In 2005 when the fourth installment of the Harry Potter films hit screens, I wrote, ‘The Harry Potter phenomenon is so powerful that you could have called this Harry Potter Drinks a Goblet of Water and presented an Andy Warhol-style film of young Harry chugging a glass of H2O for two hours and Potterheads would still wear their wizard hats and line up to see it.’
Astonishingly, six years later, the same holds true for the final installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
It’s not uncommon for movie franchises to span years and hang on to loyal fans. But to have the seven films in the series so far gross an average $909,906,449 each is astounding.
That kind of number speaks as much to the ferocity of the Potterheads as it does to the quality of the movies. The next highest grossing movie series is the James Bond franchise, which originated in 1962.
The super spy has shot and seduced his way through 22 official 007 releases for a worldwide box office total of $5,029,014,110.
Interestingly Harry Potter-player Daniel Radcliffe expressed interest in taking on the role of the teenaged James Bond in a planned film based on the Young Bond series of books.
Perhaps he can bring some of his magic to the part and create another successful franchise.
The Potter films are unique in the sense that the cast has stayed unchanged. Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were all magically transformed into multi-millionaires playing Harry, Hermione and Ron.
Their presence in the films has provided a sense of continuity from one film to the next, but it’s not always necessary for actors to be yoked to characters in multiple sequels and spin-offs. There have been six James Bonds and Batman – the highest grossing superhero series – and they’ve seen everyone from Michael Keaton to Christian Bale wear the crusader’s cape.
Even though George Clooney’s installment, Batman and Robin, was a critical and financial disaster — Clooney himself called the film “a waste of money” and volunteered to personally refund money to audience members — it didn’t stop the franchise. Eight years later Batman was reinvented by Christopher Nolan as The Dark Knight, which grossed $1,001,842,429 at the box office.
Not sure if recasting and reimaging Harry Potter would work, but, who knows? Maybe 10 years from now Hollywood will have a Potter new cast and new stories for a new generation.
Pierce Brosnan has never been nominated for an Oscar. He has a couple Golden Globe nods to his credit and an MTV Movie Best Fight Award statuette on his shelf, but so far the heavy gold has evaded him.
Perhaps because of his dapper good looks he doesn’t get spoken about in the same breath as Colin Firth or Morgan Freeman. Perhaps a resume dotted with films like Dante’s Peak knocks him down a peg or two in the Academy’s opinion.
Or maybe it’s his predilection for doing shamelessly populist fare like Mama Mia and this weekend’s Remember Me (co-starring as Robert Pattison’s father) that keeps him from being taken as seriously as say, George Clooney, another genetically blessed actor, who, like Brosnan, got his big break on television.
He could have been nominated for his work in The Matador, a little seen, but critically lauded film from 2005. In it, Brosnan plays Julian Noble, a jaded hit man, or “facilitator of fatalities” who finds a confidant in a struggling businessman, played by Greg Kinnear.
Brosnan’s performance as Julian, the hit man who develops confidence problems, is a revelation. We have seen Brosnan as the slickly comic private eye Remington Steele on television, the sophisticated James Bond and even as the suave jewel thief in The Thomas Crown Affair, but until now we have never seen him in Beatle boots and a Speedo traipsing across a hotel lobby.
His Julian is a manic creation — amoral, rude and unlike Bond, the character that has defined his career for the last decade, unshaven.
With this one performance Brosnan entered a new phase in his career, effortlessly leaving the urbane Bond behind.
Maybe next year he’ll finally get the recognition he deserves when the Academy gets a load of his work in The Ghost Writer. As ex-prime minister Adam Lang he embodies the role, like he was born for photo ops in front of private jets, waving to his constituents.
It’s good work that effectively erased the image of him as a half man / half horse in the recent film Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Despite the odd misstep, he is an interesting actor who deserves more respect than he gets.
If the movie gods can allow Mon’ique to go from co-starring in Beerfest to winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, surely they can ignore Brosnan’s silly beard in an ill-conceived Robinson Crusoe remake, or the non-thrilling thriller Live Wire and finally give him his due.
This week, you can’t throw a steel-brimmed hat without hitting a billboard or poster for Quantum of Solace. Daniel Craig’s mug is so omnipresent, it’s impossible to get a quantum of relief from his stern but handsome mug.
It seems the whole world has gone Bond crazy, but this is nothing new. James Bond — and whoever is playing the super spy — has always been big news, but there is only so much of him to go around.
That’s why enterprising filmmakers have frequently retooled the Bondian formula of guns, girls and gadgets to attract new audiences.
During the late 1960s wave of Bondmania, Dean Martin staggered through a quartet of spy spoofs based on the literary character Matt Helm, giving new meaning to the advertising tagline “America’s Loaded Weapon.”
Since then, the Bond knock-off business has boomed and 007 wannabes in all shapes and sizes have blossomed. There’s adolescent Bond in Agent Cody Banks, a version for teens called xXx (“Now I know what xXx stands for: Xtremely Xcruciating Xperience” raved one critic) and parodies like Get Smart and Austin Powers.
Wilder still is Operation Kid Brother. In a blatant attempt to satisfy audience’s need for all things Bond in 1967, producers cast Sean Connery’s younger brother Neil as a plastic surgeon and hypnotist recruited by Her Majesty’s Secret Service to thwart the evil crime syndicate Thanatos. He’s called into action, the movie explains, because “his brother is out on a routine mission.”
Wow, perfect casting! Except Neil can’t act. The film flopped so badly it could have been the reason bargain bins were invented, and Neil soon returned to his former job as a plasterer. But Operation Kid Brother does have its pleasures.
Bond alumnus Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell ham it up alongside From Russia with Love’s Bond girl Daniela Bianchi, and Thunderball villain Adolfo Celi. Better than that is the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, which unlike the rest of the film, is on par with a real Bond film.
The Connery name will always be associated with Bond, and while Neil (thankfully) retired soon after Operation Kid Brother, other Connerys had a harder time letting the character go.
Sean revived his Bond after a 12-year layoff in 1983’s Never Say Never Again and as a voice in video games — and his son, Jason Connery, played 007’s creator in The Secret Life of Ian Fleming.
The word espionage is most commonly used in relation to spy stories. It conjures up images of James Bond, exotic locations and wild action scenes. But in many movies espionage has little to do with shaken not stirred martinis and Bond girls, and more to do with corporate secrets and intrigue.
This weekend, Paranoia explores the world of big business espionage as Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth) finds himself doing dangerous double duty in the billion dollar world of high tech.
As an entry level employee, his boss Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman) promises him a corner office, among other things, if he will spy on rival tech giant Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford).
That movie is set in the world of bits and bytes but corporate espionage comes in as many styles as that ergonomically designed chair in the CEO’s office.
As the title would suggest, the movie Duplicity is ripe with lies and underhanded dealings. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are former government spies now working in the private sector. Despite being intimately involved, they work for rival shampoo companies. It’s a romantic comedy about undercover activities. Imagine if Rock Hudson and Doris Day had starred in Mission Impossible and you get the idea.
Genetics is the currency in New Rose Hotel, a 1999 Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe film based on a short story by William Gibson. They play corporate moles hired to influence a Japanese bio-engineering expert to defect from one corporation to another. To seduce Dr. Hiroshi (Yoshitaka Amano) they hire a prostitute (Asia Argento) to win his affections. The plan doesn’t work, and neither does the movie, really, but it’s worth a look for the flamboyant performances from Walken and Dafoe.
Finally, back in the world of high tech espionage, the Ben Affleck thriller Paycheck is a good little movie released at the wrong time. Wedged between Gigli and Jersey Girl, it came out at the height of Bennifer and the nadir of audience interest in Affleck as an actor.
Based on a Philip K Dick short story, Affleck plays Jennings, a genius programmer hired by corporations to reverse engineer new products, recreating them anew. His work is so secretive that after he’s done, his memory is wiped clean. The chicanery really begins when his employer (Aaron Eckhart) pulls a double cross, leaving Jennings with no money, no memory and a world of trouble.
In 2005 when the fourth installment of the Harry Potter films hit screens, I wrote, ‘The Harry Potter phenomenon is so powerful that you could have called this Harry Potter Drinks a Goblet of Water and presented an Andy Warhol-style film of young Harry chugging a glass of H2O for two hours and Potterheads would still wear their wizard hats and line up to see it.’
