Mel Gibson 'too short' for Bond

[007]

http://sify.com/movies/fullstory.php?id=14919028

Mel Gibson missed Bond role because he was ‘too short’

Mel Gibson wanted to play the coveted role of James Bond but was turned down by legendary 007 producer Cubby Broccoli, scriptwriter Tom Mankiewicz has revealed.

Speaking at a Bond convention in Los Angeles, Mankiewicz, who scripted Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun, said Gibson’s 5ft 9in frame took him out of the race for the spy’s role.

“At one point Mel Gibson wanted to play Bond,” the Daily Express quoted Mankiewicz, as saying.

He added: “And Cubby was against it. Cubby first of all had a thing about tall people. Bond had to be tall. And so Mel Gibson was too short. But he was a big star. Somebody at United Artists said to me, ‘Call him and tell him Mel Gibson would be great.’ And Cubby said, ‘I don’t want to make a Mel Gibson movie, I want to make a James Bond movie.’”

[Mazer Rackham]

What! 5'9" is too short. What is the worst that could possibly happen? Shoe-lifts?

What a difference a few decades can make, daddy dearest is dead and the sulky middle age teenage can stop making Bond movies and make Craig movies, who alone would have Daddy spinning in his grave.

Cubby made a good call I really do not see Gibson as good Bond material.

[carl stromberg]

And Cubby said, ‘I don’t want to make a Mel Gibson movie, I want to make a James Bond movie.’”

I think Cubby may have had a point. Craig is 5 feet 10, probably less, so it seems he would not have passed one of Cubby's key tests for a Bond actor. Can you imagine Cubby Broccoli hiring a Bond who needs to wear shoe lifts?

[katied]

It's hard to picture crazy drunk anti-Semitic Mel as James Bond. True, he's not Sly Stallone short,but he wasn't tall enough to play Bond. Cubby was spot on on that one.