NTTD song to get even more exposure before film debuts

Billie Eilish publicity photo

The title song for No Time to Die will get even more exposure before the 25th James Bond film goes into theaters.

Performer Billie Eilish scored a Grammy nomination for the movie’s title song in the category of Best Song Written for Visual Media. The award show is at the end of January.

Eilish’s involvement with the song has been a buzz among Bond fans for almost a year. The MI6 James Bond website said Jan. 12 of this year that Eilish would become the youngest performer of a Bond song.

Eon Productions confirmed the news on Jan. 14. The song itself bowed on Feb. 13. This was when No Time to Die was scheduled to be released in April.

Then, No Time to Die was postponed to November. The song’s music video came out on Oct. 1.

On Oct. 2, the film’s release date was pushed back to April 2021. Nevertheless, Eilish performed the song on Oct. 5 on The Tonight Show in the U.S. The movie’s star, Daniel Craig, appeared on the same telecast.

The April-November-April delays stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic. But, with the Emmys telecast, the song No Time to Die will be one of the most exposed Bond title songs in the history of the film series.

Empire to publish Connery tribute

Empire magazine will publish a tribute to Sean Connery in its January 2021 issue.

Here’s the description Empire put out today.

Midway through production on the latest issue of Empire came some tragic news – that legendary actor Sean Connery, the man who brought Bond and so much more to life, had passed away at the age of 90. He left behind a brilliant cinematic legacy, which we’ve celebrated inside the new January 2021 issue – with a series of features delving into the way he made an indelible dent on cinema with the role of 007, exploring the rich variety of his work beyond that British super-spy, revisiting his final Empire interview, and more.

Connery died at the end of October. His first James Bond film was released in the fall of 1962. He did six 007 films for Eon Productions and a seventh Bond film, Never Say Never Again, that wasn’t part of the Eon series in 1983.

Pluto TV starts a Mission: Impossible channel

Pluto TV, a free streaming service (with commercials) started a Mission: Impossible channel today. At 1 p.m. Eastern time, the channel streamed the pilot for the 1966-73 series.

The pilot was written by series creator Bruce Geller. His script won an Emmy. Team leader Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) comes up with a plot to steal two nuclear warheads from a Caribbean nation unfriendly to the United States.

At first glance, it was hard to tell how many M:I episodes Pluto TV will televise.

Regardless, it’s another chance for spy fans to sample to the original show that begat the Tom Cruise film series that has been in production (on and off) since 1996.

UPDATE: Pluto TV appears to be showing the episodes in broadcast order. The second episode was “Memory,” same as the first-season broadcast order.

Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) initially goes in the discard pile when Briggs selects his team. The guest agent is Baresh, played by Albert Paulsen, who normally played villains (and would so in later M:I episodes). But Rollin provides an assist later in the story.

Also, Bruce Geller’s photo (wearing sinister looking sunglasses) also goes in the discard pile.