No Time to Die podcast returns

The official No Time to Die podcast returned Wednesday evening U.S. time. The podcast began in September 2020 but went into hibernation after the movie’s release was pushed back into 2021.

The first two episodes are online. The first, Bond in Context leads off with a discussion about how the 25th James Bond film has been delayed three times because of COVID-19. Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions are interviewed about that subject.

Also, “You can also be the first to hear exclusive score from Hans Zimmer released by Decca Records,” according to the episode’s description. The episode runs 44 minutes.

The second episode is titled A Name to Die for: Allies and Enemies of Bond.

“Led by interviews from Rami Malek, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw and Lashana Lynch, we’ll explore what makes a classic supporting character and look back at some of 007’s most iconic nemeses,” according to a description.

James King is the host.

UPDATE: In episode 1, Barbara Broccoli says No Time to Die “is a cinematic masterpiece.” We’ve all heard hype for movies but those are strong words.

NTTD’s final U.S. trailer emphasizes Craig-era saga

No Time to Die’s final U.S. trailer debuted today, with an emphasis of the movie being part of a bigger saga featuring star Daniel Craig.

The trailer includes scenes and lines from some of Craig’s previous Bond films, including black-and-white scenes from Casino Royale (2006) where Bond got the kills needed to become a 00-agent.

Taglines in the trailer include: “And Every Mission…Every Sacrifice…Has Led Him…To This.” Later in the trailer, No Time to Die is referred to as “The Epic Conclusion.”

The trailer also has a bit more, but not a lot, about the plot by villain Safin (Rami Malek). Craig’s Bond says something about how “the people become the weapon.” Safin himself says, “Life is all about leaving something behind, isn’t it?”

Multiple YouTube outlets distributed the trailer. This is the YouTube video posted by We Got This Covered. The trailer was also posted at the Eon Productions James Bond YouTube channel.

Separately, the official Twitter feed of Eon Productions said a documentary about Craig’s Tenure as Bond, Being James Bond, will be on Apple TV on Sept. 7.

Discover the untold story of Daniel Craig’s 007 legacy in the special retrospective, Being James Bond, on @AppleTV September 7. Add to your Up Next now: https://t.co/jXHyTm55ZO pic.twitter.com/6rA4eu22ak

— James Bond (@007) August 31, 2021

UPDATE (11:42 a.m. New York time): Universal put out the final international trailer.

Bond 25 questions: The Total Film edition

One of the many No Time to Die posters

This post includes spoilers. Stop reading now if spoilers aren’t your thing.

Total Film this week published a detailed story about No Time to Die. Naturally, the blog has questions

Did Daniel Craig really say No Time to Die’s theme was “love and family”?

He did. Sounds almost like a Fast and the Furious movie, doesn’t it? In this case, Craig told Total Film that Bond’s family is Moneypenny, M and Q with Lashana Lynch’s Nomi “a distant cousin who you’re not sure about.”

One of the most hyped aspects of the movie was how Phoebe Waller-Bridge was among the screenwriters. Any additional details?

Of course. “Phoebe came on, and she injected some brilliance into the situation, and a tone I was really after,” Craig told Total Film.

“What we wanted to do was… not ridicule (Bond). It’s sharing in the fun with the audience,” Craig told the magazine. “But you’ve got to be respectful of what it is.” 

According to Total Film, Waller-Bridge “punched up Ana de Armas’ character Paloma – a fresh-faced CIA field agent who Bond crosses paths with in Cuba – and brought a myth-pricking irreverence to the story.”

What about agent Nomi and her relationship with Bond?

“Bond is going to be Bond no matter what happens,” Lashana Lynch told Total Film. “But it’s about how people react to him. That’s the difference between the earlier films. In this film we are vocal. We are opinionated. We know how to stop [Bond] in his tracks, and to teach him something.”

What about the sets?

“We have really gone out of our way to make some really gorgeous big sets,” says production designer Mark Tildesley. The designer originally was recruited to the film by Danny Boyle, the project’s first director who departed over “creative differences.”

What about Rami Malek’s Safin?

“Safin is pulling all the strings,” Eon boss Barbara Broccoli told Total Film about the character. “He’s controlling all of those megalomaniacs out there. He’s created them.”

What does that mean?

I suppose that in Quantum of Solace that Quantum was BIG. In SPECTRE, SPECTRE was BIGGER. Perhaps Safin is EVEN BIGGER!

Total Film provides a behind-the-scenes look at NTTD

No Time to Die poster from 2020

Total Film is out with an article taking a behind-the-scenes look at No Time to Die.

Here are some non-spoiler highlights:

–Cary Fukunanga, who would eventually direct the movie, wined and dined Eon’s Barbara Broccoli before Danny Boyle was hired as the film’s first director.

“At that point Daniel (Craig) said he wasn’t doing another one, so we spit-balled all the potential new Bonds – that was exciting,” Fukunaga told Total Film. “I just told her what I loved about Bond and what it meant to me growing up. And just that I’d be honoured if they’d consider me for the next one.”

–After Boyle (and his writer John Hodge) exited the project, writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade went back to a script they were working on before Boyle was hired. That’s not terribly surprising but there has been hype that *everything was new* after Boyle left.

“Effectively, we went back to what we’d done,” Purvis told Total Film. “And then we changed things with Cary over several months in the attic at Eon.” Over time, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who got a credit) and Scott Z. Burns (who did not) also worked on the script.

–Michael G. Wilson of Eon describes the Craig era as “a little miniseries within the series.” Broccoli added: ““This film feels like a good bookend to Casino (Royale), because his emotional evolution gets to a place where we’ve never seen Bond before. So that’s pretty exciting.”

–Craig describes the theme of No Time to Die as “love and family.”

–Funkunaga says that only goes so far. “No one’s trying to say some sort of long sentimental goodbye. It’s just another Bond film. The credits still say: ‘Bond will return.’”

There’s a lot more, including some comments about Safin, the villain played by Rami Malek, that get into spoiler territory.

It’s STFU Day for No Time to Die

The No Time to Die publicity machine apparently decided Nov. 3 was a great day to lift media embargoes for No Time to Die stories. Given how nobody can see the movie for the foreseeable future, it’s more like STFU Day.

Yes, yes, this was probably decided back when the 25th James Bond film was scheduled to come out this month. Still, given how nobody is going to see the movie until April 2021 (if then), there’s an odd feel to all this.

Example: GQ comes out with a long story about Rami Malek, with lots of photos of him wearing expensive clothes. Meanwhile, the 39-year-old actor assures us we’ll be “shocked” when the movie comes out.

Whenever that is. OK, champ. Get back to us when we can actually check it out.

Example II: NTTD director-screenwriter Cary Fukunaga boasts to The Playlist that the Safin villain played by Malek is “bigger” than Blofeld.

Earth to Cary: That’s not much of a boast. Better than Donald Pleasance? Charles Gray? Telly Savalas? Christoph Waltz? Blofeld was best on-screen in the Eon Productions series with the body of Anthony Dawson and voice of Eric Pohlman.

Example III: Harper’s Bazaar came out with a new issue with Lashana Lynch on the cover. It also has a (nominal) No Time to Die spoiler. So if you really want to see it, CLICK HERE. Later on Tuesday, the entire Harper’s story goes online with the spoiler displayed prominently, including the headline.

Yes, No Time to Die has had its share of bad luck. But this week rings hollow. “You wait and see! It’ll be really good!” Whatever. Whenever.

Eon puts out a NTTD promo featuring Safin

Rami Malek in a No Time to Die trailer

Eon Productions today put out a No Time to Die promo featuring the character of Safin, the film’s villain.

“What I really wanted from Safin was to make him unsettling…thinking of himself as heroic,” actor Rami Malek says in the promo.

Director Cary Fukunaga also chimes in about how Safin is “a very frightening character.”

The promo also still lists November as No Time to Die’s release date.

The tweet with the promo is embedded below. The promo also was on Eon’s official 007 website. You can check out the promo for yourself.

Is the mysterious Safin (Rami Malek) 007’s most terrifying adversary yet? #NoTimeToDie in cinemas this November. pic.twitter.com/Jin07Kfp8i

— James Bond (@007) September 14, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Bond 25 questions: Where did the money go edition

No Time to Die teaser poster

Well, everybody knew going in that No Time to Die wasn’t going to be cheap. But a recent U.K. regulatory filing by B25 Ltd., a subsidiary of Eon Productions, gives an idea of how expensive it was.

A movie and a half? 

The filing said for 2019 the “work in progress” (No Time to Die is the only work in progress B25 has) was 199.47 million pounds. The conversion rate between pounds and dollars varies, but that’s more than $240 million.

The filing also listed a figure for 2018: 17.44 million pounds. The MI6 James Bond website said that may be pre-production costs when Danny Boyle was attached to direct before departing in August 2018 for “creative differences.” He was replaced by Cary Fukunaga.

Regardless, production designer Mark Tildesley in a Masterclass video interview posted May 10, said a 350-foot rocket had been built and a Russian gulag set in Canada constructed during Boyle’s time on the project.

Tildesley also said the production continued to lease the pricey 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios after Boyle left. Part of the space was used as a construction workshop.

Expensive cast

Variety previously reported that Daniel Craig was due a $25 million payday for No Time to Die. The film then brought on Rami Malek as the villain. He was coming off winning a Best Actor Oscar. He’s probably getting considerably more than scale. That probably applies to the returning MI6 cast of characters played by Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw.

Expensive crew

Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in as a writer at a cost of $2 million, The Hollywood Reporter said last year.  Scott Z. Burns, a pricey “script doctor” also did uncredited work on the script.

Bond 25 questions: The production designer edition

Rami Malek on a No Time to Die set designed by Mark Tildesley that certainly appears inspired by a Ken Adam set from Dr. No.

Mark Tildesley, production designer for No Time to Die, has gone public with some tidbits from the 25th James Bond film. Naturally, the blog has some questions.

Homages? Again?

So it would seem.

Tildesley, in a Masterclass video interview, said “we’ve heavily lent on previous films and the designers of previous films for some of the shapes and stuff…We went through all the films. Let’s take everything we love.”

It’s not like we haven’t been down this route before. Die Another Day (2002), Quantum of Solace (2008) and Skyfall (2012) all had their share of homages to previous 007 film adventures.

There were already signs it was happening again with No Time to Die.

One of Tildesley’s sets had a circular grille in the ceiling, similar to a Ken Adam-designed set for Dr. No. Stills emerged with Rami Malek’s villain Safin at the set.

And, of course, the Aston Martin DB5 is back, which gave the production designer a chance to tweak its design.

The car is actually a replica of the DB5 (with a carbon fiber body and BMW engine) and the designer moved the placement of the machine guns to the headlights. That’s been a prominent part of No Time to Die trailers and TV spots.

What was Danny Boyle up to?

Tildesley said a rocket and a Russian gulag were among the things being built for a Danny Boyle-directed No Time to Die.

He didn’t give away a whole lot more. But his comments suggesting various reports that Boyle wanted to cast a Russian villain were correct. Also, the MI6 James Bond website reported in February 2019 Bond was imprisoned by the villain for much of the Boyle version of No Time to Die.

So it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that a Russian villain would imprison Bond in a gulag.

Boyle’s hiring was announced in May 2018 and he left because of “creative differences in August 2018. Cary Fukunaga was hired to replace Boyle.

Fukunaga also is listed as one of the writers of No Time to Die. His version of the movie is a sequel to 2015’s SPECTRE, even bringing back Lea Seydoux as Madeline Swann.

Anything else interesting?

In parts of the interview, Tildesley talks about how having a low budget forces the creative team to be more creative.

No Time to Die doesn’t have a low budget. The estimated production outlay is $250 million.

The designer said the challenge with a large budget film is to stay creative.

“The thing about doing a bigger film is to try and keep light on your feet,” he said. “I’m always trying to think of. like, arresting images that will burn onto your retina.”

Cary Fukunaga discusses No Time to Die

A new No Time to Die promotional video is out today with director Cary Fukunaga talking about the 25th James Bond film.

The format is different than the video blog promos of Skyfall and SPECTRE. Fukunaga’s dialogue is in voiceover form, accompanied by shots from the film as well as behind-the-scenes shots.

The writer-director says he had to “rediscover Bond” and to determine “after five years of retirement, who has he become?”

Based on the video, some themes of Skyfall may come up again.

“The rules of engagement aren’t what they used to be, the rules of espionage darker in this era of asymmetric warfare,” Fukunaga says.

At the same time, the director hypes No Time to Die’s villain, Rami Malek’s Safin, as “smarter and stronger than SPECTRE.”

You can take a look for yourself below (or not if you’re super spoiler adverse). The video runs lasts for 100 seconds.

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.