Focus Of The Week: Andrea Anders

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The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)’s Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) is a woman driven by desperation. Under the influence of ruthless international assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), Andrea lives on his secluded private island in Chinese waters. On the surface she is happy, but deep down she is plotting to escape from his controlling clutches.

Anders’ plans kick into action when she sends a golden bullet engraved with the number ‘007’ to the British Secret Service. She hopes it will spur James Bond (Roger Moore) to come after Scaramanga, kill him, and free her from a life she loathes. She describes Scaramanga as a “monster’, resolute in the belief that leaving him will spell certain death.

Bond takes the bait and watches Anders collect a shipment of Scaramanga’s custom-made gold bullets from a casino in Macau. Bond trails her back to her hotel and confronts her in the shower. Startled, she pulls a gun on 007 (“A water pistol?” Bond quips) and walks him into the bedroom. As she calls the reception desk, Bond knocks the weapon from her hand. Bond proceeds to grill Andrea about her relationship with Scaramanaga. She eventually reveals that she is his mistress and tells Bond he will be at the Bottoms Up club that evening.

Anders later visits Bond in his hotel room (while he is seducing Mary Goodnight [Britt Ekland]) warning Bond that Scaramanga wants to murder him. She admits that she sent the bullet and will pay any price to have Scaramanga killed. Bond asks her to acquire the Solex Agitator, a key component of the world’s most efficient solar energy system.

Andrea goes back to Scaramanga on his boat, telling him she had been at the cinema. As she puts away her jewellery in Scaramanga’s safe, she spots the Solex Agitator and steals it for Bond. When 007 arrives at the rendezvous, a Thai Boxing match, he discovers she has been shot and killed by Scaramanga after discovering her betrayal, the bullet wound concealed by her jacket. “A mistress cannot serve two masters,” the killer coldly observes.

HRH The Prince of Wales Visits Bond 25 Sets

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HRH The Prince of Wales visited Pinewood Studios today, where he enjoyed a tour of the Bond 25 sets with producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

The Prince was introduced to cast Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Lashana Lynch and director Cary Joji Fukunaga. On display were two Aston Martins, the DB5 stunt car and the V8, that will feature in the film.

Bond 25 is the first film in the franchise to have a dedicated trainee programme that supports new entrants. The Prince met 16 trainees from The BFI Film Academy, London Film School, The Iver Make Up Academy, Iconic Steps and Mama Youth. Roles are within the camera, sound, props, costume, grips, video assistant and locations departments.

Meet Daniel Craig On The Bond 25 Set

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Daniel Craig has teamed up with Omaze to give you the chance to meet him at Pinewood Studios in the UK, and visit the set of Bond 25. Every donation will support the work of the Opportunity Network – an organisation that works with students from historically and systematically underrepresented communities to harness their skills and passions to reach their college and career goals.

http://bit.ly/You-Daniel-Craig-Bond-25

Focus Of The Week: The Man With The Golden Gun’s Corkscrew Jump

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The corkscrew car jump in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) is among the most spectacular stunts in the 007 series. In hot pursuit of Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) in Bangkok, Bond (Roger Moore) steals a red AMC Hornet from a car showroom, coincidentally with a vacationing Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) from Live And Let Die (1973) in the passenger seat. During the chase, Bond and Pepper find themselves on the other side of a river forcing Bond to reverse and make a spectacular jump across the water spinning 360 degrees in mid air before landing safely on the other side. 

The idea for the set-piece started when stunt driver Joie Chitwood (who worked on Live And Let Die) sent director Guy Hamilton a photograph of a car undertaking a corkscrew jump. The stunt, designed by Raymond McHenry on a computer inspired by his work on a simulation of single vehicle accidents, was part of The American Thrill Show, staged by JM Productions. The so called Astro Spiral Jump had wowed audiences all across the US and was now licenced to The Man With The Golden Gun team to immortalise on film. 

Based on mathematical and computerised calculations provided by the Calspan Corporation in New York, the car had to be perfectly balanced so the driver and steering wheel are exactly in the middle. It also had to hit a curved ramp at exactly 48 miles per hour — two tachometers were on board to check this — meaning a long run up was essential. 

On June 1 1974, day 35 of production, the crew, guided by stunt co-ordinator W.J. Milligan Jr, assembled on the canal at Klong Rangsit, Thailand. With the ramp disguised as a tumbledown bridge, the spiral jump was performed by Loren “Bumps” Willert in Bond’s AMC Hornet X Hatchback. Two dummies of Bond and Sheriff Pepper were positioned either side of Willert, who was dressed in black so he wouldn’t register on camera.

“The guy who did the roll had never driven the car before or ever done it,” recalled Guy Hamilton. “He wasn’t concerned because as long as it had the run up, so long as it’s 48 miles per hour, the rest is automatic. You hang on, cross your fingers, and bingo he did it in one take.”

Yet Willert didn’t just do the jump for the cameras; he also did it for an assembled crowd. 

“Some people didn’t believe we actually did the stunts,” said marketing executive Hy Smith. “We took about 100 press from Europe in a rented 747 to Thailand. Despite that they saw the car corkscrew 360 degrees from one side of the river to the other, when the picture came out, many of them said it was the most wonderful special effect they’d ever seen.”But the courageous act that wasn’t lost on the star. After witnessing the astonishing jump, Roger Moore told the stunt team: “You fellas make me look good.”

 

 

Focus Of The Week: Tiffany Case

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In Diamonds Are Forever (1971), small time smuggler Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) ultimately plays a key role in foiling the plot of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray). Confident, clever and seductive, she was born on the first floor of Tiffany & Co while her mother shopped for a wedding ring and subsequently developed a mercenary approach to financial gain. She is part of a smuggling pipeline of South African diamonds and becomes embroiled in a battle between Bond (Sean Connery), the CIA and Blofeld’s organisation — with the fate of the world at stake.

She first meets Bond when he is posing as smuggler Peter Franks. When Bond kills the real Franks (John Robinson), he convinces her the dead man is actually 007. She insists Bond leave with her immediately, smuggling the diamonds in Franks’ body.

Tiffany parts company with Bond in Los Angeles but, when 007 delivers fake diamonds, her contacts call her back into service in Las Vegas. Collecting the real diamonds and eluding 30 US government agents, she learns from Bond someone is killing all the smugglers in the pipeline. The drowning of Plenty O’Toole (Lana Wood) by SPECTRE henchman Mr. Wint (Bruce Glover) and Mr. Kidd (Putter Smith) confirms that Tiffany is the next target and she starts to help Bond.

She soon finds herself in a CIA guarded suite in Las Vegas, uncertain if she will be rewarded or prosecuted. After Bond discovers Blofeld is behind the smuggling operation, Tiffany convinces the captors of her willingness to co-operate. When she sees a woman with a white Persian cat leaving casino-hotel the Whyte House, she follows, suspecting it could be Blofeld in drag. When she is proved right. Blofeld abducts her. She pretends to co-operate, travelling with him to the oil rig from where he launches his satellite attacks against the world’s superpowers. Tiffany maintains the illusion of loyalty to Blofeld but, when Bond arrives, she surreptitiously tries to help 007. After Blofeld is defeated, the pair leave for a romantic cruise. On the first evening they are interrupted by an assassination attempt by Wint and Kidd, but Bond thwarts their attack. The pair gaze up to Blofeld’s (now non-functional) diamond-encrusted satellite high above them in space. True to form, Tiffany wistfully asks: “James, how the hell do we get those diamonds again?”

Focus Of The Week: Dr. Kananga

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Ambitious, superstitious and contemptuous, Live And Let Die’s (1973) Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) is the prime minister of the Caribbean nation of San Monique. Yet he leads a double life as Mr. Big, underworld boss and head of the chain of Fillet of Soul clubs. Creating a pipeline for heroin into the US, his devious plan is to flood the country with opiates and then monopolise the drug market. 

Kananga fosters a belief in Voodoo among the local population. He employs Solitaire (Jane Seymour), a high priestess of Obeah (the Caribbean folk religion that includes spells, tarot card reading and black magic), cutting her off from the outside world so she only serves him. Kananga is also in league with a man who considers himself the human embodiment of Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder), chief of the legion of the dead and perhaps the most feared figures in voodoo culture.

James Bond (Roger Moore) is called into investigate Kananga following the assassination of three agents — Dawes (James Drake) at the United Nations, Hamilton (Robert Dix) in New Orleans and Baines (Dennis Edwards) in San Monique. 007 travels to New York and immediately survives an attempt on his life. Bond meets Kananga disguised as Mr. Big at the Fillet of Soul club and tracks him to San Monique.

On the island, Kananga has his CIA insider Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) lead Bond into a death trap. Bond suspects Rosie is working for Kananga and she is killed before she reveals the truth. Bond escapes with Solitaire, whom he has seduced, and flies to New Orleans. Kananga captures the pair and reveals his identity and his plan: he exploits the San Monique locals through their fear of Baron Samedi and distributes opiates for free through his Fillet of Soul restaurants. He is also distraught Bond and Solitaire have slept together, her clairvoyant powers linked to her virginity. He turns Solitaire over to be sacrificed. 

Bond escapes again (evading death by crocodile), destroying Kananga’s processing plant along the way. Kananga returns to San Monique and stages a massive sacrificial ceremony, using the execution of Solitaire as bait. It tempts 007 but not only does Bond rescue Solitaire, he also blows up Kananga’s poppy fields, and seemingly kills Baron Samedi in the process. 

Bond and Solitaire escape into Kananga’s underground lair but are captured. Kananga ties them to a platform and lowers them into a shark pool. Bond frees himself and battles with Kananga. They fall into the shark pool but Bond shoves a compressed air shark pellet into Kananga’s mouth causing his body to fill up with carbon dioxide gas. Moments later, he literally explodes into smithereens, leaving Bond to quip, “He always did have an inflated opinion of himself.” 

Focus Of The Week: The World Is Not Enough

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For the last James Bond adventure of the 20th Century, The World Is Not Enough (1999) augmented spectacular action with an intimate dramatic storyline populated with complex characters that twisted audience expectations at every turn.

In 1997, Barbara Broccoli saw a TV programme that explored how untapped oil in the Caspian Sea was ripe for the taking after decades of Soviet control with every major oil company vying for a stake. Broccoli mused what would happen if the next Bond villain tried to eliminate all the competition to provide the only pipeline from the Caspian to the West.

Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli approached screenwiters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade to develop the story which saw James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) assigned to protect Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), the daughter of murdered oil magnate Sir Robert King (David Calder), a close friend of M’s (Judi Dench). King has been assassinated by terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle), who is targeting the 800-mile King pipeline, under construction from Azerbaijan to bring oil to the West. Bond and Elektra become emotionally entangled but it transpires that Elektra, in league with her lover Renard, has engineered the takeover of her father’s business empire. Elektra kidnaps M and plans to detonate a nuclear explosion in Istanbul, ensuring the King pipeline is the sole oil route in the west. Bond, aided by atomic physicist Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), kills Elektra, rescues M and foils Renard’s bomb blast, impaling him with a plutonium rod.

Given the powerful roles for women, the filmmakers looked for a director with a track record in eliciting strong female performances. Michael Apted, who had guided Sissy Spacek to an Academy Award® winning performance plus Sigourney Weaver and Jodie Foster to Academy Award® nominations, was selected to direct. He immediately made M more central to the story and brought in his wife, screenwriter Dana Stevens, to bolster the female characters. Apted also hired Bruce Feirstein, a screenwriter on both GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies.

With Pierce Brosnan back as 007, French actor Sophie Marceau was chosen for the role of Elektra King. Following eye-catching roles as extreme characters Scottish actor Robert Carlyle was cast as Renard (French for “fox”), a terrorist with a bullet lodged in his brain; dying slowly, he is immune to pain. Denise Richards was hired to play nuclear scientist Christmas Jones while Robbie Coltrane returned as Valentin Zukovsky, the popular Russian arms dealer he played in GoldenEye — this time around, Zukovsky owns a casino and caviar factory in Baku.

Filming began at Pinewood on January 11, the first 007 to be based at the studio since 1987’s The Living Daylights, and included location work in Bilbao, Spain where the crew were greeted by 100,000 excited Spanish fans. Second unit director Vic Armstrong and stunt co-ordinator Simon Crane had a heavy workload, with a ski-parahawk chase (filmed in Chamonix, France) and a two-boat chase down the River Thames, as Bond pursues an assassin (Maria Grazia Cucinotta) past famous London landmarks.

The Thames boat chase became part of the longest pre-titles sequence to date. David Arnold returned to compose the film’s electronic-driven score. Since the lyrics of the title song, written by Don Black, came from Elektra’s point of view, Arnold chose Shirley Manson of the alt-rock band Garbage since he believed her voice had a “steel fist in a velvet glove” quality. The World Is Not Enough premiered in November 1999, becoming a huge success.

Focus Of The Week: Tomorrow Never Dies Car Chase

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At the heart of Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) is one of the most inventive car chases in the 007 series. Bond (Pierce Brosnan) travels to Hamburg to investigate media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) and track down an encoder that Carver plans to use to incite war between China and the UK. 

Collecting a BMW 750iL from Q (Desmond Llewelyn) posing as a car rental agent, Bond uses the car initially as part of his cover as a banker.  The car quickly becomes a getaway vehicle from Carver’s men in a multi-storey car park. With the henchmen unable to break into the sedan with a sledge hammer due to its impregnable security system, Bond uses a touch pad on his specially modified cell phone to bring the BMW toward him. He dives into the backseat and navigates the car remotely, evading chasing vehicles, bullet fire, missiles and thick steel wires until he jumps out to manoeuvre the car onto the roof and over the top into a car rental office below.

On June 9, a production team of 65 people set about capturing the scene in a multi-storey car park at Brent Cross Shopping Centre in England doubling for Hamburg. The two-minute action sequence took three weeks to shoot, using both first and second units, the latter under the supervision of director Vic Armstrong. 

“I wanted to make the car park chase different to what you normally see,” said Armstrong. “Rather than go bigger, it’s better to add some canny little twists to it. Here, the saving grace is the humour. At the same time, you must have it within the realm of believability. It’s a difficult line to walk.”

Some of these “canny little twists” come courtesy of Q dept: twelve rockets in the sunroof, caltrops (metal spikes) spilling from the back bumper, re-inflatable tyres (much to Bond’s amusement) and a cable-cutting device that emerges from the BMW’s hood badge.

Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould utilised 17 BMW 750iLs in aspen silver.  To create the effect of Bond driving his car via a touchpad on his cell phone, Corbould’s crew rebuilt four BMW 750iLs to be driven by hidden stunt driver Steve Griffin crouched on the back floorboard watching video monitors. 

If the bulk of the sequence was shot in the UK, the scene’s final flourish — when Bond sends the car flying through the air to the street below — was shot on location at Lange Mühren, just across from Hamburg Hauptbahnhoff.

 

 

Bond 25 Start Of Production

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Producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli today confirmed the start of principal photography on the 25th official James Bond film begins on 28 April 2019.  From Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, the film is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his fifth film as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007. 

Metro Goldwyn Mayer will release the 25th James Bond feature film domestically through their United Artists Releasing banner on April 8, 2020; through Universal Pictures International and Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the UK and internationally from April 3, 2020.

Director, Cary Joji Fukunaga confirmed the returning cast; Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Léa Seydoux, Rory Kinnear, Ben Whishaw and Jeffrey Wright and introduced Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen and Rami Malek.  

Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica.  His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

The 007 production will be based at Pinewood Studios in the UK, and on location in London, Italy, Jamaica and Norway.

Wilson and Broccoli commented, “We’re thrilled to return to Jamaica with Bond 25, Daniel Craig’s fifth instalment in the 007 series, where Ian Fleming created the iconic James Bond character and Dr. No and Live And Let Die were filmed.”

Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, Scott Z. Burns with Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, other members of the creative team are; Director of Photography Linus Sandgren, Editor Tom Cross and Elliot Graham, Production Designer Mark Tildesley, Costume Designer Suttirat Larlarb, Supervising Stunt Coordinator Olivier Schneider, 2nd Unit Stunt Coordinator Lee Morrison and Visual Effects Supervisor Charlie Noble. Returning members to the team are; 2nd Unit Director Alexander Witt, Special Effects and Action Vehicles Supervisor Chris Corbould and Casting Director Debbie McWilliams.