Release Date Confirmed

We've reported most of this before, but here we go again!

The latest edition of Cinescape Magazine has confirmed that the United States release date for Bond 20 will be the 22nd of November, 2002. Something we confirmed quite some time ago. No word yet on the UK release date.

Cinescape has also confirmed that Vic Armstrong will return to work on stunts again in Bond 20.

And finally as we already reported, Purvis and Wade have finished the first draft of the script.

That's all for now. Not as exciting as the Asia location news!

First: James Bond Will Head To Which Locale In Bond 20?

It came across my desk sometime ago, but like some things it had to be kept quiet. But now it seems time to reveal a region where James Bond is likely to travel in Bond 20.

But remember you read it here first on Bond 20 @ CommanderBond.Net, Your Best & Only Dose of Bond 20!

It seems clear now that secret agent James Bond 007 will travel to an Asian region in Bond 20.

So far that's all about we can tell you. Why? Because there is no exact location has been set yet. The only other tid-bit of information that we can tell you is that the winner of the James Bond 20 Competition will be visiting the Asian set.

As soon as we have more details, we'll let you know! Until then please visit the Bond 20 Forums where I just started this discussion entitled, Places In Asia Bond Should Visit. There's sure to be some great stuff in there!

Deleted Scene: Bond Gets Taken For A Ride

It's a hot topic in the CommanderBond.net Forums at the moment (don't forget to visit the link to see the current discussion); they are the deleted scenes from James Bond.

Lets take a look at a deleted scene from 1999's The World Is Not Enough. At the climax of the Pre-Titles Sequence our venerable hero, James Bond, falls from a hot air balloon. Landing on The Millennium Dome Bond damages ligaments in shoulder.

As a result for part of the movie Bond is incapacitated and subsequently can't drive his Aston Martin DB5.

Why this scene ended up on the cutting room floor is unclear. One theory states that BMW requested that Bond drive no other car than the BMW Z8 in the film.

By now I'm sure a mild form of confusion may have set in. If Bond can't drive his DB5 due to injury why would any scene be filmed with him in the car at all? Well it's quite simple; someone was driving the car for him.

So who is the mysterious person? It's none other than Miss Moneypenny.

The picture above comes from the 007 Newsletter, Issue 20 that was published in August 1999. The variety of photos were taken from behind the scenes, however, the one we're most interested in is the one on the far left. Below is an enlargement.

Looking very carefully at the image you'll note that actress Samantha Bond, who has played Miss Moneypenny for all of the Pierce Brosnan Era so far, is behind the wheel. It seems the character of Miss Moneypenny was originally intended to drive Bond to the funeral of Sir King.

So there you have it. A fantastic look at a deleted scene from The World Is Not Enough. Stay tuned for other deleted scenes as we're hoping to bring you more soon!

As a side note on the 007 Newsletter, most back issues can be purchased from the International Fan Club Web Site at http://www.thejamesbondfanclub.com. Finally, a big thanks to John Cox who was kind enough to send in a scan of the above photo.

How To Win A Trip To The Set Of Bond 20

Well it's quite simple really, you have to catch Bond!

Confused? Each morning Melbournians should tune radio station Triple M (105.1 FM). From 6am till about 8:30 a series of clues will be release revealing the location of Bond. It's your job to put those clues together and go find him! The first person to find Bond wins one of the minor prizes (detailed below) and a chance to win a trip to the set of Bond 20!

And what could you win?
There are 10 minor prizes, each comprising of:

• 1 x full set of Bond movie DVD's (19) @ $665
• 1 x DVD player @ $300
• Value of each minor prize: $965

And of course there's the major prize:

• Two return economy airfares ex Melbourne, four nights twin share accommodation in a 3-5 star rating hotel, breakfast each morning, transfers to/from Hotel, one day visit to James Bond movie set with return transfers. Date of travel to coincide with the filming itinerary for the next James Bond movie, expected to be in 2002. This prize is not transferable or redeemable for cash.
• Value of major prize: $5,000

Sounds great doesn't it? If you're still confused visit the Australian 007 Forums.

Be quick because the competition ends this Friday! And I'm going to enter at least three times this week.

And finally, where would you go? Where is a filming location for Bond 20? That information will be revealed soon through Bond 20 @ CommanderBond.net!

British Actors Strike To Affect Bond 20?

The UK film industry could be brought to a standstill after actors' union Equity instructed its members to refuse work on all United Kingdom feature films from December onwards. Bond 20 is expected to begin filming the month after at Pinewood Studios in the UK. So the question now is, will the strike be averted or will Bond 20 be plagued, and possibly delayed, by the strike?

The BBC has reported:

The union has been negotiating with film studios over rights for bonus payments for more than a year… [and] the decision affects more than 36,000 actors in the UK.

A spokesman for Equity told BBC News Online: “Equity council has issued an instruction to all Equity members to refuse contracts for work on all UK feature films from the 1 December onwards.”

Will Bond 20 be affected? Only time will tell.

If you'd like to discuss this visit the Bond 20 where Zencat has created this thread to discuss the looming strike. See you there!

Aston Martin Signed For Three Bonds

'Level007' informs us in the forums that JamesBond007.Net (in French) has reported that Aston Martin signed a three picture deal with EON Productions, which means Bond will be driving an Aston Martin for Bond 20, 21 and 22 atleast.

They've also reported, as we did on the 28th of August, that the villains in Bond 20 will be behind the wheels of Jaguars, primarily the Jaguar XKR.

You can discuss this all in the Bond 20 Forums in this thread which Level007 started! More details on this, including pictures, will soon emerge in the forums!

Next Villain Could Be Played By Character-Actor

This report has surfaced on Dark Horizons today and much like Garth says, it’s potential rubbish. But he finds something believable in it and you want to read all the news don’t you? Well here you can, but I do warn you this is only a rumour and not a very popular one. So expect this to be one of the rumours that doesn’t turn out true. But you never know!

I’m always keeping an eye out for news and rumors for the next 007 flick, and I’ve heard a sort of interesting piece of news/rumor. Despite who I heard it from, I think it’s common knowledge that any news of the next James Bond picture at this point should be taken lightly, because things are always changing with these projects. While at the airport, I spotted James Bond head honcho Barbara Broccoli. I had to approach her, something that’s always sketchy for the traveling famous. First of all, I have to say that she’s pretty polite, unlike some things I’ve read about her. Anyway, I stirred up my guts and asked her what might be going on in the future of 007, and she said that a script is in the works, but a title was still being decided (of course).

It’s the 40th anniversary of the screen Bond, and the 20th Bond itself, so it’s supposedly going to go back to a little bit of it’s Fleming roots. Anyway, to wrap it up with her (I think this annoyed her) I asked about what I wanted to know about, the villain possibility. It seems that, for the first time since 1989’s Licence to Kill, that they want to go with a non-British villain who’s bent on controlling the world through a nuclear meltdown. They’re trying to write a criminal who in the tradition of Fleming’s Blofeld, uses his wits more than his arsenal. I asked what actor they were considering, and she said she’d like to see someone a “little older than the average actor/villain role,” to show the years of expertise, “a good character-actor type. I like Lance Henriksen”. I have to say this choice blew my mind, and I think he could be an excellent villain given good material, but as I said, nothing is set in stone with these pictures.”

Henriksen is of course the American actor who starred in Chris Carters ‘Millenium’ and also as John Milton in Scream 3. Would he really be considered for a villain role in Bond 20? Well he’s a strong enough actor.

All in all it’s a confusing report, it’s not the first style report that has surfaced on Dark Horizons though. My memory goes back to a time when someone spoke to Michael G Wilson at an airport. The question I’d pose to their tipster is how did he know what Barbara Broccoli looked like? He’d have to be a pretty die-hard fan. In my time I’ve only seen one photo of her, whereas Wilson we’ve seen many times in the films.

Feel free to drop your opinion into the Bond 20 Forums where you’ll find plenty of Bond 20 related discussion – in fact approximately 1800 different posts about Bond 20 since May, see you there!

Ben Willcock Disappears From Credits

Ben Willcock, the 24 year old game designer, has lost his credit from the Bond 20 Script at the IMDb. You can follow that link to the Credits page at the IMDb for Bond 20.

Willcock first appeared in our news many months ago and his name bounced back and forward when some sites and Bond fans were toying with the idea of the Final Assignment script being real. The script was indeed a fake, that was confirmed by EON Productions. And so too, it would seem, was Willcock's involvement in Bond 20.

Either way he'll remain forever in the CommanderBond.Net archives and in forty years time someone researching Bond 40 may come across him!

Kevin McClory Loses Bond Fight For The Last Time

Kevin McClory, also referred to as James McClory sometimes, has lost his appeal in a US Federal Appeals Court for rights to the James Bond series. McClory alleged in a 1998 lawsuit that he owned the rights to the novel "Thunderball" and to script materials developed while working on that screenplay, which introduced the world to the criminal organization SPECTRE, run by villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

SPECTRE first appeared in the very first Bond film, Dr No, however, a Thunderball script had been in the works before Dr No but after troubles with McClory it was put aside. McClory did work with Ian Fleming in the 1950's in an attempt to bring James Bond to the big screen and as a result sought royalties from Bond films released between 1962 and 1977. Which would see him pick up royalties for Dr No through to The Spy Who Loved Me.

McClory did work on the EON Productions version of Thunderball and was given both writing and producing credits. In 1983 Never Say Never Again was released which McClory also received writing and producing credits for, however, this was a non-EON film and is often disregarded by Bond fans as a real Bond film.

McClory has been in the courts over his rights to James Bond many times. In 1976 Kevin McClory went to court, this time supported by Sean Connery, and claimed that The Spy Who Loved Me, which was in production, featured elements of a script that both McClory and Connery were writing. They hoped to have production stopped.

In 1997 Sony aquired the rights to McClory's Bond rights and intended to launch their own James Bond series. But Danjaq Productions then sued Sony, its Columbia pictures subsidiary and Mr McClory. Sony and McClory counter-sued, however, Sony soon dropped their own case leaving McClory to fight Danjaq on his own in 1998.

However, in this case the court ruled that McClory had waited too long to bring his case to court and it was ruled that McClory had no rights to the James Bond franchise.

Which brings up to present day. McClory appealed the decision in a higher US Court, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Heading the court Judge Margaret McKeown ruled on Monday to uphold the previous decision made by a lower court that Mr McClory had waited too long to bring his case.

"A hero seeking to redeem his stolen fortune. The villainous organization that stands in his way. Mystery! International intrigue! And now, not least of all, the dusty corners of the ancient law of equity," Judge Margaret McKeown wrote in a 35-page opinion.

"We conclude that McClory's claims are barred in their entirety … (and) affirm the district court's dismissal of McClory's suit," McKeown wrote. "So like our hero James Bond, exhausted after a long adventure, we reach the end of our story."

And much like that it seems that Kevin McClory will never again produce another Bond film. If you’d like to discuss this story please do so in the CommanderBond.net Forums. See you there!

Finally, a big thank you to Luke Freeman for sending the original news into me!

Villains To Drive Jaguars

If we’re to believe ‘The Sun’ the villains in Bond 20 will drive Jaguars to compete with our secret agent James Bond. While forum users such as Boldman have pointed out that The Sun isn’t the most reputable of sources there is a possibility of this news being true.

Jaguar is owned by the Ford corporation, as are Aston Martin. You’ll recall the bike chase scene in Tomorrow Never Dies featured Bond and Wai Lin being chased by Range Rovers. Rover are owned by BMW who supplied the 750i and the R1200 bike, both used by Bond.

With that in mind the link between Aston Martin and Jaguar could quite easily see Bond being hunted by a Jaguar. To join in the active discussion visit this thread in the Bond 20 Forums where Tim Roth told us all of the news from The Sun. Feel free to make suggestions as to which model Bond should be driving!