Ever seen Russel Crow be anything but Russel Crow?
Regarding Bond as an example, I think the producers have always make the only two requirements publicly about the next Bond to be British and not over 40 years old as the kind of profile they would be looking out for. And they go on to say that British can be white, black or asian descent, it does not matter to them. Personally when Idris Elba was brought up, I was excited because he is cool, calm and speaks well with an aura of a gentleman and yet able to be strong when necessary. And those eyes, they speak. His skin color was never even in my mind when they brought up Idris. But of course both Idris and the producers have distanced themselves from the possibility for various reasons.
However, I think what is going to muddle the choice of the next Bond are the media and the social media agendas and positions being pushed. You will see articles why the next Bond HAS TO BE Black. Then other articles why the next Bond SHOULD STAY as white.
Because of such positions being pushed, eventually whichever actor is chose, the producers will not win. If they choose a White, then there will be positions saying that the franchise missed a chance to prove a point about minority representation and that the actor is chosen because of being White. If they choose a Black or Asian, then there will be articles saying this actor is chosen simply because the producers gave in to the representation agenda.
Simply put, the actor chosen does not win and his talents will always be in the shadow of these agendas when the producers themselves have always emphasized it was never important in their choice of the next Bond. Movies are movies to me, I only care whether the actors can do well in that role. Of course its great to have more diverse representation, but when it becomes a deliberate action, then you would muddle entertainment and art with politics.
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With Bond, there has been a huge number of people that says it should be Idris Elba who, in fairness, would have been fantastic in the role but he’s too old to be starting it now.
In the fim series they hinted on a couple of occasions that Bond is actually an alias that is adopted by the agent, in a similar way to the 007 code name. This happened in Casino Royal where it was apparent that the established M was mentoring a newly assigned Bond, and also On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, where they even put a line in the opening sequence where Bond says, “This never happened to the other chap.”
My suspicion is that they will explicitly run with this angle for the new actor and that will influence their casting decision. However, I’d be surprised if we get anything other than a hansom, white British actor.
And that would be nothing wrong in my opinion.
Don’t get me wrong, arts and entertainment like movies play a huge role in social construct and how we view society. But to me how movies can play a huge role in moving balances of representation is not to keep flogging the dead horse to keep demanding that ongoing roles like Superman or Bond etc to be minority as a deliberate action, not that it could not be of course. But I think it is more helpful to address that by changing the narratives of scripts or screenplay that not every script has to always be a white man as the hero and the black man as the robber, the asian as the illegal immigrant who works at a chinese takeaway or the eastern european as the guy who always seek to nuke the world. Scripts and movies especially new ones should take on the world view in a more broader perspective. Lets have more movies by women for women as the lead, not just as some weak companion of the white male hero. Lets have more superheroes who are of color. Lets not look backward to try to address the injustice. Lets look forward and tell minorities what they can be.
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I can remember Barry Norman coining the phrase “Disposable Black Man” on the Film programme in the 1990s. Essentially, this was the idea that any black actor in an action movie was simply there to act as cannon fodder somewhere in the second reel before the white action heroes could save the day. Spike Lee also came up with the phrase “Magical Negro” to describe a black supporting character who only exists to serve the interest of the white lead.
The problem with both of these isn’t just poor representation, but poor scripting. If you watch a lot of 1980s action or horror films you can pretty much predict the plot because the cheap black actor is going to cop it. This is one element of Hollywood movies that has definitely improved - after Norman pointed it out I started to notice this in films and certainly started to pick up on films where the black characters had some agency - mainly because they were far better films.
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In Skyfall, we see his parent’s grave and his fathers name is Bond. Also the SHOCKING revelation that Bond is HALF FRENCH! (C) Daily Mail.
Ahem, where do I sign? 
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Where is the historical accuracy! It’s almost as if they are making it up as they go along!
The “real” James Bond was actually an American ornithologist. Fleming picked the name because he thought it sounded ordinary. I rather like the idea that a secret agent would take someone else’s identity to cover themselves (also an important plot point of Day Of The Jackal). In the Bond film series they have always toyed both sides on the idea.
So come on you Bond experts, why does he hate cricket? No googling, you either know this one or you don’t. My dear old things……
And why not?
Probably to do with Henry Blofeld’s dad.
I don’t remember anything about Cricket, and I have read the books. I remember being quite creeped put by Fleming’s opinions about rape.
As @RedWhippet above. Flemming went to school with Blofeld snr. Absolutely hated him so used him as the main antagonist.
For me, it is not so much that it whiffs of an agenda, but more that it reeks of pisspoor writing and character development.
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or possibly even scripting by focus group. This is often why there are so many directors’ cuts of films - the studio execs think they know what will sell and that overruns the artistic vision.
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As we’re ambling down the film thread, should we retire to the film thread for port, cigars and happy memories of men being heroes and women not being unstoppable girl bosses? You know, like reality?
Yep Star Wars needs to go back to realism, like in the good ole days.
Ellen Ripley disapproves of this post.
Pretty sure I’ve referenced her multiple times. But as you bring her up, did she instinctively know how to use a weapon she’d never seen before? No, she needed training by a man. Good. Now compare her to Rae who could sail a boat in a huge storm without training even though she lived on a desert planet. Aliens had world class writing. Modern stuff is usually bilge. Sarah Connor sends her regards.