mardi 29 juin 2010

Ian Fleming is on the walls of London...



Courtesy of our London permanently based friend Julian Vialon, we received this very day two pics of the blue plaque dedicated to that obscure journalist with a taste for good wines and women...Ian Lancaster Fleming .

The plaque can be seen on the 22b Ebury Street, Belgravia, London. Ian Fleming's residence from 1934 till 1945 .

Interestingly , the building where Fleming's flat was situated was constructed in 1830 as a Baptist church but is now divided into several flats.

This plaque was originally erected at 7 Lawrie Park Road, Lewisham in 1963 and then removed to appear now at this address ...

dimanche 27 juin 2010

Pass me the ketchup , please...


Except for the ( then ) remarkable analysis of Kingsley Amis in his funny little ' Book of Bond ' , where the author tried to decipher 007's way of life through looking with a magnifying glass into Ian Fleming's oeuvre , there hadn't been so far that many studies dedicated to the Gourmet side of James Bond .

Such a tragic loss was finally put to rest back in 2008 when two French writers decided to publish a Cooking book entirely based on 007's most famous and favoured recipes .
A mamoth task , mainly based on the cinematographic James Bond's tastes .

From the From Russia With Love stern hotel breakfast ( yogurt and figues ) to the slightly more complex A View To A Kill omelette soufflée - not to forget the emblematic Vesper Cocktail of 2006's Casino Royale , every food & beverage allusion is reproduced in this quite original work .

It should be mentionned that the project originated from a Librarian - who's also been a James Bond fan for decades .

To order the book ( French edition only so far ) :
Agnès Vienot Editions
29 Euros

Do not reproduced covers - Media Bis documentation copyrighted

jeudi 10 juin 2010

The Empire Strikes Back



Merely hours after the may the 16th of 2002 Screen International Kevin Mc Clory Cannes announcement that the Irish producer was seeking bidders for his supposed ' rights to make a James Bond Film ' , Danjaq and Eon fiercely counter attacked by publishing this statement in the various Cannes Trade papers .

Remember that was the 40th aniversary year of the official Film series , and less than five month prior to the release of Die Another Day .
No one was going to spoil the Party ... And certainly not that pain in the ...of McClory !

Interestingly , I clearly remember that no one in the press took attention of that last salvo from the Thunderball co-producer . He clearly had his day already..

Pic copyrighted Media Bis Archives . No reproduction allowed without permission .

jeudi 3 juin 2010

To sell: James Bond rights to make a perfectly legitimate movie...




As late as year 2002, independant ( and a bit silly ) producer Kevin McClory still had the idea of launching a rival James Bond production opposed to the classic Eon series .

Since all his previous attempts failed ( excluding the so-so Never Say Never Again 1983 film ) our man decided to part with those " rights " of his he had used for years to try to convince studios he could legitimately offer the opportunity of creating exclusive versions of his ' film scripts ' ( supposedly earlier treatments of the ' Thunderball ' screenplay ).

That's why I discovered in Cannes with some astonishment on May the 16th of 2002 that full page add printed in an issue of the daily Screen International magazine during the International Film Festival ...

Note how our clever producer offers not just the rights to do a remake but a whole " James Bond outlines, treatments and screenplays co-authored by Ian Fleming , Kevin McClory, Jack Witthingham , Len Deighton & Sean Connery himself " bundle !!

No decent Producer could pass such a drooling offer , couldn't he ?

It should be pointed out no one ever heard of the mysterious Dutch ' Marian Van De Veen - Van Rijk ' either .

Was it a lawyer , some foreigh friend of McClory or just someone naive enough to think there was indeed some money to make out from this deal ???

For more information about that affair, read the excellent Robert Sellers book ' The Battle for Bond ' .