Few doubted Javier Bardems ability to deliver a genuinely sinister performance as James Bond villain Silva in 2012s Skyfall, especially after the Oscar-winners turn as sociopath hitman Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers No Country for Old Men. But there may be some who wonder exactly why 007 producers have picked Chiwetel Ejiofor to play the bad guy in the films upcoming Sam Mendes-directed sequel. Ejiofor is now best known for his turn in Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave, as the captured African-American free man, Solomon Northup. He has generally ploughed his career furrow in British independent cinema, or in supporting roles in Hollywood fare such as 2012 or American Gangster, though he did play a decent-enough bad guy in Alfonso Cuaróns gripping dystopian thriller, Children of Men. For the proof that Ejiofor can deliver a genuinely iconic Bond villain, however, see 2005s Serenity. This rousing space opera epic was the calling card that should have had Hollywood beating down Joss Whedons door: instead it took another eight years for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator to be given a decent crack at a big-budget genre movie. He responded with The Avengers, the third-highest-grossing movie of all time.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 19:01:53 +0000