Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

       With talk of a new James Bond, I thought it was time to do another "man who would be Bond". Last time I talked about American James Brolin auditioning for the part, this time it is New Zealander Sam Neill. Roger Moore yet again did not want to return to the role. Producer Michael G. Wilson, director John Glen, Dana and Barbara Broccoli were impressed with Neill's screentest and wanted to cast him , however Albert "Cubby" Broccoli disagreed. Pierce Brosnan was also considered but didn't get the part until 1995's GoldenEye.       The theme song could have been different as well. Instead of a-ha, it was almost Pet Shop Boys. Sam Neill as James Bond - Screentest (1986) The Living Daylights 1987 - Alternative Title Sequence With The Pet Shops Boys Rejected Theme. - YouTube

       1975 saw the release of John Lennon's Rock n Roll , an album of cover versions of rock songs from the late fifties and early sixties. McCartney's Venus and Mars  hit the record shelves, Harrison had a new album called  Extra Texture  and a compilation album of Starr's music, called Blast From Your Past  was put out. The story behind Lennon's album involves lawsuits, stolen master tapes, re-recordings and an album released without John's approval. Look it up. It is an interesting story and could make an HBO movie.       For this what-if, I propose that the Beatles put out an old-time rock n roll album so I used tracks from different years from the other three. Since Paul put out an album in 1988 similar to John's I used four tracks from that. John and Paul both covered "Ain't That a Shame" and I chose Paul's version, also his "Twenty Flight Rock" (which he first played for John when they met), "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy" and ...

  In July of 1987 ABC aired a movie based on Will Eisner's comic The Spirit. It starred Sam J. Jones as the title character and Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as love interest Ellen Dolan. Trivia: 28 years later the two actors appeared in Seth MacFarlane's  Ted 2 . The sidekick in the comics was a racial stereotype called Ebony, in this production he was renamed Eubie and played by Bumper Robinson. The movie leaned more towards camp, as was the way comic productions were handled then. It was meant to be a pilot, with more episodes already written, but was never picked up. Who knows, if the series was picked up it might have been a more accurate representation of Eisner's work than the Frank Miller movie. Preview Clip | The Spirit | Warner Archive