#Rufus sewell movies and tv shows series#

What he describes of Aurelio Zen might as well be of James Bond.īut back to the production itself. Cumming’s intros are fun to watch themselves, as he–a bit overdramatically–describes the incredible stylishness of the forthcoming program.

#Rufus sewell movies and tv shows series#

But we find, as Bond sidesteps master criminals in his path, Zen sidesteps mafia-esque city politics to save his job and do the right thing, if not for king and country, for the good of the citizenry of Rome.įurther adding to the series in its Masterpiece Mystery presentation are quirky but well done introductions by Alan Cumming, who formerly played Russian IT guy Boris Grishenko in another Bond film, GoldenEye. He is excused or brushed off and taken for granted because of his Venician heritage, something of an inside joke we don’t need to understand to be able to empathize with him. Zen is repeatedly referred to as having an impeccable reputation, yet indications throughout the series question that notion.

Over the course of the three 90-minute episodes, a slow burning relationship forms with none other than ex-Bond actress Caterina Murino (from Casino Royale), who plays Tania Moretti, the Chief of Police’s assistant, recently separated.

Our James Bond character is Aurelius Zen, played expertly by actor Rufus Sewell, who although British plays a Mediterranean without pause because of his dark features (the tall, dark, etc. Zen is a stylish police drama made by the Brits but filmed in and around Rome, written by Dibdin in a series of novels. It is Michael Dibdin’s Zen, re-broadcast this year in the States on public television’s Masterpiece Mystery series. After all, at least from the perspective on this side of the Atlantic, there isn’t anything that stands better for England than James Bond (OK, inching out the Queen, Will Shakespeare, and Doctor Who only slightly, and with perhaps an “attaboy” pat on the head to Harry Potter).īut if you can’t wait until 2013 to see the next James Bond on screen, look no further, as a role that might as well have been written by Ian Fleming for his master spy has already been written, cast, performed, and aired on TV and is now for sale on video.

Glad to have been wrong about that!īut this question comes up every time there has been an actor retire from playing Bond, back to the great Sean Connery. It’s why many, including this writer, thought Daniel Craig seemed a bizarre choice. So who would be great as Bond if they swapped out actors today?īack when Pierce Brosnan was rumored to have been readying to hand over the mantle, there was much speculation as to who would be the next icon of icons in British film, and… there just wasn’t a lot by way of contenders that seemed like the perfect fit. What? Didn’t they just announce that Daniel Craig just started filming Skyfall, the next James Bond flick? Sure, but if you haven’t been following along, we mentioned here yesterday that, unlike diamonds, no actor gets to play James Bond forever.