Award season has begun – and the SATELLITE awards love SKYFALL: the latest 007 adventure was nominated in seven categories, including BEST PICTURE.
Who would have thought? Maybe that´s a beginning of a trend?
See the whole story at Hollywood Reporter
With everyone celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Bond, it’s worth pointing out that this month marks another kind of anniversary: the tenth anniversary of Pierce Brosnan’s last Bond film. It’s weird in a way, to even fathom that it’s been ten years since Die Another Day was released into cinemas. I can still remember seeing it in theaters, the reactions I had to it, the reactions audience members had. I can remember dragging my dad along to my third viewing, that look he gave me during the now infamous iceberg sequence. No doubt far removed from the Bond films he grew up with.
When I first realized Die Another Day was going to be ten years old, I started planning on how to honor that film. But then I got to thinking. In the wake of Craig’s darker, grittier Bond, opinion has changed, that’s not to say people hate Brosnan now, but I think he’s not given enough credit anymore. So think of this as something of a retrospective of his era, from my perspective, and of course, my opinion of him and his films (spoiler alert, it’s a positive one).
Popular web series ‘Star Cars‘ dug up another Bond enthusiast and his lovingly replicated film vehicle. This time it’s the BMW 750iL from 1997’s ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. And this episode involves some terrific stunt by Athena Stamos herself: landing her body on the back seats of the Beemer through the side window and negotiating the tricky slopes of its Bavarian leather upholstery – at speed, if you please!
See for yourself…
Thanks to Athena Stamos for the share!
Congratulate her on her daring stunt work in this thread
Production designer Sir Ken Adam had a busy week in Berlin. On Monday he was honoured with one of the twenty stars that form the newest stretch of the ‘Boulevard of Stars’ in Berlin. His name now is in a line with such legendary film artists like Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Klaus Kinski, Emil Jannings, Hildegard Knef and Marlene Dietrich.
The next day Sir Ken received the Cross of the Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) of the Federal Republic of Germany for his outstanding record in film architecture and production design as well as for his exceptional commitment to German cinema. Amongst other activities he took sponsorship for the ‘Talent Campus’ of the Berlinale and is a honorary member of the German Film Academy. His personal artistic archive he handed over to the German Cinematheque; an invaluable treasure of cinema history and a legacy for future generations of film artists.
Thanks to CBn members stromberg & Invincible 1958 for the heads-up.
Today Neil Alcock’s movie blog The Incredible Suit startles the Bond-sphere with a vast collection of early concept art for the main title sequence of ‘Casino Royale’. His article sports over twenty images, most of which will be entirely new to the public. In addition to this, The Incredible Suit did an interview with Daniel Kleinman himself, questioning him about his work for ‘Casino Royale’ and the titles of the upcoming ‘Skyfall’.
Discuss this news in this thread
Commanderbond.net would like to wish seven time James Bond actor Sir Sean Connery a Happy Birthday, celebrating 82 years today.
Suzuki Bazooki (Juliet Holding) and Martini Bond (Clare Jones)
Imagine one day the usual intelligence blunder in London’s Public Transport doesn’t concern itself with uninteresting trivia like Middle East secrets but with a real headline-league scoop: left on a train this time is the personnel file of THE secret agent incarnate: James Bond. Whose file also happens to contain a lovely kiddie photo of yourself, indicating you share half of his DNA. Does that sound exciting? It is, even more so for Martini Bond, the young woman who this way learns her papa wasn’t a Rolling Stone, but might as well have been. At least it explains her childhood in a single parent household, which had pros and cons. As one might expect if mum is a Bond girl.
But Martini has no time to ponder her fate and write daddy a stiff letter about his shortcomings in her upbringing. Bond is missing after doing business of the deadly kind with one Franken von Banken; just the person to trust with your money and matters of world domination in general. Martini’s mission – should she choose not to go shopping instead – is to find dad and save the world. If she succeeds nobody’s going to complain Bond’s wearing a dress in this one…
Lyndsey Jones
This year’s Camden Fringe Festival presents Bond fans with a truly special treat by playwright Lyndsey Jones. Her new comedy ‘Martini Bond – The Hunt for the Spy Who Loved Her Mum’ honours 50 years of Bond on the silver screen in a most remarkable manner. It’s an affectionate celebration of the spy who saved the world time and again from pure evil, and audiences around the globe from boredom and drabness by sipping his vodka martini in our place – amongst other things we’d love to do, but do not dare. Nobody does it better for us than James Bond.
CommanderBond.net spoke with Lyndsey Jones about her comedy and gained some intriguing background information, thanks entirely to the playwright, who kindly offered photographic documentation from the rehearsals for ‘Martini Bond’. An offer we of course coldly and shamelessly exploited in true Bond fashion, as you can see in the photos coming with this article.
Today BBC announced Dame Diana Rigg – the only woman who can claim to have been legally married to James Bond in her role as Tracy Di Vicenzo in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ -is to star in an episode of next year’s ‘Doctor Who’, together with her daughter Rachael Stirling. The script for the adventure was penned by Mark Gatiss, a major creative force behind numerous television productions, amongst which ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Doctor Who’ are just two. It will be the first time mother and daughter appear together in a production.
Read the BBC story here
This week Aston Martin unveiled its replacement for the popular DBS model – the new Vanquish. While the casual viewer may agree that it’s a nice car, there may have also been the odd question regarding the whereabouts of the new Vanquish, not entirely jokingly perhaps. Indeed, despite presenting somewhat more rounded lines and contours the new Vanquish above all features the very distinctive and by now well-known Aston-Martin-ness. Evolution, not revolution, is the manufacturer’s basic premise of development.
Traditionally the models from Gaydon on paper leave nothing to be desired, and the new Vanquish is no exception here: a V12 engine with 565bhp accelerates the car’s 1739kg in next-to-nothing beyond every sensible speed-limit – as well as most insensible ones, one assumes. And there is no reason to question the car’s actual performance on road or racetrack. In return for a small fortune customers acquire a machine in its own league and a veritable objet d’art, a sculpture of motion and emotion.
Meanwhile shrewd eyes have detected an interesting titbit in the ‘Configure your Vanquish’ section of the company’s website. The car can be had in both ‘Quantum Silver’ and ‘Skyfall Silver’. Top Gear also picked up this and spoke to the company, asking them if the new model would feature in the upcoming ‘Skyfall’. Sadly this is not the case. Both options are merely there to remind customers of the long association between Bond and Aston Martin. And there is in fact another option for the Vanquish that might appeal to Bond himself. The car can be ordered as a 2+2 seater and as a real two-seater. With plenty of boot, Bond would hope.
Read Top Gear’s full story here
You can discuss this news in this thread
Thanks to CBn forum members marktmurphy and Navy007Fan for the alert.
