Die Another Day – Paris Press Screening

DIE ANOTHER DAY
THE PARIS FRENCH PRESS SCREENING

IT’S THE BIGGEST,
IT’S THE BEST,
IT’S BOND… AND B-E-Y-O-N-D!

Writer’s note : I have purposefully OMITTED to delve about ‘surprises’ happening during the length of Die Another Day arc story – not to spoil anything for fans (of which I am…Still!)

Friday, November the 15th.
9h45 AM at the Normandie Cinema, up on the Champs Elysées in the luxurious 8th arrondissement of Paris…

Word-of-mouth must have travelled faster than usual, for a huge queue of journalists (mixed with friends & fans hopelessly trying to get in) is already in front of the Cinema more than an hour in advance.The French’s love story with Mr Bond dated back from the 60’s, and is still hot these days.Pierce Brosnan, Lee Tamahori, Halle Berry, Barbara Broccoli & Michael G.Wilson are to attend a Gala screening by Tuesday, nov the 19th, following a huge Press conference.

After careful checking on the P.R listings, we lucky members of the Press are let in – precious French Press-kit tucked firmly under the arm (Press kit being a true beauty in itself! A glossy hard bound 80 pages colour ‘Corporate’ magazine with a stunning cover). The Normandie being one of the best Cinema of Paris , it can house more than 800 persons , most of the Prestige Press Screenings happen here , from LORD OF THE RINGS : THE TWO TOWERS (which I’ll be seeing in two weeks) to AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER

A buzz of excitement can be clearly heard in the vast area. Most of my colleagues wink at me (well, I’ve got a reputation), and after a 15 minutes wait, the room darkened…

Heeeeere we go, I said to myself.

Although I do know ‘practically’ everything about this film ( from rejected scripts sequences to Film Posters scrapped ideas), I still feel quite excited by this Bond movie. Almost as excited in fact as I was feeling back in Autumn ’77 when I discovered THE SPY WHO LOVED ME at the Paris Saint Germain Drugstore Cinema – skipping an entire day at school for the occasion!

Being a sentimentalist , I cannot help thinking that both Mr Bond & I are reaching our forties this year …Surely a coincidence?
Nah, ‘best of a Man’s years’, no doubt.

Anyway… Onto business.

From the innovative (and still affectionate) 21st Century version of the gun-barrel sequence to the (almost bearable) final rendition of Madge’s Die Another Day sure hit-and-miss song, D.A.D. is a great celebration of 40 years of 007’s onscreen adventures.

It is a welcome return to a larger-than-life Bond, a Fantasy Bond – from the past times of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER or YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. A Super Hero Bond film, where our beloved secret agent can dive in an icy lake without instantly freezing, has an invisible car – which he didn’t totalled for a change (Q section will be happy!), manage in the nick of time to avoid a giant blazing laser beam coming from a deadly Satellite in the sky, makes love to Moneypenny …And, of course, gets the girl at the end!

The audience roared with laughers, applauded many time (a behaviour usually not typical of Press & Media representatives), and yours truly had to be put on (heavy) sedative watching the Cuba scene of Jinx coming out of the sea.

Speaking of which, the ‘Cuban arrangement’ of The James Bond Theme is a joy to hear, and , again throws the audience back forty year earlier – with reminiscences of Dr No’s Monty Norman Calypso score.

The Villains are truly in the ‘over-the-top’ Fleming mould (think Sir Hugo Drax for Gustav Graves), the henchmen are sinister enough (One-armed function of a deceased Mr Kil is quite Bondian indeed!), and everybody in the cast seems to have done his homework and try – often succeeding – to deliver their lines in the most outrageous , yet utterly threatening Bond-style.And for those of you who read my interview with Will Yun Lee done back at the last Cannes Film Festival, well, let’s just say that this guy is the main villain indeed.

Example: the Blade’s scene, truly one of the very best fight ever staged in the whole Bond series (second best to FRWL train fight , according to your humble writer) is a joy to watch. Madonna looks indeed twenty years older than she is, thanks to an awful make-up, but she’s okay as a Fencing addict (and deliver her lines with conviction). But the ensuing duel will bring back memories of classic movie swordbuckling fights (I even appear to think of Tim Dalton’s own in …The Rocketeer!)

Surprise: despite an over-the-top Internet coverage by fan websites around the World, there are STILL some surprises in store for all of you (an homage to AVTAK pre credits stunt surf scene, for instance). Honestly speaking, despite being spoilt by Licensees from over the World, I stand by this: definitely the BEST Brosnan entry so far, and one of the BEST Fantasy Bond.

GO & SEE IT (I will again, and again, and again!)

– Kevin Collette

MGM Register Jinx Domain

MGM has moved ahead with plans to produce a spin-off Jinx movie today with the revelation that they have secured an important marketing tool for such a film.

MGM have registered the domain www.jinxmovie.com.

While the purchasing of the domain name by movie studio MGM doesn’t cement the films production it does serve to confirm recent rumours of a spin-off film going in to production.

Former Bond Girl Carey Lowell Marries…

Reports are coming in that Bond girl; Carey Lowell has married her long-term boyfriend at a secret ceremony that took place last week at the couples’ home. The 41 year old star of 1989’s License To Kill, married boyfriend Richard Gere, famous for his role in Pretty Woman.

To prevent the paparazzi catching wind of the wedding, it was a family only event with only Carey’s daughter from her last marriage, and their son Homer in attendance for the New York ceremony.

Before landing her role as Pam Bouvier, opposite Timothy Dalton, she was one of Americas most chased after models, doing work for such names as Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren to name but a few. Her acting debut came just three years before taking on her later 007 role, when she starred with Robin Williams in Club Paradise.

When she landed her role for License To Kill, Carey became one of the first set of transitional Bond girls, to change the label from the traditional blonde bimbo, to what six years later would appear as the sophisticated and intelligent women that Bond girls are known as today.

Demo DVD Displays New Technology

Yahoo! reports on a new technology used for Demo DVDs of “Die Another Day”.

A clever marketing gimmick for MGM’s James Bond juggernaut is providing a high-profile demo for a new technology that could create markets for promotional and one-time-rental DVDs.

  MGM used Flexplay Technologies’ special DVDs for 5,000 promo discs mailed out this week with about 25 minutes of material from “Die Another Day.” The Bond mailer warns, “Once removed from its packaging, the DVD will self-destruct in 36 hours!”

The line might have been better used by Paramount for marketing “Mission: Impossible,” but nonetheless, the technology allowed MGM to send the music video of Madonna’s theme song along with numerous featurettes about the film’s cars, crew, gadgets and more, without undercutting their long-term value for inclusion in the movie’s inevitably huge DVD release six months from now.

The Flexplay technology uses special coatings when creating discs that, when exposed to air, causes them to become unusable after a preselected time period. Because a DVD player’s laser is precisely calibrated to shine through a disc’s protective plastic sheathing at a specific angle and read information pitted onto the underlying aluminum plate, any change in the sheathing affects the disc’s readability. Depending on which coatings are used, the discs remain usable eight to 60 hours before the plastic deteriorates, making it then impossible for a laser to read the disc, said Flexplay CEO Alan Blaustein.

Flexplay has pushed the technology for promotions and music, scoring deals to include Flexplay discs full of music videos with the official program of MTV’s Video Music Awards Latin America. Atlantic Records is the first music label to create a Flexplay-based promotional version of Nappy Roots’ DVD.

The company also is touting opportunities for single-use DVD movies priced at rental rather than sale levels, though Blaustein said the company won’t pursue that possibility initially because of its modest resources. Such a product could tap impulse buyers waiting in line at drug and grocery stores, for instance, expanding the already huge market opportunities for DVDs with a cheap, single-use alternative that doesn’t require the infrastructure of a video rental store.

The concept echoes DIVX, the failed venture backed by Circuit City and a Hollywood law firm. DIVX used on-disk software to encrypt DVDs, and special players with an Internet connection to manage billing and decryption. Unlike DIVX, Flexplay discs work in any regular DVD player, Blaustein said.

The New York company, which is privately held, has raised “several million dollars” since its 1999 founding from investors led by GE Capital. Blaustein credited co-founder Art LeBlanc, a replication-business veteran, as the main developer of the chemical coatings that cause the discs’ timed degradation.

The technology faces some potential downsides, such as the environmental consequences of no-longer-playable discs. The company hired an environmental consultant whose analysis said if Flexplays comprised 10% of the DVD market, they would eliminate air pollutants equal to 82,000 cars but generate solid waste equal to 4,900 households. The company is trying to devise ways to recycle the used discs.

Be sure to discuss the topic in this thread in CBn’s Die Another Day Forums!

Brosnan Wants Role in Jinx Movie

It seems a Jinx spin-off movie is a popular topic in the Die Another Day press junkets with the possibility being mentioned on Access Hollywood.

Halle Berry has told Access Hollywood that the plans are definetley underway. However, more news comes from Pierce Brosnan who has expressed interest in appearing in the series. Brosnan is quoted as saying, “Yeah, I hope I get to appear in her (the Jinx) movies.”

Of course if Brosnan does appear he’ll no doubt be playing British Agent James Bond.

Da Vinci to be seen in Die Another Day

Ananova reports that a surgical robot called Da Vinci will feature in a scene from Die Another Day.

 The three mechanical arms of the robot will be seen

Spoiler (Highlight To Read)

waving over Bond’s body after he is captured.

Ananova quotes a spokesman from the Imperial College of London, where the robot is being used, as saying “Surgeons and spies are alike as both aspire to serve their subjects with minimum of fuss while using the best technologies around.”

Just another example of the latest technology being featured in a Bond movie.

Feel free to discuss this topic in this thread of the Die Another Day Forum.

Jinx Spin Off-Series – Not Just PR?

Until now it seemed like a marketing gag, but it seems that a Jinx Spin-Off Series becomes more and more possible. Different news services quote producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli as being serious.

Yahoo reports; “Berry confirmed as much in an exclusive interview with E! News Live, revealing that she’s in talks with MGM and 007 producers, Eon Productions, about reprising the Jinx role in what would become the first Bond-based spinoff series in the franchise’s 40-year history. ‘Isn’t it just crazy?’ Berry tells E! ‘If Jinx could stay just as she is and evolve even further, and if they’d put the loving care that they put into James Bond–I absolutely would–I’d do it in a heartbeat.'”

Additionally it is said; “Reviewers who have seen early screenings of the new Bond film say it plays much like a franchise-launching film, with Berry’s character getting plenty of screen time.”

In another article which can be found at Yahoo, it is claimed that “Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli –the producers of “Day” and the executives who hold half the reins to the $3.8 billion Bond franchise — have given their approval to a Jinx picture.”

Although it had been rumored that Michelle Yeoh would star in her own series of spy pictures after appearing in 1997’s “Tomorrow Never Dies,” the Jinx project would represent the first time a character featured in a Bond film has ever segued into his or her own film.

Further on Yahoo reports, “MGM and the Bond franchise’s producers have been high on Berry’s involvement with ‘Day’ from the start, even going so far as to feature the actress prominently alongside Pierce Brosnan (news) throughout the picture’s marketing campaign.  Given Berry’s exposure and appeal with U.S. audiences after her Oscar win for ‘Monster’s Ball’, MGM is hoping Berry will help drive ‘Day’s’ global box office past the $361 million ceiling hit by ‘The World Is Not Enough’ in 1999. ‘Day’ is the 20th installment in the 40-year-old Bond franchise.  The Jinx project is still in the early stages of development. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who scripted ‘Day’ and ‘The World is Not Enough’, are working on a treatment.”

ITV1 To Air Royal Premiere

Just in a short notice for UK residents: UK Channel ITV1 will be showing highlights from the Royal premiere on Tuesday 19th November at 11:30pm. Regional variations may occur.

Please discuss this topic in this thread in CBn’s Die Another Day Forums! Thanks for ‘DJL’ for the alert!

UK Run Time Confirmed

The British Board of Film Classification has this morning confirmed the Die Another Day’s United Kingdom running-time as 132 minutes and 46 seconds.

In contrast to press screenings the general release of the film is between one to two minutes shorter, however, the BBFC does confirm that the film was passed with no cuts made; indicating that the scenes were edited out by the films production team as opposed to censorship reasons.

Strangely, however, the 12A rating awarded comments that the film contains “moderate action violence and one sex scene“. The inclusion of Miranda Frost and Jinx in the film promises three sex scenes, unless the BBFC is actually referring to scenes that aren’t post/pre-coital.

The French run-time for Die Another Day has been reported as 134 minutes.

If you’d like to discuss the UK run-time please visit this thread of the Die Another Day Forums. Thanks to AMVANQUISH007 for the tip-off.

Jinx May Have Spin-off Series

Move over James Bond, here comes Jinx Jordan. According to Zap2It Eon Productions and MGM are in talks with actress Halle Berry for her to reprise the role of Jinx in her own Spy film franchise.

“She is fantastic in the role, we loved working with her, we’d love to do it more,” says Michael G Wilson, co-producer of Die Another Day. Berry is keen to reprise the role as well, telling Zap2It, “If they ask me and play Jinx and continue on with this character — I really love her — and all that she embodies, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would just somehow have to work it out.”

Director Lee Tamahori is also behind the idea commenting that the production team built Jinx “up to strength and literally made her a female James Bond, there was no intention of franchise at that time.”

Tamahori adds, “She’s an American version of Bond. They’ll meet again, or she’ll have her own movie.”