Michael Praed

Discussion Of Possible Bond Actors
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Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry
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Michael Praed

Post by Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry »

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alt007 says Michael Praed was in the running to succeed Sir Roger:
When Roger Moore finally stood down from the part after A View To A Kill, Praed's agent was contacted by the Bond people and asked if he wanted to do a test. They explained that they were going to make radical changes to the series and wanted the 007 actor to be much younger than usual. Praed claims he did a very extensive screentest (with Fiona Fullerton) and that it was essentially him and one other chap competing against one another. This would surely have been Mark Greenstreet.

Praed said that the response he got from the test on the day was very positive and that about a month later he was told he had the part. There was something too about being taken out shopping by Barbara Broccoli to buy some Bondian suits and clothes.
http://www.alternative007.co.uk/234.htm
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by Daltonite Toothpaste »

This is news to me, and would back up the stoy that TLD/Bond 16 was originally to be an origin story, which was later vetoed by Broccoli. But if Praed and Greenstreet were the 2 contenders, then from where did Dalton, Brosnan and Sam Neil come from?
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by Blowfeld »

I don't believe I heard this story before.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry »

Cubby Broccoli always had 10 actors lined up to play Bond for every movie.

Finlay Light thought he was signed too.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 76,3629571

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I bet Barbara does not have any other actors in mind. If Craig left she would have a nervous breakdown.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by Blowfeld »

Since bloody Dougray Scott came out whinging Pierce coming back stole Bond from him I've had a theory EON signs a hell of lot of potentials. The more names that come out as time passes the more I'm sure of it.

Before Skyfall our favourite for the role was reported talking with EON. Maybe he is signed to as a back up too.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by Kristatos »

Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry wrote:
I bet Barbara does not have any other actors in mind.
She has said so herself. She laughed off rumours that other actors had been considered for CR.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by Daltonite Toothpaste »

Blowfeld wrote:Before Skyfall our favourite for the role was reported talking with EON. Maybe he is signed to as a back up too.
I do hope they see sense and cast Cooper.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by James »

Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:This is news to me, and would back up the stoy that TLD/Bond 16 was originally to be an origin story, which was later vetoed by Broccoli. But if Praed and Greenstreet were the 2 contenders, then from where did Dalton, Brosnan and Sam Neil come from?
I think the gist is that, as you say, they started off testing young actors for a vague Bond Begins type film and then Cubby vetoed the whole thing and insisted on business as usual so they began testing with a wider net.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by carl stromberg »

This is what Mark Greenstreet looked like.

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http://liambluett.com/tag/mark-greenstreet/

The actor Mark Greenstreet screen-tested for the role of James Bond in The Living Daylights in 1986 when Roger Moore retired from the part after completing A View to a Kill (1985). He came very close to winning the role, but it ultimately went to Timothy Dalton. In 2006, while carrying out research about the actors who almost became James Bond, I spoke to Mark about his brush with the world of 007.

Mark Greenstreet rose to prominence in the BBC TV series Bret Farrar. This English country-estate-set crime drama, broadcast in 1986, starred Mark in the title role of a man persuaded to pretend to be a long-lost son to help claim a family fortune, but is then implicated in the murder of the man he impersonates. The drama was a hit in the US, and Mark soon drew the attention of producer Cubby Broccoli. Some may have considered Mark, then 25 years old, to be a little young for Bond, but Mark saw the influence of the teen-orientated ‘Brat Pack’ films and its large fan-base in Broccoli’s interest.

After watching all the Bond films to prepare himself, Mark was interviewed at EON’s Mayfair office by Barbara Broccoli, Michael G Wilson, and associate producer Tom Pevsner. Then it was off to the costumier to be fitted with the regulation dinner suit, and to be supplied with the spy’s essential accessory – a gun holster.

The screen test took place at Pinewood in front of Cubby Broccoli, director John Glen, and the main film crew. For tests, Glen always recreated scenes from Dr No and From Russia With Love. As Bond, Mark shot the duplicitous Professor Dent and seduced Tatiana Romanova (played by Fiona Fullerton) in a steamy bedroom scene. He also had to do some fighting and order breakfast. If only for a day, Mark was James Bond. Time enough, though, for a surreal meeting in the toilets with Michael Biehn, who was at Pinewood filming Aliens and also in character.

The test went well, and Mark had a lovely time, but there his involvement with Bond ended. A case, perhaps of so close, so Farrar. But if he had won the part, what would Mark Greenstreet’s Bond have been like? Mark thought that the later films were missing a hard edge. ‘When Connery slapped a woman, you felt like she wanted it’, he told me. Chances are, then, that Mark’s portrayal would have been closer to Sean Connery than Roger Moore. The actor who did become Bond, Timothy Dalton, took a similar approach, and his performance in The Living Daylights (1987) was lauded. It seems that after the Moore years, a relatively serious portrayal was inevitable as a trend to return to the roots of Fleming’s James Bond began to hold sway.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by FormerBondFan »

Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:
Blowfeld wrote:Before Skyfall our favourite for the role was reported talking with EON. Maybe he is signed to as a back up too.
I do hope they see sense and cast Cooper.
With Babs ruling the franchise for many years to come, you can forget that.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by James »

carl stromberg wrote:This is what Mark Greenstreet looked like.

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They'll never cast a blond Bond.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by Daltonite Toothpaste »

FormerBondFan wrote:
Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:
Blowfeld wrote:Before Skyfall our favourite for the role was reported talking with EON. Maybe he is signed to as a back up too.
I do hope they see sense and cast Cooper.
With Babs ruling the franchise for many years to come, you can forget that.
Deep down I know you're are right. But the thought of the next casting being in the current mould, is soul crushing. I need some hope, and the possibility, however slim, that Cooper could be the next Bond will do. Failing that, I will have to keep re-watching Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by FormerBondFan »

Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:
FormerBondFan wrote:
Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:
Blowfeld wrote:Before Skyfall our favourite for the role was reported talking with EON. Maybe he is signed to as a back up too.
I do hope they see sense and cast Cooper.
With Babs ruling the franchise for many years to come, you can forget that.
Deep down I know you're are right. But the thought of the next casting being in the current mould, is soul crushing. I need some hope, and the possibility, however slim, that Cooper could be the next Bond will do. Failing that, I will have to keep re-watching Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond.
Who needs James Bond when you have Kingsman: The Secret Service?

[video][/video]
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by James »

FormerBondFan wrote:
Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:
FormerBondFan wrote:
Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:
Blowfeld wrote:Before Skyfall our favourite for the role was reported talking with EON. Maybe he is signed to as a back up too.
I do hope they see sense and cast Cooper.
With Babs ruling the franchise for many years to come, you can forget that.
Deep down I know you're are right. But the thought of the next casting being in the current mould, is soul crushing. I need some hope, and the possibility, however slim, that Cooper could be the next Bond will do. Failing that, I will have to keep re-watching Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond.
Who needs James Bond when you have Kingsman: The Secret Service?

[video][/video]
Matthew Vaughn would be much more fun than Sam Mendes for Bond. Only when Craig leaves though.
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Re: Michael Praed

Post by ml94 »

Why he didnt made screentest in 94, he was 34 at the time...?
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