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...

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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

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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 ' .