I wanna be James Bond.......NOW !!!

barryt007

Just found this good extended list of Bond wannabees,rejects,and decliners,which i think will surprise some members as i was with some of the names.

Considered
A list of actors who were considered for the role James Bond, however they were not chosen for various reasons.

Actor Year Not-Selected Reason

Ranulph Fiennes ?? For having "Hands too big and a face like a farmer"
Richard Todd 1961 Ian Fleming's first choice for the role, but scheduling conflicts prevented him from getting it.
Patrick McGoohan 1961 Reason unknown
Jeremy Brett 1967 Reason unknown
Simon MacCorkindale ?? Reason unknown
John Richardson 1967 George Lazenby won the role based on a screen-test fight scene
Hans de Vries 1967 George Lazenby won the role based on a screen-test fight scene
Robert Campbell 1967 George Lazenby won the role based on a screen-test fight scene
Anthony Rogers 1967 George Lazenby won the role based on a screen-test fight scene
Michael Gambon 1971 Felt he did not have good enough looks to play Bond
William Gaunt 1971 Auditioned for the role as Bond for Live and Let Die but lost the role to Roger Moore
Tom Jones 1971 Reason unknown
John Gavin 1971, 1973 Left the role the first time when Sean Connery returned, and was denied the second time because he was not English
David Warbeck 1979 Reason unknown
Daniel Pilon 1984 Timothy Dalton was choose for the role
Lambert Wilson 1994 Pierce Brosnan was choose for the role
Jude Law 2003 Felt he was too old at the time
Heath Ledger 2004 Reason unknown
Eric Bana 2004 Reason unknown
Colin Firth 2004 Was not interested in the role
James Purefoy 2004 Reason unknown
Jason Statham 2005 Reason unknown
Hugh Grant 2005 Reason unknown
Goran Visnjic 2005 Reason unknown
Henry Cavill 2005 Was deemed too young to portray Bond
Dominic West 2005 Heard rumours that Pierce Brosnan got the role and ruled himself out
Julian McMahon 2005 Daniel Craig was choosen for the role
Hrithik Roshan 2005 Daniel Craig was choosen for the role
Alex O'Loughlin 2005 Daniel Craig was choosen for the role
Rupert Friend 2005 Daniel Craig was choosen for the role
Christian Bale 2010 Daniel Craig is expected to return
Will Smith 2010 Daniel Craig is expected to return
Sam Worthington 2010 Daniel Craig is expected to return

Rejects
A list of actors who where considered for the role James Bond, however they were rejects for various reasons.

Actor Year Reason of Rejection

George Baker 1961 Later got to voice the character for a significant segment of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Bob Simmons 1961 Later worked as a stuntman on the Bond films
Christopher Lee 1961 Creator Ian Fleming's own choice
Daniel Pilon 1967 Harry Saltzman felt he was too young, 27 years at time

Lewis Collins 1983 Put forward for the role by many in the industry including producer Euan Lloyd
Christopher Lambert 1987 French accent prevented him from being chosen
Clive Owen 2005 Over Contract Points
Sam Worthington ?? Disagreed over the portrayal of Bond
Mel Gibson 2009 Too short and too famous for the role
Robert Pattinson 2010 Because his image of being dirty and possibly his age

Declined the role

A list of actors who more or less got the green light for a serious consideration into playing James Bond, however they denied the offer for various reasons below.

Actor Year considered Reason for denial
Steve Reeves 19?? ??
Rex Harrison 1961 Turned down in favour of Connery
David Niven 1961 Turned down in favour of Connery (later spoofed Bond in 1967's Casino Royale) (Fleming's personal choice)
Cary Grant 1961 Felt he was too old at time being 58
Richard Johnson 1961 Terence Young's choice but did not want a contract, because he was under contract to MGM
Patrick McGoohan 1961 Role too promiscuous
Rod Taylor 1961 Felt the role was beneath him
Richard Burton 1959, 1961, 1968 Felt the role was a new untested concept[42]/wanted more than the producers would pay
Burt Reynolds 1968 Felt Bond must be British
Adam West 1970 Thinks the role belongs to a proper Englishman.
Clint Eastwood 1971 Felt Bond must be British
Liam Neeson 1994 He has never been interested in starring in action movies
Colin Farrell 2004 Not satisfied with plot direction
Hugh Jackman 2005 Not satisfied with plot direction
Ewan McGregor 2005 Fear of typecasting
Gerard Butler 2009 Felt that it would ruin his career (Previously had a bit part in Tomorrow Never Dies)

Any comments good or bad on this lot ?

dragonsky

nice where you found this? and there are some interesting desicions.why they wanted colin firth?he is too old for CR. and i didnt know there was CR 67 spoof

timmer

Interesting list. I must say the "Daniel Craig is expected to return" and "Daniel Craig chosen for the role" reasons saved us from a lot of bad choices though.
Too bad about Cavill though. IMO he would have been perfect for CR. Too young? Please. The guy they picked was too old. Cavill would have been ideal for a re-booted becoming Bond and would have grown nicely into the role for, like right about now, and B23.

forgotmyusername

i really like the lists but really a Bollywood superstar seriously considered for Bond? Nah....PR stunt to awaken the Indian sub-continent market. And Colin Farrell was given the green light?????!!!!!!!!XXXXXXX******** Wasn't that just PB stirring it up? I'm going to have fun night going through the list of names to get the background gossip. Thanks barry, my weekend downtime is now sorted.

jaguar007

Quoting timmer: Too bad about Cavill though. IMO he would have been perfect for CR. Too young? Please. The guy they picked was too old.

Can you really see a 22 year old having enough experience to be a 00?????

Had they made CR truly a Bond origin story that started out with him green in the Navy, yes Cavill would have worked, but one has to have quite a bit of experience to get to 00 status. I can't see CR (as a first assignment of a 00 ) unless the actor was at least early 30s.

Agent005

Interesting list. Where did you find it?

j7wild

Mel Gibson - no disrespect intended to the OP but the information is not ENTIRELY correct, he was offered the role back in 1986 after Moore's departure from the role!

I used to write in a .REC newsgroup back then about movies and entertainment news and I remember writing about this based on information from Entertainment Tonight and various newspaper back then that were publishing constant news about who will replace Moore as James Bond.

Mel was in limbo after Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and before he was cast for the Lethal Weapon film.

He turned down the role because he said he didn't want to get stuck playing the same role which is a stupid excuse: hello Mel, Mad Max?!?

Then he played Martin Riggs for 5 movies!!

He could had played Bond, instead of Riggs, for 5 movies!!

Mel was again offered the role in 1994 for Goldeneye and by that time, he felt he was too old for it - to this day, I still wonder where the Bond Films would be now if Mel did play James Bond.

Will it now be grittier, more violent, harder, more psychotic, bloodier?!?

p.s. the OP probably got his info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actors_considered_for_the_James_Bond_character

I wouldn't put 100% faith into wiki for accuracy and truth.

barryt007

Well thats told me then,lucky i havent bothered making any threads lately.

DaltonCraig007

We dodged quite a few bullets... X_X

But honestly, Liam Neeson wasn't interested in action movie roles? How does he describe Unknown, Taken, The A-Team ?? :-))

NicNac

barryt007 said:
Well thats told me then,lucky i havent bothered making any threads lately.

No, it was only j7Wild telling you. ;-)

This is the sort of thread we need here. Informative and interesting. Please keep 'em coming @barryt007

The_Preacher711

barryt007 said:
Well thats told me then,lucky i havent bothered making any threads lately.

Don't beat yourself up over it Barry- you just quoted the available evidence.... Personally I found it very interesting and worthy of further reading...

saunders

Yes great list Barryt007 and if a few of the elements are debatable well isn't that just the core essence of what a good discussion lead post should be?

DarthDimi

I love reading some of the names in this thread. Great stuff you found there, @Barry!

timmer

jaguar007 said:
Can you really see a 22 year old having enough experience to be a 00?????

Had they made CR truly a Bond origin story that started out with him green in the Navy, yes Cavill would have worked, but one has to have quite a bit of experience to get to 00 status. I can't see CR (as a first assignment of a 00 ) unless the actor was at least early 30s.

What I would have done is contrive the CR story to fit with the 22 year old Cavill/Bond earning his double 0 stripes. What we know of Bond is that he is mature beyond his years. By 22 he would have been double O lethal and very worldly. In Dr No, the young Connery/Bond reflects on how his Beretta served him well for over 10 years, which means he'd been a gun toting danger agent for at least 10 years, before we first met him on screen at age 31 (Connery's age during filming). Personally I would cast a new Bond at age 28-32 but for an origins story we could have got away with Cavill playing a young but deadly mature Bond.
The fact that Eon even considered him so highly suggests that they were thinking along the same lines until Babs went ga ga over Craig's nude scene in Layer Cake.

DaltonCraig007

Exactly @timmer - Either Craig should never have been cast, or CR should never have been an origin story.

timmer

DaltonCraig007 said:
Exactly @timmer - Either Craig should never have been cast, or CR should never have been an origin story.

Hear hear, but what's done is done. Cavill is Superman and not Bond. Too bad for him. Craig can continue as long he likes as far as I'm concerned. I don't like changing up the actor any more than necessary, unless their names are maybe Brozzer or Dalts.

Samuel001

DaltonCraig007 said:
Exactly @timmer - Either Craig should never have been cast, or CR should never have been an origin story.

And in my mind it's obvious which one it should've been.

MajorDSmythe

barryt007 said:
Just found this good extended list of Bond wannabees,rejects,and decliners,which i think will surprise some members as i was with some of the names.

Considered

David Warbeck 1979 Reason unknown

I think I posted this on KTBEU, but I didn't save that post, so i've typed it up again...

From: David Warbeck- The Man & His Movies (Page 24)

Warbeck: But it's ironic that I was actually contracted to be the new Bond and my director was going to be Johnny Hough, because I had chats with Brocolli and said no, I didn't want to work with John Glen, because I have this problem with directors. John Glen and Martin Campbell, well the younger Martin Campbell were sort of similar in that they just didn't share my sense of humour and my sense of humour is based on experience and it's based on visual gags. For example, when I did the Bond bits with John Glen, there was a sequence where somebody sticks a gun in my back while i'm on the telephone and I thought it would be a great visual gag if when he says “put your hands up” you've still got the telephone in your hand with the cord attached. And so you whack him with the telephone and then you try to strangle him with the cord while the person on the other end is still talking! (laughs) You see what I mean? It would have been a good visual as well as well as plot gag, but John Glen wouldn't see that, and that's when I thought “uh oh!” he's not taking my opinions or suggestions which most of my wonderful directors that I adore, like Antonio Margheriti, Lucio Fulci, Fabrizio de Angelis and dear Russ Meyer, were very good at, as was Herman Cohen, because I always look at my film making as a skeleton thing and you come along with your mad ideas and throw them in the pot and stir them up as hard as you can and go for it!

**The mention of Campbell was because Campbell directed Warbeck in the 1973 sex comedy, The Sex Theif.**

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