UK cover for new 007 novel emerges on Amazon UK

U.K. cover image for Forever and a Day, Anthony Horwitz’s second James Bond continuation novel.

David Leigh of The James Bond Dossier website came across some news on Wednesday — the Amazon U.K. website published an image for the British edition of Anthony Horowitz’s second James Bond continuation novel.

Ian Fleming Publications on Feb. 8 announced the title of the Horowitz novel. But the announcement only had a placeholder image.

Horowitz’s new novel is a prequel to 1953’s Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first novel which introduced the Bond character. The release says Bond’s predecessor as 007 “floats in the waters of Marseille.”

Presumably the cover references that setting. The cover also confirms that the new Horowitz novel contains some Fleming material. Horowitz’s first Bond novel, 2015’s Trigger Mortis, included some Fleming material originally pitched as part of a 007 television series.

Forever and a Day is scheduled for a May 31 release in the U.K. The novel won’t arrive in the United States until November. Amazon’s main website still lacks an image for the U.S. edition of the novel.

SPECTRE: the fans speak out

With Monday’s premiere of SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond film, a number of James Bond fan sites took to social media to provide their initial reactions.

So, without further ado, here’s a sampling starting with James Bond Memes.

Loved it. Brilliant film. The Spectre of success. And I got a free poster. #SPECTRE pic.twitter.com/tr4kp73uRr

— Edward Biddulph (@bondmemes) October 26, 2015

The James Bond Dossier weighed in with this:

A big thumbs up for #SPECTE. Much better than Skyfall with some classic Bond elements.

— TheJamesBondDossier (@007dossier) October 26, 2015

The lads at James Bond Radio channeled a Daniel Craig interview:

3 words: Absolute fucking masterpiece!!! https://t.co/qMJ5C0j5Hd

— James Bond Radio (@JamesBondRadio) October 26, 2015

SPECTRE car chase video keeps surfacing

Spoiler adverse readers should stop now.

More and more video is surfacing concerning an action sequence filmed in Rome for SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond film.

The specific sequence involves a car chase involving an Aston Martin DB10, a limited edition model that Bond drives in the film.  Video has been coming out for the past several days.

On March 4, two new videos came out. Here’s one from The Associated Press news service. It lasts under a minute.

Here’s another, also posted the same day. It was spotted by The James Bond Dossier, which PUBLISHED A POST about it. This video is just under 90 seconds.

Meanwhile, the James Bond Brasil website HAS A POST with stills from the chase.

For all of the NEWS ACCOUNTS about Rome stressing out over SPECTRE’s filming, things appear to be progressing, and viewers of the movie won’t notice there ever was a fuss.

Wet Nellie auctioned for less than projected

“Wet Nellie” from The Spy Who Loved Me

“Wet Nellie,” the submarine car from 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me, was auctioned on Sept. 9 but for less than some estimates before the sale.

The car fetched 550,000 British pounds (about $863,000), according to 007 fan sites such as BOND LIFESTYLE and THE JAMES BOND DOSSIER that monitored the auction online.

While not cheap, there had been projections Wet Nellie would go for 650,000 and 950,000 pounds. Not everyone was that bullish. There were low estimates that the vehicle bring a selling price of 500,000 pounds.

The result reinforces the only rule: an object, whether it’s an old comic book or something as elaborate as Wet Nellie, is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

The car that was auctioned was the one that function underwater, with frogmen in wet suits piloting the craft.

UPDATE: Robert Frank of CNBC TOOK A GUESS IN A POST ON NBC.COM why the auction price came up short. Here’s an excerpt

It’s unclear why the price was soft, given the boom in collectible cars and its status as an especially famous car from the silver screen. But auction experts said that because the Lotus was not a functional car, it may not have been as attractive to buyers. Although equipped with fins and propellers, it did not have wheels.

Skyfall teaser trailer debuts, confirms one call sheet tidbit

Skyfall’s teaser trailer was unveiled, as scheduled, on May 21 on the official James Bond Web site. Some observations:

— You can see what the fuss was about when Roger Deakins was hired as director of photography. Some of the images are stunning.

— There’s one confirmation that the contents of the call sheets and related materials that got out via eBay were genuine. At the 0:49 mark, agent Eve (Naomie Harris) is indeed shaving Bond (Daniel Craig), which was a listed scene in the call sheet materials.

— The post by “Liz” on the IMDB message board in February, was clearly off the mark.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, take a look at this version uploaded to YouTube by Sony. After the trailer, there’s an ad for the upcoming 007-themed Legends video game.

UPDATE: Some reactions around the Twitterverse. Multiple tweets to the effect that the 007.com site was very slow when the trailer went online overnight New York time. The trailer was uploaded after it was on a BBC morning show. Meanwhile on the BBC, James Bond@James Bond Live: “You’re late 007. (Skyfall trailer reveal postponed as BBC News takes their sweet time….)”

M@James Bond Dossier: “#SKYFALL trailer is completely un-Bondlike.” Bond Blog: “#SKYFALL teaser trailer awesome!” Panos Sambrakos: “I’ve the teaser trailer of #Skyfall and it rocks!” Bond Memes: “Great #Skyfall trailer. Bond doesn’t look much happier than he was in QoS, though. No sign yet of goldfinger humour.”

Eon says Bond 23 title is Skyfall, confirms other reports

Today’s Eon Productions news conference confirmed most of the major reports about the film, including the title being Skyfall.

First the title. From the Twitter feed:

007 James Bond
Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli explain that the title Skyfall has “some emotional context”.

The title was originally disclosed by the Fusible Web site.

The cast does include Judi Dench (she had announced it her self but Eon hadn’t confirmed until today), Javier Bardem (same status as Dench), Berenice Marlohe, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Ben Wishaw. One thing not correct: Naomie Harris, according to the 007 Twitter feed, “will play a field agent called Eve.” Could she be the film’s sacrifcial lamb? (That’s an actual question, so don’t accuse of rumor mongering).

In THIS POST, we provided a list of where the reports and where they originated. One stumble, it appears, was a Daily Mail report that said Naomie Harris would play Miss Moneypenny. Unless, of course, we find out Eve is Moneypenny’s first name.

We haven’t seen any pictures yet, and none of the Twitter feeds (we’re following several) mention whether star Daniel Craig is wearing a beard. More later. REVISED UPDATE: Our friends at the James Bond Dossier had advised Craig didn’t have a beard at the news conference. But someone attending the event said Craig had a very thin beard. So the report about Bond having a beard may be accurate.

UPDATE: The Bond 23 press release is online and you can read it BY CLICKING HERE. An excerpt:

In SKYFALL, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

There are also some crew announcements, including Roger Deakins as director of photography and Stuart Baird as editor. No mention of a composer. So the question of whether David Arnold returns or is replaced is still open.

UPDATE: Here’s David Arnold on his Twitter feed

DavidGArnold DavidGArnold
For those asking about Bond 23 and my involvement in it I dont have any news.they’ll announce something when they have something to announce