Eon teases release of No Time to Die trailer

No Time to Die teaser poster

Eon Productions has confirmed the first No Time to Die trailer debuts Dec. 4 and provided some shots of the film in the process.

Eon sent out a tweet Sunday night. Besides confirming the Dec. 4 date, it had very quick shots from the 25th James Bond film.

The tweet shows nine shots within 14 seconds. Included were some action shots, including what appears to be a motorcycle jump done during filming in Matera, Italy.

There’s also a shot of machine guns emerging from the Aston Martin DB5 replica. Star Daniel Craig is featured in several of the shots. Yet another shot shows Ana de Armas firing two machine guns.

One shot is of a mysterious figure. Whether it’s Rami Malek’s villain character remains to be seen.

The text was short as well: “Bond is back. The first trailer for #NoTimeToDie arrives this Wednesday #Bond25 #BondJamesBond.”

The tweet is below

Bond is back. The first trailer for #NoTimeToDie arrives this Wednesday #Bond25 #BondJamesBond pic.twitter.com/ThIEdXn82N

— James Bond (@007) December 2, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

UPDATE (8:58 p.m. New York time): The video also has been posted by Eon to YouTube.

UPDATE II (9:35 p.m. New York time): The video was also used as short commercial on NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast. Comcast owns both NBC and Universal, the latter which is handling international distribution of No Time to Die.

OHMSS’ 50th: ‘This never happened to the other fella’

OHMSS poster

Updated and adapted from a 2014 post.

When Sean Connery was cast as James Bond in Dr. No, there was interest. Ian Fleming’s 007 novels were popular. President John F. Kennedy was among their fans. Still, it wasn’t anything to obsess over.

By the end of the 1960s, things had changed. Bond was a worldwide phenomenon. 007 was a big business that even producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman hadn’t anticipated originally. Now, the role was being re-cast after Sean Connery departed the role.

As a result, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which debuted 50 years ago this month, was under intense scrutiny. The film required a long, exhausting shooting schedule. This time, Bond would be played by a novice actor, George Lazenby, and supervised by a first-time director, Peter Hunt.

Hunt, at least, was no novice with the world of 007. He had been editor or supervising editor of the previous five Broccoli-Saltzman 007 films and second unit director of You Only Live Twice. So he was more than familiar with how the Bond production machine worked. Also, he had support of other 007 veterans, including production designer Syd Cain, set decorator Peter Lamont, screenwriter Richard Maibaum and composer John Barry.

Lazenby, on the other hand, had to take a crash course. He was paired with much more experienced co-stars, including Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas. And he was constantly being compared with Connery.

When, at the end of the pre-titles sequence, Lazenby says, “This never happened to the other fella,” the statement was true on multiple levels.

Majesty’s was also the first time Eon Productions re-calibrated. You Only Live Twice had dispensed with the main plot of Fleming’s novel and emphasized spectacle instead. Majesty’s ended up being arguably the most faithful adaptation of a Fleming 007 novel. It was still big, but it had no spaceships or volcano hideouts.

Majesty’s global box office totaled $82 million, according to THE NUMBERS WEBSITE. That was a slide from You Only Live Twice’s $111.6 million. Twice’s box offce, in turn, had declined compared with Thunderball.

For Lazenby, once was enough. He subsequently has said he erred by not making a second Bond. “This never happened to the other fella,” indeed.

The film also marked Hunt’s exit from the series. He had been one of the major contributors of the early 007 films. But Eon would no longer employ his services after Majesty’s.

Today, Majesty’s has a good reputation among many 007 fans. In 1969 and 1970, the brain trust at Eon Productions and United Artists concluded some re-thinking was needed. Things were about to change yet again.