Reflections on the Past ...

Can you remember what was the very first James Bond film you saw at a Cinema ?
I can .
In December 1971 , an uncle and a cousin of mine ( twice my young age ) decided to take me to the movies during the Christmas holidays .
Since I had already seen it , I couldn't be dragged to the latest Disney flick as usual ( The Aristocats had opened some time earlier that month ) .
I wasn't too much of a Western fan , so seeing ' Once Upon A Time In The West ' was out of the question ( not even sure a 9 years old would have been admitted here ).
" Diamonds Are Forever " had opened in Paris on December the 20th ( same date as England . The film premiered in the USA a few days earlier , on December the 17th ) .
My mischievous nexts of kin decided they weren't going to waste a whole afternoon watching kiddie stuff , so they deliberatly opted for the latest James Bond flick...

I should point out both of them were fans of sort of the British agent , having already seen most of the previous entries of the series ( my cousin had spent his own childhood in New York and was therefore more versed into anglo-saxon culture . He also introduced me to The Beatles , but that's another story ...).

Anyway , to the little boy I was then, the Guy Hamilton romp truly blew me away ...To the point of influencing my future professionnal life .
I clearly remember being terrified by the Slumber inc. episode , and extremely intrigued by the 007 number appearing on the film poster - which I then assimilated to the handle of a...Saucepan (for months I tried to duplicate it , always getting it wrong , and wondering how the hell I ended up with a kitchen appliance while Sean Connery had a perfect gun ! ) .

Anyway , the damage was done (...Forever ) on that fateful Saturday of December 1971 .

And two years later , the infernal pair took me to see " Live And Let Die " . My fate was sealed .


Les Diamants sont éternels (Trailer)
envoyé par cjbf. - Les dernières bandes annonces en ligne.

Report from London - November 2010

Met various interesting parties while being in London last week .
First , journalist Robert Sellers - busy writing another Bond inclined book , due to be published next year in Britain .
Cannot talk about its subject yet , but it will deal with a proeminent figure of the Movie Bond universe ...
Also learnt interesting new titbits about the proposed Leo DiCaprio Ian Fleming biography movie ( still only in talks for the moment it seems )

Also met Mrs Sylvan Manson , daughter of screenwriter Jack Wittingham ( involved in the tortuous story of the creation of the first 007 movie screenplay in the late 50s ) .
Am still wondering if Mrs Manson is indeed allowed to sell reproductions of those early stroyboarded sequences of a proposed ' Thunderball ' adaptation though...Dangerous waters there...

Finally passed at the Fleming Art gallery and had a look on their latest exhibition ( not 007 related ).

Oh , and had the pleasant surprise of receiving back home Mr Jeffery Deaver's answers to my online interview of him sent some time ago ...

Everything that glitters is not gold

Readers of this blog already know my ( unbiased ) opinion about the new ' re-invention ' of the vintage Rare ' GoldenEye ' game - based on the Pierce Brosnan 1995 debut movie .

I just tested the new Activision game at the Paris 2010 Game Show ...

Activision had done things well : the GE stand was virtually the first stand the visitor will stumble upon when entering the huuuuge place .

A platform has been erected with multi-screens , allowing people to test various levels of the game .

An Aston-Martin DBS was parked besides it , and various glamourous hostesses were ' at hand ' if any male 007 afficionado looks a bit perplexed ...

The girls were all dressed in gold lamé dresses , and for a moment I thought I was transported back in time at the Premiere of ' Goldfinger ' ...

As for the game itself , well, I played a classic ' shoot your opponent ' dual screen level .

Nothing new there ( as usual , it took me some time to adapt to the split screen, allowing my adversary to blast me to smithereens in ten seconds the first time we played... ) .

That level was FPS-like , so the perspective of playing Daniel Craig playing Pierce Brosnan playing 007 wasn't too harsh to deal with ...

But it still remains nevertheless the main point of my angst : why, o why remaking a classic game ( and a classic film - to some extent ) and changing the lead with the current actor / incarnation of James Bond ?

A bright idea from the Activision Consumer dpt . , surely thinking potential buyers of the game won't remember an old movie from 1995 - and will associate only agent 007 with Daniel Craig ?

It feels somehow...awkward to see Craig performing ( re-acting ? ) Pierce's moves , and delivering his lines ( the actor dubbed himself for that game ) .

Perhaps to tone down that bizarre impression of deja vu , screen - and videogame - writer Bruce Fernstein changed some locations during the course of the story : for instance , the Tiger Helicopter theft in Monte-Carlo is replaced by a similar plot devise set in Dubaï...

As for the level I tested , nothing new under the sun I must say ...

I would have liked much more to be able to test Blood Stone , but this later title seems to be purposely ' toned down ' by Activision in favor of the GE one : only the opening credits sequence was screened on some monitors , and there was only one panel decorated with the title cum Daniel Craig pose...

My verdict is still dangerously low regarding the newest Activision efforts .

I will perhaps change my mind regarding Blood Stone when I'll get a complete preview version, but I'm pretty sure GE won't get my approval even if it turns out to be one of the very best game of all time ( which I greatly doubt ) ...

Book of the Century : George Lazenby's autobiography to be published !

Great news forwarded to me from the 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair via movie critic mastermind Tony Crawley : the autobiography of George Lazenby, the man who had the unenviable task of inheriting James Bond’s shoes after Sean Connery, has been taken off the table by Century.

John Elek of AP Watt sold the book by Lazenby, who was working as a car salesman and model before playing 007 in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Tentatively titled "The Other Fella", the book will be released by Century Publishing House in spring 2012.

At least , the man himself will put to rest all the rumours still surrounding the shooting of that film ( Dame Diana Rigg herself refused to answer my questions about it some years ago ... ) .

OHMSS remains the best of the non-Connery Bonds - if not the best of the entire series of films produced so far by Eon Productions .

Although it doesn’t have the so-so realistic approach of the most recent films , but stick instead to the original Ian Fleming novel ( thanks to Richard Maibaum's fantastic script ) , the 6th James Bond film can in all honesty still be descrided as nothing short of a masterpiece .

Many thanks to Tony Crawley

Not the Property of a Lady but...John Griswold's Ian Fleming / James Bond Collection Auction Sale

A one in a lifetime event : courtesy of a friend of the Ian Fleming Foundation, I've been forwarded the catalog of the future John Griwold's Ian Fleming - James Bond collection Auction , due to take place on October the 4th.

Prepare to be salivating like an enraged dog : Mr Griswold's Bond material collection is indeed astronomical ...

From an original Jonathan Cape Ian Fleming Casino Royale first printing edition ( priced between $ 10.000 / 30.000 ) to unknown Robert McGinnis Diamonds Are Forever film teaser posters , not forgetting rare promo material , a complete Queen Ann Press Ian Fleming novels limited edition set , a gold painted plaster bust of Ian Fleming or a unique hand painted porcelaine figure of Shirley Eaton , a 14k gold S.P.E.C.T.R.E ring , etc. , etc. that auction will certainly be remembered as one of the best 007 orientated style one ever .

A long life James Bond enthusiast since the early 1960s , Mr Griswold is best known as the author of the definitive Fleming 's work study , the unique " Ian Fleming's James Bond : Annotations & Chronologies for Ian Fleming Bond stories " , published in 2005 .

Direct link to catalogue of items :

www.artfact.com/catalog/searchLots.cfm?scp=c&catalogRef=PBJD2AI7NJ

Go ahead, Blofeld : Make my day !

It was more or less known amongst film fans & movie historians that Clint Eastwood has been aproached to replace Sean Connery as James Bond in the 1970s ( Cubby Broccoli recalled the event in his memoirs ' When the Snow melts ' ) .

Director Guy Hamilton confirmed me on a couple of times that United Artists wanted a big US name to carry on the franchise .

They were even considering Burt Reynolds ( fresh from John Boorman's Deliverance ) to step into the British spy's shoes ...

At the times , Clint Eastwood was best known for his parts in the Sergio Leone so called Spaguetti Westerns ( where he played some sort of recurrent character , promptly nicknamed ' the man with no name ' by Critics & audience alike ) .

" I was offered pretty good money to do Bond , confirmed today the acclaimed actor turned director , this was after Connery left . My lawyer represented the Broccolis and he came and said ' they would love to have you ' . But to me , well, that was somebody's else's gig . That was Sean's deal . It didn't feel right for me to do it . I always like characters that are more grounded in reality . Maybe they do super things or more-than-human things - like Dirty Harry he has a knack for doing crazy things - but still they're not caped crusaders ...

Although it could be considered as pure heresy to have an American actor impersonnating Ian Fleming's creation, I for one think that some of the Dirty Harry's best lines & quips would have perfectly worked in a more serious Bond context approach ( à la Daniel Craig ) ...But not , I repeat NOT , for the tongue-in-cheek approach chosen by the film producers for the 7th entry of the Eon series , the comedy-enhanced Diamonds Are Forever ...

Many thanks to Tony Crawley for sending me the original info .

Back in Bond Age ...

Back in Bond Age !

Wonderful surprise in my mail box today : a big package ( so big it completely fullfilled my box ) was waiting for me .

The sender ?

Hodder & Stoughton - London.

After unwrapping the big brown box ( posted from...Switzerland ) , I feverishly opened it , to discover various pieces of interest inside .

- A signed harcover copy of Jeffery Deaver's The Burning Wire .

- A copy of Jeffery Deaver's Garden of Beast .

- An enveloppe , marked ' Private & confidential ' , with an instruction letter and a personnalized encoded badge ( ' for future development ' ) .

- A copy of Ian Fleming's From Russia With Love ( not signed . Damnit ) .

- A cd with a video intervention of Mr Deaver himself ( a real - and completely unexpected - threat ) .

Now, that's what I call intelligent marketing .

Makes you feel like Jim Phelps at the beginning of a new mission of the I.M.F ( fortunately nothing catched fire after I read the instruction message ) .

Almost nothing revealed on Mr Deaver's future blockbuster ( correction...Nothing at all , to be honest ! ) , but having definitly the journalist hooked for more !

Congratulations to all parties involved - and of course to Mr Jeffery Deaver for kindly autographing me a copy of his book and taking time to record that video message , even if I couldn't attend last month's London event .

Blisterin' barnacles : has James Bond copied Tintin ?

It's common knowledge amongst movie-goers that next year will be the Tintin year with the release of the Steven Spielberg produced first movie , directed by unknown New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson...

Thought it'd be interesting to go back to the first live action movie inspired by the adventures of Tintin , and pinpoint some interesting trivias with another world wide known hero...

Shooting of the movie ( titled ' Tintin & the Golden Fleece ' ) began on May the 2cd of 1961 ( at the times , a certain Ian Fleming was still trying to get 007 on the screen via a movie tentatively called ' Thunderball ' ) .

Locations chosen for that first adventure were : Istanbul , Macedonia ( proemently featuring the Meteora area ) , Greece and Yugoslavia...
Which will then be used again by Eon production less than 3 years later for their second James Bond film, From Russia With Love .

Amazingly , the Meteora location is just used for the scenery ...While there is indeed a 'climbing' sequence of some sort in the Tintin adventure ,when the reporter had to escape a huge tower in Istanbul by slowly descending along its wall using a tigh rope (see pic ) .
Further on in the story Tintin & Captain Haddock have to meet a priest up in the San Stefano monastery , and casually climb up using a small track along the moutain ...Which has obviously disappeared in 1981 when James Bond and his party decided to pay a visit to the very same area in For Your Eyes Only .
( See caption of the Tintin movie when they passed by the house where the winch is located in the John Glen flick .)

Interestingly , although the Eon team had to make do with irrate protesting monks during their shooting of the For Your Eyes Only final sequence, the monastery had welcome Tintin with open arms...

Terence Young himself used to say that the James Bond movies were really only Tintin adventures for grown ups .
The man who created the screen 007 obviously knew what he was talking about ...

Back to the Future : Goldeneye 2010

Ok , no new film on the horizon but two new ' virtual adventures ' lined up for the end of the year ...

On a personnal level , I just find the idea of using the title of a Pierce Brosnan movie for a Daniel Craig game version totally...Hideous , but I can easily understand the marketing behind that unholy decision.

Find it rather tedious though to hear exactly the very same orchestration of the James Bond Theme both for the Blood Stone AND Goldeneye wii games - the one used by Eon to introduce viewers to Daniel Craig's 007 in Casino Royale in the official movie trailer that is .

Is it an obligation from Danjaq , or merely a cruel lack of inspiration from both Bizarre creation and Eurocom ( developpping the new Goldeneye instalment for Activision ), I wonder ?

Come on people : watch again the inspired teaser trailers from the classic movies ( ' This man has a Licence To Kill . It means he can kill whom he chooses , where he chooses , when he chooses ' ...) and come up with something a little more original...

" Ever wanted to be a 00 agent ? "

" A Licence to play "

" For Your Wii Only "

Tales from the Crypt

Distinguised members of the World Press and 007 fans alike were invited today by the Ian Fleming Publication company to briefly meet the new James Bond author , Mr Jeffery Deaver .

Location of the event was the gothic Hammer-like crypt under St Andrew church in Holborn, London .

A place which would have seem more suitable for a meeting with, say, J.K Rowlinds or Dacre Stocker... Very cloak and dagger atmosphere.

Lucky attendees were introduced one by one to Mr Deaver, and then disposed of twenty minutes each to ask their questions to the writer .

No press kit was made available at the time as a reminder of the meeting .

Wild guess : what about the official book launch at Buckhingham Palace next year ?

Stone Bleeding : Blood Stone , the newest James Bond videogame

Activision has finally announced its new James Bond game, helmed by Project Gotham Racing and Blur developer Bizarre Creations. Featuring an original story by Bruce Feirstein (who penned the screenplay for GoldenEye , worked on revisions on both T.N.D and Twine , and created the script for 2003's Bond game, Everything or Nothing), James Bond 007: Blood Stone features a mix of third-person cover-based shooting, hand-to-hand combat and "adrenaline-fuelled driving sequences" on land , sea -- and air , with various nods to past movie Bonds stunt sequences.

Daniel Craig will reprise his role as suave spy guy ( his videogame avatar looking particulary bland) alongside Judi Dench, who once again plays stern boss lady "M." Grammy award-winning singer Joss Stone will be playing Blood Stone's obligatory gun-toting secret agent colleague and temptress . Miss Stone also provides the game's original theme song, "I'll Take it All," with a little help from Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics.

Judging from its visually inspired credits sequence , very reminiscent of the Casino Royale and Die Another Day ones , the script of the game - and its title - seems to refer to those famous ' conflict diamonds ' hinted at during 007's 20th cinematographic mission...

The game was officially introduced to the World Press on wenesday, July the 14th , Activision held the "Bond Event 2010" at the One Marylebone conference venue in central London, parking an Aston Martin outside the doors to let invited guests know they were at the right place ( what else is new , then ) .

Bizarre's James Bond 007: Blood Stone is set to launch on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this holiday season. N-Space is developing a DS version for the same time frame.

Bond 23 officially pronounced dead ?

In a tragic case of History repeating , the Bond 23 production future is beginning to look more and more like the ill fated Bond 17 one...
Various sources quoted the Eon crew - which was supposedly working on the pre-production of the movie before the official April announcement of the delay due to the MGM financial troubles , had been now told that the film was ' officially canned ' .

The situation now seems to mirror the way the third Timothy Dalton movie - advertised at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival under the code name ' Bond 17 ' - is repeating itself .

Another nail in the coffin of the ill fated Bond 23 production is the fact that strictly no annoucements , news or Press release regarding the mere status of the movie have been made during the whole latest 63rd Cannes International Film Festival . Not a whimp, not even gossips . Utter ( and defeaning ) silence...

It should be noted however that no official Press statement has been yet issued so far by Eon, MGM or Sony to confirm the definitive halt regarding production of this third Daniel Craig 007 movie.

Fingers crossed...

Pics property of Media Bis - Do not use or reproduce . © 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 ...

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

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 .

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 ' .

New James Bond Continuation Writer announced

Not quite sure the litterary James Bond should be revived ad nauseum though .
As of today , the Ian Fleming Publication company announced another writer to step into Ian Fleming's shoes,this time to coincide with 2011's Ian Fleming birthday date ( heck, wasn't it last time 2008 Devil May Care to honour Fleming 100th anniversary ? Why this obligation to link each and every new novel to some historical landmark, I wonder ).

American thriller writer Jeffry Deaver is best known - in English language countries at least - for his Lincoln Rhyme books, most notably The Bone Collector, which was adapted for film in 1999, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.

In 2004, Deaver won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for his book Garden of Beasts. In his acceptance speech he talked about his lifelong admiration of Fleming’s writing.

This may have triggered the Ian Fleming Publication company interest for this writer indeed .

Let us hope the result will be a substantial improvement upon Sebastian Faulks bloated hommage ...And, ahem , please , please guys , leave the grandiose Promo launches to Eon and do not try to mimic them with a pseudo Bond girl delivering the book in military attire amidst embarrassed Naval officers of Her Majesty...

" Six bullets to your one ? " - " I only need one... "

Everyone at Our Man From Bond Street wishes Sir Christopher Lee the very happiest of birthday for his 88th year .

When Le Figaro sent me on the trail of James Bond...A Political affair of some sort !

Although there is an official « James Bond Walk » in London ( sort of ) , there's nothing more exhilarating for a Fan than to re discover by himself places of interest linked to the 007 saga ...

I was contacted in Autumn 95 by Le Figaro newspaper to write a piece on ' James Bond's London ' to coincide with the then new release of Goldeneye in France .

Promotion was high on that first Pierce Brosnan adventure , everyone was waiting for a new movie for quite some time .

Le Figaro paired me with a lovely Photographer lady , booked us in a London Palace ( separate rooms halas ) , and off we went , searching for places of interest for James Bond fans in the city .

My goal was simple : using ' Bill Tanner ' ( aka Kingsley Amis ) funny little ' Book of Bond ' I wanted to have a look on some specific Fleming described places - plus some classic Film version ones as well...

We dutifully went to that ' little square off King's Road ' to try to pinpoint Bond's flat ( that silly writer didn't give any precise reference house n° in Moonraker ) , then to the College of Arms ( O.H.M.S.S ) ,then to Fleet Street ( for a Fleming Hommage pic ), etc, etc...

Anyway those two rather pleasant days passed like the wind - all expenses taken care courtesy of Le Figaro .
We went back to Paris . I dutifully wrote my piece .
And then waited with baited breath for publication in ' Le Figaro Magazine ' , the week end published extra mag .
And waited .
And waited again .

And then the Paris lavish Goldeneye Premiere took place , the hectic Press conference with Pierce and the whole cast ...And still no article in Le Figaro ( and no pay check either of course ) .

I finally decided to call the editor himself to ask about the situation .
The answer was dreadfully simple : Le Figaro , notoriously right winged media , had been appalled by Pierce's declaration during his Paris press conference , when he made a direct reference to the disaster-bound Rainbow Warrior Affair ( a Flemingesque story where two French military scuba divers had been caught trying to blow up a Green Peace ship , by order of the French goverment . )

Le Figaro's reaction was swift , painless and deadly : they erased each and every trace of Goldeneye coverage in their columns ...Not forgetting to erase my proposed salary too . Sigh .

Politics .

I will never get into that .

I swear .

Bottom of the Barrel ( French / Italian style ) : Shut Up While U Speak !!

Category : to be avoided

Rethorical question : is it humanly possible to shoot a Bond parody actually worse than the Italian James Tont movies ?
Pragmatic answer : just try to watch " Tais toi quand tu parles " .

This 1981 Franco Italian venture hasn't been released on DvD yet ( even in France ! ), so you might have trouble looking for it ( that is , if you're a real masochist , eerr I mean completist ! ) .

Film tells the story of you and me , that is the ultimate James Bond Fan whose real life is a misery and who finds escapism into the movie adventures of a certain British agent with a licence to Kill .

Trouble is : when such a basic idea gave us interesting plots like " The Man With One Red Shoe " ( US remake of French ' Le Grand Blond Avec une Chaussure Noire ' ), or even the interesting ' Operation Kid Brother ' , that Philippe Clair-directed comedy is a total mess .

Main responsible : the director itself who would make the 3 Stooges comedies pass for an Ernst Lubitsch 's masterpiece .
Really .
With an humour as subtle as a twelve tons Sherman tank , director Philippe Clair ( who appears in a cameo as a North African contact ) offers a basic ' what if ' comedy with Aldo Maccione ( Italian comic who should have stayed beyond the Alps ) trying to pass for France's greatest secret agent on a deadly mission in Tunisia .

Fact that said ( French ) agent is named...James is irrelevant of course .
Giacomo ( "James " in Italian...Wink , wink, nudge , nudge),a 007 fan whose flat is decorated with Bond Posters with his face replacing those of Connery and Moore (ahaha) is therefore mistaken for his Hero during a trip to Tunisia .

Reality and delusion clash together when the guy also got mistaken by the ' Opposition ' as a real secret agent , and who then tries to eliminate him from the surface of the Earth...

Trouble is : as the movie continuously switches between the 'real ' Giacomo who manages to stay alive by pure luck only AND the fictionous invincible version of himself ( his...Avatar . Sort of ) , one has trouble understanding what is really happening on the screen !!

On the plus side , the presence of bellissima Edwige Fenech ( whose first apparition is a casual frame-by-frame re-shot version of Ursula Andress in Dr No ) as the obligatory Female interest ( AND double agent , of course ), some nice locations and some - scarce - funny gags ( mostly directed toward Bond Fans : when Giacomo is finally recruited by the French Secret service for a deadly mission , he answers " Ah, I hope it's the Goldfinger mission and not the Moonraker one . That last one sucked ! " ) .

And that's all .

You've been warned !

A STYLE IS BORN

B.J. as his team called him (“for Big Jerk, I guess”) was the second of the Bond stars to die (at the absurdly young age of 45) in 1970, six years after Ian Fleming. A hard-drinking American from Newark, New Jersey, Robert Brownjohn created the style and impact of all 007 credit titles. For just a brace of Bonds... The writhing names shimmering around the undulating belly-dancer (actually, three) at the start of From Russia With Love and the projection of clips and names upon the gold-painted body of actress Maggie Nolan for Goldfinger .
B.J. was design director for the major McCann-Erickson ad agency when meeting 007’s producers via mutual friends. They made mention of a belly-dancer in one scene. Bingo! Or, indeed, in BJspeak: “Duck soup!” (Easy!) His mind went back six years to when he was teaching typography with a slide-projector. “This student came in late, walked in front of the projection beam. Immediately, the type being projected shot on to his shirt. Obviously, the shirt was not flat like the screen, so the type changed shape and size. It look great!”
Voila, Bond movie credits were born.
B.J. created more credits for Where The Spies Are, The Night of the Generals and Michael Kohlhaas - Der Rebel but never worked for Eon again.
Eon was not pleased with him daring to title a rival spy film and B.J. was not pleased with on money. “Few companies will meet my price of £5,000. Not much when I have to pay my team and hire a studio. I’m lucky if I make £1,000. In the States, Saul Bass gets £17,000 a movie.”

Tony Crawley

James Bond: Bloodstone ? Awww...

"James Bond: Bloodstone" may be the name of Bizarre Creations' super secret racing game in the 007 universe, reports Strategy Informer.
Activision will published the game, their second title after the adaptation of Quantum of Solace since taking over the licence from EA.

HMV list "James Bond: Bloodstone" as a 'driving racing' game, though whispers suggest it might have some first-person shooting too. Platforms are listed as Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.
So it's apparently ' bye bye PC ' too ...Sigh .

Whatever this James Bond title is called it won't be tied to any movies coming out, especially as the upcoming 23rd Bond film has been put on indefinite hold.

So is it back to the improbable 007 Game universe where Bond can do pretty much anything , from defusing atomic missiles on a space station ( NightFire anyone ? ) to piloting some hightech underwater sub ?
Not to mention the constant use of gadgets which would make our dear old Q cringe with sadness...

UK soap actor Adam Croasdell is understood to be providing the voice of James Bond.

Whether this Activision and Bizarre title is purely a driving game will likely remain secret until E3 this June.

The game has been repeatedly delayed, but is expected to hit shelves in October this year.

Has James Bond finally met his match ?

LONDON, April 19, 2010
007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions, today announced they have suspended development on the next James Bond film previously scheduled for release 2011/2012.

“Due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM and the failure to close a sale of the studio, we have suspended development on BOND 23 indefinitely. We do not know when development will resume and do not have a date for the release of BOND 23,” stated Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli jointly.

EON Productions have produced twenty two James Bond films since 1962.
In 1995, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli took over the 007 franchise from Albert R ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and are responsible for producing some of the most successful James Bond films ever, including CASINO ROYALE and more recently QUANTUM OF SOLACE. The James Bond franchise is the longest running in film history.
EON Productions and Danjaq LLC are affiliate companies and control all worldwide merchandising for James Bond.