MI6 Approves Of DAD

Spy chiefs at the real MI6 have been granted a special screening of “Die Another Day” inside the MI6 Building, at Vauxhall Cross, London. Bond producers presented the British Intelligence agency with the offer, as a thank you for allowing them to film at the high-security building on the Thames, in three of the last four Bond films.

The screening took place inside a cinema deep within a secure area of MI6 headquarters. It is thought the cinema is normally used as a briefing room, to show slides and video footage of terrorist groups. The MI6 operatives, and bosses who viewed the film, were apparentley very impressed with the Bond crews interpretation of what goes on in the fictional version of MI6, and gave the movie the thumbs up.

Still, this is not the first time that the paths of the real world MI6, and Bond have crossed, after the success of GoldenEye, Dame Judi Dench was invited to the Christmas party at the itelligence services headquarters, where she met her real life counterpart, and was given the oppertunity to see the inside of the dominating building on the Thames.

If you’d like to discuss this news please do so in this thread of the Die Another Day Forums.

DAD Beats TWINE Total Gross

Almost a month since its initial release Die Another Day finished this weekend in fourth position at the US box office.

The film earned $7.5 million placing it slightly ahead of the new release of The Hot Chick, which managed to earn $7.47 million. The big winner for the weekend is Maid In Manhattan, starring Jennifer Lopez, which earned $19 million in its first weekend. Star Trek Nemesis opened is second spot taking in $18.8 million and Drumline finished in third, taking in $13.0 million. Pierce Brosnan’s other film currently in release, Evelyn, only made an estimated $75,000 though it is, however, playing on only 15 screens in the United States; the small amount making the film a viable Academy Awards contender.

The weekend earnings of Die Another Day mean the film has earnt $131.6 million at the United States box office. The near total earning means that Die Another Day has surpassed the box office total for Bond’s previous outing in 1999’s The World Is Not Enough which grossed $126 million at the US box office.

With Christmas holidays fast approaching, another surge in ticket sales for Die Another Day is expected.

Worldwide Gross Passes $200 million

Die Another Day continues its success with the film surpassing $194 million at the worldwide box office.

The film has had steady earnings in the past week, taking close to US$9 million at the US box office last weekend (December 7 & 8). Monday to Friday saw the film take approximately US$1 million at the box office each day, MGM reporting a Friday taking of US$901,007 with a touch of humour.

The film, however, lost its number one ranking on Saturday dropping down to fifth position at the US box office. Despite the drop it continued to perform strongly taking an estimated US$2,255,000. Saturdays box office took the film to an estimated US$126,291,000 in the US in its 22nd day of release.

Internationally the film has opened is most of the Southeast Asia region taking the films total to US$95.2 million internationally.

In terms of yearly performance, Die Another Day is ranked 19th facing competition from other spy adventures such as The Bourne Identity and XXX. It’s final ranking is expected to be in the top ten of films for 2002.

Source: Box Office Mojo

DAD; Bond Essentials in Australia

The Die Another Day press machine continues in Australia, with the film still in its first week of release in the region.

TV Station ‘Seven’ will be screening a behind the scenes documentry on the making of Die Another Day. The program will last one hour and is titled ‘Die Another Day – The Bond Essentials‘.

The program is screening on Sunday December 22nd at 10:30pm EST. Viewers are advised to check local listings for accurate viewing times.

Thanks to [dark] for the tip-off.

TNN Gives US Fans A Present: 007 Days Of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my TNN gave to me, Connery underneath the Mango Tree…

The New TNN gives Bond fans what they want for Christmas, loads and loads of Bond movies. Starting on Chritmas Eve morning The New TNN will start the marathon of Bond films with an airing of Dr. No and continue showing the Bond films through Octopussy, showing up to six films per day. The marathon will continue through December 30th. Special showings of note are On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which includes the classic John Barry Christmas song “Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?”, on Christmas Eve at 9:30pm ET/PT, and the Battle of the Bonds–Roger Moore’s Octopussy versus Sean Connery’s Never Say Never Again–on Boxing Day (December 26 at 9:00am ET/PT for NSNA and Noon ET/PT for Octopussy).

Here is the complete listings:

Tuesday, December 24th – All times are ET/PT

9:00am Dr. No (1962)
12:00pm From Russia With Love (1963)
3:00pm Goldfinger (1964)
5:30pm Thunderball (1965)
8:30pm You Only Live Twice (1967)
11:30pm On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Wednesday, December 25th – All times are ET/PT

9:00am Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
12:00pm Live And Let Die (1973)
3:00pm The Man With The Golden Gun (1975)
6:00pm The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
9:00pm Moonraker (1979)
12:00am For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Thursday, December 26th – All times are ET/PT

9:00am Never Say Never Again (1983)
12:00pm Octopussy (1983)
3:00pm Dr. No (1962)
6:00pm From Russia With Love (1963)
9:00pm Goldfinger (1964)
12:00am Thunderball (1965)

Friday, December 27th – All times are ET/PT

9:00am You Only Live Twice (1967)
11:30am On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
3:00pm Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
6:00pm Live And Let Die (1973)
9:00pm The Man With The Golden Gun (1975)
12:00am The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Saturday, December 28th – All times are ET/PT

3:00pm Moonraker (1979)
6:00pm For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Sunday, December 29th – All times are ET/PT

3:00pm Never Say Never Again (1983)
6:00pm Octopussy (1983)
9:00pm The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
12:00am Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Monday, December 30th – All times are ET/PT

9:00am Dr. No (1962)
12:00pm From Russia With Love (1963)
3:00pm Goldfinger (1964)
6:00pm Thunderball (1965)

To add to TNN marathon USA Network will show GoldenEye on December 19 at 8:00pm ET and again on December 20 at 1:00pm ET. And TBS will show Licence To Kill on December 26 8:00pm ET / 5:00pm PT.

Japan Gets Different Style Poster

It’s tradition that Japan gets its own Bond posters. Sadly, the posters for Brosnan’s first three outings weren’t that good, but the one for Die Another Day is unique and really great. The Art Of James Bond was able to get a copy of it and published it in the internet.

The Japanese poster, as well as all Die Another Day posters from ad campaigns around the world can be found by accessing this site.

Please head over to CBn’s Die Another Day Forums to discuss the Japanese poster in this thread! And many thanks to forum user ‘TGO’ who alterted us.

Tamahori Speaks His Mind

It’s not often that a Hollywood director is completely frank when it comes to the media; it’s not in their nature to tell all the truth as the truth doesn’t always sell. That hasn’t stopped director Lee Tamahori discussing elements of Die Another Day that past directors might not have been willing to discuss.

Currently in Australia to promote the release of Die Another Day Tamahori has said he had to rescue Bond from becoming a sexless, politically correct wimp. “James Bond is a loner who parades around saving the world, bedding women and driving fast cars. You don’t want to get all namby-pamby and have him all new age and crystal-gazing.” While author Ian Fleming sent Bond to a phsycologist, its clear that Tamahori had no such intention.

Tamahori has also attacked groups who have criticized the film.

After the films release anti-smoking campaigners criticized James Bond’s return to smoking in Die Another Day. Pierce Brosnan later admitted that the smoking scene was his own idea, as he found it appropriate for the scene. Tamahori added his own thoughts on the matter saying, “All this political correctness from the anti-smoking lobby is just a nonsense. There are not going to be 100,000 teenage boys picking up cigars because Pierce smoked in this movie. It is a foolish, politically correct notion. Let Pierce set his feet on fire and see if the kids follow suit.”

A lot of the films publicity in mid-2002 was directed towards what Tamahori claimed would be raunchier sex scenes, and the director is quite adamant they were filmed. Tamahori tells that he asked producer Barbara Broccoli if there was a “rule book . . . to not offend anybody”. Broccoli told him that there wasn’t and Tamahori decided to “give James Bond the best lay of his life. Let’s go out there and try to offend everybody.”

However, the scenes were to never make it to the silver screen after Broccoli ordered the scene be edited to be less risque. “Pierce and Halle hammering away at it, basically . . . but in America, you’re not allowed to thrust, moan or see anything,” Tamahori said, “You can chop someone’s head off, though.”

If you’d like to discuss this news please do so in this thread of the Die Another Day Forums. Thanks to [dark] for the tip-off.

Source: News.com.au

Official: 2005 Release Date

In an article about the boxoffice success of Die Another Day, Yahoo reports also about the further development of the franchise:

In recent years, MGM has tried to release a Bond movie about once every two years. But Yemenidjian said that was too fast in this case due to the strong success of “Die Another Day.”

“We are going to take three years to do the next one, because if this one does $500 million in worldwide box office, the next one should do more,” he told the investors at a UBS Warburg investors’ conference.

“I think there is a very big risk in rushing these things and screwing up the value of your franchise,” he added.

In interviews to promote the film last month, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson said they would not even begin working on a new Bond script until early next year.

The news from the producers of the Bond series and MGM executives confirms previous speculation that another 3 year gap would be sought after the success of Die Another Day.

Be sure to discuss the news in this thread in CBn’s Bond 21 Forums! And thanks to ‘Alex Zamudio’ for the alert!

Bond Sees Fencing Surge

A surge in the interest in the sport of fencing has proved that the character James Bond has some very real world influences.

Bond’s latest cinematic adventure, Die Another Day, sees the British agent fight millionaire Gustav Graves in what promises to become a battle to the death. The scene, which featured in the media heavily since being filmed, is responsible for a surge in the public interest in fencing according to Barry Paul, owner and managing director of Leon Paul, the UK’s only fencing equipment manufacturer.

“Certainly for us there’s a sense that the Bond film has resulted in more people being interested in fencing, ringing up and looking at our website,” Paul commented, also revealing that a lot of e-mails and visitors to his store have mentioned their interest in the sport is thanks to its appearance in Die Another Day.

Leon Paul have reported a 25% increase in turnover over the past three months, and Paul admits that the figure is increasing as Die Another Day plays to more audiences.

Leon Paul supplied various weapons for the Blades sequence in Die Another Day.

If you’d like to discuss this news, please visit this thread of the Die Another Day Forums. Thanks to Luke for the tip-off.

Source: BBC

Israeli Promotional Tour Cancelled

It has been revealed that two Die Another Day promotional tours of Israel have been cancelled in light of security risks.

The first promotional tour was scheculed for November 27, and was cancelled at the last minute due to “security concerns”. Actor Pierce Brosnan would have attended the event as he would have attended the second.

While no direct reason has been given for the second cancellation, it is again believed to be because of security risks. Hebrew-daily Yediot Aharonot reported that the “original intention was to combine Brosnan’s visit with the opening of a new Cinema complex, located in central Israel.” Brosnan would also have travelled through Jerusalem’s Old City after requesting a tour of the location.

Die Another Day was released on November 22 in Israel.

Thanks to ‘SeanVale00V’ for the news alert.

Source: Alabawaba Middle East News.