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I suppose “trust at your own will” meant “I don’t really know.” But the website got a lot of publicity out of it. That’s how it goes some times.
More than two years later, Genoma of a Woman was throughly discredited as a Bond 25 title.
Did the originator suffer anything? No. He got an invitation to this week’s world premiere of No Time to Die (Bond 25’s actual title). He even to take selfies with director Cary Fukunaga.
OK, I get it that fan sites celebrate characters and actors. But if you put it out there the movie is going to have a ridiculous title, you need to suck it up, admit your mistake and move on.
Clearly, Eon Productions doesn’t care about ethics, accuracy, or any any of that stuff. As long as you say Eon is doing a great job, you, too, can get on the red carpet.
Hours after the premiere of No Time to Die, an embargo for reviews lifted. What follows are excerpts without spoilers.
PETE HAMMOND, DEADLINE: HOLLYWOOD: “Bond is back with a vengeance, and that means Daniel Craig taking on the assignment just one more time in a film that proves a fitting finale for the actor who invests the role with more emotion, power, and style in a movie that not only marks a milestone as the 25th time around, but also one not afraid to take some twists, turns, and yes, risks.”
STEVEN WEINTRAUB, COLLIDER (TWEET): No Time to Die “is LOADED with everything you expect in a Bond film but also has a lot of surprises. Was on the edge of my seat for like half the movie. You def want to have the events of #Spectre fresh in your mind before watching. Loved Daniel Craig as James Bond. Great sendoff.”
PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN: “(C)raigâs final film as the diva of British intelligence is an epic barnstormer, with the script from Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge delivering pathos, action, drama, camp comedy …heartbreak, macabre horror, and outrageously silly old-fashioned action in a movie which calls to mind the world of Dr. No on his island. Director Cary Fukunaga delivers it with terrific panache, and the film also shows us a romantic Bond, an uxorious Bond, a Bond who is unafraid of showing his feelings, like the old softie heâs turned out to be.”
SCOTT MENDELSON, FORBES.COM: “Yes, itâs a better 007 film than Spectre, and yes, itâs a better series finale (relatively speaking) than The Rise of Skywalker, but if anything, the two years of release-date delays may have helped the film. In October 2021, critics and audiences may be so thirsty for water that theyâll drink the sand, and frankly I donât entirely blame them/us. Had this film opened in late 2019 or early 2020, it would have paled in comparison to other series finales and other ‘take stock in our legacy’ sequels that opened around that time.”
MIKE REYES: CINEMA BLEND: “With a runtime that is nearly three hours, No Time To Dieâs story gets off to a rousing start and doesnât let up. In the run up to its debut, there have been promises that the Daniel Craig era of films was going to have a proper ending, tying together the five movie saga in an epic conclusion. That claim has absolutely been fulfilled, as the usual franchise antics are mixed in with a story that very much has history, especially Casino Royale, firmly in mind.”
BRIAN LOWRY, CNN: “After 25 movies over 60 years, billing a James Bond adventure as the end of something requires a certain leap of faith. Still, Daniel Craig’s yeoman service comes to its conclusion with ‘No Time to Die,’ a big and length-wise bloated epic that includes the desired bells and whistles, which, despite its flaws, should buy the movie considerable goodwill from an audience that has waited (and waited) for it.”
Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions were interviewed on a BBC Radio show on Sept. 27. The duo indicated they weren’t in a hurry to find a successor for Daniel Craig as James Bond.
âWeâre not thinking about it at all,” Broccoli said, according to a Variety summary of the interview. “We want Daniel to have his time of celebration. Next year weâll start thinking about the future.â
Naturally, the blog has questions.
How seriously should we take these remarks?
In general, a CEO always is supposed to be thinking about the future. Barbara Broccoli certainly qualifies as a CEO.
On the one hand, there are signs that Broccoli has at least thought about a post-Craig future for Eon’s Bond film series.
No Time To Die director Cary Fukunaga told Total Film that he had a meeting with Broccoli before he was named to helm the 25th James Bond film.
“At that point Daniel said he wasnât doing another one, so we spit-balled all the potential new Bonds â that was exciting,” Fukunaga said in that interview.
On the other hand, there are signs that Broccoli is really, really reluctant to let go of Craig. “Iâm sort of in denial,” she said in the BBC interview. “I would love for Daniel to continue forever.â
Personally, I take her at her word. She is not anxious to move on from Craig.
Will the search (whenever it starts) be complicated?
Searching for a Bond actor is never easy. The next search will have additional complications.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Bond’s home studio, has agreed to be acquired by Amazon. But that deal hasn’t been completed and is subject to regulatory review.
It remains to be seen what Amazon will do with MGM assuming the deal goes through. Eon likes some current MGM film executives and has lobbied for Amazon to keep them on board.
Regardless, assuming Amazon completes the deal, that will be an additional piece of complication.
What’s more, Eon has its own issues. Wilson turns 80 next year. There are popular fan theories that he may retire after No Time to Die. Who knows whether that’ll be the case. Still a new Bond isn’t the only succession issue facing Eon.
Some details about Anthony Horowitz’s third James Bond novel have emerged via HarperCollins’ website.
HarperCollins lists the novel as “Unti Bond #3.” Here’s part of the description from the publisher:
Iconic spy 007 must pose as a double agent to infiltrate a secret Soviet intelligence organization planning an attack on the Westâand face off against a man who could be the most diabolical enemy heâs ever encounteredâin internationally bestselling author Anthony Horowitzâs third James Bond novel.
The Soviet counterintelligence agency SMERSH may be defeated, but a new organization, Stalnaya Ruska, has arisen from its ashes. Under Moscowâs direction, the group is planning a major act of terrorism which, if successful, will destabilize relations between East and West.
Returning from Jamaica and his encounter with Scaramanga (The Man with the Golden Gun), James Bond ponders his future. He is aware of a world that is changing all too rapidly around him. The old certainties of the early postwar years are gone. Disdain for the establishment is rising, and the intelligence services are no longer trusted. Bond is beginning to wonder if his âlicense to killâ is still valid.
But the threat to the free world remains all too real, and now 007 has a new assignment: discover what Stalnaya Ruska is planning and prevent it from happening. To succeed, Bond will have to make the Russians believe heâs a double agent and travel behind the Iron Curtain.
First though, he will have to convince Sonya Dragunova, the Soviet psychiatric analyst as brilliantâand as dangerousâas she is beautiful. Sonya knows more of whatâs happening in Bondâs mind than he does himself. Sheâs also hiding secrets of her own. Itâs a love affair that is also a treacherous game.
Sonyaâs boss is a man who has previously played his part to bring Bond and the West down behind the scenes in two previous Bond novelsâbut who has never yet appeared, until now. A Fleming creation, the evil genius responsible for Stalnaya Ruka just may be Bondâs most dangerous enemy yet.
Horowitz previously penned Trigger Mortis (2015), which took place after the events of Goldfinger, and Forever and a Day (2018), set before Casino Royale, the first Bond novel by Ian Fleming.
Both books incorporated previously unpublished material by Fleming.
Ian Fleming Publications commissioned a number of novels by John Gardner and Raymond Benson from 1981 to 2002. Starting in 2008, IFP had a series of one-offs. With Horowitz’s arrival, IFP has gone with the author on “adult” Bond novels.
UPDATE: John Cox of The Book Bond site says “FYI, Anthony Horowitz confirmed this is a leak and should not be online. I took mine down.”
After an almost six-year wait, the 25th James Bond film made by Eon Productions becomes a reality this week.
No Time to Die, after many, many hiccups (to put it kindly), will be seen by its first audiences this week.
The official premiere is Sept. 28 in London. There will be other showings in other countries. At long last, Daniel Craig’s Bond farewell will be seen by audiences.
The project was announced on July 24, 2017, with no distributor, no director, and even no star. The only creative crew attached were writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.
Daniel Craig, who had starred in the previous four Bond films, finally said on the Aug. 15, 2017 telecast of The Late Show on CBS that he was coming back. Earlier in the day, in radio station interviews, he claimed nothing had been decided.
âNo decision has been made at the moment,â Craig told Magic 106.7 at the time. âThereâs a lot of noise out there. Nothing official has been confirmed. Iâm not like holding out for more money or doing anything like that.â
Since then, the radio stations took down the original links to the interviews. Evidently, radio stations are low on the media totem pole and there are no problems with lying to them.
No Time to Die (as the movie eventually would be titled) went through many rewrites. Besides Purvis and Wade, the likes of Scott Z. Burns, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and director Cary Fukunaga took a whirl at the script.
Also don’t forget for a time that John Hodge was supposed to be the main writer. He and Danny Boyle, the first announced director, had pitched an idea. A script in development for a year was set aside when Boyle and Hodge (supposedly) had a great idea that wowed Eon Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Bond’s home studio.
Then, all of a sudden, the Boyle-Hodge take was found wanting. Members of FOE (Friends of Eon) tried to reassure fans everything was still on track.
Except it wasn’t. The original fall 2019 release date got pushed back to February 2020 and then April 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused further delays. Fall 2020. Spring 2021. Finally, the impending fall 2021 dates.
Nevertheless, Bond is a hard man to put down. Bond never conquered COVID. But he’s coming out this week in the U.K. (and elsewhere) as well as North America next week.
No Time to Die was conceived during the pre-pandemic era. That’s when expensive movies were brought out by studios. If audiences liked them, a box office of $1 billion was possible. No Time to Die, which had production spending approaching $300 million, sought that target.
The new Bond film is coming out in a new world. Maximum movie box office achievement is well below $1 billion.
Maybe Bond can change that. But, personally, I wouldn’t go banco on that.
Regardless, Bond fans are excited. And they should be. The gentlemen agent is back after a long hiatus.
Will this be a “cinematic masterpiece” in the words of Eon Productions boss Barbara Broccoli? That’s up to the audience.
The fact is, the audience finally gets a chance to judge. The hype is over. Let’s see how it goes.
Al Harrington in a 1996 special on Hawaii television
Al Harrington, who was a regular cast member on the original Hawaii Five-O series, died Sept 21 after suffering a stroke, according to Legacy.com.
Harrington played detective Ben Kokua during the fifth through seventh seasons. Harrington was a local entertainer who was hired by Leonard Freeman, the creator and executive producer of the series. Harrington had played criminals in earlier Five-O seasons.
According to Memories of Hawaii, a special that ran on Hawaiian television in 1996, Harrington ran afoul of star Jack Lord.
“He felt I was maybe too tall…I was too something,” Harrington said on the special. The actor said Freeman was committed to his choice.
However, Freeman died in 1974. “Then after Leonard died, the writing was on the wall, that I wasn’t going to be there much longer,” Harrington said.
The actor continued as an entertainer. He was cast in a recurring part in the 2010 Hawaii Five-0 (the O became a 0).
Harrington was born in December 1935 in American Samoa. He played running back for Stanford University, where he graduated in 1958. Harrington also performed Polynesian dancing on the side.
Harrington appeared in an episode of To Tell the Truth. He and two impostors fooled the four-person panel. Harrington also performed a sword dance.
The Hollywood Reporter has come out with a big feature story about Cary Fukunaga, the director of No Time to Die.
But there are elements that don’t square up previous tellings of No Time To Die’s back story. Naturally, the blog has questions.
Whose idea was it to bring aboard Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a writer for the 25th James Bond movie?
According to THR, it was Fukunaga’s, of course.
At Fukunagaâs suggestion, Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in to work on the draft he wrote with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who have worked on every Bond film since 1999âs The World Is Not Enough.
Except, supposedly it was the idea of star Daniel Craig. For example, there’s this story from IndieWire in February 2020:
 The âFleabagâ creator, whose Amazon Prime Video series picked up six Primetime Emmy Award wins last year, was brought onto the film back in 2019 at the behest of star Daniel Craig.
Oh. Well, the winners get to write the history. Both Fukunaga and Waller-Bridge were among the winners of the No Time to Die saga.
How big a factor was #MeToo in No Time to Die’s development?
Apparently, a lot. We won’t really know until the movie comes out shortly. But THR’s story has some clues.
A quote in the THR story from Lashana Lynch: “Cary had big discussions with Barbara (Broccoli) and Daniel about how to give the female characters equity, how to keep them in charge of themselves, how to give them solo moments where the audience learns who they are. Â It was really important to empower the female characters as stand-alones. And I think that he kept that in mind throughout the whole shoot.”
A quote from Barbara Broccoli in the new story:
“I think people are coming around â with some kicking and screaming â to accepting that stuff is no longer acceptable. Thank goodness. Bond is a character who was written in 1952 and the first film [Dr. No] came out in 1962. Heâs got a long history, and the history of the past is very different to the way he is being portrayed now.â
Finally a quote from Fukunaga himself in The Hollywood Reporter:
âIs it Thunderball or Goldfinger where, like, basically Sean Conneryâs character rapes a woman?â Fukunaga told THR. âSheâs like âNo, no, no,â and heâs like, âYes, yes, yes.â That wouldnât fly today.â
Why did Bond 25 switch from Danny Boyle to Cary Fukunaga as director?
Bond 25 has a complicated history. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, long-time Bond screenwriters, were hired in 2017 to develop a script. They worked on it for months. Then, in 2018, it became known than director Danny Boyle and his writer, John Hodge, made a pitch.
An announcement came out in spring 2018 that the Boyle and Hodge team were hired. The initial script was set aside.
But later that year, they were gone. Fukunaga would soon be hired.
The key excerpt from THR’s story:
With Boyle, there was a deviation of visions. His version was more tongue-in-cheek and whimsical. Broccoli and Wilson wanted something more serious for Craigâs final outing.
This leads to a lot of questions. Did Eon, which at one time loved the Boyle-Hodge pitch, not realize the tone was different? Did Eon not vet Boyle and Hodge?
We’re less than a week before the premiere of No Time to Die. Many fans don’t want to hear about this.
Still, The Hollywood Reporter raises more questions than answers
Danny Boyle, the original director for Bond 25, had in mind a project that was “more tongue-in-cheek and whimsical,” The Hollywood Reporter said today in a feature story about Cary Fukunaga, who ended up helming the 25th James Bond movie.
Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson “wanted something more serious” for actor Daniel Craig’s final turn as Bond, according to the entertainment news outlet.
After Boyle’s departure, Fukunaga told THR, âI emailed Barbara and was like, âIs there a chance to talk about this?â She responded right away, and we set up a meeting the next week. I didnât have a pitch or anything, just asked them what theyâre after and what wasnât working.â
This raises all sorts of questions. In 2018, Eon put aside a script it had been developing after Boyle pitched a supposedly great idea that wowed Eon and executives at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In May 2018, it was announced Boyle was directing with John Hodge doing the script.
The main question is did Eon and MGM vet Boyle and Hodge and the great idea? Boyle apparently did not vet how Eon works.
In the article, Fukunaga is credited with suggesting Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a writer for No Time to Die, Bond 25’s eventual title.
The SpyHards podcast conducted an interview with Jeffrey Caine, one of the screenwriters on GoldenEye.
Caine was one of three writers who received some form of credit for the 1995 James Bond film that marked the return of James Bond to the big screen after a six-year hiatus. The other credited screenwriters were Michael France and Bruce Feirstein. Kevin Wade did uncredited work on the script.
Here are some of the highlights from the interview:.
Caine discusses the differences between Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
Caine says Wilson wanted to work in stunts first and write a story around them. Caine felt you should write a story and insert stunts.
How it turned out:
âI sort of got my way because Barbara (Broccoli) took my side.â
The scribe’s view of the cinematic Bonds actors:
Caine says Daniel Craig has the toughness but not the suaveness while Roger Moore has the suaveness but not the toughness. Caine liked Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan better
About the change with M in GoldenEye:
Caine says he drafts didn’t have a woman M (who would be played by Judi Dench). That took place after writer Bruce Feirstein took over.
To listen to the entire interview on the SpyHards podcast, CLICK HERE.
David McCallum in a Man From U.N.C.L.E. publicity still
Today, Sept. 19, is David McCallum’s 88th birthday.
He’s almost the last man standing from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Robert Vaughn is gone. So is Norman Felton, the producer who met with Ian Fleming in 1962. So is Sam Rolfe, who took the Felton-Fleming ideas and put them into a script. Many of the actors are gone, including Leo G. Carroll.
Earlier this year, Richard Donner, who directed the first U.N.C.L.E. episodes to prominently feature McCallum’s Illya Kuryakin character, also passed away.
There’s not a whole lot that needs saying. McCallum had a great career. He still has many fans who admire him. Happy birthday. We’ll leave it at that.
The Spy Command 