Friday 13 July 2012

There's No News Like Old News:
Ben Whishaw Is Q

In an excitable flurry of press releases, tweets and Facebook posts, it was confirmed yesterday - to the surprise of almost nobody, since his agent blabbed it last November - that Ben Whishaw will play James Bond's provider of conveniently mission-specific gadgets Q in forthcoming cinematic orgasm Skyfall.
Now pay attention, 007. This ordinary-looking
briefcase contains Marcellus Wallace's soul.

Why EON have only just decided to officially announce the casting (despite it having been on IMDb's Skyfall page for months) is a mystery. One suspects that it's part of a calculated drip-feed of press-parps to remind us there's a new Bond film coming soon, but maybe it's just that the complex CG wall in the background of all Whishaw's scenes has only just been completed and is finally ready to be shown to the public. Alternatively perhaps they were waiting until they thought everyone had forgotten The Incredible Suit's nearly-three-year-old post in which I suggested that Q should be someone "a lot younger [...] someone who knows all about the latest technology, someone who’s excited by his work and eager to see how it plays out in the field, but takes the piss out of Bond for not being nearly as geekazoidal as he is." Yes, I expect that's it.

Whatever the reason, it'll be fascinating to see what Whishaw's casting brings to the Bond / Q dynamic. Much as I loved Desmond Llewellyn (John Cleese can fuck right off), we don't need to see an octogenarian explaining complex technical equipment to a man half his age any more. We need someone who's rock 'n' roll enough to have played Keith Richards, Bob Dylan and John Keats; someone who probably went to the same casting sessions as Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith and went home empty-handed; someone in specs and a cardy who we can believe might well have developed a pair of trousers that turn into jam. We need a convincing quartermaster. Have we got him?

How the hell should I know?

FACTLET: This is the fifth film Whishaw has starred in with Daniel Craig. If you can name the other four without resorting to the internet you are a massive spoff.

1 comment :

  1. "starred"? Hardly, Mr Suit.
    To be fair, I thought the 'news' was the picture, not the fact that he'd been cast.

    Pay no mind to me. I'm in a cronky mood.

    ReplyDelete