Amazon has found its ringmaster for 007’s road to a millionAn Amazing Race-esque game show based on the James Bond movies: Brian Cox, the accomplished Scottish actor most recently best known for his role as the monstrous media patriarch Logan Roy on Succession.
It even sounds like Cox was specifically recruited to bring that Logan Roy energy to the role of The Controller. The Controller is a shadowy figure who decides the fate of the show’s contestants, and is seemingly equal parts Bond villain and equivalent of Bond’s spymaster, M.
“The controller is villainous and cultured, enjoying the increasingly difficult journeys and questions that the contestants must overcome,” the press release says. “He has millions of pounds to give away – up to £1 million a pair – but he doesn’t make it easy. While lurking in the shadows, he watches and controls everything.” So he’s rich, cruel and a control freak.
“I enjoyed my role as the villain and tormentor, with permission to put the hopeful contestants through the wringer,” Cox said in a statement. It was not revealed if he would have contestants play Boar on the floor.
007’s race to a million confronts contestants, in teams of two, with physical and mental challenges as they compete in a world travel adventure that will visit many iconic Bond locations, including the Scottish Highlands, Venice and Jamaica.
Of Succession ends with the current, fourth season, 007’s race to a million offers Cox the perfect opportunity to cash in on the cachet he has built up to the dazzling show. It’s a perfect fit – not least because Logan Roy would probably make a great Bond villain. There is even a precedent to prove it. In the 1997 Bond movie Tomorrow never diesJonathan Pryce played the antagonist Elliot Carver, a megalomaniacal media lord who was allegedly – like Logan Roy – based on Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.