We suppose it was inevitable, but we’re taking a vague kind of credit for it anyway: just days after Peter Morgan, writer of Frost/Nixon, The Queen, **The Deal *and virtually every other word Michael Sheen has ever spoken on film, was brought on board the currently untitled Bond 23, along comes a rumour in The Daily Express suggesting that Sheen is in talks to play the villain.
And not just any villain: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the quintessential Bond villain, inspiration for Dr. Evil, and head of the nefarious organisation, SPECTRE.
Sounds great, huh? Mouthwatering, even. Sheen, enjoying something of a purple patch at the moment, going up against Daniel Craig’s Bond as the evil head of the nefarious organisation, QUANTUM (well, some things have to change? That’s something we’d pay to see in a heartbeat, even if Mike Myers has ensured that the iconic chrome dome and white cat would have to be dispensed with.
But, of course, as many things often are when they originate in the tabloids, the rumour appears to be utter, utter bollocks. And, we like to think, inspired by the following passage from our Morgan story: ‘This also means that Michael Sheen’s a shoo-in for the bad guy role, right? And that bad guy is going to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld, right? RIGHT?’
Sounds to us like some imaginative hack read that, got all kinds of carried away, and before you could say ‘Goodbye, Mr. Bond’, we had a cracking rumour on our hands.
Of course, Sheen – such a regular and open Tweeter – hasn’t addressed the issue yet on Twitter, but let’s not read too much into that. As Devin Faraci over at CHUD says, the rights to the character of Blofeld are currently tied up in a sack at the bottom of a pool patrolled by frickin’ sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads, so it’s unlikely that EON would bring Blofeld back in Bond 23, given the prohibitive cost involved in doing so.
Mind you, the Craig Bond series is building towards a Big Bad – no doubt about that – and one day, that Big Bad may be Michael Sheen. But for the time being, file under even more preposterous than an invisible car.
This is, of course, not true, but we're betting that Underworld would have been a damn sight better with a Morgan script.