Craig still involved with 007 promotions

Daniel Craig may not “want to go back” to James Bond films (as he told the Los Angeles Times recently). But that hasn’t mean he’s shed his involvement with 007 promotions.

For example, the 54-year-old actor is involved with a Bond-themed event for Omega watches. It was announced on Eon’s official Twitter account.

Daniel Craig at the launch event for OMEGA’s #60yearsofBond Seamaster Diver Watches. pic.twitter.com/3Lwbs58hMw

— James Bond (@007) November 24, 2022

Craig has participated in this sort of thing for years. In 2013, there were reports he was paid $1 million to appear at the New York Auto Show on behalf of Land Rover. He left after a few minutes.

But that was while he was the Bond of record. Despite his departure from the role, he’s still in demand for corporate events. That may not change until a new Bond is cast, whenever that is.

Bond 24 to have new Aston, Wilson tells ITN

Bond 24 will include a new Aston Martin model, Eon Productions co-boss Michael G. Wilson told ITN News.

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson

ITN covered had a story about the opening of the BOND IN MOTION show in the U.K. featuring vehicles from the 007 film series. Wilson was interviewed along with his half-sister, Barbara Broccoli.

“The next film by the way, we’re going to have a new Aston that people haven’t seen yet,” Wilson said. He didn’t provide additional details. His comments about Bond 24 start around the 45-second mark of the ITN video.

Skyfall, the most recent Bond film, used an Aston Martin DB5, the same model that debuted in 1964’s Goldfinger. The movie’s main automotive product placement deal was with Tata Motors Ltd.’s Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Bond 24 is scheduled for release in fall 2015.

Also, here’s a shoutout to the Commander Bond website, which had a story about the ITN report earlier.

007 questions about Bond 24

Among the unanswered questions….

Now that Bond 24 screenwriter John Logan says the movie’s first draft script is almost done, it’s time once again to pose some questions about the next 007 film adventure.

001. First draft? Only the first draft? Well, that’s what Logan TOLD EMPIRE IN AN INTERVIEW.

002. But isn’t that mean Bond 24 is behind, relatively speaking, where Skyfall was three years ago? Yes. A first draft was in place in early 2011 when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced the then-untitled movie was a go and it’d be out for the fall of 2012.

Based on later statements Logan made, he came aboard around that time. He said in early 2012 he’d been attached to the Bond film for about a year. Logan revamped earlier work by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and all three got a “written by” credit for Skyfall. In any case, that means there was a draft for Logan to rewrite.

003. Is that cause for concern? Not necessarily.

MGM announced in November 2012 that Logan would be writing Bond 24 and 25. It’s possible — though nobody outside of a close circle of people at Eon Productions, MGM or Sony Pictures knows — Logan may have a detailed treatment done some time ago.

If (a big if, admittedly) that’s the case, major storytelling problems may have been already addressed. Then again, oversight intensifies when there’s an actual script to evaluate.

004. Any chance a rebooted Blofeld might appear now that Eon has secured the rights to the character once and for all? Logan was coy about this possibility, or whether Quantum (the villainous organization of Casino Royale and Quantum Solace) may return.

The deal with the Kevin McClory estate was made in the fall of 2013, long after Logan was signed to write Bond 24 and Bond 25, but months before the first draft was nearing completion. So, sure, it’s possible.

005. What car company will land the Bond 24 product placement deal? Despite the presence of the 1960s Aston Martin DB5, Skyfall’s real auto deal was with Tata Motors Ltd., owner of the Land Rover and Jaguar brands. Land Rover hired Daniel Craig to appear at the New York International Auto Show in 2013.

Bentley, owned by Volkswagen AG, has made noises about getting into the mix for Bond 24. (CLICK HERE to view a story on the MI6 site.) File this under “remains to be seen.”

006. Will the gunbarrel finally be at the start of the movie again for Bond 24? As a certain Bond woman once said, “I wouldn’t go banco on that.” Nobody at Eon, certainly, has promised it’ll be at the start. The gunbarrel logo hasn’t been at the start of a 007 movie since 2002’s Die Another Day. By now, standard operating procedure is no.

007. What do you think *will* happen? There’s a 99 percent probability Barbara Broccoli will say, “the money’s up on the screen,” during the news conference for the start of production.

A brief history of 007’s cars

1963 page from Bond: Licence to Drive

The Evans Halshaw company is a leading car and van retailer in the United Kingdom, with over 130 locations across England, Scotland, and Wales. Of much more interest to us 007 fans is that they’ve created, for their Web site, a very cool history of the cars of the screen James Bond.

Combining interesting factoids with a very slick vector graphics look, the presentation takes us all the way from the Sunbeam Alpine Sean Connery piloted in Dr. No, through Skyfall‘s Land Rover Defender (and – Spoiler Alert! – a certain Aston Martin DB 5).

James Bond fans – and motoring enthusiasts (a.k.a. car nuts) – can point their web browsers to Bond: Licence to Drive and feast their eyes.

Tell ’em that HMSS sent ya!

(Big thanks to Laura Bailey at Online Ventures Group for tipping us to this neat little show!)

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.”

How British are Jaguar and Land Rover?

A publication called Car magazine has a story about how the Land Rover Defender will appear in Skyfall. Here’s a passage:

Land Rover Defender

(Skyfall co-producer Andrew) Noakes says the production company, EON, is delighted with the support of Jaguar-Land Rover. ‘The films may be made with American money and producers, but James Bond is British and we try to make associations with British companies. Land Rover is one of the oldest and most well-known. We’ve had offers from other companies but we’d prefer not to take James Bond out of a British environment.’

It’d probably be more accurate to call Jaguar-Land Rover a British subsidiary of an Indian company. The brands are owned by Mumbai, India-based Tata Motors Ltd., which acquired them in 2008. Jaguar hasn’t been British *owned* since 1989, when it was acquired by Ford Motor Co. Land Rover hasn’t been British owned since it was bought by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, better known as BMW, in 1994. BMW sold Land Rover to Ford in 2000. Ford sold both brands to Tata four years ago.

While they still emphasize their British heritage, Jaguar and Land Rover aren’t really part of a British company. Models are still made in the U.K. (though Motor Trend wrote last month the Defender may be built in India.)

Then again, the literary Bond preferred Bentley, a brand that has been owned by Volkswagen AG since 1998.

A decade ago, Ford had a product placement deal with Eon Productions where Die Another Day would feature the European luxury brands the U.S. company then owned, including Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin. Die Another Day also included a Ford Thunderbird (since discontinued) which was driven briefly by Jinx (Halle Berry). Prior to that, BMW had provided cars for Bond in Pierce Brosnan’s first three 007 films.

In 2006’s Casino Royale, a Ford Mondeo, a model sold in Europe and not the U.S., appeared as did an Aston Martin model, both driven by Daniel Craig. Ford sold off Aston the following year. Ford models appeared in 2008’s Quantum of Solace. Skyfall is emphasizing Tata’s U.K. models and the nearly half-century-old Aston Martin DB5, which originally appeared in Goldfinger. The DB5 has been making appearances periodically in the series since 1995’s GoldenEye (including Casino Royale, as a car Bond wins in a poker game).

MSN Cars speculates Evoque to be in Bond 23

The MSN Cars Web site is speculating the Range Rover Evoque will be featured in Bond 23.

There’s not a lot of hard reporting (Woodwardd and Bernstein it is not). Judge for yourself in this excerpt:

MSN Cars’ insider sources tell us that an Evoque was delivered to Pinewood Studios this very morning. And given Pinewood is home to the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage it doesn’t take much to put two and two together and get ‘kerching!’

While Land Rover is unwilling to confirm or deny at this moment, not only is the high-tech sleek and muscular look of the Evoque perfect for the world’s most famous super spy, the slinky SUV’s British brand credentials also fit very sweetly.

Last week, The Sun, the U.K. tabloid, said Bond 23 filming would begin involving a stunt
with a Land Rover and a Jaguar.. Meanwhile, to read the MSN Cars post (including a photo of the Evoque), JUST CLICK HERE.

Bond 23 to begin filming Nov. 7, The Sun says

Bond 23 is start production on Nov. 7, according to a report in U.K. newspaper, The Sun. The story is brief but contains this passage:

When shooting starts on November 7, the actor will have to switch from a Range Rover to a Jaguar – with both motors on the move.

Jaguar and Land Rover were part of product placement in 2002’s Die Another Day in a deal meant to show off Ford Motor Co.’s European luxury offerings. Gustav Graves was driven to receive his knighthood (after making a showy parachute jump) in a Land Rover while Graves henchman Zao drove a tricked-out Jaguar in a car chase with an Aston Martin driven by Bond (Pierce Brosnan).

Ford sold off Aston Martin in 2007 and Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008. Jaguar and Land Rover are now owned by India’s Tata Motors Ltd.

To read the entire story in The Sun, JUST CLICK HERE.

A brief (incomplete) 007 product placement history

So, Bond 23 will have a record amount of product placement, according to the Sunday Times. Agent 007 isn’t exactly a virgin when it comes to the subject.

In Bond’s debut film adventure, you could see Smirnoff vodka and Red Stripe beer. Then again, Dr. No only had a $1 million budget and was modestly budgeted. The brand name referneces reflected what you’d see in a James Bond novel by Ian Fleming.

Things picked up with the third 007 film, Goldfinger. There were vehicles from Ford Motor Co. (Tilly’s Mustang, Felix Leiter’s Thunderbird, the Ford trucks in Goldfinger’s convoy going to Fort Knox and the Lincoln Continental where gangster Mr. Solo had his “pressing engagement”). Not to mention Gillette shaving products and Kentucky Fried Chicken, evidently Felix’s favorite fast food place while maintaining survellence on criminal masterminds. The film’s director, Guy Hamilton, had this to say to film historian Adrian Turner:

I used to get a little bit angry when Harry (Saltzman) used to come on the set. In the plane scene with Pussy Galore, when Bond haves, the whole thing was a Gillette exercise. You never saw anything like it. There was Gillette foam, Gillette aftershave…I said, ‘Harry what are you doing? It’s eight in the morning, the crew haven’t arrived and your’e dressing a set?’ He’d done a deal with Gillette and we were going to get sixpence to use their stuff.”
(Adrian Turner on Goldfinger, 1998, pages 158-59)

With Thunderball, Ford was even more out in force: Fiona Volpe’s Mustang, not one but two Lincoln Continentals and Count Lippe’s aging Ford Fairlane. Ford did a promotional film, “How to Blow Up a Motor Car,” and Henry Ford II, then the CEO of Ford had a cameo in the movie. For You Only Live Twice, Japanese financial titans had an impact, including television monitors by Sony and Aki’s Toyota (not orignally a convertible but it was transformed into one).

Ford was back in Oh Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Tracy’s Mercury Cougar) and Diamonds Are Forever (Tiffany Case’s Mustang that Bond drove to great effect). GM managed to get its Chevrolet division as the primary auto supplier for Live And Let Die but it appears only one type of model could be supplied. The Man With The Golden Gun had the only 007 appearance for American Motors (later absorbed by Chrysler).

Moonraker is remembered by some fans for excessive product placement. A long Rio sequence has multiple referneces to 7 Up, British Airways and Marlboro cigarettes (including the use of Elmer Bernstein’s theme for The Magnifcent Seven, which Marlboro would use for television commercials in the 1960s). United Artists initially hoped to make the movie for $20 million. The budget came in closer to $35 million, so it’s not much of a stretch to speculate the product placement was a way of finding alternative sources of funding.

Three Pierce Brosnan 007 films (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough) featured BMW cars.

But Ford once again entered the world of 007. For 2002’s Die Another Day. At that time, Ford had a collection of European luxury brands (including Aston Martin, a long-time 007 favorite), so DAD was a way to promote all of the brands, including a Land Rover SUV that took villain Gustav Graves to Buckingham Palace. Ford even managed to get in a couple of shots of its then-new Thunderbird two-seat car driven by U.S. agent Jinx (Halle Berry) to a big party given by Graves.

The Daniel Craig era has again seen Aston Martin make a splash and Omega watches even got mentioned in a dramatic scene between Bond and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green).

The Sunday Times reported that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony, which are co-financiing Bond 23, want to generate $45 million, or about a third, of Bond 23’s production budget from product placement fees. We’ll see how it goes. The Bond 23 filmmakers will probably get the money. The question is how obvious the product placement will be.