Merry Xmas 2010 from Commanderbond.net

Happy Birthday, Sir Sean Connery

CommanderBond.net would like to wish Sir Sean Connery a happy and joyous Birthday…
80 years old and still attracting the ladies! Keep it up, Sir Sean!

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• 1930: On August 25th Thomas Sean Connery was born into a working class family in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, UK. As the oldest of two boys he spent much of his youth working at menial jobs just to get by. He left school at and early age so he could work fulltime.


Sean Connery, 3rd place Mr Universe 1953

• 1946: At age 16, Connery enlisted in the Royal Navy. During his time in the Navy he got a couple of tattoos — one tattoo is a tribute to his parents: a bird with a scroll in its mouth that says “Mum and Dad” and the other is self explanatory: heart with a dagger through it saying “Scotland Forever.” His Naval career ended after three years because of a stomach ulcer and he returned to Edinburgh to work as a bricklayer, lifeguard, and coffin polisher.
• 1949: At the age of 19 Connery was a nude model for the Edinburgh Art College.
• 1950: Connery started up in modeling, bit theatrical parts, and chorus appearances. His stardom was no over night success story.
• 1953: Bodybuilding had become one of Sean Connery’s hobbies after leaving the Navy. He placed 3rd in the Mr. Universe competition this year.


Sean Connery in Goldfinger

• 1959: Connery caught the eyes of Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli and his wife, Dana Broccoli, when they saw him in Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Dana said, “Cubby, he’s fabulous.”
• 1962: “Bond, James Bond.” Connery first starred as Ian Fleming’s James Bond, 007, in Dr. No which skyrockered him to international fame. He also married his first wife, Diane Cilento, on December 6th.
• 1963: Connery continued as 007 in From Russia, With Love. Then on January 11th Sean’s son, Jason Connery, was born on (in 1990 Jason stared as Ian Fleming in Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming).
• 1964: Sean Connery starred in his third outing as 007 in Goldfinger, the greatest film in his James Bond career. He also starred along side Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie.


Sean Connery and his Ocsar for ‘The Untouchables’

• 1965: Connery starred as 007 in Thunderball.
• 1967: Connery starred as 007 in You Only Live Twice, after which he announced his retirement from the role. Connery’s wife, Diane, was the a stunt swimming double in this film.
• 1971: Connery returns to the role of 007 in Diamonds are Forever for the record salary of 1.3 Million dollars.
• 1973: Connery was divorced from wife, Diane Cilento.
• 1974: Connery starred as Colonel Arbuthno in Murder on the Orient Express.
• 1975: Connery starred in John Huston’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s adventure, The Man Who Would be King. And married his second wife, Micheline Roquebrune.


Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’

• 1976: Connery starred as Robin Hood alongside Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marian. (His son Jason also played Robin Hood in the 1984 tv series Robin of Sherwood).
• 1979: Connery co-starred with Donald Sutherland in The First Great Train Robbery.
• 1979: Connery co-starred with John Cleese in Michael Crichton’s Time Bandits.
• 1983: In Connery’s final outing as James Bond, he starred in the unofficial Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again (this title was suggested by his wife, Micheline, in reference to Connery’s repeated vows to never play the role of 007 again).
• 1986: Connery co-starred as Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez in Highlander.


Sean Connery knighted by Queen Elizabeth

• 1987: Connery caused an uproar in a December interview with Barbara Walters when she brought up a November 1965 Playboy interview where he mentioned it was OK to slap a woman.
• 1988: Sean Connery won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in The Untouchables (1987) at the 60th Annual Accadamy Awards. John Gardner’s 7th Bond novel, Scorpius, was published – in which Bond indirectly names Connery as one of his favorite actors while watching The Untouchables.
• 1989: Connery starred alongside Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In the same year he was voted People Magazine’s Sexiest man Alive, to which he responded “Well there aren’t many sexy dead men, are there.”
• 1990: Connery co-starred with Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October.
• 1991: Connery reprised his role as Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez in Highlander II: The Quickening.


Sir Sean Connery

• 1996: Connery co-starred with Nicolas Cage in The Rock. In the mid-90s Connery did some advertisements for Japan TV.
• 1997: Connery’s grandson, Dashiell Quinn, was born.
• 1999: Connery produced (via Fountainbridge Films) and starred in Entrapment. He was also voted People Magazine’s Sexiest Man of the Century. And on New Years Eve he received Knighthood from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
• 2003: Connery helped bring The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic-book to life by starring as Allan Quatermain.
• 2005: Sean Connery is back as James Bond! He provides his voice for EA’s video game From Russia with Love.
• 2008: Sean Connery releases his book, Being A Scot, which is labeled a ‘frank account of Connery’s life with an esoteric take on Scotland’s history and culture’.
• 2009: The paperback edition of Being A Scot is published in the UK.

The Third Anniversary CBn Podcast is Here

If you’re subscribed via iTunes, then under your Podcast section, click the ‘Update’ button to have this new episode downloaded automatically. If you have iTunes installed Click here to subscribe, or you can find more details on how to do this here.

We ask that you take a few seconds whilst you’re downloading to review the podcast on iTunes or Digg this article (link at the bottom of the page with a snazzy new graphic button), to spread the word to other 007 fans. Go on. Spread.

Download Enhanced Video version (Presented in WILLNOWVISION).

Download Standard version.

You can download all episodes directly from the bottom of this page, if you can’t be bothered faffing around through iTunes.

Evan and I are always ready and willing to take your feedback on this podcast episode in this thread of the CommanderBond.net Forum. So do be a good sport and pop along, won’t you? Show us some love.

April 007th Podcast Arrives!

I’m worried this month, Bond geeks.

Not because I already had a LOT in store for you before the news deluge at the start of this month, oh no. Not because the Podcast this month runs at over 49 minutes so doesn’t have a pre-titles sequence, no no no. Not because so many of you keep writing in to me asking my opinion on the Amy Winehouse rumour, nope!

It’s because this could be my last podcast ever!

You see, I’m jumping out of a plane for charity next month. On Saturday 3rd May I’m leaping into the great beyond at 15,000ft….What if I don’t survive it?

Ah well, If I’m going to do it I’d best go out with a bang (or at least a big splat), so I need YOU to make it worthwhile. If you enjoy the Podcast, then please please please pledge whatever you can afford RIGHT HERE!

Aside from my worries, I go about bringing you bang-up-to-date with all the latest Quantum of Solace news and rumour with all the dexterity of a Chilean Mayor at the helm of a jeep, fill you in on the literary developments from across the globe and let you hear my interview with Spin 1038, an Irish Radio Station.

If you’re subscribed via iTunes under your Podcast section, click the ‘Update’ button to have the new episode downloaded automatically. If you have iTunes installed Click here to subscribe, or you can find more details on how to do this here.

We ask that you take a few seconds whilst you’re downloading to review the podcast on iTunes or Digg this article (link at the bottom of the page with a snazzy new graphic button), to spread the word to other 007 fans. Ooh, it makes me feel all tingly!

Download Enhanced Video version (Presented in WILLNOWVISION).

Download Standard version.

You can download all episodes directly from the bottom of this page, if you can’t be bothered faffing around through iTunes.

I’m always ready and willing to take your feedback on this podcast episode in this thread of the CommanderBond.net Forums. So do be a good chap(ette) and pop along, won’t you?

March 007th 2008 CBn Podcast

Yes, we know. It’ll be hard to top last month’s podcast, but we’ll give it the ol’ Double-O Section try.

With Quantum of Solace news still flying off the CommanderBond.net main page at breakneck speeds, this month brings another flowing-over-the-brim podcast.

It’s not all Quantum of Solace though. There’s also a plethora (is that how you spell that? Yep, auto-spell check likes it) of Literary 007 news; including Devil May Care, the battle for The Battle for Bond, and Young Bond 5 gets a title.

And collecting! Lots of collecting news.

If that weren’t all enough, we may just get a real phone interview with producer Barbara Broccoli!

And—with the video version of the podcast—it’ all presented in glorious WILLNOWVISION.

So update your iTunes subscription, or get, if you don’ already have one, get and iTunes subscrition, or simply pick your download link below.

Download Enhanced Video version (Presented in WILLNOWVISION).

Download Standard version.

You can download all episodes directly from the bottom of this page, if you can’t be bothered faffing around through iTunes.

CBn Celebrates 7000 Members

The CommanderBond.net James Bond forums have reached a milestone number of 7000 members.

Congratulations to ‘skye gypsy’ for being CBn’s 7000th member. With over 650,000 posts, CBn is by far the largest and most active James Bond forum in the world.

In addition, the CBn RSS feed syndicates CBn news stories all over the world. Check out the CBn Podcast–the first and only James Bond podcast on the internet–for all the latest news in the world of 007.

Not a member of the CBn forums yet? Simply register here. It’s free and it only takes a minute. Then join in on the fun!

Keep watching CBn for full coverage of Casino Royale and all things James Bond.

CBn–Where all other Bond sites end…this one begins!

Discuss this CBn milestone in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet.

James Bond Has Returned

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Is there any more deceptively powerful cinematic phrase than ‘James Bond will return’? While it’s unlikely that they are repeated much outside of fan message boards, I have the sense that these words hold a great, and possibly unperceived power. People want it affirmed that the filmmakers are indeed going to keep making these films. Heroes are valued, and it’s comforting to know they’ll be back to fight another day. Belated thanks, then, to Cubby Broccoli or Harry Saltzman or David Picker or whoever it was that came up with the conceit that the end credit roll of each Bond film would culminate by reminding us that ‘James Bond will return in Goldenpussy’, or what have you.

So. We dearly like our Bond, and we’ve become accustomed to having him drop by to honour us with some dazzling derring-do every few years. It’s a phenomenon somewhere between Christmas and the Olympics on the regular-dose-of-traditional-goodness-to-warm-our-hearts-and-fortify-our-souls scale of things. Which makes for a win-win, right? They get our money, and we get our heroic (Homeric?) tales. Everyone’s happy. But sometimes, especially when there’s been a wee extra bit of a break between films, and particularly when a new actor is taking on the role of agent 007, there is a widespread, largely unspoken apprehension. Two large questions loom: 1) will James Bond remain suitably cool and…er…Bondian?; and 2) will the film have the requisite trademarks—the sparkle, the panache, the loin-stirring affaires de sexe, the adrenaline-charged action, and that hint of the bizarre? We look pleadingly to the production team to provide the latter, and to the lead actor to possess the former. Fingers are crossed even as brave statements are made. We wait – an international vigil.

In Casino Royale, the filmmakers have provided. And star Daniel Craig possesses. The film is a triumph.

In assessing Casino Royale, the only place to begin is with Daniel Craig. He is the gravitational force around which all the other components revolve. Craig’s Bond is strong. Blunt. He has what we like to call ‘presence’. You cannot, in fact, take your eyes off him. You don’t want to. And you don’t feel the slightest bit self-conscious for not wanting to. He is intriguing. Surpassingly charismatic. Magnetic. He is, by God (and thank God!), perfect for the role. I had been prepared to be somewhat offput by the brutishness of Craig’s Bond. I was not. After all the brouhaha the past year about blond hair and whatnot, it is now very much confirmed that all the nay-saying and hand wringing was misguided and unnecessary. James Bond has returned. There is a verisimilitude to the character that reigns from the opening frames of Casino Royale to its denouement. Craig has found the essential Bondian chords within himself and played them to near perfection. The man is James Bond.

We sense this as soon as we witness Bond’s prickly irritation with the incompetence of his co-agent in a Madagascan snake pit. And it is confirmed during the subsequent pursuit of an enemy agent through a suitably pitfall-ish construction site nearby. This sequence brilliantly establishes Craig’s Bond as both a quintessential action hero and a believable human being. There is a level of suspense in these scenes that the Bond series has never before effected. Much of the credit for that goes to Craig. But full marks are due also to director Martin Campbell, who has masterfully managed the Herculean task of blocking, staging and managing the many action set-pieces in Casino Royale. The Madagascar chase, as well as a later chase extravaganza at the Miami airport, show Campbell, DP Phil Meheux and Editor Stuart Baird in perfect symbiosis. This is some of the very best action the genre has ever seen. There are many smaller confrontational set-to’s throughout the film which are handled with similar brilliance.

Here’s the thing. Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have made a departure. They have decided, with Casino Royale, to take an entirely new approach to the making of a James Bond film. In effect, they (along with Campbell) have established a new tone. In relation to what we’ve seen previously, the new film is a few shades darker, edgier, with a complete absence of camp. All of which serves to infuse a bold new energy into every scene. The result is that the film feels fresh and powerful in a way that a Bond film has not felt since the 1960s. The irony of most of the previous twenty Bond films is that, for all their breakneck action sequences, they are really quite leisurely affairs. Casino Royale is different. It moves.

One measure of a great movie is how lost one becomes in the proceedings—the more fun you’re having, the less conscious you are of the fact that you are actually watching a movie. For the first 7/8 of Casino Royale I experienced total immersion. Unfortunately, the Venice finale jarred me out of my fantasy. I experienced the familiar trappings of ‘the Hollywood action movie’. Events seemed staged, tacked-on and rather superfluous. In attempting to be faithful to Ian Fleming’s rather downbeat original story, and provide a slam-bang bravura climax, the filmmakers lost their way a bit. I can’t quite put my finger on what the problem is, but something in the last Act’s execution has rendered it far less potent than the rest of the film. More on this in a minute.

Eva Green co-stars as leading lady, Vesper Lynd, overseer of great gobs of British Government funds. Green’s portrayal is really quite marvelous. Not since Diana Rigg have we been treated to a Bond Girl with such developed acting chops. From the moment we meet her, Vesper radiates a palpably dangerous energy. We are intrigued, beguiled, curious. All the scenes in which she and Bond are even the slightest bit adversarial with one another are some of the best in the film. It is only when this friction has apparently dissipated that things begin to fall a little flat. I found myself unconvinced of the love affair between Vesper and Bond. Which brings us back to the film’s last act. It’s difficult to buy into Bond’s feelings of love for Vesper, because she doesn’t ever appear loveable. Intriguing, yes. Beautiful and sexy, for sure. We see Bond courting her, and she resisting. We see Bond felled, and she there to pick him up and nurse him back to health. We see them shagging gratuitously in enviably romantic settings. But Bond’s proclamation that he is stripped bare in her presence, due to her presence, seems to come from another film entirely. Where and how did the adrenalised blunt instrument of the first four Acts melt into a smitten loverboy? In Fleming’s novel, the reader understands, if warily, Bond’s slow descent into loving the bird with the wing down. In this film, Vesper has very few moments in which any vulnerability is apparent. There is a very good scene when Bond comforts her in a shower following a bloody battle. But the Vesper of that scene seemed incongruous to the Vesper of the rest of the film—the Vesper who is always poised and in control. All in all, Bond’s love for her seems to derive from having gone through a tough battle together, and spending a lot of quality time in bed. I realize that in real life, there may indeed be a great many loves founded on just such matters, but to me, in this film, it seemed unconvincing. Particularly since the rest of the film leaves very little room for doubts of any kind. Perhaps I harp too much on this point. But it is precisely because Green and Craig are so good, that I hold the Bond/Vesper relationship to such a high standard. My heart was wanting Casablanca, but my brain was telling me that wasn’t what I was getting. Fortunately, because the rest is so good, the failure of the Bond/Vesper relationship to fully gel does not ruin the film. In fact, it is of surprisingly little consequence in the overall experience of this film that hits so many right notes so often.

One of those sweet notes comes in the form of Mads Mikkelsen, who plays Le Chiffre, ‘financier to the world’s terrorists’ (even if that’s not the precisely correct line, I can hear Dame Judi Dench’s M saying it in my head right now). Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre is a wonderful character, and he, along with Bond and Vesper, is the third piece in the triangular core of the film. I am not afraid to place him among the very best cinematic Bond villains. While not in the bigger-than-life mold of Auric Goldfinger or Hugo Drax, he nonetheless projects an essential energy into the film. He also provides a bit of that element of the bizarre we all want to see in a Bond film. Personally, it was not so much the ocular bleeding or the inhaler, but rather the smirky glint in his eye, the overly sporty lapels on his tuxedo and the wonderful way he pronounces ‘perspire’ that I found deliciously strange. Le Chiffre does not inspire in us a fear of world domination, or even, really, of the death of Bond. But we are afraid he’ll hurt him, or perhaps worse, show him up. Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre has charisma in the same range as Craig’s Bond. When he is onscreen, he yields very few, if any, power points to Craig’s Bond. Their interaction at the Casino Royale is splendid stuff, full of delicious Bond/Villain exchanges that rank with the best in the series’ history. The culmination of their relationship is, of course the infamous torture scene. It is presented with suitable brutality, and is very well-acted. Nonetheless, and a bit surprisingly, it did not move me to the extent I had anticipated. I found myself thinking Bond should have been considerably more battered (I’m really not a sadist!). And Bond’s defiant sarcasm, in the face of emasculation, seemed less effective than Fleming’s original line in which Bond simply tells Le Chiffre to go F—— himself. [I’m nitpicking here, for sure, for this Bond/Le Chiffre business has all been truly great stuff.] And then, sadly, when Le Chiffre leaves the film, the effect is a great escape of air from the balloon. With him gone, we have only a vague, unseen menace to worry over for the balance of the running time. Sometimes that kind of thing can make for a very powerful experience. Not so, here. We may not realize it as it is happening, but the loss of Le Chiffre deprives the finale of a good deal of the intensity and urgency that, up until then, has made the film so engagingly fun.

Much of that fun comes from the card game that is the film’s centerpiece. Fleming was a master at rendering suspenseful card games in his books, and Martin Campbell has done him a great honour by directing a riveting 150 million dollar poker game that is the central element of the film. There could, perhaps, have been an effort to achieve more clarity in regards to the poker elements, so that the uninitiated would more easily understand the developments of the game. But I actually find that a bit of vagueness contributes to the suspense of sequences like this one. In any event, the casino scenes provide the glamour we’ve all come to appreciate in a Bond film, and they also provide some real tension, which is woefully lacking from many films in the canon. The marathon nature of the game was especially interesting, in that it allowed for several key action segments during breaks from the game.

In addition to establishing a molten core that powers the film, the filmmakers have taken care to do right by some of the more secondary components of The Bond Film™. For example, we get a bona fide sacrificial lamb, a Bond tradition that has been rather underused for a good many years. Caterina Murino’s Solange is a convincingly troubled and sympathetic character who provides an exciting interlude for our hero. She is also a stunning beauty in the best tradition of Euro-Bond-Babes. When she is killed, we mourn her loss.

The locations are fantastic. Travelogue is back! The train sequence harkens back to From Russia with Love, the shop-lined streets of Montenegro remind of Murren in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and of course the Bahamas conjure up fond memories of Thunderball. All the locations are beautiful, and convincingly authentic. Although, Venice has never looked so sparkling clean, ironically to the grand city’s detriment.

On the other side of the scoring card, the much-talked-about pre-titles sequence, shot in monochrome black and white, is curiously underwhelming. It’s not that it’s not well done. The writing is crisp, the performances good, and the camera work is excellent (in particular, a grainy close-up of Craig after he’s just disposed of a baddie in a loo). But the adrenaline that powers the rest of the film seems unaccountably lacking here.

The titles themselves were diverting. I don’t think Daniel Kleinman was pushing the limits of his potential here, but sometimes simple is good. Suffice to say, they work well with Chris Cornell’s energetic title song.

Other minor quibbles: the brilliant Jeffrey Wright is woefully underused as Felix Leiter; the Aston Martin DB5 seems to serve little purpose other than product placement for Corgi; CraigBond recovers awfully fast from that near fatal poisoning…OK, I’ll stop. Once a fanboy, always a…

Much has been made of the fact that the film does not feature Miss Moneypenny or Q. I personally didn’t miss them much at all. But, assuming the traditional camp nature of the characters was removed, they could have easily taken the place of a couple of the other supporting characters from Mi6 and the film’s tone and story would have been completely unaffected. One wonders, then, at their highly publicised absence.

One wonders, too, at the much-ballyhooed ‘Bond Begins’ mantra that has been so prominent in the marketing of the film. This is not an origin story. It is not even really a reboot. There are a very few token allusions to the fact that Bond is newly a 00, but surely the Bond we see barking orders in the snake pit in Madagascar is not some tender newbie. Bond is harder, and at least as cynical throughout this film, than he has been in any of his other cinematic adventures. Either the ‘Bond Begins’ angle was primarily a marketing component, or it was all but neglected in the actual final construction of the story. The fact is, this reboot angle is wholly unrelated to the film’s strengths. Casino Royale succeeds due to the performances of its leads, the first-rate direction, and the story’s adherence to a significant chunk of Fleming’s original plot—all of which contribute to the urgent energy that pervades most of the film.

That it succeeds so completely is a surprise to many of us in Bond fandom, and to cinemagoers in general. We have come to expect a level of compromise from the films in the series. Casino Royale is, if anything, uncompromising. We see Bond get his balls beat to hell. We hear him explain that ‘the bitch is dead.’ We see him sweat, bleed, laugh, cry, and kill remorselessly. None of which is mitigated by any fun-for-the-kiddies antics, or rote exercises in traditional Bond movie elements (No Q branch silliness or dick jokes here). For anyone who has spent the past four years quietly wondering whether James Bond really was going to return—and if he did, would he still be cool? Would his world still enthrall? The answer is here, loud and clear. Bond is back. And he kicks ass.

Casino Royale Rating:

Fans Say "Good Luck Daniel Craig"

Bond fans are angry at the press certain negative sites have garnered, and seek to redress the balance. After reactionary sites were launched following the announcement of Daniel Craig as the sixth official incarnation of James Bond, the general consensus has been that fans are appalled by EON Productions/Sony Pictures’ choice. However, CommanderBond.net has founded DanielCraigIsBond.com in an effort to allow true fans of Her Majesty’s Secret Servant to express their delight at the casting of Craig.

“We were aware through comments made by Daniel Craig and the worldwide press recently that the opinion was the fans were upset by his casting”, said CommanderBond.net/DanielCraigIsBond.com founder David Winter “however the majority of our community at CBn are excited by the prospect of a reinvented 007. We just wanted to give them a voice.”

DanielCraigIsBond.com was set up in reaction to the ten month battery Casino Royale has received in the press since “CraigNotBond.com” was launched by those disgruntled by the dismissal of Pierce Brosnan as Bond, ordering fans to boycott the film, “but CommanderBond.net has always had a ‘let’s wait and see’ policy”, Winter professes, “and we are now getting increasingly thrilled by what we are seeing”.

DanielCraigIsBond.com was launched on Friday 11th August and has already received a lot of attention from fans wishing to express their excitement for Casino Royale, the 21st James Bond film by producers Eon Productions. The web site has had messages of support for Daniel Craig from people all around the world; Argentina, Asia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cayman Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Trinidad, the UK and the US.

You can discuss this announcement in this thread in the CBn forums.

CBn Celebrates 6000 Members

The CommanderBond.net James Bond forums have reached a milestone number of 6000 members.

Congratulations to ‘LUMBFILM’ for being CBn’s 6000th member. With over 570,000 posts, CBn is by far the largest and most active James Bond forum in the world.

In addition, the CBn RSS feed syndicates CBn news stories all over the world. Check out the CBn Podcast–the first and only James Bond podcast on the internet–for all the latest news in the world of 007.

Not a member of the CBn forums yet? Simply register here. It’s free and it only takes a minute. Then join in on the fun!

Keep watching CBn for full coverage of Casino Royale and all things James Bond.

CBn–Where all other Bond sites end…this one begins!

Discuss this CBn milestone in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet.

Win a Signed Copy of 'The Man Who Saved Britain'

Courtesy of Simon Winder, we now have a new signed hardback edition of The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal Journey into the Disturbing World of James Bond to give away to one lucky CBn member. You must be a registered member of the CBn Forum & answer the questions correctly to be eligible to win.

To enter, send your answers to the following questions to this mailbox (Subject: Man Who Saved Britain contest) by Monday 17, July, 2006 at 5:00pm GMT.

Questions

• What is your CBn Forum Screen Name?
• What is the name of the James Bond movie set for worldwide release in November of this year?
• Who does Simon Winder indicate is his favorite Bond Girl? [hint: read the CBn Interview with Simon Winder for help with this question]

All those who answer correctly will be put into a drawing and the winner will be sent a PM via the CBn Forums to the Screen Name they provided to inform them of their win. The winner must respond to this PM within 3 days with the requested information (name, address, etc) or another drawing will be held. The winner will be announced once shipping information has been received.

Delivery for the contest winner: Although delivery time is likely to be much quicker, the winner should allow 4-6 weeks after the contest ends to receive the product. The prize is not transferable, with no cash redemptions and/or substitutions. All international winners will be responsible for any duties, tariffs, taxes or import fees assessed to their prize. Further some countries outside of the U.S. do not have reliable mail services. In the event that a prize has been stolen or mishandled during shipment to an international destination, we may not be able to replace the specific item.

To discuss this competition or if you have any questions visit this thread on the CBn Forum.
Special thanks to Simon Winder and Penguin Publishing.