Will Aaron Taylor-Johnson be the next James Bond? British tabloid “news” goes viral – Current Affairs

In addition to the British Royal Family, one of the obsessions of the British tabloid The Sun is about who will be the next James Bond, with periodic ‘news’ about the odds dictated by bookmakers or ‘casting’ rumors allegedly from ‘sources’ close to the producers of the saga, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

This Tuesday, the Internet went into a tizzy when The Sun reported the ‘news’ that Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be Daniel Craig’s successor.

The rumor has been around for a long time, but the tabloid guarantees that the role was “formally offered” to the British actor and he “will sign his contract in the coming days.”

Next, the scrutiny: The Sun and The Daily Mail dissected the 33-year-old Brit’s entire personal life, especially the part about being married to director Sam Taylor-Johnson, 24 years his senior.

On the producers’ side, the reaction was silence and neither Variety, The Hollywood Reporter nor Deadline, the most credible press linked to Hollywood coverage, took the hint.

On social media the debate centered on the actor’s merits, especially his physical ones, as well as whether he has charisma or whether he will be the most ‘insomniac’ 007 ever.

In any case, Aaron Taylor-Johnson fits the profile sought by producers, due to his age and being known, but not to the point of being a star.

The actor recently starred alongside Brad Pitt in “Bullet Train.” He was also Quicksilver in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015) and will return to the world of superheroes this year with “Kraven the Hunter”. An example of a healthy balance between blockbusters and author projects, his CV also includes titles such as “Godzilla”, “Nocturnal Animals”, “Anna Karenina”, “Nowhere Boy” and “Kick-Ass”.

In January 2023, the most reputable North American media outlet Puck News [acesso pago] it was said that he was one of the finalists and there was a meeting with Barbara Broccoli that “went very well”.

In coordination with the studio, the final decision on Daniel Craig’s successor as 007 will be made by the saga’s powerful producer and his half-brother Michael G. Wilson, who are in charge of Eon Productions, responsible for the films since 1962 and which maintains a “family” company, safe from any takeover.

In several interviews, Michael G. Wilson confirmed that all potential candidates perform a specific scene from the second film, 1963’s “From Russia With Love.” [“007 – Ordem para Matar” em Portugal”]: the one in which the bare-chested Bond (Sean Connery) finds Soviet agent Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) lying on his bed with just a choker necklace.

According to other ‘news’ from the British tabloids, Briton Aaron Taylor-Johnson would have auditioned in September 2022 and impressed the producers with “his unique mix of acting intensity and his impressive catalog of action films”.

In December 2022, he would have advanced to another phase, filming the famous sequence known as “gun barrel teaser footage”, the one that appears in the initial phase of all films where Bond, in a tuxedo, turns to the screen and shoots the gun.

The deadlines adjust: in September 2022, the producers announced that they would start looking for Craig’s successor and production of the next film would unlikely start before 2024.

They also clarified that they were looking for an actor in his “early 30s” to play Bond for the next 10-12 years, which left out bookmaker and fan favorites such as Idris Elba (51 years old), Tom Hardy (46 ) and probably Henry Cavill (40), and young people like Jacob Elordi (26) and Tom Holland (27).

“We’ve tried to look at younger people in the past. But trying to visualize that doesn’t work. Remember, Bond is already a veteran. He’s got some experience. He’s been through the wars, so to speak. He’s probably been in the SAS [forças especiais] or something like that. It’s not a kid right out of high school that you can bring in and start. That’s why it works for 30-somethings”, explained Michael G. Wilson during an event organized by the British Film Institute to celebrate the character’s 60 years in cinema in October 2022.

It was still September 2022 that the producers revealed that it was still necessary to explain to potential candidates what surrounds the most important role in Hollywood: many of the young actors think they want to be Bond, but they don’t fully understand the ‘specifications’.

“A lot of people think, ‘Oh yeah, it would be fun to do one’. Well, that’s not going to work,” Barbara Broccoli recalled with a laugh.

The producer added that the casting process is not just about an actor: “It’s about reinvention and ‘Where are we going?’. What do we want to do with the character? And then, when we realize that, who is the right person for this specific reinvention.”

“With Craig, when we had the conversation at this very table about whether he was going to do this, he said ‘Well, I’m going to do it. I really want to be a part of this, the whole thing’. And he lived to regret it,” he said. Broccoli laughing again.

“But it’s a big commitment. It’s not just showing up for two months of filming”, he highlighted.