All Six 007 Actors At The Oscars For Their Fiftieth Anniversary!

All six actors who played James Bond on one stage for the first time to mark the film series’ fiftieth anniversary!

Time to talk about this this.

So during this years Academy Awards between dishing out the little golden bald guys holding broken broom sticks, they’re going to take a few moments to honor what they call “the longest-running motion picture franchise in history and a beloved global phenomenon” – the James Bond series.

This is the sole reason why I’ll be watching the Oscars this year.

The Oscar producers have said they’ve been planning a spectacular tribute to the famous spy series.

I interpret that to mean they’ll show a montage of the films. I mean, what else could they do??? Maybe a Bond-themed musical number? Any time the Oscars do one of those overproduced musical acts it always looks incredibly silly to me. I don’t really want to see dancers wearing tuxedos, giant martini glasses rising up from the floor and Union Jack flags being waved around by hot looking dancers decked out all in gold chasing after white fluffy cats. Well…..actually that could be pretty funny….

The big draw to this tribute is the proposed idea of having all the Bond actors on stage together. This would be huge! Honestly, the thought of this Bond roundup has pushed whatever little interest I might have had about who wins what at this show completely out of my mind.

It’s funny how the Academy has mostly ignored the Bond series in Oscars past, but now will use 007 to get some televised attention. This kind of stuff is one of the reasons I kind of disregard the Oscars.

For years they’ll ignore an artist and then at the last minute they try to make up for it. You can just go through the list of people in film who never won an Oscar and it gets to be ridiculous. This really started to negate the importance of winning one of those things in my mind.

I always think, “oh so you didn’t think Hitchcock and Kubrick were good enough to win your coveted Oscar – but now you try to make up for it by giving them an honorary one? Eh. They did fine without it. They don’t need your award and you’re making yourself look stupid by trying to make up for it now! Jerks!”

Anyway, is this possible? Will all six 007 actors get together one night and pose for countless photos? That would be good enough for me! A photo op of all six of them lined up together. That could save me a lot of photoshop work.

Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore and George Lazenby are supposedly all signed up for this appearance.

Craig seemed like a given. He’s the current 007, Skyfall got a few Oscar nominations. Fans of the theme will get to watch Adele perform it that night. They might have had Craig introduce her whether it was the fiftieth anniversary or not. With or without this tribute I would have expected Craig to pop up somewhere in the telecast.

Brosnan and Dalton, their commitment isn’t surprising. Brosnan is still tops in a lot of fans minds as their favorite Bond and he always seemed excited to have gotten to play the part. The last time a big anniversary celebration took place was the fortieth in 2002 when he was just ending his Bond run. He respects the series history, was willing to participate in the recent EON documentary. Sure he’ll be there.

Same with Dalton. Although he had a short run in the role he always seemed happy with the opportunity he had to play James Bond. He might not be as beloved as Brosnan, but he always seemed proud of his two Bond films. Plus, now that the gritty Bond is back in style he’s become a bit more appreciated. He can make the time to put in for this appearance. I’m not sure what he’s been up to lately anyway. Maybe he’s been back working on the stage.

Roger Moore, no question he’d show up. He’s the ambassador of James Bond. He’s written books about his Bond time, will gladly help promote the Bond Blu-Rays, does DVD commentaries. Put in an appearance at the Oscars – he’ll be game. Besides he and Connery did it once years ago. Moore loves doing this fun kind of stuff.

George Lazenby. Why sure. Not to sound mean, but I don’t think Laz has really been all that busy lately. I happened to watch the 2002 film Spider’s Web years back. Horrible movie, but I just watched it to see Kari Wuhrer naked – that part was good. Lazenby was in it for like five minutes. That’s the last time I’ve seen him. So he can just DVR Pawn Stars, put on hold his plans for the night and head to the theater. I’m guessing most of the audience won’t know who he is. Maybe they’ll have film clips accompany each Bond’s intro.

Finally, Sean Connery. This is the real holdout for this summit of 007’s. He retired from acting with his last film The League of Extraordinary Gentleman in 2003. It still pains me that he ended his career with that flick. Since then he apparently retired from making public appearances as well. The last time I saw him was opening the New York Stock Exchange in mid-2012. I still don’t know why he did that.

No one has confirmed his appearance, butthat’s what they’re telling us. With any luck they’re trying to keep his participation a secret since they know that everyone will go through the roof if he shows up.

He’s had an abrasive relationship with 007 and at times really seemed to dislike his association with the role. I was happy to see him doing interviews when Casino Royale came out and spoke of Craig and the film. So I wouldn’t count him out of being the last 007 to walk out on the stage. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I’m guessing the Oscars won’t spend that much time on this. Their always pressed for time to squeeze in some insipid funny bit by the host. They’ll probably do something like, play the Bond theme. Craig comes out and says “My name is Bond”. Then he’s followed by Broz, who will say “My name is Bond”. Dalton, Moore, Laz, each coming out delivering the line. Then finally Connery walks out to the excited audience and says “James Bond” and the crowd goes wild!

Then they’ll go right into an 007 Oscar montage. Unless the guys are all forced to do one of those silly, awkward, Oscar routines that usually come off downright embarrassing. They’ll probably each be given a little scripted thing to say before that inevitable montage.

So yeah, that’s why I’ll be tuning into the Oscars this year. It certainly won’t be to see host Seth MacFarlane. I saw his James Bond Oscar commercial. They’re still doing that host inserting himself into movie clips bit? Really? I don’t even think what he did in it was clever or funny. That one left me shaking my head. If that’s any indication of what I can expect from the Oscars this year – it’s going to be one long night to get to this Bond Tribute. I hope it’s worth it.

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