Nolan 007 mania continues

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is busy promoting his World War II drama Dunkirk but that hasn’t stopped people from wondering if 007 might be in the director’s future.

Nolan was a guest on a podcast by MTV. It lasts 39 minutes and the Bond portion comes in about 24 minutes into it. However, if you’re busy, @Bond25Film on Twitter posted a transcript about the James Bond part of the discussion.

Among other things, in response to a question, Nolan said actor Tom Hardy would “be amazing. I mean, he really would” playing Bond.

Essentially, it’s the reverse of a Daily Beast interview early this year where Hardy said “it would be so cool” to play Bond while being directed by Nolan.

Hardy has been in a number of Nolan films, including Dunkirk and The Dark Knight Rises. Clearly, the actor and director comprise a mutual admiration society.

In the MTV podcast, Nolan provided a caveat. He said Barbara Brocccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions are “such incredible producers, they do greatly on their own.” Also, Nolan says, “I’m not saying anything” about how he’d do a Bond film.

U.N.C.L.E. out of running for MTV award

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. teaser poster

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie is now out of the running for the MTV Fandom of the Year awards.

The 2015 film (nominated in the movie category) didn’t make it past the second round of fan voting. MTV today released the list of nominees that made it to the third round, where voting is taking place on Twitter.

By any reasonable standard, U.N.C.L.E. was a surprise just to get nominated. Its box office was a fraction of the likes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Captain America: Civil War, which are among the titles still in contention.

What’s more, the movie was based on a television series more than a half-century old that never was the success in syndication of contemporary series such as the original Star Trek or Mission: Impossible.

For U.N.C.L.E. to make it into the second round amounts to the film playing with the house’s money.

So U.N.C.L.E. fans who participated in the voting should feel good about the result.

For now, U.N.C.L.E. faces an uncertain future. There’s no sequel planned for the Henry Cavill-Armie Hammer movie. Whether U.N.C.L.E. can return in some other form remains to be seen.

But, for a few days, Solo and Kuryakin were out in pop culture again.

U.N.C.L.E. survives first round of MTV voting

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

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie survived the first round of voting in the MTV Fandom of the Year awards. A new round of voting has HAS BEGUN ON TUMBLR and will run into July 15.

Here are the instructions on that Tumblr page:

For Round 2: Tumblr, notes = votes. Cast your vote by liking or reblogging the nominees you want to move forward in this epic battle, and remember voting for this round will close on July 15th!

Agents Solo and Kuryakin may be facing tougher odds than when they battled Thrush.

As of this writing the U.N.C.L.E. movie has 79 “notes.” That’s pretty far behind its competition in the film category. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has 1,169,  Captain America: Civil War has 530, Deadpool has 443 and Mazerunner: The Scorch Trials has 292.

Then again, many U.N.C.L.E. fans were surprised the movie even got nominated. So we’ll see.

U.N.C.L.E. movie nominated for MTV fandom of the year

U.N.C.L.E. movie poster

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie from 2015 has been nominated for MTV’s Fandom of the Year awards.

Here’s part of an MTV PRESS RELEASE:

NEW YORK, NY (July 11, 2016) – MTV today announced the nominees for “Fandom of the Year,” presented by JOLLY RANCHER Candy, which will feature 32 nominees going head-to-head across multiple platforms in a special social tournament spanning movies, TV dramas, TV comedies and, for the first time ever, video games.

In the movie category, the U.N.C.L.E. movie’s competition is pretty steep. The other nominees are: Captain America: Civil War, Deadpool, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, Mazerunner: The Scorch Trials, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and X-Men: Apocalypse.

Still, fans of the film, with Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer as Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, have a chance to get the movie additional notice. The Guy Ritchie-directed film had a modest $109.8 million worldwide box office.

Voting can be done on MTV’S FACEBOOK PAGE. Participants basically vote by sharing a photo of their preferred movie to their Facebook page. Instructions are on the page. The first round of voting ends on July 13.

Other categories include TV dramas, TV comedies and video games. To read the full MTV press release, CLICK HERE.  Thanks to the Henry Cavill News website for giving us a heads up.

Cavill tells MTV how Solo is different than Superman

Actor Henry Cavill, while being interviewed by MTV, commented how playing Napoleon Solo was different than portraying Superman.

Cavill said while playing the Man of Steel “is an honor,” the character also is stoic. “He’s the golden boy.”

On the other hand, “To play a character like Napoleon Solo, it’s so much fun, because he’s not the golden boy,” he said. “He’s kind of a bad boy who does the right thing…He’s one of those sarcastic fun guys. It’s great to play.”

Cavill was interviewed along with Armie Hammer, who plays Illya Kuryakin in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie, at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. At the event, studios made presentations to theater companies about upcoming films. The U.N.C.L.E. movie is due out Aug. 14 in the United States.

The full interview is below. MTV also asked a number of Superman questions. Cavill, who played the character in 2013’s Man of Steel, reprises the role in next year’s Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice.

Bond 24 to start filming in October or November

“Will I be in the movie, James?”
“Sorry, that’s on a need-to-know basis.”

Bond 24, the next James Bond movie, will start filming in either October or November, depending who you ask.

Ralph Fiennes, the new M after the events in Skyfall, has said Bond 24 was “meant to start shooting in October,” according to MTV NEWS.

Meanwhile, Baz Bamigboye of the U.K. Dail Mail, who had a number of Skyfall scoops proven correct, HAD A BRIEF MENTION IN A FEB. 27 STORY that the start date is now November, having been pushed back from October.

The untitled Bond 24 will start shooting in November, a month later than planned. The filming schedule will run until April or May 2015. Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw are all lined up.

If true, it’s probably not a big deal. Skyfall began production in November 2011 and was ready for an October 2012 debut in the U.K. and November 2012 in the U.S. Bond 24 has a similar schedule for the fall of 2015.

Looking back on three Skyfall Oscar forecasts

“Well, you can’t win them all.”

This week’s announcement of Oscar nominations got us to looking back at some predictions, at least as they related to Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film. Here are three that caught our eye:

KEVIN FALLON, ATLANTIC.COM, NOV. 13: “I’d argue, then, that Skyfall should be an obvious Best Picture contender at this year’s Academy Awards. But with the Academy, nothing is ever obvious, or simple.”

First half of passage: The academy evidently didn’t think it was that obvious. Second half: yes.

In fairness, the same article also had this passage:

Skyfall could change Bond’s Oscar luck in other categories, too. A snub for Roger Deakin’s gorgeous cinematography would be sinful, and Thomas Newman’s soaring score should earn the composer his 11th career bid. The Academy’s Best Original Song category over the past few years has been a befuddling disaster (last year, only two entries made the cut), but it’s still worth hoping the organization gets its act together to nominate Adele’s sexy “Skyfall” theme, which couldn’t complement the film more perfectly.

Deakins, Newman and Adele and song writer collaborator Paul Epworth (the Best Song Oscar is given to the songwriters, not the performer) all got nominations. Skyfall captured five nominations in total, the most for any 007 film.

GREGG KILDAY, THE HOLLWYOOD REPORTER, NOV. 20: The author, while liking Skyfall a lot, indicated the voting system of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences wouldn’t help the Bond film’s chances of a Best Picture nomination.

But standing in Skyfall’s way is the Academy’s complicated preferential voting system. While Academy members are asked to list five choices for best picture, their first choice carries the most weight. As the balloting plays out, second and third choices also can influence the outcome. Realistically, though, Skyfall isn’t likely to get a lot of first-place votes — studio movies ranging from Lincoln and Les Miserables to indies such as The Master and Beasts of the Southern Wild will vie for those top slots. But what if everyone in the Academy lists Skyfall as their fifth-favorite movie? Even so, those fifth-place choices might not come into play.

Sasha Stone, editor in chief of Awards Daily, quoted in a JAN. 3 MTV.COM STORY about why Skyfall had a decent chance to get a Best Picture nomination:

Stone thinks it’s because both 007 and the Academy have shifted toward each other, Bond becoming more serious and the Academy becoming less so.

“First and foremost, [‘Skyfall’] isn’t really a Bond movie. It’s a fairly traditional superhero movie, as we like to see them now: brooding hero, somewhat depressing plot. Mostly, Bond has been stripped of his kitsch,” Stone said.

“The money is kind of off the charts, which makes it seem like a winner. Finally, our standards have been systematically lowered over the past few decades. You can’t stop what’s coming, and what’s coming in movie business is one successfully branded franchise after another. How long can Oscar stem the tide? At least in this one, no one is wearing a Batsuit, and there isn’t any performance capture.”

Telegraph describes a Skyfall scene being filmed (SPOILER)

No spoiler in the post itself but we link to one.

From the Telegraph: "'There is a swimming pool scene ...any opportunity to get him to take his clothes off,' producer Barbara Broccoli says."

The Telegraph newspaper in Australia has an APRIL 15 STORY that, besides featuring interviews with Skyfall cast members, opens with a five-paragraph anecdote describing a key scene being filmed.

It includes a quick exchange of lines between Daniel Craig’s James Bond and Javier Bardem’s villain Silva. Click on the above link if you want to read it. It’s related to the video that was shown in the recent ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT STORY story about the film.

There’s also this tidbit from the story about the Sam Mendes-directed movie:

Taking a more serious tone, Craig says though there would be plenty of action in the film, it would also take its audience on an emotional journey. So what could the cast and crew reveal? Well, it is in fact Bond who strips, again. “There is a swimming pool scene …any opportunity to get him to take his clothes off,” producer Barbara Broccoli says.

Also, here’s a tip of the cap to the BOND AND BEYOND MESSAGE BOARD where we first saw this.

UPDATE: On April 13, MTV had ANOTHER STORY ON ITS WEB SITE that based on its recent interview with Craig. Here’s an excerpt that basically confirms Judi Dench’s M will have more 007 screen time than previously:

Going off on an adventure together.

Craig said Bond’s relationship with M is “a very important part of the film.” “There’s also the very important relationship he has with the bad guy in the movie [Silva, played by Javier Bardem]. We got Javier to come and do that, which gives the film a richer content, but his relationship with M, they are very close and they basically go on an adventure together, she gets out in the field. Judi, she’ll tell you she usually films most of her stuff in the studio like this while we are all off in some wonderful location and she gets to come with us this time.” (emphasis added)

Bardem tells MTV his Skyfall villain is `complex’

Eon Productions last week held some press interviews for Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film. MTV was among those who got some time with cast members, including Javier Bardem, who plays the movie’s villain, who the actor refers to as “complex.” Here’s an excerpt:

Javier Bardem, who plays Skyfall's villain, Silva

That great cast includes the ultimate bad guy, Javier Bardem. The actor, who won an Oscar for his bone-chilling role as Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men,” will prove yet again that he is a master villain as he takes on the role of Silva.

“I think the character is really complex; he’s not an easy guy,” Bardem said. “He’s not only a villain; it’s more than that, hopefully. It’s what we tried to achieve. I’m giving James Bond a hard time — that’s my job, that’s my duty.”

(Daniel) Craig believes Bardem’s evil role certainly adds great depth to the 23rd installment of 007: “There’s also the very important relationship he has with the bad guy in the movie, which, again, gives the whole film a richer content,” Craig said.

This may be confirmation of the name of Bardem’s character, something that didn’t become known until call sheets from Skyfall filming were sold on eBay. At least, MTV’s Christina Garibaldi writes as if the Silva name is correct. She doesn’t mention how the Silva name was supposed to be a secret until the call sheets surfaced via the James Bond Brasil Web site.

To read a text version of the entire MTV story JUST CLICK HERE. If you click the link below, you may be able (in the U.S. anyway) to see the video version of the MTV story. When we tested it, a media player popped up on our browser.

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:757456/cp~vid%3D757456%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A757456

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Roger Moore discusses A VIEW TO A KILL on MTV (1985)

Veteran HMSS contributor Jim Paul came across this little-seen video from 1985. Then a studio director at MTV, Jim assisted in writing the questions for Roger Moore who had come to the MTV studios to promote AVTAK. Jim jests, “If Nina (Blackwood) seems like she is “challenging” Roger, that’s my fault.”

It’s interesting that Mr. Moore knew the origin of the term “From A View To A Kill.” Also, was he really thinking he would do another Bond film after AVTAK? Really?!

HMSS thanks Mr. Paul.

See the video here: