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.

NTTD’s reactions from its co-stars

No Time to Die poster

h/t to MI6.HQ.COM which compiled this.

Daniel Craig’s James Bond met his end in No Time to Die. If Craig’s co-stars are to be believed, they had no idea this was happening.

Lea Seydoux, Den of Geek: “I still can’t really believe that that’s what they decided, that he’s gone…It made me sad, actually, it made me really sad…But I hope they will find a new way to—you know they will find something else.”

Naomie Harris, Radio Times: “Because there’s so much secrecy around all of the Bond movies, I thought, ‘Is this a joke? Am I being sent, like, the wrong ending, and then they’re gonna send me a new one?’. I really thought that, because I just thought… this doesn’t happen. Bond doesn’t die. It’s sacred that Bond should never die.”

A reminder: No Time to Die’s script began development in 2017. That’s when Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine met his end in a film. Earlier, Craig and Jackman had appeared together in a play in New York.

Prior to No Time to Die, Craig’s Bond had unhappy endings. At the end of SPECTRE, he finally (or so it seemed) had a happy ending with Seydoux’s Madeline Swann. Instead, No Time to Die threw that out the window.

Observations of a No Time to Die rewatch Part II

No Time to Die poster

The family theme: James Bond traditionally wasn’t known as a family man. But No Time to Die makes a big deal about a family theme.

That’s not me talking. Eon Productions boss Barbara Broccoli played up that idea in a podcast interview with The Hollywood Reporter. She talked about Bond’s “MI6 family” and “his real family.”

Rewatching the movie, that comes through. Safin’s villainous scientist refers to Madeleine Swann and her daughter as “your family” to the villain. Bond (according to the closed captions for the movie) refers to them as his family.

Revisiting the SPECTRE scripts: There were some drafts of the script for SPECTRE (2015) where Bond shot Blofeld in the head. One draft (completed shortly before filming began) ended with Bond telling Madeline, “We have all the time in the world.”

Neither made it into the final film. But with No Time to Die, Eon doubled down.

In the pre-credit sequence of No Time to Die, Bond tells Madeline that, “We have all the time in the world.” Toward the end, just before Bond is blown to smithereens, Bond tells her, “You have all the time in the world.” And, of course, just before that, Bond blasts Safin away.

Scooby Gang gets to emote: It’s not just Bond (Daniel Craig) who gets a big death scene. Lea Seydoux as Madeline gets to emote. So do the Scooby Gang: Ralph Fiennes’ M, Naomie Harris’ Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw’s Q, and Rory Kinnear’s Tanner.

“You promised”: Just before he dies, Bond tells Madeline he’s not going to make it. She replies: “You promised.”

At this point, Bond has apparently lost a fair amount of blood and isn’t moving around very well thanks to a few bullet wounds courtesy of Safin.

Did Bond really have to die? That’s almost irrelevant. The whole movie was designed to have Bond die. Quibbling about nanobots (couldn’t Bond’s EMP watch rid him of the nanobots?), etc., etc. doesn’t really matter. Bond was going to die. The question was how.

Observations of a No Time to Die rewatch Part I

One of the many No Time to Die posters

The movie has some nifty image composition/photography.

In the pre-titles sequence, Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux) writes a secret, burns it and sends the embers into the night air. The camera follows it until the Matera landscape turns to day. Very classy.

Bond isn’t very bright, is he?

Let’s face it, Bond has never been the sharpest knife in the drawer. In Dr. No, he has no real plan for when he gets to Crab Key. In From Russia With Love, he’s easily taken in by Grant’s less-than-sophisticated set up of Kerim and a Soviet agent supposedly killing each other. In the film, Kerim has a knife in his side, hardly the easiest way of killing oneself.

But in No Time to Die, Bond falls for Blofeld’s frame of Madeline. This propels the plot through much of the movie.

That curious music title card

“Music by Hans Zimmer, Score produced by Steve Mazzaro.”

Zimmer, on mulitiple occasions, said the score was a collaboration between himself and Mazzaro. One thinks the the title card should have had a footnote. “Sorry, Steve. We know you did half or so of the score. This is the best we could do.”

Bond knows his Jamaican home has been invaded. Does his outside shower and toothbrushing lead to Safin getting his DNA?

The scene around the 47:00 mark (the scientist who has been working for Safin) suggests so. Then against the scientist substitutes a sample of all the SPECTRE leadership. Hard to tell.

Which M made the bigger mistakes? Judi Dench in Skyfall or Ralph Fiennes in No Time to Die?

Judgment call.

“Come on, Felix. we’ve been in worse than this. Let’s go.”

How many times have Bond and Felix Leiter been in jeopardy *at the same time*? Not many in either the first 20 Eon films or the Craig era. Going back to Kevin McClory’s first Thunderball scripting efforts, there were more attempts to go give Felix more to do.

Ticket site says NTTD’s premiere is Sept. 28

No Time to Die U.S. poster

h/t to James Bond Club Deutschland, which posted a link and screen grab on Facebook.

The Sincura Group, whose businesses include a company which acquires event tickets and resells them, says on its tickets website that No Time to Die’s world premiere will be Sept. 28 at Royal Albert Hall in London.

The item had this additional information:

Postponed – released in cinemas on the 30th September 2021; premiere now confirmed for 28th September 2021 – with the afterparty at the Natural History Museum.
VISIT OUR APP for the latest updates as they happen.

The item carried a piece of promotional art from SPECTRE with Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux. Seydoux is in No Time to Die reprising the role of Dr. Madeline Swann.

The question is whether this really is locked in or not. No Time to Die has been postponed five times previously, three times because of COVID-19.

UPDATE: This has been circulating for a bit. See the tweet below.

Seems we called that one right on our call the other day @TheSpyCommand https://t.co/SxydK0hsXj

— James Bond Lexicon – jamesbondlexicon.online (@BondLexicon) August 10, 2021

Broccoli, Wilson sing Seydoux’s praises

No Time to Die poster featuring Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions praise Lea Seydoux in a Deadline: Hollywood feature story about the actress.

“Léa’s portrayal of Dr. Madeleine Swann explores the complexity of what it is like to be in a relationship with James Bond,” Deadline quoted Broccoli and Wilson as saying. The entertainment news website didn’t specify whether this was in a written statement or an interview.

 “Given the background of her character being the daughter of a SPECTRE assassin, she understands Bond’s world, the dark forces that he is up against, and his psyche. We wanted to challenge Bond emotionally and Léa’s character does this in No Time to Die,” the Eon duo said. “Léa is very committed to her profession and gives 100 percent. She always illuminates the characters she plays and makes you feel the connection with them because she makes them feel real.”

Seydoux, in turn, praised star Daniel Craig. “Because he comes from the theater, I think he wanted to create a more interesting character,” she said. “He’s made him vulnerable and let him show his flaws. By seeing the character’s imperfections, the audience can relate to him.”

Seydoux first played Swann in 2015’s SPECTRE. She returned for the upcoming No Time to Die.

No Time to Die’s music video debuts with some new shots

No Time to Die’s music video debuted today. It includes some additional shots from the movie, mostly of Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux as James Bond and Madeline Swann.

The song itself came out months ago. Performer Billie Eilish is photographed in black and white.

I could add more but the spoiler adverse would dislike it even with the usual advisory. So you can view it for yourself below if you wish.

Newest NTTD ad teases a few more clues

The spoiler adverse should just leave now.

A new No Time to Die ad was shown on the E! channel’s pre-Oscars show on Sunday, Feb. 9. It was similar to the 30-second spot that aired a week earlier during the Super Bowl. But there were a few new bits:

— James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux), both looking a bit haggard, say, “This is it,” to each other.

–Bond holds a burning piece of paper that reads, “Forgive me.” From Madeline Swann? Or possibly an old note from Vesper Lynd that he’s kept for all these years?

–A tense M (Ralph Fiennes) says, “Come on Bond.”

–Safin (Rami Malek) says he had made Bond “redundant.” Bond replies, “Not as long as there are people like you in the world.”

Also, of note, both the Feb. 2 and Feb. 9 ads only had a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo.

The first trailer, which debuted in December, had MGM and Universal logos. United Artists Releasing, a joint venture of MGM and Annapurna, is releasing No Time to Die in the U.S. Universal is handling international distribution.

If you haven’t seen it, you can view the commercial below.

No Time to Die trailer debuts

If you consider a trailer an unforgivable spoiler, stop reading.

No Time to Die’s trailer — we can safely stop calling it a “teaser trailer” — debuted today. The 2:35 trailer may have answered some fan questions while raising new ones.

Confirmed: Nomi (Lashana Lynch) is a double-0 agent. More information: she and former agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) don’t get along, at least not at first.

“So stay in your lane,” she tells Bond. “If you get in my way, I will put a bullet in your knee — the one that works.”

Unconfirmed: Whether Nomi now has the 007 code number following Bond’s departure. There is a scene in the trailer where M (Ralph Fiennes) asks, “Where’s 007?” That would be a perfect setup to introduce Nomi as having Bond’s old code number — if the filmmakers choose to do so.

Seemingly confirmed: Christoph Waltz is back as Blofeld and is visited in prison by Bond. Given the franchise’s embrace of continuity, it looks pretty certain he is playing Blofeld again. He taunts Bond about Madeline Swann.

New question: What happened between Bond and Swann (Lea Seydoux) after the end of SPECTRE?

A number of scenes indicate the relationship between Bond and Swann got rocky, with questions about secrets.

New question: What is Rami Malek’s villain character up to?

That’s not really answered but there are a few intriguing lines from Malek’s character.

In the U.S., the trailer was unveiled on ABC’s Good Morning America show. Afterward, some of the main cast were interviewed but said little.

Lea Seydoux said Swann has secrets (which we knew already from the trailer). Lashana Lynch said Daniel Craig is her favorite James Bond (joining Rami Malek and director Cary Fukunaga who made that declaration previously). Malek said it was an honor to work with Craig. At least that talking point remains consistent.

Here’s the trailer:

UPDATE (12: 30 p.m., New York Time): I had a chance to re-watch the Good Morning America interview. Director Fukunaga says No Time to Die “carries on the tradition of the previous four films…We’re trying our best to wrap them up in a really exciting way.” He also says he hopes new generations discover Bond.

UPDATE (1:40 p.m. New York time): It turns out the entire No Time to Die segment on Good Morning America was sponsored by MGM. In other words, it was an informercial.

 

No Time to Die character posters unveiled

No Time to Die logo

Character posters for No Time to die were unveiled on Twitter this morning U.S. time.

The posters were contained in three tweets. The first had Daniel Craig in character as Bond and Lea Seydoux as Madeline Swann. The second featured Rami Malek as Safin and Lashana Lynch as Nomi.

The third had Ben Whishaw as Q and Ana de Armas as Paloma. No sign yet (as of this writing) of Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter or Ralph Fiennes as M.

Here are the tweets:

Tomorrow… the first trailer for #NoTimeToDie #Bond25 pic.twitter.com/9Wc5CRzhO1

— James Bond (@007) December 3, 2019

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pic.twitter.com/FTnjP2nEPQ

— James Bond (@007) December 3, 2019

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