Why William Boyd isn’t the best salesman for Solo

William Boyd

This week, author William Boyd makes his 007 debut when the James Bond novel Solo comes out in the U.K. The problem is Boyd isn’t necessarily the best salesman for his own product.

This week, a series of brief Boyd monologues were uploaded to YouTube. In THE FIRST VIDEO he acts as if he had unearthed a startling secret about the literary James Bond.

I suspect there are aspects of Bond people aren’t aware of. Of course the Bond aficionados, the Bond fans will know. The casual readers of Bond will not know some of the things I’ve put in the novel…For example, Bond’s Scottishness. Bond is not English — he’s half Scottish, half Swiss.

Of course, Solo is coming out less than a year after 2012’s Skyfall (worldwide ticket sales: $1.11 BILLION), which made a HUGE deal about exploring Bond’s roots, including the fact he was raised in Scotland, where the climatic sequence takes place. The movie was about as subtle about 007’s Scottish heritage as a heart attack.

Nor was Skyfall the first time. The 1965 television special The Incredible World of James Bond devoted a short segment to Bond’s origins in Scotland, based on the 1964 novel You Only Live Twice. While the bulk of the movies haven’t explored the topic, the fact that Bond has a Scottish heritage doesn’t represent the deepest research into the literary 007. Anybody who has read, say, The James Bond Bedside Companion by Raymond Benson is already up to speed on the topic.

Last spring, of course, Boyd boasted why Solo was such a good title for a Bond novel while seemingly unaware that Fleming had used Solo not once, but twice: as a character in Goldfinger and as the name for the lead character in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series.

It may yet turn out that Boyd’s 007 novel is a good addition to the literary canon. But Boyd doesn’t do himself any favors in promoting the new novel. Some of his major talking points don’t withstand the slightest examination.

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OPEN CHANNEL D: WILLIAM BOYD’S FLEMING RESEARCH GAP

WILLIAM BOYD’S NEW 007 NOVEL TO BE TITLED, IRONICALLY, SOLO

U.N.C.L.E. movie shifts to Italy; 2nd unit gets busy

U.N.C.L.E. movie action in photo on Henry Cavill News site

Filming on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie has shifted to Italy. It appears the second, or action, unit is getting in some work.

Throughout the past few days, fan sites including Henry Cavill News and Henry Cavill.Org plus the Henry Cavill Fanpage and its U.N.C.L.E. movie Facebook page and @laneyboggs2001 on Twitter have provided various updates about the film. Henry Cavill News had THIS POST. Here’s an excerpt:

La Repubblica is reporting that filming has begun on The Man from UNCLE in Italy. So far it seems it’s the second unit doing all of the work. Apparently they are shooting at Castel dell ‘Ovo, which we told you more about in this post. The newspaper says the castle has been off limits throughout the day, but only in the areas occupied by the crew.

They are reportedly filming an action scene that we had heard about before, in which a group of special forces conducts a raid of the fortress, battling it out with gunmen there to protect the mysterious criminal who is hiding inside. Guy Ritchie was spotted earlier in the day, enjoying a day off with his family. And Armie Hammer’s wife shared this great picture of their family, including their cute dog as they explored Pompeii.

On Twitter there were photos such as THIS ONE and THIS ONE of the area where the movie is being filmed.

The $75 million Warner Bros. film so far hasn’t had a big public profile. That may come later. The movie will wrap up production by the end of the year so that Henry Cavill, who plays Napoleon Solo, can start work on a Superman-Batman film in early 2014. Cavill has the role originated by Robert Vaughn in the 1964-68 television series. Armie Hammer plays Illya Kuryakin, the role originally played by David McCallum.

UPDATE: The DAILYCAVILL.COM site has a post. Here’s an excerpt:

THE LOCATION – In the film, the Castel dell ‘Ovo become the Castle of Baia, part of Bacoli where they will hold most of the filming. The set, in fact, will move to the beach of Villa Ferretti in Bacoli, building sites Fiart Bay, moored at Pier Caligula and the fishmongers of Pozzuoli where you will run tomorrow. Other locations will be Rome and England. [ Campaniasuweb ]

UPDATE (Sept. 25): Here’s a video of the area it Italy where filming is occurring this week:

Peter Lamont working on a book about his film career

Peter Lamont

Peter Lamont, whose 007 art department career ran from Goldfinger through Casino Royale, is working on a book, according to THE WEB SITE OF TOMAHAWK PRESS.

The book is to be called The Man With The Golden Eye. Here’s the description:

The legendary Academy Award winning production designer Peter Lamont is finally opening up his archive for Tomahawk Press in a new book, co-written with Max Pemberton. Lamont designed 18 Bond films, and many of James Cameron’s films, including Titanic. Lamont’s iconic work provided the classy look for these films, and his contribution cannot be overstated.

In addition to being one of the world’s foremost production designers, Lamont is an extraordinary raconteur -– his stories providing new perspectives on the both the Bond franchise and James Cameron’s work. We cannot express how excited we are about publishing what we know will be an extremely important and beautifully designed book.

At this point, there aren’t further details but the publisher promises more as time unfolds.

Lamont, 83, worked on every 007 film of the Eon Production series from Goldfinger in 1964 (as a draftsman) to 2006’s Casino Royale, as production designer, with one exception. He skipped 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies to work as production designer for the James Cameron-directed Titanic.

Lamont scored an Oscar for that film and was also nominated for 1986’s Aliens and 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. On the latter, he worked as art director under legendary 007 production designer Ken Adam. After Adam left the Bond series for good following 1979’s Moonraker, producer Albert R. Broccoli promoted Lamont to production designer for 1981’s For Your Eyes Only.

For Lamont, the Bond series also was family business. His brother Michael Lamont and son Neil Lamont held art department posts on the Bond films.