It’s a ‘Solo’ for 007…

…in virtuoso William Boyd’s Bond continuation opus. At a guess we’d wager this title neither refers to Solo (Arkansas), nor Solo (Missouri) . Also chances are it’s not a solo for a flute; probably it’s not even going to involve any musical instruments at all. Unless Bond’s gun provides the beats for this composition…

Follows the press release (thankfully provided by by The Book Bond/John Cox):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Boyd announces title of new Bond book

at The London Book Fair

www.jamesbondsolo.co.uk

William Boyd, whose James Bond continuation novel is set to be one of this year’s publishing highlights, has today announced that his book will be called Solo.

The announcement came on the opening day of The London Book Fair, where Boyd is Author of the Day.

He explained his choice of title:

‘Sometimes less is more. For me as a novelist the simple beauty of Solo as the title of the next James Bond novel is that this short four-letter word is particularly and strikingly apt for the novel I have written. In my novel, events conspire to make Bond go off on a self-appointed mission of his own, unannounced and without any authorization – and he’s fully prepared to take the consequences of his audacity.

‘The journey Bond goes on takes in three continents – with the main focus honing in on Africa. It’s what happens to Bond in Africa that generates his urge to “go solo” and take matters into his own hands in the USA.

‘Thus far and no further, at this stage…’

He continues: ‘Titles are very important to me and as soon as I wrote down Solo on a sheet of paper I saw its potential. Not only did it fit the theme of the novel perfectly, it’s also a great punchy word, instantly and internationally comprehensible, graphically alluring and, as an extra bonus, it’s strangely Bondian in the sense that we might be subliminally aware of the “00” of “007” lurking just behind those juxtaposed O’s of SOLO…’

Very little else has been revealed about the book at this stage, other than that it will feature a veteran secret agent, with Bond aged 45. It will be published on 26 September in the UK by Fleming’s original publisher, Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Vintage Publishing, part of The Random House Group, in hardback, ebook and audio editions. HarperCollins will publish the book in Canada and the U.S. on 8 October.

Quote from Corinne Turner, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd:

‘Ian Fleming had a great aptitude for naming his books and his Bond titles have become true classics. Solo is a simple yet striking title which fits perfectly alongside the other books in the Bond canon. The announcement of the title marks the lead up to the launch of William Boyd’s novel in September, which we and the Fleming family are looking forward to immensely.’

Quote from Richard Cable, Managing Director, Vintage:

‘We are delighted to be announcing Solo as the title for the new James Bond novel on the day on which William Boyd is celebrated as Author of the Day at London Book Fair. The few of us with the good fortune to have read Solo can testify that Will has written an absolutely brilliant book and we look forward with mounting excitement to a huge worldwide publishing event on September 26th. The timing of the announcement is particularly apt as we mark the 60th anniversary of Jonathan Cape’s first publication of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale.’

 

And the title is…

Fresh from William Boyd’s own lips: his James Bond continuation scheduled for autumn 2013 is  titled… ‘Solo’!

On top of the title William Boyd revealed a couple of intriguing details about his work on this James Bond continuation at the London Book Fair interview. While having tremendous fun writing ‘Solo’ Boyd assured interviewer Erica Wagner that he took his task most seriously and read Fleming’s originals in order to prepare himself  for this. One of the advantages of his chosen setting in 1969 was the absence of mobile phones, as the advent of high-tech in Boyd’s view made thriller writing much more difficult. Consequently Boyd states his book will be a real spy story of the era, and will see Bond operating in real-life places in Europe, Africa and the United States.

Please discuss this news here

 

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

Last Thursday The Book Bond’s John Cox surprised CBners with news that William Boyd’s 2013 James Bond novel would officially get its title revealed at the London Book Fair on Monday, 15th April. Which happens to be today. So stay tuned to CommanderBond.net or The Book Bond; we’ll reveal the title as soon as we can.

007 joins the Diamond Jubilee Club – 60 Years of ‘Casino Royale’

 

On the 13th of April 1953 a new kind of hero emerged from the daydreams of Ian Fleming, right onto the pages of his first novel ‘Casino Royale’. So today it’s sixty years since the Cold War got its epitome hero and a cultural icon to boot. CommanderBond.net congratulates James Bond on six decades of playing for keeps, drinking for effect, love for breakfast and death after a hearty dinner. Not Bond’s death, mind you. Although that’s been in the cards more than once, too.

But who would rescue the Secret Service – London, Britain, the world – if it wasn’t for James Bond? No, even when Bond was beaten to pulp, shot, stabbed, poisoned – he had to survive regardless. Let die and live to fight another villain, that was the motto Fleming gave his hero. It saved Bond from the hands of madmen Nazis, Russian spy controllers, deadly Chinese-German Tong-outcasts, scandalously rich Smersh spy bankers and at times even from the accidie of his own creator. For Fleming could get impatient or bored with his creation and threatened to end his short violent life with the deadly strokes of his gold-plated typewriter on more than one occasion.

Thankfully these near-death experiences always proved to be of a merely temporary nature for our hero. His welcome return usually saw him in a refreshed state of fitness – see ‘Doctor No’ – or a reconfigured state of mind, as in ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’. When was popular fiction ever more entertaining as when we were allowed to share a hero savour sex, food and drink? Of course when we are invited to watch him killing his own boss – and ours, figuratively.

But all is well and quiet on the Regent’s Park front, no damage is done to top floor personnel. Only the office needs a little fresh air and paint. Such is life in the Bond world: the devious villains brainwash the Secret Service’s best shot into an attempt at the head of Britain’s intelligence. And forget to provide him with a proper gun that would get the job done. Not that it would have helped a lot.

Anyway, within a few pages the washed brain becomes unwashed and England’s least-secret agent is trusted with another suicide mission, with all involved in this decision – a sum total of one miffed M – safe in the knowledge that this time Bond will do better. 007 doesn’t disappoint.

Meanwhile our hero stealthily set out to conquer further levels of existence, developed a life of his own on the silver screen and turned from a successful literary figure to a universally renown popular myth. In the process James Bond became an immortal character only rivalled by Sherlock Holmes, surviving his creator now by almost fifty years and not giving any signs of fading into obscurity in the foreseeable future. Other authors have taken up the challenge to continue the myth’s adventures, to give the readers what they crave: another deadly mission, another exotic locale and at least one more beautiful woman to kiss.

Today James Bond has become its own brand of sometimes exotic, sometimes outrageous thrills and – relatively speaking – chaste sexual encounters, always remaining on the safe -  the entertaining – side of violence and action, topped off with gratuitous but highly welcome sex. James Bond – that means an entirely unique mixture of suspense and action, of passion and cold-bloodedness.  Somewhere along the road certain elements of this voyage threatened to drown out the original appeal of the character, the sheer physical courage and endurance of an ordinary human in the face of potentially lethal danger. At times it seemed as if the wallpapers and cummerbunds – no comment about means to tell the time of day or get from A to B here – had become more important than the character whose exploits they helped depict.

But time and again Bond managed to leave that baggage behind, to remain relevant for casual and die-hard fans alike and inspire adventurous daydreams with people of all ages and walks of life. Readers still want to read about their favourite secret agent, very much so. Even if he’s on duty for sixty years and longer.

Because nobody does it better.

 

Worth another shot… in March

Hush!

Do you hear that? No?

Be quiet. Very quiet.

Quieter! Stop breathing, for a while…

Do you hear it now?

Very faintly, far in the distance?

Somewhere out there there is an almost inaudible sound, a tiny ticking, like a very expensive lady’s wristwatch.

That is the sound of Ian Fleming Publications preparing for their 2013 Grand Slam, the brand-new James Bond novel by William Boyd.

Surprisingly it sounds very much like – nothing. In fact some of our well-known eavesdroppers insist that – according to their readings – there is no such noise to be heard at all. They claim I must be suffering from ‘auditory hallucinations’ as they put it.

What do the Ferrets know. I know better. I can hear the works of IFP ticking away thin slices of time until September. The lady may have just changed her timepiece to a digital, that won’t help her.

I can still hear it ticking. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

Do you listen, IFP? I can still hear you! Night and day, night and day! Night and …

 

March over already? Phew, that was the worst March since…well, since February. Which was bad enough for a February, let alone a March. What have we missed? Tons of things, evidently. But only few of a cursory Bond connection.

Still, some things went – almost – unnoticed.

Such as the activities of the University of Illinois’ Rare Book and Manuscript Library to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of ‘Casino Royale’.  An exhibition of the University’s Fleming treasures (“The Birth of Bond: Ian Fleming’s ‘Casino Royale’ at 60″ , April 12th – July 1st), a lecture (“Casino Royale and Beyond: 60 years of Ian Fleming’s literary Bond” Opening Event) by Michael VanBlaricum, President of the Ian Fleming Foundation, on the exhibition’s opening day (April 12th, free admission ) and a second exhibition concerning itself with “Unconventional Bond: The Strange Life of Casino Royale on Film” (April 16th – June 16th, Spurlock Museum) aim to entertain and inform both seasoned fans and newcomers to the literary 007 alike.

From the University’s own pages:

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.” That’s the opening line of “Casino Royale,” the novel that introduced secret agent James Bond to the world, launching a franchise of books and blockbuster movies that continues to this day. April 13 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of “Casino Royale,” and the University of Illinois will recognize the event with a collaborative celebration hosted by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Spurlock Museum, and the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music.

 

Titled “The Birth of Bond: Ian Fleming’s ‘Casino Royale’ at 60,” the event will feature a collection of first editions, manuscripts and Fleming ephemera at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library; a film festival and display of Bond movie costumes and props at the Spurlock Museum; a collection of audio recordings, photographs and sheet music (including the original 2006 “Casino Royale” score) at the Sousa Archives; and a performance of music from the Bond movies and books by the U. of I. Concert Jazz Band. A full schedule of events is online.

 

Much of the material featured in “The Birth of Bond” comes from the collection of Michael L. VanBlaricum, the president of the Ian Fleming Foundation and a U. of I. alumnus who is loaning pieces of his personal collection of Fleming first editions, manuscripts, letters, recordings, sheet music and movie props to the three campus sites.

 

VanBlaricum will give a one-hour talk on Fleming and Bond at 3 p.m. on April 12 (Friday), in the library auditorium (Room 66), followed by a reception in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Room 346). The jazz concert, on April 13 (Saturday), will begin at 7 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium at Spurlock Museum, and will include a piano medley of Bond themes performed by Raymond Benson, one of the continuation authors hired by the Fleming family to carry on the James Bond novels after Ian Fleming’s death, as well as themes from the Bond movies and music mentioned in Fleming’s books.

Grateful thanks to CBner ‘Major Tallon’ and Ms Dusty Rhodes, Arts and Humanities News Editor at the University of Illinois, for pointing us to this and providing assistance.

 

What else?

Well, of course the new Bond book was published. In February even. Nobody seemed to notice, strange. Oh, I’m not talking about that William Boyd thingy, that one is ticking away somewhere behind IFP’s iron curtains backstage, rather loudly I might add (‘Sir? Would you mind? Ticking a little bit less prominently? There’s people trying to write a column here, you know. Ta muchly!’).

No, what was published in February by the University of Alberta Press was Kimmy Beach’s ‘The Last Temptation of Bond’. The first – as far as I am aware – epic Bond poem ever. Or ‘evah’, whichever you prefer. Kimmy Beach is the author of – amongst others – ‘Nice Day for Murder – Poems for James Cagney’ and ‘Alarum Within: Theatre Poems’ so I guess it’s safe to assume she is a seasoned poet. According to her blog she also is a dedicated Bond fan. Both passions had to collide somewhere along the road and the fruit of this is now available at Amazon and supposedly other places, too.

I cannot claim even the faintest kind of authority in the realm of poetry, so I better skip any pretensions of erudite appraisal. Beach herself calls the book her take on Nikos Kazantzakis’ ‘Last Temptation of Christ’ with a Bond theme, the ageing 007 coming to terms with his own mortality and accordingly having to deal with the many women in his life. It sounds like a fun idea and I will check it out one of these days.

My thanks go to Double 0 Section for digging it out, and to The Book Bond for bringing it to our attention.

 

Losses: We’ve sadly lost Richard Griffiths. R.I.P.

 

And that already was this month’s shot.

Worth another shot will return once this ear-shattering ticking noise stops…

 

Daniel Craig goes to Broadway

Wanna see Daniel Craig live on stage? Together with his wife Rachel Weisz? Directed by Mike Nichols?

No problem – if you have time and money to go to New York this fall and get a ticket for probably THE hottest Broadway production of the year. Craig and Weisz will star in Harold Pinter´s masterpiece Betrayal which will play a limited 14-week engagement at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. It begins performances Oct. 1 and will end on Jan. 5.

See more details here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/daniel-craig-rachel-weisz-rafe-433201

Skyfall’s effects – Cinefexed en détail

THE leading special effects magazine – I’m talking about Cinefex of course – took a long hard look at Skyfall’s lush action and visual effects content. And in its April issue came up with a 28-page  coverage, complete with interviews with the special effects and visual effects teams who worked on the film. The article comes with over 30 full-color behind-the-scenes photos and movie frame clips, many of them exclusive to Cinefex. If you don’t feel like taking the walk to the newsagent through the snow you can purchase the issue on their website at www.cinefex.com. Just go to the “Back Issues” button and look for #133.

And while you’re there, check out some of their other back issues available for purchase in the Cinefex store. You’ll find equally in-depth coverage of Casino Royale (Issue # 108) and Quantum of Solace (Issue #116).

EXCERPT FROM CINEFEX ARTICLE ON SKYFALL:

“Sam Mendes agreed that there should be a big, jaw-dropping moment during a chase in the London Underground,” said special effects supervisor Chris Corbould. “I came up with the idea for the Tube train crash, which Sam liked a lot, but then I started to realize the enormity of what I’d dreamt up. A real Tube train carriage is 60 feet long and weighs in excess of 25 tons. We decided to make our own carriages, and brainstormed a way to make them crash.” Corbould’s senior special effects technician, Dan Homewood, and special effects designer Jason Leinster oversaw construction of two full-scale carriages on an overhead monorail rig. “We fitted a track in the ceiling that ran two-thirds of the whole length of the 007 Stage. That gave us room to get the train up to speed, then have it dip down into the set, like a rollercoaster ride. We hung the train on steel linking arms, and connected it via cables to a tractor unit that towed the train into the set at about 30 miles per hour.”

 

Grateful thanks to Cinefex and Athena Stamos for providing this.

Barbara Broccoli still wants Mendes back.

“We will get him back,” [Bond Producer Barbara Broccoli] says. “We haven’t given up hope… Maybe not for the next one… but we will get him back again.”

Rest the full story at comingsoon.net

While it’s pretty apparent by now that Mendes isn’t coming back for Bond 24, it seems pretty likely he’ll be directing a Bond film in the near future, probably Craig’s final one, which actually would be pretty neat.

Piz Gloria about to receive ‘face lift’ – and OHMSS too!

Austrian newspaper ‘der Standard’ this week had a short feature about plans to give the Bond experience atop the Schilthorn in the Swiss Alps – legendary mountain lair of Blofeld in 1969′s ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ – a major overhaul. While first rumours about this project – aptly named ‘Bond World’ – appeared as early as February, this time the report adds some interesting titbits that are likely to make fans’ mouths water.

The famous Piz Gloria revolving restaurant and cable car station offer a spectacular mountain panorama with Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau and a range of over 200 further Alpine summits surrounding the Schilthorn. At just a tad short of 11,500 ft. this James Bond location is truly breathtaking in more than just visual terms.

Yet it must be noted that the actual Bond element at Piz Gloria has  become just a tiny bit dated and frayed at the edges. A seminar room with a couple of wall charts, a roll-down screen where a digest of familiar Bond scenes are shown – not exactly what you’d call up-to-date in the 21st century.

Well, according to der Standard that’s about to change drastically. The start of summer hiking/climbing season 2013 will see the grand opening of the ‘Bond World’ at Piz Gloria, with a Bond cinema, 400 square metres of multimedia area with interactive elements and an option to even have your own face copied into the famous ski chases of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. Finally the Bond actors will unite on the observation deck/helipad – as waxworks. Still, when are you ever likely to see all the Bond actors in one place?

‘Bond World’ at the Piz Gloria summit station is set to open on 28th June 2013,  and in the real-life presence of George Lazenby, who returns for this event to the location of his sole entry in the Bond series.

Swords to ploughshares, spelling to confetti – 007th MinUte-fun with GoldenEye

As we cautiously approach the modern era of Eon’s Bond series we encounter  previously unheard-of hardships: a five year gap between films, a new actor that was – almost – his own predecessor, a monumentally ugly villain’s lair that turned out to be the real-life home of British espionage and a major London landmark, a new M, the Secret Service being called MI6, chilling new interpretations of orthography… the list is endless. CBn’s resident notary Jacques Stewart sets out to chronicle the most inteResting examples in the 007th Minute of ‘Goldeneye’. As always opinionated.

Agree or disagree in this thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1980s. Custodian of my childhood. Bringer of the Austin Montego, Kevin the Gerbil, acid-washed jeans and absolutely nothing else. Remover of Charles Hawtrey, the Ayatollah Khomeini and tolerable Doctor Who.

 

Apologist for four-and-a-half duff James Bond films.

 

That exquisite first hour of The Living Daylights almost compensates, but has no real prospect of succeeding against James Bond XII: Underage, Undershaven, Underwater and Under a Geriatric; James Bond XIII:  The Jewels ‘n’ the Clown; James Bond XIV: Aching, Baking and Earthquaking; James Bond XV: The Usual Letdown and James Bond XVI: Really Don’t Bother.

 
Quite a bit to put right, then.

 
With awards-bothering Skyfall laying waste to all that dares cross its path, be it ‘Obbitses, vampires or narrative coherence, it can be hard to recall – or recognise – GoldenEye’s achievement. Given the parlous state of Bond at the time, the films exhausted and unpopular, Mr Gardner grinding out his contractual obligation in ever more contractually-obliged ways, there was considerable doubt whether Bond films would return, could return, whether they would find an audience, whether there was any point. Whilst its supporters would claim that Licence to Kill wasn’t a disaster given that it recouped five times its budget , five times sod all is sodallsodallsodallsodallsodall (science fact). If the 1980s taught us anything – apart from never rub another man’s rhubarb – it’s that with Bond films, chuck money abite. Cheapo Bond gets noticed. You can’t make it with donkeycock, roadkill and offcuts of sickly bald Romanian orphan and not be found out. Speculate to accumulate, and spending lots on GoldenEye must have been pretty blimmin’ speculative. Change required.

 
Artistic merits of the decision aside, on a business basis Timothy Dalton had to go. Nobly, he went. Save for how he enunciated his Ts, he hadn’t clicked, and MGM/UA had shareholders to feed and receivers to fend off with a rickety chair and a whip. What was needed was a Bond built by a corporation to appeal to every demographic but not too strongly in any direction otherwise it could alienate, a Toyota Corolla of a James Bond, a reliable mass-market unthreatening consumer good, an item.

 

 

 

Gambolling off the conveyor skipped something calling itself a Pierce Brosnan. Halves of everything, Fate having associated him with Bond for many years in the PublicEye, and Luck not having exposed to the mass audience his astonishingly recondite talent beyond the challenging role of Man What Gets Fruit Thrown At Him in Mrs Doootfiah, subject to any prior demands on his time with knitting catalogue shoots, he was patently the chap. Bros-Nan, with GoldenEye as his definition, was a brilliantly populist strategy, bringing us something for everyone along with absolutely nothing for anyone looking for anything specific.

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