Jane Bond? No. New heroine please!

Photo courtesy of www.theguardian.com

 

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. Now when I started this blog, this was always something I wanted to talk about, because since Daniel Craig was officially no longer going to be James Bond, everyone and their dogs have been wondering who the next Bond would be.

 

James Bond is a huge part of British culture, and every British actor and even some non Brits have been lining up to possibly snatch the coveted role. This list includes Henry Cavill, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, Damian Lewis and even my favourite actor, Taron Egerton. I have my picks and I reckon one of those people will be Bond, not Egerton though, he's a much better spy as Eggsy in Kingsman.

 

But the reason why I am here is because Gillian Anderson and Emilia Clarke have both turned the small talk of James Bond going from a man into a woman by becoming Jane Bond, into something with proper traction. Now I know for a fact, that if I say I don't like this idea, I am a sexist misogynist piece of shit, if I have to take a false hit to get my real word out there, so be it because I am confident in the fact that I am saying something that is not that.

 

Allow me to clarify, no I don't think the next James Bond should be a woman, because Bond has been written to be a man and that is a key characteristic of what makes Bond the character and icon he is. But what really annoys me about this rumour is that it is taking a minority and only making it interesting because it is leeching off of something that is already famous.

 

I would much rather we have not a female version of Bond, but a female equivalent of Bond. Yes, it will not have a history like James Bond and it won't perhaps have an impact immediately, hell what I am thinking about may have missed on its first throw but I feel if done right, a female led spy franchise could be incredibly successful.

 

There is so much potential in what I have in mind, so ladies and gentlemen, I give you, 'Queen & Country', a graphic novel by American comic book writer and novelist Greg Rucka.

 

Photo courtesy of www.ifanboy.com

 

The series centres on Tara Felicity Chace (Alias 'Minder Two'), a British operative of the Special Operations Section of the Secret Intelligence Service, colloquially known as the Minders. Queen & Country attempts to portray the bureaucracy and politics which agents deal with in a realistic manner, as well as including the dangerous missions typical of the spy genre.

 

I will admit, I have not read a single issue of Queen & Country or the novel 'A Gentleman's Game', I would really love to find at least one issue. So immediately, you are probably thinking "Who are you to talk about this since you've never read anything to do with it?", okay I get your point. I am just really keen to see something of the spy genre that can be successful on its own, and from what I have read about Queen & Country and the character of Tara Chace, it sounds incredible.

 

Tara grew up learning to be tough after her parents divorced and they shipped her off to boarding school, and after completing her formal educating at Cambridge, she was recruited by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. After intensive training, Chace became an elite field officer in the Special Operations Section of the SIS.

 

The reason that I am aware of this is because of former AMC and Collider Movie Talk show producer John Campea - who I have a lot of respect for - when he was asked about how he felt about a movie series led by Rebecca Ferguson's 'Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation' character Ilsa Faust. I loved the character of Ilsa Faust and I was delighted to hear that she is actually returning for the follow up to Rogue Nation, and I loved the idea of her character being in a set of movies as a lead.

 

However, Campea brought up Queen & Country. There were plans to make a movie adaptation by 20th Century Fox with Ellen Page as Tara Chace and directed by a guy named Craig Viverios. Now don't get me wrong, I adore Ellen Page, hell she's Kitty Pryde in the X-Men franchise! But for this role, I reckon she would be incredibly mis-cast. In the same way I like Jesse Eisenberg, I do not think he is a good choice for Lex Luthor (And I stand by that after seeing Batman V Superman).

 

Page for me is too petite and doesn't fit what I have read up on the character to be, it would be like casting Taron Egerton as Bond, at least right now because he's way too boy-ish, he even says it himself. So none of this is a knock on the actors, Page is just not the best fit in my opinion for Tara Chace.

 

The film has been in development hell for a while now, but I would love to see it reignited. Go all out with this film, make this a woman's answer to James Bond. Also if any of you know where I can get my hands on a Queen & Country comic, please do tell me, I really want to read up on this series.

 

People, thank you again for reading what I have to say. If this interests you, I'd love to see this gain some traction. I would love to see this become a movie, and have women play this role for many years down the line and providing a great story with this amazing character, Tara Chace.

 

Hope to hear what you have to say down below, or on my Twitter @TheLucaFormat. Hope to see you all again soon.

 

So until we meet again,

Luca.