James Bond News - Page 5
Production Designer Syd Cain Passes Away
Syd Cain, who was the production designer for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the Art Director for Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Live and Let Die, passed away today at age 93. Syd was born in Lincolnshire, England on April 16th, 1918.
Before working on the Bond series, Syd worked as a draughtsman in the 1954 film Hell Below Zero, and as an associate art director for the 1955 film The Cockleshell Heroes, both co-produced by future Bond producer Cubby Broccoli. Syd was also associate art director on Stanley Kubrick's Lolita and Carol Reeds...
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Photos of Shirley Eaton Being Painted Gold Sell for £2,580
Three black and white photographs of Shirley Eaton taken by David Hurn, who was hired to photograph the cast of Goldfinger on set and backstage, just sold for £2,580 to a private collector. The photos show Shirley being painted gold in preperation for her iconic scene in the film.
Her character, Jill Masterson, is seduced by Bond and she helps him catch her boss, Goldfinger, cheating at cards. Goldfinger gets his revenge, and sends an unmistakable warning to Bond, by painting Jill gold and leaving her dead in Bond's hotel room. More photos follow...
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Noel Gallagher of Oasis May Write Skyfall Theme
A rumor passed to us from a source close to the production team of Skyfall suggests that former Oasis member Noel Gallagher may be chosen to write the theme song for next years Bond film.
Noel will be meeting with Skyfall producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson in the next few days, to discuss the possibility. Nothing is signed or official yet, it's just in discussions at the moment.
Noel may be able to use a song that he has already written, tentatively titled "Freaky Teeth". He's played the song at a few live performances, but it hasn't been released yet. He admitted that...
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Interview with Blood Stone Composer Richard Jacques
Mark Morton of the Examiner recently did an interview with video game composer Richard Jacques. Richard has worked on the soundtracks for games including LittleBigPlanet 2, Mass Effect, Alice In Wonderland, and of course the latest James Bond game Blood Stone.
Richards work on Blood Stone earned him a nomination for Best Original Score For a Video Game at the 2011 Hollywood Music In Media Awards. He used a full orchestra for the game, with "60 string players, 27 brass, ethnic percussion and related instruments, live drums, and bass and guitar for the theme. It was a pretty big production; like you would expect in a Bond movie...."
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Aston Martin DB5 Voted Greatest Movie Car
In a recent poll of thousands of Auto Express readers, determining the 50 greatest movie cars of all time, James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 from 1964's Goldfinger came in first place.
It's unsurprising, as one of the two DB5's used in Goldfinger sold at auction last October for £2.6 million. The 282bhp Aston had gadgets including battering rams, tyre slashers, an oil slick, bullet proof windows and an ejector seat.
The DB5 wasn't the only Bond car in the top fifty. Other highlights included the 5th place Lotus Espirit from The Spy Who Loved Me, the 9th place...
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Rory Kinnear Discusses Bill Tanner role in Skyfall
Rory Kinnear, who played M's Chief of Staff Bill Tanner in Quantum of Solace, has confirmed that he is returning to the role in next years Bond 23, Skyfall. In a recent interview with the website Cult Box, Rory gives a bit of insight into the character, as well as a quick update of how the filming has been going so far.
You're currently filming the new James Bond film, Skyfall, returning as M's Chief of Staff, Bill Tanner. How's that going so far?
"Great, we've just been at Pinewood and around Waterloo and Spitalfields doing some scenes with myself and Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. I go through to the beginning of February filming and I think..."
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Live and Let Die Rolex Sells at Auction
The Rolex Submariner that Roger Moore wore in Live And Let Die just sold at auction for just over $200,000. The auction, held at Christie's in Geneva, Switzerland, included a set of rare and famous watches with an combined estimated sales price of over 21.2 million euros.
The Rolex in the film included a hyper-intensified magnetic field generator, powerful enough to deflect the path of a bullet, as well as a rotating mechanism that turns the watch face into a powerful buzz saw. Bond uses both of these in the film, to cut through the ropes tying him and Solitaire together, and to fetch a CO2 shark bullet for his confrontation with Dr. Kananga.
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Bond 23: Skyfall in Production
Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli today presented the cast of the 23rd James Bond adventure, entitled Skyfall. The film, from Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, is directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his third film as James Bond.
The screenplay is written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan. Skyfall, which goes into production on Monday, November 7th, will begin its worldwide roll-out in the UK and Ireland on October 26th 2012 and in North America on November 9th 2012.
Joining Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and Director Sam Mendes were members of the cast of Skyfall, including: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe. The filmmakers also announced Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney and Ben Whishaw.
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Carte Blanche Released in the US
The new James Bond novel Carte Blache, written by Jeffery Deaver, has now been published in America by small New York publisher Simon and Schuster. The book retails at $29.99 in the US and Canada, and comes with a much less subtle cover than it's UK counterpart, with the 007 letters dominating the books image.
Carte Blanche was published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK, a few days before Fleming's birthday, on 26th May 2011. It had been commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, after Deaver had acknowledged his life-long admiration of Fleming's writing during his acceptance speech for an award at the Crime Writers' Association.
Like Fleming, Jeffery Deaver takes inspiration from exotic locations around the world, and after visiting Dubai for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature last year, he decided to set part of Carte Blanche in the United Arab Emirates City.
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Bring Sean Connery into your Bathroom
Today we have an interview with Tom Milton, who provides a very unique and unusual hand-made product. James Bond will no longer just be a part of the living room surround sound--now you can have Sean Connery in your bathroom!
So if I'm correct your website provides personalised toilet seats.
Tom: Yeah. Located at www.sit-on-your-face.co.uk, we provide bespoke hand painted toilet seats with images of the customers choice. For example, as the name suggests, if you as a customer provide me with an image of yourself, I will then adapt it into a usable design and give it back to you for your thoughts and confirmation to proceed. Following this, I hand paint the image on to a brand new toilet seat, and ship it to you. I always aim for the whole process to take no more than a week.
Having looked at your website I see that it's not only people's own faces you do?
Tom: Exactly, that's the idea behind it, but they also make great gifts. So having one done for a friend or family member for a new house or even as a wedding present goes down really well. It's turned into my stock or default wedding gift that I give now. There is actually an example on the website of two of my friends (Anna and Mark) and the seat I painted for their wedding.