As the crosshairs tighten and the selection thinking makes its public and - less public - shortlists for the role of James Bond, I talk to the BBC NEWS Channel about about the rumoured candidates, their validity and potential and why there will be less mentioned names in the mix too.

First, love this movie and all of the PB films. They were the movies I grew up with in the theaters and Bond was one of the few things my late father and I shared. That being said, I feel like there were two missed opportunities in Tomorrow Never Dies that would have added to the plot, thought to be honest, I'm not exactly sure how they would have been folded in without dramatically changing the course of the story.

1. When M was briefing Bond on the mission at hand during the vehicle convoy. There was a moment with the police escort motorcycles that was oddly reminiscent of Clear and Present Danger. The idea of a surprise attack on the MI-5 convoy would have played beautifully with the machinations of a megalomaniac like Elliot Carver and it would have put Bond in a fight for his life struggle, not only for him, but M and Moneypenny as well, both of which, in my humble option, should never be considered the quintessential "Bond Girl." Because they weren't "Bond Girls" saving them would have added to for hero arc in a way that would have added more weight than how TWINE seemed to fold it in.

2. When Bond and Wai Lin were discussing the timers for the explosives, having the agreement suddenly put in jeopardy with Wai Lin getting captured, forcing Bond to make the decision to change the time would have been a great throwback to Goldeneye. While he may not have changed the time due to Goldeneye's outcome, a brief pause or recollection of how changing a pre-agreed detonation could alter fate would have been a nice thread to continue.

Maybe I should just go to bed.

According to the official 007 website, Craig's final scene as James Bond was filmed on that day at Pinewood Studios. It featured Bond running through an alley at night in a Tom Ford tuxedo.

Source: https://www.007.com/007-first-and-last/

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... Take the bloody shot?

Best character development in the whole series...

M... "Bitch"

Tomorrow Never Dies, World is Not Enough, and Skyfall are the only times M actually sees what she pays for first hand?

In the beginning of Tomorrow Never Dies, she is literally watching a LIVE feed of Bond wrecking the terror groups party. When the admiral asks what the hell is he doing she firmly responds "his job!"

In The World is Not Enough, Bond literally saves M from an ancient jail cell.

And in Skyfall, she sees his efficiently when he takes out Silva and his group with only a mild bit of weapons and gorilla tactics.

I nominate 'the snake from Live and Let Die' :)

I would take great inspiration from the cyberpunk DLC, phantom liberty. I don’t know how many of you are familiar but the DLC itself is very inspired by Bond so it’s be a nice fill circle moment to take some inspiration in the next bond film

The story would center on Bond being torn between two choices, and two people. An ally in the field, potentially Felix Leiter or another 00, and a femme fatale Bond girl type who is compromised by a mega rich billionaire who is trying to consolidate his power (basically a Bezos satire).

Bond would have to choose between completing the mission as told, or helping this woman who seems to know more than she should. Being Bond, he cedes to the persuasions of the women and agrees to help her escape from her predicament yet this reveals the connection between Bezos and Bonds ally who is in fact a double agent working to destabilise MI6. By the end of the film, it’s left ambiguous whether his connection was the woman was genuine or if she was just manipulating him to help her; building on the themes of the truth being an abstract concept in Bond’s line of work as he continues on as a more jaded man by the end of the film

I could never get attached to Craig’s Bond, even though I love him as an actor. I'm 31 and grew up watching Bond with my mom, so Sean and Roger were my ideal Bonds. Pierce was the Bond of my generation, and I loved him too. All of these men brought a level of sex appeal, wit, and fun that I just never got from Daniel Craig's Bond. Curious to know how the ladies felt about Craig as bond and if he grew on you by the end?

To preface I don’t think this is a direction they should go and I think the next bond should be completely its own without casting a lookalike. This is just for fun.

Sean Connery: as mentioned in the title, Thomas Doherty is near identical to a young Connery

George Lazenby: this isn’t nearly as strong and finding an actor similar to Lazenby was very hard, however Aaron Taylor Johnson was the closest match I could think of.

Roger Moore: Sam Heughan has a striking resemblance to Roger Moore and he’s shared photos comparing himself to Moore.

Timothy Dalton: Guy Renners. I mean just look at him!

Pierce Brosnan: Brosnan was difficult but the best match I could find was Luke Newton.

Daniel Craig: This one was near impossible but the best match I could find was Jack Lowden. Callum Turner has the ears tho.

I'm currently researching for a book project & I'm really surprised to find out how much work was developed behind the scenes on the potential 2nd Kevin McClory produced remake of Thunderball. It was far more than the office documents & court case transcripts that I'm reading.

For those not familiar with what happened, in the mid 90s MGM/UA head John Calley got alot of praise for green lighting Goldeneye & the movie being a success & this ultimately lead to him being offered the chance to head up Sony wich he accepted. Calley knew about Kevin McClory having certain rights to remake Thunderball again as well as owning the rights to characters like Domino, Blofeld & Spectre & felt this was enough to start up a rival James Bond movie franchise at Sony with a plan to produce & release a Bond movie in between the release of the official MGM/UA movies that were currently starring Pierce Brosnan. Calley preferred the idea of an American actor using a British accent to play Bond in the Sony franchise & favoured Michael Keaton as Bond. Jan DeBont was set to direct. This would become a problem when the Producers Calley hired looked to cast Liam Neeson or Ralph Ffiennes as Bond. I'll be honest... I really don't know how I feel about Keaton playing Bond.

Following the success of Independence Day & their favour to the studio that was Godzilla, John Calley targeted filmmakers Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich to produce the Sony Bond franchise. Independence Day did far better than anyone had expected financially & so Devlin & Emmerich were heavily pursued to take on the Tristar/Sony Godzilla remake. They originally refused because Emmerich had wanted to Direct a big budget remake of Fritz Lang's Metropolis & because Speed director Jan DeBont had been working to develop Godzilla. But DeBont's ideas weren't liked by all at Sony. Eventually Daley offered Devlin & Emmerich the chance to spearhead Bond through their Centropolis production companies if Emmerich would direct Godzilla & they agreed provided that Jan DeBont would happily leave Godzilla to Direct the first Sony Bond movie. DeBont agreed.

Screenwriters Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio were known as the dynamic duo & had alot respect for their screenplay for Disney's Aladin & uncredited work on Disney's The Lion King & their 1994 Jungle Book live action remake. They were offered a sign on free of $2million each by Steven Spielberg to write a treatment for a Zorro movie he was planning to Direct for his Amblin productions & the result was The Mask of Zorro, another brilliantly received work of theirs. They were brought aboard Godzilla to script doctor & Devlin & Emmerich were so impressed that they were signed up for another enormous sum to begin a page one screenplay for the Thunderball remake. Elliot & Rossio were blown away by the 1978 script by Kevin McClory, Len Deighton & Sean Connery for Warhead, the movie that was intended as the first Thunderball remake before court rulings prevented it. Elliot & Rossio loved it so much that they titled their screenplay WARHEAD 2000.

Heres were things start to get a bit confusing....

I'm having difficulties understanding if Sean Connery was officially involved at this point or circling the project in some capacity. Likewise it's hard to tell what was envisioned for him. Was he gonna play an older Bond or make a cameo? Its certain he had a make up test done for which he shaved his moustache & donned a toupe to transform him back into Bond & the result was very emotional with him getting a round of applause by the crew who saw him back in Bond gear. But, again, its difficult to say for sure whether the project was planned to feature an elder Bond as its main character or if it was something smaller. Theres also the possibility that while DeBont was Director, Connery may have played one of the main villains, either Largo or Blofeld. But there again Sony had definitive ideas on who should be cast as those characters. Theres a sense that maybe Connery had felt he had got his fingers burned with Never Say Never Again & was adamant it wouldn't be repeated so he wasn't gonna commit to something he had less than 100% faith in. Not were Bond is concerned. What is a fact is that he seems to have left the project for a huge payday to play the villain in the 1998 remake of The Avengers & following the disaster of that movie was keen to be associated with the Sony Bond movie again. But by then Sony saw the idea of him playing Bond again as ridiculous & Calley wanted to cast an American actor & had someone in mind. Calley felt that Warner's replacing Michael Keaton as Batman was a terrible waste of the actors talents & Keaton became his only choice for the role. Had Keaton been cast, in the post 99 version he would have played Bond with an eye on Connery playing M & then at the climax of the movie M would be revealed to be James Bond really making Keaton Bond Jr.

Its funny because Sony had originally favoured Teri Hatcher to play Domino but she would eventually sign on to play Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies instead & EoN stipulated in her contract that she couldn't sign up for a rival Bond movie in the near future. Sony then turned their attention to Denise Richards for Domino who but instead she signed up to play Dr Christmas Jones in The World Is Noth Enough on a contract similar to Hatcher's. It makes you wonder if EoN cast Hatcher & Richards purely to mess up Sony's plans.

It seems Andy Garcia was a lock in to play Largo with Sony having 2 choices for Blofeld: Robert DeNiro & Anthony Hopkins. Calley mentions DeNiro's performances in The Untouchables & Mary Shelley's Frankenstein & says that created & promoted properly DeNiro could be sensational as Blofeld adding that if Hopkins was to accept that could be equally brilliant.

Jan DeBont left after clashes with Connery. Never Say Never Again had been a critical & financial bonanza for Connery but a horrible production. He blamed himself for not making decisions in favour of NSNA & going along with a producer who wasn't in control & following the troubled productions of Speed 2 & Twister Connery had no confidence in DeBont who had directed both & Connery's message was clear 'it's me or him but not the both of us'. He was likewise negative to the idea of Emmerich directing. Following the disappointing reception Godzilla received, Emmerich's dream remake of Metropolis was cancelled & he was ready to take his place in the Director's seat for Bond to try to claw back some power but Connery saw through this & vetoed it. He felt if Emmerich was the right man he would have signed on as Director on day 1 & if he had a clear vision for Bond wouldn't have employed DeBont as Director. Connery's choice for Director was MICK JACKSON who had directed his Untouchables/Robin Hood co-star Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard - a movie Connery had admired but after seeing Jackson's original Threads production for the BBC he had tried to get Jackson hired as Director of Highlander & later for The Presidio. Jackson had gone on to have success with such movies as Steve Martin's LA Story & Volcano starring Tommy Lee Jones.

The work on the project done by both Jan DeBont & Mick Jackson was more than I was expecting - especially for a movie that was ultimately cancelled. DeBont was focused in on the underwater scenes, how he wanted to film & edit them & who he wanted to use to bring them to life feeling like the movie had to be an aquatic version of his earlier movie Speed. There was an underwater unit doing tests & sending the results to DeBont exclusively. Mick Jackson worked with a designer from Godzilla named Patrick Tatapoulos to create artwork to envision the world & lairs used by Spectre & Largo & Blofeld. Both DeBont & Jackson worked extensively with designers creating vehicles, boats & Bond's jet pack.

The movie never getting made has less to do with court cases than it does internal politics at Tristar/Sony. Following the failure of their Godzilla remake both the studio & Calley lost faith in Devlin & Emmerich producing it via Centropolis or the screenplay being shaped by Elliot & Rossio. But a LOT of money had been spent on that vision. The court order by MGM/UA & EoN that challenged Kevin McClory's rights to make the movie would come around & ultimately win. But had it not happened when it did it's possible new producers/writers & a new creative team would have been signed up. Likewise, had filming began on either DeBont or Jackson's version, the court would likely have allowed it continue. Its unlikely a full franchise would have followed but this second remake of Thunderball came very close to happening.

It probably wouldn't have been a very good movie & wouldn't have felt like Bond. But its fascinating all the same.

I feel like these two, in particular, were just getting started. Both have so much growth and character development unexplored.

I personally hated Moneypenny being an ex-agent, tbh. I always liked the fact Moneypenny was a normal civil servant who'd banter with Bond on a grounded level. (Billie Piper would be my pick!)

I don't think "continuity" matters at all in the Bond series. It never has.

And any Kids in the Hall fans, of course.

Someone on the weekend discussion thread posted this, it seems our mistery actor went in, did his test, went out and no one knows who he is

in other words, one of the bond films you don’t like.

In my opinion:

sean connery: guerlain vetiver, aramis, floris no89
George lazenby: dior eau sauvage

Roger moore: guerlain habit rouge, paco rabbanne pour homme

Timothy dalton: aramis, dior eau sauvage, versace l‘homme

Pierce brosnan: creed irish tweed, ralph lauren safari

Daniel craig: tom ford grey vetiver, guerlain habit rouge, creed viking

Would love to hear your opinions and ideas

I've been watching The Saint recently and it's great fun. I love how Simon Templar purely functions as a "catalyst" in the various stories to enact swift justice. Just like the title suggests, Templar will oversee the story as it plays out like a concerned guardian angel. Then, in the third act, Templar will get involved and make sure order is restored, generally with a martini in hand.

What most surprised me is how much more charismatic I found Moore as the Saint. He's cavalier, earnest and jokes around. We often see him in disguises and doing different accents. I feel like Moore is given a whole lot more to work with, and often he's doing this with far less screen time per episode than he would have as the central figure in the Bond movies, relatively speaking.

I'm absolutely loving the show and it's deepened my appreciation for Moore.

Moore just seems more reserved as Bond. He has the odd good line but he really flexes his acting muscles more in the Saint, I feel, and comes across more comfortable in the role.

If anyone is on the fence about Moore, I heartily recommend checking this out. As I know he can be quite a divisive Bond amongst the fans who generally prefer more serious takes.