Still in good spirits: Sir Sean Connery at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 Pic: © EIFF
Still a bona fide star of the silver screen despite years in ‘retirement’, Sir Sean Connery won’t have been short of offers to appear in blockbuster movies during the past decade.
Director Steven Spielberg had wanted him to make a return for 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, again playing Indy’s father, but Connery had replied that: “In the end, retirement is just too much damned fun.”
Even though that particular sequel turned out to be pretty far from perfect, at least it might have provided him with a big-screen swan song, one deserving of an actor who made the James Bond role his own and also put in tremendous performances in unforgettable films such as The Untouchables and The Man Who Would Be King.
Instead it turns out that his final contribution may well be to Scottish computer-animated film Sir Billi, which is due out next year and had an infamous ‘sizzle reel’ leaked onto YouTube recently, which led to a slew of disparaging comments on the website such as: “This looks s***, what was Sean Connery thinking? This looks like it was animated by a 6th? grader.”
Though the animation may well be brushed up before final release, in all truth Sir Billi does look incredibly poor visually compared to the likes of Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me, with the plot appearing both hackneyed and ridiculous. Of course we can’t be sure until it comes out, but surely Connery could have bowed out from the movie industry in far better fashion?
Things could have been very different had the choices he made - or that were made for him - been better a decade or so ago. Though widely known among film geeks, many are still unaware that the former 007 disastrously turned down a couple of roles which would have established him as a movie star to an entirely new generation.
First up was The Matrix trilogy, which the public latched onto in 1999, and was the Inception of its time. According to who you believe, he was offered the pivotal role of Morpheus (which Laurence Fishburn eventually took on) or The Architect (the creator of The Matrix who appears in the first sequel), or indeed both at various junctures. Either way, he turned down the Wachowski brothers, apparently because he didn’t understand the script, therefore missing out on what would have been an iconic appearance in a film franchise that endures to this day.
If anything, his decision to turn down Lord of the Rings was even more disastrous. The wizard Gandalf was a role that is central to the trilogy (and has subsequently defined Sir Ian McKellen’s career), and the studio was desperate to have Connery - to the point that he was reportedly offered up to 15% of the worldwide box office receipts to play Gandalf which, had he accepted, could have earned him as much as $400 million for the three movies. Ouch.
His reason for turning it down? Connery was quoted as saying: “I had never read Tolkien, and I didn't understand the script when they sent it to me. Bobbits? Hobbits?”
MORE GOLDEN MOMENTS:
- The life and times of a Scottish acting legend
- A snapshot of some iconic Connery moments
- Connery at Gleneagles Celebrity Shoot
- The Scot talks politics
After turning down those blockbuster franchises because he didn’t understand them, Connery decided to take a risk and take on another project which he didn’t really get. Unfortunately he opted for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a movie which was hopelessly mangled from its original comic book incarnation and which flopped on its 2003 release.
Perhaps weary of the movie industry and befuddled by the results of these last few choices, Connery hasn’t shot a live-action film since, opting instead for retirement and a bit of golf while not relaxing in the Bahamas. And who can blame him? However, while a bit of R&R is more than merited after what all in all was an amazing career, it seems a real shame that you have to look back to 1996’s The Rock for a memorable appearance. (Well, it at least resonates far more than subsequent roles in The Avengers, Entrapment, Finding Forester, Playing by Heart and of course League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.)
So is that it for Sir Sean then? There’s still rumours circulating of another Indiana Jones movie that could see him return, but other than that unlikely possibility it seems like we may be deprived another chance to see him in his element. Given that the slightly older Clint Eastwood received acclaim for his starring role in last year’s Gran Torino - which he also directed - then surely Sir Sean has a final defining performance left in him? It’s not as though he’s ever been one to shy away from a challenge, so here’s hoping.
