James Bond Headliners of 2006
The Real Vesper Lynd




















However, the producers most likely have hired an advisor on Poker or other
high stakes card games to show how to bluff your opponent. This is not
unusual to hire such people for a big budget production like CASINO ROYALE.
ROYALE PAIN IN THE ARSE
As if the production of the 21st Bond film has had enough bad press on their hands, the tabloids have been reporting that gay men have been approaching Daniel Craig while out on the town.
"I was out recently and all these gay guys were all over me like a rash", Craig said. "But they never ask about the Bond plot."
Gay websites have nicknamed the film GAYSINO ROYALE.
NEVER SAY QUITS AGAIN
75-year old Sean Connery has announced that he has retired from acting. currently The former James Bond star is providing the voiceover for Billi the Vet, an animated film made by the cartoon company Glasgow Animation. The production will be his final outing in the film world. "I have retired for good," Mr. Connery said. It marks the end of half a century in the business for the one-time milkman and male model - his film career began with a part as an extra in the 1955 Errol Flynn drama Lilacs in the Spring.
In June, the star will be awarded the American Film Institute's lifetime achievement award. "It means a tremendous amount, especially because of some of the things I've said about Hollywood."
The news of Connery's retiring came out at the same time of
Connery's possible reprise of Professor Henry Jones in Indy 4. Harrison
Ford, who played Indiana in three pictures, was asked by Ireland Online if Sir
Sean was up to one more adventure. Ford "coyly" smiled and
responded, "I can't really say [about Connery's return], but I would
hope." BOND ACTORS YOU MAY WANT TO CATCH
If you are like me and missed the opportunity to meet Bond girl Priscilla Barnes, AKA Mrs. Felix Leiter, at the Gaithersburg Maryland Fairgrounds in February. Well, have no fear - Barnes is here. She will be appearing next at HorrorFind Weekend, August 11th - 13th in Baltimore, Maryland. Ms. Barnes was the late great wife to Felix Leiter in 1989's LICENCE TO KILL.
Before he was Felix Leiter in 1973's LIVE AND LET DIE and
LICENCE TO KILL, actor David Hedison was Captain Lee Crane on TV's Voyage to
the Bottom of the Sea. He will be joined by other Irwin Allen alumni
September 14th - 17th at the Mid-Atlantic
Nostalgia Convention in Aberdeen, Maryland.
THE SUB WHO LOVED ME
Attention all serious OO7 collectors, here is your chance to win "The
Spy Who Loved Me" Submarine. This functional submersible was used
in the 1977 James Bond thriller "The Spy Who Loved Me." A prototype
for the "Shark Hunter II" series produced by Perry Oceanographics,
this mini-sub was designed for transporting personnel, conducting underwater
surveys, and to serve as a recreational vehicle. Representatives from Pinewood
Studios visited the builder to negotiate the propulsion and ballast for the
submersible Lotus Esprit used in the movie, when they caught a glimpse of the
Shark Hunter hull. So enamored were they with it, that the script was rewritten
to include the sub in an astounding underwater chase scene. Features include an
aluminum and fiberglass hull, brush less electric motor, and stainless steel
aircraft control cables. Maximum depth: 450 feet. Top speed: 3.5 kys. Battery
duration: 5-6 hours. Range: 18-20 miles. Torpedoes: none (sorry). Yellow with
black detailing, seats two, and is 15 feet in length. Includes wheeled transport
trailer, a history of the sub from designer Richard Brown, and list of
operational guidelines from previous owner Tom Kolodner. Estimate: $13,000
- up.
GOLDFINGER HOTEL SOLD TO MAKE ROOM FOR RENOVATION
Items of all sorts from the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach are on sale so the hotel can be renovated inside.
In GOLDFINGER, the 1964 James Bond classic, the Fontainbleau was almost as big a star as Sean Connery. It is the hotel which Bond spies Auric Goldfinger cheating at cards. All of the furnishings for a suite seen in the film, now known as the "Goldfinger Suite," are being sold in a liquidation sale to make room for the $150 million liquidation.
Sale items are priced to sell fast, with some costing as little as 25 cents. Some people are buying staple items for their homes, while collectors want rare items, such as early menus and silverware embossed with the hotel's name. Stars such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Sammy Davis, Jr. were frequent guests at the hotel, which is a landmark on Collins Avenue. They might have even used some of the sale items in their heyday. After it opened in 1954, the Fontainebleau was Vegas East, visited by almost every star in the galaxy. Several movies featured the glamorous hotel's unique design.Interior designer Rhoda Astrachan is helping with the sale. She remembers the hotel's glory years. "Nostalgic. For me, it touched my heart to see an era over. It is no more. It's gone on to new things. But nobody can have old world charm like this hotel."

British secret agent James Bond has chased the world's most dangerous villains in everything from cars to spaceships, but in his latest adventure, his vehicle of choice will be a bulldozer. In the opening scene of "Casino Royale," the 21st instalment of the popular movie franchise, Bond will pursue his latest enemy in a four-wheel W190 bulldozer supplied by Fiat, the Italian industrial group. Although its vehicles have appeared in a number of movies including the Alfa Romeo Spider in "The Graduate," it is the first time that Fiat will have one starring in a Bond movie.
"We are very happy and proud of it," said spokeswoman Silvia Cassani, who assured that none of the bulldozers, excavators or loaders supplied to the movie's producers were destroyed in the mayhem usually associated with a Bond action scene.
Cassani said the product placement was part of Fiat's advertising efforts as it recovered from a debilitating crisis suffered a few years ago. She said the movie, starring Daniel Craig, the first blond Bond, was a good medium to advertise the bulldozer made by New Holland, Fiat's construction equipment division, even though Bond's fans were mostly young males interested in the latest gadgetry.
"We have a diverse clientele," she said. "We don't just have old farmers."
BROSNAN: I NEVER WANTED TO BE BOND
- By Stuart Basinger
KEN WALLIS AT 90 by
Emma Knights
The autogyro genius was a bomber pilot in the second world war and said that
yesterday it was exactly 64 years since he came back from his last bombing trip
in Rostok, Germany. He began making autogyros in late 1958. Since then his
machines have been used for military work, especially reconnaissance, across the
world and until 1998 he held every world record for autogyros. He still holds
many, including all the records for fastest speed and the fastest climb to
3,000m. He now plans to regain most of the other records.
Wing Cdr Wallis was made an MBE in 1996 for his contribution to the development
of autogyros.
In the 1960s he found fame when one of his autogyros, Little Nellie, was used by
James Bond in the film You Only Live Twice. Wing Cdr Wallis acted as Sean
Connery's body double. "Little Nellie was on screen for seven-and-a-half
minutes but for that I did 84 flights and 46 hours flying," he laughed.
Despite his achievements Wing Cdr Wallis shows no signs of retiring from the air
just yet and this year also celebrates 30 years as president of the Flixton Air
Museum, near Bungay.
He said: "I do a lot of air photography work for Flixton. I like to have an
excuse to fly." He added that he still enjoyed tinkering with the
mechanics of his machines.
Last evening, Wing Cdr Wallis's birthday celebrations continued with bellringers
at his parish church, St Peter's, ringing a quarter-peal dedicated to him.
He was patron of Reymerston Ringers millennium appeal to restore and rehang the
five bells and add a new treble.
May 1, 2006
The official teaser trailer for CASINO ROYALE has been uploaded to JamesBond.com. You can view the teaser online or download it to your PSP.
Although a partial teaser in French was released over the last weekend in April, it has sparked a great deal of debate and anticipation. The visuals are nothing less than HOT and the first words we hear of Daniel Craig's Bond is, "So you want me to be half monk, half hit man." Meantime, the official teaser poster has also made its debut. With the release of THE DA VINCI CODE in mid May, SONY Pictures will be updating their OO7 website with an array of information and pictures.
Daniel Craig looking the part of OO7
THE SPY WHO I WROTE FOR - by Stuart Basinger
Twenty Century Publishers has announced that author and screenwriter Christopher Wood is busy writing a book that deals with his time making the film THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. It is expected to be released later in the year. Mr. Wood has recently written ‘Sincere Male Seeks Love and Someone to Wash His Underpants’ and ‘California, here I am’. He was also interviewed here.
HELL HATH NO FURY THAN A BOND WIFE SCORNED - by The Sunday Times
There’s
an unmistakable fatigue in Diane Cilento’s voice as she discusses her 11-year
marriage to Sean Connery. If Cilento found that being Mrs James Bond was tedious
at the dazzling zenith of the 1960s, the decades since have been a deepening
twilight of rumour, counter-rumour and third-party nostalgia for an era Cilento
doesn’t miss. Buried deep in Queensland, Australia, her experiences as
Connery’s wife seem a million miles away.
Having
wed at the fresh-faced start of their careers, their marriage quickly dissolved
into one long, mistrustful squabble.
It
was actually Cilento who left Connery, but the relationship haunts her still.
There’s little warmth in her memories of their union, little affection for
life as one half of what was then the world’s most glamorous couple.
Now
she claims to have put the record straight in her forthcoming autobiography, My
Nine Lives. “The moment Sean heard about my autobiography, he started work on
his own,” she says over the telephone from the other side of the world.
The
picture painted in her book foregrounds a grand romance extinguished swiftly by
Connery’s global fame, but it was a process that paradoxically reawakened
instincts inculcated in Connery in the tenements of Edinburgh. The man could be
taken out of Fountainbridge, Cilento discovered, but not vice versa.
“Everyone
who’s heard about the book has said, are you going to tell it warts and
all?” Cilento tells me. “What they mean is, am I going to talk about the
size of Sean’s genitalia, am I going to be salacious and sensational?
“You
can write a book to sell books or you can write a book that tells what you feel
was the truth, even if it is deeply one-sided.”
Cilento
considers her autobiography to be the latter kind of book, a measured,
thoughtful memoir not only of the marriage but also of her various incarnations.
It
traces her privileged childhood in Queensland as the daughter of Sir Raphael and
Lady Phyllis Cilento, through her film career and into her marriage to the man
for whom she left Connery, Anthony Shaffer, the late English screenwriter who
created the Scottish classic The Wicker Man.
It
also takes in her present circumstances in Port Douglas, where the 72-year-old
runs the Karnak Playhouse, an open-air theatre dedicated to experimental drama.
Any
scores settled in the book are done so with a misty, watercoloured regret and an
awareness that any relationship obliged to deal with the global hysteria around
Bond never stood a chance. Cilento even has some tender sympathy for Connery.
In
her book, she recalls meeting Connery with his father in a Shepherd’s Bush pub
in the early 1960s and being sharply aware that not only was the actor passing
money to his father, but it seemed to be a regular ritual.
Cilento
remembers feeling a deep compassion for her husband, wondering whether his
family resented Connery’s escape from his impoverished upbringing or whether
his father had been embarrassed to be seen accepting money from his son.
She
also recounts her early professional days fondly, remembering how she would
shave her husband’s back every three weeks in preparation for him filming
Bond’s love scenes.
In
the heady ambience of swinging London, he even wrote a never-produced ballet
entitled Black Lake, which Cilento remembers as being “very good, great even.
He met with a choreographer and he was very serious about it. He could hear it
all in his head. It was like Swan Lake, but far more Macbethian and more
classical ballet than modern”.
Eventually,
however, the actress claims she watched helplessly as her dashing young swain
succumbed to chauvinism, career envy and financial pettiness.
In
their marriage it was golf that started the rot, she said, but it was a night in
Almeria, Spain, that ended it, a night that allegedly had an explosive
denouement that plagues Connery’s reputation to this day.
“It
has been gone over millions of times,” Cilento says, as our conversation turns
to the night Connery is alleged to have attacked her in a hotel room, “but
what’s in the book is exactly what happened. I wouldn’t have said anything
about it if Sean hadn’t done all those interviews about slapping ladies
around.”
In
1965, Connery told Playboy: “I don’t think there is anything particularly
wrong in hitting a woman, though I don’t recommend you do it in the same way
you hit a man.”
Then
in Vanity Fair in 1993 he said: “Sometimes there are women who take it to the
wire. That’s what they are looking for — the ultimate confrontation. They
want a smack.”
Connery
has always said his words were taken out of context and has consistently and
strongly denied Cilento’s claims that he hit her.
“I
live in a place that has a lot of Aboriginal people, of the kind that could be
called redneck,” Cilento says to me. “So when someone like Sean says stuff
like that it confirms what people think they can do to each other. It happened
to me only once, but that was once too often. So that’s why I decided to
address what Sean did.”
In
her book, Cilento feels well enough placed to formulate four golden rules for
being the perfect Mrs Sean Connery.
Rule
1: be as besotted with golf as Connery is. When they married in 1962, just as
the movie Dr No was introducing Bond to a cinema-going public, the actor was a
golf virgin. When the game was introduced to him by his dentist he adopted it as
the ideal means to elude the Bond-mad public. Connery’s love of the game was
not shared by Cilento.
Rule
2: be a millionairess who never has to ask him for money. Cilento claims that
Connery, despite earning £50,000 a film, refused to subsidise the couple’s
housekeeping costs if Cilento continued her career as an actress. In 1964 she
was nominated, to her husband’s annoyance she said, for an Oscar for the film
Tom Jones. By 1966 she was being pursued by the couple’s bank to pay back
their £5,000 joint overdraft. Cilento reimbursed the bank from her savings
because, she writes, “the quickest way to send Sean into a rage was to talk
about money”.
Rule
3: do not be a celebrity. Cilento recalls that Connery had a fixed impression of
what a wife should be, and least among it was a competitor in the fame game.
Then there is:
Rule
4: to have no friends but Connery’s. When Cilento began to rely on a coterie
of male theatrical acquaintances while Connery was away filming Goldfinger, he
phoned his wife to say he had no intention of returning to find his house full
of effeminate thespians. Instead, Cilento was expected to fraternise with a
trusted circle of well-known entertainers who shared Connery’s passion for
golf. Her husband had little idea, however, that some were making approaches to
her in his absence.
“It
was terribly difficult to be in Sean’s position, terribly difficult,”
Cilento tells me. “The world doesn’t want you to be anything other than the
thing it knows you as. It doesn’t want you writing ballets. The public want
the same version of you over and over again. You get too used to being special.
The thrill of having dinner in a restaurant surrounded by screens so that the
other diners can’t gawp at you fades quickly, believe me.”
The
pair first met in 1957. Cilento was married and pregnant at the time. She
thought Connery looked like trouble, but fun nonetheless.
He
invited the actress to lunch at his mews house in St John’s Wood, northwest
London, which he bought by saving every spare penny of his wages from a
year-long theatre tour of South Pacific (the cast called him the Jolly Green
Giant).
They
married five years later in a calamitous wedding in Gibraltar, with Cilento
heavily pregnant again, two local taxi drivers as witnesses and a reception in a
shabby hotel during which the female vocalist flirted with an unshaven and
haggard Connery. The relationship began its slow disintegration soon after when,
Cilento claims, Connery refused to let her continue her career as an actress.
“Sean was very keen to see me becoming a wife,” she says, adding he would
snap at colleagues who proposed acting projects for her, preferring Cilento to
stay at home with Jason and prepare Sunday lunches for him and his golf buddies.
Cilento was aware she had become a golf widow.
Connery,
meanwhile, was opening his mind to new ideas. In the book, Cilento confirms that
Connery had become fascinated by the work of RD Laing, the notorious Glaswegian
psychiatrist.
To
meet Connery, Laing demanded a mammoth fee, complete privacy, a limousine to and
from the meeting and a bottle of finest single malt whisky during each session.
By
1965 their marriage was moving towards its final crises. The couple were in
Almeria, Spain, for Connery to shoot The Hill. At the couple’s hotel a wedding
party was in progress and the film crew took part, drinking fearsome local
brandy with beer chasers. Cilento found herself swept up by a gang of young
Spaniards, dancing wildly as the crew clapped and yelled. In the book she says
she could vaguely see a familiar face through the whirl of activity, but thought
no more about it until she returned to her room to find the absent Connery.
Walking through the door into the darkened room she felt a blow to her face and
was knocked to the floor.
According
to her literary account Cilento then remembers screaming. She got to her feet,
but a second blow knocked her back. She locked herself in the bathroom, spending
the night there in tears. In the morning she fled to Marbella. When she called
Connery the next day, neither mentioned what had happened.
“Before
writing the book I’d shoved all that into the recesses of my mind,” Cilento
tells me. “Writing, I got a much better overview of why we’d got ourselves
into such a tangle and why we couldn’t cope with each other. I know talking
about it opens a can of worms, but I couldn’t mention it because it coloured
the rest of our marriage.
“It’s
very difficult to understand what an event like that does if you haven’t
experienced it. It changes things a lot, especially if neither party
acknowledges it, as happened with us.
“If
I’d left it out it would have made my leaving Sean much less understandable.
We had just stopped being able to understand why the other did what they did. We
couldn’t meet properly and know who the other person was.”
Cilento
last met Connery about a decade ago during a chance encounter at an airport. A
devotee of eastern faiths, Cilento feels that with the book she has taken a
giant step towards allaying the restless karmas of the 1960s. But what does she
think Connery will make of it?
“I
hope he recognises the truth and the reality of it from my point of view,” she
tells me. “But I really don’t know. We don’t have any contact. I don’t
spend much time in Nassau and he doesn’t spend much time in Queensland.
He’ll probably hate it.
“But
I’ll have to ask Jason to know for certain . . .”
CAROLINE MUNRO UPDATE - by Nicola Mott for This Is Lancashire
A FORMER Bond girl has given her seal of approval to a book based on her career and written by a Darwen man. Actress Caroline Munro, now 56, was delighted with the draft copy of Caroline Munro: From Brighton to Bond and Back Again' which was was sent to her by fan Graham Groom, 41. Now she has asked him to make it official and publish the book for her fans.

The brunette pin-up was born in Windsor and lived in Rottingdean, near Brighton, where she attended a Catholic convent school. Her mother and a photographer entered her picture in a "Face of the Year" competition for a newspaper, and she won. This led to a modelling job for Vogue magazine at the age of 17. Caroline moved to London and became a major cover girl for fashion and TV ads.
Graham, of Meadow Street, Darwen, has been a member of Caroline's fan club for six years. Two years ago he arranged for her to attend a Dr Who convention he organised in Darwen, following her appearance in an episode of the programme, and has kept in regular touch ever since.
Graham, who works at Darwen Library, said: "The book was just for myself but when I sent Caroline a copy of the draft, she liked it so much she wanted me to turn it into a book. She is now selling it through her fan club and has just taken it to Hollywood for the American fan club. We have become quite good friends over the years and she said she loved the book. I was really pleased when she suggested publishing it."
The book of course features her role in the 007 film The Spy Who Loved Me' and its release coincides with her 40th anniversary in show business. To mark the anniversary Graham has also arranged for Caroline to revisit Darwen on September 23 for An Afternoon with Caroline Munro' at Darwen Library Theatre.
He said: "Caroline will be here for five hours which will include an hour interview on stage and 45 minutes of autograph signing.
ELECTRONIC ARTS LOSES OO7 - by Ben Fritz for Variety
In a major shift, MGM and Electronic Arts have ended their deal for the super spy, one of the most popular and profitable licenses in the video game biz, four years before it was scheduled to end.
Lion has signed a new deal with game publisher Activision that extends through 2014 and is worth around $50 million, according to insiders. Activision will be putting out next-generation interactive titles based on the popular books by Ian Fleming and feature films from MGM.
EA first published a Bond game in 1998 and extended its deal with MGM and EON Prods. just three years ago through 2010. At the time Bond games were some of the industry's most successful. EA has published three since then; 2003's "Everything or Nothing" and 2005's "From Russia With Love" did moderately well, while 2004's "Goldeneye: Rogue Agents" sold poorly.
The 18 Bond videogames published since 1983 have sold some 30 million units overall. They included Parker Brothers Octopussy Game, SEGA Genesis' 'The Duel', and Delphine's The Stealth Affair. The most popular Bond games have been Rare's GoldenEye and EA's Nightfire.

One of the first James Bond video games released in 1983
EA was not able to make a game tie-in for the upcoming "Casino Royale" however, costing MGM millions in license fees. Insiders indicated that decision, along with a shift in EA corporate strategy, led to the two canceling the deal.
"No game means no revenue, and, for the first year, the consumer products team was left high and dry," said one person close to the deal.
Insiders said Activision was the No. 2 bidder for Bond in 2003, making it a natural to take the license now.
"We looked at a very selective group of potential partners," noted MGM executive v
ice president of consumer products Travis Rutherford.First Bond game from Activision is expected to be a tie-in to Bond 22. Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will obtain the worldwide rights to create video games for all current and next-generation consoles, PC and hand-held platforms. The license will grant Activision the right to develop and publish games based on all of the James Bond movies, as well as non-movie based games.
NEW ASTON MARTIN REVEALED FOR "CASINO ROYALE" - by Tracy Wilkinson
Aston Martin has unveiled the new DBS which will be driven by James Bond, the legendary British secret agent, in the next 007 film, “CASINO ROYALE”, to be produced by Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli for EON Productions.

The sleek new Aston Marin is ready to take on the bad guys in Casino Royale.
In true Bond style, specific details of the new DBS remain top secret, although Aston Martin Design Director, Marek Reichman, said: “This car encapsulates a link between our elegant DB9 road car and the powerful DBR9 race car. It signals an evolutionary development of Aston Martin’s world renowned style and elegance.
“While hinting at our future design direction, the DBS also has very clear links with our heritage – it is instantly recognisable as an Aston Martin.”
Aston Martin Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ulrich Bez added: “The DBS continues our proud and lengthy association with James Bond."
“The DBS is not of the understated elegance of a DB9, nor the youthful agility of the V8 Vantage. It is explosive power in a black tie and has its own unique character which will equal that of James Bond.”
Starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, “CASINO ROYALE” is scheduled for release in November 17, 2006.
JAMES BOND SEQUEL PLANNED FOR 2-007? - by Female First
James Bond bosses want to release the sequel to new movie 'Casino Royale' next year - because the date ends in 007. Producers are keen to take advantage of the numerical significance with the suave spy's special agent number and want to start work on the project as soon as shooting has finished on the current film.
A source told Britain's Daily Express newspaper: "The next one will be in 2007 - Bond's year. It will mean back-to-back shooting but then the next film will pick up where 'Casino Royale' leaves off anyway."
However, the decision will mean new Bond Daniel Craig will not have a break between movies and will have to juggle promotional commitments for 'Casino Royale' with filming.
DANIEL CRAIG WILL BE A GREAT BOND
- by The Irish Examiner
Former Bond girl Famke Janssen is convinced Daniel Craig
will excel in the role of the British superspy, despite being sad Pierce Brosnan
is no longer playing the part.
The 40-year-old made her breakthrough starring as Xenia Onatopp in 1995 movie Goldeneye,
and credits the casting with catapulting her into the limelight.

Famke Janssen as Xenia Onetopp in GoldenEye - 1995
She tells British movie magazine Empire: "I'm sad that it's not Pierce
anymore. I worked with him and really enjoyed him as Bond, but I think Daniel
Craig will make a great Bond.
"It's funny, most people say being a Bond girl hurts your career, but it certainly didn't hurt mine... It put me on the map and gave me opportunities I never had before, so I don't regret for one second being in that movie."
NANCY SINATRA GETS HOLLYWOOD STAR - The Associated Press
Nancy Sinatra pulled on a pair of boots one more time Thursday for a strut on the Walk of Fame. The 1960s pop icon was honored with a star on Hollywood Boulevard four decades after the debut of her rebel hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" in 1966.

"My advice to young women starting out is hang tough, don't quit _ even if it takes 40 years," Sinatra said.
The daughter of Frank Sinatra was also known for her blonde bouffant, vampy style and string of chart-topping tunes, including "Sugar Town" and the James Bond title track "You Only Live Twice."
She wore jeans instead of her trademark miniskirt for the Walk of Fame ceremony.
"I've very proud of my sister," Frank Sinatra Jr. said. "Not only is she a fine talent but a great American."
In 1967, Nancy Sinatra recorded "Something Stupid," a duet with her father that became a No. 1 hit. She also costarred with Elvis Presley in the 1968 film "Speedway." Her latest album of new songs, released in 2004, featured collaborations with Morrissey, Sonic Youth, Jarvis Cocker and other rockers.
BIRTHDAY SALUTES - Stuart Basinger
Several James Bond alumni are celebrating their birthdays this month.
Composer Burt Bacharach turned 78 on May 12th. He composed the fantastic music from the Charles K. Feldman 1967 Bond spoof CASINO ROYALE. The soundtrack is currently on CD and highly recommended from this website.
Pierce Brosnan is 53 on May 16th. Having completed four films under the Eon banner and voicing the OO7 game EVERYTHING OR NOTHING, he is currently filming BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL.
Joseph Wiseman is 88 on May 15th. He played Doctor No in the 1962 classic film of the same name. He continues to perform and was a recipient of the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in 1998. Other roles included his breakout part of Charley Gennini in DETECTIVE STORY.
It's May Day for Grace Jones. She will be celebrating her 54th on May 19th. She played the deadly assassin in 1985's A VIEW TO A KILL.
DANIEL CRAIG HURT? - Stuart Basinger
Not really. It is actually a candid photograph taken of actor Daniel Craig playing the role of OO7 in the upcoming CASINO ROYALE in Prague.

Daniel Craig is wheeled into the hospital in a scene from CASINO ROYALE. Producer Michael G. Wilson can be seen in the top center wearing a black jacket. Photo courtesy of IDNES.CZ
Not too much has been revealed as to what is going on in this scene, but one wonders if this shot happens after the grueling torture scene. One can obviously say that playing the role of James Bond these days requires an actor with balls.
PRAGUE-ING ALONG - DSBG
New candid photos are pouring our of Prague from the set of CASINO ROYALE. Both Daniel Craig and Eva Green, who plays Bond girl Vesper Lynd, are seen here between takes. Craig is definitely looking the part after months of seeing him in torn shirts and pants. The sunglasses add to the cool sophistication that has been sorely lacking since the Connery days. Eva Green looks more and more like Ian Fleming described her in the novel. CASINO ROYALE opens November 17th.

Eva Green sits while Daniel Craig waits for the director to call action.
BOND IN THE BAHAMAS - Stuart Basinger
A new 'behind the scenes' look at CASINO ROYALE is now online at Cinebel. It runs exactly 3 minutes and shows exclusive shots which have not been seen anywhere else. Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Caterina Murino, Michael G. Wilson, and Martin Campbell add there comments to the myriad of scenes featuring Bond slow kissing Vesper while the two float in the sea, Solange and her horse, the Aston Martin DB5 with Bond driving it on the left hand side, and Dench who is woken up by a phone call to inform her that OO7 was in the Bahamas. There is new shots of Bond and Mollaka chasing through a tropical jungle which has not been seen before, as well as some more stunt work atop the construction crane. Daniel Craig points out in the interview that he 'wasn't going to go back up there in the near future, put I did put a few demons to bed' after conquering his subtle fear of heights.
JAMES BOND'S LOTUS TO BE AUCTIONED - by Linda Sandler for Bloomberg
James Bond's Lotus Esprit Turbo, driven by Roger Moore in the film, ``For Your Eyes Only,'' goes on sale for as much as $350,000 in a June 17 auction at Planet Hollywood in New York, London and Tokyo, Julien's Auctions said.
The car from the 1981 movie is a prototype, making it the rarest Lotus, the Los Angeles-based auction house said in a statement. The auction will be broadcast live on Treasure HD, a high-definition channel carried by U.S. satellite and cable operators, it said.
High prices for memorabilia are luring sellers. There will be 50 items from Bond's early films with Sean Connery to recent movies starring Pierce Brosnan. A ring worn by killer Odd Job (Harold Sakata) in 1964's ``Goldfinger'' will be offered by Sakata's estate for as much as $10,000, and his steel-brimmed Derby hat has a top value of $30,000, Julien's said.
``For Your Eyes Only'' was the 12th Bond movie, based on Ian Fleming's stories, with a budget of $28 million and inflation- adjusted box-office revenue by 2002 of $387 million, according to http://www.007.info/FactfileFYEO.asp . Agent 007 is assigned to hunt for a lost encryption device and keep it from falling into enemy hands. In the film, Moore drives white and bronze Lotus cars that go on land and sea, as well as a Citroen 2CV, the Web site said.
Planet Hollywood International Inc. of Orlando, Florida, runs themed restaurants from Honolulu to Bali and Dubai and is expanding into hotels and casinos, the company said last year.
Group Lotus Plc, based in Norfolk, England, makes luxury sports cars, including the Lotus 340R and the Lotus Elise series. It is controlled by Proton Holdings Bhd., Malaysia's biggest automaker.
Julien's specializes in high-priced celebrity memorabilia. Treasure HD, a channel for collectors, is managed by Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Rainbow Media Holdings LLC unit, according to the statement.
Bond fans can browse the catalog and enter pre-auction bids at http://www.juliensauctions.com , or bid online during the auction.
CASINO ROYALE DIRECTOR - VAL GUEST - DIES - Sean Decker for Fangoria
Writer, director, actor and producer Val Guest died Wednesday, May 10 at age 94 in Palm Springs, California, following a long bout with cancer. Born Valmond Guest on December 11, 1911 in London, the filmmaker had an extensive and varied career, which included a lengthy collaborative relationship with the celebrated British genre producer Hammer Films. He leaves behind his wife of 53 years, actress Yolande Donlan.
Having begun his career in show business in the 1930s as a stage actor, Guest honed his writing skills while serving as the head of The Hollywood Reporter’s London bureau before moving on to Gainsborough Studios, where he worked extensively as a screenwriter (also dabbling in film and song composition; several of his works appeared in scores for the studio’s productions). Guest is best-known to genre fans for his work under the Hammer banner, which includes the 1955 alien-mutation film THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (a.k.a. THE CREEPING UNKNOWN and its 1957 sequel QUATERMASS 2 (a.k.a. ENEMY FROM SPACE), as well as 1957’s THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS (starring Peter Cushing), 1958’s THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND and the 1970 stop-motion epic WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH, a follow-up to Hammer’s 1966 hit ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.
Considered by many to be Guest’s greatest work, however, is the 1961 sci-fi cult classic THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, a British Lion/Pax Films production which revolves around the aftereffects of a nuclear test which knocks the Earth off its axis, sending it hurtling toward the sun. A Cold War cautionary tale, the film favors story over special FX, choosing the ground-level perspective of a London everyman (played by Edward Judd), and the result is a film which remains as effective today as it was during its initial release. Working in various genres of film and TV well into the 1980s, Guest amassed such directorial credits as episodes of the similarly themed series SPACE: 1999 (in which the moon is sent hurtling into deep space following an explosion), as well as the “Child’s Play,” “In Possession” and “Mark of the Devil” episodes of Hammer Studios’ 1986 television series HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE.
He was one of the five directors on CASINO ROYALE, the 1967 James Bond pastiche very loosely based on Ian Fleming’s novel, currently being given a more serious screen treatment with new 007 Daniel Craig.
He also directed the film TOOMORROW which was produced by Harry Saltzman and dabbled in television with THE PERSUADERS starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.
Dennis Bartok, writer/producer and longtime friend of the director, eulogizes Guest’s life and career: “Even though Val was 94 years old, his death came as a shock; he always seemed nearly indestructible. Certainly his films are. Val left behind one of the richest legacies of any filmmaker of his generation, or generations, really. Talking to him was like a marvelous, irreplaceable history lesson in British cinema. He started out alongside Hitchcock in the early days—the very early days!—wrote scripts for the much-loved comedian Will Hay in the 1930s, and gave Peter Sellers one of his first breaks in the movies [1958’s UP THE CREEK]. Val knew everyone, and certainly his name was a household word in England. The words ‘A Val Guest Production’ carried a certain excitement, and promised movies that were tough, taut, intelligent and never talked down to the audience.”
Bartok recalls of Guest, “Early in his career, Val was infamous for smoking big, Hollywood-style cigars from sunup to sundown, and in later years was unmistakable in his ever-present hat and ascot tie from Wimbledon. He was a devoted husband to his wife Yolande, a great London stage star who appeared in many of Val’s finest films. Barely a sentence came out of Val’s mouth where he didn’t mention ‘Yo’; they were as inseparable as two people could be.” Bartok, who previously served as program director for LA’s American Cinematheque, recalls a DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE screening he organized several years ago: “Joe Dante loaned us a beautiful 35mm print, and at the end of the movie there was a moment of stunned silence, and then the entire audience rose and gave Val a standing ovation. As Joe eloquently said, ‘It was one of the most moving movie experiences of my life.’
“Val co-wrote [DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE] with Wolf Mankowitz,” Bartok notes, “and the subject is a ‘small one’: the end of the world. But with characteristic intelligence and audacity, Val carries it off brilliantly, reflecting the world’s imminent destruction through the alcoholic bitterness and slow redemption of a burned-out British reporter. There’s not an ounce of fat in the film: The dialogue is savage and dead-on in the best Billy Wilder tradition. Val was a newspaperman early in his career, and he brings an astonishing level of veracity and honesty to this story of journalists trying to keep faith with the public and themselves as everything around goes to hell. What’s so memorable about the film, and the characters, is that nothing they do or say will have any real impact on the fate of the world. They’re just trying to do their jobs, the best way they know how, no matter what the circumstances.”
Guest’s outlook during his final days apparently mirrored the tenacity displayed by his scripted characters in EARTH. According to Bartok, the director remained “right until the end his usual cheeky, irrepressible self. We visited him at the hospice on Wednesday, and despite the pain and medications, he was still smiling and joking. He said how lucky he felt to be married to Yolande for all these years, and I added, ‘Well, she was pretty lucky to be married to you too, Val.’ He exclaimed, ‘I want it in writing!’ Val was a class act, all the way. A remarkable man. We’ll miss you, Val."
A BIG WEEK FOR BOND NEWS - Stuart Basinger
What a difference a week makes in entertainment news, not to mention the world of James Bond.
First is the launch of Sony Pictures website of CASINO ROYALE and I must admit it is a fun site for all kinds of info on the film. The site is set up like a poker game and you can move your mouse over cards and chips to link to other parts of the site. It also has the official cast list and two names stand out from the rest. One is a character named Mr. White played by Jesper Christensen, who may be a recurring villain in the same vain as Ernst Stavro Blofeld was to the early part of the series. The second character is Madame Wu played by Tsai Chin. I'm not too sure what kind of person Madame Wu is to the story but most Bond fans will remember Ms. Chin as the character of Ling in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. She was the Chinese girl in bed with Sean Connery at the beginning of the film.

Cannes Film Festival features the banner from CASINO ROYALE and a different style of art compared to the teaser poster. Photo courtesy of JoBlo.com
Daniel Craig is interviewed by Mary Hart at the Entertainment Tonight website. "My job is not to repeat something that someone else has done," Daniel tells Mary. "I love Bond, and we all grew up with it, and it's very precious to me, so I'm trying to look after it -- and I'm trying to take it somewhere else so that, with or without me, it lasts another how many years. That's the deal here."
Meanwhile, onlookers have seen the production filming in the Czech town Karlovy. The trips to the gym have paid off for Craig since he had to do twenty takes in three hours of crashing through doors and running across courtyards.
DID PIERCE BROSNAN GET TO PICK HIS DIRECTORS TOO?
Pierce Brosnan's name got some exposure this week as well. According to Latino Review, film director Brett (After the Sunset, X-Men 3) Ratner said, "I wanted to direct 'Casino Royale.' Pierce Brosnan came to me when I was shooting 'Rush Hour II' and I got a call from my assistant saying that Pierce Brosnan wanted to meet me and I said, 'Well, I'll be back in three months when I'm done shooting this.' He said, 'No. He wants you to meet tomorrow.' I said, 'Okay, he can come here because I'm shooting.' He came to Vegas and I see James Bond walking in and I was like, 'Holy sh**.' He sat down and says, 'I want you to direct the next "James Bond."' I said, 'Holy sh**.' He said, 'I can't believe you're the same guy who did "Family Man" and who did "Rush Hour."' He said, 'You have to do this movie for me. Unfortunately I have no say in it.' And of course I didn't get the job. But it was nice that he flew to Vegas."
FORREST GUMP BEATS OUT JAMES BOND
Brosnan recently commented on the release of THE DA VINCI CODE. "I was doing AFTER THE SUNSET in the Bahamas (and) every time I'd look around, every man and his dog was reading the (book)," Brosnan told the trade mags. "People said, 'You should play this role.' So I read it and I thought, 'I should play this role.' I didn't get it, so there you go."
Meanwhile the Daily Record has revealed that Brosnan ruined Dougray Scott's chances of being the next James Bond. Scott was in talks with the producers about taking over as 007 in DIE ANOTHER DAY. But Brosnan changed his mind and agreed to play Bond one last time. Dougray, who was then passed over for Daniel Craig, said: "I'm not sure if it was ever for me. They first talked to me about it five years ago but then Pierce Brosnan wanted another go. Good luck to Daniel."
ALL TIME HIGH?
The ex-Mrs. Sean Connery, Diane Cilento, has written a autobiography titled MY NINE LIVES about her life with the first James Bond. In it she reveals that Sean dabbled in LSD to help him deal with the world-famous celebrity status that overwhelmed their lives.
The Edinburgh-born actor decided to seek medical help after starring in 1964's Goldfinger because, despite his growing worldwide success, he was suffering from feelings of insecurity. Details of the bizarre episode says an "insecure" Connery sought the help of radical psychiatrist RD Laing to spiritually "unblock him". In extracts from her book, published yesterday in Australia, Cilento says: "Goldfinger was the most successful Bond film yet. But, paradoxically, the more successful Bond became, the more insecure Sean felt. He was convinced that he would never feel safe until he had £1m in the bank."
It was around this time, Cilento says, that she met the "iconoclastic" Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing, who was writing an "astonishingly astute" book called The Politics of Experience. "In it he describes a radical new method of helping patients through times of stress without endless hours on the couch," Cilento recalls. "I talked to him about Sean, and then I talked to Sean about Laing. They were fascinated to meet each other, though Laing laid down stringent rules for the consultation. He demanded a great deal of money, complete privacy, a limo to transport him to and from the meeting and a bottle of the best single malt Scotch at each session."
Cilento writes that following her husband's initial shock at the sum of money: "I knew Sean was pleased at the arrangement. He knew no one could ask for that much loot without being sure of his skills. What followed next was pure Hollywood. On the first encounter, Laing gave Sean a tab of pure LSD, taking about a tenth of that amount himself. It was his standard procedure with patients he felt were emotionally blocked. The results however appeared to be unpredictable. "No-one was privy to what happened over the next six hours, but I believe that, with his enormous reserve and armouring, Sean resisted the drug. As a result, he had to go to bed for several days to recover."
Dr. Laing was troubled by his own personal problems, suffering both from episodic alcoholism and clinical depression. He died in 1989, age 61, of a heart attack while playing tennis.
Ms. Cilento goes on about their marital problems and the time which she believes she was hit by Connery, although she doesn't directly name Connery as the attacker. "It was late when I climbed the stairs to our room, I can't remember if I had a key or if the door was unlocked. I was a bit drunk. Once inside, in the darkness, I felt a blow to my face and was knocked to the floor. I remember screaming, and I think we were shouting. I got to my feet and tried to fight back, but another blow sent me flying. I managed to get through the bathroom door and locked myself in. I spent the night sprawled on the bathroom floor, covered with towels, whimpering."
She fled the next morning, leaving Connery sleeping, to avoid media questions. When she next spoke to her husband, the incident was never mentioned. She only raised it years later when Connery told a magazine interviewer that there was "nothing wrong" with hitting a women in certain circumstances. He has always denied making the remarks, saying the interviewer took his comments out of context.
A HELLUVA SEND OFF
A Hoddesdon, UK man was given a foot-stomping send-off when a four-piece jazz band belted out cheery tunes as they led his funeral procession - just like a scene from the James Bond film LIVE AND LET DIE.
Mick Levesley, 71, told his family he wanted his funeral to be like the one depicted at the start of the 1973 Roger Moore movie and so his relatives organized the rousing tribute.
As family, friends and past work colleagues of Mick, a retired train driver, arrived at the family home in Ranworth Avenue to join the funeral cortege before it made its way to Enfield Crematorium, they were met by the musicians playing Glen Miller hits and jazz tunes like You Are My Sunshine. Mick, who died peacefully in his sleep, was known for his "fantastic sense of humor".
GOODBYE, MR. BOND
Bond fans were sad to hear that long time website MR. KISS KISS BANG BANG was shutting down. Except for archival articles, the website will no longer be updated. I was a contributor many years ago and met some nice people. They will be missed.
ANOTHER CANDLE!
Happy Birthday to the following Bond alumni. Both Christopher Lee and Patti Labelle will be celebrating later this week. Mr. Lee who played evil villain Francisco Scaramanga in the 1974 film THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN will be 84 years young. He has appeared in over 200 films and has performed famous roles such as Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein's monster, Sherlock Holmes and most recently Saruman the White in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.
Patti Labelle is no stranger to Bond fans. She sang the closing credit song If You Ask Me To for the 1989 film LICENCE TO KILL. Ms. LaBelle continues to entertain the world over with her singing, she will be 62.
SUNSEEKER SPEEDS INTO ROYALE
Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, producers of the new James Bond
film Casino Royale, have confirmed that the latest 007 production will again
feature Sunseeker motoryachts. It is the third time in succession Sunseeker
motoryachts have featured alongside the world-famous secret agent and the
company’s greatest involvement in a 007 film production to date.
A number of Sunseeker motoryachts have been filmed on locations from the Bahamas
to central Europe. The motoryachts were also filmed in the studio, including a
sequence involving the company’s high performance XS 2000 and a sea plane.
Casino Royale, due for worldwide release in November 2006, features
Sunseeker’s stunning Predator 108, the largest yet in the Predator range and
one of the company’s most impressive performers, achieving speeds of up to
50mph.
Other James Bond films which have featured Sunseeker motoryachts include Die
Another Say (2002) and The World is not Enough (1999) in which Sunseeker’s
Superhawk 34 sped down London’s River Thames at over 60 mph in the
longest-ever Bond pre-title sequence.
Commenting on another appearance in a James Bond film, the company’s managing
director Robert Braithwaite MBE said: ‘I am delighted that we have been asked
to be involved in Casino Royale. Like Sunseeker, James Bond is associated
worldwide with luxury, style and performance, I like to think that it would not
be a 007 film without a Sunseeker!’
A global leader in the design and build of luxury motoryachts, Sunseeker
International exports 99% of its product range and employs over 1,750 highly
trained staff in their shipyards on Britain’s South Coast. Sunseeker
International is widely recognised as the pre-eminent marine brand in the world
today.
BONDING WITH BOND FANS
Two big James Bond events will be taking place later this summer.
First, the Ninth
Annual Bond Collectors’ Weekend: Time is running out to join their 9th annual
BOND FAN EVENT as they cruise Miami - Nassau - Miami and visit James Bond
locations!
Events
on and off ship include World’s Easiest/World’s Hardest Bond Trivia, Costume
Bash, “meet and greet author signings” with guest authors Deborah Lipp (THE
ULTIMATE JAMES BOND FAN BOOK) and Michael Di Leo (THE SPY WHO THRILLED US), free
time in The Bahamas and two guided tours of Nassau’s James Bond locales.
Carnival amenities include a casino, discotheque, unlimited food and fun, and
being surrounded by James Bond fans and insiders!
They have set a date of JUNE 1 to HOLD OVER their $50 per person discount and secure available space aboard their cruise ship sailing this August from Miami to THE BAHAMAS for Bond, Bond, Bond! Following JUNE 1, they are unable to hold/guarantee space and guests will be wait listed only. For more information check out the Omnibilia website.
The
second Bond event is the DARE TO BE BOND
held in Las Vegas from August 24-27. Your host is Charlie Axworthy, who
frequents the CommanderBond.net site as OO3. Come and celebrate the 35th
anniversity of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER.
HEINEKEN BONDS WITH CASINO ROYALE - MarketWire
Heineken International announced that it has partnered with EON Productions and Sony Pictures Entertainment to launch a world-wide promotional campaign for the 21st James Bond film, CASINO ROYALE.
The campaign will include a television commercial featuring Eva Green, who stars as Vesper Lynd in the film. The ad directed by Oscar winning director Steven Gaghan will be shot on the CASINO ROYALE set in the Czech Republic and will be broadcast in 30 and 45 second versions on TV and cinemas through-out November and December 2006.

The promotional campaign will also comprise on- and off-premise promotions, interactive and digital activities, radio promotions, consumer competitions and tie-ins with local Sony publicity and promotional events. The promotional campaign will be activated in approximately 40 countries worldwide. Heineken beer will also featured in scenes from the movie.
Peter van Campen Director Group Commerce, Heineken International said of the partnership, "we are very excited to continue our long-standing relationship with the Bond franchise, which is the longest and most successful film franchise in history. The global promotional campaign for CASINO ROYALE, will be activated in our key markets and is a core activity in our plans to accelerate Heineken brand equity and growth."
Eva Green star of CASINO ROYALE, said of the campaign, "I'm delighted to be promoting CASINO ROYALE in association with Heineken. Heineken continues to be a highly innovative partner in its support of film-making."
CASINO ROYALE is scheduled for international release on 17th November and introduces Daniel Craig as the new James Bond.
Heineken continues its well established association with high-impact international blockbusters which have a natural fit with the brand. These global associations allow Heineken to create aspirational experiences for its adult consumers and further position its premium brand credentials worldwide. Heineken has activated highly successful promotional campaigns around three previous James Bond films; Die Another Day, The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies.
HAL DAVID TURNS 85
A belated birthday greeting to songwriter Hal David, who is 85. Born on May 25, 1921, he wrote memorable Bond songs such as WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD and the title song to MOONRAKER. He also contributed to the 1967 version of CASINO ROYALE with the classic song THE LOOK OF LOVE.
Other memorable songs include WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT, DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE, and RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD from BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.
DIFFICULT QUESTIONS FOR CONNERY - Holyrood.com
The Parliament’s Presiding Officer, George Reid, has said he will not pull any punches in his questioning of Sir Sean Connery at a special event this summer.
“He will be asked difficult questions – about did a slap never do a woman any harm, for example,” Reid told Holyrood. “I’ll be doing it as a BBC interview, I’m not doing it as ex-SNP or as the Presiding Officer. It will be fair and balanced in that sense.”
Sir Sean was reported to have told Playboy magazine in 1965: “I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong in hitting a woman, though I don’t recommend you do it in the same way you hit a man.” Then in Vanity Fair magazine in 1993 he is alleged to have said: “Sometimes there are women who take it to the wire. That's what they're looking for, the ultimate confrontation. They want a smack.”
In 1998, it was said that the actor had been denied a knighthood after some in the Labour Party objected to the idea because of his comments. Sir Sean has said that his attempts to explain his original remark have been distorted. In 2002 it was announced he had, in conjunction with a journalist, agreed to write his autobiography but the deal fell through.
Reid said that the forthcoming interview could be Sir Sean’s “last big set piece to the world”. The Presiding Officer’s ‘In Conversation’ with the James Bond star will be the highlight of this year’s Festival of Politics. Before an invited audience, he will share his views on Scotland, its politics and its place in the world.
Sir Sean first visited Holyrood in 2003 while the Parliament building was under construction. He also attended the Holyrood building opening ceremony in 2004 and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in July 1999.
Last year’s event was a groundbreaking addition to Edinburgh’s festival season with more than 3,000 people attending 22 events. This year’s event has been expanded by a day to include Saturday events for the family and will feature more than 50 debates, workshops and performances ranging from educational games for children to challenging discussions on global political issues. Last year’s event was a groundbreaking addition to Edinburgh’s festival season with more than 3,000 people attending 22 events. This year’s event has been expanded by a day to include Saturday events for the family and will feature more than 50 debates, workshops and performances ranging from educational games for children to challenging discussions on global political issues.
CASINO ROYALE UPDATES - by Stuart Basinger
One of the most frustrating things a Bond fan faces is waiting for information about the making of a new OO7 film. Even with today's technology and the speed of the Internet one feels that there is not enough info pouring out from Casino Royale. However, occasionally there is that one outlet that comes through and I personally would like to give HIGH KUDOS to the people at EvaGreenWeb. Recently they have been posting nearly everyday new photos of Daniel Craig and Eva Green on the set, and they are outstanding.
So if you have not had a chance to visit this website, by all means go now.
SEAN CONNERY RECEIVES AFI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - by Stephen Galloway for The Hollywood Reporter
Sean Connery is one of the world's few bona fide film stars, a man whose face is recognizable from Los Angeles to Lisbon, from Glasgow to Gda´nsk. But if his comfortable, masculine presence has made him an icon to moviegoers across the globe, it is his acting skill that most strikes those who know him.
"He uses himself so magnificently with every role he plays,"
says Sidney Lumet, who has directed him in five films, including 1965's
"The Hill" and 1974's "Murder on the Orient Express."
"Most actors are either leading men or character actors, but Sean is one of
the few stars who encompasses both. A character actor essentially becomes what
he is playing, whereas with most leading men, what they are playing becomes
them. But Sean is capable of the two."
Connery has demonstrated that rare capacity in roles ranging from Greek King
Agamemnon in 1981's "Time Bandits" and professor Henry Jones, father
of a certain dashing archeologist in 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade," to Soviet submarine skipper Marko Ramius in 1990's "The Hunt
for Red October."
Add these to the role that made him famous -- supersleuth James Bond -- and
together, they form a body of work significant enough that this year, the
American Film Institute has named Connery the recipient of its Life Achievement
Award. It's an accolade many believe is long overdue.
"Everyone knows and likes him, but he makes what he does look easy,"
critic Leonard Maltin offers. "He doesn't call attention to his
skills or his methodology. He's one of those actors who doesn't like to
talk about the process and perhaps wants us to believe that there is no process,
that he simply gets up and does it -- which, of course, is nonsense."
Today, most critics and film artists view Connery as a consummate performer, the
very model of what a great film actor should be. It's a view his colleagues
share.
"He is the ultimate professional," says Catherine Zeta-Jones, his
co-star in 1999's thriller "Entrapment." "If someone is not
pulling their weight, he'll let them know with a very strong Scottish accent
that makes any grown man's knees tremble."
Still, she adds, "If I got the chance, I would do the phone book with him
and put it on film."
But the actor's astonishing success is all the more impressive when considered
against the humble backdrop of a childhood spent in the slums of Edinburgh,
where he was born Thomas Sean Connery in 1930.
Despite Connery's strong public identification with Scotland, his family's roots
there do not go deep. His ancestors only moved from Ireland to Glasgow in
the 1880s, making them relative newcomers by Scottish standards, and his own
grandparents relocated from Glasgow to Edinburgh in the early 1900s.
Whatever hopes they might have had of a richer or grander life there failed to
materialize, and their eldest grandson was born in a two-room ground-floor
apartment in the industrial district of Fountainbridge -- a name Connery would
later give to his film company.
It was a place of bleak poverty, in stark and almost ironic contrast to the
glamorous lifestyle that Connery would come to personify as James Bond. Indeed,
the only toilet in the house was shared by the four families that lived there,
according to one of his biographers, Andrew Yule.
Not that Connery seems to have suffered. "One of the things that strikes me
is that no matter how difficult or underprivileged the situation you were living
in as a child, it wasn't considered difficult," he once noted. "I
don't think as children, you're aware of it. You have nothing to compare
it to."
With his father working a 12-hour day in a rubber mill and his mother toiling as
a cleaning lady, there was little to indicate that young Tommy would live a life
different from theirs, though his emerging good looks soon began to set him
apart.
From the beginning, he was a hard worker -- a trait that stayed with him
throughout his professional career. At the age of 9, Connery already was
working part time as a milkman and a butcher's assistant before and after
school. With so many demands on his time, it's hardly surprising that he
failed to distinguish himself as a scholar, except in English, where he
excelled. It was even less surprising when he dropped out of school at the
age of 13.
After a brief but unsuccessful stint in the Royal Navy (he was given a medical
discharge thanks to an ulcer caused, in his words, by "trepidations,
anxieties, fears") and after toying with the possibility of becoming a
professional soccer player, Connery got his first taste of show business when he
was hired as a dresser at a local theater. Before long, he moved to
London, where he heard about auditions for a touring production of Rodgers &
Hammerstein's "South Pacific." Connery landed a small part,
dropped his first name and embarked on an acting career that would consume him
to the present day.
Connery's ascent can be attributed to a combination of his own individuality and
the tide of social change that was rising in 1960s England, where the election
of a Labor government, the leveling nature of mass-oriented television and the
arrival of a group of Angry Young Men who transformed British theater all helped
to pave the way for a new kind of hero.
If Connery was less obviously working-class than his friend and contemporary
Michael Caine, he was far from the old Etonian that author Ian Fleming
envisioned when he created James Bond. Bond was the brainchild of a
sometime banker, stockbroker and British naval intelligence staffer who had
failed to get into the diplomatic service then compensated for his own
shortcomings by creating a fictional counterpart.
Fleming's secret agent was smooth, sophisticated and suave; he also was
unmistakably English and irrefutably upper-class, which made it all the more
surprising that producers Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry
Saltzman offered the rough-edged Scot the part.
But when Connery brought Bond to the big screen in 1963's "Dr. No,"
his presence electrified the rather staid British film world. "He had the
looks, the physique, the physicality, the sex appeal -- and most of all, the
insouciance -- to pull it off," Maltin says. "And as we have
seen, it is not easy to find all of those qualities in one actor."
The actor, though, felt he was playing a cartoon figure, a caricature that
hardly served to showcase his talent. Nor did it help that his then-wife,
actress Diane Cilento, heaped scorn on the part while earning an Oscar
nomination for her supporting role in 1963's "Tom Jones."
In the intervening decades, Connery has expressed conflicting views on Bond.
"I never disliked Bond, as some have thought," he said on one
occasion. "Creating a character like that does take a certain craft. It's
simply natural to seek other roles."
On another occasion, however, he said: "I have always hated that damn James
Bond. I'd like to kill him."
Were Connery's acting skills obscured by the trappings of the character?
The Christian Science Monitor's film critic Peter Rainer, who has written
extensively on Connery, isn't certain. "I don't know if you can
really say from those early Bond movies that he was a great actor, though it's
hard to be a great actor if you're playing James Bond," he says.
"He grew into (the Bond character) as an actor and then outgrew it at the
same time."
Connery ultimately chose to abandon the franchise after playing the spy in six
films -- "Dr. No," 1964's "From Russia With Love" and "Goldfinger,"
1965's "Thunderball," 1967's "You Only Live Twice" and
1971's "Diamonds Are Forever." He only returned as Bond on one
other occasion, 1983's "Never Say Never Again."
As he embarked on the next chapter of his career, starring in such films as
1964's "Marnie," directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1966's "A Fine
Madness" and 1970's "The Molly Maguires," moviegoers seemed
reluctant to accept Connery as anything other than the globe-trotting secret
agent. The films he chose weren't bad -- in fact, several were quite good
-- but they were, at best, modest hits.
"Once the world fell in love with him as Bond, they couldn't easily see him
in another role -- and frankly, didn't want to," Maltin says. "They
wanted to lock him in place as 007 because he embodied that part so
perfectly. It took time for audiences to warm up to Sean Connery away from
that character."
The public only really began to accept Connery in other roles during the
mid-1970s, with 1975's "The Wind and the Lion" and "The Man Who
Would Be King" and 1976's "Robin and Marian," a run of films that
finally sealed his reputation as an actor with movie-star charisma quite apart
from Bond. And in the 1980s, another Connery emerged -- a more settled
personality who exuded a certain wisdom.
His Oscar-winning role in 1987's "The Untouchables" helped create that
new persona; his turn as Indy's father in "Last Crusade" solidified
it; and his cameo as King Richard in 1991's "Robin Hood: Prince of
Thieves" cemented it. Today, thanks to those roles and stellar work
in films such as 1993's "Rising Sun" and 2000's "Finding
Forrester," Connery has become one of the most-beloved figures in the
Hollywood pantheon.
"He is one of the few actors who was identified with a character in several
movies and then broke away from it," Rainer says. "When people look at
Connery now, they don't think 'James Bond.' He is probably the most satisfying
masculine presence in movies, period. He has a truly heroic presence, but he is
also a great actor, and it is very rare to get someone who is both."
BARBARA BROCCOLI PAYS TRIBUTE TO CONNERY - by StarPulse.com & CalandarLive.com
Bond producer Barbara Broccoli hasn't forgotten Sir Sean Connery - she has taken out a full page ad in today's edition of Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety to congratulate the original 007 on his latest honour. Connery, who played superspy James Bond in six Eon produced movies and one independent, was presented with the American Film Institute's (AFI) Lifetime Achievement in Hollywood Friday night.
And Broccoli didn't want the occasion to pass without celebrating the Scot. In the ad, which featured Connery as 007, Broccoli wrote, "Sean, it all began with you. Congratulations on your well deserved Lifetime Achievement Award."
Sean Connery, the Scotsman who was the first — and, some say, the best
— James Bond had to fight back tears several times Thursday evening as he was
feted as the recipient of the 34th annual American Film Institute Life
Achievement Award. The 90-minute presentation at the Kodak Theatre in
Hollywood was sentimental, emotional and often R-rated funny. It will air June
21 at 9 p.m. on USA.
The evening's festivities opened with a kilt-adorned Mike Myers arriving on
stage accompanied by bagpipes and drums.
"Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond was the inspiration for Austin
Powers," Myers told the star-studded crowd. "You, Mr. Connery, were my
dad's hero because you are a man's man. And I admit I have a man crush."
After showing pictures of a chiseled, muscular young Connery when he came in
third in the Mr. Universe contest in 1953, Myers proclaimed: "My man crush
deepens."
Julia Ormond, who starred opposite Connery in 1995's "First Knight,"
acknowledged that the actor may act debonair on screen but in real life he's a
klutz prone to spilling things. "He's closer to Clouseau than 007,"
she said.
Director Steven Spielberg, who worked with Connery in 1989's "Indiana Jones
and the Last Crusade," described him as "the man who leaves us shaken
and stirred" as he introduced a series of clips from Bond movies including
"Dr. No," "From Russia With Love" and "Goldfinger."
Fellow Bond star Pierce Brosnan recollected the time — Aug. 12, 1964 — when
at the age of 11 his love and passion for acting took hold after his parents
took him to see "Goldfinger."
Brosnan also recalled the first time he met Connery — "the big man"
— after he had taken over the role of Agent 007. Brosnan had spent the day
filming a particularly difficult action sequence on "The World Is Not
Enough" and ran into Connery in the parking lot at the film studio.
Unbeknown to Brosnan, Connery had also been on the set and watched the stunt
work unfold. Connery chided him: "Are they paying you enough money?"
One of the highlights of the Bond tribute was a performance of "Thunderball"
by Tom Jones, who originally sang the hit tune in 1965.
Much was made during the evening about how no matter what type of character
Connery played — from his Oscar-winning turn as an Irish cop in "The
Untouchables" to an Arab chieftain in "The Wind and the Lion" to
a Russia sub commander in "The Hunt for Red October" — he always
spoke in his distinctive Scottish brogue.
"Sean never changes," said Terry Gilliam, his "Time Bandits"
director, in a taped interview. "He's always Scottish."
Former AFI winner Harrison Ford presented Connery with the prestigious honor.
Ford noted that he played Connery's son in "Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade." "Dad?" quipped Ford. "He's only 12 years
older than me, so how does that work?"
He added: "You gave us the world. You've been a man of action, a man of
passion, a man of wisdom and a man for the ages."
As bagpipes and drums heralded his arrival on stage, Connery began to dance,
much to the enjoyment of the crowd.
"I had no idea this was such a big deal," Connery told the audience.
"I mean that sincerely. I am here and I'm happy you are all here. It's been
a long journey…. My feet are tired but my heart is not."
Ecstatic Mads Mikklesen is more than happy to be
taking on one of cinema’s most-hated roles – he’s going to be a James Bond
villain.
The Danish actor will be seen squaring up to new 007 star Daniel Craig in
the remake of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale. He said: "It’s like being a soccer fan and somebody else comes and
plays and you hate him for the first couple of minutes. Then you start loving
him. In the film - the first story to introduce James Bond to the world - Bond
is seen working independently of MI6, spying on terrorist suspects before coming
across Le Chiffre, banker to the world's terrorist organisations. Mads - whose cult film Pusher about a drugs dealer has just been
re-released on DVD - says audiences will not find Le Chiffre a typical Bond foe. But unlike the suave super-spy, there's one thing Mads's character misses
out on ... having his own Bond girl.
BUY BOND'S, JAMES BOND'S BIRTHPLACE - by The Envelope
Want a bit of Bond history?
We’re not talking Sir Sean Connery’s autograph or a Bond DVD box set. We’re talking a $1 million Beach Cottage - or maybe just a $700 grand Cove Hut - at Goldeneye, Ian Fleming’s private Jamaican hideaway where he wrote all his 007 spy thrillers.
Goldeneye - owned by legendary music industry empresario Chris Blackwell and his Island Outpost resort corporation - will evolve over the next two years from a small, reclusive resort property into a large exclusive resort village taking up a significant chuck of Jamaica's north shore.
Countless music, fashion and film stars are already frequent guests of Blackwell’s lush, laid-back Goldeneye resort. Johnny Depp is a regular. Scarlett Johansson and beau Josh Hartnett were just there. Naomi Campell even owns one of the Goldeneye villas - the Royal Palm – that you can rent. Other visitors include Bono, Steve Winwood, Bob Marley, Sting (he wrote “Every Breath You Take” there), Harrison Ford, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss. Two cinema Bonds – Sir Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan - have also idled there. Connery, according to Roger Brown, Island Outpost developer, has even expressed an interest in the new Goldeye Resort property. No sign, so far, of the new 007 Daniel Craig whose “Casino Royale” is due out in November.
But Blackwell was in LA this week looking for a few select Hollywood high rollers who might like to be residents of his revamped Goldeneye. At a party Monday in a Santa Monica home, an elite group including Angelica Huston, former Mamas and Papas singer Michelle Phillips, music industry honcho Peter Asher, Malcolm McLaren (c'mon, you remember the Sex Pistols) and record producer Richard Perry sampled Jamaican fare and fruity rum drinks while looking at plans for the new Goldeneye, scheduled for completion in Winter 2007.
As well as private homes of all sizes, the plans include a thalassotherapy spa, clubhouse, tennis courts, fitness centers, pools, restaurants and doctors offices. There will also be 30 ocean-front rental apartments, named for Bond characters like Q, Miss Moneypenny, Goldfinger, Pussy Galore, etc. “But the suites will be tastefully done,” points out Brown. “Not like Disneyland.” Darn. We were kinda hoping for a naked gold-painted blonde sprawled on the king bed.
And, as the promo pamphlets point out, you could even retire there. But the price? Okay, it ain’t cheap. The tropical decored two-story Lagoon Villa (5230 sq ft) starts, we repeat, starts at $3 million. But chill, mon. The promo packet proposes music to play while reviewing the purchase documents included in the colorful tie-dyed gift bags given to each party guest.
Just a few ditties by Steve Winwood, Muddy Waters, Bill Withers, Neil Young, Prince, Traffic, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac and The Wailers should make signing that hefty deposit check much easier.
A little Goldeneye history came to light throughout the evening...
Photo Credits: Goldeneye, Ian Fleming's Jamaican hideaway, is about to spawn an exclusive resort village. Courtesy of Island Outpost.
British-born Blackwell grew up in Jamaica and as a young man sold real estate, rented motor scooters and eventually founded Island Records, launching the careers of Bob Marley, Spooky Tooth, Roxy Music, U2, Tom Waits, the Cranberries and countless other music legends.
Although he sold Island Records to Polygram in '89, Blackwell still had that rock star aura about him as he mingled with his party guests.
Seems it was Ian Fleming who suggested that Blackwell be the location scout for “Dr. No,” the first Bond film shot there in 1961. Twelve years after Fleming died, the music empresario talked one of his artists - Bob Marley - into buying the estate.
Marley actually signed the deed but then got cold feet - too "posh" for his taste - so Blackwell crossed out Marley’s name on the deed and bought it for himself, turning it into a small resort with the main Fleming house and four villas.
Celebs aren’t new fare for Goldeneye. Historically Fleming’s pad was a hideaway for the rich and famous such as authors Evelyn Waugh and Truman Capote, painter Lucien Freud, actors Katharine Hepburn, Errol Flynn, Sir Lawrence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud.
And for just a few mill, you can add your name to 007's list.
JOHN CLEESE RETIRES - by Funny.co.uk
John Cleese is back in the news and burning more bridges on his way. Er, hang on, in fact it looks like he's burning all his bridges. Well, at least his acting ones, anyway.
Cleese has announced his retirement from his performing profession to turn, instead, to teaching. He is putting together a series of master classes in which he will pass on the invaluable experience his has gained during his exceptional career in the comedy world.
In line with this he is also planning on writing a book about the history of comedy stating that, I'm too tired to write new comedy. I can never do better than Fawlty Towers whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game."
The book will run from the classic silent comedy greats such as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and progress to Ricky Gervais who Cleese described as being, "the height of modern entertainment."
Perhaps what has encouraged him to the decision to leave the acting world behind him was the indelicate nature in which he feels he was excluded from the latest Bond film, Casino Royale. Cleese was first introduced to the franchise as gadgets assistant 'R' in The World is Not Enough and then took over the role of 'Q' for Die Another day.
Cleese complained, "Q doesn't appear in Casino Royale but it would have been nice if the producers had the courtesy to telephone me."
BOND RETURNS TO ETON - The Independent
It is nearly 70 years since James Bond was supposed to have been expelled from Eton, but he will soon be making a dramatic return to his alma mater.
Next month, current Bond star Daniel Craig will be shooting several scenes at the college as part of Bond's next film outing, Casino Royale.

Filming will take place at the school's cricket pavilion though, as I understand it, the scenes will not actually have anything to do with Bond padding up.
Instead it will apparently be dressed up with palm trees and made to look like an exotic location.
Usually, anyone given the boot from the 550-year-old college is not welcome on school grounds again, but on this occasion the headmaster was understandably happy to make an exception. "Yes, you are right. Bond got into a bit of bother with a boy's maid during his time at Eton, but he is forgiven and we are very much looking forward to seeing him back here," jokes the school bursar when I call.
"However, I'm afraid we aren't supposed to say what Bond is up to."
Unfortunately, a spokesman for the film is similarly tight-lipped about the shoot, deeming it a "closed set".
As for Eton, it has been no stranger to film crews over the years. In the past it has played host to a number of high-profile movies including Shakespeare in Love and Chariots of Fire.
The film crew working on the upcoming James Bond movie, Casino Royale, have wrecked three Aston Martins in just one afternoon.

The Sun reports that the three cars, all specially-built DBS V12s, were
overturned during the filming of a high-speed mountain chase - deliberately. The
cars, based on the production DB9, were estimated to be worth around £165,000
each. A total of approximately $900,000.
An insider told The Sun: 'These are easily the most amazing James Bond
cars yet. They look incredible and cost a fortune. Unfortunately, we had to
smash three to pieces. And in the style of 007, our stunt driver walked away
without a scratch.'
Although it is most unlikely the producers would have
destroyed these cars fully equipped. The production crews would have
modified the cars to be merely shells of the actual cars.
Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, will be released in November. The DBS,
meanwhile, described by Aston design director Marek Reichman as 'a link between
our elegant DB9 road car and the powerful DBR9 race car,' could be offered as a
limited-edition model targeted at collectors and wealthy Bond fans.
RUSSIA'S VERSION OF OO7 - by Andrew Osborn for The New Zealand Herald
Never mind Daniel Craig's debut as 007. The Kremlin is out to trump him with Agent 90-60-90, the vital statistics (in centimetres) of a glamorous Kalashnikov-toting Russian spy who saves the world in a figure-hugging latex suit.
The Russian Government is at least partly funding a film with the working title Krasivaya (The Beautiful One), starring Anastasia Zavorotnyuk.
As the tough but gorgeous Zavorotnyuk single-handedly defeats ruthless terrorists, the aim is not simply to thrill Russian moviegoers, but to inculcate patriotism and pride in the FSB security service, the successor organisation to the KGB.

Anastasia Zavorotnyuk as she posed for the Russian version of Maxim in 2005
Judging by other Kremlin-backed films, the enemy in Krasivaya is likely to be Islamic radicals, possibly with links to Chechen separatists, with the West on the sidelines.
In one scene, it is reported, Zavorotnyuk's character - so far unnamed - plunges from the top of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while eliminating 40 terrorists. In another she fires the 40-tonne Tsar Cannon.
The film is being shot in Russia, Ukraine, France, Malaysia, Italy, Cuba and Norway, and is to be released in the northern autumn, the same time as Craig appears as 007 in Casino Royale. Though Russians enjoy Bond movies, they do not like the way they are often portrayed as ham-fisted baddies.
"I LOST BOND ROLE AT INTERVIEW" - PR Inside
British actor JAMES PUREFOY realised he had blown his chance at landing the coveted role of superspy JAMES BOND when he rambled on about what he'd change to improve the 007 franchise during an interview.
The RESIDENT EVIL star admits he became a little too excited while being questioned by film-makers.
He says, "The room is very Bond-esque - wood-panelling, big table. You sit there trying to be as serious and panther-like as you can, just letting them look at you. They asked what I thought should be changed, and I was eight minutes into my soliloquy when I noticed they were all staring at my legs. Being a ludicrous, over-excited boy of 42, I was kicking them like a child. I realised there was no hope."
However, Purefoy can see one advantage of losing out to new 007 DANIEL CRAIG - at least he won't have to contend with unwelcome media attention. He adds, "I'd love to do it, but can you be James Bond and live in a little London street two minutes from your kid? It's too life changing."
BIRTHDAYS CELEBRATIONS THIS WEEK - DSBG
A special salute to those Bond alumni who will be adding another candle to the cake this week.
Paul McCartney (64) who, with his late wife Linda, gave the Bond series one of the best title songs ever in Live and Let Die (1973). McCartney, who continues to do live performances, leaves the audience shaken and stirred with this song and a fountain of fireworks.
Another performer is John Taylor (46) from Duran Duran. They performed the title song A View to a Kill in 1985 and it became the only OO7 song to reach number one on the music charts.

Actor Louis Jourdan as Kamal Khan in Octopussy seen here during the Christie's auction.
Finally, actor Louis Jourdan (87) who gave us the flamboyant villain Kamal Khan in Octopussy. Mr. Jourdan has an extensive list of films including Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, Gigi, Can-Can, Three Coins In a Fountain. He also played Count Dracula in 1977.
MAXIM SNEAKS INTO CASINO ROYALE - Stuart Basinger
The July issue of MAXIM has a sneak peak inside the new OO7 film CASINO ROYALE. In it MAXIM shoots down all the rumors about Daniel Craig being too blond, too lame, and unable to drive a stick shift Aston Martin. The broken teeth story is capped off as they describe this Bond as one who can jog through shrapnel-laced explosions, emerging sliced up and grinning on the other side.

July's cover keeps abreast of Jessica Simpson.
Even Mads Mikkelsen, as villain Le Chiffre, gets his fifteen lines of fame. After making a name for himself in the European film PUSHER and 2004's KING ARTHUR, Mikkelsen is a villain not to underestimate. Le Chiffre is a mathematical genius and banker who throws a high stakes poker tournament in Montenegro in order to win back the terrorist money he lost. However, it is villain Mollaka, played by Sabastien Foucan, who gets MAXIM's vote for best bad guy. His free-running stunt work and confrontation with OO7 will be perhaps the most talked about scene in the film.
Bond films are renowned for their stunt work and since this film does not center around a giant ape hanging onto the Empire State Building, MAXIM jabs at the production crew by saying any CGI effects will cheapen a Bond film.
Special Effects supervisor Chris Corbould said, "We'll use CGI in CASINO, of course, but just to tidy up shots, like they did in THE BOURNE IDENTITY. There were 170 digital shots in that movie. Did you see any of them? So when you watch the Miami airport scene where 757s explode left and right, sit happy in the knowledge that untold pounds of C4 gave their lives for your viewing pleasure."
Where are all the gadgets? MAXIM points out that John Cleese has been sent to the unemployment line while Bond tries to outwit the bad guys with just a few hidden weapons. The Aston Martin DBS has a choice few inside her cabin and will no doubt be an homage to the Aston Martin from the film ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.
Bond Bombshells are at the center of the article. Bond girl #1 is Caterina Murino as Solange. Revealing her sexy side by telling the readers that her character is the girlfriend of a rogue government contractor named Dimitios.

Lucky Daniel Craig enjoys a moment with Eva Green and Caterina Murino.
"She's an older woman who's very upset in her life. And one night she meets Bond and has sex with him. But she never tries to kill Bond. We are only sexual."
Bond girl #2 is Ivana Milicevic who plays Le Chiffre's Bosnian bodyguard, Valenka.
"I'm bad, but I'm not pure evil. It's the side that I ended up on for survival. I don't get to shoot guns, but I'm a biter in real life, so I'm trying to work that in. I want that to be my weapon. I want to bite people."
Bond girl #3 is Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. The mysterious French beauty who breaks Bond's heart.
"People who think Bond is sexist don't have a sense of humor. Most of the girls are strong. They behave like men, almost. In this movie Vesper and Bond are equals. Vesper is funny, sharp, and sassy, but ambiguous."
TOP 10 WINE MOVIES - The San Francisco Chronicle
James Bond has made another list and this time it is for wine. The top ten wine movies of all time include such notable classics as: Casablanca, Notorious, and The Silence of the Lambs. Casablanca took top honors, but OO7 ended up second place. Here is an excerpt from that article:
"Dr. No" (1962)
Director: Terence Young. Cast: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman.
James Bond has always been a sophisticated and wide-ranging drinker, with much more of a taste for Champagne -- particularly in Ian Fleming's novels -- than the vodka martinis he's now most famous for.
However, nowadays everything Bond drinks is a product placement. Bollinger Champagne, Finlandia vodka and Heineken beer are changing Bond's character. Bond was a patriot, not a mercenary. Yet if the Coors Brewing Company were to throw enough cash his way, the next thing you know Bond would be sipping bright red Zima XXX Hard Punch.
In "Dr. No," the first Bond film -- and still one of the most enjoyable -- Sean Connery's 007 drinks a lot of Smirnoff vodka, probably as a forerunner to the blatant commercialism of today's brand choices.
However, the moment that establishes Bond to audiences as more than a well-trained assassin, but a well-informed bon vivant as well, involves Champagne.
"Invited" to dinner while held captive by Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman), Bond grabs a bottle to use as a weapon.
"That's a Dom Perignon '55," says the evil yet cultured Dr. No. "It would be a pity to break it."
Bond shrugs, puts the bottle down, and says, "I prefer the '53 myself."
He's not just an oenophile -- he's a total vintage-obsessed wine geek. To American audiences of the 1960s, he must have seemed impossibly well bred. Today, he would be posting tasting notes online, under an alias, of course.
In fact, you can predict the quality of an early Bond movie by the vintage of Dom that he orders.
In the entertaining film "Goldfinger" (1964), Bond enjoys a bottle of the '53 Dom with a beautiful woman. But in "Thunderball" (1965), he orders a bottle of the '55 he once scorned -- and the movie isn't as good.
And when George Lazenby plays Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), he makes the huge gaffe of ordering a bottle of the '57 vintage, considered a poor one for Dom. No wonder Lazenby made only one Bond film.
Stick with the '53, 007. And please, hold the Heineken.
July 3, 2006
EXPO STIRRED BY BOND - by Ian Mohr for Variety
Serendipitously taking the final studio slot to show off product at Cinema Expo, Sony closed the Euro exhib confab with a bang June 30th evening, creating the week's most high-profile event by screening 20 minutes of "Casino Royale," the latest installment in its James Bond franchise.That made Cinema Expo attendees the first audience in the world to see how the latest, blond Bond -- Daniel Craig -- handled the role.
Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman Jeff Blake introduced the Bond footage after Sony Intl. prexy Mark Zucker showed off the studio's product reel.
Rumors began slipping out Thursday that the Bond scenes might screen, but the event was largely a surprise, and Blake said that the studio only got the OK from Bond's producing team two days earlier, when he and SPE Motion Picture Group chair Amy Pascal visited London.
The footage showed off Craig as a grittier Bond, with scenes of more intense, visceral hand-to-hand combat than 007 has tackled in recent pics. One black-and-white scene flashed back to Bond's first ever (brutal and hard-to-pull-off) kill as an agent, as well as his (much more sleek and signature) second assassination.
Also introducing the pic was one of the new Bond girls, Caterina Murino, and the reel featured some sultry scenes between her and Craig. For any gearheads, Bond's new ride also got some screen time, as did high-octane chase scenes, including one of Craig following a baddie up and down a construction site with aerial jumps and twists.
"This footage has never been seen, except by all of us just two days ago," Blake said, his voice audibly cracking with excitement. Pascal was also at Cinema Expo in the audience with Sony brass. Blake added that the pic would offer a "distinct European flavor" for the international exhibs.
The studio immediately followed the footage with a casino-themed party inside the Amsterdam RAI convention center.
IT MAY NOT BE BOND, BUT IT'S CLOSE TO HOME - Stuart Basinger
Being a local to the Washington, DC area there is never any conventions that have James Bond themes. But if you cannot have Bond then perhaps an Uncle can do.
THE THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS LATER AFFAIR is a MAN FROM UNCLE convention that will be held on October 13, 14 and 15, 2006 at the Best Western Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Just down the road from the U.S. Capitol. Guest appearing at the event will be spy aficionados Jon Heitland, Lee Phiffer, Wes Britton, and hopefully Danny Biederman. There will be a room for dealers to sell spy memorabilia. For more information just click on this link.
BOND GIRL SAYS CASINO ROYALE IS NOT A CARTOON - UTV
Caterina Murino, who plays Bond`s love interest Solange in Casino Royale, said she was sure Craig would win over those who were critical of his choice for the role.

Caterina Murino portrays sexy Solange in CASINO ROYALE.
"He`s a great actor," she said. "Casino Royale is the first
book Ian Fleming wrote and it means we see how James Bond became James
Bond. Daniel is giving to this James Bond something else we never saw
before. You never saw a James Bond like this."
Ms Murino said the new Bond film would be more violent and less playful than its
predecessors.
"When he's going to kill someone, he looks like a real killer. When he kisses me, when he makes love, he's so sexy. This James Bond doesn`t look like a little cartoon like before, like the last one or so charming and playful like the first James Bond. This is new."
VIRGIN BOND - by Martin Booth for EarthTimes.org
Sir Richard Branson, owner of the famous Virgin brand, will make his
presence felt in the upcoming James Bond flick Casino Royale with a
cameo role. The entrepreneur would be seen with blond Bond Daniel Craig in a
scene showing the Miami airport. The shooting of the scene, however, took place
at Prague.
The cameo is part of a deal to promote Virgin Atlantic airlines in the film.
“James Bond is original, cool and sophisticated – just like an airline I
know. Virgin Atlantic is delighted to be a global partner of the new James Bond
movie Casino Royale, and I'm just a little excited to be playing a
cameo in the film. Having met Daniel Craig and the rest of the team on set, I
have no doubt that Casino Royale will be one of the most successful
James Bond films ever,” Branson said.
Asked how he managed to bag the role, the 55-year-old corporate honcho
said, “(Casino Royale producer) Barbara Broccoli contacted me to ask
if I'd like to do a cameo role in Bond and I think she was quite keen I'd
brought one of my bigger toys with me, which is a Virgin Atlantic plane.”
Also seen in the film will be Branson's 19-year-old son Sam. The two had earlier
appeared on the silver screen in Superman Returns. “The producer (of Superman
Returns)... chose to use a Virgin Galactic spaceship in the Superman film
and he asked us if we'd like to pilot the ship,” Branson said.
SEAN CONNERY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY - TAKE 2 - CBC
A book by James Bond actor Sean Connery that combines his autobiography and the history of Scotland is in the works and will be released in September, according to a publishing house in Edinburgh.
Canongate Books announced Wednesday it has secured the rights to publish the film star's first major book, beating out hundreds of other publishing houses.
"Our goal is to produce a very readable, visually stimulating and hopefully intriguing history of Scotland, with personal discoveries," said the 75-year-old actor in a statement released through Canongate.
The announcement came after the actor abandoned efforts earlier this year to finish writing his biography following fallouts with two ghostwriters.
Canongate officials say the book is being released to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland.
"We are absolutely thrilled to be publishing Connery's Scotland," Jamie Byng, Canongate's publisher, said in a release.
"Not only is it going to be a fascinating and revelatory book about Scotland, but Sir Sean is a natural storyteller with his own great story to tell."
JUDI DENCH IS SUCH A DOLL - Stuart Basinger
According to Fox News, Dame Judi Dench is to be made into a doll. She told E.D. Hill, "I am over the moon with the idea, and it proves that age is not a barrier for a doll. And let's face it, it's a face for me."
Details have yet to come out as to what company is producing this doll but a good guess might be Sideshow Collectibles.
BOND 22 MAY BE 'RISICO' - Stuart Basinger
As of this writing the Internet is buzzing with word that Eon Productions and Sony/Columbia Pictures is negotiating with film director Roger Michell to helm Bond 22.
Details have yet to be ironed out but word is that Bond 22 is to be titled Risico. Ian Fleming fans will obviously note that this is one of the short stories from the book For Your Eyes Only. Although the story has already been used for the 1981 film, Bond 22 will be an original idea written by producer Michael G. Wilson. During the 1980s, Wilson co-wrote the screenplays with Richard Maibaum.
Daniel Craig has already been signed to play James Bond for the second time and with a possible May 2008 release. If this happens, it would be the first time since The Man with the Golden Gun that a Bond film is released 18 months after the previous film.
BATTLE FOR BOND - Tomahawk Media
Cinema history might have been very different had the first James Bond film not been Dr. No in 1962 starring Sean Connery, but Thunderball directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1959 and starring Richard Burton as agent 007. It sounds preposterous and unbelievable, but it almost happened.
Battle for Bond unravels the untold story behind the most controversial part of the James Bond legend using previously unpublished material including letters and private documents. It is a tale of bitter recriminations, betrayal, multi-million dollar lawsuits and even death.

It starts way back in 1959 when colourful Irish film producer Kevin McClory collaborated with Ian Fleming and Hollywood screenwriter Jack Whittingham on a screenplay for what was intended to be the first ever James Bond film, entitled Thunderball. When the project collapsed, Fleming instead used its plot as the basis for his next Bond novel, but without permission. An incensed McClory and Whittingham sued.
The resulting trial was one of the most high profile and complex of the 1960s. Essentially the creator of the 20th century’s greatest fictional character was in the dock, accused of plagiarism. Already gravely ill, many of Fleming’s friends feared the pressure of the trial would have a detrimental effect on his health. Tragically they were proved right when only a few months later Fleming died of a massive heart attack aged only 56.
As for Kevin McClory, he became a millionaire over night, winning the film rights to Thunderball. He was now in the enviable position of being able to make his own 007 movie. But the already established Sean Connery series was a hard act to compete with and McClory instead decided to join forces with Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in a one-off deal to co-produce Thunderball. Released in time for Christmas 1965, Thunderball was the Star Wars of its day, becoming one of the most successful films in movie history.
Part of McClory’s court victory entitled him to remake Thunderball at a future date, resulting in 1983s Never Say Never Again, which saw Sean Connery returning to the Bond role after a 12 year absence and was the film that Broccoli tried desperately to ban. Following its success McClory tried in vain to start his own 007 film series, using the rights he owned in Thunderball, but was thwarted at every turn in a succession of increasingly hostile legal battles against Broccoli and Bond studio MGM. McClory even made the claim that he was co-creator of the cinematic James Bond character and demanded a share in the three billion dollars of profits the 007 series had earned.
Even in the late 1990s McClory was still determined to make more Bond films and in one last giant court battle the entire future of James Bond was to be decided. Would the Broccoli family and MGM, home to the 007 series since 1962, emerge triumphant. Or would Kevin McClory’s 40-year claims on the Bond character succeed.
In preparing the book the author was granted exclusive access to a wealth of previously unpublished material including hundreds of letters from the principal characters in the Thunderball story, including Fleming himself, business and private documents and never before seen papers from the 1963 court case. And also the five different screenplays that were written for Thunderball - two from Fleming and three from Jack Whittingham.
The author also interviewed many of the actors and production people who worked on Thunderball and Never Say Never Again. Their memories and colourful anecdotes bring to life two of the most successful and universally popular Bond movies of all time.
ROBERT SELLERS: is the author of several entertainment books including biographies on Sean Connery, Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise. He was also the author of ‘Very Naughty Boys’ the history of George Harrison/Monty Python’s HandMade Films, a book Empire magazine called, ‘essential reading.’ for more information click here.
ROYALE TREATMENT FOR DANIEL CRAIG - BBC
The forthcoming James Bond film Casino Royale has been chosen for the 60th Royal Film Performance. The 21st official Bond film, starring Daniel Craig as 007, will receive its world premiere on November 14th at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.All funds will go to the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF).
Casino Royale - based on the first of Ian Fleming's celebrated spy novels - will be released on 17 November in the UK and the US. Die Another Day, the 20th Bond film, was also chosen for the Royal Film Performance in November 2002. The first Royal Film Performance took place in 1946 and has been held every year since, apart from 1958. The first film chosen was A Matter of Life and Death, starring David Niven (who played Sir James Bond in the 1967 spoof CASINO ROYALE).
"It is tremendous that Casino Royale, the most anticipated film of the year, has been chosen as this year's film," said Stan Fishman, CTBF President.
The royal film performance is usually attended by either the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh or the Prince of Wales. It is not yet known which members of the Royal Family will attend the screening.
CHRIS CORNELL TO PERFORM BOND SONG - MTV
Chris Cornell was offered the job of singing the title song from the
forthcoming James Bond film "Casino Royale" but he admits that,
at first, he wasn't so sure it was a gig he wanted.
"I wasn't really sure about doing a Bond theme, because I wasn't really a
big fan of the last several movies," he said. "And then I heard that
there was going to be a new guy — Daniel Craig — who was going to play
Bond. And he's so different. I have seen him in several movies, and
I was kind of intrigued.

So I went to Prague, where they were shooting the movie, and they showed
me a rough edit of it. I was just completely blown away by it, because
it's unlike any Bond film ever, really. Craig is an actor's actor, and
there's emotional content to the movie. He's not like the swaggering,
winking sort of super-agent guy. He's like a human being in this movie,
and it's going to completely readjust the way people think of the
character."
Cornell, who turns 42 this week, co-wrote the theme track, "You Know My
Name," with David Arnold, who's scoring the music.
NEW JAMES BOND NOVEL SET FOR 2008 - IFP
Ian Fleming Publications Ltd have commissioned a very well-known and highly respected author to write a new James Bond novel. The launch of the new book, which promises to be a major publishing event, will mark the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth in May 2008.
Corinne Turner of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd comments, "We are delighted to have secured this particular author who we have had in mind for some time now. He is the perfect writer for this project and we are greatly looking forward to his take on James Bond, in what we are convinced will be a stunning novel."
A publisher has not yet been sought and the identity of the author will be a closely guarded secret until publication.
Ian Fleming, whose one hundredth birthday will be celebrated on the 28th May 2008, gained worldwide acclaim for his most famous literary creation - the suave but deadly British secret agent, James Bond.
The Bond novels are, however, just one aspect of a fascinating life that combined the flamboyant elements of 007 with a unique creativity. Fleming was not only a novelist, but also a journalist, sportsman, naval commander, traveller, intelligence officer and bon-viveur.
2008 will be dedicated to a broad range of events and publications designed to celebrate the life of this literary legend and to examine his legacy. The programme includes a major exhibition featuring never-before-seen material. Further events will reflect Fleming's passions and experiences in the worlds of art, literature, journalism, sport, motoring and travel.
Corinne Turner adds, "The Ian Fleming Centenary presents an exciting opportunity to celebrate an extraordinary life. Our centenary plans are well underway and we are sure that there are more possibilities still to be explored."
OO7 SCRIPT LEFT IN PUB - by John Coles for The Sun Online
A file revealing the new James Bond movie’s most secret scene has been found — in a pub. A production assistant is believed to have left it there by mistake.The 19-page storyboard and script for the scene in the eagerly-awaited movie shows how Bond — played by Daniel Craig — battles to stop villain Carlos ramming a fuel tanker into a jumbo jet. If the astonishing sequence had fallen into the wrong hands and been put on the internet, it would have destroyed the impact of one of the film’s biggest stunts.
Film chiefs had been determined to keep details secret. They banned private cameras and guests from Dunsfold aerodrome in Surrey and got crew members to sign confidentiality forms.
But a customer found the file at the nearby Three Compasses pub. He said: “I couldn’t believe it when I picked it up. I wondered what it would be worth to Bond fans if I had put it up on eBay. But I didn’t want to spoil the enjoyment for millions of fans so I thought I would hand it to The Sun and they could make sure it got back safely.”
A movie insider said: “What happens between Bond and Carlos is breath-taking. It is some of the best stuntwork you are likely to see. This was a very dramatic scene with lots of action and was one of the last sequences shot. Production has now been completed. The producers are so delighted with Daniel that he will continue with the role in the next James Bond, the 22nd, which will go into production in the middle of next year. Casino Royale will be on release in November and you will see how fantastic Daniel is as 007.”
OO7 STAGE BURNS DOWN - AGAIN - BBC Online
The large James Bond stage at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire has been destroyed by fire - again. At least eight fire engines tackled the blaze at the set, where filming for the new movie Casino Royale had finished.

The famous stage where submarines, space battles and recently Venetian buildings once stood.
Eyewitness Jen McVean, who owns a firm at the studios in Iver Heath, said the stage had been "completely on fire". The stage had been transformed into a replica Venice where the film, with a reported budget of £39m ($72m), is partly based. The roof covering the stage caved in through fire damage and firefighters used special equipment to reach it.
Brian Dugdale, the firefighter in charge of controlling the blaze, said: "Luckily the stage was just being disassembled after a shoot and there weren't any of the hazards that you would normally associate with filming - there weren't any pyrotechnics or anything like that.
"There were a number of welding kits on the stage that were being used by some engineers and one of the elements of the welding kit is an acetylene cylinder and that is still alight and so we're dealing with that. It will probably take us 24 hours to resolve that problem."

The fire could be seen from as far as 10 miles.
A spokesman for Pinewood Shepperton said: "We do not know the extent of the damage to the 007 stage, although it is believed to be significant. Filming was not taking place. A production had completed filming and its film sets were in the process of being removed."
Pinewood - which began life in 1935 - has a long association with the Bond films, starting with the first movie Dr No in 1962. It merged with Shepperton Studios in 2001 and attracts a range of films of varying budgets. Together with Ealing, the three studios have formed the backbone of the British film industry for 70 years.
It took more than a year for a replacement stage to be rebuilt at Pinewood following a fire in 1984 on the Ridley Scott film Legend. It reopened in January 1985 for the filming of A View to a Kill, as the Albert Broccoli 007 Stage, in honour of the producer of many Bond movies.
The original stage was first created in the late 1976 during the filming of The Spy Who Loved Me and was created when the script called for filming of two submarines inside an oil tanker. The stage was built complete with an enormous water tank.
Other Bond scenes filmed around the studio include a car chase in Goldfinger's factory, and SPECTRE island in From Russia With Love.
THE SPY I LOVED
- Stuart Basinger
The people at Twenty First Century Publishers have informed me that screenplay writer Christopher Wood has completed his book JAMES BOND, THE SPY I LOVED based on his time working on the films - The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.

Cover art for Christopher Wood's new book
According to Fred Piechoczek, the book deals with
Christopher's move from the Confession films to Eon Productions. The book
is due out in September 2006. Keep checking back at this website for more
details.
HAUNTED 'CASINO ROYALE' AIRCRAFT? - by Richard White for The Sun Online
Jittery crew on the new James Bond film have refused to get on a stunt jumbo jet — because it’s HAUNTED.Scared Casino Royale workers fear the 747 is protected by the spirit of a passenger who died from a heart attack on board.
They say the lights and warning systems have come on during filming — even though the jet has NO POWER. Crew also claim to have seen the woman’s ghost gliding up and down the aisles of the 30-year-old plane.One set worker said: “We were asked to stay on it overnight for one scene, but several of the crew refused.
Some won’t get on board at all because of the ghost. It’s been a real problem.”The de-commissioned £2million former South African Airways jumbo will appear in several scenes. In one, 007 Daniel Craig, 38, tries to stop a villain ramming it. The plane is kept at Dunsfold Aerodrome at Cranleigh, Surrey.
Spokesman David McAllister said: “I cannot discuss the film but I am aware of the plane being haunted. Everyone knows the story.”
Fans of the Bond series will remember the story during the making of 1989's Licence To Kill, where a fiery hand can be seen in a still of a tanker explosion, but not in the actual film. The road that the tanker chase was filmed on was reported as being haunted.
MUSIC SCORE NOT LIFTED FROM JOHN BARRY - by Stuart Basinger
Reports from various websites have reported that composer David Arnold was going to lift the music from the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service and use it for the upcoming Casino Royale.The music was composed by composer John Barry and is considered perhaps the best score of the series. However, the report is farther from the truth than Drax's space station is to planet Earth.
According to Mr. Arnold's website -
"Well the song has been written and recorded with Chris Cornell. David and Chris wrote the song together (called 'You Know My Name') and it was recorded in Air Studios London and mixed in L.A.
David is currently in the middle of writing the score, and to clear up some confusion over the Hotdog magazine article, David didn't say that he was re using the theme for OHMSS in Casino Royale, he actually said that as a model for music, Casino Royale was closer to OHMSS than any other Bond movie in as much that the film didn't rely on the James Bond theme and managed to create a James Bond music world regardless. The theme for OHMSS is not in the score to Casino Royale. But new themes are included."
ACTION FIGURE FROM HELL? - by Stuart Basinger
As if Daniel Craig was preparing for a remake of a classic Twilight Zone episode, he is very disappointed with the first of many incarnations of him as James Bond. According to THE MIRROR, Craig has complained that his OO7 doll looks too moody."He scowls a lot. He may need to soften a little bit.," said Craig while examining the prototype on his kitchen table.
The doll is scheduled to be on the toy shelves by the time Casino Royale opens. However, this is not the only problem facing the new intrepid secret agent. Apparently a video game tie-in has him looking a little 'rough' around the edges as well. He said: "I have a clear input in all this as I know there are some things that are wrong."
Meanwhile, Craig has recently gone on record by saying that he plans to buy rare art work with his take home pay from the OO7 films. "I`d love to get into buying art, though I haven`t started making money yet," the Mirror quoted him, as saying.
Casino Royale opens November 17th.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY'S TO SEAN AND GEORGE - DSBG
Sir Sean Connery who portrayed James Bond in five consecutive films from 1962's Dr. No thru 1967's You Only Live Twice before he called it quits for the first time, turned 76 on August 25th. Connery, who is in semi-retirement, went on to other films before he was lured backed for 1971's Diamonds Are Forever and a $1 million dollar paycheck which he donated to the Scottish Education Fund. An organization he founded and which helps underprivileged children receive proper education. Connery went on to star in other non-Bond films such as The Anderson Tapes, Murder on the Orient Express, The Next Man, The Wind and the Lion, Robin and Marian, The Man Who Would Be King, and A Bridge Too Far. He would perform on the silver screen one last time as OO7 in the non-Eon produced film Never Say Never Again in 1983. In 1987, he co-starred in The Untouchables as middle-aged Chicago police officer Jim Malone. The role earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Throughout the late 1980s and 90s, Connery would turn in stellar performances in such films as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Rising Sun, First Knight, The Rock, and Entrapment. His last performance as James Bond was not in front of the cameras but in front of a microphone. He did the voice over for the digital version of his famous character in From Russia with Love - The Video Game in 2005.

Connery's first appearance as OO7 in 1962's Dr. No.
George Lazenby is the former model turned actor who replaced Sean Connery after his departure in 1967. Lazenby, who played James Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, will be 67 on September 5th. He departed from the role of OO7 towards the end of filming. Feeling that James Bond films were not as popular when Connery did them, he allowed his ego to get the best of him and alienated his promising career by giving the cold shoulder to producer Albert R. (Cubby) Broccoli.

Lazenby only played OO7 once in what is regarded as one of the best films in the series.
Refusing to sign a seven picture deal, Lazenby went on to do Hong Kong Kung Fu films, The Kentucky Fried Movie, Evening in Byzantium, Hawaii Five-O, and Bring 'Em Back Alive. His career never took off because of his arrogant personality but he would go on to parody his role as James Bond in The Return of the Man from UNCLE, and an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode titled Diamonds Aren't Forever. Both films had him playing a character whose name cannot be said completely. In 1994, tragedy entered his personal life when his 20 year old son died from brain cancer. In 2002, he married for a second time to tennis champion Pam Shriver.
LIFE'S NOT EASY FOR A MAN WITH A LICENCE TO THRILL - Rueters
Life is tough, even for James Bond. Just ask actor Daniel Craig, who for the first time dons the British spy's tuxedo for autumn film, Casino Royale. Ask him what is the coolest thing about making the 21st movie in the fabled film series that spans more than 40 years and five Bonds, and he responds: "Finishing probably."
For the film, which opens on November 17, he was beaten up, blown up and hung on wires on the back of a fuel tanker by director Martin Campbell's special effects wizards. Craig trained five days a week to get into shape, but he couldn't bulk-up too much or he wouldn't fit 007's tux. "You just look like a doorman," he said in a recent interview.
But perhaps the most emasculating thing about playing one of the movies' most macho of men is this: in Casino Royale, James Bond is awkward a rookie agent at first. What's more, he gets dumped by a "Bond girl". Yet Craig swears 007 regains his cool by the end.
Casino Royale is based on author Ian Fleming's first novel, penned in 1953, about the British spy with a licence to kill, and while the movie's makers stuck close to the original storyline, they re-set the film in modern times.
"We have an opening sequence that is filmed in black and white, which is not to say this is old. It is just to say, 'go with us on this one. This is from the beginning'," Craig said.
On his first mission for Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond must stop a Frenchman, Le Chiffre, from funding the world's terrorists. (In the novel, Le Chiffre is a Soviet agent).
Bond confronts Le Chiffre at the high stakes gambling tables at Casino Royale. British Treasury agent, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), delivers the cash to fund Bond's game and, of course, action, adventure and a little bit of loving ensue.
"It's huge," said Craig about taking the role. "Of course there's concern, I'm only human. I want to get it right."
Another take on Fleming's yarn, 1967's Casino Royale, was a spoof of the Bond genre, so Craig's film becomes the first Casino Royale of the type the film icon's fans have come to love. Since the first movie, 1962's Dr No, the series has sold $3.6 billion in tickets at US and Canadian theatres, adjusted for inflation. Worldwide, the last four Bond films have grossed nearly $1.5 billion, according to boxofficemojo.com
That's a tremendous record to maintain, and if an actor falters, he is unceremoniously ousted. Just ask George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton of earlier Bonds.
Craig, 38, may be unknown to US fans, but he is no stranger to acting or to the limelight. The British actor trained at England's National Youth Theatre and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Bond producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli liked him enough to sign him for an untitled, 22nd Bond flick set for release in 2008. He has appeared in movies and on television for nearly 15 years, most recently in Steven Spielberg's "Munich."
OFFICIAL POSTER HITS THE WEB? - DSBG
The latest artwork of the official Casino Royale poster has hit the web. This time we can see a darker version of Eva Green as Vesper Lynd on the far right. My personal opinion is that Eva looks much better than that in the film and the poster is too blue in color. I'm hoping the artwork is not finished and will show more characters from the film.

Even though he doesn`t have James Bond`s taste in martinis
and guns, British actor Daniel Craig admits that his on-screen character has
"spoilt" him as far as clothes are concerned. The blonde Craig
seems to have completely immersed himself in the role of James Bond, as he now
appears to have taken on the style of the suave super spy.
After taking on the role of 007, the 38-year-old actor has started wearing
expensive tailor-made suits instead of the ready made clothes, which he says do
not fit him as they used to.
"If I put on an off the peg suit now, it doesn`t fit. It used to, but now
I`ve become accustomed to bespoke ones. I`ve been spoiled," Contactmusic
quoted him as saying.
Recently when it comes to the question of filming on movie
sets, new James Bond Daniel Craig prefers not getting too friendly with his
co-stars.
"I expect the best out of people and I don't make friends particularly
easily on set,” Femalefirst quoted him as saying. "When you first start
out in this profession, it seems like such a wonderful family. But I have my
close friends now and I don't go looking for any more," he said. However,
his reluctance to make new friends doesn’t come in the way of his love for
partying, as is evident from his dislike of Los Angeles, which he says lacks the
nightlife culture. In an interview with the Elle magazine recently, Craig had
said that he did not like showbiz parties in Los Angeles, as nobody is allowed
to enjoy the gathering after 10 o'clock. "You can't party in Los Angeles.
Everything closes at 10 o'clock! The studios made that happen to stop actors
staying in bars until three o'clock in the morning. Everybody parties at
home," he said.
LIVE AND LET DIE ALLIGATOR - DEAD AT 45 - Scotsman.com
A film-star alligator which appeared in the James Bond movie Live And Let Die is to be stuffed and put on display following his death.
The 9ft-long animal, Big Boy, died at Beaver Water World in Tatsfield, Kent, at the age of 45. He played a supporting role in the 1973 Bond movie, in which Roger Moore skips across the alligators' heads.
COMMENTARY: NEW JAMES BOND SONG DEBUTS, BUT DO I CARE?- Stuart Basinger
Hmm, where does one start when one was reared on the likes of Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones and Nancy Sinatra. The long awaited Bond song has flooded the Internet and the reactions are mixed. Fans at CommanderBond.net have voted and the majority feel the song is 'fun, but not one of the best.'
At Ain't It Cool News, the reaction is far negative and rude to be quoted here. Overall, the fans are crying and hoping the song is buried in the end credits rather during the ubiquitous opening.
As of this writing, the song You Know My Name, can be downloaded at
Tiffany Stone's Breakfast
At Tiffany's.
The song is Bond on speed, mixed with acid and nails. The opening chords
is the equivalent to a brick smashed into my face; which is not a bad thing.
Allow me to explain.
I have to keep an open mind on this song too. I am also listening to this
outside of the actual film and away from the narrative. Similar to
Madonna's Die Another Day, the song only works when it is accompanying the
images it was intended for. I may be in for a surprise with the opening
credits after all.
It is similar to Duran Duran’s A View to a Kill, a song released in 1985, that
when it premiere on MTV, I was completely shocked. But after hearing that
song over and over, I began to like it. However, it is NOT similar
to Live and Let Die. I appreciated that song from my first sitting.
But after hearing Cornell's song twice, the theme is slowly winning me over.
However, Cornell's voice is too heavy and raspy to sing anything that does not
have a point where he can scream his way through the lyrics. In short, he
cannot sing.

Hard rocker Chris Cornell sings the title song to Casino Royale.
The song is a new departure nonetheless for the series, and the bottom line is:
'try not to alienate the younger generation'. Like Live and Let
Die, the producers are trying to bring in younger audience members with the
current musical style.
I can remember, in 1973, being blown away in the theater with Live and Let Die
and humming the song all the way home in my parent's car. On the other
hand, my parents were not impressed and complained that there were no lyrics.
Well now I understand, music continues to evolve, but people's taste do not.
Thirty years from now when the new age, hip hop, heavy rock group 'AlqaedaBaghdad'
(do you like that one?) performs the song to the newest Bond film "The
Undertaker's Wind", the 12 year olds to the 20-somethings people of 2006
will sit back in total shock and say, "That song is the worse song in the
last ten years. Why don't they go back to a true and tried formula like
Cornell's 'You Know My Name'?" Well, I think what is going on here is
the old 'what comes around, goes around' and the older generation will be on the
poor receiving end.
On a scale from 1 - 10 (10 being the highest) I would give this song a 5.
Similar to the other fans who have left comments at numerous blogs, the song is
not great but it is not the worse Bond song either. My taste is more
towards the jazz songs of the earlier films like You Only Live Twice and Nobody
Does It Better, but that was the culture back then and I cannot do anything
about it since I don't make the decisions.
However, I don't have to buy the soundtrack either.
I'm sure my own kids, (13 and 15 years of age) will think the song is awesome
and life will go on from there. People my age will be shown the proverbial
backdoor and I will fade from this life. A sad commentary, but all true.
I just hope someone will know my name.
October 4, 2006
LIFE'S A PARADE FOR DANIEL CRAIG - The Sun Online and Female First
James Bond star Daniel Craig admitted in an interview with PARADE magazine that he is not the best looking 007. “Maybe I’m not the prettiest Bond ever. Maybe I’m not the suavest. All I can say is that there are millions of fans and I don’t want to let them down.”The Casino Royale star added: “I worked my butt off for this movie. I’m not going to foul it up.”
He is the sixth actor to play Bond. The others were Sir Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Brosnan.
Daniel said he is still dating US film producer Satsuki Mitchell, despite being linked to stars Kate Moss and Sienna Miller.“We’re together. She’s experienced this whole situation with me. That’s incredibly important.”
Meanwhile another snag has hit the media that Daniel Craig is not allowed to smoke in the new Bond film. According to PARADE, the new 007 is furious with movie bosses who decided to cut out smoking scenes because they don't want to send the message that smoking is cool to young Bond fans.
"I can blow off someone's head at close range and splatter blood, but I can't light a good Cuban cigar."
The news that Bond will not be smoking cigars in the film comes just days after it was announced he may drink beer instead of martinis in the film. Craig may never utter the immortal lines "Vodka martini - shaken, not stirred" as film bosses have signed a deal with Heineken.
DANIEL CRAIG IS BONDEO MAN - This Is London
In the forthcoming 007 movie Casino Royale, actor Daniel Craig temporarily abandons his £200,000 supercar for the new £20,000 Ford Mondeo - and may even be seen swigging pints of lager.
A Craig look-alike was being filmed behind the wheel of the latest Mondeo family saloon in Nassau on the Bahamas where scenes for the blockbuster was being shot.

One eyewitness said: "This appears to be the same car we'll see James Bond drive in Casino Royale."
Four million Ford Mondeos have been sold since the car was launched in January 1993 - 1.15million of them in the UK. Its popularity among the middle classes spawned the term Mondeo Man - the emblematic Middle Britain voter all politicians were keen to woo.
The original Mondeo had its first facelift in 1996, with a new version in 2000 and the fourth generation is due to hit showrooms in 2007. The latest edition has been given a new styling and a high quality interior - but sadly for 007 it does not include built-in rocket launchers or ejector seats.
Ford currently owns Aston Martin but has put the British luxury car-maker up for sale with a price tag of around £1billion. However, diehard Bond fans should rest assured that, while he drives the Mondeo in an emergency, his main car in Casino Royale will be a specially created 200mph Aston Martin DBS coupe in its own unique colour - Casino Ice.
Since the announcement that he would be the first blond Bond, 38-year-old Craig has faced criticism from fans for not being charismatic enough to play the British secret agent. In return, he has vowed to be the baddest 007 ever. He has said he will inject some evil into the elegant spy, adding: "I think there has to be an element of cruelty. He is an assassin." The actor has spent hours in the gym pumping iron to get in shape for the role.
In the film, he is seen locked in a naked embrace with French co-star Eva Greer - although the pair wore flesh-coloured bathing suits for the scene.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Casino Royale producers-have signed a deal with Heineken which will feature heavily in the movie - raising speculation that 007 will be seen enjoying the Dutch lager.
NEW TRAILER AND VIDEO INTERVIEWS - DSBG
MTV currently has more interviews of Daniel Craig, Eva Green, and Caterina Murino on the set in the Bahamas. Not exactly new information but still interesting information. You can link to the video by click here.
And if that is not enough, you can check out the YouTube new Casino Royale trailer geared towards the commercial aspect of the film.
AN INTERVIEW WITH LE CHIFFRE - by Edward Douglas for SuperHeroHype.com
A nice exclusive interview with actor Mads Mikkelsen at SuperHeroHype.com. He talks about his villainous role - Le Chiffre and mentions how much fun it was to torture Daniel Craig with the carpet beater. You can catch the interview by clicking here.
OFFICIAL MOVIE POSTER FOR SALE - DSBG
Casino Royale one sheet movie poster is ready to order online. You can link to it here. Price begins at $24.99 plus postage.
SPIKE-TV's THANKSGIVING DAY MARATHON - DSBG
This Thanksgiving, Spike TV presents a six-day marathon of James Bond movies. Every Bond film except GoldenEye. Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and the 1967 spoof Casino Royale will not be included. The event begins Tuesday, November 21st and ends Sunday, November 26th. The complete schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, November 21
9:00 PM - Midnight, ET/PT DIE ANOTHER DAY Agent 007 attempts to avert a war of catastrophic proportions by pursuing a traitor of Her Majesty's Secret Service from Korea to Hong Kong to Cuba to London -- and back to Korea again. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, and Toby Stephens.
1:00 - 4:00 AM, ET/PT LIVE AND LET DIE (1973, TV-PG) Agent 007 is sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroine magnate armed with a complex organization and a reliable psychic tarot card reader. Starring Roger Moore as Bond and Jane Seymour as Bond Girl Solitaire.
Wednesday, November 22
9:00 PM - Midnight, ET/PT DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971, TV-PG) Agent 007 goes to Las Vegas to investigate the disappearance of diamonds in transit and discovers the involvement of his archenemy, Blofeld. Starring Sean Connery as Bond and Jill St. John as Bond Girl Tiffany Case.
Thursday, November 23
1:00 - 4:00 AM, ET/PT THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974, TV-PG) Bond is led to believe he is targeted by the world's most expensive assassin and must hunt him down to stop him. Starring Roger Moore as Bond and Britt Ekland as Bond Girl Mary Goodnight.
10:00 AM - 1:30 PM, ET/PT ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969, TV-PG) Bond is approached by a crime boss to marry his daughter. In return, both father and daughter help 007 hunt for his archenemy, Ernst Blofeld. Starring George Lazenby and Diana Rigg as Tracy Vicenzo.
1:30 - 4:00 PM, ET/PT YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967, TV-PG) Agent 007 and the Japanese secret service ninja force must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space-jackings before nuclear war is provoked. Starring Sean Connery as Bond and Mie Hama as Bond Girl Kissy Suzuki.
4:00 - 7:00 PM, ET/PT THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977, TV-PG) Agent 007 must work with his female Soviet counterpart to find the answer to the disappearance of nuclear missile-carrying submarines. Starring Roger Moore as Bond and Barbara Bach as Bond Girl Major Anya Amasova.
Friday, November 24
1:00 - 4:00 AM, ET/PT LICENSE TO KILL (1989, TV-14) Bond gets revenge after a close friend from the intelligence sector is assassinated on his wedding day, and 007 goes undercover to link the murder to an international drug cartel. Starring Timothy Dalton.
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM, ET/PT LICENSE TO KILL (1989, TV-14)
1:00 - 4:00 PM, ET/PT MOONRAKER (1979, TV-PG) James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle and discovers a plot to commit global genocide. Starring Roger Moore as Bond and Lois Chiles as Bond Girl Dr. Holly Goodhead.
4:00 - 7:00 PM, ET/PT A VIEW TO A KILL (1985, TV-PG) Agent 007 faces off against a mad industrialist who plans on cornering the world microchip market by destroying Silicon Valley. Starring Roger Moore as James Bond, Christopher Walken as Max Zorin, and Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton.
9:00 - 11:30 PM, ET/PT GOLDFINGER (1964, TV-PG) Investigating a gold magnate's gold smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve. Starring Sean Connery as Bond and Honor Blackman as Bond Girl Pussy Galore
Saturday, November 25
1:00 - 4:00 AM, ET/PT THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987, TV-PG) James Bond is living on the edge to stop an evil arms dealer from starting another world war. Bond crosses all seven continents in order to stop the evil Whitikar and General Koskov. Starring Timothy Dalton as Bond and Maryam d'Abo as Bond Girl Kara Milovy.
2:30 - 5:00 PM, ET/PT FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963, TV-PG) Evil crime cartel SPECTRE seeks revenge for the death of its operative Dr. No and sets a trap to lure British agent James Bond to his death. The bait is a Soviet encryption machine called a Lektor, which the British Secret Service is desperate to get a hold of. Starring Sean Connery as Bond and Daniela Bianchi as Bond Girl Tatiana Romanova.
5:00 - 8:00 PM, ET/PT FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981, TV-PG) Agent 007 is assigned to hunt for a lost British encryption device and prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Starring Roger Moore as Bond and Carole Bouquet as Bond Girl Melina Havelock.
8:00 - 11:00 PM, ET/PT OCTOPUSSY (1983, TV-PG) A Faberge Egg found with a murdered British agent puts Bond on the trail that leads to a plot to kill thousands to weaken NATO defenses in Europe. Starring Roger Moore as Bond and Maud Adams as Bond Girl Octopussy.
1:00 - 4:00 AM, ET/PT NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983, TV-PG) SPECTRE agents under the command of Ernst Blofeld hold NATO ransom, forcing James Bond to recover the warheads and kill his arch-enemy. Starring Sean Connery as Bond and Kim Basinger as Bond Girl Domino Petachi.
Sunday, November 26
1:30 - 4:00 PM, ET/PT DR. NO (1962, TV-PG) In his first movie, British Agent 007, James Bond, is sent to Jamaica to investigate the murder of a fellow operative. Bond's inquiries soon establish a connection between the death, a spate of recent failures in the US space program, and the mysterious Dr. No. Starring Sean Connery as Bond and Ursula Andress as Bond Girl Honey Ryder.
4:00 - 7:00 PM, ET/PT THUNDERBALL (1965, TV-PG) Bond is called in when SPECTRE hatches its most audacious plot to date when its agents hijack a British Vulcan bomber armed with two atomic bombs and hold NATO to ransom for the sum of $100,000,000 in uncut diamonds. Starring Sean Connery as Bond and Claudine Auger as Bond Girl Domino.
8:00 - 11:00 PM, ET/PT DIE ANOTHER DAY
1:00 - 4:00 AM, ET/PT DIE ANOTHER DAY
TETSURO TAMBA (Tiger Tanaka) DEAD AT 84 - DSBG
Veteran Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba died of heart failure in Tokyo following a bout of pneumonia. He was 84. Tamba is best known for his role as intelligence chief Tiger Tanaka opposite Sir Sean Connery in the 1967 James Bond movie YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. He performed in over 300 film appearances and Japanese TV shows. Tamba won a Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1981 for 203 KOCHI.

Tetsuro Tamba and Mie Hama prepare to launch a full scale invasion on Blofeld's volcano lair in You Only Live Twice.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROGER! - DSBG
Today marks the 79th birthday for Sir Roger Moore. Starring as OO7 in 7 consecutive Bond films from 1973's Live and Let Die thru 1985's A View to a Kill, Mr. Moore helped keep the series going thru the high inflated, energy crisis 70s.

Having starred in the TV series The Saint and The Persueders, Moore would win the role after Sean Connery walked away for a second time after Diamonds Are Forever. He would perform in other successful British films such as The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, and ffolkes.
Recently, Sir Roger Moore has been ambassador for the United Nations in supporting UNCEF (United Nations Children's Education Fund).
BOND HITS A GREAT WALL IN CHINA - Clifford Coonan for Variety
BEIJING -- Will 007 hit the great wall? China has suspended the bigscreen bows of "Miami Vice" and "World Trade Center" to make room for propaganda movies, while "Casino Royale" -- skedded to be the first James Bond ever to open in China -- faces a similar fate.Two or three times a year, China puts a freeze on the release of foreign films in order to promote patriotic domestic fare, but this year there have been more blackouts than usual.
The delays translate into major revenue losses: By the time the pics hit the screens, pirates have already flooded the market with cheap DVD copies. Hollywood execs regularly complain of a lack of clarity on operating in China and list the blackouts as a major impediment.
This current promotion is called "October Golden Autumn Excellent Domestic Film Exhibition Month." Another blackout is expected toward the end of the year, which could foil Sony's ambitious plans for a day-and-date release of "Casino Royale" on Nov. 17.
"Vice" looks set to be pushed back until Nov. 1, while "WTC" is unlikely to be screened before Nov. 11. Bond will probably have to wait until 2007.
Though Chinese audiences have undoubtedly seen other 007 pics via pirated copies, none of the earlier films has been given a bigscreen release. It's still a question whether "Casino Royale" will pass the censors, since Bond's "license to kill," maverick attitude, violence and sexual situations are anathema to the kinds of values China embraces in its pics.
The film promotions this month will showcase 10 local movies, including "My Long March," "China, 1949" and "Two Red-Scarf Wrapped Women."
Tong Gang, director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, told the Beijing Times that the pics contain "weighty revolutionary and historical material" and showcase "the rich, colorful and true-to-life state of domestic films."
Three foreign movies will be allowed during October -- Canadian moppet pic "Spymate," "Final Contract: Death on Delivery" (a telepic shot in Germany) and "The White Planet," a French-Canadian documentary about the North Pole.
CASINO ROYALE - THE MUSIC SCORE - DSBG
Well, here is the rundown, so far of the score scheduled to hit the record stores in mid-November.
DANIEL CRAIG IS THE BEST BOND EVER - Virgin.net
'Casino Royale' producer Barbara Broccoli has claimed that new 007 thesp Daniel Craig will be the "best Bond ever".
Broccoli's comments come after months of criticism have been piled on Craig by ardent Bond fans, many of whom claim that he is ill-suited to the famous role and will cause the upcoming film 'Casino Royale' to crash at the box office. However, despite the bitter niggling of his detractors and former Bond actor Pierce Brosnan's refusal to let go of the role, Craig has constantly reiterated his dedication to reinventing 007, a move which is backed by Broccoli. She told British movie magazine Hotdog of Craig, "He's the best Bond ever.
"He's such a superb actor. He's incredibly sexy, he's very charismatic, he has enormous screen presence and when he takes on a role he completely inhabits the character, and in this case he did everything. He's phenomenal. I think audiences will really embrace him".
COLIN SALMON CRIES RACISM - by Ben Carrozza for Dose.ca
British actor Colin Salmon has accused the production company behind James Bond of racism, after reports he was snubbed for the role of the debonair super agent because he is black.
Salmon — who appeared in Die Another Day as spy Charles Robinson — had been rumoured to replace Pierce Brosnan as 007 in the upcoming Casino Royale, the World Entertainment News Network reports. The outgoing Brosnan even gave Salmon his endorsement, before the studio went with current Bond, Daniel Craig.
Now, Salmon alleges producers chose Craig because they worried fans would reject a black Bond.
“It's a shame I didn't get the part. But there will never be a black Bond,” he says. “God, they can't even have a blond Bond without everyone going crazy.”
A spokeswoman for EON, the production company behind Bond denies the allegation: “I think it's a rather below the belt allegation and I can't believe Colin has suggested it.
“Since it wasn't impossible for there to be a blond Bond, then it's not impossible for there to be a black Bond.”
CHARITY BENEFIT FOR SOME EAGER BOND FANS - The Scotsman
JAMES Bond fans in the Lothians are to get the chance to see the new Casino Royale movie two days early.
The Vue cinemas at the Omni Centre in Edinburgh and in Livingston are holding a charity screening of 007's latest adventure, two nights before the film goes on general release.
Tickets for the screening, on Wednesday, November 15, cost £10 - with an average of £5 per ticket going to MediCinema.
With advance screenings at 36 Vue cinemas across the UK, the charity - which provides cinema screens in hospitals - is expected to receive over £60,000.
James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, who has supported the charity through 007 screenings before, said: "I have had lovely letters in the past, from patients and their loved ones thanking us for our support of MediCinema. With its cinemas in hospitals, MediCinema provides a much needed escape for the patients."
Tickets are on sale now at the Vue box office.
BOND AND LE CHIFFRE ON MTV - Indian Television
Daniel Craig, who stars as James Bond in Casino Royale, the latest film in the 007 series, will be in Copenhagen at the MTV Europe Music Awards, presenting an award alongside Denmark's own Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the Bond villain, Le Chifre in the blockbuster movie due for release November 17th..
Keane, The Killers, P Diddy, Muse and Nelly Furtado will perform. The show will be hosted by Justin Timberlake who will also perform.
YOU KNOW MY NAME - THE IMPROVED VERSION - by Stuart Basinger
After weeks of debate and wishful thinking the new James Bond title song "You Know My Name" has officially been released. But don't look for it at the Casino Royale website or any of Sony's links, it can only be found at Chris Cornell's My Scene.
For days the news of the 'enhanced' version had circulated among Bond websites, however technical difficulties caused the song to stop playing or not play at all when one would visit the website. Apparently the problem has been remedied and the song plays without any difficulty.
Bond themes have varied throughout the years from Duran Duran's pulsating "A View to a Kill" to Madonna's electronic lackluster "Die Another Day". However, nearly a month ago Cornell's song was leaked to the Internet with dire results. It had mixed reviews from all sides of the Bond fence, and from the sound of the song fans were becoming concern as to what direction the film was taking.
Now, the song has been enhanced with full orchestration and is destined to become a hit similar to Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die".
As of this report there is no news as to why the song is not on the official David Arnold soundtrack due to release in mid-November. Casino Royale opens in the U.S. on November 17th.
THE SUN RISES ON CASINO ROYALE - by The Sneak for The Sun Online
I WONDERED if I should do two versions of my review — one for the Bond fans who prefer the tongue-in-cheek Roger Moore and another for those who long for a return to Sean Connery’s classic From Russia With Love. To be honest, those 007 fans who want more Moore — or Pierce Brosnan back — will not like what I am about to say.
And that is: Daniel Craig is the best Bond since Connery.
Craig’s performance is so strong he could even make moviegoers forget there was anyone between himself and Connery. He plays the gritty, tougher-than-nails secret agent novelist Ian Fleming meant the world to see. With his bulked-up frame, intense blue eyes and don’t-mess-with-me attitude, Craig makes Brosnan look a bit girlie in comparison.
Blond-haired Craig has had to dodge as many bullets from internet critics as movie villains since becoming the sixth official James Bond. But from the black-and-white opening sequence to the pulse-pounding, action-packed end, Craig is telling his critics, “I’m gonna be doing this for years.”
The film includes the most disturbing Bond torture scene ever filmed and shows 007 will not be pulling any punches from now on. Bond’s Thunderballs get so gruesomely whacked that every man in the audience will feel his pain long after getting home. And rather than simply dusting himself down after this attack, the new, realistic Bond takes a month in hospital getting his mojo back.
The director, Martin Campbell, returns to kick butt after directing Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye in the Nineties — and again clearly jump-starts the series for the 21st Century. Gone are the cartoon-like trappings of past films such as the invisible cars and outlandish villains — and some fans may be disappointed by the noticeable absence of old favourites Q and Miss Moneypenny. But the presence of Dame Judi Dench brings authority and humour to her role as Bond’s boss M.
Casino Royale was Fleming’s first Bond novel. The title was used for a spoof starring David Niven in 1967. This, though, is the first attempt to bring Fleming’s original vision to life. And, to be frank, like the novel, it suffers from a lack of sharpness in the plot. You will need to concentrate as you follow the story because, running at a whopping two hours and 20 minutes, the movie is 20 minutes too long. A healthy bit of editing would have avoided confusing scenes where some characters appear and disappear inexplicably. And, often, the characters do things for no apparent reason. Some scenes seem to be going in a certain direction but end up leaving the audience scratching their heads in sheer confusion.
The novel is the rough template for the film — but screenwriters Robert Wade, Neal Purvis and Oscar-winning Crash writer and director Paul Haggis have to change the enemy and setting in order to bring it up to date. Casino Royale follows Bond on his first Licence to Kill mission. Not everything goes according to plan, though, and Bond is forced to investigate a terrorist cell on his own, which leads him to banker Le Chiffre played with understated menace by Danish actor Mads Mikkelson. Le Chiffre and Bond then take each other on in a high-stake game of poker. Fortunately, the action sequences more than compensate for the complicated plot.
Campbell has ditched the computer-generated imagery and gone back to real stunts – which give Casino Royale a real awe factor. The set-piece with a terrorist called Mollaka crackles with energy. He is played by Sebastien Foucan — the real-life free runner who gets his kicks out of jumping from building to building. Mollaka is chased through a construction site and across a crane suspended high above a city.
Another thrilling scene sees a terrorist attempt to blow up an airliner.
Female fans will not be disappointed by the sight of Craig in a picture-postcard Bahamas landscape. He emerges from the sea wearing a skimpy pair of swimming trunks, set against a stunning Bahamas backdrop.
French actress Eva Green plays the main Bond girl Vesper Lynd. And she manages to bring out the soft side of Bond that has rarely been seen in previous films. But beyond that, she still has the perfect assets for a Bond girl that have wowed generations of red-blooded males.
James Bond is the most successful film franchise in history in terms of box office receipts. And the key to its continuing success is whether the fans are still egging on their hero at the end of each film. But you can bet on Craig being a hit because when he sorts out his enemy at the end of the film — with his well-worn line “Bond — James Bond”, you just can’t help cheering.
DANIEL CRAIG TO APPEAR ON NBC'S 'TODAY' - by Stuart Basinger
Daniel Craig is scheduled to appear on NBC's 'TODAY' on Monday, November 6th. The show airs at 7am EST, so get your TiVo ready, there is most likely to be some clips and perhaps a few tidbits we have not heard yet.
CATERINA MURINO SETS OUT TO HELP AIDS ORPHANS - by India ENews
Actress Caterina Murino is using her Bond girl fame to help AIDS orphans in Africa. Murino, set to appear in the upcoming Bond movie 'Casino Royale', is an avid supporter of humanitarian causes.
She regularly travels to Africa to help AIDS orphans.
'A 14-year-old boy asked me to please say hello to James Bond. It was overwhelming, horrible and beautiful. I couldn't cry in front of the children. I spoke to Barbara Brocolli (producer of Bond films) about raising money for the area and we are going to send James Bond movies to the slums. If we become famous, we can move the media to make aware what is happening in the rest of the world.'
UNTOLD STORIES OF OO7 - by Stuart Basinger
My good friend Dr. Wesley Britton has his own website and blog where he can discuss all things spy related. Of course that includes OO7. This month he has posted a three part interview with writer, agent, and Bond fan Ronald Payne. In part one, Payne talks about his connections to 007 historian O. F. Snelling and his work to update Snelling's 1964 classic Bond study OO7 James Bond: A Report; plus Ron's friendship with George Lazenby; and Ron's stories about so much more--like his first movie job--keeping director John Ford upright!
Part two is titled The James Bond Curse? Payne describes his attempts to work on an official Bond film, his trying to connect with Thunderball producer Kevin McClory, insider notes on Never Say Never Again, and some Bond might-have-beens.
Finally part three The Secret Script to Warhead. Speaking of might-have-beens, here Ron tells the story of what was in the 1976 never produced Bond script, Warhead, written by Sean Connery, Kevin McClory, and Len Deighton. You can link to Wesley Britton's marvelous website by clicking here.
'BRILLIANT BOND' SEDUCES CRITICS - by BBC News
Daniel Craig's performance as James Bond has been hailed as "terrific" and "simply brilliant" in early reviews of his 007 debut in Casino Royale. The first verdicts on Craig - who was a controversial choice to play the spy - have been gushing.The Daily Mirror said he was seen "oozing the kind of edgy menace that recalls Sean Connery at his best". And the Daily Telegraph wrote that he "steps with full assuredness into Sean Connery's old handmade shoes".
Connery, who appeared in seven Bond films, was recently voted the best 007 of all time. But when Craig was picked to replace Pierce Brosnan last year, a small band of disapproving fans called for a boycott of Casino Royale.
In the new film, Bond makes a break from the super-slick, stereotyped spy of the past, the UK newspaper critics said - but all declared the end result a triumph.
"It's Bond, but not as we've known it," according to the Telegraph.
"The guns and action are there... the girls are certainly there... but the clonking double entendres of the old days are gone - in their place is a much more teasing, smartly written prospect. Daniel Craig had a face "like an Easter Island statue" and makes "a terrific debut", it added. "He manages to exude not only danger and unpredictability and wit - but also, and this is a first, some vulnerability."
The Times declared: "Craig is up there with the best - he combines Sean Connery's athleticism and cocksure swagger with Timothy Dalton's thrilling undercurrent of stone-cold cruelty. Craig's impressive physique makes him "a far more plausible Bond than many of his predecessors", it added. "But his main asset quickly becomes evident. He can act. The action was "edgy", the paper said, with stunts that were more physical and violence that was more raw.
The Mirror said the James Bond rule book had been "well and truly torn up" for the 21st official film. "From the start you can tell this isn't your average Bond film," its critic wrote, adding that it was "easily the best film since GoldenEye".
Based on Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale
begins with a brutal black-and-white fight scene in a bare bathroom.
Since Craig was chosen, the actor and film-makers have promised a
more human and gritty character. Casino Royale
reaches cinemas on 17 November.
Thank you Michael and Barbara for giving
the fans the best Bond film in literally 'Eons'. DANIEL CRAIG CHALLENGES CONNERY AS
BEST BOND EVER - by Nick Curtis for
This Is LondonNovember 13, 2006
Those polls that regularly dub Sean Connery the best James Bond ever may look a little different next time round. In the thrilling, franchise- reviving Casino Royale, Daniel Craig lays serious claim to the role.
Blond and blue-eyed, with a rock-hard sixpack and an attitude to match, he is the first Bond since Connery to exude an air of menace. He's also funnier than Roger Moore, and more of a credibly ruthless womaniser than Pierce Brosnan. And he's the first Bond who bleeds, literally and metaphorically.
Director Martin Campbell lets us know early on that the whole Bond business has been stripped back to basics, shaken and stirred and given a twist. In a black-and-white prologue we see the agent winning his licence to kill with a messy murder in a bathroom and a cold-hearted execution.
There's not a girl to be seen in the beautifully animated credits, the first chase is on foot through a Madagascan building site, and the first cars Craig's 007 drives are a bulldozer and a hired Ford, before the famous Aston Martin DB5 is stirred wittily-into the mix.
Campbell even addresses fans' fears about Craig's suitability for the role, by having Judi Dench's M wonder if she's promoted him too soon. There are sly, clever nods to Bond lore and several of the earlier films. These references are not so intrusive they would distract a newcomer - if indeed, there are any - but they gladden the heart of a fan.
The plot is a straightforward but clever updating of Ian Fleming's original novel. After Bond foils a plot to blow up a plane, thereby wrecking airline share prices, the "banker to the world's terrorists" Le Chiffre finds himself out of pocket. Threatened by some very angry warlords, he tries to make up his cash shortfall in a high-stakes card game in Montenegro.
Bond, initially acting on his own initiative having embarrassed the government, must make sure that doesn't happen. Oh, and he's accompanied to the casino by Treasury girl Vesper Lynd, played by the fine and very beautiful French actress Eva Green.
Their verbal sparring and eventual union make this the most erotic Bond film in years, and give Craig room to show off his acting chops as well as his bared muscles. The latter are on display in a torture scene taken straight from the book and conducted with such sadistic relish by Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre, it will have men in cinemas across the country crossing their legs.
The locations are glamorous, but not absurdly so, the violence brutally real and the only real gadget is an in-car defibrillator. This may be yet another sly allusion by Campbell and his trio of writers - spearheaded by Crash's Paul Haggis - to the way they have restarted the whole Bond franchise by pumping in new blood.
Criticisms? Well, it's a bit long, and Eva Green, though stunning, also looks alarmingly thin. Le Chiffre's habit of weeping blood seems to be a theatrical attribute left over from an earlier script-draft. I wonder, too, whether today's terrorists still do business with suitcases full of money, like the one tossed around in the finale that takes place in a collapsing house in Venice. But these are very minor quibbles.
Casino Royale is brilliantly exciting, and a triumph for Craig. I watched most of it with a huge grin plastered across my face. Bond is back.
How can it be 'brilliantly exciting' and yet 'a bit long'?
POKER TV MARATHON SHOWS CASINO ROYALE FOOTAGE AND INTERVIEWS - by PokerPages.com
You may be aware that GSN is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing, and that 'High Stakes Poker' is GSN's exclusive cash game TV poker series. What you may not know is that High Stakes Poker has scheduled a special four show marathon beginning Monday, November 13 (8:00 PM to 12:00 PM ET) sponsored by Casino Royale, which is the upcoming James Bond film from Columbia Pictures and MGM.
The four show marathon will include interviews with the Casino Royale actors as well as behind the scenes footage from Casino Royale throughout the evening. Daniel Craig stars as the new "007" James Bond, the smoothest, sexiest, most lethal agent on Her Majesty's Secret Service in the Casino Royale film.
I'm all in!
BOND LEFT COLD BY BOND BOOK - ITV News
Daniel Craig has admitted he threw the novel version of Casino Royale in the (trash) bin after thinking it was an average read.
The new James Bond actor admitted that straight after reading it he dismissed it as "alright".Before he was signed up for the role of 007, the star even ripped the front cover off the book because he did not want to be seen with it.
Craig, 38, has received rave reviews for his debut as the famous spy in the movie adaptation of Ian Fleming's first Bond book.On auditioning for the part, he said: "I hadn't many ambitions to do this but Barbara (Broccoli) gave me a call and said `Please come and say hello' and I thought this was a bit of a giggle. I got a copy of the book and I was reading it but I'd ripped the front cover off it because going on the Tube (Subway) reading it was a bit kind of..."
He added: "I got off the Tube, finished the last page and threw it in the bin and went `Well, that was alright', walked into the offices and sat down with them. They said they wanted to go ahead with this and I just wish I kept that book."An Ebay collectible tossed away.
ASTON MARTIN ROLLS INTO RECORD BOOK - by Telugo Portal
The latest James Bond film "Casino Royale" has entered into the Guinness Book of World Records with stunt artists flipping the Aston Martin car a record seven times during a shoot for a crash.The speedboat jump in Live and Let Die also made it to Guinness Book of World Records in 1973.
November 14, 2006
CASINO ROYALE'S ROYAL NIGHT - by Stuart Basinger
You've got to hand it to the Brits when it comes to a red carpet party, the posh and spectacle is outstanding. Daniel Craig looking dashing in his evening tux while stunning Eva Green and nemesis Mads Mikkelson greeted Her Majesty at the premiere of the long-awaited Bond spectacular CASINO ROYALE. Co-Producer and stepson to the late Cubby Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson introduced the stars of the film to the royal couple before the show. Dame Judi Dench, Caterina Murino and Jeffrey Wright all greeted the masses of OO7 fans. Director Martin Campbell should be justly proud of his latest action picture and from the response the world press has written about, one can only hope Mr. Campbell will return for Bond 22.
Click above to see the video of the royal premiere.
Others in attendance included Michelle Yeoh who played Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies, Dame Shirley Bassey, Sir Elton John, and a prompted Paris Hilton who had to have her handler whisper the answers to key questions in her ear.
Paris Hilton obviously is trying to become the next Bond girl. I sure hope the producers have better sense than to let her even near the set.
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO ATTEND BRITISH PREMIERE - by Maira Oliveira for All Headline News
Britain's Queen Elizabeth will not be staying home on Tuesday night. The royal is set to attend the world premiere of the James Bond movie "Casino Royale" in London.
The monarch has decided to attend the event, despite her continuing back pain and will be accompanied by her husband Prince Philip for the glitzy red carpet event in London's Leicester Square.
The 80-year-old royal has been diagnosed with chronic sciatica and has been forced to cancel a number of official engagements because of her pain. However, it is well known that the queen is an avid 007 fan and she was determined to attend the much-anticipated premiere regardless.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper that the queen's back problem was "a private medical matter," but it is understood she has suffered from sciatica since she had an operation on damaged cartilage in her knee in 2003.
Despite her condition, Elizabeth will also honor her duty of attending the state opening of the British parliament on Wednesday, where she will announce the legislative program for Prime Minister Tony Blair's government over the next year.
She is expected to deliver a speech outlining plans for a range of new laws focusing on crime, terrorism and climate change.
Obviously keeping the British end up.
FRANCHISE GOES BACK FOR THE FUTURE - by Liz Braun for The Toronto Sun
Did we need a new James Bond?
Casino Royale producer Barbara Broccoli explains it all for you. First, she praises Pierce Brosnan and his four Bond outings, particularly the hugely successful Die Another Day. However ...
"We felt at the end of Die Another Day that we had taken Bond along a fantastical journey and that we had kind of reached the point of no return, in terms of CGI, with the invisible car and all that. And we felt the world had changed. The world was much more serious, and we were trying to figure out where to go. And Michael (Wilson, her co-producer) said, 'Maybe we should do Casino Royale.' It's the first book Ian Fleming wrote about James Bond." The problem was obvious: Casino Royale is the beginning, the story of how Bond becomes a 007.
"So it couldn't be somebody who'd played the role before. That was the difficult part to it, because it meant we had to make a change."
Once that decision was made, however, Broccoli says, Daniel Craig was the guy they wanted.
"As for who else we might have spoken to about the role, I won't say -- that's like asking who you slept with before you got married," she says, laughing.
Broccoli points out that Craig is not the only actor to get the negative buzz upon becoming James Bond.
Sean Connery, she says, went through exactly the same thing. "Everybody, including Ian Fleming, was saying, 'Oh!' " She makes a gesture of dismissal. "Even the studio said, when they saw Connery's screen test, 'Try again. Keep looking.' "
Makes you wonder what Connery would have done with the negative press if the Internet was around in 1962.
OO7'S BIG 'RE-ENTRY' IS TOP LINE - by David Edwards for The Mirror
BOND fans have voted for their favourite 007 innuendo - and "I think he's attempting re-entry sir" is top of the list.
The line is spoken by Q, actor Desmond Llewelyn, as he and Sir Frederick Gray watch Roger Moore take Dr Holly Goodhead "round the world one more time" in 1979's Moonraker.
Pierce Brosnan is at No2 with Bond's quip to Dr Christmas Jones at the close of 1999's The World Is Not Enough. In bed together, 007 says: "I thought Christmas only comes once a year."
The last line from 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me - "Just keeping the British end up, sir" - came third in the online survey of 3,000 James Bond fans. Moore delivers the punchline as Sir Frederick discovers him in another compromising position.
Pearl and Dean, which ran the poll, said: "Bond innuendoes seem to work best when they are at the end of the film and subtle as a brick."
I always loved the way Connery says to Fiona in Thunderball as he gets into her car, "How far do you go?"
CASINO ROYALE CRACKS CHINA - Empire Online
Daniel Craig’s Bond has managed a feat no other 007 has been able to
pull off before him – he’s found a way into China.
Casino Royale marks the first time that a Bond film has made it past the strict
Film Board that vets every foreign film before it’s even considered for
release. Previously, Bond’s cavalier attitude, death-dealing ways and spying
on other countries was frowned upon – at least until now. Casino will see
screens on 30 January, while Chinese audiences previously had to get their
Bondage via illegal pirate DVDs.
"We are extremely pleased that the film has passed and expect it to be one
of the highest grossing films next year in China," said Li Chow, Sony
Pictures' China manager told Variety.
So that’s Chinese film policy, then. Invisible cars? Bad. Testicle torture?
Good. Says it all, really…
You've got to have balls if you're going to deal with China.
1969 - THE BOND BETWEEN - by Army Archerd for Variety
Dec. 17, 1969:GOOD MORNING: The new "James Bond," George Lazenby, hadda come to Hollywood to see himself as "007." But no one in the local audience recognized the long-haired, bearded one as the star of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" -- least of all the University of Texas basketballers, UA's guests, who were looking to see "movie stars." ... "I've never seen myself in a movie before," claimed Lazenby, "and I wanted to see how my acting's going -- I practiced a year before I did it." And he was very critical of his performance. Practice makes perfect, George ... He is still insistent this is the first and last "Bond" film for him. "I'm just an actor, not Bond. It took Sean (Connery) three films before he started to complain -- I made one and half way through I started complaining" ... He's here to meet directors for future films and had hoped to meet Dennis Hopper, talk pix a la "Easy Rider." "That's what it's all about," says the London visitor who bounces back to England for Thursday's preem. "I should face my punishment," he laughs, referring to reviews of his performance. "It was a learning tree," he added ... (2006 update: Lazenby, 67, continues to act in action films as well as voicing several animated movies. He and wife, former tennis champ Pam Shriver, welcomed twins last year. As for other Bonds: Connery, 76, enjoying life in his Bahamas home, was honored this year at the first Rome film festival. Roger Moore, 79, continues globe-circling as an ambassador for UNICEF. He turns down roles regularly -- but is now considering one. Timothy Dalton, 60, costars in "Hot Fuzz." Rogue releases the Working Title action comedy in the spring. Pierce Brosnan, 53, has three films readying for release: "Seraphim Falls," "Butterfly on a Wheel," and "Marriage." And is talking a sequel to "The Thomas Crown Affair.")
You've got to have balls if you're going to quit being James Bond during your first movie.
BOX OFFICE BLACK TIE AFFAIR - by Ian Mohr for Variety
Can thousands of dancing penguins take down James Bond and "Borat"? In the first big face-off of the holiday season, Warner Bros.' CG-animated "Happy Feet" and Sony/MGM's latest Bond installment "Casino Royale" should be locked in a seesaw battle as the weekend B.O. frame unfolds and the two pics aim for different demos.
"Casino" should post big numbers Friday as the pic draws a core aud of adults, while "Feet" should benefit from strong matinee runs on Saturday, putting the pic in contention heading into Sunday.
Pic dominated the U.K. market on its opening day Thursday with a strong $3.3 million at 988 playdates, accounting for 67% of Brit biz.
Stateside, "Casino" is tracking best with males 25-plus, while "Feet" is drawing most of its interest, not surprisingly, from the under-25 crowd. But "Feet" could have a trick up its sleeve as adult women and teens also seem primed to pounce.
Also a factor will be "Borat," which has taken the No. 1 spot for the last two frames and will still be occupying 2,611 playdates.
Universal comedy "Let's Go to Prison," meanwhile, will try to stay afloat by pulling in some teen biz.
"Casino" will bow in 370 fewer engagements than "Feet."
Revitalized Bond franchise also has added buzz thanks to topliner Daniel Craig, who has taken over as the international superspy and is gaining good word-of-mouth.
Last Bond pic, 2002's "Die Another Day," opened to $47 million in late November, on its way to $160.9 million.
Sony, however, feels that the film will perform as an original, not a sequel, because of the casting change, and will hope for an opening in line with a "National Treasure," which bowed to $35.1 million a year ago.
Do penguins have balls?
FOR BROCCOLI FAMILY, BOND IS A DIAMOND FOREVER - by Kate Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
As the family's second generation of Bond producers, Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother, Michael Wilson, have spent the past decade heeding that counsel. Yesterday, the Broccoli family released the $150 million "Casino Royale," their 21st Bond movie since 1962's "Dr. No" -- making the suave British superspy by far the most durable movie franchise ever.
In the movies, James Bond has survived 44 years of evil villains with the help of a slick, high-tech arsenal of weapons -- watches that explode, cigarette lighters that double as grenades and the like. In Hollywood, his secret weapon has been the Broccoli family, whose fierce protection of all things Bond has itself been nothing less than explosive at times.
Over the past decade, Ms. Broccoli, 46 years old, and Mr. Wilson, 64, have managed the Bond franchise with an iron fist -- dropping actors who don't share their vision, demurring on multimillion dollar licensing opportunities that don't feel right or criticizing studio executives who rub them the wrong way.
"Michael and I have always kept our eye on the picture," Ms. Broccoli says, "and it's not about making friends."
The Broccolis owe their clout to a series of agreements struck decades ago. In 1961, Cubby Broccoli and his production partner, Harry Saltzman, bought rights to adapt most of author Ian Fleming's Bond novels and short stories into films. Mr. Broccoli in turn struck a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Inc. that gave the studio rights to produce, market and distribute Bond movies. In the mid 1970s, Mr. Saltzman sold his rights to MGM, creating the 50/50 partnership that persists today.
Cubby Broccoli's decades-old arrangement with MGM affords Ms. Broccoli and Mr. Wilson an unusual level of autonomy. As a result of a 2004 purchase of MGM by a group of investors, the Broccoli heirs must make two Bond pictures with Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose parent company, Sony Corp. of Japan, owns a stake in MGM. Although Sony must approve all creative and financial decisions, the producers enjoy a strong voice on everything from casting and directing hires to the screenplay and budget.
It is a win-win deal for the family, both creatively and financially. In addition to a fee for their work on each picture, Mr. Wilson says, the producers are entitled to share each Bond movie's profit after certain costs are recouped -- even though they don't have to kick in any production or marketing dollars. Depending on the picture and its costs, the percentage of the profit that goes to the producers and the Fleming estate could be as high as 25 percent, according to two people familiar with the deal. (Mr. Wilson describes that possibility as remote.)
Ms. Broccoli visited Bond sets as a child and worked as a production staffer while her father was alive. Mr. Wilson, a lawyer and collector of 19th-century photography, has screenwriting credits on several Bond movies and has made numerous cameo appearances in the films. In "Casino Royale," he plays a police chief who gets arrested at an outdoor cafe in Montenegro.
Contrary to conventional wisdom -- among Bond fans and Hollywood executives alike -- there is no official Bond playbook that dictates how often he must drink martinis, bed sexy accomplices or don tuxedos. "There are certain instincts we have about whether something's right for Bond or not," Ms. Broccoli says. The producers also frequently return to the original Fleming novels to refresh their memories. "We live and breathe Bond," Mr. Wilson says.
That passion often comes with a sharp edge. Executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment got a sense of the Broccoli duo's willfulness at a dinner two years ago in London at which studio chief Amy Pascal asked about their experiences in Hollywood. "I like studio executives," replied Ms. Broccoli, according to people who attended, "unless they're being a-holes."
"They're really straightforward, and I'm really straightforward," says Ms. Pascal of the producers. "We had a lot to learn about Bond. They're the experts."
The Broccolis have sparred with several generations of studio executives. One bone of contention that often arises between the family and their collaborators is whether a line of dialogue or plot device is true enough to the Bond character. For 2002's "Die Another Day," for example, director Lee Tamahori says he proposed a scene in which Mr. Connery -- the first and most celebrated Bond -- gave counsel to the then-current Bond, actor Pierce Brosnan, in a secluded Scottish castle. It was the kind of stunt cameo that would have resulted in a publicity bonanza, but the Broccolis weren't buying it. "It never passed muster, I suspect because it was too radical," Mr. Tamahori says.
For all their firm ideas, the Broccolis sometimes have been proven wrong. They argued with "GoldenEye" director Martin Campbell, he says, over whether Bond's boss, M, should be played by a woman, Judi Dench. After much debate, she got the part and has become a regular in the role. In another instance, former MGM promotion chief Karen Sortito says she had an uphill battle convincing them to insert a BMW roadster into "GoldenEye." The Broccolis didn't want to upstage Bond's traditional Aston Martin. The deal she eventually struck with the German auto maker brought in $30 million for television advertisements and free cars for the shoot. The Harvard Business School later drafted a case study on how the Bond brand helped sell BMW's new model.
After "Die Another Day," the franchise went into one of its periodic hibernations. In ramping up for "Casino Royale" -- the last of Fleming's Bond novels for the Broccolis to adapt -- the biggest decision was how to cast Bond. Mr. Brosnan was a problem because the "Royale" story finds Bond at the start of his espionage career; Mr. Brosnan, now 53, already had played the role four times.
Associates say Mr. Brosnan met Ms. Broccoli and Mr. Wilson for an awkward lunch meeting at the Santa Monica restaurant Drago to hear the news that he was being replaced for a fresh approach. A disappointed Mr. Brosnan left the restaurant in a huff, says an associate to whom both parties relayed the events. Through a representative, the actor declined to comment.
The role went to 38-year-old Daniel Craig -- but only after Sony and the Broccolis considered about 100 other actors.
With "Casino Royale," the Broccolis pushed Bond in a different direction -- largely abandoning the flashy, playboy-with-gadgets approach of recent years in favor of a more emotional tone.
During the script-development process, Sony executives wondered aloud whether the stripped-down "Royale" needed more in the way of gadgets and Bond's double-entendre lines. Despite the inclusion of a few gizmos, including a homing device implanted in Bond's arm and some shots of strategically-placed Sony products, "Royale" lacks the tricked-out cars and covert weapons of past films.
The producers refused to add more. "We felt we needed to make a change in the series," Ms. Broccoli says. "So ... we thought, let's just go back and make a Bond film as though there'd never been any made before."
MAD ABOUT MADS - by Laura Fries for Variety
In his home country of Denmark, Mads Mikkelsen is big. George Clooney big. He's been voted "sexiest man in the world," won the Danish equivalent of an Oscar and is the one star who consistently packs 'em in at theaters.But as the James Bond franchise reinvents itself with "Casino Royale," Mikkelsen will be transforming his international profile as well, thanks to a highly visible role as 007 archvillain Le Chiffre (played by none other than Peter Lorre and Orson Welles in previous versions).
"Nobody knows who I am here, so it's definitely starting over in the sense of being known. But I've been doing this for a while now, so that's fine," says Mikkelsen, who also will be courting U.S. auds as a dreamy humanitarian whose sex appeal gets in the way of his change-the-world ideals in "After the Wedding," Denmark's official Oscar selection.
Since his American film debut in Antoine Fuqua's "King Arthur" in 2004, the 41-year-old former dancer has just skirted Hollywood fame. His demo reel has made the rounds of top Hollywood casting directors, and the thesp was seriously considered for co-starring roles in "The Da Vinci Code" and "North Country."
It was his part in Dogma 95 film "Open Hearts" that caught "Casino Royale" producer Barbara Broccoli's attention. "We had to be sure that he could be a worthy opponent to James Bond," says Broccoli, who uses words like "flawless" and "electrifying" to describe Mikkelsen's performance. "I saw Mads in 'Open Hearts' and was impressed with his power and strength onscreen."
"It definitely put him on the radar with people who didn't already know him," says his L.A. rep, Sandra Chang of Industry Entertainment. "The way this town works, everything is by list, and suddenly you wind up higher on the list."
But Bond films don't usually make stars out of their villains, says Box Office Mojo publisher Brandon Gray, adding that "Casino Royale" could serve as a nice platform to launch Mikkelsen in more traditional roles.
"A good example is Sean Bean," says Gray. "He played the villain in 'GoldenEye,' Pierce Brosnan's debut as 007. He didn't go on to be a leading man in America, but he continues to be a very prolific actor, doing a lot of big movies."
According to Mikkelsen, who has yet to choose another American project, finding the right material is more important than the fame. "I still have Denmark, and I'm definitely going to live and work there for the rest of my life," he says. "Whatever happens outside of Denmark is just icing on the cake for me."
The actor made his film debut in 1996 as a small-time hood/junkie in "Pusher." For the next several years his films -- including "Flickering Lights," "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself" and "The Green Butchers" -- made the festival circuit. Back in Scandinavia, it was his perf in the 2000 gritty police drama "Unit One" that catapulted him to Clooneylike star status.
In addition to "Casino Royale" and "After the Wedding," Mikkelsen has had a busy year abroad, starring in Peter Lindmark's Swedish action thriller "Exit" and relationship drama "Prague" by Ole Christian Madsen.
"I've never thought about having a career, to be honest," says Mikkelsen. "I've always tried to focus on the jobs and, hopefully, eventually that will become a career later on."
Mr. Mikkelson has created one of the best villains in the series. One that will be remembered for years to come.
THE ANATOMY OF A PRODUCT PLACEMENT - by Burt Helm for BusinessWeek
Last weekend I caught the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. The flick packs more than its fair share of product placements, of course. But look closely, and you'll also see a person placement. In the background of the Miami airport scene, there's Virgin Chairman Sir Richard Branson getting the wand in the security line (and a few seconds later it cuts to a shot of a Virgin jet landing, natch).
I made a call over to Virgin to ask about it. They put me on with Virgin Atlantic Communications Director Paul Charles, who set up the deal. According to Charles, producer Barbara Broccoli gave him a call last May. A deal with British Airways had stalled, and she needed a plane in Prague for the airport scene (yep, Prague stands in for Miami) in 10 days. Virgin didn't need to pay for the placement directly -- just schlep the jet and crew over for three days of filming (and throw in some marketing dollars. Virgin's doing promotional tie-ins for Casino Royale too). The producers offered to stick Branson and his son in the film for fun as thanks, according to Charles. All-told, Charles pegged the cost somewhere in the "hundreds of thousands of pounds" range.
I actually thought the flamboyant entrepreneur was a much more effective placement for Virgin anyway. Branson's on for only a few seconds and you barely catch him, so it kind of startles you when you see it. And I'm much more likely to talk that up with friends than I would some plane flyover.
I found it very funny in a subtle way that there was a Virgin in a Bond film.
December 6, 2006
OO7 GOES MOBILE - Sony Picture Home Entertainment
LOS ANGELES – December 5, 2006 –James Bond fans can now experience the excitement of Columbia Pictures' and MGM's Casino Royale in the palms of their hands with the first 007 game for mobile phones available in North America. The action-packed game is the largest mobile game launch to date for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and is available to Cingular, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and Alltel subscribers. Customers can download the game from their carriers' portal on the handset, or from the Sony Pictures web site (www.sonypictures.com/mobile).
The Casino Royale mobile game features 14 levels, drawing gamers into Bond's first 007 mission as he faces off with criminal mastermind Le Chiffre in a high stakes poker showdown. Featuring '007's' "Bond move," the game lets users engage in hand-to-hand combat or employ an arsenal of weapons to take on even the fiercest enemies while escaping a series of dangerous encounters. The game loosely follows the story of the film itself.
In the hit movie, which is currently in release worldwide, Daniel Craig stars as "007" James Bond, the smoothest, sexiest, most lethal agent on Her Majesty's Secret Service in Casino Royale. Based on the first Bond book written by Ian Fleming, the story recounts the making of the world's greatest secret agent. Martin Campbell directed the 21st adventure in the 44-year-old franchise, from a screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Paul Haggis.
James Bond's first "007" mission leads him to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), banker to the world's terrorists. In order to stop him, and bring down the terrorist network, Bond must beat Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale. Bond is initially annoyed when a beautiful British Treasury official, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) is assigned to deliver his stake for the game and watch over the government's money. But, as Bond and Vesper survive a series of lethal attacks by Le Chiffre and his henchmen, a mutual attraction develops leading them both into further danger and events that will shape Bond's life forever. The film is currently in theaters worldwide.
"Building from the success of the recent theatrical release of Casino Royale, we are excited to bring to life the thrilling film experience to gamers on the go," said Eric Berger, Vice President of Mobile Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The game complements a suite of mobile content offerings around Casino Royale, including wallpapers and ringtones for the phone.
About Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. SPE is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America , (SCA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.
So pick up your cell phones and let the mayhem begin.
DR. NO GUN FETCHES $106,202 - by Linda Sandler for Bloomberg
James Bond's Walther PP gun, wielded by Sean Connery in the 1962 movie, ``Dr. No,'' sold for 54,000 pounds ($106,202) at Christie's International in London yesterday, double its presale estimate.
Connery's gun was the most expensive of 60 weapons featured in Bond films in the past 40 years that Christie's sold for a total of 217,572 pounds, along with other movie memorabilia. The buyer's name wasn't disclosed. Roger Moore's Walther P5 handgun, used in the 1983 film, ``Octopussy,'' fetched 7,200 pounds, missing its top estimate of 8,000 pounds.
The auction, which showed that some 007 stars fetch a premium in the art market, may have benefited from the success of ``Casino Royale,'' the latest Bond film, which was the No. 2 U.S. box- office hit over the weekend, behind ``Happy Feet.''
The Bond guns were sold by the Prop Store of London on behalf of the armorers who supply weapons for 007 movies.
``Dr. No'' was the first of 21 Bond movies. ``Casino Royale,'' starring Daniel Craig, is based on Ian Fleming's 1953 novel, which created the martini-drinking and gun-wielding gourmet and ladies' man.
That's a Smith and Wesson. And you've had your six.
"IN THIS BUSINESS, THERE IS MUCH RISICO" - IGN
The follow-up to Casino Royale will reportedly be based on the Ian Fleming
short story Risico, which appeared in his 1960 book For Your Eyes Only.
"Bosses were so pleased with how well Casino Royale has been received that
work has already commenced on Risico at Pinewood Studios," claimed a source
for the British tabloid The Sun. "Some of the same characters will crop up
again. But one of the main aspects will be to develop Bond's complex
personality."
The problem with Risico is that its basic plot and characters was already used
for the 1981 film version of For Your Eyes Only. In Fleming's Risico, 007 is
sent to Italy to investigate a heroin ring and crosses paths with the likes of
Colombo and Kristatos, both of whom were featured in the Roger Moore movie.
It should be noted that, although A View to a Kill (another short story in For
Your Eyes Only) and FYEO have both been filmed, neither movie truly used the
plots from their respective source novels. Fleming's From a View to a Kill saw
007 investigating the murder of a dispatch-rider; FYEO had M sending Bond on an
"off the books" assignment to avenge the murder of his old friends,
the Havelocks, by Herr von Hammerstein. The film featured the murder of the
Havelocks and the inclusion of their vengeful daughter, but M's employing 007 as
a means to fulfill a personal vendetta was not used.
Fleming's short stories 007 in New York and Quantum of Solace have never been
referenced in any Bond film, and only a semblance of The Property of a Lady can
be gleaned from the big-screen version of Octopussy. 007's investigation of a
female Secret Service double agent in that story could prove an interesting
challenge for Bond in the next movie, especially in light of what transpired in
Casino Royale.
It seems plausible that screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade might use the
gist of Risico -- 007 in the Mediterranean to investigate a crime ring -- while
adding and adjusting other elements to fit with the series' newly adopted
down-to-earth, character-driven approach.
Wade recently advised the BBC, "In the next film the emphasis has to be on
the unfinished emotional business at the end of Casino Royale. It has to be
dealt with in such a way that his character continues to have an arc. ... It
can't just be he's tough and he's tempered steel and totally impervious. There
are things he still has to resolve. So that's the legacy of Casino Royale and
it's important to have it so the actor has something to play."
Personally I feel the producers will choose a different title.