Eight arms, twelve girls, three villains plus 007 – Octopussy turns 30!

‘Octopussy @ 30’ by Mark O’Connell, used with kind permission

Today it is 30 years since ‘Octopussy’ premièred at London’s Odeon Leicester Square. The first time audiences actually saw Bond crossing behind the Iron Curtain. A film showcasing many jewels, the biggest of which has to be the former ‘jewel in the crown’ – India. Never was a sari used more artistically in a Bond film, never frowned the clown with more explosive business on his hands. A hell of a circus for Bond and a colourful spectacle for audiences. CBners commemorate this unique 007 adventure in this thread.

Grateful thanks to Mark O’Connell ( http://markoconnell.co.uk/ ) for the kind permission to use the above image.

Mendes apparently back in the picture for Bond 24

The will he/won’t he drama seems to continue. While Mendes did initially turn down directing duties for the 24th James Bond film due to his commitments to the theater.  I reported back in March that EON were still interested in signing him up. Well it seems that they were able to work with his schedule and get him onboard.

While I haven’t minded a new director for each film, it did make each new film unique. Getting Mendes back will lead to a whole new set of expectations for the next film.

If Mendes does return, this will mar the first time in nearly 25 years that someone has directed two Bond films in a row.

Read the full story at Deadline Hollywood.

You can discuss this story on our forums.

Skyfall’s effects – Cinefexed en détail

Cinefex cover April 2013

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:

Tube-jam, ‘Skyfall’ style

“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.

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

Piz Gloria

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

Image ‘Goldeneye’ by ‘Theen’ (c), eye model tomcat ‘Jester’

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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Bond 24 will still root Bond in reality.

John Logan, the soul director of the next two Bond films, and co writer of Skyfall, has said that Bond 24 will still remain Faithful to Ian Flemings original incarnation. Speaking to the Financial Times, Logan said that “Fleming’s courage in showing Bond’s fear and vulnerability and depression was really interesting and something that a modern audience can accept,” said Logan. “I think Skyfall demonstrated that they want more layers to that character. And those are the layers that Fleming wrote.”. You can view the article here, via IGN, or if you so wish, catch up with Logan’s stage and film work on the like supplied for the financial times.

Could Guy Ritchie direct the next film?

“Bookmaker William Hill has named Guy Ritchie as the favourite to direct the next Bond film, following the news that ‘Skyfall’ helmsman Sam Mendes has ruled himself out.

The director of ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and the recent ‘Sherlock Holmes’ films is being given odds of 4-1.”

Read the full story here.

While I must admit I’m not too familiar with Ritchie’s work. I have seen Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and thought they were both really good films. So I’d be on board with this if it were true.

Happy 100th Birthday, Mr Goldfinger

“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” – It’s one of the most famous lines, not only in Bond history, but also in movie history. They were, of course, spoken by Auric Goldfinger, the man with the Midas touch, played by German actor Gert Fröbe. But the golden words he poured in our ears weren’t his own. Even though Michael Collins did a great dubbing job, the fact that Gert Fröbe’s own voice can’t be heard in “Goldfinger” may be considered one of the great missed opportunities in Bond history. But it wasn’t meant to be. Fröbe’s English was so bad, the producers even had to hire Nikki van der Zyl (who would later dub Shirley Eaton in the movie) as a voice coach to make sure he would at least make the correct mouth movements. But as a side effect of this, his English became good enough to be used in later movies like “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” and of course as Baron Bomburst in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Gert Fröbe was born 100 years ago, on 25th February 1913.

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Another Oscar for Skyfall!

After marking the very first live performance of Skyfall tonight, Adele, fought off top rivals Les Miserables and Life of Pi to claim the number one spot for best original song. James Bond is back on track.

Skyfall: An Oscar Winning Bond film.

After sadly missing out to Cinematography and Sound Design, The James Bond franchise has picked up it’s first Oscar in 46 years. Tied with Zero Dark Thirty, Skyfall has managed to secure it’s first Oscar for Sound Editing. Congratulations to all involved! Remember, there’s still ‘best original song’ and ‘best soundtrack’ to go. Will Skyfall go away with three Oscars in one evening?