You're right, Miles Dyson. Dalton was first approached to play James Bond after Roger Moore left following "A View to a Kill". However, he was right in the middle of shooting "Brenda Starr", and had to turn the role down.
At the time, a magazine poll released nationally asking who should be the next James Bond had Pierce Brosnan leading by a wide margin over his other competitors. He was very familiar to audiences as Remington Steele. Eventually, Brosnan was tested, and won, the role of James Bond.
Naturally, Brosnan's popularity soared. NBC, not missing a trick, started trying to negotiate with Cubby Broccoli. They wanted to renew Remington Steele again, AND work with Broccoli to have Brosnan play James Bond. They would do whatever they needed schedule wise to make Brosnan available for filming "TLD"
Cubby Broccoli was underwhelmed, however. His reasoning was if audiences could watch Brosnan play a James Bondesque role for free on television, they wouldn't pay to see him in the film, reportedly, he told NBC Brosnan was either Remington Steele, or James Bond.
From the time he was cast to the time the deadline was to renew Remington Steele was two months. On the last possible day they had to renew "Remington Steele", NBC did. Brosnan was then out as James Bond.
But here's were it gets interesting. In the time to took for Brosnan to accept, then be forced to reject, the James Bond role, Timothy Dalton finished filming "Brenda Starr". He met with Cubby, did the screen testing, and was cast.
So to clarify, Dalton was never the 2nd choice in 1986. Brosnan was. Dalton had to say no, but they could say yes after all the time elapsed. Now you CAN say Dalton had an unfair hand dealt him right from the start. While he was approached first, we didn't have the internet available at the time, so few people knew. So public perception may have been that Dalton was the second choice, since Brosnan was technically cast for two months before having to back out and few people probably knew that Dalton was the first choice.
Cubby approached Dalton several times. The first two were in 1969 and 1971. In 69, Dalton felt he was too young for the role, and he thought it would be suicide to try and follow directly in Connery's footsteps. in '71, he still felt he was too young. They asked him again in 1981, but he didn't agree with the humorous turn the series was taking, and declined. He wasn't approached, but he was considered, for "Octopussy", but it was going against Kevin McCrory's "Never Say Never Again" remake, and they wanted Roger Moore to continue on, since audiences were familiar with him, and they felt introducing a new actor against an older Connery would be less successful than keeping Moore on.
It's amazing to consider though, that if Dalton HAD said yes in 1968, who knows how long he could have gone? In his 20s, Dalton could have played the role for 25 years before he got too old.
Still, I'm happy he at least got the chance twice.
I love to love my Lisa.
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oakcourt
11 years ago
To answer the OP's question. We here in the UK hadn't learned to show our emotions up front. Step forward and die Princess Diana. Sorry that isn't meant to be as crass as it sounds. We weren't used to seeing Bond emotional on a regular basis, only back in 1969 when his wife was murdered. Plus it could have been as other contributors have said, bad timing for the film's release. These with TD are the only two I've not seen and am currently watching Licence to Kill. He's certainly as handsome as the other Bonds, those eyes were very expressive when he discovered Della's body, and as others have commented probably closer to Fleming's original creation. I like all the Bonds though, you don't watch them for realism, just entertainment.
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Mr_Blonde3
11 years ago
Even though it would have been big shoes to fill, I think Dalton should have stepped in after Connery left. It would have been a much easier transition to Dalton's take than light-hearted Roger Moore's.
I love to love my Lisa.
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cabbageboy316
11 years ago
Connery is hardly this ultra serious, brooding Bond though. He's fairly serious in the first two but not by any means a dark character like LTK. Moore is hardly this goof that people make him out to be. The last two he's in have ludicrous moments that aren't really his doing (the Tarzan yell in Octopussy, the bizarre use of the Beach Boys in the opening of AVTAK). Sure, he does one liners but so does Connery. Some of the plots in Moore's outings are silly, but is he all that silly? I'd say his turn in FYEO is one of the more down to earth and humane looks at Bond in the entire series.
My point earlier about Brosnan/Bond isn't so much the "Who did Broccoli want and when?" It was more that circa 1986-87 the American audience wanted Brosnan more and in their minds Dalton was the 2nd choice. I think this perception hurt Dalton's box office in the USA and note that Bond's box office appeal in the States went right back up dramatically once Brosnan finally took over.
Further, I don't really think Indiana Jones had much to do with Licence to Kill's US box office. Last Crusade made all of 4.6 million in LTK's opening weekend, so it was on the way down by then (its 8th week). The problem was going against the 1-2 dynamite punch of Lethal Weapon 2 and Batman, both of which were dominating the July 1989 box office. What exactly was United Artists thinking? Why release LTK at the same time as not only the biggest film of 1989 (Batman) but also a hotter action series like Lethal Weapon? It's even odder that if they had released it more around November/December 1989 it might have had Back to the Future 2 and not much else to compete against.
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Mr_Blonde3
11 years ago
" The last two he's in have ludicrous moments that aren't really his doing (the Tarzan yell in Octopussy, the bizarre use of the Beach Boys in the opening of AVTAK). Sure, he does one liners but so does Connery. Some of the plots in Moore's outings are silly, but is he all that silly? I'd say his turn in FYEO is one of the more down to earth and humane looks at Bond in the entire series."
Overall, he was just too lighthearted. Connery would do the one liners, but it was very casual. With Moore, he had a tendency to say them, then wink at the camera, then the cameraman, then anyone within eyeline.
Don't get me wrong, I like Roger Moore. I'd put him in a tie for 3rd place with Daniel Craig as my favorite Bond (With Dalton and Connery 1 and 2)
However, Dalton's much more grounded and serious take came after, even though they weren't his doing, Roger Moore with an inserted Tarzan yell and Beach Boys knock-off music. And while tonally AVTAK is one of the darker entries in Moore's outings, it's still not serious enough to have given Dalton the fair shake he could have by following a more serious actor or other Bond film.
I mean, do you think Dalton stepping into the role after AVTAK is better than if he'd followed after Connery in YOLT, or Lazenby in OHMSS? I'm just curious. DAF could have been an interesting starting point for Dalton, and as we saw in LTK, Dalton's lightly-unhinged take on Bond would definitely have fit a more revenge-oriented script of DAF, with Dalton squaring off with the murderer of his wife.
Really, LTK is basically what DAF should have been, and it never fails to amaze me the opening sequence where M chides him for wasting so much time going after Blofeld. Jesus M, the guy killed his wife. Can you spare it? It's like they knew they had to take on the depressing situation of Bond losing his wife, and then they swept it under the rug as quickly as they could in DAF.
And honestly, unfunny or not, Dalton's take on Bond in LTK is even more lenient than how Bond actually behaved after Tracy's death in the Fleming novels. At the beginning of YOLT, Bond is practically a basketcase, a serious alcoholic and now a fvckup on a variety of missions since Tracy's death, and M's at the point of firing him until Bond's shrink intervenes and they give him one last mission that's easy to get him back into the thick of things. It just so happens that he stumbles across Blofeld while on that mission, and while he gets his victory, he ends up an amnesiac and is turned by the Russians into attempting to kill M.
I love to love my Lisa.
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