USC Film School celebrates Cubby Broccoli and James Bond

James Bond fans lucky enough to be living in Southern California can look forward to a nice weekend: starting this Friday, November 6, the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts will be celebrating the life of James Bond film producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli. The three-day festival will feature panel discussions, [...]

How ‘The Trouble With Harry’ still affects the 007 franchise

Our co-publisher has sounded the alarm on how troubles at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. could imperil the movie future of James Bond. But in many ways, it’s merely the latest chapter of “The Trouble With Harry.”
Harry, of course, is Harry Saltzman who launched the Bond series with partner Albert R. Broccoli with 1962’s Dr. No. Saltzman, though, [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary (conclusion): the film’s legacy

This week marks the 45th anniversry of Goldfinger’s U.K. premier. What’s the film’s legacy? Try these on for size:
1. Most obvious, it was the first 007 mega-hit.
Dr. No and From Russia With Love had been successful, but Goldfinger turned 007 into a worldwide phenomenon. It set a record at the time for recouping its costs [...]

Roundup of 007/Ian Fleming-related anniversaries this year

We’ve noted some of these and skipped others. In any case, this is proving to be quite the year for notable James Bond and/or Ian Fleming-related anniversaries. Here’s a recap:
April: 100th anniversary of the birth of 007 producer Albert R. “Cubby Broccoli.
May: 100th anniversary of the birth of 007 screenwriter Richard Maibuam
June: 30th anniversary of [...]

Countdown to Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary part II

The 45th anniversary of Goldfinger’s world premier is next month. With that in mind, here’s a list of 10 major decisions that helped shape the movie.
1. Selecting Goldfinger as the third Ian Fleming novel in the series to be filmed. Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman weren’t going by the order the novels appeared. [...]

Happy 100th, Richard Maibaum

Tomorrow, May 26, is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Maibaum, who worked as a screenwriter on 13 of the first 16 James Bond movies produced by Eon Productions.
Maibaum was among a group of crew members — Ken Adam, Peter Hunt and John Barry were among the others — whose talents were key [...]

The earliest days of Bond

Nothing startling here, but given many of the principals are no longer with us, it’s still interesting to hear the perspectives of those who launched 007 movies in 1962.
So, in this video, you can hear 007’s first director, Terence Young; Johanna Harwood, one of the screenwriters of Dr. No; Peter Hunt, and edited five films [...]

Tribute to Cubby Broccoli on FelixLeiter.com

Over at FelixLeiter.com, there’s a tribute to 007 producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli. It quotes extensively from various books about Bond, including Broccoli’s autobiography. If you want to take a look just CLICK RIGHT HERE.

Ian Fleming’s fascination with bowties

Ian Fleming, besides being the creator of James Bond, also had a thing for bowties.
Fleming (1908-1964) was photographed more than once sporting a bowtie. Once he finally had a deal to sell the film rights to 007, he felt bowties ought to be part of the proceedings. For example, he wrote in a memo to [...]

More HMSS (and reader) nominations for harebrained 007 movie ideas

Consider casting John Gavin as James Bond
After George Lazenby abruptly quit (or was fired, depending on which version of the story you believe), producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and studio chieftains at United Artists gave a lot of thought to Americanizing Bond. Gavin was signed but UA wasn’t quite sold. So, the studio [...]