Location Scouting & Williams Again

(Update Included At Bottom Of Article

News today from the German newspaper “Netzzeitung” on James Bond 20.

The newspaper had printed reports on Pierce Brosnan asking for more sex in the James Bond films, you can find the Bond 20 @ BHM report here. However, they included some additional information. Tim Roth was nice enough to send it in:

…The script for the next Bond movie has finished, and the location scouts are already swarmed for finding new locations. One possible location could be Wales. There, Barbara Broccoli is going to look for new locations at July, 14th, 2001 together with a production team. Perchancely, pop star Robbie Williams will perform his show in Cardiff, Wales, on the same day. “Broccoli has a ticket for the concert”, a spokeman of MGM approved, “but it’s a harmless concert visit”. Maybe she wants to see Robbie Williams in action, because he could be a performer of the next title song…

We had reported earlier that the first draft of the script had been completed, so that is nothing new. However, the news about Cardiff in Wales being ‘scouted’ as a possible filming location is completely new as is news that Barbara Broccoli will travel there on July 14.

For those of you who don’t know Cardiff is the capital of Wales and has several ancient relics around the city due to it’s age. For instance there is the 11th century Cardiff Castle, built by the Normans. Could this be a possible location for Bond 20?

The news about Robbie Williams is the strangest part of the report, however. I have read in several articles (including one in a local newspaper) that Barbara Broccoli has a ticket to Williams’ concert. However, all the other reports indicated she was ‘testing’ him for a role of James Bond in the future. We all know that is not the case. However, perhaps she is going to view the concert to test his vocal skills? But surely she could just get his album on CD? Furthermore, if Broccoli works for and runs EON Productions why then would an MGM spokesperson be commenting on her day to day life? All these questions remain unanswered. Either way, with Williams’ popularity in the charts and his love for James Bond there is a strong possibility that he will atleast submit a song for Bond 20.

Please come along to the Bond 20 Forums to discuss this news. This thread in the forums started back in late April in reference to comments made by EON’s Casting Director. It would be great so see you there as we’re sure to have plenty of new posts on the subject!

And finally, a big thank you to Tim Roth of “all time high [the 007 generation]”, one of Germany’s premiere Bond websites. Unfortunately for all of us who speak English, it is in German.

Updated! 05/06/2001

Tim Roth, who translated the article for us, has written into us again through the forums to inform us that he mis-translated a part of the article.

In the original article we printed it said that an MGM Spokesperson commented on Broccoli attending the Robbie Williams concert. To which I countered, “if Broccoli works for and runs EON Productions why then would an MGM spokesperson be commenting on her day to day life?”

Tim has no informed us that he made a mistake. In the article it said: “a spokeman of the 007 production firm approved that…” and not “a spokeman of MGM…”

So does this change the validity of the article? Perhaps. One thing is for sure it made that whole statement a lot more accurate. So perhaps we may see Robbie Williams belting out the theme for Bond 20. Only time, or a press release, will tell!!