By Devin Zydel on 2006-11-13
CBn previously revealed that Casino Royale would make its US premiere in Baltimore at The Senator Theatre on Wednesday, 15 November. Now, the Baltimore Sun reports with further details on the location’s connection with James Bond.
Why Baltimore? Dr. Vincent Gott, director of the Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Center for Aortic Diseases at Johns Hopkins explains that it was the location where Broccoli, the original producer of the Bond films, arrived at for cataract surgery in 1994. He received a chest X-ray upon admission, where doctors found a ‘large aneurysm of the aorta.’
Producer Barbara Broccoli, who will not be able to attend the event (as she will be attending the world premiere in London on the 14th) explains: ‘My cousin Jimmy [Dr. James D’Orta] will be at the screening in Baltimore, and he’s the real hero of the story. Jimmy’s like a brother to me. He’s always been there for us. And when my Dad needed cataract surgery, it was Jimmy who said we had to go to Hopkins, because it was the leading medical institution in the world. It was a significant problem and required very specific surgery.’
D’Orta, who has a history with the Bond series dating back to The Living Daylights, gave the thumbs up on Daniel Craig as 007: ‘I can tell you, he’s in excellent shape!’
As a result of the connection between Hopkins and Broccoli, the previous three Bond films–Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, and Tomorrow Never Dies–all had their US premieres in Baltimore.
‘With each of those, we raised close to $200,000 for the center,’ Gott says. ‘The Broccoli Aortic Center has been great for public relations, helping us to attract interest from all over the country and around the world as we continue to perform major aortic surgeries and do extensive clinical work.’
Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest Casino Royale coverage.
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