Hey! How about a nice James Bond punch?

A couple of weeks ago, we received a note from reader Katina Solomon, who works with the Zen College Life website. She was alerting us to an article they had just published, of interest to film buffs in general, and (she suggested,) James Bond movie fans in particular: 10 Best On-Screen Punches.

By way of a thesis, the article begins:

The on-screen “fight scene” has been an important part of movies since they first began. For the actor, delivering a punch or getting punched means no bruised knuckles, no bloody nose, and no searching for lost teeth. He or she gets to look tough while the audience vicariously enjoys the completely staged donnybrook.

Interesting stuff indeed. We highly recommend your taking the time to read it. Sadly — and weirdly enough — there are no mentions of any James Bond moments in this top 10 list. Okay, fair enough… but it got us to thinking.

The James Bond film series is justifiably famous for its numerous mano-a-mano fight scenes. 007′s battle with Red Grant aboard The Orient Express; his Fort Knox beatdown with Odd Job; the fisticuffs in the

Something like this, from Thunderball

Alpine bell shed; his bareknuckled showdown with former 006 Alec Trevalyan; the brutal mêlée in the Casino Royale’s staircase; etc., etc., etc. But what about individual punches? The haymaker? The left hook? The right jab? The one-shot-take-’em-out wallop? The POW! … The BIFF! … The BAM! …?

What are Bond’s best?

We don’t know. (Although HMSS co-publisher Tom Zielinski suggested the gut punch 007 delivered to Felix Leiter in Thunderball, but we think that’s mostly due to Tom just wanting to see Bond hit Felix.) So we thought we’d enlist our readers to compile a list. Put your nominations in the Comments section below, and let’s see how many we all can come up with.

One caveat: Roger Moore’s Bond hitting Jaws in his steel kisser — for the second or third time! — does not count as a “best” punch. Sorry… our rules. Outside of that, have at it!

Skyfall scribe Logan gets Oscar nomination for Hugo

John Logan, one of three screenwriters for Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, picked up a nomination for best adapted screenplay for Hugo. He was previously nominated for Oscars for the original screenplays of The Aviator and Gladiator.

Logan was brought in to work on Skyfall by director Sam Mendes. His involvement was publicly disclosed about a year ago, when Eon Productions announced the 007 film was back on after being indefinitely delayed because of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s bankruptcy. Skyfall’s other screen writers are Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who’ve worked on the series since 1999′s The World Is Not Enough.

Logan’s nomination for Hugo was one of 11 received by the Martin Scorsese-directed film.

Omega Seamaster Co-Axial 300 M: Commemorating 50 years of James Bond films

With special thanks to our good friend Dell Deaton, it is a pleasure to release information about the new Omega Seamaster watch commemorating 50 years of James Bond films. Visit Dell’s twitter account here for additional information and more photographs.

TimeZone.com has the official press release here

No price communicated as of yet. Below are pics. (Click to enlarge.)

Note the diamond at the seven on the dial, the “50″ in red on the chronometer, and the use of Binder’s gun-barrel design on the back.

Cool, and understated. Just the way HMSS likes it. Well done.

The HMSS Editors

Soderbergh says more about his U.N.C.L.E. project

Steven Soderbergh, in another interview about his film Haywire, dropped a few more hints what his now-defunct version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. would have been like.

In an interview with The Playlist Web site, the director had this to say about U.N.C.L.E.:

Yeah, with that we had a couple of sequences that I thought conceptually were interesting and weren’t necessarily…there was only one hand to hand thing and there was an element in it that made it different than what we were doing in “Haywire.” Then the other action stuff had interesting ideas in it, that were not sort of straight forward, they all had some kind of weird thing going on. But it was also, I mean it was a real spy movie. Scott [Z. Burns, the writer of this and "Contagion"] wrote it so it was dense, it was smart, it was funny. I really like the Harry Palmer films a lot, so there was a lot of that in that. “The Ipcress File,” “Funeral in Berlin” and “Billion-Dollar Brain.” “Funeral in Berlin” I really liked a lot. Scott and I talked about that a lot. We were watching those as we were working on the script.

Some intriguing comments, in particular how Soderberger was graviating to the Palmer series, based on Len Deighton’s novels, starring Michael Caine and produced by Harry Saltzman, co-founder of Eon Productions. U.N.C.L.E. was disdained by some (including Albert R. Broccoli, the other Eon co-founder) as a Bond ripoff. But with Soderbergh exiting U.N.C.L.E. last year, it’s a vision we’re not going to see.

On the other hand, U.N.C.L.E. was originally pitched as “James Bond for television,” not “Harry Palmer for television.”

UPDATE: Thinking about it further, maybe U.N.C.L.E. fans dodged a bullet thanks to Soderbergh’s departure in a disagreement with Warner Bros. over the film’s budget. Napoleon Solo, like James Bond, is a romantic hero, not an antihero.

TCM to have an evening of the Other Spies on Jan. 24

Turner Classic Movies is having an evening of the “other” spies on Jan. 24, emphasizing lighter fare.

The evening starts at 8 p.m. New York time with In Like Flint (1967), the second of two James Coburn outings as Derek Flint. The intrepid adventurer shows off his ability to talk to porpoises, infiltrates the Kremlin and ends up in outer space.

Next up at 10 p.m. is Where The Spies Are (1966) with David Niven, once Ian Fleming’s preferred choice to play James Bond in what amounts to a warmup for the 1967 Casino Royale spoof. Midnight brings Agent 8 3/4 (1964) with Dirk Bogarde. At 2 a.m. (actually on Jan. 25, of course), TCM is scheduled to telecast 1966′s The Silencers, the first of four films with Dean Martin performing a spoof version <a.of Donald Hamilton’s counter assassin, Matt Helm.

TCM’s final spy entry at 4 a.m. is Salt and Pepper (1968), with Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. The duo had done an episode of The Wild, Wild West together (The Night of the Returning Dead) and liked how director Richard Donner operated. Thus, Donner was hired to direct Salt and Pepper, one of Donner’s first theatrical films.

Soderbergh confirms U.N.C.L.E. exit concerned budget

Director Steven Soderbergh is making the rounds to publicize his new movie Haywire. In an interview with the Star-Ledger of Newark, he also confirmed he departed a planned movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in a disagreement with Warner Bros. about the project’s budget.

“(W)e were going back and forth and, in the end, I pushed them …and the studio said, ‘Well, if you’re really going to push us to answer now, the answer is no.’”

(snip)
“Frankly, I think there’s a piece of the narrative missing here, on their side, because the difference between their number and my number was not that big.”

No additional details were mentioned. Last year, The Playlist Web site reported that Warner Bros. offered a $60 million budget for the movie, and the director and studio had disagreements over casting.

Haywire, which hit theaters on Jan. 20, has a cast that includes Michael Fassbender, reportedly Soderbergh’s choice for Napoleon Solo after George Clooney turned it down, and Channing Tatum, who had been mentioned as a possible Solo but didn’t really strike us as a great choice.

UPDATE: Haywire finished No. 5 at the U.S. box office this week. CLICK HERE for more details.

Adapt or die: what 007 and Batman have in common

When following debates among James Bond fans — whether on Internet bulletin boards, Facebook or in person — people sometimes say “try reading Fleming” (or a variation thereof) as if it were a trump card that shows they’re right and the other person is wrong.

Read Fleming. That shows Bond is supposed to be a “blunt instrument.” Therefore, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace are really true to Fleming.

"Read Fleming!" = "I'm right, you're wrong!"

Read Fleming. That shows Bond is a romantic hero, not a neurotic antihero, therefore, (INSERT BOND ACTOR HERE) was true to Fleming. Meanwhile, (INSERT BOND ACTOR HERE) meant the 007 film series had reached a nadir.

In reality, over a half-century, the Bond films have passed through multiple eras. To some, Connery can never be surpassed and Moore was a joke. Except, the Connery films have more humor than Fleming employed (on the “banned” Criterion laser disc commentaries, Terence Young chortles about how Fleming asking why the films had more humor than his novels). The Moore films, for all their humor, do have serious moments (Bond admitting to Anya he killed her KGB lover in The Spy Who Loved Me or Bond being hurt but not wanting to admit it after getting out of the centrifuge in Moonraker). Other comments heard frequently: Brosnan tried to split the difference between Connery and Moore, Craig plays the role seriously, the way it should be, etc., etc.

Lots of different opinions, all concerning the same character, dealing with different eras and the contributions of multiple directors and screenwriters. Which reminded of us another character, who’s been around even longer than the film 007: Batman, who made his debut in Detective Comics No. 27 in 1939.

Early Batman stories: definitely dark. “There is a sickening snap as the cossack’s neck breaks under the mighty pressure of the Batman’s foot,” reads a caption in Detective Comics No. 30.

Then, things lightened up after Batman picked up Robin as a sidekick. Eventually, there was Science Fiction Batman in the 1950s (during a period when superhero comics almost disappeared), followed by “New Look” Batman in 1964 (which could also be called Return of the Detective), followed by Campy Batman in 1966 (because of popularity of the Batman television show), followed by Classic Batman is Back, circa 1969 or ’70, etc., etc. All different interpretations of the same character.

In the 1990s, there was a Batman cartoon that captured all this. A group of kids are talking. Two claim to have seen Batman. The first provides a description and we see a sequence resembling Dick Sprang-drawn comics of the 1940s, with Gary Owens providing the voice of Batman. The second describes something much different, and the sequence is drawn to resemble Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns comic of the 1980s, with Michael Ironside voicing Batman.

Eventually, the group of kids gets into trouble and we see the 1990s cartoon Batman, voiced by Kevin Conroy, in a sequence that evokes elements of both visions.

With the Bond film series, something similar has occurred. In various media, you’ll see fans on different sides of an argument claiming Fleming as supporting their view. Search hard enough, and you can find bits of Fleming or Fleming-inspired elements in almost any Bond film. The thing is, the different eras aren’t the result of long-term planning. They’re based on choices, the best guess among filmmakers of what is popular at a given time, what makes a good Bond story, etc.

In effect, both the film 007 and the comic book Batman have had to adapt or die. Fans today can’t imagine a world without either character. But each has had crisis moments. For Bond, the Broccoli-Saltzman separation of the mid-1970s and the 1989-95 hiatus in Bond films raised major questions about 007′s future. Batman, meanwhile, faced the prospect of cancellation by DC Comics (one reason for the 1964 revamp that ended the science fiction era) but managed to avoid it.

None of this, of course, will stop the arguments. Truth be told, things might become dull if the debates ceased. Still things might go over better if participants looked at them as an opportunity. An opposing viewpoint that’s well argued keeps you sharp and might cause you to consider ideas you overlooked.

Skyfall: try reading the press release

This past week, at least two news outlets made it sound like there was a fresh disclosure about the plot of Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film. Depends on your definition of fresh.

Daniel Craig and his Skyfall co-stars on Nov. 3 -- when a press release was first issued with a brief description of the movie's plot

On Jan. 16, The Wrap ran a story (CLICK HERE to read the entire piece) that began:

Daniel Craig is back as James Bond, and though details of his next adventure, “Skyfall,” are being kept closely under wraps, Sony did reveal a few tantalizing clues in an official plot summary released this week.

(snip)
“In ‘Skyfall,’ Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her,” the summary reads. “As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.”

The Irish Examiner on Jan. 17 ALSO RAN A STORY, also quoting from the summary.

“In ‘Skyfall’, Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.”

All of this is well and good, except the summary being quoted from wasn’t exactly new and the plot details involved weren’t under wraps. Back on Nov. 3, more than two months earlier, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures and Eon Productions put out a press release (which you can read by CLICKING HERE).

Here’s the third paragraph of the Nov. 3 release:

In SKYFALL, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

This reminds us of a slogan that NBC used about a decade ago during the summer when it had a prime-time lineup of reruns. “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.”

Skyfall is economizing, the Mirror says

Skyfall is cutting back on filming at actual locations to reduce its budget, according to the U.K. newspaper the Mirror.

In a story YOU CAN READ BY CLICKING HERE, the newspaper says the only actual location for the 23rd James Bond movie is Turkey. Here’s an excerpt:

"What do you mean, I have to fly coach?"

James Bond producers have had to slash their budget and are shooting in Bognor Regis after scrapping plans to head for six different exotic countries to make the next 007 film Skyfall.

Instead of distant locations such as India, China and Bali, they are using various UK beaches. Skyfall will also rely heavily on special effects and advanced sets at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

A source said: “To say some of the cast and crew are a bit gutted is an understatement.

“Originally six different countries were selected to film certain scenes but after several technical and financial problems, it was decided to scale back and just use Turkey as the sole foreign location.”

Back in November, the bosses of Eon Productions, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, denied there had been any financial cutbacks during a news conference. Later that month, according to the MI6 James Bond fan Web site, Ascot Racecourse was being used as a location, doubling for the airport in Shanghai. The same fan site had a story saying that sequences of Daniel Craig swimming in a pool were filmed in the U.K. but in the film’s story are supposed to occur in Shanghai as well. If the Mirror is to be believed, that trend will continue.

However, it’s not like Eon hasn’t done this sort of thing before. You Only Live Twice’s first unit went to Japan and did the rest of its work at Pinewood. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service did location work in Switzerland and Portugal. From Russia With Love went to Turkey and Dr. No went to Jamaica. Few fans of those films complain about the lack of location shooting. Eon sent a skeleton crew to the U.S. but the exterior of Fort Knox was built at Pinewood and the interior was, of course, a Ken Adam-designed set.

UPDATE: The Daily Mail HAS A STORY but it seems to mostly repeat what the Mirror reported without adding much, if anything, new. The MI6 Web site summarized the Mirror story while accusing the Mirror of fabricating the main quote.

UPDATE II: The Guardian published an essay ON JAN. 19 essentially saying trimming Skyfall’s budget would be a good thing. But the story does nothing to verify the original Mirror story.

Two minor observations about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

We caught up with the new movie version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s well worth your time. But, in our own fashion, we wanted to make a couple of tangent observations about the adaptation of the John Le Carre novel. Minor spoilers follow.

1. Anti-Bond George Smiley meets 007 knock off Charles Vine (sort of). In the 1960s, the success of James Bond films helped create a demand for an “anti Bond,” somebody who wasn’t a romantic hero and who dealt in a morally ambiguous world, just like real spies. The novels of John Le Carre (real name David Cornwell) provided the perfect fodder. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold starring Richard Burton came out in 1965, with George Smiley a secondary character, Bernard Lee (the M of Eon Productions’s 007 series) in the cast and Paul Dehn, co-screenwriter of Goldfinger, part of the crew.

The ’60s Bond films also generated 007 takeoffs, including The Second Best Secret Agent in The Whole Wide World, starring Tom Adams as Charles Vine, a Sean Connery-esque, British agent.

Well, in the new Tinker, Tailor, these two trends from the past are merged. The 2011 film has repeated flashbacks to an MI6 Christmas party. At one point, the theme song to Second Best Secret Agent is played. (Le Carre has a cameo, as well.) This is part of an effort by the filmmakers to tie into cultural references of the past, given that Tinker, Tailor is done as a 1970s period piece. Which leads us to:

2. The temptation to overdo past cultural references. This is a minor quibble. But when movies are done as period pieces — especially of a story that has been made before (Tinker, Tailor was made as a television miniseries more than 30 years ago) — there is a temptation to load up on past cultural references. In this case, hairstyles and music. In the new film, Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) sports a haircut more appropriate for ’70s high school students rather than an experienced MI6 operative. And the film sometimes overdoes it with providing ’70s songs.

It’s always interesting to compare remakes done as period pieces with earlier versions made during the same era. Another example: Farewell My Lovely (1975) was done as a 1940s period piece and sometimes over does the culture references compared with Murder My Sweet (1944), both based off the same Raymond Chandler novel.

We want to stress all of these observations are minor. The new Tinker, Tailor is worth the time of any spy fan and Gary Oldman is a wonderful successor to Alec Guiness (star of two television miniseries) as Smiley. Oldman did an NPR interview last year where he said he’d love to play Smiley again if the opportunity presents itself. We’ll second that thought.