Brian Cox Mistakenly Thought 007: Road To A Million Was The New James Bond Movie
If "007: Road to a Million" didn't have the James Bond branding it would be a little less strange than it is. But for some reason, the producers made a global adventure reality competition show and slapped the 007 logo on it, seemingly just because longtime Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson gave the all-clear. Oh, and Brian Cox is also in it.
The "Succession" star acts as a kind of host/games master and presumably some sort of Bond villain figure, overseeing the contestants' struggles with a calm insouciance and adding to their suffering with ever more physically and mentally demanding challenges. But then he's also the one doling out the challenges via cryptic phone calls and suitcase-mounted iPads, so is he supposed to be like M? It's all a bit confusing, especially when you consider the only thing that remotely ties this to James Bond are the exotic locations. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine England's greatest spy traversing the globe just to guess the weight of a tarantula and win £25,000.
It seems I'm not the only one confused. As we all await news about the next Bond installment, Cox just admitted to Jimmy Fallon that he thought he was signing up for the next 007 movie when he said yes to "Road to a Million."
'This is my moment'
Appearing on "The Tonight Show," (via The Hollywood Reporter) Brian Cox spoke about when he received the call to host the new show, revealing that he initially thought his time to co-star in a Bond film had come. He said:
"It was called '007: Road to a Million.' I thought it was the new James Bond film. So I said, 'Oh, finally they're getting me in a James Bond movie.' I thought, 'yes, of course. Don't even show me the script.'"
What's that, Brian? You didn't know right away that you were being asked to front a reality show tangentially related to the Bond franchise where you'd be wandering around a dingy control room handing out sadistic challenges to the great British public? Shocking.
Poor old Cox must have been a bit deflated when he learned the truth about what he was being asked to do. As the 77-year-old told Jimmy Fallon, "For years I thought, 'Yeah, I'd love to be a James Bond villain. It'd be really interesting.' And I thought, 'This is my moment.' But it wasn't."
Still, the veteran star obviously agreed to do it and seems to have enjoyed himself, claiming that doing the show was "great fun," and adding, "I love bossing people around. So that's what I did, you know. I bossed all these people around."
Road to a Million is actually decent
Since Amazon got their hands on MGM and acquired the rights to the erstwhile studio's film library, we've been hearing about potential Bond spin-off projects. After the MGM buyout, there were rumblings of a Bond streaming series, but as Barbara Broccoli told The Guardian:
"We make the Bond movies for the big theatrical screen and everything about the Bond movies is for audiences to see around the world on that format, so we've not wanted to do television."
Now, 007 has hit the small screen ... sort of. Bond himself is nowhere to be seen, which is perhaps why Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were willing to give the greenlight to this show over a streaming series focused on the spy himself. The result is an eight-part reality series that's actually quite entertaining. Cox does seem to be enjoying himself and it's fun to watch everyday people surprise you with their physical and mental fortitude. The 007 branding might be a bit superfluous beyond helping to bring in viewers expecting a bit more in the way of Bond-related content, but it's still a good time. Meanwhile, all we know about the actual next Bond movie is that it won't star Taron Egerton. Brian Cox as a Bond villain, though? That's actually not a bad idea.