The Grey NATO – 286 – How We'd Cast The Next James Bond Film

Published on Thu, 30 May 2024 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

Jason and James spend the episode casting the various roles for a hypothetical new James Bond film. Jason's concept has it set as a period piece in the late 1950s, while James envisions a very modern take meant to appeal to younger audiences. They discuss their choices for who should play Bond, M, Moneypenny, Q, the Bond girl, the villains and henchmen. They also debate things like the director, cinematographer, theme song, cars, gadgets and watches that would be featured. It's an entertaining discussion imagining what their ideal Bond films would look like.

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Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton	Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 286 and it's proudly brought to you by our always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support and if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, James Stacy. James, long weekend. We're back in the saddle.
James Stacey	We sure are, my man. We sure are. We're back. And it's a Tuesday morning. I can't say that I'm feeling especially sharp after a long weekend, but I did sleep all right. And I'm pretty excited about this episode. This is a kind of a random idea that I had while we were recording the previous episode. We're talking about bond topics. So in this, in today's episode, we're each going to be designing kind of the cast and some of the other Bond accoutrement for the next Bond film as a hypothetical. I don't know what you've picked, you don't know what I've picked, and we're going to get to it in really just a moment. But I guess we are kind of kicking off every episode with a little bit of an update about Wind-Up Chicago. So for anybody who's interested in being at Wind-Up Chicago with us, this will be year three for us. It's one of our favorite events of the year. A few things have changed if you remember how it worked from last year. So Jason and I will be there Saturday and Sunday of the weekend for Wind Up Chicago. You can find all the details for this in the show notes or by visiting the Wind Up website. But for the TGN side of it, we'll be there for Friday, Saturday. The group dive, the wind up in the lake is going to be Saturday afternoon. So Jason will be busy with that. I will go to the show to make sure that we have some representation there and then Sunday morning, we're going to do a little brunch wind up preview with the folks from citizen. So not only will you get a bite to eat, but we'll also be able to sit down and chit chat about a variety of topics and also get a chance to do a lap of the show without the huge crowds. So this is kind of a nice offering from the folks that wind up and from citizen. Uh, that's how that's going to work. We're going to have like exact timing and details and that sort of thing, but that'll be Sunday morning. Um, we'll probably do some sort of programming Sunday afternoon and then everybody can go back to their uh, normal lives and, you know, look forward to next year's windup. But, uh, I think that pretty much covers, covers the plan. Well, you know, we'll have more news as it develops, but that's the, uh, that's the kind of loose layout at the moment.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. I'm excited. We've, uh, every year seems to be a little bit different at windup. Uh, first year we, uh, we were selling merch at our table and just running around like chickens with our heads cut off. And then last year was a little more subdued. We spent more time at the citizen booth and did a, another, uh, podcast record. And this year is going to be, uh, even more different.
James Stacey	Yeah. But yeah, other than that, man, I haven't been up too much, if I'm honest. I've been a little lazy. Got some work done last week, then went to the cottage, put the new Starlink in. The one I got last year broke. It just wouldn't come online. And they were super cool about it and just sent another. It was not necessarily the customer service experience I was expecting. I think I expect the worst these days. Yeah, right. And I answered a few of their questions, like on text message on my phone. And they're like, yeah, something's wrong. We can't fix it, really. So just We'll send you another one and we'll send you a label and you can send this one back. So that's what I've done. And I mean, I plugged the thing and it was online in, I don't know, four or five minutes. So watched the Monaco F1 from the cabin, which is a, you know, it's a high low scenario. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	Yeah.
James Stacey	That's yeah. That's a good weekend. A nice jump off the dock and, you know, got to pull a bunch of stuff around the property with the Jeep and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton	No real complaints. How about you? Good. Yeah, mine was quiet as well. Uh, Ghoshani was actually out of town. And, uh, so I was, I was just, uh, being a bachelor here at home. I did a little gardening. Um, I had visited my folks and, and got some plants from their garden and brought them here and planted them here. And then had a friend over for, uh, for a meal one night and, uh, kind of got caught up on a few things I had to get done when it was good and quiet here. And, um, I did have an interesting development though. Um, if you'll recall, friend of a friend back several months ago, sourced or found that Breitling Navitimer at a thrift shop in this small town down in Iowa. And he, this guy's a magician. He wrote me, um, a couple of days ago and he said, I found another interesting watch that you might be keen on. And he sent me some pictures and it is a far as I can tell from, from some research, um, it's a watch from the late 1700s, which is incredibly old. uh it says rose and sun uh london so presumably a old british pocket watch um in in a very dented kind of beat up i think it's a brass case you know took the back off kind of did some looking around there's the it's one of these kind of double cases where you hinge open the case and then the watch actually comes out of the case and then you can open that up both sides to set the hands or to look at the movement Um, there's a few watchmaker marks scratched on the inside of the case. Um, and then inside the outer case, there were these folded round cut pieces of paper that were like stuffed in there as padding. And it had like this image of a paddle wheel boat. And then as I was peeling away these different sheets of paper, it was like cut out circles of what looked like a German newspaper. It was in this old German script font. uh you know German language um kind of stuffed in the case and you know who better to ask about um this watch than our TGN alum Dr. Rebecca Struthers over in the UK who happens to be the foremost authority on antique watch restoration over there. So I sent her a couple of pictures and she gave me a little bit of feedback and asked me to look for a few things and we've been kind of going back and forth on it so you know it's just a fascinating find. I'm I've Got a fondness for pocket watches. I don't collect them. I have both of my grandfather's old Hamilton's, but, uh, this just seemed like such a fascinating, very old piece. I mean, something from the 1700s. I mean, there's almost, you almost find nothing from that era of any sort. And so it's a key winding watch. So it doesn't actually wind with the stem. It was before those days. And so I've sourced a set of pocket watch winding keys on Amazon, and those will be coming in the next day or two. So I can actually. See if this thing's actually holds a wind or if the mainspring just explodes and, you know, takes out my eye or something. Sure. So Gushani brought it back with her from, from her visit down to Iowa, uh, over the weekend. And I've been kind of looking at it through a loop and gingerly taking it apart here at my desk. And it's really, really cool.
James Stacey	That's awesome, man.
Jason Heaton	Yeah.
James Stacey	Congratulations. Yeah. Thanks. Very cool. Can't wait to hear how that develops as you learn a little bit more about it. I love that you can get vintage pocket watch winding keys on Amazon.
Jason Heaton	Yep. There's no end. What a world. What a world. Very cool.
James Stacey	That's great. And do you have any photos of that on the Instagram? I took the weekend off from social media.
Jason Heaton	I just put some up this morning. Yeah. And it's gotten some interesting comments and Dr. Struthers commented on it. And yeah, we've been kind of going back and forth. So yeah, it's a lot of fun.
James Stacey	Well, I'll be sure to put that in the show notes if people would like to check it out or swing by Jason's Instagram for the direct link. But you want to jump into some wrist check?
Jason Heaton	Yeah, let's do it. I've actually got that Breitling Navitimer on my wrist. I pulled it out over the weekend when the pocket watch arrived just as kind of an homage to that, wearing something old and interesting. And yeah, I've got that. It's been a very rainy couple of days here, so I'm not stepping out of the house with it on my wrist, because it even knew that watch had no water resistance at all. So that will stay safely either under my cuff or in a box here in my office. But yeah, that's what I've got at the moment. How about you?
James Stacey	Nice. Yeah, I'm actually wearing my Aqualand. I put it on on Friday to take it up to the cottage. You know, it's going to be jumping in the dark and cutting grass. It's just like it's It's just such a tool-ish thing. So that's the JP 2007 17W. It's the lume dial. We're quickly becoming, I think, my favorite Citizen of all time, or at least in my top three. It's on the Mount Rushmore, the Citizen Mount Rushmore for sure, with its glowing face and its weird dark dial or dark case. I've got it on like a $12 strap from Amazon. I think I gave you one of the same strap, this sort of sandy two-piece NATO style. It's so good. It's really, really good. Yeah. way better than the strap should be for the $12, even including a black plated buckle. But I wore this all weekend. It's easily the biggest watch that I can sleep with. It's just so comfortable. I don't take it off. The loom is strong enough in contrast that you can read it in the middle of the night without toasting your eyes. I really like having the anti-digi functions. for timing stuff and that sort of thing. Because, you know, you're always doing three or four things at the cottage and one of them is usually in the oven and about to burn if you're me. So it's helpful to have the chronograph and that kind of thing. I just absolutely love this watch. It's great.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. And speaking of that strap, I, before I put the Breitling on, I was wearing my, I've got this vintage Aqualan from the mid eighties with the steel case. And I put that on that strap and that's how I've been wearing it. And I've got it on my desk next to me here. And it just looks so good. I need to, it always bothers me when the, the buckle material or color is different than the case of the watch. And that is a slight niggle for me because it's a black buckle with a steel case watch, but you know, I'll get over it. But I was wondering, I was going to ask you actually, if that strap came in other sizes and other buckle materials.
James Stacey	Do you remember? I don't know offhand, but what I will do is I'll go back through my Amazon. It may be an amazon.ca thing. I'll double check. If I can find the .com, I'll put it in the show notes as well. but I'll find the link to this, to a version of this. My guess is it's also the kind of thing that like a little bit of hunting on Timu or Alibaba, it's probably more like two or three dollars, but you have to buy 50 of them or something like that. It's definitely not a high quality product, but it suits the watch really well and it's good enough, if that makes sense. It's soft, it's pliable, it's very simple. I think... Well, I bought two of the same, so you had the same, It even came with quick release spring bars. Yeah, yeah. I didn't trust those. I didn't like the feel of them and they kind of clicked around inside the lug. Yeah. So I tore those out and put in more burly bars, but nice little strap for the money. I'll dig up some reference of it and put it in the show notes for people to check out if you have a watch that needs a 24 millimeter strap that doesn't add any bulk. I don't know that this is necessarily the sort of watch I would put on on a NATO just because it wears in such a specific way on your wrist that lifting it up would change that. Yeah. And I think this gives you the gray tan sort of NATO vibe, but with zero bulk. Right. It's nice. Yeah. And inexpensive. Yeah. I have no complaints about this watch. Great product. Fun stuff. Good stuff. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	And it's, I believe it's an anniversary of Promaster. So we'll see what they come up with that, probably a windup. That'll be fun. Fun to see.
James Stacey	Yeah, wind up or in towards the gift-giving season, as they call it. But hey, how about we jump into some Bond?
Jason Heaton	Yeah, I think so. Cue the music, right? I mean, this is... Yeah, exactly.
James Stacey	We legally can't use the music. I was going to write like a whole intro based on lyrics from Bond songs. But admittedly, I got bored after about three sentences. So this is not the end. You need not hold your breath nor count to 10. If you missed the last episode, which to be fair, was a very long episode. So some of you might have to do it in multiple chunks, that sort of thing. With Richie Kohler, we were talking about the possibility of coming up with our own Bond, kind of the layout of the structure of a Bond film. So we're gonna leave plot out of this. If you have plot ideas, Jason, by all means, share them. I have ideas, but I don't have a full storyline. Yeah, yeah. But we're talking about who would we want to play Bond, the Bond girl, the villain, the henchman, Q, M, who may be directed, cinematography, theme song, cars, gadgets, that sort of stuff. We're going to fill in those blanks as we go and each kind of design our idea of what could kind of be the next Bond film. This is Bond 26 that's coming up. They haven't officially announced who will be playing Bond, so I did want to get in before that. To be fair, they could announce Aaron Taylor-Johnson or whoever before this episode comes out, it could happen tomorrow. Yeah. I don't know that there was a huge lead up to, you know, the big Thames boat ride with Daniel Craig back. I don't even know how many years ago. Do you remember that when that would have been 20 years ago when they announced Greg? Yeah. So I guess the easiest place to start would be who's going to play bond. Sure. But it may be to do that. You might want to explain and I'll let you go first if you'd like. Sure. Um, I think if we're gonna start with who's playing Bond, we also have to kind of explain what sort of Bond film this will be. Yeah. Because obviously there's been, what, six or seven Bonds, and they all bring a certain thing of their own to the world. Yeah. Maybe Craig was considered the Dark Bond, because that was the era of films that it was made as well. I don't know that it was like he was intentionally set to be the Dark Bond, and you had kind of... There was goofy elements to some of them, and there were some that were more serious, and that sort of thing. So I'm keen to hear who you've got. If you want to kick it off, please feel free.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, so I've had this kind of feeling since, you know, Craig did his swan song and went off stage that, you know, they're going to have to reboot the series with a new actor and probably a bunch of new actors. And so I thought this seems like it would be a prime time for them to not only reboot the kind of the Bond franchise with this movie, but, but to kind of do it in a way that goes back to the beginning, they've never really done a throwback kind of, um, what would you call it? Like setting it at a different era. And I think like a period piece, period piece. Exactly. And I think, you know, Bond, uh, Fleming was writing these, these books, uh, starting in 53. So, you know, a lot of his stuff is set in the mid fifties and I'd love to see Bond 26 pick up things like the beginning. You know, Casino Royale arguably was a reboot. It was the introduction of Daniel Craig as a new 007. And in this case, I would like to see it set in the late 50s, like during the era in which Fleming was writing these books. And so that's where I want my film to be set and kind of carry on from there. And I think I've got two actors in mind for Bond. I'm going to give you my a actor and I'll, I'll wait to hear your choice before I introduce kind of my second option. But the guy that I've, I've really kind of earmarked for, for the role is, uh, I believe he's a British actor, possibly Irish given his name, Jack O'Connell. So Jack O'Connell was, he's been in a number of films, but most recently I saw him in the series SAS rogue heroes, which was based on a really great book. And, loosely based on the history of the formation of the SAS during kind of the desert war of World War II. And O'Connell plays Patty Maine, who is foremost, you know, one of the great kind of heroes of SAS history. And he's just so convincing in the role. He has a certain menace to him. He has the looks. I think a lot of people focus on the looks of Bond. I don't necessarily think that he has to be, you know, an Adonis necessarily. I think O'Connell definitely has a kind of a brooding hero look about him, but I think if you watch him in any of his roles, I think you'll get the vibe that I think he would make a good bond. And I think he's been talked about as a possibility for the role. I believe he has. Yeah. So he, he's my first choice just based on a few actors. You know, I, I kind of, you know, you mentioned Aaron Taylor Johnson and I think, you know, he's, he's been kind of earmarked as a front runner and I kind of avoided him. I don't see him in that role. I'll wait to hear what you think, but I just feel like I prefer O'Connell and I think he's my number one choice. So that's where I'm going at this point. So kind of a reboot set in the late fifties period piece with Jack O'Connell as Bond is where I'm starting things off here. Do you have a title for yours? I do. Yeah. My, my working title is dead reckoning.
James Stacey	Oh, well it have actual sailing in it. Unlike, um, Mission Impossible dead reckoning.
Unknown	Yeah, right.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, I'm thinking it'll have some kind of a nautical, nautical element to it, whether, you know, Bond is a former Navy man. So I think it would, it would kind of make sense, but, uh, that's, that's as far as I've gotten in terms of a plot, it will have nautical elements, but a title dead reckoning, uh, set in the late fifties.
James Stacey	Okay.
Jason Heaton	I love this.
James Stacey	This is really cool. Yeah. Very different than the direction I'm going. All right. All right.
Jason Heaton	You're going on outer space.
James Stacey	I'm not going into outer space. No, I have a loose plot, which we can get into if we want to. I just don't know that it's specifically important. Yeah. But I'm going to start with the title of mine. It's called There's Nothing at the End. Oh, nice.
Jason Heaton	That's very Bondish.
James Stacey	Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did find We can maybe end on this if we remember. I did find a random generator of Bond titles. Oh, wow. To be fair, there's nothing at the end I already had. I just think it's a cool name and kind of fun, but there's a really... And it's this James Bond title generator and they're really funny. It's very silly. It's clearly just pulling from a selection of words and fitting in like a... So we can roll the dice on a few of those towards the end of the show if we want. Oh, that's great. But yeah, it's called There's Nothing at the End. This is going to be a very, very modern Bond. And I think the main goal in my mind is to appeal to a group of people who don't even remember where Daniel Craig came from because they're too young. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we remember Layer Cake. Sure. I'm probably on the younger side of people who were obsessed with Layer Cake. Yeah. Yeah. Give or take. Yeah. I've outlined an entire plan here that I think will largely hinge on picking personalities that I do think would work really well, but we'll paint a very, very different bond picture for probably a younger audience. And a lot of this has, I would say like millennial references kind of painted throughout it. So my actual bond choice, I have to give the hat tip to my wife, Sarah, because we had one name and we can get into all this right after this if we want, because it's a fun conversation while we're still on bond before we move on. But I'm going with Daniel Kaluuya. who I just didn't realize was British. Otherwise he would have been like very early in the running for me. I absolutely love every time I see this guy on screen, he's menacing, but he has this kindness that isn't common to Bond. Oh, that's a great choice. And I do, I genuinely believe like, he's British. He is the right age where he's not too young to be taken seriously, but not too old to not be able to do the physicality of the job. Yeah. Right. I, you know, I don't know him as an action star, but I don't think that's as big a hurdle as it used to be because you don't need to be, you know, five foot seven and 300 pounds of muscle to be an action star anymore. They kind of, they can make it happen for just like they made it happen for frigging Keanu Reeves twice, twice over in his career, at least twice, call it three times. If we go into four times and like, he's not the most likely guy to be an action star. So I think, yeah, it's Daniel Kaluuya. Yeah. And I would just be so pumped to see him as Bond.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. Great choice. I love it. I love it. Yeah. He wasn't even on my radar. And, uh, yeah, good, good call. Hat tip to Sarah there. And that was a good one. Yeah. She killed it.
James Stacey	Yeah. Yeah. And I think, yeah, I just, I'm a huge fan of this guy. I think O'Connell's perfect. He was definitely in my 10, uh, in the running he's in, like, I think he makes the case for himself so quickly in, yeah. SAS rogue heroes.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	Like you said, it's a menace. Like there's something uncomfortable just under the surface, but he has it kind of under control. Right. Until he's being violent or drinking or, or, you know, putting all of those together and you get this wildness that I really like. Did you have a second choice? I'm sure I did. So B choice is a, was the one that was, has, he's been my number one for a very long time. And I think he would be a safer pick than Kuluya. It helps that he's a white guy, right. In the Bond lineage. Robert Pattinson.
Jason Heaton	Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, I could see that.
James Stacey	You go back and watch Tenant where he plays Neil. Neil, for me, is just a Bond. He's a double O. Yeah. He's 38. Yeah. So by the time you made the first film, he would be into his 40s, but he's crazy famous with a huge group of people who probably don't watch Bond films that often. Right? Which I think could be hugely valuable. Yeah. And I think, obviously, he's British, he's handsome. He has done some background in you know, action style films. Yeah. And that sort of thing. So it wouldn't be like a brand new genre to try and make the move. But he was, he was the other that was high on the list, but the, it would came down to three that we argued about for some time between Kaluuya Pattinson and Dev Patel. Oh, I still think Dev Patel would be an incredible bond.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. Yeah. I do like that. I like, I like all three actually.
James Stacey	Yeah. Pattinson. And he's in his early thirties. He's 34. He just did monkey man. He can do an action role. He's, obviously handsome and, and imposing and everything you kind of want from a bond. Yeah. I think he'd be incredible. Like I think it would be just a wildly cool bond.
Jason Heaton	I agree. I think, um, you know, it raises the question that has come up several times, even during the making of no time to die. When it was revealed that there was a double Oh seven, who was a woman, a black woman in the movie, um, whether bond needs to be white, male, British, et cetera. And, you know, I don't know where you come down on it, but I feel like Bond needs to be male for one thing, just, just based on kind of the lineage of the story and the books and that sort of thing. It doesn't need to be white. I think he needs to be British. Um, I think, you know, there, there, there was talk even back in the earliest days when they were looking for actors to play, even before they chose Connery, they had a couple of American actors in mind, which I, I'm really glad they haven't gone that route. Um, of course, Lazardy was James Bond. Oh no. Lazenby was Australian, but you know, close, close enough with all apologies to Australians. I don't mean to insult you in that way, but, but yeah, definitely. I think, but I think, um, does not have to be white. I think Kulia and Dev Patel would be a spectacular choices. I think those are great.
James Stacey	Yeah. Yeah. I don't think he, I don't think the, the race matters at all at this point, like the ethnicity of Bond, I think he has to be demonstrably from England and England has a very broad spectrum of skin tones and cultures. Yeah. Represented in one place. So, you know, it doesn't get much more multicultural than London. Probably not. Yeah. So I don't, none of that would bother me, but I do agree that, um, while a double, Oh, doesn't have to be a man. James Bond is a man. Yeah. So like, I think they can do exactly what they did with, with LaShawna Lynch. I absolutely love her. She's in my film. No question. And she can be double Oh, that doesn't buy it. Like who's double Oh, or what? Like Bond gets double a seven back towards the end of sure. no time to die. And then of course there's an ending that makes that largely irrelevant. But I have no problem with the double O being a woman. It's just for that person, even for double a seven to be a woman, like with LaShawna Lynch, it just doesn't make sense for James Bond to suddenly be a woman. Right. Exactly. Like Kim Sherwood's books make that really clear that, you know, with Joanna and the rest of it, that you can go really far with, it makes no difference what it's arguably, it adds a really exciting dynamic to the story. that has so far, at least in the past, largely been connected to, let's call it 24 of the 25 films. It's largely been connected to the idea that that dynamic, the male female dynamic, is between Bond and the Bond girl. Whereas it is 2024, it could be between Bond and another double O with a different sort of power structure at play there, if you will. But yeah, I think it would not bother me at all if they went really almost any direction with a Bond, as long as they went at it like in a way that felt intentional. Right. Those would be the three that that leap for me. What were what were your alts beyond Jack?
Jason Heaton	I only had one alt and that was Richard Madden. Oh, yeah. You know, he was good and you've seen him in a few things, but but he stood out in the bodyguard. I think he plays kind of a Bond-esque character. I think he's kind of a former soldier, if not special forces, who You know, he was brought in to be the bodyguard to, I believe, the foreign minister or maybe even the prime minister. I can't recall, but just a good role, you know, and I think he's got the physicality, the brooding looks. Of course he was in Game of Thrones. Yep. Yeah. He's got it all. I think he's good too.
James Stacey	So that was my, my plan B. And then just, just, just cause we're pulling at threads and having a good time here. What does Aaron Taylor Johnson lack in, in what you're thinking for a bond?
Jason Heaton	To be fair, I, I, I'm only basing that on, and As I mentioned earlier, it, you shouldn't focus solely on looks and I'm, I'm, I can only base it solely on looks because I have not seen him in a movie. I know he was in that movie with, I believe Brad Pitt. Um, you'll remember the name. Yeah. Bullet train, which I haven't seen. I think I started it and I was like, yeah, this isn't my thing. So I quit.
James Stacey	Um, I couldn't see you loving bullet train. Uh, but tenant, he's incredible.
Jason Heaton	Ah, right. Okay. He was in that. Yeah. I'll need to rewatch. I, I mean, I, I can see it. I can see it in the looks to a certain degree, but I don't know. I just, you know, in my mind, I think everybody has a kind of an ideal bond. And I think like O'Connell and Madden kind of fit that, that look. And I think Kaluuya certainly does. I think Dev Patel would be an interesting choice. He wouldn't be top, top of my list, but I think Kaluuya is a spot on. And so, yeah, that's where I'm at. What about you? What do you think of Aaron Taylor Johnson?
James Stacey	I think it could be really good. Um, my thing is I have, I have trouble even now, like once you're bond, you're just, that's how I kind of think of you. Oh yeah. And like, if I go back and watch the Thomas crown affair, I just see that as a bond film. Oh sure. You know what I mean? Like I just see like, he was Bond, like Pierce Brosnan. It doesn't matter what he does. It doesn't matter what they do. They'll be there. I see them on screen. I see Bond. Yeah. Yeah. I know. But there's always, there's that first moment like that, that, you know, the, Essentially, for me, like Daniel Craig, when he busts through the drywall in the parkour sequence in the opening of Casino Royale, that's the moment he became Bond.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	Yeah. You know, he's this guy you don't really know, talking on and watching a mongoose fight a snake and wanting to chase a bomb guy, and he goes through this whole thing. And for me, it's that opening sequence of the first film is when you go like, oh no, we have Bond now.
Jason Heaton	And it's redefined. Like this is a physical bond. This is a, you know, man, a few words, like all action kind of bond. Less so like witty.
James Stacey	Go back and watch that sequence at the consulate where he finally, he realizes he's in a corner and he grabs that guy and he shoots that tank and blow. It's so violent. Yeah. Yeah. And it's so callous the way that he moves through the world. Like he has said almost nothing. Yeah. And you know so much about his bond in moments. Yeah. Yeah. And if you put browsing in that same scene and told him to do the same thing, it wouldn't work. You're right. So you have to make the movie around the bond. And I don't, my problem with Johnson is I can't see the bond in him. Yeah. I'm not saying it's not there, but like if you put him in a tuxedo, I don't think that gets him closer to being bond. And if you think of him at the end of tenant where they're destroying, taking the machine apart and making their little death pledge, That feels very bond to me, but he doesn't have the, he doesn't, he lacks, it's just like a, it's a haircut and beard thing. Like they have to kind of give them the full bond aesthetic and then maybe I would get it, you know, and in bullet train, he's a little bit cleaned up, but he's got this kind of like wilder side, bright suits and like, and it's, it's a, it's in some ways further than from bond. So I'm pretty excited if that, if they go that route with him, because I think he can do it. Um, but it, it's, I'm, I'm excited about how surprising I'm going to find the first five minutes of the first film. Like I'm just pumped for it. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	All right. Let's, uh, I think the, a logical place to go here is to, uh, Bond's boss. Uh, who do you have for M?
James Stacey	Okay. So M, M was a lot of talk in my home about, about the M choice and I settled on, uh, Idris Elba, who I still think should have been Bond 15 years ago. first of all, I want to be clear, I'll also just keep her off fines.
Unknown	Yeah, he's amazing.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, I just love him. Yeah, I wasn't sure if we're allowing like carry overs, because I think he's he's amazing.
James Stacey	Yeah, I think he's incredible. I'm only the only reason I put I picked an M was was this idea of maybe starting like a clean slate. Yeah. But if you if we got to keep him and that was the continuity between Yep. Yep. One generation of bond to the next fine by me. But if you want a handsome dashing kind of daring guy who can stand up super straight, like, like Ralph Fiennes. Yeah. And can, and if you give him a gun, can shoot it without looking like a knucklehead and the rest of it. Yeah. Like Idris Elba.
Jason Heaton	I just love the guy. I think it would be an interesting hat tip too, because I think Elba was a lot of people's choice for Bond for, for many years. Like to, to put, to put him in the M role, I think would, it's like M used to be, you know, like it's kind of a guy who moved, he's moved up in the ranks from being the guy who pulls the trigger to the guy who makes the decisions. And I think he would carry that off convincingly.
James Stacey	Yeah. And I think like, if you, if you ended up finding out they, they, maybe they tease out that he was a double O at one point. Yeah. The new M, you know, used to be in the program and that kind of like you could make, and then you could give an excuse for an action sequence with him in it. You know, there's, there's other, there's other guys I could list, but we don't, we don't have the option. I still think it would have been absolutely incredible to have had Sean Connery as M. Right. Yeah. Like I just think it would have been so cool. Yeah. Especially with a new young bond and suddenly you have the first bond is now the boss. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that kind of stuff would be really fun. But in my mind, like it very quickly went to, um, like obviously I think that needs to be British. Uh, we've had, uh, men and women play the role in, in, in the recent films. Yeah. And I think if you're going clean slate Idris Elba would be pretty high on the list, but man, like, like I could do that. Mark strong. Like I could do this for about 45. There's so many good British actors that can just be like kind of imposing and imperious, but have the warmth that M is required to kind of balance out how murderous Bond can be. And to be fair, the last few films, they really leaned on Moneypenny for that warmth and less so M. I really liked the prickly relationship that Craig had with Judi Dench's M. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, I think that's the direction. I think it'd just be super fun to see that. Yeah. Yeah. How about you? Who's your M? Dominic West.
Jason Heaton	Oh, great call. Great call. Dominic West.
James Stacey	He's probably just barely the right age too. So you, he wouldn't be too old after four films.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. I I'm mesmerized by that guy when I see him in anything. I mean, he's, he's, of course he was in the wire. That was like his big breakthrough. Like he plays an American cop in Baltimore. Yeah. Well, and he did it with Idris Elba. And that, yeah, exactly. And then he was in, um, uh, uh, the affair, which was like a weird role also played an American, but then I've seen him in, in several, like, you know, British series and movies and things. And of course he was in, uh, he was in SAS rogue heroes, kind of played an M style character. He was in, um, of course the crown, he played a Prince Charles. Um, I just think he's a really versatile actor. He's got a very expressive face. I think he can play very serious, very, you know, very M sort of like down to business sort of guy, but he has this like charm to him. And this sort of way of, you know, cocking an eyebrow or a half smile that I think, I think makes him very versatile. And I think he just has the right delivery. So I think he'd be a good one. I had kind of a plan B that I thought was, um, this will come as a bit of a surprise, but, um, do you know who Indira Varma is? She's a British actress. Um, she was actually in game of Thrones. She's currently, she's currently on stage with Ralph Fiennes, uh, in Macbeth. She plays lady Macbeth. Um, I think she's the right age. I think she's, um, I mean, she goes way back. I remember her in Kama Sutra back in 1996 and, and she's been in just so many things. And I think she's a great actress. I like the kind of alternate between male and female Ms. I think, you know, Judi Dench is arguably the best. Um, Ray fines was great. I think if, if we're going to go back to a woman, I think someone like Indira Varma, she's the right age. She has this sort of commands of respect on screen. Um, The other person I thought of was Kristen Scott Thomas as M, but I was just going to say you can't because of your second desk. Yeah, exactly. I mean, too, too close to slow horses, but, uh, but she'd be great. And so I was trying to, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So those are, those were my choices for him.
James Stacey	Those are good, good picks, man. I like those a lot for sure. Yeah. Um, all right. We want to do, we want to do Bond girl for lack of a better, for lack of a better term. Yeah. Yeah. Who do you got? So this was a really tough one for me. I ended up with three again, again, with the goal of, of hitting a younger audience as culturally broad an audience as possible. We're going to go with an American.
Unknown	Oh, okay.
James Stacey	Um, and I'm going to go with, uh, Maya Hawk. Don't even know who that is. Uh, so if you, if you saw a stranger things, uh, she was one of the leads in the most recent, uh, season. She is, uh, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawks daughter. Okay. She's quite talented. I think that would give an entirely different vibe than Lea Seydoux. I'm a huge Lea Seydoux fan. You know, I think deep down there's a version of me where it was just absolutely Ana de Armas as Paloma, but she's already been established in a previous and it wouldn't, I don't think it would make sense if she was suddenly the love interest. Like I think she, again, I would like to have her in this movie to do another sequence like the Cuba sequence from No Time to Die. But I don't think that it would necessarily... In the presence of some sort of a clean slate, Maya Haack was what we landed on. I thought she was... She's great in everything I've caught her in so far. You look back on some Bond women in the films and they're somewhat forgettable or callously placed in the film for one... And then you have others where it's a much more powerful sort of position. And I think it'd be cool to see especially with what we dealt with over the Daniel Craig ones, with obviously him having a long-standing emotional connection to Ava Greene's character, Vesper Lind, and then with Lea Seydoux, we kind of only got two very memorable Bond... Three, if you include M in Skyfall, but two very memorable Bond women from that kind of run, and I think either one of them could have kind of existed throughout most of the films as his foil. And I think there's an opportunity to do that and lean in a little bit, a little bit less towards just the sexual dynamic and more towards like a relationship or even crafting this other person as an element of the, of the plot line. That's more than a damsel tied to the track sort of scenario. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. Yeah. That's a good call. And I think, I think weaving the term bond girl just troubles me, but anyway, I know I'm trying, I was trying to find another, but it's, it's, it's the common term, so we'll go with it. But, but I think, you know, weaving the Bond girl into the plot as a crucial element, like Paloma in No Time to Die. I think having her be sort of another agent or someone, you know, undercover or something or other is a good choice. And for mine, I have two choices. I think both of these would be strong. I think one, the first choice is Niv Sultan, Uh, she's an Israeli actress who was in this series called Tehran, uh, in which she actually played a spy, uh, undercover in like the Iranian nuclear program. She, she has certainly has the, the, the looks to pull it off, but I think there's also a certain sort of intelligence in her character. And certainly I've been probably colored by watching that series, which I highly recommend. I thought it was fantastic. I think there were two seasons.
Unknown	Okay.
Jason Heaton	She, she just plays the role really well. The other choice that I was coming up with, and I think you've seen. Um, special ops lioness. I think you've seen that series. Oh yeah, of course. The, uh, kind of the main actress besides Zoe Saldana was, uh, I think her name is Laisla or Laila de Oliveira. Um, she kind of plays the, kind of the main character in that series. Yeah. And I, I think she would be great. She's very dynamic, very physical, very, um, kind of action oriented, very beautiful, of course. Um, and I think she would make a good foil for, for bond as well. I think there'll be some good kind of. chemistry there and kind of interplay between the two. So yeah, those are my two picks. Yeah.
James Stacey	Yeah. My backups were, I mean, Circe Ronan, I think would be incredible. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, and I also, I don't know, I don't know how I feel about her in an action central role. Uh, whereas like Circe Ronan had Hannah and I think Maya Hawk, you know, there's lots of action throughout Stranger Things and that sort of thing. But the third one that hit my radar that I really like, I like everything she's in, as Anya Taylor-Joy. Oh, yeah. I just don't know necessarily how she would line up for more of an action setting, but with the right time and effort and training, I think it could work out. And she's very dynamic and fun to watch, and she can be funny and she can be kind of aloof. And obviously, this would break up the kind of American element that I was talking about in giving her... But she's carried so many otherwise American roles in some films recently and TV series recently. So I think she'd be an interesting option. Those are kind of the three. I can't tell you that like I have one feeling where one would be significantly better than the other of the three, but those are, those are kind of the three that hit me for the quote unquote bond girl. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	Good, good call. Moving on, sticking to kind of the female roles. Who do you have for, for Moneypenny? Emma Watson. Oh, okay. Yeah. Good. Okay. Good one. Yep. I can see that.
James Stacey	Yep. I think she can do just about anything that she wants to do. I think she'd be really exciting to see in an action role. And, you know, obviously, previously, in the last few films, we've seen Moneypenny enter the field and work alongside Bond, in some cases, wounding Bond. Yeah. And I just I think she's her draw is massive. Like I think people she has must have one of the wider scopes were like, my daughters would know her because of Harry Potter films that were made before either of them were born. Yeah. And someone like my father would recognize her from, again, from Harry Potter or, or, or something else. I just think she has a huge presence and I think suits that role kind of nicely.
Unknown	Yeah. Good one.
Jason Heaton	Would you have for money? This might be oddly similar to that choice, maybe, uh, younger, but, um, Jodi Comer.
James Stacey	Oh, sure. Yeah. Oh, she's incredible. That's a good pick.
Jason Heaton	I think she's a, she's a good actress. She's, um, maybe a bit on the young side. I just noticed she's only 31, but that that's okay. And I, but I think she has this, um, quirkiness to her, this sort of unpredictability and, and, you know, maybe it's coming from watching killing Eve, but like just this like almost nerdy quirkiness tour that I think would work well, but there's enough of a flirtatious element that I think would, would fit well with, with kind of the usual bond money penny chemistry. So yeah, she, she's my pick. That's great. Yeah. I don't really have a second choice. I, I had a hard time with this one for some reason. I, I really liked, Uh, Naomi Harris, I think she's, again, it's one of those choices where if they carried her over from one to the next, which, you know, look, there's a long history of that. Uh, uh, Lois Maxwell played, played money penny for a number of films. And of course we've had, uh, we've had Samantha Bond played them throughout the Brosnan movies. So there's, there's precedent for that. But if we're starting from scratch, I'm going to go with Jodi Comer.
James Stacey	Nice. I love it. Yeah. She's, uh, she's, uh, awesome in, in killing Eve. Yeah. All right, so what do we have next? You want to do Q? You want to do Felix?
Jason Heaton	Yeah, let's finish the MI6 roster here with Q. So who's your Q? Okay, I'll go first. Yeah, I have Q. All right, Q is tough as well, but you want sort of nerdy scientist. I was debating whether you go young or old, just wasn't sure on this one. But one of my favorite actors who's been in so many great great films and tv shows uh is toby jones of course he was in uh tinker taylor soldier spy one of my favorite films he was in the detectorists he was in uh i mean he's just been in so many great movies he's he's played you know truman capote etc i think he's he's got sort of the interesting physical characteristics he's sort of a odd looking guy that has sort of visually interesting um and i think he he would i could see him like being in the lab kind of coming up with interesting gadgets. And I think since my film is sort of a, a throwback piece or a period piece, I think he, he can, he can slide right into kind of a 1950s role. I think he's played that role probably several times. I can picture him sort of a tweed suit, you know, or a lab coach or something like that. So yeah, Toby Jones, my second choice, if you don't mind, I'll throw this out there. Martin Freeman. Oh, great. Perfect. Who was a spectacular actor. I'm not sure he'd be, Great for Q. He could probably be M. I don't know, but he's really, really good. He was in Sherlock. He's been in just so many great stuff. He often plays a cop or whatever else, but I think he'd be good as well. But Toby Jones is my first choice for Q. I love it.
James Stacey	That was great. Great picks. I had a lot of trouble with Q because I think if you're looking for people that could fit the role, it could be anybody that you think. Think of who's had it. It's a pretty wide cast of characters that have carried Q. And they always get four minutes to make a couple quips about how Bond destroys everything, show off a gadget or two. And then in later films, some of them are actually involved in plot points, whether it be hacking a computer or that sort of thing. I really thought Colin Firth would be really fun for this, especially if you had Daniel Kaluuya, because Colin Firth is more of a traditional Bond figure, could be in the great suit, could But then it's like he did Kingsman. Does that kind of take him out of the bond space? Yeah. You know, I've, I've at least read anecdotally that the, you know, the, the, the group that puts together the bond films under the broccoli's direction doesn't love it when they're looking at somebody and that person's doing spy movies. Yeah. So if not him, I really liked Nicholas Holt.
Unknown	Oh yeah.
James Stacey	Yeah. Um, might be a little bit too close to Ben Wishaw in just general. Yeah. sort of vibe, but I like him quite a bit and I think that could work. But I didn't have, I didn't have like a name that was like, this is absolutely Mike. Yeah. Yeah. It just, it didn't, it didn't happen for me. So I think that could go. I also do love the idea of like a Simon Pegg or Nick Frost, like make, make a reference to another big British sort of element in the Cornetto trilogy. But obviously like Simon Pegg is also in spy movies. Right. uh and and so that that can become kind of kind of difficult as well but yeah there's there's a lot i like the idea of it being somebody kind of funny with a bit of an edge but also someone who has trouble interfacing like with the way that bond the sort of power that bond has um i think that's always kind of interesting where they see him as kind of a blunt object and he sees them as kind of a guy that gives them pens and guns. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I think if you could find someone that fell into that dynamic nicely, almost anyone could work here. Yeah. I think this could be also be a good role for you or me in the film.
Jason Heaton	Sure. I'll throw my hat in the ring. Although we're not British, so I'm not sure we'd qualify, but it'd be weird.
James Stacey	Yeah. I know I'm not known for my, uh, decidedly tidy, uh, English accent.
Jason Heaton	Right.
James Stacey	Right.
Jason Heaton	What about CIA? What about Felix Leiter? Uh, Bond's, you know, American counterpart.
James Stacey	Sure. Uh, I mean, I, I, I have two, I have two names for this one and I like both of them a lot, but it's definitely Ben Affleck. Wow. I was not expecting that. Wow. It's Ben Affleck or it's Steve Carell.
Jason Heaton	Amazing. Okay. I was not expecting those.
James Stacey	Both I think would be, it's partially a stunt cast, but go back and watch any Steve Carell where he's not being specifically funny.
Unknown	Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacey	Oh, he's good. He's amazing. Foxcatcher. Great. This would get us the office crowd. This would get us late night. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like all these worlds where Steve Carell is this beloved person for great reason, but aren't always the same world that wants to go watch a James Bond film. Yeah. And I think if you had him in a semi, like as Felix, I think that would be fascinating. And I think where Steve Carell would go kind of one direction, Ben Affleck brings this brick wall of intimidation to a role. that I just... And he is so deeply one of my most favorite actors. I think it would... And you could almost instantly drop into action sequences with, say, Kaluuya and Affleck. Ben's done a ton of action films.
Jason Heaton	That's a wild choice. That is just totally out of left field.
James Stacey	I didn't want to expect that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we haven't gotten to director. You could put his name in there too. Sure. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. But, uh, so who do you have for, uh, for Felix?
Jason Heaton	Who's your Felix? Yeah, I think mine might be equally unpredictable. Um, going back to a TV series that I just mentioned, uh, I'm going to go with Zoe Saldana as Felix.
Unknown	Okay.
Jason Heaton	She kind of plays that in Lioness special ops. I think she's, has a seriousness to her that, you know, Felix, I think, um, he's, he's kind of a happy go lucky sidekick in some films, but I think this would introduce a bit more of a raw, kind of serious tone, like this is a serious operator. This is some like, you know, like you mentioned with, with Affleck, like, I think she could do action stuff. I think she, Oh, she definitely can. Yeah. She wouldn't put up with bonds kind of, you know, flirtations and this and that. Um, I think introducing a female character, maybe even with the name Felix, I think would be kind of a fun twist, uh, kind of presenter as, as, uh, you know, he, he gets introduced to the CIA person that, you know, at the airport who happens to Kind of like in Doctor No when he first meets Felix and, you know, I think that would be kind of a neat opening kind of barrage when they meet each other to kind of introduce Zoe Saldana as Felix. I'm not sure that, you know, given my concept for the film being a period piece, I'm not sure, you know, having a black woman as a CIA agent in the 1950s would definitely fly, but, you know, who cares? We're bending rules here. So I think it should be great.
James Stacey	Yeah, no, I mean, if you haven't seen, if you're listening to this and you haven't seen Lioness, which is another of the Taylor Sheridan programs, just its first season last year, really good kind of spec ops drama. Yeah. And she's incredible in it. Yeah. Yeah. Really great. All right. Who, what else we got here? We still got, we got the good guys. Yeah. You want to do some bad guys? We got, we got to do the bad guys. Yeah. Who's your villain? Let's see. Okay. So this one's I'm going to, I'm going to lose some faith. I'm going to, I'm going to divide the crowd a bit with this one. It's Shia LaBeouf. Oh, really? Wow. Yeah. Okay. He's just, he's literally just starting a sort of comeback. He's cleaned up his act. He's apparently sober and all that kind of stuff. And if you want to speak to somebody, if you want to pull it, the pop culture heartstrings of somebody, my age, maybe a little older, a little younger around my age, it's Shia LaBeouf. He was in a ton of stuff. He was going to be the next big guy. He clearly had some struggles being a child actor, the rest of it, not the purview of this show. to get into that kind of thing. But one, I love the idea of a younger Bond bad guy. I thought Remy Malek was great, but I think that where Remy Malek needed the somewhat sort of... Remy Malek's character hit me as a little bit of a bit, if that makes sense. He had some things he had to be doing to sell the overall character. I think that Shia LaBeouf could just be menacing. he has a crazy element. And I think with the right henchman and you're not ready for my two henchmen. Oh boy. Cause in my mind, this is a, um, this is a, uh, a bond that circles around the world of West coast tech culture. Ah, okay. All right. And seasteading. And so if you imagine Shia LaBeouf somehow playing like a movie, bad guy version of somebody I already feel isn't necessarily the nicest dude, Peter Thiel. That sort of vibe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a Mark Zuckerberg, but totally evil. Yeah, yeah. With an unlimited amount of money, a huge control of data, and then maybe they're trying to steal an atomic clock so they can change the timing of the Bitcoin chain. I don't know. I haven't figured out that much. Yeah, yeah. And I think him at the lead of that, maybe with a weird haircut, would really go a long way. And I think that it would call in a certain it would call in a certain crowd that would never go to a Bond movie. Oh, that's good.
Jason Heaton	I like it. I like it. I, I have to admit, I'm looking through his list of movies that he's been in. I don't know that I've ever seen him in a film. I know who he is. I'm very aware of him, but I mean, I'm sure I've seen some.
James Stacey	I grew up with even Stevens and holes and, uh, disturbia was kind of, is like a remake of rear window sort of. He's had, I think he's had a tough career, but I think like if you want, if you wanted to try something, he's not a safe choice by any stretch. but I think it would be genuinely interesting and I have no doubts that he could deliver a bad guy. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. I can see it.
James Stacey	Yeah. All right. So should I do my henchman or do you want to give me your bad guy? Oh, you're on a roll. Go with your henchman. All right. So henchman one is, I got to have him. There's no way I can do a movie without him. It's John Barenthal. John Barenthal. All right. Running to Google here. I just adore him. He's in, um, he's in so many movies and so many roles that I adore. He can play a,
Unknown	Oh yeah, a nicer guy. Great choice.
James Stacey	But man, can he play a terrifying, mean dude that's coming for you. Yep. I love Jon Barenthal. Yeah. Just absolutely adore him. And so yeah, that would be... That'd be Henchman One. Good call. And then Henchman Two, this is a bit of a stunt pick, but I like it and I guarantee he could do it. You gotta go back and watch Baby Driver or take some of the angrier moments from The Town. It's Jon Hamm. Oh. So you got Jon Barenthal and Jon Hamm. As a henchman, really? Two, you know, six, six to just mean looking guys, give them again, a weird haircut goes a long way. Maybe a distinctive weapon, like one of them only uses, I don't know, a diamond studded knuckle duster, right? Like maybe Barenthal's got a real flashy bit of metal in hand. And, and I just, I see them also figuring out some way for them to kind of work together on something, like maybe tactically they were, they, they have a history together. So they, can do things without where normal people would have to communicate or they operate like one person. I'm not really sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. I mean, it's a wild crew, the bad guys in this one. It's a Shia LaBeouf, Jon Barenthal and Jon Hamm.
Jason Heaton	Those are odd choices. That's a, that's a weird bunch. Yeah. That's good though. That's good. Yeah.
James Stacey	I think so. I mean, I don't know. I think it could come together again. You have to go back and like watch the reference material for all these ideas. Like go back and watch Jon Hamm and Baby Driver. And I think he just has like a Bond henchman sort of vibe. Yeah. And he can also do any side of it. Like you want him to be a little bit funny. The guy does 5% funny as good as anyone.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	Yeah. You know, whether it's a 30 rock cameo or, or, you know, a throwaway line as Don Draper. Yeah. And then Barenthal, I think the Barenthal is the, the, the easiest yes of the three. He just is like, he has henchman energy. It's great.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. Good, good, good call. I think unpredictability is actually, effective when it comes to casting movies like this. I think you put a movie, you put someone, especially in the bad guy role, and it's like, what? I can't see him as that. And then like, if they pull it off.
James Stacey	We had Christopher Walken in the past. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, they're not always these conventional sort of, you know, just like, like bad versions of James Bond. They kind of have to be their own thing. And like, Shia LaBeouf couldn't be James Bond, but I do think he could be a Bond bad guy.
Jason Heaton	All right. I went with a bit, this is probably the most predictable choice for a Bond villain. Um, but I have a second choice that I think you're going to like, but my first choice just popped in my head, like immediately is a Killian Murphy. Oh yeah. The killer. I mean, like you just look at the guy, like he's, he has, he has that stone cold look and I just think he'd be, and the eyes, you know, and he's, he certainly played some villainous characters in the past. So I think he could pull it off. I think he has that sort of mastermind sort of evil, in him to pull that role off, even though when I've heard him in interviews, he sounds like a really sweet person. But yeah, he definitely does. I think he'd be great. He's such a tremendous actor. And I think, you know, following up on Rami Malek, I think, you know, to bring in somebody that everybody thinks would be great or like Christoph Waltz. I mean, they bring in these great actors that have this menace to them. And I think they always pull it off. My second choice is a guy you might not know him by name, but you've certainly seen him, Alfie Allen. And I'm pulling really strongly from SAS Rogue Heroes. I realize I've even got another choice from this as well. Oh, yeah.
James Stacey	But yeah, this guy has bad guy energy.
Jason Heaton	But he was in bad guy energy. I love it.
James Stacey	He's great. He was in Game of Thrones. I mean, he's the son in John Wick. Yes. The first John Wick.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, yeah, yeah. John Wick, Game of Thrones. He wasn't a bad guy in SAS Rogue Heroes, but like he just has this like quirky look and he can just deliver. So. Um, he might be better. He could also be a good henchman. So, you know, if he's my second choice for villain, maybe he's, maybe he's a henchman as well. But, uh, I'm going to go with Killian Murphy. Um, let's put Alfie Allen as a henchman. I'm going to, I'm going to demote him to, to henchman. Um, but, uh, in terms of henchman, I had, I had two other choices and one was, this was hard for me because, you know, I think, I think you, you kind of nailed it with your picks, but, Uh, and I don't follow boxing, but recently there was this big fight that everyone was talking about. And, uh, Tyson Fury, I think would make a good henchman. He's, he was this British heavyweight champion. Um, and I think to have somebody like Dave Bautista who played, uh, the henchman, I mean, you know, like pull a guy from, you know, the pro wrestling circuit or a pro boxer and put him in that role, you know, he's big, he's, he's strong. Like he's, you know, you just don't want to meet that guy in a dark alley. And then the other one was, uh, actually a woman. So hench woman, I guess, uh, Sophia Boutella, who's, I believe she's Algerian. She was also an SAS rogue hero. Sorry to keep harping on that movie, but she was also in Kingsman, um, and Atomic Blonde.
James Stacey	She's in one or two of the Star Trek, the more recent Star Trek films.
Jason Heaton	She's great. She, she has a certain look about her and she, I believe she is fluent in the martial arts, if not gymnastics or something. She does a lot of action sequences. And I think she, I think she'd be really good. So, um, I love it. I guess I've got three hench people if you throw Alfie Allen in there, but Alfie Allen could replace one of these two Tyson Fury or Sophia Boutella. Anyway, we got a good, we got a good crop of baddies in this film.
James Stacey	Yeah. Yeah. I mean the, the, the main bad guy, I almost figured like it makes sense to go like with somebody kind of conventional, like more so a Cillian Murphy than a Shia LaBeouf for example.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	But I just, I didn't come across someone who I was like, yeah, Cause like, I don't know if, I don't know if you'd give the whole thing to Barenthal. He's not that big a name. Right. Right. Like it would be cool for somebody like me, but like even, even in a film like, um, like Sicario, he's like a secondary bad guy. Yeah. Right. And I mean, speaking of that has Daniel Kulia and, and, uh, and actually two or three other names that I would like, uh, are in there. The, the bond thing, there's a lot of weight to picking a bond. Whereas like a bad guy, it's one, he's going to get one film. Right. Right. And I think, I want somebody that's nothing like Christoph Waltz. Yeah. Le Chiffre was just tonally perfect. Perfect. Absolutely. Possibly the best. I couldn't stop watching Mikkelsen in that role. There's not one scene where he's on screen that I would think about skipping. Yeah. No, he's the best. He's just amazing. It's so much fun to watch. Yeah. Do what he does in that. And then the same thing with Javier Bardem. Obviously, guy plays a bad guy really well. He does so in some of my most favorite films. But yeah, I think it's interesting for me because in my mind, it could have been Brolin. I love Brolin. I want an excuse to have Josh Brolin in a film. But he played the Marvel guy, the purple dude. Oh, yeah, right, right. He's the main bad guy for a bunch of those movies, I think. Those aren't my speed, those movies, to be fair. But I think he played the guy with the glove that kills half of everybody. So that kind of left him out. I'm not like 100% sold on Shia LaBeouf. I think it could be amazing, but I think you'd be taking a real risk with that. We like giving him that much and maybe it's him with a smaller role or whatever. I'm not sure, but I think some of these, we can get to director next or maybe we do theme and car. I don't know. I think some of my picks will make a little bit more sense when I tell you the director because I think it aligns with some of these kind of somewhat weirder takes and we'll kind of outline the tone the film will probably take.
Jason Heaton	Well, let's jump into that. I'm curious now.
James Stacey	Who's your director? So this is tough because obviously, uh, there's a bunch of incredible directors right now, but I wanted a bond that felt different.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	Right. So I'd like to keep, well, I'm going to do cinematography at the same time. So I'd like to keep Deakins. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Uh, to shoot it. Yeah. I just think he's done. There are, there are single frames of Skyfall that I would absolutely print and hang on a wall. Yeah. It's so beautiful. Yeah.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	But for my director, we're not going Mendez, we're not going Villeneuve. I don't want a dark bond, but I want a really raw bond for a brand new one. And I'm going with one of my favorites, Jeremy Saulnier, who directed The Green Room, which we've talked about before on a film club. And he also directed a fantastic film with Macon Blair called Blue Ruin, which I believe won Palme d'Or. And back when it came out, if you know, if you've seen green room, if you don't like really violent films, troubling films, the rest of it, skip green room. Don't take my suggestion on this one. But if you like a violent film, green room is about a band, uh, like a Portland area punk band that takes a cheap show out in the woods. And when they get out into the woods for the show, they find out that it's like a neo-Nazi camp scenario. And while they're there, they just decide to antagonize the neo-Nazis. And then something happens. All hell breaks loose. The like main Nazi's Patrick Stewart.
Unknown	Holy cow.
James Stacey	And Macon Blair plays like the captain. The movie is totally unhinged, incredibly violent. Wow. Great casting. The now late Anton Yelchin, Alia Shachart, who's if you watched Arrest Development, she's a maybe, is great in it. The casting's great. It's really scary. It's really tense. I don't think it's the totality of the tone of a Bond film at all. Yeah. But I would love it that like when the dial hits 11, it hits 11 like Green Room. Yeah. Uh, less so than say a Mendez film. Sure. So yeah, Jeremy, Jeremy Saulnier and, uh, Roger Deakins. All right.
Jason Heaton	Okay. Well, I'm for, for mine, because I'm, I'm doing a period piece and there are two films that I absolutely adore that this guy's done. I am going with, uh, Thomas Alfredson as director. So he did Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which is a film I've seen about 20 times. Absolutely love again, like, um, Skyfall. It's like, there's just not a bad frame in that movie. Beautifully shot. His, his, uh, director of photography was, uh, Hoyte van Hoytema, who I believe did one of the Bond films as well. And he's, he's worked on, on some great stuff, but, but Alfredson, um, did Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but then of course he did, uh, Let the Right One In, which is part of our film club that, that weird, spooky Scandinavian vampire film. I think he could do a period piece. I think, look, if you, if you honestly, he did Dunkirk and Oppenheimer. Yeah. And if you took a Tinker Taylor and you, um, kind of made that morphed it into a bond film, like I'd be very happy. Like, like put these actors that I've got in a film by Alfredson with, uh, Van Hoytema as, as the cinematographer, I I'd be very happy. It'd be a fantastic movie. So.
James Stacey	So for those of you screaming at your car dashboard, Hoytama shot Spectre. Yes, that's what it was. But also just follow this, Oppenheimer, we're going backwards-ish, Oppenheimer, Dunkirk, Nope, which is Daniel Kaluuya, Tenet, Interstellar, Ad Astra, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Her, Spectre, The Fighter. Yeah, yeah. I mean... Good, good. Top of the game. These are good people, yeah. Absolute top of the game. Nope is an incredibly beautiful film. Yeah, yeah. I think that's awesome.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, yeah. Um, what about theme song? I mean, you gotta have a good theme song. Not, don't sing it for us or don't, don't name the song, but what's the, who's going to do it.
James Stacey	So I like it when it's, uh, when you've got like more than one, like it's a featuring for James Bond. Like, you know, we had the year it was Chris Cornell and, uh, was it Alicia Keys maybe?
Jason Heaton	Uh, no, that was with Jack White and Alicia Keys.
James Stacey	They did, uh, Jack White and Alicia Keys. Thank you. So for me, this I'm going with James Blake. Wow. Would be the lead to write it. I mean, it's just perfect in my mind, especially if you've done a Sam Smith, we can easily do a James Blake. I think this will be incredible and could be going many like very unexpected ways. And then I think the feature on the song Hannah Reed from London grammar. Oh yeah. And I think it'd be perfect. Oh yeah. Cause you could get her vocals on a track with him and they could sing, you know, elements of it together. But I think I like a bond theme song with a female vocal. But I think the two of them represent huge British talent in the space. I think people are only starting to come to terms with just what, just kind of how prolific Blake may be if given the time and the connections. And I've just been a huge fan. And then London Grammar's London Grammar. I mean, they're just top of my list for bands I haven't seen live yet. And I think she's... Great voice. Incredible.
Unknown	Great voice.
James Stacey	And would be so fun to have crank out that song and then you could see them like performing it at the Oscars or whatever it may be. Could be really fun.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. Good one. I, you know, my, my knee-jerk reaction for theme song was, um, I feel like it was a missed opportunity when Radiohead's version of the Spectre theme did not make it to the movie. Um, Radiohead actually recorded, wrote and recorded a song for the Spectre theme and it's out there and you can listen to it and it's a tremendous song and I just love Radiohead. Um, so I want to bring them back. I want to have Radiohead do the song, but I also, I like your idea of featuring someone. And I feel like if we're, if we're looking at sort of a commercial element to this and you want to bring in somebody who's popular with the current generation and kind of of the moment, um, Radiohead featuring Dua Lipa. Okay. Or, or written by, you know, Tom York from Radiohead and Dua Lipa sings it. I think she has a good, strong voice. I think she could kind of carry that Adele energy.
Unknown	Okay.
Jason Heaton	Maybe not her usual kind of music, but I think she's, she's got a good voice for it. And then, um, you know, whether she performs it with Radiohead or Radiohead writes it or something, but that's my pick. All right.
James Stacey	Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. I thought for sure you'd pick Lana Del Rey. No, no, I think one, I think it's another one where it's cool if it's like a Brit. Yeah. They have such a musical identity to their, like the pop culture scene in England has always been tied to. Yeah. it's almost, it's just one cliche after another. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Elton John. We could literally, Queen, I could go forever, right? And I think it's cool to have it be somebody that's like kind of part of the musical scene in that space at the time. And obviously they've gone other directions, like we mentioned Jack White and Alicia Keys and Chris Cornell and that sort of thing. So I'd I mean, that's just kind of the first spot for me. But yeah, huge fan of James Blake and London Grammar is awesome. So I think that could work really well. Radiohead and I don't know one Dua Lipa song, but I'm sure my daughters remind me of some that I've heard. Not an area of the music world that I keep up with very, very cleanly, but I love the idea of a Radiohead. Yeah. And like, would you have the, would the song also be in like a 50s style?
Jason Heaton	Not necessarily. I think they could do it timelessly, you know, some strings, maybe a little bit of brass.
James Stacey	I mean, the whole world is just going to be fighting to catch up with Adele.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	And arguably Billie Eilish from the last couple ones. Yeah. They're just, the themes are, they're so catchy. Every time you hear them, they're so much fun. Yeah. That one from Adele is incredible. Yeah. All right. So what do we got left? Car. Car. Car.
Unknown	What do you got?
James Stacey	Yours is up in the fifties. Yeah. Fifties. Yeah. Mine's of the moment. Um, I, for me, I, I want whatever the, the most cutting edge Aston possible is like whatever's available in a year or two, some electric DBS with 1200 horsepower or whatever. I want that in the film, but Cluia doesn't drive it. Oh, okay. Like I want, I want, I want to like, almost like set up a whole sequence where he keeps getting close to driving a poster car. Yeah, but always ends up driving something kind of terrible. Yeah. So like, you know, maybe, maybe he's trying to get to the Aston because it has the weapons and the oil slicks and the smoke and the rest, but the best he can do is a Vespa.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	Or like a dirt bike that he takes, you know, take picks up off the ground, like just like keep it a little bit more dynamic. Like I think obviously my, my movie would have a car chase sequence. I just think it'd be fine if that didn't involve bond directly. Yeah.
Unknown	Okay.
James Stacey	Yeah. like if one of these other people I've listed, and I think the bad guys will be in Ineos Grenadiers. Ah, good call. Yeah. I think that's fun and would look cool, and you could kit them up really crazy like they've done with the last of those V8 Rovers with the ropes on them from the previous one and that kind of stuff. And then, yeah, I think the other thing that comes to mind is I love the idea of some sort of unconventional convoy conveyance. Yeah. You know, whether it's an ultralight airplane or some sort of weird rocket that gets bond to the other side of the world very quickly, or I'd come up with something kind of like avant-garde. Yeah, but it wouldn't count as a car, but it would be some sort of mode of transport for bond just because they move around so much. And it's not like you see him sitting at the front of a British Airways flight like declining about, uh, you know, the cheap champagne, right? Right. It is some explanation of, of how they get around would be kind of, kind of cool. But yeah, I mean, at some point it would have to be an Aston cause it's bond. It's got, I think it kind of has to be.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	And they've also already sort of done not sort of like with the final few, um, Craig films, they did the DB five thing pretty strongly. Yeah. Yeah. But if I needed to pick one that I think Kaluuya could drive in this film, even for a car chase or the rest of it, it would be the Aston Martin Valor. which is a modernized take on the V8 Vantage from the 70s. Yeah. Oh, wow. But it's a V12 based in a DBS, but it has a stick. Okay, nice. Just the coolest thing they've made in some time, and I think there's a bondness to it for sure. Yeah. And if we had a Monaco sequence or if we had... uh, you know, pulling up to casino square sort of, it would be in something like this with the big flip of the throttle and, and that sort of thing. And then maybe, yeah, no, it's an incredible look. Oh, wow. For sure. Beautiful, beautiful thing. But yeah. What do you have for, for your car?
Jason Heaton	Yeah. I mean, my, my film set in the fifties and certainly a heyday for, for British cars and the predictable choice would be like an Aston DB two, which was, you know, predecessor to, to the DB five, beautiful, beautiful car. Um, but I thought to, to take on a little something a little bit different, Um, but equally elegant, but also sporty, you know, Jag had some gorgeous cars those days. And I was kind of looking around at fifties Jags and I think an XK 140, um, fixed head coupe, coupe, I guess, uh, the FHC would be pretty spectacular. I mean, just a, just a beautiful low slung, you know, long, long, long haunches at the front. Um, beautiful grill, you know, just a fast car for its day. I think if we're setting it in the 50s, I think, you know, an XK140 or something like a DB2, I think, um, would, would be pretty amazing. Um, you know, a lot of choices in the 50s, but yeah.
James Stacey	You'd have the opportunity to put Bond in like a DVR1.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	Yeah. Which is something else, but I mean, it's also something else in the same way as a C or a D type Aston, uh, uh, Jag. Yeah. They have that vibe. Right. Right. And I guess 50s Bond, you could also make the case for vintage Bentley.
Jason Heaton	Which in the books he drove. And I was thinking about Bentley's as well. And I guess if we're trying to get back to as close as possible to kind of 50s books, Fleming books, you know, a Bentley would be a good choice as well. But I don't know, I'm kind of bewitched by the XK140 and I think I'd make a good pick for him. Yeah. Yeah, of course.
James Stacey	And I mean, you can also do the Bentley thing, like he could be picked up from the airport. Yeah, true. Yeah. Yeah. You know, in a classic Bentley, I like still and still get it done. And like fifties Bentley was essentially like fairly hardcore race cars. Yeah. And then, you know, two, two block long sedans.
Unknown	Right.
James Stacey	Right. I think that, yeah, I think that could be super cool. And I, I think Jag make works as well as Aston. And if you're going back in time and that kind of thing, like a DB two is pretty cool too, though. Yeah. A lot, a lot of cool cars in the fifties, especially from the, the like British perspective post-war.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. Any gadgets spring to mind for your, for your film?
James Stacey	gadgets are tough. Well, like I said, I'd like I want something where we're like, what was the thing from the Batman movie like that sky hook? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, immediately transported like something something to that extent, like a bit of a gimmick, a bit of a like I wanted to have a bit of a gimmick. It also I want like a set piece kind of like what you get in the you know, the most recent versions of Mission Impossible. Yeah, like whether it's some crazy skydiving or whatever. So Probably something like an ultralight spy plane, you know, that flies way, way up high and you can get like a cool sequence out of that. I definitely love the idea of having a sequence with Q and he gets a gadget. But then for my Bond, like one, I want him to be like considered fresh in the agency. It's a chance for the audience to also kind of start at the ground floor with Bond. And I think part of that would be like he would get the pen that could also be a grenade and he breaks it, or it doesn't work when he goes to use it. Oh, sure. I liked that in Skyfall when that famous sequence in Macau where they're at the casino and the guy tries to use his gun and can't because of the hand registration. Yeah, yeah. I like those... That's just enough of an interesting element to be like, okay, there it is. Right. But I don't think in my world, I don't think we're returning to a heavily gadgeted Bond. Yeah. Um, I would probably follow loosely in the same footsteps as, uh, Daniel Craig and, and just kind of have them have a few cool things, but I think it'd be kind of funny to have him think that he's going to be able to rely on a laser cutting pen or something and then have it just not work and have to kick the door in or something.
Unknown	Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	Or use the, use the pen to stab somebody or something instead. Exactly. Yeah.
James Stacey	Like when it doesn't work, it goes right in some guy's throat.
Unknown	Exactly.
James Stacey	Right. Right. So, yeah, I think, I think that's kind of, kind of the scope on, on the gadgets. I think there's some fun stuff out there. I love the idea that's established in, um, Kim Sherwood's two novels that are out of like how Dryden essentially has like a neural link.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	Yeah. Because it allows for storytelling that's not possible while somebody is having a cell phone call. Right. Right. Like they're able to know so much about his physiology. And obviously previously we saw Bond get like a smart blood implant. Yeah. So we wouldn't be stealing this directly. I mean, I think Kim did an amazing job with it and Dryden's, a really fascinating character because he has this other layer of interface that makes him somehow like somewhat less human in some ways and more connected, but less of a bond. It's like a very clever way of like differentiating from one double O to another is giving them an entirely different talent set. And I like the idea of like a little thing that Bond puts in his ear or that they put in his arm and they, it just removes some of the barriers for certain things that you could try and do in the story where it wouldn't need exposition. They could just know certain things, right? They already know his dad at like where he is and that kind of thing. But, but I think some of this of like, like bond with the ability to have some level of AR. So when he's running around in a building at night, he can see the stairways. He can see the elevator shafts. He knows where the power and the water is and all this kind of stuff. And if it gave him just this ability to like take out 20 guys, because he's like a ninja, because he has this other level of technology. I think that could be cool. And it could be shown in a way that would feel tactical and not too gimmicky. But I could also just go even more towards Craig and just skip all of it.
Jason Heaton	How about you? Yeah, I didn't have much in the way of gadgets, especially since this is the 50s. I have to recalibrate my brain for old technology. And the best thing I came up with was like, this is classic Bond. He's going to be wearing suits. I thought, let's give him a bulletproof Savile Row tailored suit. like a three piece suit. Oh yeah. That is, I wouldn't be Kevlar I'm guessing back then, whatever, you know, some sort of state of the art bulletproof something. So he, he wears this suit and then of course he, it saves his life because the waistcoat is made from some impenetrable material. So maybe a bit of a, of a phoned in one, but you know, that's what I came up with and I thought it would be kind of fitting for that era.
James Stacey	I agree. Yeah. And I think like maybe like a cool radio, like picnic radio that has a weapon in it or.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	You know, like just because there's the electronics were so cool in the fifties aesthetically.
Unknown	Yeah.
James Stacey	It could be kind of fun. So we only left one on the board and to be fair, I actually forgot to write it down immediately, but what's the watch? What's your Bond watch?
Jason Heaton	Fifties, early, early Rolex days. Um, I guess it depends on where I'm placing it in the fifties, early fifties. All right. You know, I'm going to go back to, to kind of the, arguably the, the, the Fleming bond watch, which would have been either like an oyster perpetual or an Explorer, you know, both, you know, we're talking 53, 54 era. Maybe it's slightly later in the fifties. If you go to 57, you could do it like an early Seamaster 300, kind of the earliest series of those, but yeah, I'm going to be predictable. I'm going to go with the, with, with a Rolex, but not, not the dive watch. I think, I think I'm going to give them, you know, the field watch associated one. GMT is tempting, I guess, but I don't see Bond in a GMT. So I think something simple, I think an Explorer, early Explorer.
James Stacey	I love it. That's great. Yeah. I was really tempted to go a few different ways, but I do genuinely love that he wears an Omega. I think for Bond to switch from Omega to Rolex now would actually be a bummer. I can try and unpack that at some point in the future, but we are at like an hour and a half, so I probably don't need to do 20 minutes on. If he switched, he would need to switch like to a CWC or something. Yeah, yeah. Something that made direct sense. But I think Omega aligns with the world that Bond operates in, all this sort of thing, but it would be a brand new watch. Yeah. There's not a current Omega that I think Bond should be wearing. Oh, sure. And I think for me, it's Omega essentially brings back the 2254, or if you go back to 70 Seamaster, so the 166024 or similar. I mean, we're talking about as beautiful as a dive watch ever got, simply fully make a clone of that in modern materials, do it in titanium. If you want, I wouldn't necessarily be that picky, but just this watch, this is the only watch he wears throughout the film. There's not a, it's not a three watch scenario or whatever. Um, but, and I also think the other option would be to just simply have Kaluuya in a vintage Omega, which I think could be really cool. Maybe, maybe you assign some sort of a backstory to it, maybe turns down a modern something or other from cube and says, I got that we're sorted and they just keep going. Yeah. Um, I think that could be, could be really fun, but that, for me, that's, that's the Omega sport watch. I know that it's, it's probably the Speedmaster for most of the world, but the classic 300 sword hands, big markers, MOD styling. I think that's a very Bond thing as arts roots to the mid late sixties. And so that, that would be my direction would be some sort of a new, but very faithful recreation of, um, of, you know, one of the classic, Seamaster 300s like the 166024.
Jason Heaton	Good call. I think that takes us home. I think we've got all bases covered. At some point, I guess we'd have to write the plot and all that, but that's a whole different animal.
James Stacey	That comes later. We got to get some money first.
Unknown	Yeah, right.
James Stacey	Right. Yeah. All right. Well, let's jump into some final notes. This has been a nice long episode. You want to go first?
Jason Heaton	Yeah, sure. This one, I was aware of it, but it came, I guess, largely in thanks to our buddy J.R. Seeger, who wrote us and suggested that we start following this YouTube account called Hero Era Rally. And they've been putting up a series of videos, kind of daily highlights, if you will, from the big Peking to Paris rally from this year, which I think is just such a cool event and something I would love to do someday. This is taking old cars across the deserts in Mongolia, et cetera, as the name suggests. I believe it's called Beijing these days. Beijing to Paris. I'm not sure their exact route, but this is a grueling event for drivers and for cars. And there's just some wild, wild vehicles involved in this thing. And, and the, these video highlights are just really fun to see. So, uh, thanks to Jr for, for sending over that link. And, uh, it's just, it's just cool stuff. And I believe we know a couple of people that are doing this or have done it. I believe Nick English is in process of doing the event right now. And I know that, uh, Nick Sullivan or chum from Esquire. has done it in the past in an old Bentley, and he might even be doing it this time around. Yeah, just a just a cool thing. So check it out.
James Stacey	Very cool. Yeah, that's great. Thanks very much for that one. Jr. Always appreciate seeing a link from you hit the inbox. Mine this week is actually just a loopback on the bag that I spoke about previously that I tried to buy off of one of our slack buddies, Adam. And I didn't try I did buy it. It just didn't arrive in time for my trip to Switzerland. But I've been using it for the last week. And I'm genuinely impressed. I think for the price point... This is cool. It's a nice enough looking thing. It's $140 for the six liter sling. I used it all weekend at the cottage. I went... It has this very unconventional way of storing a laptop where the back of the bag zippers open and a little like half sleeve slides out of the bottom and you just jam... And technically, you're supposed to put your laptop in a case and then put it in this. Yeah. But I went to have a... coffee on a patio in Newmarket last week before we went to the cottage, and just took that with me, and I've got the SL2 in there. It can do the SL2 of the 24-70 with a bit of a space for one of the smaller M lenses, and then you can add an entire laptop. It's got a spot where you can put in a water bottle or a tripod, like a little sleeve underneath the bag. It's just really clever and easy to use. It fits nicely. I think... Oh, I love this. I think if you really wanted to carry even the amount that I'm talking about right now, you might want to consider the nine liter, the slightly larger one, but the six is like minimum for me. It would be, it can't be any smaller than this and still carry the SL two and that giant lens that said, like if you went back to my previous setup with a, say a Q and the M 10 with a lens, it would carry both of those. No, no sweat. Um, so yeah, it's a $140. I do not have any, relationship or communications with WANDRD. I don't know them super well, but I bought this off of the slack and shout out Adam for hooking me up with that. And I just, I'm really, really enjoying it. It's a really handy thing to put a few items in and head out. It's quite comfortable. I got it in black. That's what Adam had. And it's a nice kind of subdued, simple, kind of made out of that semi shiny, like bike messenger sort of material. It's nice. I love it. So check it out if you're in the market for yet another bag. I wasn't, and yet I have one. So there you are. My self-control.
Jason Heaton	We love our bags. Yeah. Well, that was a fun episode. I hope everyone liked it. Definitely chime in folks on Slack, on the comments. You know, what do you think? Are we on base here? Are we way off? What are your choices? This is one of those endlessly fascinating discussions that everybody can take part in. So yeah, really fun.
James Stacey	Well, yeah, thanks very much for that one. And as always, thank you to all of you for listening. If you want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly, maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music through to Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton	And we leave you with this quote, which seemed kind of fitting for Fleming or Bond, but it's from Seneca. He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a man who is alive.