Bond's Scottish Treasure (Page 1 of 3)

I agree Loeff, she would be a very welcome addition. Great idea. From your fingers to....

As long as she doesn't talk like she's come straight out of The Broons (as above) , I'll be happy

Last edited by Moonraker 5 (20th Mar 2007 07:51)

Not Scottish enough   Anette Crosby, long suffering wife of Victor Meldrew, is more or less who I'd picture.

Fleming fantasy or not, I can't really understand your argument: Bond was a military man and did have a housekeeper. Exciting or not, these were great scenes in the novels and I was never aware of them slowing down the action. I rather liked these glimpses of Bond's home life and can't see why 21stC audiences wouldn't feel the same; does the film have to move at break-neck speed throughout - surely these periods of reflection only serve to highlight the action rather than slow it down? I don't think that anyone is suggesting that these are lengthy scenes, just little cameos would be enough. I like the idea, but agree with M5 that to cast a genuine scottish actress would be more effective, so Crosby gets my vote as well.

Ageist, sexist, but two old women bossing Bond about may be just too much.

Otherwise, I'd have May as a Tamsin Greig type, not quite Moneypenny, but maybe a housekeeper or someone who checks security on Bond's flat on a regular basis, not a housekeeper as such. Something of the relationship does remind me of Jimmy Stewart and housekeeper in Rear Window, or maybe Hancock and whoever it was, she popped up in Alf Garnett years later. For the film, I'd have her younger, a bit batty.

Moneypenny is a bit of a sacred cow, but this May character is all new. Ditto Loela Posonby.

Of course, I'm not in touch with what civil servants in 21st Century London do for domestic help, but I doubt they're completely extinct.  Personally, I think it's worth a couple of minutes of screen time to give us a side of Bond we haven't seen before---and, as I said, I link it to his private physical regimen.  Bond is a somewhat fastidious creature of habit; this would play to that.

Heh! My point is that Bond and his companion characters were only characters; they don't always act like real people but behave and are surrounded by events which drive the story along and get to places Fleming wanted to get to; thus saying 'Bond was a military man and had a housekeeper' doesn't make that proof of the fact that that sort of thing would happen, any more than saying 'Blofeld did have a bad childhood and had a garden of death' as if one leads to the other in real life!

Keeping EON's bizarre casting decisions in mind, why not a bit of consistent inconstistencies. Let's cast Michael Kitchen as M. This would leave Judi Dench free to play May in Bond 22...and John Cleese can play Blofeld for good measure.

"Ah, good evening Mr Bond. You wish to register a complaint?"

"Alright: your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

On a practical basis, only bits of the literary Bond are readily appropriate for the screen, which is sad since the success of the reboot rode on that merit, bringing Bond back to basics.  Having all the rest tidbits, like boys night with Bill Tanner, May, Bond's eccentric, self-pampering rituals, would be a dream come true for literary fans and quite frankly, pulling it off with style and panache is too much a challenge for EON and company.

I dunno, supes...I think it's a new world, with the slate wiped pretty much clean, and some signs that a bit of the literary isn't necessarily the death knell for the franchise it was thought to be. 
 
Naturally, it comes down to the writing...CR shows (to me) that P&W are capable of better-than-expected work when they have sense enough to utilize source material (and have a bit of fresh talent sweep up behind them in the rewrite process).  We can't be sure it will fail until it's been tried; many of Eon's detractors seem to have underestimated them last year, if box office and critical acclaim (two things which rarely go hand-in-hand with 007) are anything to go by.

Now that the literary have established a beachhead, I guess I'm just not quite ready to climb back into the landing craft, give up and go home 

Naturally, they can't do it all; as you indicated, not all bits are appropriate.  But two minutes of Bond's workout regimen---and a quick turn by May---are not insurmountable, IMRO.

Last edited by Loeffelholz (22nd Mar 2007 03:04)