'Quantum of Solace' Exclusive On Next Extra

Keep your eyes peeled for the next episode of entertainment show ‘Extra’.

According to the show’s official website, Extra is promising a 007 exclusive from the set of Quantum of Solace in Chile.

A short preview video, briefly mentioning Daniel Craig and Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, can be viewed online here.

This James Bond exclusive will air on the Friday, 4 April edition of Extra. A detailed “When It’s On” section is available here to let fans know exactly when and where to watch out for it.

Stay tuned to the CBn main page for the most up-to-date and complete coverage of Quantum of Solace.

'The Spy Who Loved Me' – Restored And Back In Action

Following the re-release of 1964’s Goldfinger in UK theatres last July, yet another classic James Bond film will soon be hitting the big screen once again: The Spy Who Loved Me.

‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ – Restored And Back In Action

The James Bond classic, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) is to be presented, back on the big screen, in a glorious digital restoration at a special event in one of London’s biggest cinema venues.

The classic action thriller, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Roger Moore as James Bond, is a firm favourite with fans everywhere. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, and features many iconic scenes, including Bond’s Lotus car turning into a submarine and his first encounter with Jaws (Richard Kiel).

The special screening will be held at the Empire Leicester Square, Screen 1, on Sunday 20 April at 1.30pm for 2pm. In attendance at the event will be several people involved in the making of the film, including director Lewis Gilbert and actor Caroline Munro.

The Spy Who Loved Me is being presented by Park Circus, the UK’s leading distributor of classic and back catalogue films for theatrical exhibition. The company successfully re-issued the earlier Bond Goldfinger back into cinemas last year. Park Circus currently represents over 7000 titles from Arrow Films, Granada International, Icon Entertainment International, MGM/UA, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, UK and other film collections.

Tickets for the screening are on sale now from Empire Cinemas, via www.empirecinemas.co.uk.

Stay tuned to CommanderBond.net for all the latest James Bond news.

Spy Video Of 007 Rehearsal In Siena

WARNING: Possible spoilers

A brief 15-second long video capturing the rehearsal of an action sequence to feature in Quantum of Solace has been posted online.

Filmed in Siena, Italy, the video shows James Bond jumping out of open window onto a moving bus in an alley below (for obvious reasons, a harness is being worn).

Watch online at YouTube

Additionally, three videos highlighting the recent filming in Chile have been posted at YouTube as well.

The first shows actor Daniel Craig along with other Quantum of Solace crew members arriving for filming, while the second two are local set reports by 24 HORAS (highlighting the Antofagasta region and the town of Cobija).

Watch online: Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3

For further, in depth details about the Quantum of Solace filming in Siena, check out CBn’s overview: Part I | Part II.

Stay tuned to the CBn main page for the most up-to-date and complete coverage of Quantum of Solace.

Eon Responds To Mayor Incident On 'Quantum' Set

Following up yesterday’s news that an angry Chilean mayor disrupted filming on Quantum of Solace by driving a car onto the Bond set between cameras and Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko, Eon Productions have issued their own response regarding the inicident.

According to the BBC News, Anne Bennett, Eon’s director of marketing, stated that Carlos Lopez nearly ran over a local policeman on Tuesday as he drove into a private enclosure around the train station being used for the filming.

It was ‘a small incident that took no more than five minutes to clear up,’ she said. Mr. Lopez was immediately arrested for trespassing and detained briefly before being released.

She further disputed the Mr. Lopez’s title as ‘mayor’ of the Sierra Gorda municipality, saying she understood he had been suspended five months ago.

Lopez was protesting the Quantum of Solace filming, upset over what he deemed to be an excessive police presence in the small town because of the filming and the fact that Chilean soil was being used to ultimately represent Bolivia in the 007 film.

Ms. Bennett added that it was commonplace for scenes set in one country to be shot in another.

Stay tuned to the CBn main page for the most up-to-date and complete coverage of Quantum of Solace.

James Bond To Dazzle Lake Garda In Mid-April

WARNING: Possible spoilers

While the crew of the Quantum of Solace have been busy in both Siena, Italy and Chile over the past few weeks, 007 will be taking Italy’s Lake Garda by storm come mid-April–reports ANSA.it.

As previously noted by CommanderBond.net, the Bond crew are set to commence filming at the largest and deepest lake in Italy on 14 April.

Filming will include a major action sequence that will be apart of the opening scenes of Quantum of Solace. While fans have known for quite some time now that 007’s Aston Martin DBS will be featured, this new report specifically notes that the ‘most spectacular sequence of all will see Bond’s classic Aston Martin tearing away from the scene of a collision at breakneck speed, leaving behind a car and a truck. The truck then explodes into flames and ends up in the lake.’

The report further adds that a specially designed net will catch the truck before it actually lands in the water.

The 11 days of shooting at Lake Garda will also coincide with the arrival (on 10 April) of the travelling James Bond Memorabilia Show exhibition, highlighting the life and work of Ian Fleming as part of the centenary celebrations being put together this year.

Bond continuation author Raymond Benson will be attending the show on the 19th and 20th. Additionally, Dan Bradley, second unit director on Quantum of Solace, will also be at the event on the 20th to give a talk and share some behind-the-scenes details to those in attendance. In effect, a dose of both the literary and cinematic 007 for fans.

For further, in depth details about Quantum of Solace opening action sequence, check out CBn’s overview: Part I | Part II.

Stay tuned to the CBn main page for the most up-to-date and complete coverage of Quantum of Solace.

'Quantum of Solace' – Chile Filming Report

WARNING: Major spoilers

Several new details and photographs from the Quantum of Solace production in Chile have accumulated in the last few days. CommanderBond.net provides a round-up of all the latest information…

Photos & Video

Since yesterday’s article featuring a few photographs from the 007 production, a whole new set of spy shots of actors Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko (including several of the two walking together in what appears to be a desert) along with director Marc Forster made their way online:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Following a press conference with the cast and crew of the film that took place on 26 March, filming for Quantum of Solace took place at the Observatorio Paranal as well as the nearby towns of Cobija, Baquedano, and Michilla.

According to a report from El Mercurio Antofagasta, an estimated $7 million was spent on the filming sequence in the Antofagasta region.

Additionally, a 12-minute long video highlighting some of the filming in the region of Antofagasta with DCraig and Kurylenko can also be viewed online (in Spanish) at Chilevision.cl.

Bond/Greene Confrontation

According to an article originally sourced from Hoy Cinema, the last scene completed in the town of Michilla was a particularly nasty confrontation between Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) and 007 (Craig).

The report states that at this point in the film’s storyline, Greene no longer has anything to lose. With his contacts with the corrupt General Medrano (played by Joaquin Cosío) discovered by 007, his last card to play is to take a truck loaded with explosives and crash it into Bond’s own vehicle in the middle of the desert.

Related scenes for the sequence were filmed yesterday in Cobija. Beginning around 9am, the Bond production included more than 20 trucks, helicopters and large filming equipment: rolling panels, cranes with panoramic cameras, mobile homes, tents and the usual accompanying security.

As there is an obvious expectation of significant explosions during the sequence, the presence of firefighters was required on set.

Stay tuned to the CBn main page for the most up-to-date and complete coverage of Quantum of Solace.

Gold Was The Way To Go For Young Bond

Going gold for Charlie Higson’s fourth Young James Bond adventure, Hurricane Gold, was a wise choice by publisher Puffin Books, according to the Young Bond Dossier.

The website refers to a recent Publishers Weekly article that focused on the increasingly competitive book market, especially for new children’s novels.

Puffin managing director Francesca Dowe said: ‘It’s increasingly a paperback market–especially in picture books, but increasingly in fiction as well. You build an author in paperback, then take them to hardback when you reach a level you know you can sustain.’

As Young Bond fans are well aware, Puffin decided to switch things up a bit for the debut of Hurricane Gold last year, releasing the novel in an all-gold hardback edition.

The article states that the idea of creating an all-gold cover ’caused a sensation’, while Dowe added that ‘it definitely helped sales.’

We’ll have to wait and see what Puffin will come up with for the cover of Higson’s fifth Young Bond novel, By Royal Command, due for release in hardback on 4 September of this year.

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for all the latest Young Bond news.

'For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond' Now Shipping

Although not officially due for release until 7 April in the UK, Ben Macintyre’s For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond is now shipping at amazon.co.uk.

As previously reported by CommanderBond.net, the book accompanies an Ian Fleming centenary exhibition of the same name, which is due to run 25 April 2008 through 1 March 2009 at the Imperial War Museum in London. More details on that event here.

Cover artwork for For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond can be viewed online at amazon.co.uk.

The book is published by Bloomsbury Publishing and retails for £20.00 in the UK. It will be released on 29 April (retailing for $34.95) in the US. The full blurb:

Published to coincide with the 2008 Imperial War Museum exhibition of the same name, this is a thrilling stand-alone book that looks into the entwined worlds of James Bond and Ian Fleming. The book and exhibition will explore how Fleming’s 007 emerged against the background of the Second World War and the Cold War, and how Bond’s world was based on the realities (and fantasies) of Fleming’s life as a wartime spy-master and peacetime bon viveur. They will show how the film version of Bond evolved for a later age, and answer a question that has obsessed generations of Bond fans over the years: where does the world of Ian Fleming end, and that of James Bond begin? Stylishly illustrated, this book will incorporate a treasure-trove of gadgets, costumes, props, and storyboards from the films – Daniel Craig’s blood-stained shirt from Casino Royale, the Aston Martin DB5, complete with weaponry – as well as memorabilia from Fleming’s personal archive: his smoking jacket, the manuscript for Casino Royale, his golden typewriter, his guns, and much more. Alongside this array of extraordinary visuals, Ben Macintyre tells the story of how Fleming created the most popular legend of all time.

• Order the UK hardback edition of For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond from Amazon.co.uk
• Order the US hardback edition of For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond from Amazon.com

Stay tuned to CBn for further details on Ben Macintyre’s For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond and complete coverage of all the Ian Fleming centenary events.

More 007 Cast And Crew Members Announced For Autographica 11

Early last month, CommanderBond.net first reported that several cast and crew members from the James Bond series would be attenting the upcoming Autographica 11 event–‘the world’s largest autograph show.’

Since then, even more guests from the 007 films have been announced. The full line-up now includes:

• Lucy Fleming (niece of Ian Fleming)
• Bettina Le Beau (Secretary, Dr. No)
• Lisa Guiraut (Belly Dancer, From Russia With Love)
• Martine Beswick (Zora, From Russia With Love / Paula Caplan, Thunderball)
• Mollie Peters (Patricia Fearing, Thunderball)
• Paul Stassino (Francois Derval, Thunderball)
• Luciana Paluzzi (Fiona Volpe, Thunderball)
• Alexandra Bastedo (Meg, Casino Royale (1967))
• Caroline Munro (Naomi, The Spy Who Loved Me)
• Albert Moses (Barman, The Spy Who Loved Me / Sadruddin, Octopussy)
• Paul Darrow (Doctor, Die Another Day)

Autographica is unlike any other similar event you have ever attended. At Autographica you will not just see and meet the guests, but get to know them, as the entire event is held in a luxury hotel, with all the facilities that that encompass. All of our guests stay in the same hotel, so you may well find yourself having breakfast with any one of our guests.

Most guests are available all day both days for signing, and some also offer talks or Q and A session too. In addition, and where time allows, we also have photo shoots with specific guests, and all of these can be booked in advance.

Autographica 11 will be taking place on Friday, 18 April through Sunday, 20 April at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole in the UK. Specific times follow:

• Saturday, 19 April: 10:30am – 4:00pm
• Sunday, 20 April: 11:00am – 4:00pm

Ticket prices are £10 per day. The pre-booked Gold Pass for unlimited two day early admission is £35. Children, if accompanied by an adult, are free on both days.

Note that there are only 1,000 tickets set aside each day for at the door purchases, so pre-booking is strongly recommended. Pre-booked tickets are only available to buy in advance. Phone 01959 573792 for details or visit the official website.

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for all the latest details on upcoming James Bond events.

'Quantum of Solace' Filming Gatecrashed By Chilean Mayor

Filming on Daniel Craig’s second James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, was interrupted yesterday when an angry Chilean mayor drove onto the 007 set between cameras and Craig.

According to a Reuters report, Carlos Lopez, mayor of the northern Chilean town Baquedano, was detained by police as a result of the incident.

‘He got angry, entered into a private enclosure… and caused public disorder and was detained,’ an anonymous police official stated by telephone from Baquedano. ‘Now it is in the hands of the prosecutor.’

Lopez was protesting the Quantum of Solace filming, upset over what he deemed to be an excessive police presence in the small town because of the filming and the fact that Chilean soil was being used to ultimately represent Bolivia in the Bond film.

‘For a town that has just 1,000 residents, sending in special forces and water cannon, preventing people from walking in the street, reminded me of the worst of the Pinochet years,’ said Lopez, referring to the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

‘I also disagree with national territory being used as locations (to represent) other countries,’ he said. ‘Even in a fictional film, unfortunately friendly, neighbouring countries use decisions like this to make unjustified claims.’

Chile annexed part of northern Bolivia in the late 19th century–an issue that continues to divide the two countries politically today.

Stay tuned to the CBn main page for the most up-to-date and complete coverage of Quantum of Solace.