Sean Connery and the real-life Boothroyd

We were checking out the message boards at the Commander Bond Web site and found this gem. It’s from 1964 and Sean Connery introduces the real Geoffrey Boothroyd, who ended up advising author Ian Fleming about handguns. Seven years before Dirty Harry debuted, Boothroyd shows a .44 Magum can blow your head clean off.

QOS nominated for Best Production Design award

Dennis Gassner has received a nomination for a Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award, for his production design work on Quantum of Solace. His nomination, in the category of “Contemporary Films,” joins Burn After Reading (Jess Gonchor), Gran Torino (Murakami), Slumdog Millionaire (Mark Digby) and The Wrestler (Timothy Grimes).

Complete coverage of the nominations can be found at the ADG website HERE.

The final awards will be presented on February 14.

QOS had been previously nominated for several Satellite Awards from the International Press Academy, as well as a Cinema Audio Society nomination for best sound mixing.

Goldfinger: from typewriter to screen, conclusion

Our final installment looking at UK film historian Adrian Turner’s examination of how the screenplay to Goldfinger came together.

February 3, 1964: Sean Connery now weighs in on the Goldfinger screenplay. “No longer the hunk who came cheap, Connery had become an international star…and he wanted to ensure the film suited his own interests,” Turner wrote in his 1998 book on the film.

Connery attends a meeting with producer Albert R. Broccoli and screenwriter Richard Maibuam, despite the fact that Paul Dehn wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay. Turner quotes from Maibuam’s notes of the meeting:

“Connery feels tone of script all wrong. Wants serious approach with humor interjected subtly as in other films…Connery is very much against Pussy bouncing him around….He feels Bond is overshadowed completely by Goldfinger throughout.”

Shortly thereafter: Paul Dehn now crafts a second draft, which becomes the shooting script for the film. Dehn incorporates suggestions of Broccoli, his partner Harry Saltzman, Connery, director Guy Hamilton and Maibuam. The latter suggests a tweak that is used. Dehn’s first draft had Bond remarking that someone had a “crush” on Mr. Solo (Springer in earlier drafts, which was in line with Ian Fleming’s novel) when the gangster is killed. It’s Maibaum who suggests Goldfinger saying he needs to arrange to have his gold separated from the late Mr. Solo. Bond replies that Solo had “a pressing engagement.”

September 1964: On the day of Goldfinger’s world premier, Dehn sends Maibuam a cable: “Congratulations on Goldfinger am proud to have collaborated with you.”

(Adrian Turner on Goldfinger, page 206-208, 50)

THE END OF GOLDFINGER
BUT JAMES BOND WILL BE BACK
IN THUNDERBALL

Goldfinger: from typewriter to screen Part III

We continue our look at British film historian Adrian Turner’s examination of how the Goldfinger screenplay evolved.

Late 1963: Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman decide Richard Maibuam’s script needs work. Guy Hamilton is now aboard as director. The producers also “sensed that they needed a fresh mind” to work on the screenplay. Thus, Paul Dehn is hired.

December 23, 1964: Dehn delivers his first draft screenplay. His pre-credits sequence is similar to what we’d see in the final film. In this version, though, Bond has a fake dead dog on his head as he swims underwater. Later, Dehn brings back the Aston Martin, dispensing with the Bentley of Maibuam’s later versions. Dehn also cuts out the Bond-Goldfinger dinner (from the novel and Maibuam’s script), tightening things up by having Oddjob demonstrate the deadly qualities of his hat outside the golf club.

Dehn’s first draft had its own weaknesses, Turner wrote in his 1998 book. The Dehn draft concludes with “arch theatricality,” the film historian opines. Bond breakes the fourth wall and “sees audience,” according to Dehn’s stage directions. Curtains (!) then fall over Bond and Pussy for a moment and then are raised to reveal the couple “alone in a stupendous clinch.” The curtains fall again and we’re told the title of the next 007 film adventure.

Early 1964: Maibaum, after having been sent a copy of Dehn’s draft, sends a memo to Saltzman. Maibuam compliments some of the script but warns, “I’m concerned about the overall tone of the script. It tends to get very Englishy now and then, coy, arch, self-consciously toungue-in-cheek.” Bond, Maibuam wrote, “is just a patsy, and a comic one at that. Parts of the script sound as if it were written for Bob Hope and not Sean Connery.”

(Adrian Turner on Goldfinger, pages 197-204)

TO BE CONTINUED

007 stuntwoman on To Tell the Truth

Evelyn Boren, who did underwater stunt swimming in two James Bond movies, including Thunderball appeared in the original version of To Tell the Truth. Can you guess the real one before the panel does?

Goldfinger: from typewriter to screen part II

We continue our look at the development of the screenplay for Goldfinger as documented in the 1998 book Adrian Turner on Goldfinger.

May 20, 1963: Screenwriter Richard Maibuam delivers a 54-page outline to producers Albert R. Broccoli and Saltzman. The writer also provides a letter to the Eon Production Ltd. chiefs saying it had been “a tough nut to crack” and that certain details of Ian Fleming’s novel wouldn’t hold up to scruntiny.

According to Turner, Maibuam’s treatment has the pre-credits sequence delivered as a flashback, with Bond describing an adventure in South America to his CIA ally Felix Leiter at the airport in Miami. Turner’s description: “The first treatment is little more than a boiling down of the novel to its essential components.”

July 8, 1963: Maibuam sends the producers a second treatment. An Aston Martin had been included in the first treatment but it has been replaced by a Bentley, Turner writes. Toward the end of the laser segment, Goldfinger asks Bond if he can drive a tank. When the answer is yes, Goldfinger offers him a job and $1 million.

Sometime later: Maibaum delivers a first draft screenplay. According to Turner, there is no Q/Major Boothroyd, with a Mr. Brackett showing Bond the new gadgets for 007’s Bentley. Bond and Tilly Master Masterson share a bed at a Swiss inn before she gets killed by Oddjob (in the first treatment she survives until the raid on Fort Knox, as in Fleming’s novel). Pussy Galore’s role expands and, for the first time, she emerges as Goldfinger’s personal pilot.

In this draft, at the end, Oddjob is sucked out of Goldfinger’s plane (as in the novel). Later, Bond strangles Goldfinger (again in line with the novel).

Things would soon change.

TO BE CONTINUED

(Adrian Turner on Goldfinger, pages 190-196)

Maddox on Quantum of Solace!

One of the best places on the web to check into for some great laughs is The Best Page in the Universe by the singularly-named Maddox. His, um, unique perspective, coupled with his terrific graphic design, makes for an eye-opening reading experience.

Although we don’t necessarily agree with his findings, HIS REVIEW of Quantum of Solace is one of the funniest ever. You’d be well advised to check it out.

Goldfinger: From typewriter to screen, part I

Any creative endeavor is shaped by the choices its author or authors make. Such was the case with Goldfinger, the third James Bond film produced by Eon Productions Ltd.

In 1998, British film historian Adrian Turner wrote about the movie in a book titled Adrian Turner on Goldfinger. Turner organized his book in alphabetized subjects. One of the most interesting subjects was found under “S” — screenplay.

This is not meant to substitute for reading Turner’s book. But we wanted to proivde a few examples of why Turner’s effort is recommended reading for any 007 film fan. Turner went to Iowa City, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa and the place where 007 screen writer Richard Maibuam (Class of ’31) donated his papers.

April 30, 1963: Maibuam writes a detailed memo to Eon’s big kahunas, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. The screenwriter anayzes Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel. Among his conclusions: “Not enough action for Bond in the early part and not enough love-stuff.” Maibuam also doesn’t like how Bond ally Felix Leiter materializes suddenly at the end of the novel.

In the memo, Maibuam also recommends that “the buzz saw must go” and be replaced by a laser beam. This is a reference to the climax of the novel’s second (of three) sections. Goldfinger questions a captured Bond who will be cut in two by the buzz saw. By replacing that with the laser, “This out-Flemings Fleming.” Maibuam also recommends the producers consider American character actor Victor Buono to play Goldfinger.

(Adrian Turner on Goldfinger, pages 187-190)

TO BE CONTINUED

Craig says Austin Powers forced 007’s new direction

Mike Myers’s Austin Powers character forced Eon Productions to change direction of its 007 film series current Bond Daniel Craig says in a recent interview.

Since Craig became Eon’s sixth Bond in 2005, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace the series has become much more serious and there have been no appearances by the Moneypenney or Q characters.

Craig told wenn.com, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m up for (gags), as long as the gag works. But the problem is that Austin Powers screwed everything up. He exploded the genre.”

To read the rest of the item, click RIGHT HERE.

Bond Vs. Bond

Well, in the world of video editing it’s a debate we can watch. Here’s a pro-Brosnan entry. Warning: (im)mature language and situations:

Here’s a somewhat different take, but with people portraying the two different Bonds: