Evening Standard interviews Barbara Broccoli

Seems it’s Bond week at the Standard’s headquarters in Derry Street. That’s the only explanation for the second intriguing article this week, related directly to one half of Bond producers EON. This time it’s Barbara Broccoli who features prominently in a short but interesting interview summary.

Broccoli spoke to the Standard’s Liz Hoggard and had some revealing things to say. So as Cubby Broccoli’s daughter she grew up with so many people talking about James Bond around her she used to believe he was a real person until she was seven; perhaps longer than she believed in Santa. There is no denying with this childhood the woman definitely has Bond in her blood.

So it seemed not only natural she would join the Bond ship in her professional career, but would also become a defining influence, once her father had to hand over the family business. Barbara Broccoli was instrumental in the casting of Craig and defended this decision against fierce criticism from all sides:

“It’s absurd,” she shudders slightly. “I think that’s the trouble with the internet now. Everyone has an equal voice so people read something — supposedly written with great authority — and it’s by a 12-year-old in a little town some place in the United States who’s never seen Daniel Craig, doesn’t know what he’s capable of, and starts this fire. And then it’s given prominence, which is bizarre. Of course we were making the film and we knew what we had, so we just ignored it.”

Which definitely put some perspective back into the matter, and the outcome apparently has proven her right, to the chagrin of countless 12-year-olds in the hinterlands.

Her further comments of course touch the new film ‘Skyfall’ and the respective roles of Dame Judy Dench, Javier Bardem and Daniel Craig in this.

Interestingly, Monday’s controversial report about Michael G Wilson’s comments at a culture seminar isn’t mentioned at all.

Read the Evening Standard’s full article here

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Thanks to CBn forum member Shrublands for the heads up.