Good to see you KKBB. Things have been awfully dull around here. I hope we're going to read about some gratuitous sex and violence.

April 7, 2006

IT'S IN THE CARDS - By Stuart Basinger

In the words of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, "There you go again!"  The tabloids are all over the rumor mill like ants on a Sunday picnic.  The latest garbage being fed to the masses is that Daniel Craig cannot play Poker, or any card game.  Let alone the fact that he cannot pick up a deck of cards.

Now if there is anyone out there that really believes for a New York second that Mr. Craig is incompetent when it comes to acting out a gambling scene, most certainly is not playing with a full deck.  A majority of the world's population by the time they have reached the age of 35 must have played a card game at least once in their lives.  Unless it is against their religion or culture, and Craig does not fall into that category nor does he come from an isolated part of the world.

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.

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."

COLD AS ICE - By Stuart Basinger

Rosamund Pike is relieved she doesn't have to appear in any more James Bond movies - as she couldn't stand kissing Pierce Brosnan.

The Die Another Day star admits the former 007 actor's smooches left a lot to be desired.  She says: "I'm filming a smaller independent film called Fracture and I have to kiss a fabulous actor called Ryan Gosling. He's a great kisser - it's so different from my first on-screen kiss with Pierce."

Pike also said she is so sick of being branded a Bond girl she rebuffs 007 fans whenever they approach her in public.  The actress would rather pretend to be a nobody than accept the attentions of curious James Bond enthusiasts.  She says, "It can be quite annoying. I was on the Tube in London recently and some teenage boys were pointing and staring and asking if I was the girl in the Bond movies. I denied it. I just didn't like it."

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

Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan's first cinema experience was watching Goldfinger but he never wanted to play 007 as a boy.  The Irish actor saw the 1964 Sean Connery movie with his parents in Putney, London.  He recalls: "I loved the naked lady on the bed. I was agog with that, and I loved the fella with the hat, Oddjob, but I never wanted to be James Bond. I didn't really identify with him.

KEN WALLIS AT 90  by Emma Knights

Chuckling and waving as they soar through the skies perched on an open-air flying machine, anybody would think they were youngsters enjoying their first taste of flying.  But these ageing aviators have a combined age of 180.  There is no stopping autogyro veteran Ken Wallis, who celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday by piloting one of his famous self-built autogyros accompanied by a fellow second world war veteran.

The wing commander, who found fame when he kitted out James Bond with one of his genius contraptions, flew in to Shipdham Airport to pick up Tony Cooper, also 90.  The daredevil duo rose and dived as they circled the airfield in the helicopter-like two-seater autogyro. Wing Cdr Wallis amazed onlookers when he let go of the controls to give a double thumbs up before heading off to land on the airstrip at his Reymerston home.

"You are only as old as you feel. I intend to make a date to do this with Tony in 10 years' time," he said.

Tony Cooper, who was a Spitfire fighter pilot in the 64th Squadron during the war and is from Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft, said: "I have known Ken for a long time and in my view he is one of the great pioneers of recent flying. We decided it would be lovely for two old guys from the war to fly together for his birthday."  He said that before landing Wing Cdr Wallis had reached about 100 mph.

It was an impressive feat, but Wing Cdr Wallis revealed he had reached 136mph last week in an autogryro he calls whizzkid - one of his 19-strong collection. 

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

MAY DAY FOR CASINO ROYALE - by Stuart Basinger

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.

May 4, 2006

ELECTRONIC ARTS LOSES OO7 - by Ben Fritz for Variety

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."

May 11, 2006

NANCY SINATRA GETS HOLLYWOOD STAR - The Associated Press

"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.

May 15, 2006

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.

May 16, 2006

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.

May 17, 2006

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."

May 24, 2006

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

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.

June 1, 2006

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.

June 5, 2006

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.

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."

June 12, 2006

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."

June 14, 2006

BOND VILLAIN SAYS CRAIG IS 'STRONG' - by Helen Dowd for Sun Online

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.  His character - evil genius Le Chiffre - is a gambling mastermind who combines his financial wizardry with his terrorist links to make a gruesome profit out of evil.  And Mads reckons the British actor - the first Blond Bond - will go down a storm with cinema-goers, despite his casting originally causing controversy with fans.

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.  Working with Daniel was great.  He’s a great actor and he’s going to be a very strong Bond. He’s definitely my favourite 007.  This Bond is strong in his mind.  You believe in him, you believe he can kill people with his little finger and he’s got this beautiful English accent. He’s perfect."

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.  And when Secret Service intelligence reveals the villain is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale, M (Judi Dench) assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization.

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.  He explained: "I think it’s slightly different from the other Bond films, it’s a bit more realistic.  Le Chiffre is not trying to conquer the world, or invent something that’ll make him King of the world.  He’s just like everybody else in the world because he’s trying to get rich. And that makes him a better villain."

But unlike the suave super-spy, there's one thing Mads's character misses out on ... having his own Bond girl.  "I’m in the man’s world. I’m fine about missing out on the ladies in the film. I’m a villain, I don’t need women."

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."

June 20, 2006

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.

CRASH'EM CRAIG DOES IN ASTON MARTIN - Channel 4

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.

June 27, 2006

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."

June 26, 2006

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.

EXPO STIRRED BY BOND - by Ian Mohr for Variety

July 30, 2006

OO7 STAGE BURNS DOWN - AGAIN - BBC Online

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. 

August 8, 2006

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.

August 20, 2006

HAUNTED 'CASINO ROYALE' AIRCRAFT? - by Richard White for The Sun Online