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.

Focus of the Week: Valentin Zukovsky

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Appearing in both GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999), ex-KGB operative Valentin Dimitrovich Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) is the roguish but dangerous head of the Russian mafia, the only competition to Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) aka Janus Crime Syndicate. Prior to the events of GoldenEye, Bond shot Zukovsky in the knee, then stole his car and his girlfriend. This creates an air of tension when 007 (Pierce Brosnan) returns to Russia searching for information.

Bond tracks down Zukovsky in his St. Petersburg nightclub looking for intel on Janus. Zukovsky maintains a vast knowledge of firearms — he can discern 007’s presence just from the cocking of his gun. (“Walther PPK, 7.65 millimetre. Only three men I know use such a gun… I believe I’ve killed two of them.”). Zukovsky is wary of helping Bond, but 007 reminds him that he only shot Valentin in the leg, even though he had a clear shot. The pair, realising they have similar aims, broker an uneasy truce: inexchange for the sale of C4 explosives where Zukovsky will be allowed to take the majority of the profits, Zukovsky tells Bond what he knows about Janus and facilitates an introduction.

Years later, in The World Is Not Enough (1999), Zukovsky moves to Baku, seemingly setting up as a legitimate businessman, opening his own casino and caviar factory. He still has some underhand dealings in his portfolio, including a transaction with oil heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau). He smuggles Russian equipment and supplies, using his nephew Nikoli (Justus Von Dohnanyi) and a submarine.

When Zukovsky realises Elektra and her lover Renard (Robert Carlyle) have killed Nikoli, Valentin is furious and he goes to find Elektra to demand Nikoli’s hat back, Elektra uses the hat to hide a gun and shoots Valentin. His last act is to fire a rifle hidden in his silver-handled walking cane at a wrist restraint constricting 007, freeing Bond from Elektra’s torture chair. In an ironic twist, the walking stick Valentin uses as a result of Bond’s bullet to his knee saves 007’s life.

Focus Of The Week: For Your Eyes Only

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Following on from Moonraker (1979), producers Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson brought Bond back to Earth, closer to the spirit of Ian Fleming’s novels for his 12thouting. Or as Cubby Broccoli put it, “the more human values that worked so well in From Russia With Love (1963).”

For the screenplay, Broccoli brought back veteran 007 writer Richard Maibaum who worked on the script in collaboration with Wilson. The resulting story sees Bond (Roger Moore) ordered to retrieve the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), a device used to co-ordinate submarines, housed in a sunken spy ship St. Georges. Sir Timothy Havelock (Jack Hedley), a marine archaeologist secretly helping the British locate the ship, is murdered by hired assassin Gonzales (Stefan Kalipha). Bond travels to Spain to investigate who is behind the hit but Gonzales is killed by Havelock’s vengeful daughter Melina (Carole Bouquet). In Italy Bond and Melina seek the counsel of crime lord Columbo (Topol) through businessman Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover). Columbo reveals Kristatos is responsible for Havelock’s murder and is colluding with the KGB to purloin the ATAC. With Columbo’s help, Bond leads an assault on Kristatos’ mountain hideout and destroys the ATAC so neither East or West can obtain it.

To direct For Your Eyes Only, Broccoli promoted editor and second unit director John Glen. The casting was typically international in flavour with French actress Carole Bouquet for the revenge-seeking Melina Havelock and Cubby Broccoli’s wife Dana suggested Israeli born actor Topol for pistachio-chewing scoundrel Columbo. American ice-skating champion and actress Lynn-Holly Johnson took the role of Olympic hopeful Bibi Dahl and, having once been considered for 007 himself, British actor Julian Glover signed on to play Greek smuggler Kristatos.

For Your Eyes Only began filming on September 13 1980 at the Villa Sylva at Kanoni above Corfu town. The production was informed by the ethos of Bond going back to its smaller scale roots. Stunt arranger Rémy Julienne and 2nd unit director Arthur Wooster created a thrilling chase involving Melina Havelock’s 2CV with Bond surviving on his wits rather than any gadgetry.

Within the return to realism, For Your Eyes Only does not skimp on spectacular sequences. Bond’s assault on Kristatos’ monastery hideout was shot in the Meteora Region of Greece. Although local monks tried to disrupt filming by hanging their laundry out of the window, climber Rick Sylvester performed a breath-taking 300ft fall from the mountain. Special effects supervisor Derek Meddings built a 30ft trough filled with sandbags to ease the impact on his body as the rope pulled taut.

Back in London, Glen filmed a thrilling pre-credit sequence at Becton Gas Works involving Bond trapped on a remote controlled helicopter — the scene was inspired by Glen noticing a technician’s son playing with a remote control car at Pinewood.  When the crew arrived in the Alpine resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, they discovered the town and mountains in the midst of a snow drought. 25 truckloads of fresh snow had to be brought in to dress street scenes.  Ski champion and cameraman Willy Bogner returned for his third Bond film, employing special skis that facilitated him skiing backwards and forwards to capture the stunning action.

Bill Conti composed the score and recorded the title song with Scottish pop star Sheena Easton, who became the only singer to date to appear in the main titles. The song proved a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic and garnered an Academy Award nomination. The film premiered on June 24 1981 and proved a huge success worldwide during the summer.

Tania Mallet (1941-2019)

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We are very sorry to hear that Tania Mallet who played Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger has died. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time.

Focus Of The Week: Miranda Frost

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The aloof, articulate and cold-hearted MI6 Agent Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) from Die Another Day (2002) is a Harvard educated, Olympic standard fencer and also the secret lover of Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) aka Colonel Moon. The pair first met and fell in love trying out for the fencing team for Harvard, before Moon returned to Korea. Years later, when Frost won the Olympic gold by default at Sydney, it was because Moon arranged for the true winner to overdose on steroids. This devious act sealed Frost’s allegiance to Moon, even when DNA replacement changed his appearance to become Graves.

Having spent three years in MI6’s cryptology department, Frost pretends to spy on Graves while working under the guise of his publicist but secretly passes on the Ministry’s secrets to her lover. She is instructed by M (Judi Dench) to work alongside Bond (Pierce Brosnan) but does not approve of his methods or reputation. She still helps Bond stay under cover by kissing him when 007 is caught by Mr Kil (Lawrence Makoare) and his minions. The pair spend the night together in Frost’s room to maintain the pretence they are lovers.

Bond awakes and goes in pursuit of Graves, Frost pleading with him not to go. When Bond finally confronts Graves it comes to light she is the traitor who betrayed him in North Korea, which led to 14 months of incarceration and torture by the North Koreans. Bond moves quickly to kill her, but realises that his weapon is empty — Frost had cannily taken the opportunity to empty his Walther P99. Under the aim of Frost’s gun, Bond deploys the sonic agitator ring, courtesy of Q dept., to shatter the glass platform that supports them. Frost and Bond fall into the jungle environment of Graves’ dome HQ, the villains escaping in an Antonov An-124 aircraft.

Bond, and his CIA counterpart Jinx (Halle Berry), track down Graves and Frost in Korea. Boarding Grave’s plane, Jinx is confronted by Frost at the controls of the aircraft. As the plane spirals out of control, they engage in a fencing duel, Frost slicing Jinx across the stomach and telling her she can read her opponent’s every move. Jinx manages to stab Frost in the chest. The wound is fatal and Frost falls backwards to her death.

Focus Of The Week: GoldenEye’s Cuban Climax

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GoldenEye (1995) broke new ground for the series in many ways. It not only ushered in a new James Bond in the shape of Pierce Brosnan but also became the first 007 film to extensively utilise digital effects with 140 CGI shots alongside traditional special effects. This pioneering technology is prevalent in the film’s thrilling climax as Bond battles nemesis Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) atop the GoldenEye satellite dish in a battle to not only foil Trevelyan’s plot to rob the Bank of England by erasing its financial records but also to settle some keenly felt old scores.

For the exterior of the GoldenEye facility set in Cuba, the production found a suitably impressive satellite dish at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. On May 10 1995, the first unit started shooting scenes at the satellite centre before zeroing in on the showdown between Bond and Trevelyan. For the fight itself, director Martin Campbell drew inspiration from Bond’s fight with Red Grant on a train in From Russia With Love (1963). To achieve a similar level of intensity, Brosnan and Bean performed much of the action themselves.

“The fight scene goes on and on and on,” recalled Bean. “It’s a hell of a showdown. It’s not just about fighting. It’s seeing it in their eyes as much as anything — seeing the link between them and their having to fight to the death.”

Although the Arecibo Observatory was among the largest spherical radar-radio telescopes in the world, the script called for it to be submerged under a lake. Miniature effects supervisor Derek Meddings’ team built a 1/20th scale model of the dish but, because the real structure was so enormous, it still measured 50 feet across. The landscape model surrounding the miniature was about 100 feet across.

Digital-effects technology was also employed to augment the miniature work. The Arecibo dish was built out of very thin, perforated metal suspended on cables which meant it could not support actors. So the production recreated the structure against green screen at Leavesden Studios.

“There is a danger that the traditional techniques which in many cases are sometimes equally appropriate or more cost effective will be ignored,” said visual effects coordinator Mara Bryan. “This was certainly not the case with GoldenEye, where special and visual effects employed almost every known technique old and new. It was very exciting to be a part of it.”