bond26 being marketed/distributed by Universal and then Bond27 being marketed/distributed by Warner Bros. It would be Sony only for Bond26-29, at least, like Casino to Skyfall.
If there's any hint of that sort thing going down then there's your reason for any delay in B26 production starting, but I don't buy that Eon would accept making Bond outside of the UK on a permanent basis.
I didn't mean to suggest Bond movies would be made at Culver City, just that for Stargate and all of MGM's other IP material that would be a place for their production within this Sony deal. The Bond angle to the Amazon-MGM/Sony deal would be a repeat of the deal Sony had from 2006 to 2012.
A casting search now would support a Christmas announcement. If they are casting now that would also suggest a director has been picked.
Which makes we wonder who of the rumoured directors may have the gig? A quick bit of thought and interweb research and I collated these names, Chris Nolan, Matthew Vaughn, Edgar Wright, Ben Wheatley, Guy Ritchie, Denis Villeneuve, Yann Demange, Steve McQueen, David Mackenzie, Gareth Evans, and I wouldn't rule out Martin Campbell.
I used IMDB for all of the below.
Campbell is actually free, he is just doing post-production on a movie calld Dirty Angels.
We know Chris Nolan is not working on B26, he has said so and he is now working on a film with Matt Damon and Tom Holland.
Vaughn is working on his Kingsman franchise.
Wright is in pre-production for The Running Man reboot. He once said on a chat show that he wasn't in EON's 'good books' sort of ruling himself out. He also indicated that he'd want a return to the Moore/Brosnan style Bonds.
Villenueve is consumed with his Dune work.
Guy Ritchie just has had too many failures IMHO. He's supposed to be in pre-production on something called In The Grey anyway.
Ben Wheatley is in pre-production for a new Bob Odenkirk movie.
Yann Demange is in pre-producton on something called Exit West.
David Mackenzie is in pre-production on a TV series called Gemstone.
Steve McQueen is free, his Blitz film for AppleTV is to be released later this month. Interestingly Saoirse Ronan, who is in Blitz, was on UK tv recently and she was talking about how she'd like to be a Bond villain. Coincidence?
Gareth Evans is working on something called Blister that is "in development". What I noticed from Evans' IMDB proflie is he is a relatively new director. Sam Mendes has said EON likes directors who are young and 'malleable'.
Gareth Evan's THE RAID was 13 years ago, he's been making feature films for 18 years, he's made six of them, and he's 44 years old and the co-creator of Gangs of London. "Malleable young director" isn't really where my mind goes when I look at his CV. That said, he'd be a great choice.
Sam Mendes' comment smacks of b itchiness, to be honest. Eon gave him two movies to direct (one too many, imo). Who are these young and malleable directors he's talking about? Marc Forster, the guy who sent them running for Mendes? Cary Fukunaga is notoriously prickly and demanding; Campbell and Tamahori were 52 when they joined the fold.
Ah OK, I may have made a mistake there. Looking at his IMDB profile, he hasn't directed much since 2003, when you take away TV and the shorts he's directed six movies, but one was for Netflix. He didn't film a film for seven years after The Raid 2 in 2014 and according to IMDB Trivia, his latest, Havoc, finished filming in 2021 and has had a lot of reshoots since and won't be released until 2025. I think we can probably cross Evans off the list.
Are there any rumoured directors I didn't mention?
I think there was a British woman who seemed quite credible, I think she'd done something for the BBC.
Comments
An English accent isn't required, since Bond isn't English. A British accent would be more accurate.
Perhaps I missed something but I don't remember she clearly talked about a 'mid-thirties' Bond. She just said the guy shouldn't look too young, otherwise it would affect the credibility of the character.
I don't recall them mentioning his height either, I get the feeling that wouldn't be a top priority.
LOL Not English? But British? Please explain the difference. I'm looking forward to this.
An English accent would be expected from a person from England. A British accent would be expected from a person from Britain. The island called Great Britain includes Scotland and Wales as well as England. A Scottish accent is a British accent, and so is an English one and a Welsh one.
Edit: I've left out Ireland because that complicates matters.
Ir would be nice woth a Christmas Bond26 announcement, but I'll believe it when I see it. I've been .... sob ... hurt before.
About the age: I seem to remember they want an actor in his 30s for Bond.
I think there will be an announcement indeed, perhaps even before Christmas. But I'm afraid many of us will be disappointed as it will be something like a 'Bond 26' logo with a release year (2026 or 2027). They could have done that for the global Bond day.
Not sure we can criticise them for something which hasn’t happened. Also not sure they’ve ever released a logo without a title, I think the first announcement is always the director.
An English accent is a British accent.
Your post reminded me of a time I was in Colorado and I said something like "a British actor like Sean Connery" and one guy said exactly these words, "Sean Connery isn't British, he's Scottish!". Gave me a good laugh, then I had to explain that the island of Great Britain and the nation of Scotland are not two geographically different places.
Yes, Connery had a Scots accent (I'd argue he softened his accent for Bond), but every Bond since, even that Australian chap, has played it with an English accent. Though Dalton's Welsh accent can be heard every now and then with some words and phrases.
Oh but Fleming put Bond's family in Scotland, I hear you cry, but you don't understand that in Scotland, posh, upper middle and upper class Scots, who go to private schools, even ones in Scotland, sound English. This is because the upper classes in the UK speak with what is called "received pronunciation" or the "Queen's English". They don't have regional accents.
A good example of this is Ancient Apocalypse's Graham Hancock, interviewed here by Jesse Michels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PJJiut0Iuw&t=2705s
In this interview, Hancock says he is a Scot. But to anyone he sounds English, and that is because he speak with received pronunciation.
They teach it at drama school too, which is why Sir Patrick Stewart sounds like he does and not where he is from, Yorkshire in northern England.
Of course, Bond went to Fettes College, a private boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland.
I recognise Fleming wanted Bond to be international, Scottish father, Swiss French mother, educated in Edinburgh and Oxford, spent part of his childhood in Canterbury, England, and Fleming, if I remember correctly, did not say where Bond was born. The Germany idea has been a post-Fleming concept.
So, I expect Paul Mescal, if he is Bond, to have an English accent. The accent we briefly hear in the Gladiator trailer sounds more "standard southern" English than received pronunciation. I'd argue Daniel Craig has a standard southern accent though he is from Chester in the north west of England, just south of Liverpool.
I don't understand what upper class etc Scots sound like??? Have you not noticed where I'm from?
Sure, Mescal can have an English accent. Whoever gets the part can have one. Or a Scottish one. Or a Welsh accent. A British accent covers all of those, saying an English accent like you did doesn’t.
Edit- I do know what RP is.
If you do live in Scotland I don't know how you can't know that posh Scottish people sound English.
Off the top of my head I can think of three people I have known who are Scots and went to private school and sound English. The received pronunciation accent is very similar to the standard southern accent, it is nothing like a Scots accent, even the soft accent of Edinburgh, which from my experience is the softest of Scots accents.
At what point did I say that posh people in Scotland don't sound English?
3 whole Scots?
Right, enough thread disruption: let’s take this to PMs.
Goodness me Someone, what a weird fight to pick. Just accept when you're wrong for a change.
Also, Dalton does not have a Welsh accent, he has traces of a Derbyshire accent. Which is also English.
I do think Mescal is a more solid choice than ATJ: he's got some spark about him. ATJ tends to throw away the opportunities in the scripts he's given.
You didn't.
I would add that Fleming wrote Bond as an upper class gentleman, as Fleming saw himself, so Bond, if true to the literary Bond, is going to have that private school received pronunciation 'English' accent. That's all I'm trying to say.
Dalton is Welsh.
No, he's English. Half English, half American in fact (probably full American nationality now). Has never regarded himself as Welsh, doesn't call himself Welsh, grew up in Derbyshire... English.
Here you go, he's even quoted here as saying "I'm not really Welsh other than being born there"
But I've given evidence to you before of when you're wrong about something and you've insisted I've made it up or am lying, so I'll be amazed if you accept that.
Anyway, Barbel told us not to derail the thread and I'm afraid I've been guilty of that, so I'm leaving this here. Maybe we can start another thread about Bond nationalities or something, but this one is about Bond 26.
It's my thread!
Sad to hear Dalton say he's only Welsh in that he was born there. I like Wales.
The thread is about the reinvention of Bond.
The whole point of my post was about an Irish actor doing an English accent for Bond.
I think reinventing Bond with another accent is a relevant topic.
Admittedly for most of the world the films are dubbed so accents are superfluous.
One day, emtiem, you will accept you are always wrong and I am a perfectly perfect person. One day.
Like I said, enough. We're on to PMs now.
The James Bond Dossier offers up 7 ways to bring back James Bond.
1/Interesting concept, especially considering Bond's widowhood. Tracy is my favorite female character of the series and I appreciate the various references after OHMSS. That could be done in the new movies.
2 & 3 are very close (3 is a special case of 2), and the most likely ways indeed. Hard/soft is defined by the cursors to adjust. Another origin story wouldn't particularly thrill me, but if espionage and geopolitics are very well included in the stakes, why not.
4/Giving Fleming the finger. Giving a fan of the literary universe like me the finger. No, thanks.
5/Risky exercise (retcon?). Furthermore, I want the next Bond's fate to remain indefinite. Not keen on thinking the guy on screen will one day be scattered on an island because of a nuke.
6/Giving Craig the finger. Not sure Broccoli and Wilson would accept to destroy the symbolism of the whole Craig era.
7/Not credible at all (Brosnan is 71). I prefer watching Sean in NSNA.
Edward Berger, German born director of Conclave, which is getting a lot of Oscar buzz, has denied rumours he's been approached about Bond26.
Berger would be the second German born director after Marc Forster, whose IMDB bio says he was born in Bavaria in southern Germany, but elsewhere he is described as German-Swiss.
Looking at his IMDB profile, Berger directed Deustchland '83 which I thought was great and is about Cold War spying.
His version of All Quiet on the Western Front also received a lot of accolades, but I haven't seen it.
Are announcements ever tied to special days? Certainly not in the last 19 years. I suppose anything can happen, but still feels like everyone's just reading tea leaves.
And you know how Bond felt about tea...
He didn’t direct all of Deutschland ’83, just the first 5 episodes…having said that, it was a great series…be interesting to see what he does with Conclave - based on the book by Robert Harris.
The Sci-Trek Youtube channel has added more detail to this potential Sony, MGM/Amazon deal. Different guy but same channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7enLSJrBMU
Apparently, Amazon/MGM has lots of IP they can use for TV/movies, and lots of money, but they don't have the production facilities, stages etc, but Sony does, it owns Culver City Studios. So the claim is that the deal, that would include Bond, and this other guy states again that Sony wants Bond, would be a long term wide ranging TV and film production agreement that would include a rebooted Stargate and Bond.
It does make sense. One good thing for Bond if it happens is, finally, everyone involved, is not suffering existential financial problems and the next phase for the seventh Bond actor would be on a firm footing, and there wouldn't be, I imagine, the situation we appear to have now of Bond26 being marketed/distributed by Universal and then Bond27 being marketed/distributed by Warner Bros. It would be Sony only for Bond26-29, at least, like Casino to Skyfall.
If there's any hint of that sort thing going down then there's your reason for any delay in B26 production starting, but I don't buy that Eon would accept making Bond outside of the UK on a permanent basis.
New development from the usually reliable DeuxMoi
https://www.instagram.com/p/DB448tWpPzE/
I didn't mean to suggest Bond movies would be made at Culver City, just that for Stargate and all of MGM's other IP material that would be a place for their production within this Sony deal. The Bond angle to the Amazon-MGM/Sony deal would be a repeat of the deal Sony had from 2006 to 2012.
A casting search now would support a Christmas announcement. If they are casting now that would also suggest a director has been picked.
Which makes we wonder who of the rumoured directors may have the gig? A quick bit of thought and interweb research and I collated these names, Chris Nolan, Matthew Vaughn, Edgar Wright, Ben Wheatley, Guy Ritchie, Denis Villeneuve, Yann Demange, Steve McQueen, David Mackenzie, Gareth Evans, and I wouldn't rule out Martin Campbell.
I used IMDB for all of the below.
Campbell is actually free, he is just doing post-production on a movie calld Dirty Angels.
We know Chris Nolan is not working on B26, he has said so and he is now working on a film with Matt Damon and Tom Holland.
Vaughn is working on his Kingsman franchise.
Wright is in pre-production for The Running Man reboot. He once said on a chat show that he wasn't in EON's 'good books' sort of ruling himself out. He also indicated that he'd want a return to the Moore/Brosnan style Bonds.
Villenueve is consumed with his Dune work.
Guy Ritchie just has had too many failures IMHO. He's supposed to be in pre-production on something called In The Grey anyway.
Ben Wheatley is in pre-production for a new Bob Odenkirk movie.
Yann Demange is in pre-producton on something called Exit West.
David Mackenzie is in pre-production on a TV series called Gemstone.
Steve McQueen is free, his Blitz film for AppleTV is to be released later this month. Interestingly Saoirse Ronan, who is in Blitz, was on UK tv recently and she was talking about how she'd like to be a Bond villain. Coincidence?
Gareth Evans is working on something called Blister that is "in development". What I noticed from Evans' IMDB proflie is he is a relatively new director. Sam Mendes has said EON likes directors who are young and 'malleable'.
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sam-mendes-james-bond-controllable-directors-1236169972/
Gareth Evan's THE RAID was 13 years ago, he's been making feature films for 18 years, he's made six of them, and he's 44 years old and the co-creator of Gangs of London. "Malleable young director" isn't really where my mind goes when I look at his CV. That said, he'd be a great choice.
Sam Mendes' comment smacks of b itchiness, to be honest. Eon gave him two movies to direct (one too many, imo). Who are these young and malleable directors he's talking about? Marc Forster, the guy who sent them running for Mendes? Cary Fukunaga is notoriously prickly and demanding; Campbell and Tamahori were 52 when they joined the fold.
That's what I thought too. Who on earth are those young and malleable directors Mendes is talkinfg about?
Ah OK, I may have made a mistake there. Looking at his IMDB profile, he hasn't directed much since 2003, when you take away TV and the shorts he's directed six movies, but one was for Netflix. He didn't film a film for seven years after The Raid 2 in 2014 and according to IMDB Trivia, his latest, Havoc, finished filming in 2021 and has had a lot of reshoots since and won't be released until 2025. I think we can probably cross Evans off the list.
Are there any rumoured directors I didn't mention?
I think there was a British woman who seemed quite credible, I think she'd done something for the BBC.
Anyone?