Idris Elba praises Daniel Craig as 007

Idris Elba

Ever since computer hacks at Sony Pictures turned up an executive’s memo saying Idris Elba should be the next film 007, the actor keeps getting asked about it. Elba keeps trying to play it down.

For example, there’s THIS JAN. 28 BLOOMBERG STORY, which contains this excerpt:

“It’s really just a rumor—and it’s not even my rumor!” he says via phone from Germany. He has called me, an auto journalist, because the luxury brand Jaguar recently hired him to drive from London to Berlin in its new XE diesel sedan, the one that gets 75 miles per gallon. He drove it to DJ a Jaguar-sponsored party the night of his arrival in Berlin.

It was a well-timed publicity stunt. While it is true that Elba has long followed car culture—his father worked for years at Ford, and Land Rovers and a Jaguar XJR are his current cars of choice—the drive comes right after revelations from the Sony hack revealed that Elba was being considered for the title role in the next 007 flick.

For the moment, Elba says he is focusing on his life as a DJ.

“I appreciate you saying that I’d be a good James Bond, but Daniel Craig is doing a great job with it right now,” he says. 
”I love working with music, making people dance.”

The Sony executive involved was Amy Pascal. “Idris should be the next bond (sic),” she wrote in a Jan. 4, 2014 email, reported by The Daily Beast website. She’s dealt with Bond since Sony released 2006’s Casino Royale. Sony’s current agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer expires after the release of SPECTRE, coming out this fall. Meanwhile, Craig is under contract through Bond 25.

Our modest proposal for the title of the newest 007 novel

Jim Murray, ace Los Angeles Times columnist

So, Anthony Horowitz, the author hired to write the newest James Bond continuation novel, let it be known this month he’s delivered his manuscript and he approves of the cover for the U.K. edition.

It’s probably too late to make this modest suggestion for the title. It’s based on the previously disclosed information the novel is based on an Ian Fleming idea for a never-made James Bond television series and it involves a setting in the world of auto racing.

The Fleming story idea was titled Death on Wheels, but Horowitz has previously said that won’t be the title of the novel.

But what would be a good title? Well, one of the best U.S. sports writers of the 20th century provides something worth considering.

“Gentlemen, start your coffins,” Jim Murray, sports columnist of the Los Angeles Times, wrote in a column about the Indianapolis 500 published in 1966.

At the time Murray penned those words, the Indy 500 was at its height as the pre-eminent auto race in the world. In the 1960s, the 500 was so big, the stars of Formula One and NASCAR came to Indianapolis to compete in the event. In 1965 and 1966, Formula One stars won the race.

But the 500 could also prove deadly. As late the as the 1980s, The Associated Press news service would send to member newspapers a list of all fatalities that occurred during the race over the years. Meanwhile, Murray’s line for his Indy 500 column was just one of many memorable comments he wrote over a long career. Murray died in 1998.

Raymond Benson observations on 007 and other topics

Raymond Benson, circa late 1990s. Photo by Paul Baack.

Raymond Benson, 007 scholar and one-time James Bond continuation novel author, granted an interview to the SIRENS OF SUSPENSE WEBSITE.

Here are a few of his observations.

About writing his 007 continuation novels and short stories:

“I grew up with Bond and (Ian) Fleming. I knew the universe inside-and-out…and I believe that’s why the people at the Fleming Estate hired me.”

On his favorite Bond actor:

Sean Connery will always be my favorite: he’s the iconic Bond, the guy against everyone else will be measured. That said, I feel the most accurate portrayal of Fleming’s literary Bond was that of Timothy Dalton.

On the chances Idris Elba will ever play 007:

As for the Elba discussion, it’s a moot point. Mr. Elba is a fine actor and could certainly do the role, but he’s aleady too old.

When the computers of Sony Pictures were hacked, one disclosure that emerged was that Sony executive Amy Pascal voiced a preference for Elba (born Sept. 6, 1972) to succeed Daniel Craig (b. 1968) in the role. Craig is currently filming SPECTRE, due for release in November and his contract calls for one more 007 film after that.

On whether Benson might every get the chance to do another 007 novel:

The Estate has never re-hired an author, just as the film producers are never going to re-hire Brosnan or Dalton.

Benson’s last Bond novel and 007 movie novelization were both published in 2002.

To view the entire interview, CLICK HERE.

‘Year of the Spy’ gets a shakeup: M:I 5 moved up 5 months

Tom Cruise

The “Year of the Spy” has just been shaken up. Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 5 has been moved up five months to July 31 from Dec. 25, according to the BOX OFFICE MOJO website.

The move gets M:I and its star-producer out of the busy Christmas season, which includes Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens on Dec. 18. Paramount, the studio behind the M:I movies, rescheduled a movie called Monster Trucks to Dec. 25 from May 29.

M:I’s new release date may also be bad news for Warner Bros. The studio has an action movie called Point Break due out on July 31 and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. two weeks later, on Aug. 14.

The U.N.C.L.E. movie was given the mid-August date after being rescheduled from Jan. 16. Warner Bros. ended up giving a wide release to American Sniper in mid-January, and it has been a big hit. The question now is whether Warner Bros. will be tempted to change U.N.C.L.E.’s release date again.

Of course, Cruise originally had been attached to the U.N.C.L.E. movie to play Napoleon Solo. He pulled out to concentrate on the new M:I movie, with Henry Cavill accepting the Solo role.

007 Tweets of note from Jeremy Duns, Anthony Horowitz

On Sunday, Jan. 25, two rather interesting posts on Twitter emerged related to the world of James Bond.

The first was from journalist and author Jeremy Duns. He came across a 1963 story in the Daily Express indicating that, at one time, Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman was interesting in having actor-playwright Robert Shaw script a 007 film.

Apparently, Harry Saltzman asked Robert Shaw to write a Bond film but he turned it down to appear in a Pinter play: pic.twitter.com/FSghXM5hpF

— Jeremy Duns (@jeremyduns) January 25, 2015

Shaw, of course, played Red Grant in 1963’s From Russia With Love. There are no details about what Bond project this might have been for.

Generally speaking, screenwriter Richard Maibaum was close to Albert R. Broccoli, the other Bond co-producer. Saltzman was always on the lookout for other scribes, including Len Deighton (who did uncredited work on From Russia With Love), Paul Dehn (Goldfinger) and John Hopkins (Thunderball).

Duns previously has detailed the work screenwriter Ben Hecht did for producer Charles K. Feldman’s ill-fated 1967 Casino Royale film. Duns researched how Hecht had a more serious take in mind. Duns has a e-book on the subject, ROGUE ROYALE.

The other Tweet came from Anthony Horwitz, writer of the next James Bond continuation novel coming out this fall.

OMG. The Man with the Golden Gun is not good.

— Anthony Horowitz (@AnthonyHorowitz) January 25, 2015

The author, as it turns out, was watching the 1974 movie on television. On Jan. 15, HE TWEETED he had delivered his Bond novel. On Jan. 22, HE TWEETED that he had seen the cover, calling it “perfect.”

Just seen the cover of the new James Bond novel. It's perfect. Orion Books really working overtime.

— Anthony Horowitz (@AnthonyHorowitz) January 22, 2015

UPDATE: Horowitz later engaged in a dialogue with other Twitter users.

One commented to Horowitz that the Golden Gun novel isn’t one of Fleming’s best novels. Horowitz’s reply: “True. But that rubber nipple? Oh dear.” In a separate response, he said of the 1974 movie’s car jump: “Great stunt. But the sound and the sheriff? Oh dear.”

He was then informed by freelance writer and author Jeffrey Westhoff, “Slide whistle was John Barry’s choice, which he later regretted. But director, etc. could have nixed it.” Horowitz’s reply: “That’s a very interest piece of movie trivia!”

SPECTRE silly season under way

No question — we’re now well into what we’ll call the “silly season” for SPECTRE.

Production on the 24th James Bond film produced by Eon Productions has been underway since early December. There are fragmentary bits of information. Some photos of location shooting in Austria here (such as THIS IMAGE which has been seen various places including the BOND 24 WEBSITE). Some developments becoming public there.

For all that, there’s not enough information to really get a sense of how things are going or if the movie will be any good or not.

One of those fragments IS A STORY IN THE U.K. MIRROR TABLOID NEWSPAPER that says the production may have been thrown a major curve ball about a scheduled location in Rome. Here’s an excerpt.

Filming for the new James Bond movie has been thrown into chaos after a row over a historic site in Rome.

Producers had planned to shoot key scenes for Spectre on the 15th century Ponte Sisto bridge…But religious campaigners are furious as the bridge holds special significance, with links to Pope Innocent X — prompting protests to authorities in the Italian capital.

There are more details if you click on the link above. If you do, there is a bit of a spoiler about the planned sequence.

Anyway, this potential setback comes after officials in Rome vetoed a location for a car chase. (CLICK HERE to read a Jan. 9 story on the MI6 James Bond website.) Still, does this really amount to “chaos” the way the Mirror characterizes it?

For now, we’re mostly going to get teases from official 007 social media, like this Jan. 22 Tweet:

From Sölden to Q Stage #SPECTRE pic.twitter.com/1JKCN4QCNy

— James Bond (@007) January 22, 2015

In other words, interesting visuals, not much context. The same applies to the periodic clapperboard shots.

Thanks to the Sony hacking, we know a more than usual compared with production of other 007 films. That information includes memos, draft scripts and the fact SPECTRE’s budget may exceed $300 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. For context, thought, that won’t come until another day.

Cavill says U.N.C.L.E. role ‘different’

Henry Cavill

Actor Henry Cavill, in an interview with the B2B GIBRALTAR WEBSITE said Napoleon Solo is “a bit different to my other roles.”

The 31-year-old actor didn’t elaborate. Here’s pretty much the entire mention of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie in the Jan. 16 article on the Gibraltar business website:

Henry’s next box office blockbuster will see him take on the big-screen reboot of hit TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in another iconic role, this time recreating the character of Napoleon Solo made famous by Robert Vaughn. “It is very exciting and it is going to be a great movie, a bit different to my other roles there is even a comedic element to it,” Henry said. “We have already finished filming and it’s due to be released in August 2015.”

The interview was conducted in October when Cavill was at Gibraltar for a fundraiser run on behalf of the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund. At the time, Cavill was still filming Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice. Most of the interview concerns his Superman role.

Cavill has previously said there’s a comedic element to the story. The actor has also said he didn’t watch the original 1964-68 television series. He had avoided watching other actors play Superman prior to 2013’s Man of Steel film.

Shoutout to the Henry Cavill News site, which Tweeted about the Gibraltar interview.

New book with unauthorized 007 stories to be published

“I’m in the public domain in Canada? Really?”

The literary James Bond — at least the original Ian Fleming stories — is now public domain in Canada, 50 years after the death of the author. Thus, a new 007 anthology book is being published in that country that’s not commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications.

Here’s an excerpt from a PRESS RELEASE BY CHIZINE PUBLICATIONS:

TORONTO, Ontario (January 19, 2015) — Independent Toronto publisher ChiZine Publications announces they will be publishing a new anthology of short stories featuring James Bond now that Ian Fleming’s work has entered the public domain in Canada. The anthology, titled Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond, will be edited by Toronto authors Madeline Ashby (vN, iD; Company Town) and David Nickle (Knife Fight and Other Struggles,The ’Geisters, Eutopia).

“We want to feature original, transformative stories set in the world of Secret Agent 007,” says Nickle. “We’re hoping our contributors will combine the guilty-pleasure excitement of the vintage Fleming experience with a modern critique of it.”

“This is an opportunity to comment on the Bond universe from within it,” adds Ashby. “We’re specifically looking for writers and stories that would make Fleming roll in his grave.”

Earlier this month, the Io9 website HAD A POST explaining what this means. The literary Bond still is under IFP copyright in the United States and the European Union (it’s the author’s life plus 70 years). But, in Canada, you can write and publish a James Bond story.

Licenced Expired is due out in November. Its publication comes as IFP is preparing a new continuation 007 novel by Anthony Horowitz scheduled to debut in September. Licenced Expired, of course, will have more limited distribution.

For more details, you can view posts in THE DEVIL’S EXERCISE YARD and BOINGBOING.

UPDATE (Jan. 22): THE BOOK BOND website passed along the URL of A POST BY MADELINE ASHBY, one of the co-editors of this venture.

Ashby already caught the eye of Bond fans when she said in the press release the goal would be to generate stories to make Ian Fleming “roll in his grave.”

In the Jan. 19 post, Ashby adds some additional anti-Fleming comments, saying 007’s creator “seemed to despise gay people, people of colour, people without money, his mother…the list goes on. Wouldn’t an anthology be a better way of collecting those voices in a chorus? Doesn’t the public domain mean that the public now has an opportunity to make this story — this overwhelmingly white, straight, English story about maintaining the strength of Her Majesty’s empire — their own?”

The visual impact of GoldenEye

GoldenEye’s poster

By Nicolas Suszczyk, Guest Writer
The gunbarrel opens on a plane that flies over a dam leaving the audience with a breath-taking visual of the landscape. We see a mysterious man running across the dam. More close ups shots follow of the man adjusting a bungee cord.

He jumps. There’s silence as he plunges more than 640 feet.

We are on Arkhangelsk, USSR. The man is trying to gain access to a chemical facility.

We see lots of close-up and detail shots of this man’s blue eyes as well as more takes of his silhouette as he sneaks into the complex’s bathroom.

His face is revealed upside down while greeting a Russian soldier sitting on the toilette right before punching the living daylights out of him. Meet Bond, James Bond.

After a six-and-a-half-year gap in the series, GoldenEye brought James Bond back to the big screen. There were new faces, starting with the secret agent himself, played by Pierce Brosnan in the first of his four Bond films.

GoldenEye also brought to the series a visual impact missing in the five films directed by John Glen, whose basic TV style was one of the few cons of his time in the Bond director chair, in spite of succeeding in bringing the spy back to Earth after the slapstick-ish Moonraker.

Many were responsible for the visual impact of the 1995 film: Director Martin Campbell and his team included cinematographer Phil Méheux, editor Terry Rawlings, second unit director Ian Sharp and, of course, veteran production designer Peter Lamont.

GoldenEye’s visuals feature a lot of ethereal blue skies in the Monaco scenes, a warm orange palette during the beach scenes in Cuba (shot in Puerto Rico), colder blues in the snowy Severnaya and a lot of chiaroscuro techniques in the Statue Park scene where Alec Trevelyan is revealed as the movie’s villain.

Méheux does a superb team work with Rawlings, who provided beautiful editing techniques, particularly the transition between the kiss of Bond and Natalya on the Cuban beach fading into the hearth’s fire and a traveling pan to the couple on the bed inside a cottage.

No less impressive is the thrilling plane crash scene, and the subsequent reveal of Xenia Onatopp’s silhouette rappelling down against the sunlight reflected of an unconscious Bond’s forehead in the jungle.

More brilliant editing by Rawlings can be seen during the film’s many action sequences: the shootout in the St Petersburg Military Archives, i.e. the Russian soldier falling through a glass after being gunned down by a runaway Bond, or the secret agent and his girl Natalya running avoiding the bullets from Ourumov’s troops; or the fight between 007 and Xenia on the hotel’s spa, particularly the way Bond’s quick reflexes work by grabbing the girl and throwing her against the wall before the “foreplay” starts.

Another more explicit fist-fight scene, where Bond has his ultimate showdown with the treacherous Trevelyan inside the giant antenna, not only features a sharp editing that harkens back to 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Bond vs Che Che) and 1963’s From Russia with Love (Bond vs Red Grant), but also reworks the Méheux’s chiaroscuro previously seen in the statue park and the nerve gas facility.

The GoldenEye director of photography is equally skilled in choosing unusual and dramatic shots during quick moments: the supine take of Brosnan being frisked by Alec guards, the zoom-in on Bond’s desperate eyes while trying to level off the plane falling through the cliff or the reflection of the Tiger missiles on them later, or the fast shot of the severely wounded Trevelyan right before the whole antenna structure falls over him, a resort he also used effectively in The Mask of Zorro (1998) and The Legend of Zorro (2005), both directed by Martin Campbell.

Of course none of this could have been done with success if it wasn’t by the perfect tandem ofCampbell and Ian Sharp. Both the dialogue scenes and the action scenes shot by the second unit are joined together in a very effective way. The action scenes in GoldenEye from the bungee jump to the spy vs spy battle above the antenna dish look tidy and planned with intelligence, in a way every action scene has its reason to be in each particular moment.

Last but not least, we owe must credit Peter Lamont the materialization of each one of the locations described in the tale from Michael France, Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein. The interiors like the bottling-room of the Arkhangelsk facility, the Severnaya Space Weapons Center and Janus’ Base computer rooms, all of them built on the Leavesden Studios from scratch, just like the statue park with sculptures by Brian Muir and the recreation of the streets of St Petersburg, when the production was unable to shot the epic tank chase on location in Russia.

The remaining bits of the visual impact of the first Bond film of the 1990s is given by designer Daniel Kleinman, hired after his work on Gladys Knight music video for Licence to Kill. He took the freedom of giving a traditional element like the opening gunbarrel shot a sleek and dynamic digital look and he made history with the film’s opening credits: red, purple and gold are seen while lingerie-clad women destroy soviet icons and statues in synchrony with Tina Turner’s powerful main title song.

GoldenEye breathed fire into the Bond series putting a big step on a new era not only in a historical way, but also in a very sharp graphic and gorgeous way.

Nicolas Suszczyk is editor of The GoldenEye Dossier.

NYC hangout for Bond writers, collectors loses an owner

Jean-Claude Baker

Jean-Claude Baker, a New York restaurateur, died this week at 71. He owned Chez Josephine, a colorful establishment that on more that one occasion served as a place for James Bond collectors and scribes who wrote about Agent 007 to gather.

One can only imagine how Ian Fleming would have described Chez Josephine. It was part restaurant, part shrine for Baker’s adoptive mother, Josephine Baker. There’s live music and the restaurant does brisk business from New York theater goers.

There was also something of a James Bond clientele.

Gary Firuta, a Bond collector, often brought the likes of writers James Chapman, Raymond Benson, Alan Porter, John Griswold, Anders Frejdh and Joseph Darlington to Chez as well as video producer Mark Cerulli.

Jean-Claude, upon seeing the Bond-related groups enter, would immediately say, “Oh, my friend!” in his French accent and fuss over those present. One could be away for months or a year or two. It was always the same when Jean-Claude spotted you.

Today, there are myriad Chez Josephine customers who wish they could hear “Oh, my friend!” just one more time.

For more information about Jean-Claude Baker’s colorful life, you can view AN OBITUARY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES or a PLAYBILL OBIT.

UPDATE: Here’s the text of an e-mail the restaurant sent to customers:

With great sorrow, the Chez Josephine family mourns the passing of Jean-Claude Baker.

Throughout his eventful life, Jean-Claude fulfilled with passion and commitment his one true vocation: to bring laughter, joy and love to all who knew him. His larger-than-life personality and unfailing generosity touched everyone around him.

His spirit was irrepressible. His love will endure in the lives touched by his special magic. A magic that his Chez Josephine family will do its best to continue in his honor.

The restaurant is closed today–Thursday, January 15–out of respect to our “Maman Jean-Claude.” We will reopen on Friday, January 16, as Jean-Claude would wish.