As U.K. celebrates Bond, U.S. fans are green with envy

James Bond film gunbarrel

James Bond is a product of the U.K. The character envelops U.K. citizens from birth and is a source of national pride.

It’s understandable that the 60th anniversary of the film franchise is a big deal. The movies are being shown in U.K. theaters. And even more is planned as the anniversary date of Dr. No’s debut approaches on Oct. 5.

At one time, Bond was a big deal in the U.S. as well. The gentleman spy had a fan in a U.S. president (John F. Kennedy). A prominent publisher (Hugh Hefner of Playboy magazine) was a big promoter of the character.

As recently as a generation ago, the U.S. was the site of two official James Bond fan conventions (1994 in Los Angeles, 1995 in New York City).

Today, not so much. American fans of Bond can only marvel at the U.K. events that are unfolding.

Early next month, tickets go on sale for British Film Institute events related to the 60th anniversary.

–Sept. 30 (tickets go on sale Aug. 4): Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions will discuss “their careers and the Bond films, in a richly illustrated discussion featuring clips from their films.” Price: 15 British pounds (about $18). Program is scheduled for 90 minutes.

–Oct. 1: A program titled “James Bond behind the scenes: Stunts and VFX.” Tickets go on sale Aug. 4. Participants include Chris Corbould. Price: 15 British pounds. Program is scheduled for 80 minutes.

–Oct. 1: A program titled “The Sound of 007.” A description:

This new documentary reveals the history of seven decades of Bond music, from the genesis of 1962’s Dr. No and Monty Norman’s iconic theme song, through to 2021’s No Time to Die. The film charts the ups and downs of Bond soundtracks, combining interviews with stunning Bond archive material from the franchise’s 60-year journey.

Again, the price is 15 British pounds.

There are also a series of screenings of films made by Eon Productions.

Sept. 30: A 60th-anniversary screening of Dr. No.

Oct. 1: A 45th-anniversary screening of The Spy Who Loved Me.

–A 35th-anniversary screening of The Living Daylights.

–Oct. 2: A 10th-anniversary screening of Skyfall.

–Oct. 2: A screening of SPECTRE.

–Oct. 2: A screening of No Time to Die

Official NTTD podcast takes a victory lap

No Time to Die poster

Spoilers for No Time to Die (final warning for the blog regarding No Time to Die) If you haven’t seen the movie by now, too bad.

No Time to Die’s official podcast released a new episode this week. It was part of the 25th James Bond film taking a victory lap.

No Time to Die is the biggest box office movie of 2021 among non-Chinese movies. As of Dec. 10, its global box office figure is $765.2 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Some highlights from the official podcast episode:

–-Special effects wizard Chris Corbould: “You need to bring new blood and new energy” into the franchise. Corbould says the scene with the demise of Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) was done at Pinewood Studios.

–– Eon’s Michael G. Wilson: “It’s quite flattering this” movie got people back into cinema.

–Director Cary Fukunaga: “It’s surreal…the way people got out for repeat viewings. It’s pretty amazing.”

–Eon’s Barbara Broccoli: “We wanted this film to be really an homage to the films that have come before…The emotional context of this film is deeply imbued with the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”

— Director Fukunaga: The director says he hadn’t seen On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) until he was hired to direct No Time to Die.

–Fukunaga (again): Says the You Only Live Twice novel was “a big influence.”

–Co-screenwriter Robert Wade:, re: how Nomi was the new 007: “It was Barbara’s (Broccoli) idea to make it was a female 007, as far as I remember.”

–-Daniel Craig about the movie’s ending: “We knew where we wanted to get to.”

–Corbould (again) about the ending: “I still shed a tear…The music really got me….It was the end of an era, really.”

–Fukunaga (again): about filming Craig’s final scenes “It was very much a closed set.”

–-Eon’s Wilson (again) about Bond’s demise: “A lot of us (were) thinking that was the right way to go….It seemed like it was a situation we could tackle for the first time in the Bond series.”

–Eon’s Broccoli: “We’ve been trying to work the poison garden (from the You Only Live Twice novel) into the story for so many movies.”

–Broccoli: “I think it was Michael who came up with the idea of the DNA-targeted weapon.”

–-Broccoli (yet again): “Daniel’s performance is extraordinary.”

–-Wilson (talking about Eon’s co-founder Albert R. Broccoli): “I think he would have been very happy with Daniel as the Bond.”

Aston Martin deflects current crisis with 2-year-old news

Aston Martin playbook? Play up your connection to the 007 film series. 

Aston Martin, amid a plunging stock price, falling sales and many other challenges, dumped its CEO and selected a replacement. How do you deflect bad news?

If you’re Aston, play up two-year-old news and your connection to the James Bond film series.

Aston said in August 2018 that it planned to build 25 replica DB5 cars complete with gadgets from Goldfinger The cost: (in U.S. dollars) $3.5 million each.

Warning: The cars were not “road legal” (or “street legal” as the term is used in the United States).

Regardless, Aston said deliveries wouldn’t take place until 2020.

Flash forward to late spring of 2020, Aston Martin has gotten a new CEO. After years of saying it needed to diversify from James Bond, Aston is as tethered to Bond as ever.

How do you get out of this?

Play up your Bond connections. Again.

The New York Times bit in a May 25 story. So did the Hindustan Times in a May 28 story.

The Times’ story referenced how Chris Corbould, who has worked on special effects for many Bond films, was involved in the project. But, that wasn’t news, either. An August 2018 release by Eon Productions mentioned how Corbould was involved in the project.

Safe to say, Aston Martin has many challenges ahead. But the 25 DB5 replicas aren’t going to save the company.

REVIEW: The Rhythm Section (2020)

A poster for The Rhythm Section

With The Rhythm Section, Eon Productions wanted to show what it could do with the spy genre without James Bond.

In terms of craftsmanship, it’s a respectable effort. The photography is good. The actors give it their all. Director Reed Morano shows off multiple locations. The movie also runs less than two hours, almost a rarity these days.

But when it comes to connecting with the audience, not so much.

Blake Lively’s lead character, Stephanie Patrick, has lost her family after an aircraft crash. She has fallen apart, becoming a drug-addicted prostitute.

Patrick finds out the truth and becomes an avenging angel, diving deep into the world of international espionage and terrorism. She goes after one of her targets by pretending to be a prostitute.

The point is to show a diamond in the rough and what she had to accomplish. Stephanie Patrick is more Jason Bourne than James Bond, and a not very confident (at least at first) Bourne figure at that.

By the end of the film, Patrick has become the new Bourne. She evens things out. She’s ready for new adventures by the end of the movie.

Still, it’d be better if there were more audience investment in Patrick’s story.

Some of Eon’s Bond mainstays show up behind the camera. Chris Corbould, a long-time special effects wizard for the Bond series, is present as second unit director, for example.

Hans Zimmer did not do the score. But he gets the first music credit for producing the score. Steve Mazzaro, one of the composers affiliated with Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions, gets the actual “music by” credit.

Nevertheless, parts of the movie’s score resembles Zimmer’s work on Christopher Nolan-directed movies. Zimmer has been announced as composer for No Time to Die, Eon’s newest Bond film.

An anecdote: I was the third person to buy a ticket at my theater for the first showing of The Rhythm Section on Thursday night. One of the two people who bought tickets before me stopped as the end titles were playing.

“It wasn’t so good, was it?” she said.

Not so much. GRADE: C.

Behind the scenes with the replica Aston Martin DB5s

Iconic publicity still for Goldfinger with Sean Connery leaning against the Aston Martin DB5.

Aston Martin has come out with a video providing a peek concerning how it is producing 25 replica DB5 sports cars like the one Sean Connery drove in Goldfinger.

Chris Corbould, a long-time special effects creator on Bond films, is involved in installing the gadgets. Based on the video, it appears to the smoke screen and other extras will be a little more sophisticated than the ones John Stears installed in the Goldfinger DB5.

Just a reminder The replicas won’t come cheap. They’re priced at 2.75 million British pounds ($3.56 million at current exchange rates) each. Deliveries will begin in 2020.

And one more thing. They won’t be street legal (or road legal as Aston Martin phrased it in an August 2018 press release).

You can view the video below.

Aston Martin to make (expensive) DB5 replicas

A model describes the Aston Martin DB5 at the 2013 Detroit auto show.

Aston Martin plans to produce 25 expensive replica DB5 cars with some gadgets, according to an announcement by the car company and Eon Productions today.

(UPDATE, Aug. 21: Aston Martin’s separate press release has a key detail. The cars won’t be street legal.)

The cars “will be authentic reproductions of the DB5 seen on screen, with some sympathetic modifications to ensure the highest levels of build quality and reliability,” according the Eon statement.

“This authenticity will extend to include functioning gadgets, such as revolving number plates, which were made famous in GOLDFINGER.” Chris Corbould, a special effects supervisor on several Bond films, helped develop the gadgets for the replicas.

The replicas won’t come cheap. They’re priced at 2.75 million British pounds ($3.51 million) each. They won’t be ready very quickly, either. Deliveries will begin in 2020.

In July, Eon and Aston Martin announced a deal with Lego to sell Lego versions of the DB5 for 129.99 British pounds each.

Bond 25: Corbould returns, villain may be Russian

Veteran special effects man Chris Corbould has said he’ll participate in Bond 25 while the villain of the movie may be Russian, according to separate reports on Tuesday.

Corbould was quoted by The Express about working on Bond 25.

“I can’t remember being so excited about going on to a Bond,” Corbould said, according to The Express. “It’s going to be very, very special.”

Corbould has 007 special effects credits going back to 1987’s The Living Daylights.

The newspaper said Corbould spoke at a “roundtable interview” at the opening of 007 Elements. That facility, a kind of James Bond museum in Austria, opened last week.

“It’s still very early days and we’re still kicking ideas around,” The Express quoted Corbould as saying.

The MI6 James Bond website, which has a relationship with Eon Productions, published details of a Bond 25 casting call.

No character names were included. Parts were a “male leading role” (age range 30s-60s) who’s Russian; a “female leading role” (age range 30-45), also Russian; and a “male supporting role” (age range 35-55) who is “Authoritative, cunning, ruthless & loyal.” That character is a Maori.

It “appears that Bond 25 will feature a Russian male villain, a Russian female (likely be the villain’s partner and a ‘Bond Girl’ part),” MI6 said.

Bond 25, to be directed by Danny Boyle, begins filming in December.

Roger Deakins breaks Oscar drought

Oscars logo

Roger Deakins, often nominated for Oscars for cinematography, finally got a win Sunday night.

Deakins received the Oscar for his work on Blade Runner 2049. His many previous nominations included 2012’s Skyfall.

One of the other nominees in the category was Hoyte van Hoytema for Dunkirk. Van Hoytema also photographed 2015’s SPECTRE.

Lee Smith, who edited SPECTRE, won earlier in the evening in the editing category for Dunkirk.

Dennis Gassner, a three-time 007 film production designer, had been nominated for Blade Runner 2049. However, The Shape of Water won in the category.

Chris Corbould, a veteran 007 specials effects man, had been among a group nominated for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The winner in the category was Blade Runner 2049.

UPDATE (11:10 p.m.): Roger Moore was included in the “In Memoriam” segement, saying, “My name is Bond. James Bond,” from For Your Eyes Only. Also included were actors Martin Landau and Bernie Casey as well as director of photography Fred Koenekamp.

UPDATE II (11:25 p.m.) The website for the Oscars has an expanded In Memoriam, with photos of more than 200 people.

007 film veterans get Oscar nominations

Oscars logo

Nominations for the Oscars were released this morning. A few had connections to the 007 film series.

Cinematography: The directors of photography for the last two James Bond movies received nominations. Roger Deakins (who worked on Skyfall) got a nomination for Blade Runner 2049. Hoyte van Hoytema (who worked on SPECTRE) received a nomination for Dunkirk.

Production Design: Dennis Gassner shared a nomination with Alessandra Querzola for Blade Runner 2049. Gassner has been the production designer on the Bond series since 2008’s Quantum of Solace. Gassner has said he’ll be back for Bond 25.

Film Editing: Lee Smith, who is part of director Christopher Nolan’s regular crew, received a nomination for Dunkirk. Smith worked on SPECTRE.

Visual Effects: Chris Corbould was among four people getting a nomination for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Corbould has Bond film credits going back to the 1980s.

As an aside, Nolan — who some 007 fans would like to helm a Bond film — received a directing nomination for Dunkirk. That film also received a nomination for Best Picture.

MI6 Confidential looks at Corbould, Hamilton

Guy Hamilton (1922-2016)

MI6 Confidential magazine’s new issue takes a look at special effects wizard Chris Corbould and the late Guy Hamilton, a four-time 007 director.

Corbould “started on the films aged eighteen,” according to a summary of issue 36 of the publication. “Today he reflects on his life with Bond, from 1977’s Spy to SPECTRE.”

Corbould’s services are in demand. He has also worked on Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies and the Star Wars series.

Hamilton died earlier this year. He helmed 1964’s Goldfinger, the 007 series first mega-hit, as well as Live And Let Die, the first 007 film with Roger Moore.

Other articles include a feature about Moonraker’s NASA advisor.

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