As most people are now aware Douglas James, the Pierce Brosnan look-alike, has filmed a spoof Die Another Day TV commercial. DouglasJames.co.uk has now published these three pictures (which are copyrighted and not to be hosted anywhere else), which shows pictures from three commercials that James has recently filmed; all Bond related.
The first picture is from the recent Steam Train commercial.
UK telvision station 'Anglia South-East', which is a localised broadcast, has shown footage of filming of a Die Another Day spoof that stars Pierce Brosnan look-alike Douglas James. The spoof, which is a corporate advert, involves a steam train and 'mkkbb' has sent in details of the footage.
Douglas James and a spitting image double of Halle Berry were being filmed for a scene where Bond rescues Jinx from a steam train. It is part of a commando raid. It had many commando people swinging into the side of the train from the roof where they let off sprays of gunfire, and Bond chasing the train to Jinx’s cabin/section where he rescues her.
It also showed a command shooting someone off the train over a bridge. This reminded me of Broken Arrow, but maybe it will be a lot different.
Thanks to mkkbb for sending in the report!
New Line Cinemas has announced that an agreement has been reached with MGM to allow the third installment of the Austin Powers series to be named Goldmember. A court injuction placed by MGM earlier this year saw New Line have to scrap the title as it infringed on the rights owned by MGM to 1964's Goldfinger.
Details of the deal were not disclosed, however, it is rumoured that the trailer for Die Another Day will feature before New Line's 'Austin Powers in Goldmember' and 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'.
From Yahoo News:
Tartan Parade Brings Up to 10,000 Bagpipers to NY
Sun Apr 7, 4:30 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – As many as 10,000 bagpipers and drummers made a racket as they piped and pounded their way through midtown Manhattan to celebrate Scottish Tartan Day on Saturday.
The "Tunes of Glory" parade was believed to comprise one of the biggest pipe bands ever assembled. The march was led by Scots acting star Sean Connery and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Connery, waiting at the start of the march, laughed as crowds yelled for him to show his kilt and "pull it up!"
"The band will start and away we'll go," he said.
"He's a great guy," Bloomberg told Reuters after greeting Connery. "We're all a little bit Scottish today."
Tartan Day commemorates April 6, 1320, when the Scottish Parliament sent a letter to the Pope declaring Scotland's independence.
Thanks to 'Mourning Becomes Electra' for the tip-off.
Ananova has reported that actor Pierce Brosnan has attacked Japan's plans to return to full-time commercial whaling according to 'The Sunday Mirror'.
Brosnan, who is a part of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said, "The governments of Japan and Norway need to hear our voices again." He also called on them to "stop this madness before it's too late".
A worldwide ban on killing whales was introduced in 1986 after hunting of minke, sperm and Bryde's whales brought them to the brink of extinction. However, neither Japan nor Norway endorsed the agreement. Last year alone the number of whales killed rose to a high of 1,275.
As Empire Online reports, "Mr. Bean" Rowan Atkinson is to play an English MI6-agent.
Austin Powers has proved that the James Bond series is a potential goldmine for spoof filmmakers, and now Rowan Atkinson is getting in on the act with Johnny English. In this comedy, from a writing team that includes Ben Elton, the Bean star plays British MI6 agent Johnny English, a role that sounds somewhat reminiscent of his incompetent spy in the Barclaycard ads.
The obligatory love interest will come in the form of Neighbours star turned singer Natalie Imbruglia, making her big screen debut as special agent Valdez. John Malkovich is on villain duty as Sauvage, a megalomaniac who – surprise, surprise – wants to take over the world.
Director Peter “Sliding Doors” Howitt said: "We see the difference between how good English thinks he is and how good he really is”. We will have to wait to see whether English is as good as Powers.
For weeks the real whereabouts of Pierce Brosnan has been a heavily speculated issue. It now seems that Pierce Brosnan has been working on a side project apart from the filming of Die Another Day. It was assumed that this side project was Brosnan's movie "Evelyn" to be released under the banner of his production company, Irish Dreamtime.
'The Irish Tribute' has revealed that Brosnan has been busy filming the Remington Steele reunion movie. The TV special, tentatively called "Steele Together After All These Years," will bring Brosnan back together with his former co-star Stephanie Zimbalist. It is not known at press time if Doris Roberts, now of "Everybody Loves Raymond" on America's CBS Network, who then played Mildred Krebs, the secretary, will also be in this production.
Some people on the CommanderBond.net forums have chosen to speculate on the nature, indeed the veracity, of Pierce Brosnan's injury. While Brosnan was indeed injured, and did in fact have surgery while in Los Angeles, his injury was not the sole reason for his return to the United States. He also returned to the area to secure Ms. Zimbalist's involvement in the movie. After some persuasion on Brosnan's part, Ms, Zimbalist was convinced, and the two have been filming "Steele Together" in and around Pinewood Studios since the beginning of March.
It is hoped that the movie will wrap up by Mid-April, for a lightening fast post-production that will see the reunion airing this May, as part of NBC's 75th anniversary celebration.
For those who may have missed Brosnan's first big career break, Remington Steele was the story of a female private dectective Laura Holt, (played by Miss Zimbalist), who creates a masculine, albeit him non-existant, male superior, Remington Steele. A jewel thief, played by Pierce Brosnan arrives on the scene, and upon discovering Miss Holt's deception creates one of his own: he becomes Remington Steele. In successive seasons, Steele and Holt solved several mysteries together while actually never quite getting together themselves. A retracted cancelation of the series cost Pierce Brosnan the role of James Bond in 1986, but all seems forgiven now.
A plot synopsis of the coming feature has been revealed, however, it is technically a spoiler so you'll have to highlight to read. Spoiler Warning (Highlight To Read) The plot of “Steele Together After all These Years” revolves around three central themes from the original Remington Steele series that aired on NBC from 1982 until 1987. Mr. Steele and Miss Holt (or is that Mrs. Holt Steele?) will be investigating the disappearance of a collection of rare royal blue lavalite, a disappearance arranged by their arch-nemisis Major Descoines. And lest the investigation prove too simple, the dashing dectectives will also be fending off a reporter hell bent on revealing Mr. Steele’s true indentity.
The film will not finish with any reference to a future film. However, the beginning of the credits will read Happy April Fools. So from all at CommanderBond.net, we hope you enjoy your April Fools Day. Got you! We thought today we may be able to have a less serious site, we hope it worked!
The multi-talented Raymond Benson, who has written several James Bond adventures and the reference book The James Bond Bedside Companion, has announced through his official website that he has penned a book on the rock back Jethro Tull.
In this pocket-sized reference book, author Raymond Benson looks at this legendary rock band and analyzes its place in pop music history. He also examines each and every Jethro Tull album – track listing, personnel, cover art, recording history, and content.
For further details on the reference book please visit PocketEssentials.com.
The book will be published in September 2002.
Ananova has reported that Honor Blackman, famous to the Bond community for playing Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, is preparing for a new role which she hopes will be the end of her being type-cast. Since having roles in The Avenges and Goldfinger, Blackman has found that she has been type-cast in solely physically glamarous roles.
Blackman is currently touring the UK with her one-woman show, which celebrates femme fatales throughout the ages. While the name of her new play has not been revealed, it has been said that Blackman has reduced her current performance schedule to one performance a week to allow her to prepare for her new role.
This year's Oscars were as tense and close run as any in living memory. But amongst that stars from the James Bond series took away coverted awards. Not only was our very own M, Judi Dench nominated once again but our next Bond girl Halle Berry famously took away the Best Actress Award, she is the first black woman to take away the acolade. The crowd were touched by the speech that will go down in Oscar history, in tears Halle said the award was for "every faceless woman of colour " and that now the door was open for them.
Away from the future "Jinx" and present "M" Julian Fellowes took away the award for best original screenplay. Julian played the Defense Minister in Tomorrow Never Dies and stars in the long running BBC series Monarch of The Glen. It was his debut script that won him the award.
Also a congratulations must go to Chris Munro who won an Oscar for his work on Black Hawk Down as the films production sound mixer. Chris is working on Die Another Day as the 'sound recordist'.
Well done to Julian and Halle and it just goes to show, especially with Halle's involvement in Die Another Day, that Bond is no longer blockbuster popcorn-muncher fare but returning to the classy thrillers they were where the emphasis is on the solid performance rather than the stunts. No doubt Halle will bring extra publicity and a few more dollars on the box office take for Die Another Day.
However, that wasn't all the James Bond related events at this years Academy Awards. The first James Bond refence was at the beginning of the Oscars a short film which asked ordinary people what they thought made a good movie. A Police officer responded with "James Bond"! Then, later in the night, Circue de Soleil performed on-stage stunts with famous stunts from movies playing on the screen behind them. One of the stunts was the Ninjas' rope decsent into the volcano from You Only Live Twice.
Thanks to Gary for writing most of this report and to the person who sent in the final paragraph. It's greatly appreciated!