Timothy Dalton talks Bond

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Timothy Dalton talks Bond

Post by Omega »

Timothy Dalton talks 'Chuck,' 'The Tourist,' and, of course, Bond
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/01/timot ... rist-bond/
Right now the Bond franchise is pretty much in the same place where you left it back in 1989, with no real prospect of another movie being made in the immediate future. Daniel Craig might turn out to be a two-time Bond, like yourself. What are your thoughts on the state of the franchise?

I’m not speaking as a spokesman for them, of course, but I have to believe that Bond, a big moneymaker for so many years, will get back on its feet. Someone will give it a platform, a foundation on which it can be made again, because it will be in everybody’s interest. It will make money, they do make money, they always make money, and of course, they provide tremendous entertainment for so many people.

It’s a horrible situation for everybody, but by the time the lawsuit that stopped the last Bond movie that I was going to make was resolved, five years had passed. [In 1989, Danjaq, the Swiss-based parent company of EON, the production company behind the Bond films, sued MGM/UA and its then parent company Qintex for licensing the television rights to the Bond film catalog without Danjaq’s approval.] I think I was starting what would have been my third Bond film in ’89 or ’90. It had been written, we were talking directors, and then the lawsuit came. It held for five years, and I certainly didn’t want to carry on after having been associated with Bond for almost 10 years at that point. It brings a big hole into that universe. It’s sad that there’s another hiatus, because I thought the first 25 minutes of Daniel’s first movie [Casino Royale] was the best 25 minutes I’ve seen in any Bond movie. I thought it was a fantastic opening.


I don’t know. The opening of your first Bond movie, The Living Daylights, is hard to beat.

How does it go? Remind me.

It’s where you are rappelling up a rock face….

Gibraltar, isn’t it? Oh, my God!

….and then you parachute down onto this boat, and there’s a woman onboard who’s on the phone with one of her friends saying, “If only I could find a real man.”

(Laughs) And that’s so funny, because they put me on the Rock of Gibraltar, on the top of a cliff, a 700-foot sheer, damned cliff, and I hate heights!

I think your films hold up so well because your Bond has a bit of a harder edge. He’s a little bit tougher than what Bond had been before. And I’m not certain if audiences in the ’80s were ready for that, especially coming after Roger Moore’s tongue-in-cheek approach. Now everybody loves that Daniel Craig is so brooding and haunted. Do you find it funny how tastes change?

I agree with you. Cubby Broccoli, who was producing the movies, said to me then that that’s what he wanted, and I agreed wholeheartedly. Roger Moore was marvelous at what he did, and his films were successful, so you can’t say a word against him. But Connery was shocking. And his movies were shocking. You had never seen women in bikinis in films in those days, and heroes did not shoot unarmed people.

But Connery did, and he was tough. The fight in the train with Robert Shaw [in From Russia With Love] was one of the great Bond sequences. Incidentally, those two sequences, the fight in the train and the shooting of the unarmed man, were reprised in the opening of Casino Royale. The fight in the toilet downstairs was vicious and mean and really tough, and of course, Daniel shoots a man who’s run out of bullets.

But Connery was very tough. And I think Moore, when he first took it over was tough, as well, but then he moved into that area that he was probably most comfortable with, having done The Saint. We wanted to take it back to that earlier toughness. But, of course, it’s got to be funny. It should be funny. Out of great danger often comes great humor. But when we made The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, everybody by then was so used to something else. I think people like to stay with what they’re comfortable. So I think Cubby and I were fairly lonely voices!


I love your films because they’re tough, and Bond has more of a vengeful spirit, but there was humor too. Quantum of Solace disappointed me because it was just so unrelentingly bleak. How did you find that balance between taking Bond seriously and, you know, not taking him too seriously?

I don’t think being serious and being comedic are separate from each other. The biggest laughs come out of the most serious situations. Think how funny Chuck is. It is based on real heart and putting an innocent hero in very dangerous situations.
He is good on chuck. He did a lot better with his roles after he left bond I can't think of one movie he has been in since then that I haven't liked him in
............ :007:
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Re: Timothy Dalton talks Bond

Post by Dr. No »

Sounds as if Dalton didn't like the other 119 minutes. :wink: Funny for him to talk about being funny, he did have few good moments in his bonds but he was too grim, but he was great in the Rocketeer and others that followed it, a good balance of humor and seriousness.
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Re: Timothy Dalton talks Bond

Post by FormerBondFan »

Dr. No wrote:Sounds as if Dalton didn't like the other 119 minutes. :wink: Funny for him to talk about being funny, he did have few good moments in his bonds but he was too grim, but he was great in the Rocketeer and others that followed it, a good balance of humor and seriousness.
Tim's role in The Rocketeer is funnier than Bond.
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katied

Re: Timothy Dalton talks Bond

Post by katied »

Hot Fuzz was on the other week.He's great in that(a bad guy if ever there was one!)
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