If Roger Moore played Bond in licence to kill
John from Cork
Posts: 129MI6 Agent
Most people can easily picture moore playing Bond in a slightly tailored version of the living daylights but how would a licence to kill with Roger playing Bond have panned out ?
Comments
Interesting. Maybe you're the first to ask that question? Very good.
I think FYEO gives us some idea of how such a movie would have looked like. But LTK was four years after AVTAK and eight years after FYEO. Would RM have been convincing throwing a punch at that time?
What if RM made his LTK around the time of FYEO, or even instead of it? LTK was tailored for Dalton just like MR and OP were tailored for Roger, so a LTK starring RM woud have to be a different movie.
numbertwofour said
LTK was four years after AVTAK and eight years after FYEO. Would RM have been convincing throwing a punch at that time?
so lots of "eh whats that you say? speak up sonny" type dialog
"eh whats that you say? he disagreed with some Transylvanians? those are pretty big bite marks for Tranyslvanians!" and further variations for two hours while Sanchez gets safely away
Yes, a 62 year old James Bond would have been a major problem for any Bond movie but I think this one in particular.
Very interesting question. I'm certainly thinking as if it was a younger RM in the film, as I think that's what @John from Cork is getting at. Bond at 62 wouldn't have worked, but the younger RM with his previous connection to DA might have worked the relationship better than TD/DA. As @Number24 suggests the RM Bond we see at times in FYEO would probably have been the way he would have played it.
I think a Roger Moore who'd had qualms about his Bond kicking Locque over the cliff edge, or about Zorin letting fly with an automatic weapon on defenceless miners, might have balked at playing some of LTK's darker themes and moments. Maybe that's just because he saw Bond in a certain light.
But could he have acted it? Yes (questions of age and timelines aside). Witness his "On your knees and eat!" scene as Sean Finn in 'The Wild Geese' (1978), when, outraged by a girl's death with an overdose, he forces a mafioso supplier to scoff huge quantities of his Class A drug!
LTK was written with Dalton's Bond in mind, but in that gritty TWG scene we see Moore - midway through his Lewis Gilbert Bond romps - as every bit as ruthless/ dark/ vengeful as the LTK Dalton, even more so! I remember first seeing TWG in 1978 and reacting to that particular Moore scene with: wow!
John Glen was TWG's editor. It's tempting to speculate that it was on the strength of Moore's TWG material that Glen, wearing his director's hat, felt that he could ask the actor to perform Bond's vengeance on Locque in FYEO as vindictive (with that kick!)
I was also going to mention his role in Wild Geese that showcases his ability to be ruthless and thereby overcoming his being a pretty boy. A Moore LTK done in the late 70’s or early 80’s will work, though his Bond might look more like a Prince Matchabelli cologne advertisement. His pairing with HIS Felix would lend more emotional weight to the story with that plot element ironically unused from LALD. The drug plot will unfortunately seem like a recycled carry-over from LALD.
superado said:
His pairing with HIS Felix would lend more emotional weight to the story with that plot element ironically unused from LALD. The drug plot will unfortunately seem like a recycled carry-over from LALD.
Oh good one @superado youre the first one to point that out, seems obvious now you said it!
In which case maybe the drug plot wouldnt look recycled, since the only time we've seen MooreBond's Felix was also a drug investigation, maybe that's what this version of Felix specialises in
The weird thing is, I actually don't find it too hard to imagine! 😄 Certainly he'd slot into the PTS no trouble at all ("Felix, relax", "Friends of yours perhaps?", "Well, if I, er, don't get you back for the wedding, I'm a dead man, certainly!"; "I always said we should go fishing, Felix!") ; I think at the wedding party he might have been less of a terrible grump and brought out the charm, so you might even have got a feel for why Bond and Felix are supposed to be friends, unlike in the finished film! "Well, er.. I'll do anything for a woman with a knife, that's for sure"
I think superado's point about the film featuring his Felix is a fine one too; there would certainly be more chemistry there.
I know it's a bit of a joke, and the thought is that he'd have had to make quips at every point, but the more I think of it the more I think he'd have actually managed it fine, and I can't think of a scene he'd really struggle with in it. Even if you watch AVTAK, one of the things which I was quite surprised is that Roger is mostly playing it quite straight, and by the time the film has moved to San Francisco there is a bit more grit there, and he's playing Bond as absolutely despising Zorin, which I don't think he'd really done with any of his villains before. When he's blown he's actually sarcastic with Zorin and spits his lines at him. Tone-wise the end of that film is not a million miles from LTK at times, and certainly feels like the same director.
Here's a pic of him in a film released the year after. Certainly too old (I'm probably imagining a more FYEO/OP vintage of Moore), and yet... I'd have watched it 😊
Didn't John Glen famously say after Avtak that he believed Roger could easily have another 4 bonds left in him ? Even M G Wilson is on the record as saying that they'd have liked Roger to continue post avtak. The fact that they tried to get David Bowie to star in aviak and the the big success of of the Duran Duran song makea me think had kept on Roger, they'd ha6 kept the Avtak strategy of ignoring Rogers age but fillings his future movies with young stars who were popular with the kids at the time.
It wasn't just Roger, though. Throw in General Gogol and the recurring cast are either over or approaching retirement age. That would show up increasingly against young villains, and replacements had to be found as indeed they were.
I do think a different director could have given it more punch; not because of where he put the camera but just the energy of it.
Imagine tho if someone like Oliver Stone had directed LTK?
Btw, does anyone know why the character of Penelope Smallbone was dropped right away? Would it have made more sense if Caroline Bliss was playing Penelope Smallbone rather than miss Moneypenny ?
My dream director for LTK would have been Ridley Scott. At that time he wasn't the hug edirector he is today. At that time he had "Someone to watch over me" and "Black Rain" as his most recent movies. Scott has the edge and energy needed to make LTK a true classic.
I don't agree with John Glen when he says RM had four more Bonds in him. Morre himself said he felt tired and for the first time didn't have the energy to watch the dailies after filming was done for the day.