As 23rd Bond chapter “Skyfall” preps for its public bow Stateside next month, and with many early reviews, including ours, calling it a fine return to franchise form, the pairing of Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes looks to be one with a promising future if sustained. However, even in safe waters, Bond fans can still speculate toward the series’ future, and recently two lingering questions regarding dream additions to the series have finally been addressed.
Craig's confirmed of late that's he's signed on for at least two more movies in the tux, but there'll always be a thought to the future among fans and filmmakers, and as “Skyfall” star Naomie Harris recently revealed, one interesting, if potentially controversial, choice might turn out to be "The Wire" and "Prometheus" star Idris Elba. “I didn’t realize that there was this talk and then I did a film with Idris [Elba] and he said that he met Barbara Broccoli [James Bond producer],” Harris explained, “It does seem like a possibility in the future that there could very well be a black James Bond.”
The change would certainly rile some (idiot) fans up, if the reaction to the actor playing a space viking in "Thor" is anything to go by, but Elba’s a talented presence that could certainly do a good job in the role, although given that he's now 40, he may turn out to be too old by the time Craig hands in his Walther PPK. Having just come from working with Elba on his Mandela biopic "Long Walk To Freedom," which recently wrapped in South Africa, Harris also gave her vote in support of his abilities. “I didn’t even realize [Elba was a London native] until I started to work with him. I thought he was an American based on his role on 'The Wire.' " Another one fooled, then.
Aside from Harris’ interesting hints toward the future, much focus has also been around the idea of Christopher Nolan’s possible contributions, given his confessed fandom of, and debt to, the Bond movies, and Nolan revealing he'd met with producers in the past. Even Mendes publicly tipped his hat to the director as a source of inspiration for “Skyfall,” but what about an actual full scale Nolan Bond film?
Well, Gregg Wilson – son of famed Bond producer Michael G. Wilson, and associate producer of "Skyfall" – recently took more of an optimistically cagey approach to the question. “We would of course be interested to have a discussion with him. We would like to do the same type of movie,” Wilson said, “It would be a dream to be with Nolan. But we always have an open mind when it comes to directors.”
So it seems the matter of a Hans Zimmer-scored Bond offering still remains hazy, but by all accounts Mendes seems to have put out an excellent installment in the meantime, and one that will satiate fans just fine when “Skyfall” is released November 9th. [HuffPo/Moviezine]