Salute (sort of) to YOLT’s “Crater Guy”

James Bond movies aren’t known for their working-class characters. But if you look closely, they are present. Take, for example, “Crater Guy” from You Only Live Twice. “Crater Guy” (we’re never actually told his name) is the fellow who opens and closes SPECTRE’s entrance to its secret Japan headquarters built inside a supposedly extinct volcano. [...]

Bond 23 generates lots of reading material but few answers

Want to find out what’s going on with Bond 23? It seems like the more you read, the less you *actually* know. But recent articles cover enough ground, a reader can pretty much reinforce his or her own prejudices. Are you inclined to believe Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Wilson are concerned, hands-on, smart operators [...]

HMSS nominations for underrated 007 moments

What we’re about to discuss aren’t necessarily the *best* James Bond film moments but they may be the most *underrated.* So let’s get right into it: Most underrated score by somebody not named John Barry: John Barry composed the score for half of Eon Productions Ltd.’s 22 007 movies. He also worked on Dr. No, [...]

Recommended 007 reading

For fans of the literary James Bond, a 2006 book is still available that amplifies the original 007 novels and short stories by Ian Fleming. Ian Fleming’s James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming’s Bond Stories provides the following, according to the Web page for the book: •Each novel is analyzed and includes a [...]

1969 Hawaii Five-O soundtrack to be re-released

On the message boards of Film Score Monthly, which produces soundtracks of movies and television shows, news popped up that the original 1969 Hawaii Five-O soundtrack album will be re-released digitially and on CD. In the thread, WHICH YOU CAN READ BY CLICKING HERE, FSM’s Lukas Kendall confirms that FSM plans to produce a CD. [...]

007 homages in Angelina Solie’s Salt

The big movie opening this weekend is the U.S. is Salt with Angelina Jolie. We haven’t seen it yet, but those who have are noting various James Bond homages. A.O. Scott, film critic for The New York Times (whose review you can read by CLICKING HERE) provides this comment: Not that “Salt” matters much. Despite [...]

007 questions related to being a James Bond fan

001. Do we know any more about Bond 23 than we did three months ago? Not really. Eon Productions co-boss Michael G. Wilson has been quoted as saying a new film might occur “soon,” but he provided no dates, no details. In the space of three months, Eon said work was suspended indefinitely, a U.K. [...]

Automovtive Traveler on specs for the Aston Martin DB5 up for auction

We’ve noted before an Aston Martin DB5 appearing in Goldfinger and Thunderball is going on the auction block this fall. The Automotive Traveler Web site has more details, including the specs for the engine and other details (such as the number of miles on the odometer) concerning the auto made famous by James Bond. Here’s [...]

2004: BusinessWeek discusses 007′s value

Back in 2004, BusinessWeek (now Bloomberg Businessweek), ran a short story by Ronald Grover discussing how much the cinema James Bond might be worth. It’s interesting to read because at the time Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. was up for sale (as it has been recently). People were wondering about 007′s long-term prospects (as has happened recently). One [...]

Michael G. Wilson says Bond 23 to happen ‘soon,’ IGN UK reports

IGN UK, in a story you can view BY CLICKING HERE, quotes Michael G. Wilson, co-boss of Eon Productions along with his half-sibling Barbara Broccoli, as saying the following: “Both Barbara and I are convinced that we’ll be bringing you another Bond film soon.” No details, no comments about the on-going financial saga of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [...]