New Bond - Your Picks

The Toby Stevens ones? Yeah, that's where I got my idea from. They're terrific little stories, aren't they? Souchet sounds so thoroughly alien as No.

First off I would not count Craig out for one more. Time and the huge paycheck has way of softening ones position. Although after how bored he looked during most of SPECTRE, I would say he is ready to move on. I have no idea who should play the next incarnation of 007 but I know I'd love to see someone like Edgar Wright or Mathew Vaughn direct.

Oh I get the thinking the thought and even typing the thought out...it's the actually posting the thought part that amazes me.

Unless my memory is off, Vaughan was the original choice to direct Casino Royale and he had a large part in casting Craig prior to his departure.

Daniel Craig always looks bored though. 

Nope, you're not alone there. I thought Spectre was actually rather good, albeit a little derivative. The only big issue I can really think of is that any Bond could have assumed Craig's role. Skyfall was pure Connery no question, something you could have shown in 1967 directed by Terence Young with only a few minor tweaks (e.g. the computer viruses addressed to M are instead a series of sealed envelopes). It was a film that had more than a few shades of The Ipcress File to it. Coming out of the theatre for Spectre however, I thought that you could have slotted in pretty much anyone you wanted with Timothy Dalton being the most prominent; I think it was the couch gag and the "atmosphere" in the new car that really did it.

That may have been what rubbed more than a few people the wrong way, the titular protagonist comes off as almost generic and that's after three films of fairly solid characterisation.

He's been the bookies favourite for a while but I think Hiddleston would be such a safe, slightly dull choice. I mean, he's pretty much played a modern Bond with The Night Manager. I feel like we know how he'd play it already. That doesn't discount him of course - Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan were both incredibly obvious casting after The Saint and Remington Steel saw them play the role in all but name already so there is precedence for not looking too far outside the box.

EON have never cast a big movie star before so I don't see Cavill or Hiddleston now. Bonds have always been TV actors who, if they've done movies, have been British lower budget ones. Connery was in a couple of movies but with low billing. He'd been a TV actor including doing Shakespeare. Moore was a TV star who had just had his series cancelled. Dalton had some roles in big films but they weren't close to being leads. Brosnan was doing b-pictures like The Lawnmower Man after Remington Steele or being billed fifth in fluff like Mrs Doubtfire. Craig was a TV actor who did smaller budgeted UK films like Enduring Love, The Mother and Layer Cake. Nowhere near a big-name internationally. None of them were in blockbusters the way Cavill and Hiddleston are. It doesn't fit the model and, probably, the budget for a new Bond.

I personally want Chiwitel Ejifor but I'd be willing to bet it's someone like James Norton or Aiden Turner. Jack Huston maybe. He's a TV actor but he's venturing into films and is starring in Ben Hur later this year.

So yeah, my guesses:
1. Jack Huston
2. James Norton
3. Aiden Turner.

I had a few reservations about Tom Hiddleston at first, but having since seen him in The Night Manager, I'd be all for it. It's such a shame that Cavill is unavailable because his turn as Napoleon Solo was absolutely marvellous, I think he'd make a terrific Bond.

That's the bit I like about Cavill. He has that eclectic Brosnan feel to him where he could be a bit of everything, an interpretation that could dress you down with his words or the butt of his Walther if you pushed him too far.