I Was Up For the Role of the New “Shaft” Remake – But the Author Said I Wasn’t “Street” Enough – IOTW Report

I Was Up For the Role of the New “Shaft” Remake – But the Author Said I Wasn’t “Street” Enough

Wednesday, 2 September 2015, 9:15 BFH Uncategorized 51

Idris Elba ‘too street’ to play James Bond, writer says

The writer of the new James Bond novel “Trigger Mortis” has set off a firestorm with a remark about Idris Elba.

Anthony Horowitz recently told the Daily Mail that he believes Elba is “probably a bit too ‘street’ for Bond. Is it a question of being suave? Yeah.”

Opinion: Idris Elba and the Bond debate

Elba has long been touted as the fans’ choice to become the first black Bond.

For some, the reference to Elba as “too street” was code for “too black.”

“Between The World and Me” author Ta-Nehisi Coates tweeted that Horowitz should “Just be honest and say ‘James Bond’s being white is important to me’ and be done with it.”

!snip!

I’ve been told that white people appropriating black culture is wrong. So, so wrong.

But, apparently, appropriating a beloved cultural white character is fine and dandy, and if you complain, you’re told to shut up, because you’re racist, and racists need to shut up.

51 Comments on I Was Up For the Role of the New “Shaft” Remake – But the Author Said I Wasn’t “Street” Enough

  4. How about make him white with a black voice like Darth Vader. Have him guest appear in Inspector Gadget, I’ve always thought Bond and IG together in a cartoon would be pretty cool and then they can be made any color depending on where the cartoon is played. I like yellow like SpongeBob and pink like Patrick.

  5. Who wants to watch a James Bond film where the main character sits on his couch all day in a bathrobe smoking dope, drinking Mad Dog 20/20, and watching TV?

    Or sneaks up on cops and shoots them in the back of the head?

    Or loot and burn a CVS?

    Gimmee a fuckin break.

  6. Sean Connery was the best Bond. There has been no comparison. Ian Fleming wrote Bond as an Englishman, and I doubt he would care if he was black or white, but I do. Bond is pink.

    If Bond is black, I shain’t take a look at the movie.

  7. Having read all of the original Ian Fleming Bond novels, James Bond is not black. That said, I’ve seen Elba in other roles and have found him to be a fine actor and very good in each role he takes.

    He’d be a more elegant “Shaft” in my opinion, hardly a “street” Shaft.

  8. This is absolute insanity. Writers sometimes base their entire screenplay on a particular actor they have in mind and it’s their right to do so… for ANY reason. What business is it of anyone else to say, “I demand to see Bruce Jenner as the first mentally ill, cross dressing Bond!”

  10. “Just be honest and say ‘James Bond’s being white is important to me’ and be done with it.”

    Done with it? That’d just be the start of it for the Outrage Machine. And Tan-Ehisi Coats would be right out in front.

    If he wanted to be done with it, Horowitz should have said that he wanted someone more “clean and articulate”. Didn’t seem to bother anybody when Biden said it.

  11. Will Smith as James West in the movie version of “Wild Wild West”…that was not a good idea at all. He wasn’t a modern update of Robert Conrad and it disrespected the fans of the show.

  14. Does anyone in their right mind think the box-office take for a new
    Bond film would be as lucrative with a black Bond? The movie studio isn’t that dumb. Even if every black person went to see it, the sheer population stats alone can forecast that it would lose money considering what they cost to produce.

    And Daniel Craig is sketchy as well. He is quoted as saying “The time has come for Bond to do a gay love scene.”

    That may have won Craig fans on the lunatic fringe, but the producers know darn well that would be the end of the franchise.

  15. “Too black”
    If anyone is insulted because he said too black…too bad!
    When they start allowing whites to play ‘too black’ roles then they can complain.
    It was NOT an insult. Get a life Libtards and get over yourselves!

  16. James Bond was a mix of all secret agents and special warfare people in the service of the British special services. Fleming came up with this idea after meeting operators during WWII.

    A black 007 would be okay with me, but it would be a stretch because there are few operators with that profile. Bond is ‘make believe’ so a black James Bond would be okay. Bland & bold a blunt instrument of the special service.

  23. I have owned all the Bond movies as BetaMax, VHS, DVD, and now I have the entire set as Blu-Ray.
    I have read five of the original Ian Fleming novels.
    I have old Gilbert, Matchbox, & Corgi Bond collectibles.
    My father and I share a common love for all things Bond.
    I first saw Bond at the drive-in, it was Goldfinger.
    I had a friend where we didn’t go out on New Years Eve, we just binged watched Bond movies.
    I am certain Bond & Twilight Zone I could write books about.

    A black Bond would not get a SINGLE DIME out of me.
    EVER!
    Call me racist, I don’t GAF.
    I am DAMN proud to be WHITE.
    I certainly don’t owe anyone an apology for that.

    Bond is a fantasy figure that many guys wish they could be.
    Nope, I will never wish to be black, female, gay, transgender, etc.

    You same assholes who call Bond a misogynist now want to change him for your bullshit agenda.
    You will then call it stereotyping Bond as a black womanizer, looking for white women all the time.

    Bond is white, assholes!
    Deal with it.
    Go fuck up and destroy something else you lousy pricks!

  31. Since you mentioned Daniel Craig, here’s a tip.
    If you haven’t seen “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, I highly recommend it. Make sure it’s the one with Craig and Rooney Mara as the ‘girl’. (There’s an earlier version, but it’s not as good, IMHO.)

  37. It’s the same issue I had with the sour remake of “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (my favorite movie). No, the character wasn’t black (that might have been better), but a damned greenie piece of shit.

    The meaning of the original was turned upside-down. Instead of destroying Earth to rubble because mankind threatened to bring their warring ways into space, the fools doing the remake made it about saving the planet by removing all things mankind including mankind. ^*($#%)&_+*^%

    I don’t know enough bad words to express my hatred of enviroweenies.

  38. Sorry I went a bit off topic. I just want to say that I agree with you that they shouldn’t mess with what works just because someone has their panties in a twist that everyone isn’t black.

  40. A View to a Grill

    License to Steal

    For Your Lies Only

    The Thug Who Raped Me

    The Ghetto is Not Enough

    Live and Let Fry

    Diamonds are Forever Stolen

    From Detroit With Lust

    Thunderchicken (urban dictionary definition)

    Negropussy

    Fry Another Day

  47. It’s a matter of keeping the integrity of the character, which is essential to the storyline. Shaft could not be played by a white actor because a white urbanite detective would be too unusual in a black urban community.
    Bond, on the other hand, based on his role as an international spy, race doesn’t matter – class does. On that point, Craig and Elba are both too street for the original concept of Bond, an English aristocratic sophisticate “representing” and protecting the Crown.
    BTW, LOL! Black Street Bond titles.

  51. The remake sux big time. I still get chills in that scene with Patricia Neal and Gort where she says Klattu Barada Nikto. Really a brilliant movie for its time. I always was a fan of Michael Rennie too.

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