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Alternate James Bond movie timine

posted 2 years ago by seanwhelan2310 (562)
30 replies | jump to latest

1962-1967: Remains the same with Sean Connery starring in Dr. No, FRWL, Goldfinger, Thunerball and YOLT.

1969: George Lazenby makes his debut in OHMSS

1971: Diamonds are Forever, but with Lazenby back as Bond as he decides to do one more movie. Peter Hunt returns to direct, Telly Savalas returns as Blofeld and David Hedison appears as Felix Leiter. DAF would be a more gritty movie with Bond going after Blofeld for the death of his wife. Lazenby's performance would receive much better praise than it did with OHMSS with critics praising him for vastly improved performance.

1973-1979: Lazenby appears in four more Bond movies, MWTGG would a more serious adaptation, Felix replace Sheriff JW Pepper, In this version, all camp is removed from chase sequences, and Goodnight does not exist. Bond still has not gotten over Tracy's passing. In this edition, Andrea is the one and only bond girl, and she wins her freedom. Nic-Nac still exists, however, he does not follow Bond into the ship as in this edition he was a slave to Scaramanga. Moonraker would be changed to a more grounded movie and is a movie about missiles and bombs that follows the book's plot very carefully. Gala Brand would be the main Bond girl.

1981-1991:
Lazenby steps down from playing 007. Ian Oglivy, Timothy Dalton, Lewis Collins and Michael Billington are considered to replace with Dalton chosen as his replacement. Dalton first starts in FYEO in which I think was initially tailor made with Dalton before Moore returned. Instead of a Lotus appear, Dalton will have his Aston martin. His next movie would be Property of a Lady (instead of Octopussy, same plot but less slapstick), next would be A View To A Kill, Dalton takes his role seriously, he doesn't look like an old man, he isn't lazy and actually does quite a bit of stunts, and critics say he and Christopher Walken make "The best rivals of the 80's. However, critics have no idea what's in store soon.
TLD and LTK would remain the same. The change for LTK would be that since this timeline's Moonraker won't have a large budget, the posters and trailers are very high budget. In fact, this is the highest budget Bond film at this point. The publicity makes this film a success.
Following on, Dalton would make one last appearance in Nobody Lives Forever, where Professor Joe Butcher, the last non-incarcerated/living insider of Sanchez's operation, now on the brink of poverty, hires a hitman on Bond for revenge. The hitman, American Joseph Johnson, known as "Jinx" tracks down Bond on vacation in Maine. Joseph Johnson is killed once Bond has been kidnapped and disarmed. Johnson is killed on his private beach, where Bond knocks Johnson's girlfriend unconscious with a punch to the trachea, and in a moment of adrenaline, strangles Johnson to death with the bikini top of his girlfriend It is a direct sequel to LTK

1995-2002
Dalton steps down from playing Bond with Pierce Brosnan slipping into the tux. Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies and TWINE remain the same, but instead of Die Another Day as his last, Everything or Nothing is in that place in 2002, using the same plot from the game.

2006-2021
Daniel Craig is the sixth actor and makes five Bond movies in a rebooted timeline.

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

I think it'd be more fun to imagine what would've happened if Fleming had gotten his way and David Niven had been 007 No.1 I think under that timeline...

Niven does the first films, but we get a more "gentleman spy". Connery's Bond had a perfect balance of thug and sophisticate, but Niven's would lean more toward the latter.

Roger Moore taking over from Connery resulted in a calculated move to make Bond lighter - Moore felt that nobody could match Connery's reputation by doing the same thing. But given that Moore was a bit more "Gentleman Spy" himself, would he have even taken the role? Would it have even been offered him? Apparently Albert Broccoli met with Anthony Hopkins but Hopkins didn't think it was the right part for him.

So, let's say in this timeline Hopkins takes it. Niven's more chic agent lets Hopkins see himself as the part more, but also gives him room to (ironically) push it into a more sinister territory. In my timeline, the Hopkins era becomes the definitive Bond era (finally finding the balance between suave and barbaric) Hopkins only sticks around for a couple films, though, and this role (not Lecter) defines his career.

Because they get to Brosnan a bit earlier in this timeline, he isn't held down by his Remington Steele contract and he takes over earlier. He struggles to fill Hopkins' shoes, however, especially because he's perceived as being too young for the role.

The reboot Bonds are handled by Clive Owen in my timeline.

[–] seanwhelan2310 (562) 2 years ago

Very good timeline as well, have a few other myself, one where George Lazenby only does two movies, Moore does only four retiring in '79 and Dalton's tenure lasts from '81 to 91 with Brosnan and Craig's tenures the same. The next one after had other actors who were considered took the role and how long they would last and also if Craig and Brosnan never got the gig.

[–] FootOfDavros (6708) 2 years ago

I'd like to have seen the timeline with Remington Steele not getting in the way and Brosnan taking up the reins with The Living Daylights, which would avoid Dalton being offered the role.

Dalton was an especially bad fit for that film, which was essentially a Moore Bond film with the wrong actor.

With Brosnan knocking that out the park it's highly unlikely we would have landed up with the disaster of License To Kill, and we may have got another Bond classic instead.

I'd then like to have seen Brosnan continue to at least one more film after Die Another Day, which would hopefully remove Craig from the picture altogether.

On this alternate timeline, who'd come in after Brosnan in ~ 2008?

Maybe that would have been the perfect time and age for the producers to go with Idris Elba. He's got the chops and the humor to have made it work. Probably could have been looking at hanging up his boots around now, after a successful five or six film run.

[–] seanwhelan2310 (562) 2 years ago

There’s Michael Fassbender, Jack Davenport, Tom Hardy, Damian Lewis, Scott Adkins etc all of whom would have been the right age in the mid-00s

[–] FootOfDavros (6708) 2 years ago

Fassbender's a good call there. He could have been a good Bond...

[–] letess (1003) 2 years ago

Fassbender. 10 yrs ago. He’d never do it tho. And if the script was anything less, he’d bail.

It should be a new guy who is in his mid30s. British. Intelligent. Athletic. Not famous. Not Tom Hardy. He’s just not James Bond.

They will take forever to jumpstart this again as they have all the time in the world.

[–] seanwhelan2310 (562) 2 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

See, I loved Licence to Kill and enjoy Dalton's interpretation of Bond.

[–] FootOfDavros (6708) 2 years ago

Each to their own 👍

But The Living Daylights in particular was a poor film for Dalton. It's basically following the Moore formula and cinematography, just looks wrong with Dalton.

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

I do know what you mean. I like The Living Daylights, it's good, but it doesn't reach full potential because it's held back by an incongruity between the Bond they thought they were writing for vs. the Bond who was performing it. So while I might differ on the level of quality achieved, you'll get no argument that there was a bit of a grinding of the gears there.

[–] letess (1003) 2 years ago

No Roger Moore, right? You say there are six Bonds - Connery, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig - who is the 6th? I am pretty sure Lazenby wished this would have happened. So, do I. Any actor that starts out as Bond, should start out by being about 36. I think Connery was 33.

[–] millsey72 (9542) 2 years ago

I am hoping the very last Bond movie somehow can connect with Dr Strange and we enter a multiverse. Every actor to play the James Bond role and every villain ever casted would be in this blockbuster and the entire planet would be facing many different threats around the world

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

Without Moore and Connery able to reprise their roles, though, what's the point?

Although I might come around if the ultimate villain turned out to be Woody Allen from 1967's Casino Royale.

[–] millsey72 (9542) 2 years ago

By then, they should be able to do full CGI of Connery and Moore

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

I cordially dislike the idea of CGI post-mortis actors, particularly in cases where they didn't sign off on it before death. I don't like it in either case, but it wouldn't sit well at all with me.

Maybe if they managed to work in old footage.

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2122) 2 years ago

Millsey old chap that's genius!

[–] letess (1003) 2 years ago

I hated Moore as Bond. He was The Saint. Not Bond. (And Brosnan was Remington Steele.) Moore was 47 when he started. He’s older than Connery by 3 yrs. His last Bond movie, he was closer to 60.

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

That's fair, and I get why people don't like Moore's tenure as 007. For me every actor just brought their own "thing" to the role and I was okay with Moore's wry, winking take. It's not as satisfying as Connery's, but it's okay. It helps, maybe, that I was never into The Saint.

But, if they did do some "Bond multiverse" thing (which has potential - sure) it couldn't happen without Moore showing up by Union Jack parachute-jumping onto a ski slope.

[–] letess (1003) 2 years ago

I loved the Spy Who Loved Me. Maybe for the time, Moore was right for the kind of Bond movies they were doing. More of a spoof. He was so unappealing. More of a Sir Percy Blakeney wo the Pimpernel.

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

SWLM is one of his best. That and For Your Eyes Only are my favourite Moores.

I think the key with Roger Moore's Bond movies is to just think of them as "fun romps".

But I kinda enjoy every Bond for what it is. I recognize that there are better and worse, I have my favourites and ones I like less, but at the end of the day they're all fun.

Except for Quantum of Solace. My word, but that's wretched. It's almost trying not to be Bond at all for most of its runtime, and it turns out "not Bond" is the only line I'm really drawing.

I appreciate the silly Bonds for being silly and the more spy-thriller ones for their take. My favourites are the Connery run - I like their blend of action-thriller with quippy-fun adventure, and the atmosphere of the classic Cold War Spy Movies.

[–] letess (1003) 2 years ago

Quantum of Solace is possibly the worst movie ever made. I didn’t much like Spectre. I thought they did a good job in No Time to Die to unravel the mess they made with that movie.

I did like For Your Eyes Only a lot and I like Carole Bouquet. A Bond movie was one you definitely enjoyed like you said, even the silliness of it. I still think Dr. No and Casino Royale are the best. Maybe the Bourne movies inspired the franchise to make a different Bond movie. I like the Cold War too. And you know, as good as Connery was, there was a point where you could tell he was tired of the kind of movie he was making.

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

Yeah, it just didn't feel like Bond. It was a mediocre action movie, but it didn't respect its 007 status at all. The only bit that was "Bond" was the opera scene - basically the stuff with Agent Fields - and other than that it was a wreck (with shaky cam). Very disappointing, especially after Casino Royale.

My favourite of all-time is From Russia with Love, but Dr. No and Casino Royale are both top-10ers for me. Didn't mind Spectre. I hated the Blofeld plot twist, but I loved the car chase scene, the opening Day of the Dead sequence, and a lot of other points.

Yeah, Connery's already starting to phone it in (at least a little bit) in You Only Live Twice. Diamonds Are Forever is a slog. In many ways, I think the "classic Bond" era actually ends with On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I don't like Lazenby, but OHMSS is a great movie in spite of his slumper performance, and it actually brings Bond's story to its most interesting point in the series.

[–] letess (1003) 2 years ago

I think you are correct with everything you say. I looked up FRWL and it was Connery’s favorite, as well as Dalton and Craig’s. I didn’t like the actress who played Tania - I guess that’s why. But it is the defining moment of what a Bond movie is all about. Goldfinger was the ultimate villain and his demise was the best. The song was the best. And Connery’s chemistry with Shirley Eaton was the best. Yet, there are parts I just fall asleep in that movie. I don’t like the movies where there are US locales - like Las Vegas, New Orleans, even Fort Knox. Also, when I looked up FRWL - it was mentioned that they wanted Hitchcock to do it in the 50s with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.

Lazenby apparently left on his own accord. Something about not wanting to commit to a three movie contract. I think he’s regretted it ever since. But his performance wasn’t that great. I always wondered why they made Thunderball twice. I didn’t like Spectre because they took the high points from several other movies, and copied it into that movie. Kind of a cut and paste. The story of Vesper was so good that they thought they could do it again, even using the same train sequence. There was no chemistry between Bond and Madeleine in both movies. But I liked how you picked out various scenes from each movie even if the overall movie wasn’t great. Someday I will watch these again and look for the scenes you mention.

Did you like the last Bond movie? Is your favorite movie of all them still From Russia with Love or is there another one from all of the Bond movies?

[–] seanwhelan2310 (562) 2 years ago

Enjoyed the last one, it was hard to know whether he was going to be killed off at the end

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

I love the atmosphere in From Russia with Love. Something about "Spies vs. Spies" appeals to me, and that film has it in spades. It also seems to know when to be serious and grim (the train fight, the Cold War thrills, the honeypot/romance angle) and use good, old fashioned spying vs. when to be fun and silly (the girlfight in the gypsy camp). For me, it's got the perfect balance. It does have that great Hitchcock feel!

Goldfinger's also great. A lot of people have rightly pointed out that it cemented the Bond Formula - the gadget car, the stylish villain, the gimmick henchman, the ludicrous name for the Bond girl, etc. Yeah, I'm not as keen on the US locales, either. Maybe because we see them in too many movies so they don't feel as globe-trotting as Bond going to Turkey or Japan?

Lazenby did, yeah. Reports vary slightly on exactly why. Some have told me his agent gave him advice not to be typecast, others say he didn't want to be typecast without advice or that he wanted to move on to more serious roles. I've even heard that he didn't like the values of Bond and was rising above that sort of thing. I don't know exactly, although I suspect it was that he didn't want to be typecast. I don't know if he regretted it or not, but he certainly was a "one-hit-wonder" performer.

They remade Thunderball as Never Say Never Again because of a copyright dispute. Another producer co-owned the rights so he could make his own film. He managed to get Connery back (I don't know how). So NSNA wasn't made by EON Productions but somebody else. He couldn't make an original Bond because he only owned the rights to Thunderball.

Yeah, Spectre was overlong and Blofeld felt like they tried too hard to make him a villain. I agree that he didn't have enough chemistry with Madeline; I wish they'd put Monica Belucci (always an electric performer) as his main Bond Girl.

I haven't seen No Time to Die yet. From Russia with Love is still my favourite. I'll go into watching NTtD with an open mind, but FRwL is pretty top-grade, and it might be impossible to top it without prime Connery.

[–] letess (1003) 2 years ago

I think we are now in the narrow margins. Jeez “he didn’t like the values of Bond.”

I will now forever look at FRwL differently. I love the Orientalist settings and the gypsy camp, the ferry on the Bosporus. It was Connery’s second Bond film so all good. He was better in Dr. No. Dr. No, the movie, was just tighter and cleaner. The only one that didn’t stretch out forever. I just wished it had been Virna Lisi in the FRwL. The director had to dub the Italian actress who played Tania as she had a heavy Italian accent but then all the Bond actresses’, including Ursula, dialogue were dubbed by the same woman. He also didn’t like her legs so he got a double. She had so much screen time with Bond compared to say Severine in Skyfall - the presence as the married couple really worked.

I too like the spies vs. spies and wish there were more locations in Vienna, Antwerp, Berlin, Prague, Budapest - but they didn’t. They ended up in Jamaica, Bahamas. I didn’t think they would ever come up with a good later Bond movie but then there was Casino Royale. It was perfect. I think Monica is the most beautiful woman in the world. Daniel Craig had great chemistry with Sienna Miller in Layer Cake. Who knows maybe chemistry with his wife, Rachel Weisz would have been interesting.

I saw No Time to Die in early release so I had no idea what was going to happen. I left thinking I missed the point. I had to read what the “science” was about and then I saw the movie again and it worked. The scenes in Italy took my breath away. It was a good finale.

[–] Ace_Spade (9343) 2 years ago

I don't remember where I heard that. Take reports of Lazenby's discomfort with portraying a womanizing brute with a grain of salt.

Dr. No's a solid choice. It's got this wonderful, low-key vibe that really gives the espionage time to simmer. I love that. Slow-boil thrillers are a lost art.

For me, personally, I really liked Tatiana in FRwL. She had a great dynamic with Bond. There was something instantly familiar about them where I actually buy into the relationship. That's hard in a Bond girl! Most are write-offs and don't have depth to the relationship (most films aren't going for that anyway). There are exceptions, of course (Tracy, Vesper) but I feel it with Tatiana. It always feels like it actually could be a legitimate romance (to me).

Rachel Weisz would have been/be awesome as a Bond girl.

I'll check out NTtD sometime, I just haven't yet.

[–] SandyR (7341) 2 years ago

That could work. But maybe cast a man as Bond in 2006, instead of Daniel Craig.

[–] AnagramYYZ (432) 2 years ago

Yes, but are you not going to place Lazenby in "For Your Eyes Only" (1981)? This seems to be the only movie of Roger Moore's tenure to explicitly reference the events in OHMSS and shares many of it's themes of loss and revenge in the plot. If I could have brought Lazenby back for even one more movie, it would have been that one! Fun topic, and good ideas all around.

[–] hyperjet (633) 2 years ago

I fully agree with the timeline except having Craig step in. If the 007 movies were created without the zaniness and bad direction, there would be no need to reboot the franchise. And I still think Craig was a bad fit. He would have been a perfect Russian henchman the same way Roger Moore would have been a great gameshow host.