Not this again: "The eye behind such films as No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James, [Roger] Deakins takes Bond into the digital age. Mendes promises his darker tone will bleed directly over to the physical look of the movie. 'I've worked with Roger twice [on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road], so I feel very comfortable in that relationship. There's a shorthand. You look at each other and know what you're thinking. He's a true artist. Right from the start of directing, I realized the most important two relationships were with my leading actors and the director of photography. You'll see in the teaser trailer that it has a very distinct look that does have elements of noir and British '60s. It's very English — a lot is set in England.'" [Hollywood.com]
"We have relationships with a number of companies so that we can make this movie. The simple fact is that, without them, we couldn’t do it. It’s unfortunate but that’s how it is. [...] This movie costs a lot of money to make, it costs as nearly as much again if not more to promote, so we go where we can. The great thing is that Bond is a drinker, he always has been, it’s part of who he is, rightly or wrongly, you can make your own judgment about it, having a beer is no bad thing, in the movie it just happens to be Heineken." Somewhere in Hell, Frank Booth weeps. (Link NSFW, obvs.) [Moviefone via NYT]
This fall, secret agent James Bond will ditch his famous shaken martini in favor of a cold, frosty bottle of... Heineken. Hey, if sports cars and watches and swimming pools are up for product placement deals, why not 007's drink of choice? Ad Age reports: "Bond, played by Daniel Craig, will star in a Heineken ad. The spot, which will run globally, is by brand agency-of-record Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, and directed by Fredrik Bond. In the movie, Bond will swap his trademark martini for a sip of the brew — at least in one scene." Will this change everything — or anything — about the Bond we know and love and take drinking cues from? [Ad Age via Movie City News]
Honestly, I can't tell which way is up with some of the news coming out of the April Fool's Day weekend. Does James Cameron want in on a Prometheus sequel? Is the Queen collaborating with 007 for the Olympics? Surely Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels aren't seriously going to shoot the long-gestating sequel to 1994's Dumb & Dumber this fall once the Farrelly brothers are done promoting April 13's The Three Stooges, right?
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Let's talk Turkey! Ahem. Literally: The country's CNN outpost brings viewers worldwide this heartwarming story of a teenager in Adana who reportedly sneaked into a railyard where the cast and crew of Skyfall had taken up production of a fight sequence. The young man was caught, queried and removed from the set — but not before smuggling out footage of James Bond slugging it out atop a train. Yaşasın!
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In a step up from previous Skyfall publicity memes like #Banal007 and James Bond's Big Gay Resort brochure, the Daily Mail has a glimpse at Javier Bardem in character as the film's as-yet-unnamed villain. The catch: He's in costume as a police officer. Where have we seen this before?
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Here is a new-ish 60-second bit of viral video that I wouldn't mind installed in my living room: The first minute of every James Bond film, played on one screen divided into 22 parts. You won't be able to take your eyes off it. As a bonus, find an older, longer complement that may finish the mind-blowing job commenced by the more recent video.
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The latest publicity shot to come from the Skyfall set is several steps up from the Banal 007 meme witnessed a while back, though it's still pretty banal: Daniel Craig, with his back to the lens, sits on the ledge of a pool. At night. Ripped. Part movie photo, part gay-resort brochure.
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Candidates campaigning for the Presidential ticket usually opt for safe campaign songs carefully chosen to align themselves consciously and subconsciously with certain sets of values, but last night, Ron Paul went a different route: He and his supporters celebrated their second-place victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary to the sounds of "The Imperial March" from Star Wars. Yes, Darth Vader's theme song.
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Hollywood has a long history of sending white dudes to Japan to A) fall in love with a local hottie and B) somehow save Japan itself, and that irksome trend shows no sign of ending, to my dismay. The latest Caucasian hero set to do so is LOST’s Matthew Fox, who’s signed on to play real-life figure General Bonner Fellers in Peter Webber’s Emperor, a “nail-biting political thriller” about post-World War II diplomacy…and Fellers’ love affair with a Japanese woman. Sigh. Of course.
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Forty years ago this Friday, United Artists released Diamonds Are Forever -- the seventh entry in the James Bond series, and one that dragged founding franchise star Sean Connery out of 007 retirement in the hopes of rinsing the bad taste that his replacement, George Lazenby, left in moviegoers' mouths in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Connery succeeded, but only by making what remains arguably the silliest Bond film to date. Enfolding globetrotting jewel smugglers, reclusive Las Vegas casino barons, effete hit men, bikinied enforcers named after cartoons, lunar-landing conspiracy bait, cosmetically enhanced villain-doppelgangers, and more one-liners than a decade's worth of White House Correspondents Dinners, Diamonds Are Forever is campier than a dome tent and almost as vacant.
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After nine months of rumors, Javier Bardem has finally confirmed that he will assume the enviable role of villain in the next James Bond movie, Bond 23. So just which Bond baddie should the Academy Award winner channel when plotting against Daniel Craig's "007?" Movieline suggests a half dozen iconic Bond evil doers below.
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When it comes to conventions, Jon Favreau is nothing if not a man of the nerd people. Mindful of how much he owes to the Comic-Con faithful for jump-starting early word of mouth on the Iron Man franchise, he came to San Francisco this weekend with a treat: Nine minutes of footage from Cowboys & Aliens cut exclusively for the WonderCon audience, including a special reveal of the film's big, bad aliens -- aliens that Favreau otherwise intends to keep under wraps.
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"We're equals -- aren't we, 007?" asks the disembodied voice of Dame Judi Dench, lecturing her on-screen employee Daniel Craig in a new PSA created for International Women's Day (Tuesday, March 8). "Yet it is 2011 and a man is still likely to earn more money than a woman, even one doing the same job." And what imagery has the power to combat the litany of socioeconomic inequalities that remain between men and women in today's day and age? James Bond in drag! Because of course.
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