Spoilers catch up with No Time to Die (no spoilers)

“Spoilers? Again?”

To be clear, there are no spoilers in this post. The post is noting that the spoilers exist. But if that’s too much, move on, nothing to see here.

It was bound to happen. The delay of No Time to Die from an April release to November (assuming that holds) provided more opportunity for spoilers to emerge.

During filming, the production kept a fairly tight lid on things until filming in Matera, Italy, in August 2019. There, tourists with smartphones posted many videos of the filming involving Aston Martin DB5 replicas.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Bond’s home studio, leaned on some Bond-related websites to take down video floating around the internet. But major news services, such as Reuters, were also posting the videos and things cooled down.

After that, things remained quiet until recently.

Some No Time to Die call sheets were auctioned on eBay. The call sheets, in turn, provided clues about the movie’s plot.

The MI6 James Bond website posted a story on June 3, with a spoiler warning in red type at the start of the article. The headline was simply, “Spoiler Warning.”

This blog summarized the MI6 website post the same day. That post also had a spoiler warning: “Is this a spoiler? Only if it’s correct. Nevertheless, don’t read any further if that upsets you.”

However, the Mail on Sunday, the Sunday edition of the Daily Mail, came out with a story based on the call sheets the evening of June 6, New York time.

The Mail didn’t have a spoiler warning. In fact, the big spoiler was in the headline. So don’t click on the link above if you don’t want to know.

Since then, there has been a lot of fan complaints and criticism on social media.

It’s possible more of this may lay ahead. It’s still five months until No Time to Die’s current scheduled release date.

U.N.C.L.E. enters the standee era

Standees are taken from this publicity still.

There hasn’t exactly been a lot of new collectibles sold in recent decades related to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series, which originally ran 1964 to 1968. However, on eBay, there are now U.N.C.L.E. standees for sale.

There’s a new, licensed 5-foot-9 standee of ROBERT VAUGHN AS NAPOLEON SOLO and a matching standee the same size of DAVID MCCALLUM AS ILLYA KURYAKIN. They sell for $36.95 plus $14.95 shipping and handling.

Also available are 20-inch versions of each actor/character for $19.50 plus $4 shipping and handling. (Click HERE for information about Vaughn/Solo or HERE for McCallum/Kuryakin.)

The standees are taken from a 1960s publicity still used in the end titles of the third and fourth seasons of the original series. That still is also known for what some fans view as a questionable choice in footwear for Solo. Interestingly, the feet of the Solo standees appear to have been darkened a bit, making it harder to notice he’s wearing white socks and clogs with his business suit.

Skyfall storyboards surface on eBay

A set of 52 Skyfall storyboards has shown up for sale on eBay with a “buy it now” price of $350. Here’s the description:

“Not eBay again!”

Anyone want to know what happens in the new Bond film? This is a sequence of 52 Crew Copy, Production used Storyboards from the latest instalment. Buy it now price is less than $7 per Storyboard!

If you go to THE EBAY LISTING, it includes four storyboard samples. The samples do provide spoilers. There are no many plot revelations in the four samples but you can piece together at least some of what is going on in the scene.

According to the listing, the storyboards will remain on sale until 1:54 p.m. Pacific time, July 11, unless somebody plucks down that $350 right off the bat.

Back in March, a set of Skyfall call sheets that included information about the film including character names (at a time many character names hadn’t been disclosed) and basic descriptions of scenes was sold on eBay.

Fan Web site posts Skyfall call sheets (SPOILER ALERT)

UPDATE: The James Bond Brasil Web site said it had to take down the images of pages from the Skyfall call sheets that it posted earlier this week.

The call sheets were originally issued last month during filming in London and Scotland. Call sheets were being sold on eBay about a week ago, so James Bond Brasil’s proprietors may have been the winning bidder. (In fact, it appears ANOTHER SET is being auctioned on eBay now with a March 11 deadline.)

"There's been a leak!"

Anyway, based on the call sheets that had been on the site (and other places on the Internet prior to James Bond Brasil taking them down), there are some SPOILERS about the 23rd James Bond film out.

If you don’t want to know anymore STOP READING NOW.

OK, here are the nuggets of information:

1. The name of the villain played by Javier Bardem is Silva.

2. There’s a sequence where, in M’s car, “Tanner learns somebody is accessing The Flash Drive.” Then, “The car is stopped by security. M climbs out angry.” At the Vauxhall Bridge, “M yells at the bridge guards…Boom.”

3. At a Macao hotel, “Eve shaves Bond.”

4. In a later scene, “Silva is excited as he sees M & Kincade.”

5. In a scene set in Scotland, Bond and M have a drink and “Bond tells of his childhood.”

6. There’s a car chase, which includes a “bogus police Land Rover.”