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James Bond Fan Club Newsletter For July 2012

Newsletter                                                          July 2012

Bond is Forever: New 007 Exhibition in London One of the highlights of this year’s celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the James Bond films is a new exhibition opening this July. ‘Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style’, which is about the craft behind creating the Bond ‘look’ on screen, is opening to the public at the Barbican, the famous arts and exhibition centre in central London, on July 6. The Barbican has joined forces with EON Productions to create a unique exhibition designed by Ab Rogers, curated by the Barbican, and guest-curated by fashion historian Bronwyn Cosgrave and Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming. With unprecedented access to EON’s extensive archive, the new exhibition is being billed as a ‘multi-sensory experience’ where costumes, automobiles, gadgets, graphic design, weapons and other Bond-related material will introduce visitors to the creation and development of the iconic ‘Bond style’ over its fifty year history. The exciting new exhibition will show-case the work of such Bond luminaries as Special Effects experts John Stears, Syd Caine and Chris Corbould, Production Designers Sir Ken Adam and Peter Lamont, and costume designers Bumble Dawson, Donfeld, Julie Harris, Lindy Hemming, Ronald Patterson, Emma Porteous, and Jany Temime. The exhibition runs from July 6 – September 5, and its opening times will be: 11.00am-8.00pm (Thursdays until 10.00pm). The Barbican is now taking bookings for tickets, via: www.barbican.org.uk/bond Filming on ‘Skyfall’ Now Complete Since our last Newsletter in May, all the main filming on ‘Skyfall’ has been completed and the new 007 movie has entered the post-production stage. The last piece of shooting was carried out by the Second Unit in Turkey, and was ‘in the can’ by Friday May 25. The Second Unit, which stayed behind in Turkey after the Main Unit had completed principal photography in Istanbul, had continued some stunt work in Adana with Daniel Craig. The Bond star was filmed clinging on to the side of a moving train carriage and hauling himself back on to the roof. Daniel then left Turkey on the weekend of May 19-20. There was then about a week’s worth of further filming carried out by the Second Unit, which also included some location work in the picturesque Duzici district, a pretty location in the Mediterranean area of Turkey. Duzici has some spectacular landscape and, in particular, a popular waterfall. The Long Haul The filming for ‘Skyfall’ involved one of the longest-ever shoots for a 007 movie. Indeed, when Bond co-producer Michael G. Wilson appeared as a guest on BBC Breakfast TV on Monday May 21, he commented at one point in the interview that the filming had ‘been a long haul, but it’s going to be worth it’. Bond star Daniel Craig flew out of Adana on Turkish Airlines and headed straight for New York (where he has a home) for a well-earned rest. He was next spotted on May 24 in New York City, having lunch with his wife Rachel Weisz. Needless to say, some paparazzi were quickly on the scene. Meanwhile, work has started on approximately five months of post-production. One key (and eagerly anticipated) component of this process will be the movie’s soundtrack and theme song, which is now in the capable hands of new Bond composer Thomas Newman. Speaking at the recent 2012 BMI Film and TV Awards, when asked about his upcoming Bond work, Newman replied that he’s ‘just brainstorming right now’. The Globe is Not Enough: Marketing ‘Skyfall’ Another major component of both the pre-production, shooting, and post-production of a new Bond movie is the international marketing campaign. As expected, the global campaign for ‘Skyfall’ promises to be another epic in the best Bond tradition. Even though ‘Quantum of Solace’ was found wanting by some critics after the high standard set by the acclaimed ‘Casino Royale’, the box office numbers still remained very strong, helped considerably by the massive marketing campaign thrown behind Craig’s second movie. ‘Skyfall’ will receive the same treatment but, as far the JBIFC understands it, on an even bigger scale. In fact, the campaign has already been months in the planning. In the UK, for example, the ‘Skyfall’ campaign is based on the assumption that the new Bond movie will be given a ‘12’ certificate, and the target audience (as previously) will be men and women aged 13 to 59. As well as the teaser trailer, which was released on May 21, we understand there will be a major billboard and poster campaign in the centre of London (where key parts of ‘Skyfall’ were filmed), including in London Underground stations (where 150,000 people use the tube system every hour) and in busy shopping streets, such as High Street Kensington. Media and marketing campaign experts estimate that effective billboards can adjust box office figures dramatically if you ensure there are eye-catching posters. Multi-Media Bond Historically, recent Bond movies have also heavily relied upon product placement, and ‘Skyfall’ will be no exception. However, as ever greater numbers of adults are spending time online, the Bond film-makers have now also woken up to the value of ‘Viral Campaigns’, which are now increasingly important in bringing in both an older and a younger target audience. Younger people are particularly important for modern film-marketing campaigns. This is because it is estimated that approx. 60 per cent of teenagers now spend on average 20 hours per week in front of computer screens. As Bond fans may have already noticed, with the launch of the official James Bond website for ‘Skyfall’ (including a set of Production Videoblogs), the film-makers are now putting much more energy into the ‘interactive’ and multi-media aspects of Bond film marketing to ensure ‘Skyfall’ taps into this younger target audience. Stuntman George Leech (1921-2012) There was some sad news on June 19, when it was reported that stunt expert George Leech, who performed many stunts on the Bond movies from 1962-1985, had passed away on June 17. Not only did the veteran stuntman perform numerous dangerous stunts in the EON series, but he often appeared on screen too, usually as a menacing henchman (as in ‘Thunderball’ and ‘For Your Eyes Only’), or as a member of the support staff of Q-Branch (as in ‘Goldfinger’). He was very generous with his time to Bond fans, including the JBIFC. He strongly held the view that the key to the success of the Bond movies was, as he put it, ‘superb action, good characters, good writing’. George had two daughters, and one of them, Wendy, became one of the first major stunt-women in the UK stunt industry. She is married to another Bond stunt veteran, Vic Armstrong. In Vic’s recent autobiography, ‘The True Adventures of the World’s Greatest Stuntman’, there are some interesting details about George’s role as the stunt arranger for ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, which many fans feel contained some of his best work. RIP, George. ITV Celebrate Bond at 50 The UK’s ITV network started a special season of Bond film screenings in May, entitled ‘Bond: 007 at 50’. There are two reasons for the special season: first of all, of course, it is part of ITV’s own tribute to the 50 th Anniversary of the iconic Bond series. But the second reason is that it could be the last chance for British viewers to see the Bond movies on the ITV network for some time, as the rival ‘Sky’ network recently signed a deal to take over the rights to the British TV showings from ITV. The ITV season commenced with ‘Dr. No’ on Saturday May 12, followed on May 19 by ‘From Russia With Love’, and then a week later by ‘Goldfinger’ on May 26. After a short break ‘Thunderball’ was shown on June 16, ‘You Only Live Twice’ on June 23, and ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ on June 30. The JBIFC understands that ITV intend to screen the whole series during its special Bond season. Apart from the usual annoyingly frequent advert breaks, all the prints so far have been in mint condition. Bond Was Back: The TV Tradition It will be the end of what has become a bit of a ‘tradition’ in the UK. The ITV network first won the right to screen Bond movies on British television way back in the mid-1970s. When ITV premiered ‘Dr. No’ on the small-screen on Tuesday October 28 th, 1975, it was something of a ‘big event’ in the UK, which at that point still only had three (yes, three) TV channels! Unsurprisingly, the film made number one in that week’s television viewers ratings in the UK. The tie-in edition of ITV’s TVTimes magazine from that week (featuring Connery and Andress on the cover) is quite sought after by paper memorabilia collectors today, closely followed by the ‘From Russia With Love’ issue (which featured a painted image of Connery on the cover). The Bond movies on ITV went on to become a regular feature at Christmas time and at Bank Holidays, and a whole new generation of British Bond fans were introduced to James Bond via the television. The latest information is that the Sky network, who take over the rights to Bond on British TV from autumn 2012, will help celebrate the Bond series with a special ‘Skyfall’ TV programme. Bowie’s Son to Direct New Fleming Biopic Interesting news broke in May that the BAFTA-award winning British film-maker Duncan Jones, who happens to be the son of singer David Bowie, has signed up to direct a new biopic of James Bond author Ian Fleming, which is due to start production in late 2012. As the son of a major rock star, Jones knows just what it is like to live in the shadow of a famous father. Known as Zowie Bowie, he began to use his birth name Duncan Jones from the age of 18. Moreover, 41-year old Jones told The Times newspaper that he sees interesting parallels between the Bond author’s life and his own. Although he later developed a reputation as a devil-may-care playboy, Ian Fleming also struggled to live up to an illustrious, high-achieving father. As Fleming biographers have pointed out, Valentine Fleming, MP, was a war hero who was adored and admired by all who knew him, and was tragically killed on the Western Front in. His obituary was even written by Winston Churchill. His son Ian struggled at Sandhurst officer training college, and later as a stockbroker in the City, the financial heart of London. Easily bored, his heart was simply not in it. The real turning-point for Fleming actually came in World War Two, when he was appointed as a British Naval Intelligence officer and seemed to find his calling, devising elaborate ruses to fool the enemy. Filming Fleming Jones, who trained in film-making at the London Film School, directed the acclaimed movie ‘Moon’ (2009), and his latest film was the thriller ‘Source Code’ (2011). He commented: ‘Fleming lived through one of the most perilous periods in world history, in a position that allowed him a unique vantage point of all the players, all the stakes. He witnessed true heroism first-hand and he saw the evil men could do. Then, when the war ended, he went off to write fiction. The essential question for me is: where did Ian Fleming end and Bond begin?’ The new movie will be produced by Stuart Fenegan, who said: ‘The opportunity to make a period action film about the life of Ian Fleming and origins of Bond - a hero we all grew up idolising - is too great for Duncan and me to resist’. Although precise details about the film are still top secret, the JBIFC understands that Jones and his team will draw in particular on Andrew Lycett’s biography Ian Fleming (1995), and that the project has the support of the Fleming literary estate. Role of Honour: Fleming on Film There have been three previous made-for-TV movies about the life of the James Bond author. ‘Goldeneye’ (1989), made by Anglia TV in the UK, starred Charles Dance as Fleming, while ‘Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming’ (1990), saw Jason Connery (son of Sean) starring as the young British Naval Intelligence officer. While the Charles Dance biopic was very much rooted in reality, the emphasis in the Jason Connery movie was much more on 007-style movie escapism. More recently, the BBC made ‘Ian Fleming: Bondmaker’ (2005), a more grounded and serious docu-drama which featured Ben Daniels as the 007 creator. The James Bond author has also briefly appeared in two other films in recent times, both featuring Fleming in his wartime guise: James D’Arcy played Fleming in the Sean Bean commando movie ‘Age of Heroes’ (2011), and Tobias Menzies (the actor who was Villiers in ‘Casino Royale’) played Fleming in the ITV drama ‘Any Human Heart’ (2010). Interestingly, the latter was written by the recently appointed new Bond author William Boyd. There have also been one or two other projects proposed about Fleming over the years. In 2008 and early 2009, for example, unconfirmed reports emerged that Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Appian Way’ production company had commissioned a possible screenplay about the Bond author’s life. Did You Know? The singer David Bowie was approached to play the villain Max Zorin in ‘A View to a Kill’ (1985), but turned the role down. Bowie gave conflicting reasons for doing so. At one point, he cited his lack of enthusiasm for recent Bond villains. On another occasion, he commented: ‘I did not want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs’. The role was also offered to the singer Sting, and eventually went, of course, to Christopher Walken. Bond Bits: Brief Items of News You May Have Missed Alan Cumming, who played the devious computer geek Boris Grishenko in ‘Goldeneye’ (1995), has been receiving rave reviews for his one-man stage version of ‘Macbeth’, produced by the National Theatre of Scotland... British TV viewers had another opportunity to see a Bond-related episode of ‘Celebrity Antiques Road Trip’ on BBC-2 April 18. This particular programme featured Honor Blackman and Britt Ekland, who took to the road in a classic Aston Martin DB5, as they teamed up with two experts in search of antiques around the picturesque villages of the county of Cambridgeshire... Charlie Higson, the author of the ‘Young Bond’ series of books, who recently turned his attention to a new book series about Zombies, had a column in the Radio Times magazine on May 26, where he revealed his delight at the astonishing 74,000 entries that children sent in to BBC Radio-2’s ‘500 Words’ story competition. Higson, who was one of the judges, said it confirmed his view that kids really love books... Toby Stephens, who played Gustav Graves in ‘Die Another Day’, was among the guest suspects in an episode of the crime drama ‘Lewis’ shown on the UK’s ITV-1 channel on May 23... The ever-busy Mr. Stephens also played Thomas Edison in a historical comedy for radio, ‘Tennyson and Edison’, which was transmitted on BBC Radio-3 on Sunday, June 3... Former 007 star George Lazenby, 72, was reported to have voiced his concerns in May about the Bond franchise’s decision to allow Heineken to promote their beer in ‘Skyfall’, in a promotional deal worth about £28million. Daniel Craig, defending the new deal, said: ‘This movie costs a lot of money to make... It’s unfortunate but that’s how it is’... Some sad news reached us on June 24 about a real-life figure who was a key inspiration to Bond author Ian Fleming when he wrote the novel of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. It was announced that Robin Ian Evelyn Milne Stuart le Comte de la Lanne-Mirriees, an expert in heraldry, had passed away on June 23, aged 87. Mirriees was the man at the famous College of Arms in London who helped Ian Fleming with his own research into heraldry... Fleming returned the favour by using Mirriees as the basis for the character Sable Basillisk in his 1963 novel. In the later movie, of course, this character was re-named Sir Hilary Bray, and was played by the late George Baker, who himself sadly died last October... According to the Daily Mail on June 8, Rowan Atkinson, who played bumbling Foreign Office official Nigel Small-Fawcett in ‘Never Say Never Again’ (1983), and also recently reprised his role as Johnny English for a second time, is going to take on a new stage role. He will star in Simon Gray’s ‘Quartermaine’s Terms’, a heartbreaking comedy about a teacher at a Cambridge language School who happens to be quite useless at what he does, but still muddles on... Leavesden Studios, in Hertfordshire, which was home to ‘Goldeneye’ (1995), saw a new £100m extension to the facility open on June 11, after some new investment by Warner Brothers. It was another good sign of American confidence in the skills available in the British film industry... Samantha Bond, who played Miss Moneypenny in the four Pierce Brosnan Bond movies, played the guest role of a character called Kate Cameron in an episode of ITV’s popular crime drama ‘Midsomer Murders’, screened on June 13... Interestingly, it has emerged that British newsreader Selina Scott, who became something of fashion icon in the 1980s, was once considered for the role of Miss Moneypenny, after Lois Maxwell lost the role. Selina told the Daily Telegraph newspaper in a recent interview that she even met with Cubby Broccoli at his office, but he changed his mind after deciding she was too attractive for the role! It went to Caroline Bliss instead... A round of applause, please: Mads Mikkelsen, who played the blood-weeping villain Le Chiffre in ‘Casino Royale’, won the Cannes Best Actor prize at this year’s festival for his role in ‘The Hunt’. In addition, the talented actor has been receiving high praise for his new film ‘A Royal Affair’, a classy Danish historical drama which was released in the UK on June 15... A date for your Diaries: a new set of Ian Fleming Audio Books will be coming out on September 6, the result of a new project backed by Ian Fleming Publications. The new, unabridged readings will include ‘From Russia With Love’, read by Toby Stephens, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, read by Rosamund Pike, and ‘Live and Let Die’, read by Rory Kinnear... Rory Kinnear, who reprises his role as M’s assistant in ‘Skyfall’, has been on stage recently in ‘The Last of the Haussmans’ at the National Theatre in London... Rory will also have a role in ‘Richard II’, the first of a new set of four Shakespeare plays, produced by ‘Skyfall’ director Sam Mendes, due to be shown in the UK this summer by BBC-2. ‘Richard II’ aired on June 30, with Ben Whishaw taking the title role of Richard. Whishaw, of course, is the new head of ‘Q’ branch in ‘Skyfall’, although he is still keeping very tight-lipped about the role... Meanwhile, what’s next for Sam Mendes after ‘Skyfall’? Recent reports suggest that he plans to return to the London West End stage with a musical version of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. The talented director has previously staged the musicals ‘Oliver!’, ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Cabaret’...

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