Footnote to the cinematic 007’s 60th anniversary

Sean Connery in Dr. No: Sorry, Sir Sean, you’re in the back of the pack.

So, the 60th anniversary of the cinematic James Bond still is underway.

Lea Seydoux, who appeared in two of the 25 Eon-produced Bond films (8 percent of the series total), shared her favorite Bond moment on the official Eon Instagram account.

“There are so many, but the scene from NO TIME TO DIE – saying goodbye in the boat is so beautifully shot and poignant. Daniel’s final moments on screen, at the end of his five film run was very emotional for us all.”

That’s to be expected. This reflects Seydoux’s not-so-vast Bond film experience.

Still, the cinematic Bond’s 60th anniversary hasn’t been so much about the character’s long run on movie screens. It has been more about Daniel Craig’s long run as Bond, with Eon boss Barbara Broccoli as her primary backer.

Craig was the first Bond actor chosen by Barbara Broccoli. Pierce Brosnan was the final Bond chosen by Broccoli’s father, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli.

No Time to Die, Craig’s last Bond film, came out a year ago. We still hear about how he was a great Bond.

When does Eon finally let Craig go?

We don’t know. It will be *years* before the next film Bond debuts.

We’ll see.

From 2020: A peek at NTTD’s scoring sessions

One of several images Steve Mazzaro uploaded to Instagram in March 2020.

Back in March 2020, Steve Mazzaro, a composer who assisted Hans Zimmer in doing No Time to Die’s score, posted several behind the scenes images on Instagram.

The photos were originally posted on March 4, 2020, after the movie had the first of three COVID-19 delays in its release date.

Zimmer is the only composer listed on movie posters and soundtrack covers that have been released to date. But Mazzaro is one of the many composers who work for Zimmer. Mazzaro also composed the score for The Rhythm Section, a non-Bond spy film made by Eon Productions.

In a June 2020 interview with Variety, Zimmer said Mazzaro’s contributions to No Time to Die were significant.

“Steve should really be the top name on the Bond film,” Zimmer told Variety. Obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way.

Besides the image above, Mazzaro posted images of himself working with Zimmer at a control board as well as musicians recording the No Time to Die score.

As with anything else concerning No Time to Die, fans will have to wait to see how the movie’s score worked out.

Bond 25 questions: The Instagram edition

Cary Fukunaga, director for Bond 25

A picture is worth a thousand words, the old saying goes. So it was when Bond 25 Cary Fukunaga was photographed in Matera, Italy, on April 9.

The photo appeared on Instagram the same day. It was posted by Matera Guided Tours, aka “theprofessormiza.”

Naturally with a fan base starved for news about the next 007 film, the photo made the rounds on social media. So naturally, the blog has questions.

Wasn’t principal photography supposed to have been underway by now?

The MI6 James Bond website said Feb. 29 on Twitter that Bond 25 was scheduled to begin filming on April 5 at Pinewood Studios unless another delay occurred. This would have been after several days of filming in Norway in late March.

In the Instagram photo, Fukunaga has no crew with him. It certainly doesn’t look like any filming was underway. Also, according to local Italian press, Bond 25 won’t be filming in Matera until late summer.

So what was Fukunaga doing?

MI6 James Bond said today on Twitter that the director was “in Matera finalizing location details ahead of the planned late summer shoot.” (The tweet also had a detail some might consider a spoiler. I left it out of this post.)

Does the photo really confirm Italy is a location?

It’s reasonable to conclude that’s the case. But it should be noted that no one associated with the film has explicitly said this.

UPDATE (April 10): Matera Guided Tours posted another Instagram photograph — a copy of a local newspaper article (in Italian, of course) about Fukunaga’s visit to the area. It apparently is some kind of scouting/preparation trip.

Eon appears to confirm B25 title isn’t Shatterhand

Eon Productions appeared to officially confirm that Shatterhand really isn’t (no way, no how) the title for Bond 25.

Eon’s official James Bond Instagram account sent out a photo of a Barbara Broccoli autograph where the Eon boss wrote “it’s not” above the word Shatterhand.

That photo has been making the rounds this week. But until today, no official outlet of Eon has joined in on that.

This blog is one of the few fan sites that keeps track of what Eon says and how it compares to later events. On occasion, Eon has denied things it knew to be true (Ben Whishaw playing Q in Skyfall, John Logan being hired to write Bond 24 and 25, at least initially.)

However, if Shatterhand is revealed to be Bond 25’s title, this is a really, really cynical movie. I don’t think Eon operates on that level.

Aston Martin to be in Bond 25, CEO says

Daniel Craig and Aston Martin DB5 in a Skyfall publicity sill

Aston Martin will be involved with Bond 25, the company’s CEO told CNN.

The executive, Andy Palmer, apparently was interviewed for the world feed of the news network. The CNN interviewer, Anna Stewart, posted an excerpt on her Instagram account.

“I can confirm that Aston Martin will be collaborating in the next chapter of Bond,” Palmer said in the video excerpt. “So take read from that what you will.”

There have been stories, including one in the Financial Times, that an executive of Lotus, Phil Popham, said he’d like to see his company reunite with 007.

Lotus figured in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), where the car supposedly converted into a submarine, and For Your Eyes Only (1981). Aston’s history with the 007 film series goes back to 1964’s Goldfinger.

Aston Martin became a publicly traded company this week.

“The share price fall on Wednesday left the 105-year-old firm, James Bond’s favourite car marque, with a market value of just above £4bn, sharply lower than its initial hopes for a price tag of over £5bn,” according to a story in The Guardian.

Bond 25 speculation heats up via Mark Strong video

Screen capture of now-withdrawn Instagram post by Mark Strong’s trainer.

Nature abhors a vacuum. So do James Bond fans interested in news — any news — about the next 007 film adventure.

In this case, the trainer of actor Mark Strong posted a video of Strong working out on Instagram. “Me and Mark Strong working to a new project,” read the caption. What followed was a series of Bond-related hashtags such as #bond25, #DanielCraig, #MarkStrong, #DannyBoyle and more.

The Instagram post was deleted as was a post on Twitter. Didn’t matter. In the absence of confirmed Bond 25 casting news, it took on a life of its own.

After appropriate qualifications, the Birth.Movies.Death website said this:

Mark Strong, meanwhile, is a great choice for Bond 25, particularly in any kind of action capacity. He’s a rock-solid performer with range, easy-going charm and a great comic sensibility, not to mention a known quantity for Boyle, who directed him in Sunshine.

Or, put another way, “We don’t really know, but here’s why it’s a good idea.”

It should be noted that Strong is a friend of 007 star Daniel Craig. Strong made comments in 2016 that Craig was done as Bond. It wasn’t a correct prediction.

In April, there was a similar reaction, when Dave Bautista put out an Instagram post of himself with a SPECTRE tattoo on his finger where a SPECTRE ring should be. Naturally, there was speculation whether he’d be back in Bond 25.

A year earlier, actor Jeffrey Wright put out a photo of himself from Quantum of Solace which geared up speculation he was going to be in Bond 25.

All of this was taken very, very seriously at the time.

So, we’ll see.

Warner Bros. gives an early press screening of U.N.C.L.E.

Logo for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie

Warner Bros. has conducted an early media showing of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie, according to the editor of an entertainment news website.

Steven Weintraub, editor in chief of Collider.com, took to Instagram and Twitter tonight to say he was attending.

“Going back to the 60s with Guy Ritchie tonight,” Weintraub wrote in a caption accompanying a photo he put on Instagram. “Seeing an early screening of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Wb. must think they’ve got the goods to show us the film 6 weeks early.”

The movie, starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, doesn’t arrive in theaters until Aug. 14. Warners originally scheduled the Guy Ritchie-directed film for mid-January, usually seen as a studio dumping ground for movies.

Warners later switched U.N.C.L.E. to August and kept it there, even after Paramount moved up Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation to July 31 from Dec. 25. The M:I movie features star/producer Tom Cruise, who had been courted to play Napoleon Solo in U.N.C.L.E. but opted against it. That paved the way for Cavill’s selection.

UPDATE (June 30): A writer for the Reuters news service put out a tweet after the screening. No other details provided.

Just came out of an early screening of #ManFromUNCLE – slick, funny and loved the cast. The rise of Alicia Vikander continues!

— Piya Sinha-Roy (@PiyaSRoy) June 30, 2015

Guy Ritchie posts a preview to new U.N.C.L.E. trailer

Logo for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie

Director Guy Ritchie, IN A POST ON INSTAGRAM provided a preview of the new trailer for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie.

According to the post, the trailer should be out around 1 p.m. New York time. The preview in Ritchie’s Instagram post has some scenes that were in the teaser trailer released Feb. 11 and some that were in a trailer shown in theaters May 29-31.

One exchange between Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) tells and Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) that he hates work with him. Kuryakin replies, “You’re a terrible spy, cowboy.”

Guy Ritchie reveals final U.N.C.L.E. poster

Image that accompanied Guy Ritchie post

Director Guy Ritchie IN A POST ON INSTAGRAM displayed what he described as the final poster for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie and said a new trailer debuts June 11.

The short message reads as follows:

guyritchieFor my beloved followers! You’ve seen it here first, the final poster for The Man From U.N.C.L.E the trailer debuts tomorrow. Saving the world has never looked so good #themanfromuncle

The U.N.C.L.E. movie’s teaser trailer debuted on Feb. 11. At the recent CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, intended for theater operators, there was another trailer shown, but that hasn’t been seen since.

Yet another trailer was shown in some U.S. theaters the weekend of May 29-31 along with the Warner Bros. movie San Andreas. But that trailer hasn’t been online.

The movie, with Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo and Armie Hammer as Illya Kuryakin, is scheduled to debut Aug. 14. Ritchie’s film is a different take compared to the original 1964-68 series, with U.N.C.L.E. not yet formed, and Solo an agent for the CIA and Kuryakin a KGB operative.