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No Time to Die won the best song Oscar Sunday night.
Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell received Oscars for writing the title song to the 25th James Bond film. It was the third straight best song Oscar for the Bond film series, following 2012’s Skyfall and Writing’s on the Wall from 2015’s SPECTRE.
No Time to Die also had been nominated in the sound and visual effects categories. Dune won those Oscars.
The show’s in memoriam segment also included Leslie Bricusse, who co-wrote the lyrics for Goldfinger’s title song and who wrote the lyrics for the title song of You Only Live Twice.
The Oscars telecast also included a tribute to the Bond series via film clips while the title song for Live And Let Die played.
Eon Productions on Sunday confirmed plans for a James Bond-themed reality show, 007’s Road to a Million, to be shown on Amazon Prime Video.
Details from the statement issued by Eon:
Prime Video has greenlit James Bond television format, 007’s Road to a Million. The UK Amazon Original series will be produced by 72 Films, in collaboration with legendary James Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and MGM Television. 007’s Road to a Million will join the thousands of TV shows and movies in the Prime Video catalogue.
007’s Road to a Million will see contestants competing in a global adventure to win the ultimate prize of £1million. Filmed in many of the historic locations featured throughout the seminal Bond films, this cinematic format will be a true test of intelligence and endurance. In addition to conquering physical obstacles, the contestants, who will compete in two-person teams, must correctly answer questions hidden in different locations around the world to advance to the next challenge.
Production on the reality show is to start later this year. Eon also provided A LINK for those interested to audition.
Amazon earlier this month completed its $8.45 billion acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Bond’s home studio.
James Bond is about the join the ranks of Survivor and The Masked Singer when it comes to reality shows. Well, if a March 25 story by Variety is to be believed, that may be in the cards.
Eon Productions, which makes the Bond films, has repeatedly said it’s not interested in 007 spinoffs. However, Variety says Eon’s Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are backing this project.
Naturally, the blog has questions.
WTF? Over the years, various ideas have been floated for alternatives for Eon’s film series.
For example, you could have low-key, faithful adaptations on TV of Ian Fleming’s original novels while still making the bigger, more expensive movies.
Eon has been consistent — no!
However, based on the description in the Variety story, Broccoli and Wilson have signed on to a crappy, obnoxious reality show. (Are there any other versions of a reality show?)
Did Broccoli and Wilson change their minds? Money has a way of causing people to reconsider.
Where do we go from here? On Jan. 1, 2021, the blog provided “unlikely” Bond spinoffs. The Adventures of Bill Tanner. Cooking With May. Golfing With Hawker.
Excuse me while I run down to the copyright office.
A James Bond-themed reality show is being developed, Variety reported.
Here’s an excerpt:
Production on “007’s Road to a Million” will begin later this year, and the new show will launch on (Amazon) Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories. Casting is underway and applicants are being invited to send in submissions.
The show will see contestants competing in a global adventure to win a £1 million ($1.3 million) cash prize. Filmed in many of the historic locations featured throughout the seminal Bond films, the “cinematic format” will be a test of intelligence and endurance. In addition to passing physical obstacles, the contestants — who will compete in two-person teams — must correctly answer questions hidden in different locations around the world in order to advance to the next challenge.
Amazon last week completed its $8.45 billion acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, James Bond’s home studio.
Eon Productions, led by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, has said it opposes the idea of Bond spinoff shows on television. However, Variety says Broccoli and Wilson are on board with this project.
Here’s one more excerpt from the Variety story:
The Bond-themed Prime Video show comes during a period of transition for the franchise, which wrapped up Daniel Craig’s acclaimed run last year with “No Time to Die.” Broccoli and Wilson must now find a new actor to handle the role and to help continue to find ways to make the womanizing spy relevant in a changed world.
Exploding production budgets and release delays stemming (at least in part) to COVID-19. That’s a familiar tale to fans of the cinematic James Bond and No Time to Die.
But, based on a Hollywood Reporter story posted March 24, the scenario is being repeated with Mission: Impossible 7 and 8.
Both projects have been in “the barrel,” something hit by bad luck — bad luck that lasts a long time.
No Time to Die, the 25th Bond film produced by Eon Productions, cost about $300 million to make. The movie incurred five delays, with three because of COVID-19. The other two were because the movie’s original director, Danny Boyle, departed because of “creative differences.”
Originally, Mission: Impossible 7 and 8, starring and produced by Tom Cruise, were to be made back to back.
M:I 7 has been delayed four times, THR noted, with a current release date of July 2023. MI:7 isn’t done yet while work has started on M:I 8, the entertainment news site said.
Here’s an excerpt:
By holding on to the film as a work in progress while working on the eighth, Cruise and his writer-director, Christopher McQuarrie, ensure that Paramount won’t have much luck imposing budget restrictions on what is allegedly the final installment in the franchise. It also gives Cruise — who has creative control — flexibility with respect to the cliffhanger ending of M:I 7.
Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies have been popular. In the 2010s, there were more M:I installments (2011, 2015, and 2018) than Bond films (2012 and 2015). Some Bond fans point out that some M:I sequences were an homage to Bond. And the M:I films haven’t matched Bond’s global box office.
Regardless, since COVID-19, Cruise’s series has been challenged by the pandemic, as was No Time to Die, finally released in the fall of 2021.
THR reports MI: 7’s budget is at $290 million and counting (in the same territory as No Time to Die).
Another interesting tidbit in The Hollywood Reporter story: Cruise vetoed the idea of Paramount, the studio that releases the M:I movies, coming up with a television spinoff. The idea “was no-go,” THR said.
That sounds similar to how Eon Productions, which makes the Bond film series is resisting Bond spinoffs for streaming television.
Mission: Impossible originated as a TV series made by Desilu in 1966. It became a Paramount property when Lucille Ball sold Desilu to Gulf + Western, then the parent company of Paramount. That transition took place during the 1967-68 season. One week, the end titles had a Desilu logo. The next week, the end titles carried a “Paramount Television” logo.
You can CLICK HERE to read the entire THR story, written by veteran entertainment journalist Kim Masters.
A music track of a collaboration between Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen submitted for the 1989 film LIcence to Kill is genuine, the MI6 James Bond website said.
The lengthy article was written by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, authors of the book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films.
“(W)e can confirm that the recording is indeed genuine,” Field and Chowdhury wrote. “We first heard it in September 2020, the culmination of a fascinating journey unearthing the Holy Grail of lost Bond treasures which begun as COVID shut the world down.”
The track has circulated on the internet and “has left fans split over its authenticity,” the duo wrote.
Kamen composed the score for Licence to Kill but was not involved with the film’s title song. performed by Gladys Knight.
For more about the track’s history (including the participation of guitarist Vic Flick), CLICK HERE. To hear it, CLICK HERE for a YouTube video by Bond Blog that incorporates it. But be warned, you don’t know when YouTube might yank it.
The 2022 Oscars show is next Sunday. No Time to Die has three nominations. What are its prospects?
The categories are Best Song, Sound and Visual Effects. A quick look at each.
Visual effects: This reminds me of the 1980 Oscars (for 1979 movies). Moonraker had a nomination but it used “old school” effects based on models and other techniques.
The 1979 007 film was up against Alien, which got the visual effects award.
No Time to Die used visual effects to alter real life. But it’s up against movies such as Dune and Spider-Man No Way Home which, essentially, created new worlds for movie audiences.
Sound: The very first Bond Oscar went to Norman Wanstall for sound with Goldfinger and Skyfall got a sound award (a tie with Zero Dark Thirty). This year, No Time to Die is up against the likes of Dune, Belfast, The Power of the Dog and Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story.
Best song: Bond films have been nominated in this category six times. The last two 007 movies, Skyfall and SPECTRE, won. Can No Time to Die make it a hat trick? One of the alternatives is from the animated movie Encanto and was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Ian Fleming, drawn by Mort Drucker, from the collection of the late John Griswold.
Adapted from a 2015 post.
NEW INTRODUCTION: 2022, of course, marks the 60th anniversary of the James Bond film series. It also marks the 60th anniversary of when Ian Fleming became involved with what would become The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Fleming spent three days talking to television producer Norman Felton (born in London but who emigrated to the U.S.). The James Bond author made contributions that had an impact on the final product.
ORIGINAL POST: A Bond collector friend let us look over his photocopies of various Ian Fleming correspondence. Much of it included the 007 author’s involvement with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series.
First, there were photocopies of 11 Western Union telegraph blanks where Fleming in October 1962 provided ideas to U.N.C.L.E. producer Norman Felton. The first blank began with “springboards,” ideas that could be the basis for episodes.
One just reads, “Motor racing, Nurburgring.” Fleming had a similar idea for a possible James Bond television series in the 1950s. This notion was included in this year’s 007 continuation novel Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horwitz, which boasts of containing original Ian Fleming content.
On the fifth telegram blank, Fleming includes this idea about Napoleon Solo: ““Cooks own meals in rather coppery kitchen.”
Whether intentional or not, this idea saw the light of day in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie released in August. In an early scene in the film, Solo (Henry Cavill) is wearing a chef’s apron, having just prepared dinner for Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) after getting her across the Berlin Wall.
Fleming also made some other observations about Solo and the proposed series.
Telegraph blank No. 8: “He must not be too ‘UN’” and not be “sanctimonious, self righteous. He must be HUMAN above all else –- but slightly super human.”
Telegraph blank No. 11: “In my mind, producing scripts & camera will *make* this series. The plots will be secondary.”
Ian Fleming notes, written on one of 11 telegram blanks, and given to Norman Felton
On May 8, 1963, the Ashley-Steiner agency sends a letter to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which includes details about Fleming’s financial demands for being a participant in U.N.C.L.E.
“He definitely wants to be involved in the series itself if there is a sale and is asking for a mutual commitment for story lines on the basis of two out of each 13 programs at a fee of $2500.00 per story outline,” according to the letter.
Fleming also wants a fee of $25,000 to be a consultant for the series per television season. In that role, the author wants two trips per “production year” to travel to Los Angeles for at least two weeks each trip and for as long as four weeks each trip. The author wants to fly to LA first class and also wants a per diem on the trips of $50 a day.
On June 7, 1963, Felton sends Fleming a letter containing material devised by Sam Rolfe, the writer-producer commissioned to write the U.N.C.L.E. pilot.
“In the latter part of the material, which deals with the characterization of Napoleon Solo, you will discover that those elements which you set down during our New York visit have been retained,” Felton writes Fleming. “However, the concept for a base of operations consisting of a small office with more or less a couple of rooms has been changed to a more extensive setup.”
This refers to the U.N.C.L.E. organization that Rolfe has created in the months since the original Fleming-Felton meetings in New York.
“It will give us scope and variety whenever we need it, although as I have said, in many stories we may use very little of it,” Felton writes. “This is its virtue. Complex, but used sparingly.
“In my opinion almost all of our stories we will do little more than ‘touch base’ at a portion of the unusual headquarters in Manhattan, following which we will quickly move to other areas of the world.”
At the same time, Felton asks Fleming for additional input.
“I want the benefit of having your suggestions,” Felton writes Fleming. “Write them in the margin of the paper, on a telegraph blank or a paper towel and send them along. We are very excited, indeed, in terms of MR. SOLO.” (emphasis added)
However, Fleming — under pressure from 007 film producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman — soon signs away his rights to U.N.CL.E. for 1 British pound.
On July 8, 1963, Felton sends Fleming a brief letter. It reads in part:
Your new book, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, is delightful. I am hoping that things will calm down for you in the months to come so that in due time you will be able to develop another novel to give further pleasure to your many readers throughout the world.
They tell me that there are some islands in the Pacific where one can get away from it all. They are slightly radioactive, but for anyone with the spirit of adventure, this should be no problem.
Fleming responds on July 16, 1963.
Very many thanks for your letter and it was very pleasant to see you over here although briefly and so frustratingly for you.
Your Pacific islands sound very enticing, it would certainly be nice to see some sun as ever since you charming Americans started your long range weather forecasting we have had nothing but rain. You might ask them to lay off.
With best regards and I do hope Solo gets off the pad in due course.
James Bond’s home studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, has a new owner, Amazon. The deal, under regulatory review for months, is now final.
You’d think this would have some effect on the Bond franchise. Naturally, the blog has questions.
What happens next? Now the real work begins.
How so? Eon Productions, which actually makes Bond films, has been publicly lobbying Amazon on a couple of fronts.
First, Eon’s Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have said repeatedly that Bond films need to debut in movie theaters. They don’t want Bond movies to be on streaming services (like Amazon’s) first.
Second, the Eon duo has spoken up in favor of two MGM film executives, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. Broccoli and Wilson have said they want De Luca and Abdy to stay.
The thing is, anytime you have a major acquisition, there is almost always change, including executives. It remains to be seen if Amazon merges MGM into its Amazon Studios unit. The fate of current MGM executives, including De Luca and Abdy, is uncertain for now.
Something else? While Broccoli and Wilson have lobbied publicly, Amazon has stayed quiet. That makes sense while you’re an owner in waiting. Now, Amazon is the owner. With the acquisition complete, we’ll see what changes Amazon intends to make.
How might this affect Bond 26? It’s too early to tell. Eon doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. Eon has been engaged in a long goodbye with now-former Bond Daniel Craig. First, Eon boss Barbara Broccoli wanted to celebrate Craig’s long run as the British agent. Now, she’s producing a stage production with the actor.
By the time, Eon is ready to even think about Bond 26, Amazon may have implemented changes at MGM. As usual, we’ll see.
Amazon said today in a short statement it has completed its acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, James Bond’s home studio.
“Amazon and MGM announced that MGM has joined Prime Video and Amazon Studios,” the statement read. “The storied, nearly century-old studio—with more than 4,000 film titles, 17,000 TV episodes, 180 Academy Awards, and 100 Emmy Awards—will complement Prime Video and Amazon Studios’ work in delivering a diverse offering of entertainment choices to customers.”
Earlier this week, Amazon received European Commission approval for its $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM. The figure includes assumption of MGM debt.
Amazon was waiting on a review by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. But the short announcement didn’t mention the FTC.
Bloomberg News said in a story today that a deadline for the U.S. agency to challenge the deal had passed with no FTC action.
Amazon announced the MGM deal last year. The studio was founded in 1924 with the merger of three companies. MGM has been involved with the Bond franchise since 1981, when it acquired United Artists.
MGM finances the Bond films produced by Eon Productions.
The Spy Command 