Category: James Bond

Fire chars British set of new Bond film
LONDON – A large fire seriously damaged the set of the latest James Bond movie Sunday, caving in the roof of a sound stage transformed into a replica of Venice for the production of “Casino Royale.”
Pinewood Shepperton, the studio complex where the fire erupted, said filming for the Bond production had been completed.
“Its film sets were in the process of being removed,” the studio said in a statement.
The cause of the fire was unknown. Three people who had been inside Pinewood Studios, about 20 miles west of London, were not hurt.
The Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said several cylinders of flammable gas exploded during the blaze, which took eight fire engines to extinguish.
Television footage showed a thick cloud of black smoke rising from the building, whose roof burned and at least partly collapsed.
“It is just a complete mess,” fire department spokesman Fraser Pearson said from the scene. “I would say the whole building has been damaged by the fire. It is still smoking quite badly.”
“Casino Royale” is the first Bond film featuring actor Daniel Craig in the title role, replacing Pierce Brosnan.
The 007 soundstage, which was built for the filming of Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me,” burned down when gasoline canisters exploded in 1984. It was rebuilt two years ago.
In 2005, a Pinewood Shepperton studio soundstage served as a replica of the Louvre art museum for the “Da Vinci Code.”

007 Producers Already Planning “Bond 22”
Producers of the next highly anticipated Bond film have already begun making plans for the new 007’s follow-up film, tentatively titled, “Bond 22.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the U.K. based Eon Productions is in talks to re-unite director Roger Michell with Daniel Craig, for his next mission for the British Secret Service – and it’s not exactly top-secret.
The 22nd James Bond film would be Michell and Craig’s third time working together, after 2004’s drama/thriller Enduring Love which followed 2003’s romance/drama, The Mother.
The story for Craig’s next spy thrill-ride is being developed by producer Michael Wilson, who last wrote License to Kill, as well as penned the screenplays for The Living Daylights, A View to a Kill, Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only.
The famous secret agent’s latest movie, Casino Royale, which brings Bond back to the beginning, hits theaters November 17th.

BLOND BOND SPEAKS
Daniel Craig defending his casting as James Bond to detractors who have threatened to boycott the upcoming Casino Royale because they think he was a poor choice for the part. “I’m a Bond fan,” Craig told the BBC. “If I go and see a Bond movie, there are certain things I think should be in it. And they’re there.”

Blond Bond stirred by criticism, but not shaken
NASSAU, Bahamas (Reuters) – Is the next James Bond too blond for Her Majesty’s Secret Service? Stricken by heat rash? Licensed to kill but not licensed to drive the famous stick-shift Aston Martin sports car?
Hounded by mounting criticism — even a threatened boycott — for picking a blond actor to play the part of the world’s most famous dark-haired spy, the makers of the next James Bond movie “Casino Royale” this week assured 007 fans that ruggedly handsome Englishman Daniel Craig will be everything they have come to expect, and perhaps more.
Yes, Craig did lose or chip a tooth during filming in Prague, but it did not stop production, the actor told reporters. No, he did not suffer from excruciating heat rash in the Bahamas. And of course, an Englishman is perfectly capable of driving a manual gear car.
“You go mad if you believe any of it (the criticism),” Craig, 38, told reporters on Wednesday after distributor Sony Pictures Entertainment Co. and producers EON Productions invited journalists to the Bahamas movie set to counter some of the Internet and newspaper nattering.
“You can’t believe the good stuff. You can’t believe the bad stuff. You kind of just take it in. But I’m focused on making this film.”
Craig, whose character famously likes his vodka martini shaken, not stirred, acknowledged the criticism had heightened the pressure on him.
“I’ve been trying to give 110 percent from the beginning and maybe after that (the criticism), I was trying to give 115 percent,” he said. “But I mean, I’m giving everything I can.”
Casino Royale goes back to Bond’s roots, when he makes his first two assassinations and earns the 00 status that gives him a license to kill. Published in 1953, it was the first book in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series.
BOND FRANCHISE
It was the need for a fresh start and a younger face that made the film makers dump Pierce Brosnan, the most successful 007 to date, said producer Barbara Broccoli, whose family owns EON Productions and the Bond movie franchise.
The stakes in gambling on an untested James Bond are huge. The last Bond movie, 2002’s “Die Another Day,” with Brosnan and actress Halle Berry, grossed more than $425 million in worldwide ticket sales.
In all, the 20 official Bond movies including the first, “Dr. No” starring Sean Connery that was released in 1962, have grossed almost $4 billion.
At the same time, two of the five actors who have played the part so far — Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby — are barely remembered by mainstream cinemagoers.
Broccoli and casting director Debbie McWilliams said Craig had been their choice the minute they started the search.
“Once we started looking for someone, I really thought that Daniel would be the perfect guy and I think everybody will agree once they see the movie,” Broccoli said. “I think he’s the right man for the job.”
But the choice has been a tough sell.
A new Web site, craignotbond.com, has even called on die-hard 007 fans to boycott the movie when it’s released in November. Other sites have run exposes of set mishaps.
“The truth is if you don’t get bruised doing Bond, you’re not doing it properly,” Craig said.
But like all publicity, even the criticism of Craig has a plus side.
“People are, thank goodness, in a way still incredibly interested,” said casting director McWilliams. “Virtually a day doesn’t go by where we don’t read something about James Bond in a newspaper and that can only be good for us I think.”

Will Eva Green escape the ‘Bond curse’?
A little bit Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me) and a little bit Carole Bouquet (For Your Eyes Only), French actress Eva Green definitely has the decolletage to be a Bond girl.
But according to one school of thought, the relative unknown — who was announced last week to play original Bond girl Vesper Lynd opposite newly crowned James Bond Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (which opens Nov. 17) — is now doomed to stay a relative unknown.
Green’s previous major exposure has been as Orlando Bloom’s love interest in the big-budget Crusades bomb Kingdom Of Heaven. So careerwise, she is a blank slate.
But as blank as Lois Chiles, who played Holly Goodhead in Moonraker? Or Lana Wood who played Plenty O’Toole in Diamonds Are Forever?
Whether there’s a career-killing “Bond curse” or not (and there are enough post-Bond success stories to at least poke holes in the theory), the latter-day Bond era of big-name leading ladies appears to be over.
The part of Vesper, Bond’s tragic one true love according to the Ian Fleming books, was reportedly turned down by the likes of Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johansson, Thandie Newton and Canadian girl Rachel McAdams.
Is it the bimbo factor? If so, it’s an unfair rap if you consider Bond girls pre- and post- what I consider the null-point of Bond and his Girls — The Living Daylights.
TLD, you may recall, was the film that introduced Timothy Dalton as a humourless Bond. Released at the height of the AIDS scare, it was the first film in which Bond became a one-woman man (girl next door Maryam D’Abo as the cello-playing Kara Milovy), and the first in which it’s suggested he doesn’t sleep with his leading lady or anybody else.
Listen, you don’t want a guy with a licence to kill getting cranky.
James and Kara ride a Ferris wheel. They hug and hold hands. They might as well have cast Timothy Hutton.
Before? Well, there was a bit of Austin Powers in Bond lines like, “There’s something I want you to get off your chest” (Diamonds Are Forever). And perhaps a touch of misogyny in how quickly he moves on after a bedmate is poisoned by his side (You Only Live Twice). But it was the times, and the role of Bond girl was that of sex kitten.
After? As often as not, Bond girls kicked more butt (Grace Slick, Famke Janssen, Michelle Yeoh), and toyed with Bond as much as he used to toy with the likes of Tiffany Case. So maybe Angelina et al are just paying heed to Halle Berry’s inauspicious post-Bond career (Catwoman? Gothika?).
You don’t want your last words, careerwise, to be: “Oh, James!”
Herewith, some of our fave Bond babes, and the “curse” analyzed:
MAUD ADAMS
as Andrea Anders (The Man With The
Golden Gun) and Octopussy (Octopussy)
Post Bond career highlights
Was rumoured to have actually had sex on screen with Bruce Dern in Tattoo. Returned to Bond in an uncredited role in A View To A Kill as “Woman In Fisherman’s Wharf Crowd.”
Cursed? Yes
URSULA ANDRESS
as Honey Rider (Dr. No)
Post Bond career highlights
Played Aphrodite in Clash Of The Titans. TV series appearances include The Love Boat, Manimal and Falcon Crest.
Cursed? Yes
CLAUDINE AUGER
as Domino Derval (Thunderball)
Post Bond career highlights
“Stays busy” working in TV and film in France, Italy and Spain.
No awards to speak of.
Cursed? Yes
BARBARA BACH
as Anya Amasova (The Spy Who Loved Me)
Post Bond career highlights
Married Ringo Starr, starred with him in Caveman (but lost him in the movie to Shelley Long).
Cursed? Yes
KIM BASINGER
as Domino Patacchi (Never Say Never Again)
Post Bond career highlights
Won an Oscar for L.A. Confidential.
Battling it out with Halle Berry for Worst Post-Oscar career — and with Alec Baldwin for worst Hollywood marriage breakup.
Cursed? No
HONOR BLACKMAN
as Pussy Galore (Goldfinger)
Post Bond career highlights
Won acclaim in a ’60s production of Wait Until Dark. Played Penny Husbands-Bosworth in Bridget Jones’ Diary. Recently played recurring character Rula Romanoff on Coronation Street. Has a one-woman stage show Wayward Ladies.
Cursed? No
TERI HATCHER
as Paris Carver (Tomorrow Never Dies)
Post Bond career highlights
Sidra, the girl on Seinfeld whose breasts are “real … and they’re fabulous!” Currently stars as Susan Mayer in some show about housewives whose state of mind is usually, um, what’s the word I’m looking for here? Oh yeah, Desperate!
Cursed? No
FAMKE JANSSEN
as Xenia Onatopp (GoldenEye)
Post Bond career highlights
Plays Dr. Jean Grey in the X-Men movies — a character who apparently can’t be killed (talk about job security).
Dated Ben Affleck. Survived that, too.
Cursed? No
GRACE JONES
as May Day (A View To A Kill)
Post Bond career highlights
Co-starred with Chris Makepeace
in the vampire movie Vamp. Played
Helen Strange opposite Eddie Murphy and Robin Givens in the laugh-a-minute chortlefest Boomerang.
Cursed? Yes
JANE SEYMOUR
as Solitaire (Live And Let Die)
Post Bond career highlights
Gave up tarot cards, got her medical degree and spent six seasons as Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. Played villainess
Genevieve Teague in Smallville.
Cursed? No
JILL ST. JOHN
as Tiffany Case (Diamonds Are Forever)
Post Bond career highlights
Played Sylvia Maxwell on Hart To Hart.
Did a Love Boat AND a Fantasy Island.
Dated Henry Kissinger.
Married Robert Wagner.
Cursed? Yes
MICHELLE YEOH
as Wai Lin (Tomorrow Never Dies)
Post Bond career highlights
Been in one or two movies you might have heard of, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs Of A Geisha, and is the highest paid actress in Asia.
Cursed? No

Roger Moore defends new 007
TORONTO (CP) – It took an old Bond to come to the rescue of the new Bond.
Roger Moore, who played Agent 007 in seven of the James Bond movies, said Wednesday that critics of the film franchise’s new star, Daniel Craig, should give him a chance. “He’s a helluva good actor,” said Moore, 78, noting that critics haven’t even seen Craig in the role yet. “So why attack him?”
A group of James Bond fans has launched a website (www.craignotbond.com) to protest the hiring of Craig to replace Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale, now shooting in Prague.
The blond Craig, whose film work includes Munich and The Jacket, has so offended the fans they say they’ll boycott the film unless EON Productions and Sony Pictures admit they’ve made a big mistake.
Moore suggested the group was merely trying to attract people to their website, which says producers had refused to meet the price demanded for the role from Brosnan or other candidates like Hugh Jackman and Clive Owen.
Moore, meanwhile, will be in Quebec City this weekend to take part in a charity film festival called Vue sur Bond 007, organized by filmmaker Hilary Saltzman, daughter of Canadian-born Harry Saltzman. The senior Saltzman, who died in 1994, was, along with Albert Broccoli, the co-producer of most of the early Bond films.
In a recent interview, Hilary Saltzman was also eager to defend Craig, saying she’s excited about seeing him in the role.
“When I saw Munich. . .every time Daniel Craig was onscreen that’s who you’re watching. And I thought ‘my god, they’ve got something very interesting there’.”
Also in attendance at Vue sur Bond will be several other celebrities known to 007 fans, including actors Richard (Jaws) Kiel and Britt Ekland, director Guy Hamilton and singer Shirley Bassey.
The festival has three purposes: to honour the senior Saltzman, to draw attention to his daughter’s upcoming Festival of the Three Americas – which showcases little-known films from Latin America – and to make a donation to UNICEF (Moore is a goodwill ambassador and was in town Wednesday to attend the release of a report on child health).
Moore said he agreed to show up at the Bond festival because Saltzman asked him on behalf of both her father and UNICEF.
He also dismissed suggestions Wednesday that Bond is obsolete in a post-Cold War, post-9-11 world where real terrorists like Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida have trivialized such Bondian super-villains and organizations as Goldfinger, Blofeld and SMERSH.
“It’s fantasy,” counters Moore. “Bond is fantasy, there’s no real substance to it. It’s a figment of imagination. . .sort of crazy, you know, a spy who is recognized wherever he goes. Spies ain’t like that.”
Saltzman concurred.
“There’s a threat to the world and there’s one man out there that can save us. And actually I think right now people want to go to that fantasy world.”
She also thought it was a “huge coup” on the part of the producers that they snagged Canadian screenwriter Paul Haggis – who is up for a couple of Oscars for his work on Crash – to work on the script.

Angry Bond Fans Threaten to Boycott Film
NEW YORK – They’re shaken, stirred and just plain angry. And several months late with their response. A group of James Bond fans have launched a Web site, www.craignotbond.com to protest British actor Daniel Craig replacing Pierce Brosnan in the 007 film franchise, and boycott the upcoming Bond movie “Casino Royale.”
The fair-haired Craig, whose recent screen credits include “Munich” and “The Jacket,” was tapped last October to play the secret-agent icon.
“EON Productions angered fans around the world when they fired Pierce Brosnan at the height of his popularity as Bond,” said a statement on the site. “To add insult to injury, EON cast a short, blond, odd-looking Daniel Craig in the role of Bond.”
“Craig, described by The New York Times as having a ‘pale, flattened face and large, fleshy ears’ is a terrible choice for Bond. If EON Productions and Sony Pictures will not accept they’ve made a big mistake, then Bond fans promise to boycott Casino Royale!”
Calls by The Associated Press to EON Productions and a representative for Craig were not immediately returned on Tuesday.
Brosnan stepped into the shoes of dashing predecessors Sean Connery and Roger Moore to play a blue-eyed, dark-haired Bond in “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “The World Is Not Enough” and “Die Another Day.”
In its statement, the Web site claimed EON did not want to pay for Brosnan or other high-profile actors Hugh Jackman and Clive Owen as replacements.

French actress Eva Green named next “Bond girl”
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Makers of the upcoming James Bond movie “Casino Royale” have cast little-known French actress Eva Green as the next femme fatale to pair up with British agent 007, distributor Columbia Pictures said on Thursday.
Green, 25, who made her 2003 film debut in “The Dreamers,” about a French brother and sister who befriend a young American during the Paris student riots of 1968, will play the enticing Vesper Lynd opposite English actor Daniel Craig in his first performance as Bond.
Last year, she appeared in the big-screen crusades drama “Kingdom of Heaven.”
In landing the coveted role of the next “Bond girl,” the French actress edged out a list of contenders reported in the Hollywood trade press to have included Oscar winner Charlize Theron, as well as Thandie Newton, Olivia Wilde and Kimberly Davies.
The Sony Corp.-owned studio also announced that Danish-born actor Mads Mikkelsen had signed on to play Bond’s villainous nemesis Le Chiffre. American actor Jeffrey Wright, who co-starred in “Syriana,” has joined the “Casino Royale” cast as undercover CIA agent Felix Leiter.
Production on “Casino Royale,” the 21st movie in the multibillion-dollar Bond film franchise that began with “Dr. No” in 1962, started on January 21 in Prague, and the movie is slated for release in November. Other production locations will include the Bahamas, Italy and Britain.
The film, directed by Martin Campbell, is being adapted from the 1953 Ian Fleming novel that introduced the Bond character.
Craig, the latest actor to fill the tuxedo of the British spy with a license to kill, was named in October to assume the role from Pierce Brosnan, who starred in the last four Bond movies.
The most recent film, 2002’s “Die Another Day,” which paired Brosnan with actress Halle Berry, grossed more than $425 million in worldwide ticket sales.

‘Casino Royale’ Finally Finds Its Villain
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- Mads Mikkelsen would be a fantastic name for a villain in a James Bond film. Before that happens, though, the Danish actor of that name will play La Chiffre, 007’s main adversary in the upcoming “Casino Royale.”
According to media reports, Mikkelsen’s casting, long rumored in the Danish press, was confirmed by the “Royale” filmmakers at a press conference held Wednesday (Jan. 15) in Prague, where shooting on “Casino Royale” has already begun.
In Fleming’s novel, La Chiffre is a fascinating and abhorrent character, a debauched pornographer, pimp, gambler and Holocaust survivor. His unappealing physical description also makes him an odd match with Mikkelsen, whose IMDb bio notes is often listed among Denmark’s most attractive men.
The 40-year-old Mikkelsen may be vaguely familiar to international audiences from his small role in “King Arthur” and a larger part in “Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself.” His big break came in 1996’s “Pusher.”
While the casting announcement on Mikkelsen ends one endlessly speculated “Casino Royale” question, James Bond remains without a love interest. Director Martin Campbell made no effort to put a stop to the suspense about which actress will play the mysterious Vesper Lynde. The most recent buzz has centered on Eva Green (“The Dreamers”) and Olivia Wilde (“The O.C.”).
Stay tuned, as we like to say. They’ve just got to cast somebody eventually.

Wanted: 007 Babe & Baddie
James Bond likes his women beautiful, his nemeses megalomaniacal and his martinis shaken, not stirred. These days he’s drinking alone.
Filming on the new 007 adventure, Casino Royale, kicked off last Friday in the Czech capital of Prague with newcomer Daniel Craig taking over for Pierce Brosnan as the suave secret agent. But intelligence sources reveal Bond is currently sans babe and baddie.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, filmmakers made the decision to roll cameras on the long-delayed film in order to make a planned holiday release date–even though the two key components of a Bond film are notably missing in action.
For now, their absence is being handled by shooting around them. Crucial scenes featuring the would-be villain and Bond’s latest paramour aren’t scheduled to be filmed for at least a month, leaving coproducers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and director Martin Campbell a little wiggle room.
“They’re talking to three to four girls right now,” Casino scribe Paul Haggis, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for Million Dollar Baby and is nominated again this year for writing and directing Crash, told the Reporter. “Every week I read there’s a new Bond girl, and I call them and they say, ‘No, you idiot.’ ”
The trade reports Thandie Newton (Mission: Impossible 2) and Rachel McAdams (Red Eye and The Wedding Crashers) are the several high-profile actresses currently in the running to join the pantheon of Bond babe. (The sometime rumored likes of Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears, however, are not serious contenders.)
As for the next bad guy, the Casino brain trust is reportedly much closer to cast that role than the love interest, but no names have specifically mentioned by reliable sources.
The announcement of Craig as the sixth actor to don the tuxedo was made with great fanfare at an October press conference. But because it took so long to cast the role, the production was delayed from November to January.
Campbell & Co. promised Casino Royale, the 21st installment in cinema’s longest running and most successful series, would take the iconic character back to his roots. The film is said to feature a character-driven script exploring Bond’s past and eschewing the big special-effects and gadgets that have come to define the later Bond flicks, particularly the ones starring Brosnan and Roger Moore.
The director, who also helmed GoldenEye, Brosnan’s first outing as Bond, said Casino Royale will show 007 at age of 28, when he’s just starting out on Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and purportedly explain such mysteries as to why he likes his vodka martinis prepared incorrectly. It will also be the first Bond mission since Live and Let Die not to feature the character of Q, most recently played by John Cleese.
Neither the Bond production company, the U.K.-based Eon Productions, nor its U.S.-based studio, MGM, would comment on the casting situation.
However, one Hollywood agent with an inside track on Casino’s casting told the Reporter that Sony, the film’s distributor, will probably have to cough up a lot of dough to get the actors given the fact that shooting has already begun.
“To be that exposed is unheard of,” the agent said. “[The actor or actress] can have them over a barrel. Not to have your two principal leads [by now] is awfully strange.”
With the amount of money at stake, a tight deadline and the prestige of the franchise in the balance, producers are expected to be willing to spend as much as needed to secure the right actors.
After the Czech Republic, production moves to the Bahamas, Italy and Pinewood Studios near London. Casino Royale is being targeted for a Nov. 17, 2006 release.