Ursula Andress To Appear On 'Friday Night with Jonathan Ross' On 13 April

Former Bond girl Ursula Andress will be making an appearance on ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’ this upcoming Friday, 13 April 2007.

To be broadcasted on BBC One, the show is scheduled to begin at 10:35pm.

In addition to the Dr. No star, actor Mark Strong and musician Jamie Cullum are also scheduled to appear. For more details click here.

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Discuss this James Bond 007 news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet. Thanks to CBn Forum member ‘mharkin.’

'Blood Fever' US Audiobook Now Shipping

Charlie Higson’s Blood Fever

The US audiobook edition of Charlie Higson’s second Young Bond novel, Blood Fever is now shipping from amazon.com.

Like the previous US SilverFin audiobook, Blood Fever is published by Listening Library and read by Nathaniel Parker. It is currently discounted to $24.42.

Order the US audiobook edition of Blood Fever from Amazon.com.

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Casino Royale Continues Blu-ray Success For Sony

The Casino Royale Blu-ray disc continues its massive success for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment after opening to record breaking sales back in mid-March.

DailyTech reports that Sony has released a special report on the next-generation format’s current lead over HD DVD with several statistics from Nielsen VideoScan.

Daniel Craig’s first James Bond film debuted at the top of the next-gen format sales charts with 28,233 units, making it the fastest selling high-def disc to date. Additionally, Casino Royale also boosted Blu-ray sales 74.4 percent for the week ending March 18 as compared to the previous week. In comparison, HD DVD sales fell 14.1 percent compared to the week before that.

Strong Blu-ray sales in 2007 have given it a 7 to 3 sales ratio versus HD DVD. Year to date sales of Blu-ray are 549,730 units and for HD DVD 249,451 units. However, the gap is smaller when examining cumulative sales since each format’s inception. Blu-ray boasts 844,000 compared to HD-DVD’s 708,600. For further information, including several comparison charts, click here.

Click here for CBn’s Casino Royale DVD overview: release dates, special features, cover artwork, menu caps, instore exclusives, reviews, product tie-ins, and much more…

Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest Casino Royale DVD coverage.

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Raymond Benson Discusses James Bond, The Casino Royale Stage Play, & More

A new interview with with Raymond Benson, author of six James Bond continuation novels and three novelizations has appeared online at Paradigm, a quarterly journal released through Rain Farm Press.

Benson discusses what it was like to write the 007 novels, the little-known 1985 Casino Royale stage play, working on role-playing games, day-to-day routines, and much more…

A few snippets from the interview:

Paul Fuhr: In 1985, you were commissioned to do a stage play of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale. While you can’t produce or publish this yourself, could you share some details about its structure or action? What did you take from the source material and what did you leave behind? How does one go about staging Fleming’s novel? Do you regret not seeing it produced?

Raymond Benson
(Photograph by Phil Goldman)

Raymond Benson: At the time, the Fleming literary estate owned certain rights in that one particular novel, including stage adaptation rights. Because of my theatre background, they asked me to try and adapt the novel to a play…

My play turned out to be very faithful to the book… A staged reading of the play was performed in New York in early 1986 and it went very well. But the Fleming estate ultimately decided not to pursue a real production…

…..

Paul Fuhr: When you were announced as the new author of the James Bond series, were you ever intimidated by the shadow of Fleming, Amis, and Gardner? Early on, did you find yourself imitating a style, keeping certain “Bond” elements, or rewriting your work to meet expectations?

Raymond Benson: …I didn’t try to mimic Fleming’s style–that would have been a disaster–and besides, I don’t think anyone can really do that. What I tried to do was simply stay true to the spirit of Fleming’s books but write them the way I felt they should be.

Paul Fuhr: What goes into creating the perfect James Bond villain, in your opinion?

Raymond Benson: That’s the toughest part of doing the Bond books. A good villain and plot… I would always try to tie in my villains with the history of a particular country. The plots of my Bond novels usually have something to do with Britain’s concern over a hot spot in the world…

There’s much, much more. Head on over to Paradigm for the full interview with Raymond Benson. Simply click on the link and then enter the ‘fiction’ section of the website.

Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest literary James Bond news.

Discuss this James Bond news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet. With many thanks to Paul Fuhr.

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007 Weekend In San Francisco With Richard Kiel

San Francisco’s Bay Area Film Events will be celecbrating the cinematic James Bond on Memorial Day Weekend at the end of May. This “007 Weekend” will feature several screenings of the Bond films, vendors, prizes and a special appearance by Jaws himself–Richard Kiel.

The full description:

007 Weekend

Join Bay Area Film Events on Memorial Day Weekend for a 007 Weekend to Thrill! Celebrate 2007 with James Bond on the big screen where these films were meant to be seen.

Three days of action and excitement as only Bond and BAFE can provide.

Guests, vendors, prizes and much, much more!

And of course, the best of Bond, including DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, GOLDFINGER, THUNDERBALL, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME plus rare shorts and trailers.

Forget the Hollywood blockbusters, they’ll be around all summer. There’s only one chance to catch Bond, James Bond and that’s at the Castro May 26-28, 2007!

For further information on this upcoming Bond event, click here to visit the official Bay Area Film Events website.

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David Hedison To Appear In 'Love Letters' At Monmouth University

David Hedison, the only actor to appear as Felix Leiter twice in the James Bond series (Live And Let Die and Licence To Kill), will be appearing on stage in Love Letters this upcoming August at Monmouth University.

For full details:

Love Letters
By A.R. Gurney

Pollak Theatre
Monmouth University
West Long Branch, NJ

All Tickets – $45
August 3 and 4 – 8 p.m.
August 5 – 7 p.m.

Our second and final offering of this abbreviated season will be A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, starring stage and screen veteran David Hedison (The Young and the Restless, Another World, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, License to Kill) and Nancy Dussault (Too Close for Comfort, first host of Good Morning America).

With a career spanning over 50 years in the industry, Mr. Hedison returns to Monmouth ten years after a successful run of Blithe Spirit at the Woods Theatre in 1997.

Love Letters is the story of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, both born to wealth and position, are childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through the boarding school and college years–where Andy goes on to excel at Yale and law school, while Melissa flunks out of a series of “good schools.” While Andy is off at war Melissa marries, but her attachment to Andy remains strong and she continues to keep in touch as he marries, becomes a successful attorney, gets involved in politics and, eventually, is elected to the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, her marriage in tatters, Melissa dabbles in art and gigolos, drinks more than she should, and becomes estranged from her children. Eventually she and Andy do become involved in a brief affair, but it is really too late for both of them. However, Andy’s last letter, written to her mother after Melissa’s untimely death, makes it eloquently clear how much they really meant, and gave to, each other over the year–physically apart, perhaps, but spiritually as close as only true lovers can be.

Monmouth University is located at 400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch, New Jersey 07764-1898. For further information, phone 732-571-3400 or click here to visit the official website.

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Wilder Lawless to Ride Back Into James' Life?

Yesterday, CBn reported that Double or Die’s villainess Babushka may return in a future Young Bond novel.

Today comes another clue from The Young Bond Rough Guide To London that one more familiar face may return&mdashthis time, James Bond’s feisty Scottish ally Wilder Lawless, from SilverFin.

In her character profile, it is noted that Wilder Lawless is a “free-spirited Scottish lass who helps Bond in SilverFin and looks destined to ride back into Bond’s life.”

Of course, James crossed paths with his other SilverFin pal, Red Kelly, in this year’s Double or Die.

A red herring, or are the final two Young Bond books set to become a big old reunion as the series draws to a close?

Stay tuned to CBn for more details as Young Bond 4’s September release date approaches…

Discuss this Young James Bond news in this thread in the CBn Forums.

'Double Or Die's' Babushka To Return?

As previously announced, 7 April marked the release of the Young Bond Rough Guide To London, the compelling guide to Charlie Higson’s Young Bond Dossier, this new release contains a few details on a possible villain to appear in future Young Bond novels:

‘In a series of desperate gambles that take him to London’s West and East ends and to Cambridge, James is helped by his old pal Red Kelly, hunted by two bickering assassins and faces a spymaster called Babushka. Her name may mean “granny” in Russian but she is James’s most ruthless foe yet–escaping so she can, potentially, wreak more havoc in future novels.’

It was reported in August of last year that Higson’s fourth Young Bond novel would feature a female in the main villain role–could this possibly be Babushka? Stay tuned.

Order the UK paperback edition of Double or Die from Amazon.co.uk

Order the UK audiobook edition of Double or Die from Amazon.co.uk

Keep watching CBn for all the latest Double or Die and Young Bond news.

Discuss this Young James Bond news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet. Thanks to CBn Forum members ‘[dark]’ and ‘zencat.’

April 007th CBn Podcast Online

While Paul is away the Sergeant will play—April’s podcast episode is now online. This month—I stand in for Mr Dunphy and talk about The 007 Stage, Bond 22, some Casino Royale, Young Bond and Moneypenny Dairies. And Edward Fox.

If you’re subscribed via iTunes, under your Podcast section, click the ‘Update’ button to have the new episode downloaded automatically for you. If you have iTunes installed correctly Click here to subscribe. Or you can find details on how to do this here.

Download Enhanced version.

Download Standard version.

You can download all episodes directly from the bottom of this page.

If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to Digg it! and leave some lovely reviews on iTunes!

Leave feedback on this latest podcast episode in this thread of the CBn forums.

Casino Royale Offer For Australian Playstation 3 Buyers Confirmed

AURUM3 NewTech has confirmed that free Blu-ray disc copies of Casino Royale are on their way to Australian Playstation 3 buyers.

As CBn previously reported, the first 20,000 purchasers of Playstation 3 system in Australia who register on the Playstation Network were qualified to receive a free Blu-ray disc of Daniel Craig’s debut James Bond 007 film.

According to the email, the Casino Royale Blu-ray discs will likely be delivered within 45 days.

Click here for CBn’s Casino Royale DVD overview: release dates, special features, cover artwork, menu caps, instore exclusives, reviews, product tie-ins, and much more…

Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest Casino Royale DVD coverage.

Related Casino Royale Articles