Pierce Brosnan says ‘keep Bond British’ – even though he was Irish – Daily Star

Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan has said it is a “given” that Daniel Craig’s successor should be British.

It comes following concerns that the franchise will not be British anymore in the wake of Amazon MGM Studios taking creative control over the 007 character. In February, the US film and television production and distribution studio announced it will be co-owners with Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who have produced the Bond films together since Brosnan’s first movie – 1995’s GoldenEye.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Irishman Brosnan said: “I thought it was coming for some time I guess, but I think it was the right decision for Barbara and Michael. It takes great courage for them to let go, they will still have a say in matters, I hope that (Amazon) handles the work and the character with dignity and imagination and respect.”

Irish actor Brosnan, 71, who played Bond in four films, added that “no one really knows” what will happen to 007 in Amazon’s control.

“In this world that is moving so fast now, at the speed of light, (the change) does come with a certain lament,” he said.

There has been increasing speculation about the future of the series, with no announcement of a new actor to play the famous spy since Daniel Craig’s final portrayal in 2021’s No Time To Die.

“History has been passed on and I’m very proud to have been part of the history and the legacy of Bond and the movies that I made with Barbara and Michael”, Brosnan added.

“That we moved the needle, that we brought it back to life. It had been dormant (for) six years and GoldenEye was such a success that it continued and went from strength to strength … I wish them well.”

Brosnan was introduced as Bond in GoldenEye, at the inception of Broccoli and Wilson’s creative takeover, and his last film was 2002’s Die Another Day.

Since the first 007 movie, Dr No in 1962, the official Bond film franchise has been controlled by members of the American-British Broccoli family, either single-handedly or in partnership with others.

Broccoli and her half-brother Wilson have produced the last nine Bond films, including Casino Royale, Quantum Of Solace, Spectre and No Time To Die, and have been honoured with CBEs and won the outstanding British film Bafta for 2012’s Skyfall along with director Sir Sam Mendes.

In 2022, Amazon acquired MGM, including the rights to distribute James Bond films, and will now have control of the intellectual property rights.

In 2023, they brought out the spin-off Bond Prime Video game show 007: Road To A Million, fronted by Succession actor Brian Cox – which is set to return for a second series.

There have been reports in the Wall Street Journal previously about disagreements between Broccoli and Amazon MGM Studios over creative control, with her reportedly saying “don’t have temporary people make permanent decisions”.

There have also been claims by the newspaper that Amazon MGM Studios wants to expand Bond into TV and other ventures.

Robert Pattinson sci-fi ‘Mickey 17’ opens in first place, but profitability is a long way off

Entertainment | Robert Pattinson sci-fi ‘Mickey 17’ opens in first place, but profitability is a long way off

“Parasite” filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s original science fiction film “Mickey 17” opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone “Captain America: Brave New World” after a three-week reign.

Overseas, “Mickey 17” has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.

A week following the Oscars, where “Anora” filmmaker Sean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – “Mickey 17” is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It’s an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.

Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Parasite” faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel “Mickey7” by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo also star.

It opened in 3,807 locations domestically where it performed best in New York and Los Angeles. Premium large format showings, including IMAX screens, also accounted for nearly half of its opening weekend. Internationally, it did especially well in Korea, where it made an estimated $14.6 million.

Second place went to “Captain America: Brave New World,” which added $8.5 million from 3,480 locations in North America and $9.2 million internationally. Its global total currently rests at $370.8 million. The Walt Disney Studios is on track to become the first studio to cross $1 billion in 2025 sometime this week.

Holdovers “Last Breath,” “The Monkey” and “Paddington in Peru” rounded out the top five. The weekend also had several other newcomers in “In the Lost Lands,” a fantasy film from Paul W.S. Anderson starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista, and Angel Studios’ “Rule Breakers,” about Afghani girls on a robotics team.

Neon upped the theater count for “Anora” to nearly 2,000 screens after it won five Oscars on Sunday, including best picture, best director and best actress. It earned an estimated $1.9 million (up 595% from last weekend), bringing its total grosses to $18.4 million.

According to data from Comscore, the 2025 box office as a whole is up 1% from where it was last year as of this weekend and down 34.2% from the last pre-pandemic box office year of 2019.

“That is the rollercoaster that is the box office,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “You have two or three down weeks, it can profoundly impact the bottom line and the percentage advantage. But it will come back again.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

Death of a Unicorn review – goofy eat-the-rich satire isn’t fun enough

SXSW film festival: Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd and Richard E Grant lead a wasted cast in this silly and exasperating mishmash of comedy and gore

The unicorn has been a staple of folk mythology for thousands of years, dating back to at least ancient Persia, with consistent characteristics: a horse-like figure with a single majestic horn, fundamentally elusive and untamable, possessing magical healing properties. But such a creature, recognizable from medieval art to My Little Pony, is one of the less familiar elements of Death of a Unicorn, the debut feature from writer-director Alex Scharfman that premiered at the SXSW film festival on Saturday. The film, produced by clout powerhouse A24, traffics in well-trod territory: the prestige eat-the-rich satire with a stacked cast and a beautiful backdrop. So well-trod, in fact, that it’s a relief when the mythical beasts do arrive – if only to reveal dubious CGI and a questionable commitment to the bit.

Silly as it may sound, Scharfman treats this unicorn bit with sincere seriousness, aiming for relevance on the rapacious state of late-stage capitalism satirized in such recent hits as The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, Knives Out: Glass Onion, Parasite and Succession, among others. I know this road, you know this road, even disaffected college student Ridley (Jenna Ortega) knows this road as she and her credulous father Elliot (Paul Rudd), a corporate lawyer, drive into the Canadian Rockies for a retreat with Elliot’s billionaire boss and his family. “Philanthropy is just reputation laundering for the oligarchy,” she retorts when her father tries to extol the largesse of the Leopolds, a clan of pharmaceutical executives loosely based on America’s Sackler family.

There is nothing about the Leopold family – terminally ill patriarch Odell (Richard E Grant, bringing a dash of British colonialism to this tale of American capitalism), wife Belinda (Téa Leoni) and feckless son Shep (Will Poulter) – that could surprise or perversely amuse anyone familiar with this genre. Just jobs for the actors to so, boxes of craven behavior and delusions of infallibility to check, mellifluous single notes of callous narcissism to hit. Which all the performers do well, Poulter especially, though that does not leaven a pervading sense of boredom.

What is surprising, at least initially, is to see how Scharfman devises the promise of the title, which arrives abruptly in the first few minutes: Elliot, distracted by a tiff with Ridley, accidentally hits a unicorn, rendering it immobile but still alive, and the duo spattered in purple blood. Ridley, a lonely daughter without a mother, forms an instant bond with the creature rendered as a freewheeling acid trip through the cosmos with a touch of its horn. Elliot, a widower hellbent on making some cash to support his daughter, beats the unicorn to death with a tire iron, the first of many tough instances for the squeamish among us.

Back at the estate – which is indeed beautiful and managed by put-upon head of staff Griff (Barry’s Anthony Carrigan) – the oligarchs strain to not say what the creature really is, nor squander its potential when it becomes clear that unicorn blood can cure everything from teenage acne to cancer. It’s a mode of writing that grows tiresome quickly. Ortega, the nominal star of the film though remarkably underused, provides the film’s sole grounding point, as Ridley intuits something darker afoot and begins to research unicorn folklore, correctly interpreting the famous medieval unicorn tapestries at the Met’s Cloisters as evidence that such hubris will only invite destruction. (If nothing else, this film will activate some latent art history nerds.)

Indeed, these unicorns are not rainbows and butterflies but the all-powerful monsters of yore, capable of jump scares and very bloody impalements, among other gory violence. Scharfman has a solid handling on the trappings of the mega-wealthy, though his interstitials of deluxe service feel derivative of The Menu; less so the mechanics of a creature feature in which the unicorns range from indestructible to wary of doors. Not that the internal logic would matter, if the stakes felt compelling (you know how this will go for the rich, who are of course very bad), or if the monster madness felt inventive (it doesn’t, although the specter of a sharp-toothed horse is a strangely intriguing conceit). Death of a Unicorn clocks in at under two hours, but feels longer, its inherent silliness not matched with the necessary self-awareness, chemistry or fun.

What does work, however, is a last-minute play to connect Ridley’s ineffable connection to the slain unicorn with the magical realism of grief, the way we see things, realms, creatures and spirits that may or may not be there in the aftermath of loss. There’s something weird and moving and different in that interpretation, if only for a brief few minutes, that brings a small point to the tedious lunacy of the ultra-rich that comes before. But by large, this beastly feature is exactly what you would expect it to be: fashioning itself different but in fact much like the others. A unicorn, this is not.

Pierce Brosnan “Laments” Amazon’s James Bond Takeover: “Everything Changes, Everything Falls Apart”

Major New James Bond Candidate Is A Better Choice For Bond 26 Than Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Henry Cavill, Or Idris Elba

After Amazon took control of the James Bond movies, Pierce Brosnan is expressing his concerns about the franchise’s future. Brosnan was the fifth actor to play 007, having starred in GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999), and Die Another Day (2002). His tenure came six years after Timothy Dalton’s time as Bond ended with 1989’s Licence to Kill. It is currently the largest gap between Bond movies, though the current delay is likely to surpass it. Amazon’s takeover of the Bond franchise means that there is still no word about a new actor’s casting.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the former Bond star expressed his sorrow about the takeover. While he knew that it was coming, he is concerned about the end of the Barbara Brocolli and Michael G. Wilson era. He expressed that they will have influence over Amazon, but he still “laments” the decision, as he is worried about how the media giant will handle the franchise and its leading character. Check out his quote below:

In this world that is moving so fast now, at the speed of light, [the takeover] does come with a certain lament. I thought it was coming for some time I guess, but I think it was the right decision for Barbara and Michael. It takes great courage for them to let go. They will still have a say in matters. I hope that [Amazon] handles the work and the character with dignity and imagination and respect. No one really knows [what will happen]. History has been passed on, and I’m very proud to have been part of the history and the legacy of Bond and the movies that I made with Barbara and Michael. That we moved the needle, that we brought it back to life. It had been dormant [for] six years and GoldenEye was such a success that it continued and went from strength to strength…You know, everything changes, everything falls apart, and I wish them well.

What Brosnan’s Concerns Mean For Amazon And Bond Other Bond Stars Are Also Speaking Out Close

Brosnan’s voice joins a chorus of other Bond actors who are speaking out after Amazon’s purchase. Timothy Dalton commented that “They’ll be doing their best to make a lot of money” while also sharing his hope that they will “make good movies”. Daniel Craig expressed his respect for Wilson and the Broccolis without commenting on Amazon itself. Each of their statements have been fairly muted, as none of the actors shared too many concerns outright. Even Brosnan’s comments are largely positive, even if he did express his “lament”.

Seven actors have played Bond so far, which includes Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig.

The concerns about Amazon’s takeover largely relate to the company potentially losing the core of Bond’s character. Brosnan is particularly concerned about an American playing the next James Bond, but there is also a potential that Amazon will attempt to create a Bond universe. The company reportedly planned several 007 TV shows during the Broccoli and Wilson era, but they were quickly rebuffed. Without anything to hold the new producers back, they could very well oversaturate the market with content.

Related James Bond TV Shows Suggested By Amazon & Shot Down Before Creative Takeover Reportedly Revealed

Amazon recently took over creative control of the James Bond franchise, but before they did so, they had reportedly suggested multiple 007 TV series.

Posts 3 Our Take On Pierce Brosnan’s Amazon Comments He Shares The Public’s Concerns

Brosnan’s concerns about Amazon are entirely legitimate, but so are his more optimistic comments. In Hollywood, everything does change and that change is not necessarily negative. The Bond movies were extraordinary under Wilson and the Broccolis, and that does not mean that they cannot be similarly excellent in the coming era. The franchise has survived a change in creative control twice before. There could very well be another brilliant era ahead. Amazon may make mistakes, but future James Bond movies still have potential.

Source: The Telegraph

James Bond

Created by Ian Fleming, Albert R. Broccoli First Film Dr. No Latest Film No Time to Die Upcoming Films James Bond 26 Summary

The James Bond franchise centers on the fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond, also known by his code number 007. Created by writer Ian Fleming in 1953, Bond has been featured in novels, films, television, radio, comics, and video games. The film series, produced by Eon Productions, is one of the longest-running and highest-grossing franchises in history, known for its blend of espionage, action, and sophisticated style.

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The Accountant 2 review – Ben Affleck’s autistic assassin returns for solid sequel

SXSW film festival: There’s more ludicrous plotting and macho action in Amazon’s decent enough fan service follow-up

Ben Affleck may have given up Batman, but he’s not done with superheroes. In the 2016 film The Accountant, Affleck played Christian Wolff, one of many aliases for an autistic mathematical savant who worked as a forensic accountant and money launderer for every stripe of black money organization. A plethora of confusing and/or outright sad flashbacks served as his superhero origin story: a cold military PsyOps father trained Chris, bullied for his difference and struggling with tantrums, and his neurotypical brother to become lethal fighting machines. The film, written by Bill Dubuque (co-creator of Netflix’s Ozark), treated Chris’s neurodivergence as a superpower, the key to exceptional skill in all fields – a noble intention, though one squandered by the misanthropic stupidity of everything around it.

In practice, Chris was a pretty standard-issue movie assassin, and The Accountant a solid but overly complicated and forgettable action movie that did not need nor set up a second chapter. Nevertheless, business persists. Like Another Simple Favor, this year’s SXSW opening night premiere film, The Accountant 2 is a long-gestating sequel from Amazon MGM Studios to a modest 2010s movie costarring Anna Kendrick that performed well outside of theaters; The Accountant was low-key the most-rented movie of 2017 in the US, gaining a relatively loyal if quiet following. And also like Another Simple Favor, The Accountant 2 is not so much a redux as fan service that leans into the inherent ridiculousness of the enterprise. The Accountant 2, which reunites Dubuque with director Gavin O’Connor, is an even more convoluted, impenetrable, outlandish spectacle of male hyper-competence than its predecessor, doubling down on what one might call divorced dad camp.

That’s mostly for the better. The Accountant 2 is a more fun affair than The Accountant, if you’re a fan of very loud shoot ’em ups, nonsensical crime webs and rogue good guys fighting obviously very bad guys, though this outing is sadly missing Anna Kendrick. (Her Dana, Chris’s erstwhile accounting accomplice/romantic interest, is presumably living well outside Chicago.) Chris, meanwhile, has spent the intervening eight years – the sequel was in development for at least six – keeping to himself in his Airstream of black-market alternative payments. He’s still receiving arrangements from his handler Justine (Allison Robertson), a nonverbal autistic savant based at the Harbor Neuroscience treatment center in New Hampshire, but mostly laying low in Boise.

Chris gets back in the action game, however, at the call of Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), a former ally of sorts from the treasury department’s financial crimes enforcement office, who all inexplicably have guns and combat training. The death of someone close to both plunges them into an investigation that involves, in no particular order: an organized crime network based out of a fish shop; Central American human trafficking gangs; the cruelties of the migrant journey from El Salvador to Texas; a series of high-profile hits around the world; one missing autistic youth in Juarez; and an elusive assassin known as Anaïs (Daniella Pineda). I’m not explaining more for the sake of spoilers and because I genuinely could not follow the labyrinthine and once again poorly integrated plot, but suffice to say, it’s both a lot and inconsequential. The plot is not the point. The point is that Chris calls on his estranged hitman brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) for assistance, allowing for the film’s chief pleasure: two macho actors chopping it up as brothers who don’t know how to be brothers. Just two lifelong loners – no partners, no kids, no friends, no dependents – wondering if they’re happy.

The Accountant had an air of overweening self-seriousness to its proceedings, occasionally leavened by Chris’s inability to read social cues (with Affleck’s performance of neurodivergence boiling down to just avoiding eye contact); the sequel attempts more goodnatured humor, laughing with Chris’s idiosyncrasies – hacking a dating algorithm but struggling with the dates, figuring out how to line dance, continually surprising people with his Clark Kent-style pocket protector to action hero reveal. Affleck still plays Chris as a slightly more socially awkward version of an unflappable movie assassin; Bernthal, who played Braxton in the first movie with a sort of impenetrable worldly panache, goes fully off the chain, chewing every scene as a hitman of supreme confidence and desperate vulnerability who cannot sit still. Not exactly continuous, but highly watchable.

Together, the pair carry what could and nearly does devolve into an illegible pursuit of indecipherable crime under a hail of gunfire. All that, plus an Avengers-esque hub of teenage autistic savants using their special abilities to outwit and out data hunt everyone else. (“That’s my people,” says Chris.) I wouldn’t necessarily call it progressive to show neurodivergent youth hacking through every privacy law imaginable in the name of ability. But it is a nice sentiment of inclusion – the film cast many autistic actors for the roles – and a gesture at celebrating difference, though of course that difference only skews in favor of extreme skills.

Still, sentiment aside, this is a movie of cinematic adrenaline and ludicrous set-ups – ironically for its hero, stupid pleasures, but the fun kind of stupid, the kind that draws loud cheers from a crowd at a SXSW premiere and gets people streaming on the couch. It’s neither groundbreaking nor exceptional, but it does deliver above the admittedly low bar for a questionable sequel, with enough juice for another at-home hit.

Robert Pattison sci-fi ‘Mickey 17´ opens in first place, but…

“Parasite” filmmaker Bong Joon Ho´s original science fiction film “Mickey 17” opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone “Captain America: Brave New World” after a three-week reign.

Overseas, “Mickey 17” has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.

A week following the Oscars, where “Anora” filmmakerSean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – “Mickey 17” is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It´s an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.

Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho´s follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Parasite” faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel “Mickey7” by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo also star.

It opened in 3,807 locations domestically where it performed best in New York and Los Angeles. Premium large format showings, including IMAX screens, also accounted for nearly half of its opening weekend. Internationally, it did especially well in Korea, where it made an estimated $14.6 million.

Second place went to “Captain America: Brave New World,” which added $8.5 million from 3,480 locations in North America and $9.2 million internationally. Its global total currently rests at $370.8 million. The Walt Disney Studios is on track to become the first studio to cross $1 billion in 2025 sometime this week.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Robert Pattinson as Mickey 18, left, and Mickey 17 in a scene from “Mickey 17.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

Holdovers “Last Breath,” “The Monkey” and “Paddington in Peru” rounded out the top five. The weekend also had several other newcomers in “In the Lost Lands,” a fantasy film from Paul W.S. Anderson starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista, and Angel Studios’ “Rule Breakers,” about Afghani girls on a robotics team.

Neon upped the theater count for “Anora” to nearly 2,000 screens after it won five Oscars on Sunday, including best picture, best director and best actress. It earned an estimated $1.9 million (up 595% from last weekend), bringing its total grosses to $18.4 million.

According to data from Comscore, the 2025 box office as a whole is up 1% from where it was last year as of this weekend and down 34.2% from the last pre-pandemic box office year of 2019.

“That is the rollercoaster that is the box office,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “You have two or three down weeks, it can profoundly impact the bottom line and the percentage advantage. But it will come back again.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Mickey 17,” $19.1 million.

2. “Captain America: Brave New World,” $8.5 million.

3. “Last Breath,” $4.2 million.

4. “The Monkey,” $3.9 million.

5. “Paddington in Peru,” $3.9 million.

6. “Dog Man,” $3.5 million.

7. “Anora,” $1.9 million.

8. “Mufasa: The Lion King,” $1.7 million.

9. “Rule Breakers,” $1.6 million.

10. “In the Lost Land,” $1 million.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Robert Pattinson in a scene from “Mickey 17.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows actors Anamaria Vartolomei, left, and Robert Pattinson, center, with filmmaker Bong Joon Ho on the set of “Mickey 17.” (Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

Actor Robert Pattinson, right, and Bong Joon Ho, left, pose for the photographers as they arrive for the screening of the film ‘Mickey 17’ at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP)

Director Bong Joon Ho poses for the photographers as he arrives for the screening of the film ‘Mickey 17’ at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP)

Who Will Be the Next James Bond? Every Actor Who’s Talked About It, Ranked from Most to Least Likely

Who Will Be the Next James Bond? Every Actor Who’s Talked About It, Ranked from Most to Least Likely

Stephanie Sengwe

March 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM

After playing James Bond for nearly two decades, Daniel Craig revealed he’d be hanging up his crisp tuxedo in pursuit of other projects, after No Time to Die came out in 2021.

Since then, the search for the next 007 has been on. Fans have shaken and stirred several names into the mix, from Idris Elba to Richard Madden to Joe Alwyn and Theo James. At one point, Pierce Brosnan — who played the fictional British spy in four films in the ’90s — was even asked if he would make his way back to the franchise.

With news of Amazon’s recent acquisition of the Bond franchise, the search for the next James Bond is officially heating up, and plenty of actors have their eye on the tux. See all the stars who have talked about playing the beloved spy — and what they had to say about it — ranked in order of who we think has the best shot (pun intended) at the role.

Related: From Connery to Craig, All the Actors Who’ve Played James Bond

Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Aaron Taylor-Johnson became a presumptive frontrunner for the franchise when, in March 2022, The Sun reported he had the role “should he wish to accept it.” The Nosferatu actor has been masterfully dodging questions about the franchise since.

At the New York City premiere of his superhero movie Kraven the Hunter last December, Taylor-Johnson laughed when Entertainment Tonight asked about his reaction to fans wanting him to step into Bond’s crime-fighting shoes.

“I would say. Come see Kraven because that’s what out this weekend and it’s not going to disappoint,” the actor coyly said. “I promise you that, guys.”

Regé-Jean Page

Regé-Jean Page’s name got mixed into the conversation after his ultra-sexy turn as the Duke of Hastings on Bridgerton back in 2020 made him a household name overnight.

“It’s a conversation people are having, and it’s terribly flattering that they’re having it. I leave them to it,” he said to Vanity Fair of the speculation.

Asked whether or not he would take on the role, Page responded, “I have no idea. It’s not a thing that is fully occupying my thoughts. I’ve got enough on my plate at the moment. I worry about the work I have, not other people’s jobs.”

Joe Alwyn

While attending the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, Joe Alywn was asked whether he’d consider taking the role.

“Who wouldn’t throw their hat in the ring? You know?” he told Variety’s Marc Malkin.

As for how he takes his martinis, shaken or stirred, The Brutalist actor responded, “I like both. I do, I do.” A relatable (potential) Bond.

Josh O’Connor

Josh O’Connor may have willed himself into the conversation, but hey, who’s complaining? After the internet ran wild with a joke he made, the Challengers actor found himself having to quell the excitement.

“I have no thoughts, really,” he told Deadline back in January. “The truth is that … I think in the space of a week, I made a joke about, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I played Bond?’ Then, me and Daniel [Craig] did an Actors on Actors, and then something else happened, and then suddenly I was James Bond. If I am Bond, I don’t know about it.”

Theo James

To fans of his films and the James Bond franchise, Theo James is a top choice for the role. To his friends the idea is comical.

“There is no narrative among my friends because they would say, ‘You? Are you joking?’” he told Josh Horowitz, adding, “The adage was, ‘Oh, yeah. You’d be the first Bond-opolis. The Greek Bond with hummus,” referring to his Greek heritage (full name: Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis).

Paul Mescal

When Paul Mescal first said he would be open to playing James Bond back in 2020, his star was still rising and the idea was so farfetched, it didn’t “seem like a real thing.”

Now, with blockbusters such as Gladiator II and All of Us Strangers under his belt, his odds are as good as anyone on this list.

Richard Madden

Richard Madden was also an early contender and much like the other gents on this list, he kept his response short and sweet when asked about the role at Cannes back in 2019.

“It’s very flattering to be involved in that conversation at all,” the Game of Thrones alum said. “But it’s all just talk and I’m sure next week it will be someone else.”

Dev Patel

While fans would love to see Patel chase down bad guys, the Harrow native isn’t interested in taking on a role that hasn’t historically represented people who look like him. Instead, he has expressed interest in creating his own lane versus competing for the role.

Last year, Patel released Monkey Man, an action thriller he co-wrote, directed and starred in. The film was met with much praise, even garnering a standing ovation when it premiered at SXSW. The catalyst behind the film was the lack of representation he saw.

“I was so frustrated in not being represented in action films,” he told the BBC Asian Network. “When I started writing this 10 years ago, the only roles I was getting offered were to be the comedy sidekick or to be the guy who hack the mainframe for the big, cool guy.”

“I wanted to broaden our horizons so that we’re all not fighting over just James Bond. I wanted to create our own stories,” he continued. “No, I don’t want to be James Bond, I want to be Monkey Man.”

Idris Elba

Perhaps no one’s name has lasted longer in this conversation than Idris Elba. And while he expressed he was flattered by the fact that people wanted to see him in the role, once the conversation became about race, the opportunity soured a bit for him.

“Essentially, it was a huge compliment that every corner of the world except from some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered,” said while on the SmartLess podcast.

“Those that weren’t happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting, because it became about race. It became about nonsense and I got the brunt of it.”

Pierce Brosnan

If there is a way to make it work, Pierce Brosnan would happily step into 007’s shoes again.

“I’ve heard of that,” Brosnan told GQ of the idea that he should return to playing Bond. “Of course, how could I not be interested?”

But, he continued, “It’s a delicate situation now. I think it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie, really … It’s a rather romantic notion and idea, but I think everything changes, everything falls apart. I think that it’s best left to another man, really. Fresh blood.”

Brosnan portrayed Bond in four movies between 1995 and 2002.

Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig played the super spy in five movies — Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die — from 2006 to 2021, and that was more than enough for him, as his commitment to the series turned out to be more than he bargained for.

“I was driving away from the Berlin premiere of Casino Royale with Barbara Broccoli. I had genuinely thought I would do one Bond movie, then it would be over. But by then we knew we had a hit on our hands,” he told the U.K.’s The Times in 2022.

“I realized the enormity of it, so I said to Barbara, ‘How many more? Three? Four?’ She said, ‘Four!’ ” Craig added. “I said, ‘OK. Then can I kill him off?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ “

And when it came time to “kill him off,” the English actor had no hesitations. “I said, ‘This is it. I don’t want to do any more,’” he told the outlet.

Read the original article on People

Lady Gaga roasts herself in epic SNL return as she mocks duet with R Kelly

LADY Gaga didn’t hold back as she roasted HERSELF in a hilarious return to SNL.

The pop queen, 38, was universally praised for the epic episode, which began with a monologue poking fun at her past appearance on the show.

Back in 2013 she performed a duet with now-jailed sex offender R. Kelly on the raunchy “Do What U Want.”

Rather than gloss over it, Gaga mocked the performance which saw disgraced Kelly grinding on her.

She told the audience, “I’m so happy to be back at SNL. The last time I hosted was in 2013. And every aspect of my performance aged amazingly.

“Because there’s no need to Google ‘SNL 2013 Lady Gaga featuring R. Kelly.’ I won’t bring it up!”

The multi-talented star then turned attention to her acting career, which includes critically-acclaimed turns in A Star Is Born, House of Gucci and American Horror Story.

But it was her role in the much-maligned Joker sequel, Folie à Deux, with Joaquin Phoenix that she focused on.

“Anyways, I’m an actor now,” Gaga said. “And I’ve been very diligent about selecting films that can showcase my craft as a serious actor, films such as *Joker 2*. Apparently people thought it was awesome.”

“Joaquin and I even got nominated for a Razzie, which is an award for the worst films of the year. We won for worst screen duo.

“But joke’s on them. I love winning things! And my Razzie brings me one step closer to an EGORT. It’s like an EGOT, but it’s hurtful.”

An EGOT is the famously hard to achieve combination of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

And there was a light-hearted gag that namechecked her younger pop peers.

Gaga said, “Last time I hosted SNL, I was 27. I’m 38 now, which is scientifically the best age for a female pop star to be.

“Most pop stars are over 40. Chappell Roan is 58. And Charli XCX, she’s 75. Tate McRae is my biological grandmother.”

Throughout the show she flexed her acting and singing chops, choosing to perform the tracks Abracadabra and Killah from her new album Mayhem.

It went down a storm with viewers who praised Gaga’s effortless command of the show.

One wrote on X, “about Gaga on SNL: it feels SO GOOD to be a fan of someone that’s naturally funny & smart, is a super talented & versatile actress, has the voice of a goddess, dances amazingly, is a performer like no other, is so stunning in every style and is brilliant in everything she do.”

Another said, “Lady Gaga being iconic on SNL but whats new.”

A third posted, “GAGA SLAYED SNL!!!!”

After the show wrapped, Gaga changed into a very glamorous shimmering leotard and skyscraper heels.

She was pictured arriving at L’Avenue with her fiancé Michael Polansky.

‘Mickey 17’ Leads Box Office With $19 Million But $118 Million Budget Spells Trouble

Disney Hires Former Warner Bros. Executive Andrew Cripps as Head of Theatrical Distribution 6 days ago

“Mickey 17,” a dystopian sci-fi comedy starring a dozen Robert Pattinsons, was No. 1 at the domestic box office with $19.1 million from 3,807 theaters. But the Warner Bros. film cost $118 million, a staggering price for an original, offbeat space odyssey — and the kind of swing for the fence that could require a few lifetimes to turn a theatrical profit.

Critics and audiences were mixed on the R-rated “Mickey 17,” whose “B” grade on CinemaScore and 79% on Rotten Tomatoes aren’t encouraging for the film’s staying power. It’s a concern because “Mickey 17,” which cost another $80 million to market, needs to earn around $275 million to $300 million globally to get into the black during its big screen run, according to rival executives with knowledge of similar productions.

Internationally, “Mickey 17” brought in $25.4 million from 66 territories. The film opened last weekend in South Korea and has grossed $34.2 million overseas and $53.3 million worldwide in total.

“Mickey 17” is director Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to “Parasite,” a pitch black comedy that became the first foreign language film to ever win the Oscar for best picture. “Mickey 17,” adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel “Mickey7,” follows Pattinson as he plays multiple versions of the same character, an expendable worker who is able to be reprinted. He’s sent on a human expedition to colonize the inhospitable ice world known as Niflheim, where he perishes over and over and over again. Hell breaks loose when one of the Mickeys is presumed dead and a replacement duplicate tries to take his place. Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo round out the cast.

“Mickey 17” kicks off the riskiest slate that Warner Bros. has crafted in years, one that puts a greater emphasis on expensive, director-driven originals than tested franchise fare. Up next there’s “Alto Knights,” a $45 million gangster drama in which Robert De Niro stars opposite himself as a mob boss (March 21); Jack Black-led “A Minecraft Movie,” a $150 million live-action adaptation of the popular video game (April 1); and “Sinners,” a $90 million vampire horror story from “Black Panther” and “Creed” director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan (April 18). James Gunn’s “Superman” reboot, which has lofty ambitions of salvaging the flailing DC Universe, lands in theaters over the summer on July 11.

Another newcomer, Angel Studios’ underdog drama “Rule Breakers” misfired with $1 million from 2,044 theaters, a rough start for a movie that’s playing on more than 2,000 screens. However, the feel-good film about Afghanistan’s first competitive robotics team has positive reviews and an “A” grade on CinemaScore, so all hope is not lost.

Disney and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” slid to second place after three weeks at the No. 1 spot. The superhero adventure, starring Anthony Mackie as the star-spangled Avenger, added $8.5 million from 3,480 theaters in its fourth frame. It will end the weekend with $177 million domestically and 370.8 worldwide, a solid tally except that the tentpole cost more than $180 million to produce and roughly $100 million to promote to global audiences. Marvel, which has lacked consistency since “Avengers: Endgame,” has two other tentpoles over the next six months: “Thunderbolts” on May 2 and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” on July 25.

“Last Breath,” a survival thriller with Woody Harrelson, captured third place with $4.2 million from 3,090 venues — a 47% decline from its debut. After two weeks on the big screen, “Last Breath” has generated $14.5 million in North America. The film, from Focus Features, reportedly cost under $24 million.

Neon’s gory thriller “The Monkey” took the No. 4 slot with $3.9 million from 2,955 locations in its third outing. The $10 million-budgeted film has grossed $31 million domestically to date.

Sony’s “Paddington in Peru” rounded out the top five with $3.8 million from 3,085 theaters, boosting its domestic total to a tepid $36.9 million after four weekends. The adventure about the polite, marmalade-loving stuffed bear has been far more popular overseas with $138.8 million and $175.8 million globally. But the third installment is nowhere near the heights of the first two films in the series, 2014’s “Paddington” ($326 million globally) and 2017’s “Paddington 2” ($290 million globally).

Meanwhile, Oscar winners like “Anora” and “The Brutalist” tried to parlay their little gold men into ticket sales. A24’s “The Brutalist,” which landed three statues, didn’t manage a box office boost with just $153,072 from 214 screens and $16.1 million in total.

Best-picture recipient “Anora,” however, notched one of its biggest weekend hauls to date with $1.8 million from 1,938 screens. Now, Sean Baker’s comedy about a Brooklyn sex worker who marries a Russian oligarch’s son, has officially relinquished the ignominious crown as the lowest-grossing best picture winner in modern history. With $18 million, “Anora” has passed the title back to Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” which grossed $17 million in 2008. Of course, this distinction doesn’t including “Nomadland,” which barely played in theaters because of COVID, or “CODA,” which barely played in theaters because it was released by Apple.

The Accountant 2 review – Ben Affleck’s autistic assassin returns for solid sequel

Ben Affleck may have given up Batman, but he’s not done with superheroes. In the 2016 film The Accountant, Affleck played Christian Wolff, one of many aliases for an autistic mathematical savant who worked as a forensic accountant and money launderer for every stripe of black money organization. A plethora of confusing and/or outright sad flashbacks served as his superhero origin story: a cold military PsyOps father trained Chris, bullied for his difference and struggling with tantrums, and his neurotypical brother to become lethal fighting machines. The film, written by Bill Dubuque (co-creator of Netflix’s Ozark), treated Chris’s neurodivergence as a superpower, the key to exceptional skill in all fields – a noble intention, though one squandered by the misanthropic stupidity of everything around it.

Related: Another Simple Favor review – supremely silly sequel serves more absurd twists

In practice, Chris was a pretty standard-issue movie assassin, and The Accountant a solid but overly complicated and forgettable action movie that did not need nor set up a second chapter. Nevertheless, business persists. Like Another Simple Favor, this year’s SXSW opening night premiere film, The Accountant 2 is a long-gestating sequel from Amazon MGM Studios to a modest 2010s movie costarring Anna Kendrick that performed well outside of theaters; The Accountant was low-key the most-rented movie of 2017 in the US, gaining a relatively loyal if quiet following. And also like Another Simple Favor, The Accountant 2 is not so much a redux as fan service that leans into the inherent ridiculousness of the enterprise. The Accountant 2, which reunites Dubuque with director Gavin O’Connor, is an even more convoluted, impenetrable, outlandish spectacle of male hyper-competence than its predecessor, doubling down on what one might call divorced dad camp.

That’s mostly for the better. The Accountant 2 is a more fun affair than The Accountant, if you’re a fan of very loud shoot ’em ups, nonsensical crime webs and rogue good guys fighting obviously very bad guys, though this outing is sadly missing Anna Kendrick. (Her Dana, Chris’s erstwhile accounting accomplice/romantic interest, is presumably living well outside Chicago.) Chris, meanwhile, has spent the intervening eight years – the sequel was in development for at least six – keeping to himself in his Airstream of black-market alternative payments. He’s still receiving arrangements from his handler Justine (Allison Robertson), a nonverbal autistic savant based at the Harbor Neuroscience treatment center in New Hampshire, but mostly laying low in Boise.

Chris gets back in the action game, however, at the call of Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), a former ally of sorts from the treasury department’s financial crimes enforcement office, who all inexplicably have guns and combat training. The death of someone close to both plunges them into an investigation that involves, in no particular order: an organized crime network based out of a fish shop; Central American human trafficking gangs; the cruelties of the migrant journey from El Salvador to Texas; a series of high-profile hits around the world; one missing autistic youth in Juarez; and an elusive assassin known as Anaïs (Daniella Pineda). I’m not explaining more for the sake of spoilers and because I genuinely could not follow the labyrinthine and once again poorly integrated plot, but suffice to say, it’s both a lot and inconsequential. The plot is not the point. The point is that Chris calls on his estranged hitman brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) for assistance, allowing for the film’s chief pleasure: two macho actors chopping it up as brothers who don’t know how to be brothers. Just two lifelong loners – no partners, no kids, no friends, no dependents – wondering if they’re happy.

The Accountant had an air of overweening self-seriousness to its proceedings, occasionally leavened by Chris’s inability to read social cues (with Affleck’s performance of neurodivergence boiling down to just avoiding eye contact); the sequel attempts more goodnatured humor, laughing with Chris’s idiosyncrasies – hacking a dating algorithm but struggling with the dates, figuring out how to line dance, continually surprising people with his Clark Kent-style pocket protector to action hero reveal. Affleck still plays Chris as a slightly more socially awkward version of an unflappable movie assassin; Bernthal, who played Braxton in the first movie with a sort of impenetrable worldly panache, goes fully off the chain, chewing every scene as a hitman of supreme confidence and desperate vulnerability who cannot sit still. Not exactly continuous, but highly watchable.

Together, the pair carry what could and nearly does devolve into an illegible pursuit of indecipherable crime under a hail of gunfire. All that, plus an Avengers-esque hub of teenage autistic savants using their special abilities to outwit and out data hunt everyone else. (“That’s my people,” says Chris.) I wouldn’t necessarily call it progressive to show neurodivergent youth hacking through every privacy law imaginable in the name of ability. But it is a nice sentiment of inclusion – the film cast many autistic actors for the roles – and a gesture at celebrating difference, though of course that difference only skews in favor of extreme skills.

Still, sentiment aside, this is a movie of cinematic adrenaline and ludicrous set-ups – ironically for its hero, stupid pleasures, but the fun kind of stupid, the kind that draws loud cheers from a crowd at a SXSW premiere and gets people streaming on the couch. It’s neither groundbreaking nor exceptional, but it does deliver above the admittedly low bar for a questionable sequel, with enough juice for another at-home hit.