'The young Bond' reboot that nearly replaced The Living Daylights?

Andy007Andy007 Posts: 100MI6 Agent
It is rarely documented that a new 'young Bond reboot' was nearly brought in to follow on after Moore left. In fact Dalton's tenure may not have happened at all had Cubby stuck with the idea of a young Bond project. Robin of Sherwood actor Michael Praed was apparently tested and chosen for the role, before the project was scrapped and the normal films continued. Fortunately we got Dalton's impressive performances, but one wonders what this younger take on the character would have played out like? Either way even all the Bond film books don't seem aware Cubby tested Praed for this role.

Comments

  • superadosuperado Regent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,651MI6 Agent
    I do remember watching in a Bond DVD featurette or reading how I think Michael Wilson and someone else came up with an idea of young Bond, then Cubby vetoing the idea saying that Bond should always be the experienced Bond we all know. I remember Michael Praed from Dynasty as Catherine Oxenberg's love interest. Ironically they eventually did "young" Bond with CR, lol.
    "...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    superado wrote:
    Michael Wilson and someone else

    Richard Maibaum.
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    Andy007 wrote:
    It is rarely documented that a new 'young Bond reboot' was nearly brought in to follow on after Moore left. In fact Dalton's tenure may not have happened at all had Cubby stuck with the idea of a young Bond project. Robin of Sherwood actor Michael Praed was apparently tested and chosen for the role, before the project was scrapped and the normal films continued. Fortunately we got Dalton's impressive performances, but one wonders what this younger take on the character would have played out like? Either way even all the Bond film books don't seem aware Cubby tested Praed for this role.

    Does the screentest exist? Would love to see it.
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • Asp9mmAsp9mm Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,483MI6 Agent
    I’m seeing Michael Praed in a few weeks so I’ll get the story off him.
    ..................Asp9mmSIG-1-2.jpg...............
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    BBC Radio Stoke has an interview with Praed about the James Bond plans, but I can't access it from outside the UK.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    edited March 2018
    I believe that Charles Helfenstein's book on TLD goes into some detail on the various script drafts for this project.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • RemingtonRemington CAPosts: 239MI6 Agent
    There's an outline on Commander007.net.
    It's under Bond 15 reboot or something like that.
    -{
    1. Connery 2. Moore 3. Dalton 4. Brosnan 5. Craig 6. Lazenby
  • PPK 7.65mmPPK 7.65mm Saratoga Springs NY USAPosts: 1,227MI6 Agent
    I believe that Charles Helfenstein's book on TLD goes into some detail on the various script drafts for this project.

    Yes, the book does go into extensive detail about the script ideas for the Young Bond film that was never made. I am pretty glad that Cubby Broccoli vetoed this, since a lot of the ideas proposed seemed pretty silly.
  • RemingtonRemington CAPosts: 239MI6 Agent
    Well I read it and have to agree with @PPK 7.65mm. It's pretty silly and probably wouldn't have been a very good film.
    -{
    1. Connery 2. Moore 3. Dalton 4. Brosnan 5. Craig 6. Lazenby
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    Remington wrote:
    Well I read it and have to agree with @PPK 7.65mm. It's pretty silly and probably wouldn't have been a very good film.
    -{

    Yes, I'm sure that it was scrapped for good reason. -{
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • The Red KindThe Red Kind EnglandPosts: 3,119MI6 Agent
    Asp9mm wrote:
    I’m seeing Michael Praed in a few weeks so I’ll get the story off him.

    Would be very interesting to hear more about this straight from the horse's mouth. I loved Michael Praed in Robin of Sherwood and always thought he could have been Bond.
    "Any of the opposition around..?"
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    edited March 2018
    Asp9mm wrote:
    I’m seeing Michael Praed in a few weeks so I’ll get the story off him.

    Would be very interesting to hear more about this straight from the horse's mouth. I loved Michael Praed in Robin of Sherwood and always thought he could have been Bond.

    Saw him a few years back in a Noel Coward play. Thought the very same thing, he looked terrific.He must have some special Monkey gland preparation.
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,686MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    BBC Radio Stoke has an interview with Praed about the James Bond plans, but I can't access it from outside the UK.


    Thanks for mentioning that: I wouldn't have known about that otherwise. Basically he says that in 86 or so his agent told him to go and meet Cubby in LA, he did so and had a strangely non-specific meeting with Cubby where some other strangers came in to size him up, he went home and his agent told him he was in a two-horse race to get to be Bond (with Praed being the smooth choice against the other guy who was a bit Connery-style rough) and that Bond was going to be reset to a '50s period piece about the origins of Bond. He did the standard fight scene/FRWL screen test with John Glen; and basically his agent gave him the non-official nod that he'd got the part (Glen also gave him a massive hint that he'd won it).

    Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02wr8nr

    There's no mention of him in the otherwise-excellent Making of The Living Daylights book that I can see and it definitely sounds like he tested, so I guess there's more to this chapter of Bond history than we know (the book makes it sound like Cubby veto-ed the young Bond idea and it was all Wilson's idea, whereas Praed -aged 26 or so at the time- says he met with Cubby). I don't know if he got the wrong end of the stick about it being set in the 50s or not (given the amount of product placement back then it feels like a stretch), but if he did hear that then that's new info to me too.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Brozzer was quite young back then wasn't he and looked younger... wouldn't he have been in with a shout? Not sure about Praed really, I'd have thought they were moving away from that kind of smooth look. Why not just get someone from Duran Duran in that case?

    At a Bond fan meeting in 97 at the ICA (?) on the Mall in London I spoke to an actor who said his mate had tested for the young Bond role, and that was the first I heard of it. His friend said he was disillusioned with the whole thing and when I said he'd be older now so how about testing now or something he said he was done with them all, he'd gone off the whole thing, not a highly credible or reliable anecdote but there you go.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 556MI6 Agent
    There's a detailed two-part synopsis of the young Bond reboot online. It's in French but can be easily translated and read using Chrome:

    http://www.commander007.net/2016/03/bond-15-rebooter-nest-jouer-part-1/

    http://www.commander007.net/2016/03/bond-15-rebooter-nest-jouer-part-2/
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