Focus Of The Week: Sheriff J.W. Pepper

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Loud, overbearing and colourful, Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) is a lawman in Louisiana who spends his afternoons trying to catch speeding drivers and looking after small town problems such as shooting Mrs Pearson’s rabid dog. His two encounters with Bond turn his small world upside down.

We first meet J.W. during the boat chase sequence in Live And Let Die (1973). Pepper’s attention is caught by Mr. Big’s henchman Adam (Tommy Lane) pursuing Bond at nearly 90mph. The Sheriff arrests Adam and holds him at gun point. Without warning, Bond’s Glastron Speedboat leaps over Pepper’s head while his pursuer crashes into the idling squad car. A third boat sails overhead, allowing Adam to escape.

Pepper commandeers a police vehicle and proceeds to a bridge where an obstruction has been set up to stop Bond and his pursuers. The blockade doesn’t halt the cavalcade of boats and Pepper arrives at the scene to find his lawmen flailing in the water.

Realising he needs to raise his efforts, Pepper enlists his brother-in-law Billy Bob who has the fastest boat on the river. The Sheriff heads further along the river boasting about the prowess of Billy Bob’s vessel, blissfully unaware it has been stolen by Adam. When Pepper finally confronts Bond and CIA agent Felix Leiter (David Hedison) at a marina, the fuming Sheriff accuses 007 of being reckless — “What are you? Some kinda doomsday machine boy?” — and attempts to arrest him. After a quick word from Leiter, the supervising police officer informs Pepper that Bond is actually a British secret agent, much to the Sheriff’s annoyance.

Bond meets J.W. again on the hunt for assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). Holidaying in Bangkok, Pepper catches sight of Bond when he tours with his wife Marybelle (Jay Sidow). Later, browsing in a car showroom, Pepper finds himself in an AMC Hornet when Bond gets in and drives the car through a plate glass window. Joining the chase for Scaramanga, Pepper is an enthusiastic, encouraging passenger until the point Bond spiral jumps across a canal attempting to catch up with the cultured killer. After Scaramanga escapes, Pepper is arrested by the Thai police, protesting he is a policeman himself.

Focus Of The Week: Severine

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A woman of mystery, Severine (Bérénice Marlohe) is the mistress of cyber criminal Silva (Javier Bardem) in Skyfall (2012). Powerful, dangerous and charismatic, she is a pivotal player in Bond’s mission to track down the nefarious mastermind but ultimately comes to a tragic end.

We encounter Severine as an accomplice to mercenary Patrice (Ola Rapace) in a Shanghai hotel room, she shows a stolen Modigliani painting ‘Woman With A Fan’ to Silva’s latest target. Yet this is a ruse to get the art dealer into the crosshairs of Patrice who assassinates the man, shooting him from an adjacent building. Severine watches Bond subsequently fight Patrice, the assassin falling from a window. She throws the secret agent an icy glance before rejoining her guards.

Bond and Severine first meet at Macau’s Floating Dragon Casino. Severine greets 007 on his arrival and the pair have a drink at the bar, discussing the topics of fear and death. Bond quizzes her on information about Silva, yet she warns him about digging too deep into the terrorist’s affairs. Bond notices that she has a Beretta 70 strapped to her thigh and observes her bodyguards are not so much protecting her as controlling her. Beneath her icy confident exterior, Bond senses she is frightened of her boss and deduces her current employer rescued her from an abusive past.

Hoping that Bond can rescue her from Silva’s clutches, Severine warns 007 about her guards’ intentions to assassinate him by throwing him into a pit with komodo dragons. She implores him, if he survives, to meet her on board Silva’s yacht Chimera. However, the pair are captured and taken to Silva’s base, an abandoned island known as the Dead City. Due to her disloyalty to Silva, Severine is separated from Bond and then beaten.

After meeting and being interrogated by Silva, Bond is taken to a courtyard where Severine is bound to a fallen statue. “There is nothing superfluous in my life,” Silva tells Bond. “When a thing is redundant it is eliminated.” Silva places a shot glass of 1962 Macallan Scotch on Severine’s head and forces Bond to engage in a shooting challenge with antique dueling pistols. Bond misses the target on purpose, convincing Silva he has lost his skill at marksmanship. Having no further need for her, Silva cold-bloodedly shoots Severine. As she slumps over, the glass falls to the floor, spilling the fifty-year old Scotch.

Focus Of The Week: Thunderball Underwater Battle

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The underwater battle in Thunderball (1965) is a spectacular finale to the film. Bond (Sean Connery) uncovers SPECTRE’s Number Two Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi)’s plot to hold NATO to ransom with two stolen nuclear warheads. After 007 is captured by Largo, CIA Agent Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) orders the US Coast Guard to parachute in and engage Largo’s men beneath the hull of Largo’s boat the Disco Volante. What follows is a spectacularly choreographed battle that is as beautiful as it is thrilling.

Underwater filmmaking specialists Ivan Tors Films were hired to create 18 underwater sequences which contained 83 separate scenes. The unit were led by Ricou Browning, a filmmaker, cameraman and stunt performer best known for playing the Gill-Man in The Creature From The Black Lagoon.

“I asked (Thunderball Director) Terence Young, ‘Can you tell me what do you want?” recalled Browning about his preparation for the sequence. “He said, ‘Why don’t you shoot it and if you don’t do what I want, I’ll tell you about it.’ I never had another discussion with him about the show after that. He gave me a lot of freedom.”

Filming on the sequence began on May 10 1965 with close-ups of Sean Connery and Adolfo Celi. While the cast and crew of the first unit then returned to the UK, the Ivan Tors unit continued for another two weeks with over 45 divers.

“The underwater fight was the most difficult sequence, only in that there were so many people involved and we had dangerous weapons,” said Browning. “We didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and to coordinate each sequence we took some time to rehearse topside aboard the huge barge that we had rented, and then we would try and recreate underwater what we had rehearsed on the surface.”

The complexity of the sequence as well as the danger also slowed the production down. As Browning put it, “You can only retain so much in your mind before you need to talk again. And in those days we didn’t have underwater communication so we had to use hand signals. When it got so complicated that you couldn’t use hand signals, you just came topside and rehearsed it again, and went back again. It was time consuming.”

The sequence culminates in the Disco Volante running aground and exploding in a huge fireball. The experimental rocket fuel used to detonate the boat was far more powerful than Special Effects Supervisor John Stears predicted, blowing out windows 30 miles away in Nassau.

Stears won an Academy Award for his effects on Thunderball.

Focus Of The Week: Wai Lin

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In command of a dizzying array of fighting skills, Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) is arguably the most athletic, physically capable woman in the 007 series. Intelligent, independent with a sharp wit, she is a Colonel in the Chinese People’s External Security Force who reluctantly teams up with 007 (Pierce Brosnan) to stop a media manipulated war between Britain and China in Tomorrow Never Dies.

At the heart of the subterfuge is nefarious news baron Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce).  Wai Lin’s investigation into Carver begins when her organisation discovers stealth material has gone missing from one of the bases of General Chang (Philip Kwok), a prominent figure in the Chinese military. Suspecting Carver and Chang might be constructing a stealth plane, she infiltrates a luxurious launch party for Carver’s new satellite network CMGN at his Hamburg HQ by posing as a representative from the New China News agency.

Wai Lin attempts to break into Carver’s secret laboratory but discovers Bond has beaten her to it. As the guards close in, she utilises a snake bracelet that contains a piton and climbing wire to confidently walk down a metal column to make her escape, giving Bond a wave as she exits. She next encounters 007 diving in the sunken remains of the HMS Devonshire off the coast of Vietnam, discovering Carver has stolen a cruise missile from the ship. Captured by Carver’s enforcer Stamper (Götz Otto), Wai Lin and Bond are flown to Carver’s Saigon HQ. Only now do they discover the extent of Carver’s machinations to trick Britain and China into war.

Handcuffed together, Wai Lin and Bond enjoy a string of hairbreadth escapes — abseiling down a Carver banner, outrunning a helicopter on a motorbike — until Wai Lin shackles Bond to a pipe telling him she works alone. Yet when Bond comes to her aid as Chang’s men attack, he convinces the doubting Wai Lin they share a common purpose.

Wai Lin discovers Carver has not created a stealth plane but a stealth ship. The pair track down the vessel, slip on board and plant limpet mines. Stamper captures Wai Lin but Bond bargains for her freedom. He sets off a grenade that blows a hole in the hull, allowing Wai Lin to escape. In the melee that follows, Carver attempts to launch his stolen Tomahawk missile in Beijing. Stamper recaptures Wai Lin, threatening to kill her as a means to stop Bond disabling the missile.

After Wai Lin tosses Bond the detonators to cause the missile to self destruct, Stamper gets the upper hand by trying to drown her in the water. Bond revives her and the pair share a romantic moment amid the wreckage of Carver’s ship.

 

Focus Of The Week: Casino Royale Torture Scene

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The Le Chiffre-Bond torture scene remains one of the most powerful scenes in Casino Royale (2006). After Bond wins the Poker tournament at Casino Royale, Le Chiffre faces financial ruin. He kidnaps Vesper Lynd and uses her as bait to capture, then torture 007. The plan goes perfectly but 007 refuses to give him the password to access the account holding the winnings. Before Le Chiffre can kill Bond, enigmatic terrorist Mr White murders Le Chiffre, leaving Bond alive.

On April 24, the first unit filmed scenes in the opulent lobby of the Grand Venetian Hotel, then moved to its polar opposite: a two-day shoot on an abandoned barge where Le Chiffre hands out the gruelling torture. Daniel Craig recalled Le Chiffre’s unique means of interrogation: “He strips me naked, puts me in a Bentwood chair that has no seat in it, then tortures me very hard with a piece of rope.”

The chair was fitted with a fibreglass screen to prevent any unwanted injuries to the leading man. The scene made it past the censors because the eye-wincing action is kept off-screen and its inclusion was vital in informing Bond’s character.

“It’s essential to the story because it sets up Bond’s vulnerability,” said Producer Michael G. Wilson. “Also Vesper is responsible for him falling into the trap, so her motivation to heal him and be with him comes from the guilt over complicity. Not having the torture scene would damage the story.”

Focus Of The Week: Elektra King

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Fuelled by revenge, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) is equal parts intelligent, ambitious and bitter. Her triple-edged plot — to kill her father Sir Robert King (David Calder), to contaminate the Bosphorus Sea and to monopolise oil distribution from the Caspian sea — tests Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to the limit.

Before the action of the film unravels, Elektra is held hostage by international terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle) in Cyprus, demanding $5 million for her release. Over the course of her captivity, Elektra realises her father Sir Robert King refuses to pay the ransom. Driven by paternal betrayal, Elektra persuades Renard to undertake a much more ambitious if darker plot. She makes it appear that part of her ear has been cut off and that she killed two captors to escape. MI6 agent 009 subsequently shoots Renard, the bullet lodging in his brain, slowly destroying his senses and condemning him to death. Elektra senses that the obsessed Renard has nothing to lose so will be willing to make any sacrifice for her.

At the beginning of the film, Elektra and Renard arrange a complex finance transfer that results in Sir Robert blowing himself up when he opens a case of money that they have laced with chemicals activated by King’s lapel pin that they switched for a look-a-like detonator. With her father gone, Elektra sets her sights on killing M for not persuading Sir Robert to pay the ransom and gaining complete control of Caspian Sea oil distribution.

Sir Robert’s death brings James Bond into Elektra’s orbit as M sends 007 to protect her. On his arrival, she tricks Bond into convincing M that Renard still poses a threat. Elektra also persuades M that a nuclear warhead stolen by Renard has been used to blow up her pipeline. At the same, she obtains a Russian nuclear submarine and crew that will be sacrificed in order to destroy Istanbul, which would leave her pipeline as the only channel for oil to reach the West. As a final act of devotion, Renard plans to plant part of the stolen warheads plutonium in the submarine’s reactor turning it into a nuclear bomb.

Elektra holds M and Bond hostage at the Maiden’s Tower on the Bosphorus. When Russian Caviar factory owner Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) arrives, she shoots him, although he is still able to fire one final shot allowing 007 to escape. Elektra confronts Bond on top of the tower. He trains his gun on her telling her he will spare her life if she calls off Renard’s attack. When she gives the final command to the terrorist over the radio, Bond shoots her in the heart.

 

Official Partner Of 007 Elements Announced

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Jaguar Land Rover is the official partner of 007 Elements – a state-of-the-art installation in Sölden, Austria – it was announced today.

007 Elements, located at the top of the 3,050m Gaislachkogl peak, offers visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the world of the iconic secret agent in a new mountain-top location next to the ice Q restaurant used as the Hoffler Klinik in Spectre. Interactive displays featuring Jaguar Land Rover technical content along with the Land Rover Defender and Range Rover Sport SVR used for filming SPECTRE will form part of the experience.

Visitors will also see the latest Jaguar Land Rover technology, with the artificial intelligence systems and 90kWh lithium-ion battery from an electric Jaguar I-PACE performance SUV used to power a wireframe model of the C-X75 concept car that starred in a spectacular car chase through Rome in Spectre.

Jaguar Land Rover vehicles have appeared in nine Bond films since Octopussy in 1983, when Roger Moore made a dramatic escape in a Range Rover Classic driven by Bianca (Tina Hudson).

007 Elements will open to the public on 12 July 2018. For further information visit www.007elements.com

Focus Of The Week: Live And Let Die

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With Sean Connery deciding not to return after Diamonds Are Forever, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman worked with United Artists President David Picker to look for a new 007. Jeremy Brett, Julian Glover and David Warbeck all auditioned yet ultimately the producers cast Roger Moore. The actor was Ian Fleming’s choice to play Bond in 1961 and, as Simon Templar in The Saint, played a character who shared many traits with Bond — debonair, adventurous, and unflappable.

For Moore’s first adventure, the filmmakers chose Live And Let Die, the second Fleming novel written in 1954. Tom Mankiewicz updated the novel’s plot about smuggling 17th Century gold coins to something more contemporary. Dr. Kananga, president of San Monique, under the guise of gangster Mr. Big, is flooding the USA with two tons of free heroin to put the competition out of business leaving him free to control the drug’s supply. Investigating the death of three British agents, Bond travels from New Orleans to San Monique where he foils Kananga’s plot and rescues voodoo priestess Solitaire.

A tour of the Caribbean embellished the script, the research uncovering voodoo ceremonies in Haiti and a large crocodile farm whose gate bore a sign ‘Trespassers will be eaten’. The farm’s owner Ross Kananga, impressed the production team and his facility was used not only as the location for a major action sequence but he agreed to double for Bond and run across the backs of three crocodiles — after the first take, the crocodiles started anticipating Kananga’s movements and one of them actually bit the heel of his shoe. The producers also liked his name and Mr Big’s alter ego became Kananga instead of Jakata.

To play Kananga, director Guy Hamilton picked rising star Yaphet Kotto (Across 110th Street). Producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli chose Jane Seymour, a big star in BBC TVs The Onedin Line, as Solitaire. Choreographer Geoffrey Holder was cast as voodoo chief Baron Samedi, a role he originated in Truman Capote’s 1954 musical House Of Flowers — he also staged the distinctive San Monique dance sequences in the film. Holder suggested the film ending on the character riding on the front of Bond and Solitaire’s train, the man who cannot die.

Filming began on Friday October 13 1972 in the Irish bayou in Louisiana shooting the boat chase between 007 and Mr. Big’s henchmen, the most complex chase of its kind ever conceived. 26 boats were used in all — stunt driver Jerry Comeaux set a world record leaping a Glastron GT-150 150ft over a road — with 17 boats destroyed in the action. Filming moved in late 1972 to Jamaica utilising some of the same locations as Dr. No. Some scenes were also shot adjacent to Goldeneye, Ian Fleming’s residence where he penned the novel.

Regular Bond composer John Barry was unavailable to compose the score so Broccoli and Saltzman sought out Barry’s friend George Martin, the producer of The Beatles. Martin worked with Paul McCartney and Wings to create the memorable theme, which became the biggest Bond song to date reaching No. 2 on the US Billboard chart and No. 7 on the UK chart. It also received an Oscar nomination.

Live And Let Die was a huge success, outperforming the two previous Bond films overseas. But perhaps most significantly, it introduced Roger Moore as the natural successor to Sean Connery, a role he would make his own for the next 12 years.

Focus Of The Week: Skyfall Underground Chase

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One of Skyfall’s (2012) standout stunt sequences is a chase through London’s underground system. After Silva (Javier Bardem) escapes from MI6’s new subterranean HQ, Bond pursues him through an underground station, running through ticket areas, corridors and platforms before leaping onto a speeding tube train as the criminal mastermind, disguised as a policeman, evades him.

Prior to the main unit shooting on the sequence’s climax on April 3 2012 on the 007 stage at Pinewood, both the main unit, directed by Sam Mendes and second unit, led by Alexander Witt, shot interiors at Charing Cross Station. Here the crew captured the moment where Silva slides down the escalators and Bond follows suit.

“We came up with this sliding rig that made it much easier for the actors and we could put the camera close to them,” recalled stunt coordinator Gary Powell. “Javier and Daniel went down on the rig, then Daniel did the slide by himself which was great because it gave us more options for the camera and gave us so much more energy to the scene.”

007 finally catches Silva at gun point in a service area just as the criminal detonates a hole in the roof. A tube train comes crashing through allowing Silva to escape. The stunning sequence was the brainchild of special effects and miniature effects supervisor Chris Corbould.

“During pre-production, Sam rang me and said, ‘We’ve got the great chase in the underground of London but I feel we are short of one spectacular set piece,’” recalled Corbould. “That night I dreamt about a train crash. I mentioned it to Sam and it evolved from there. I didn’t realise how big it would become. It turned into a monster.”

Corbould and his team fitted an overhead track like a rollercoaster with two full-sized carriages hung underneath and linked to a powerful truck and cable system. This allowed the two 60 ft long carriages to get up to speed and then dip down into the set. With the vicinity cleared of crew personnel for safety reasons, ten remotely operated cameras covered the crash from practically every conceivable angle.

“We were concerned about stopping it,” recalled Corbould. “The carriages weighed something like 15 tons and we only had a small area to stop it in. I think it stopped about an inch before it hit the side of the water tank on the 007 Stage. It was one-off and it worked a treat.”

Focus Of The Week: Domino Derval

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Domino Derval, played by Claudine Auger, is the partner of SPECTRE No. 2 Emile Largo (Adolfo Celi). She is trapped in a loveless relationship until she meets 007. She becomes drawn into Bond’s mission to foil a nuclear extortion plot.

Domino grew up in France, sharing a close bond with her brother François (Paul Stassino), a Major in the Armée de l’Air serving with NATO. It is through François that Domino meets Largo and the pair begin an affair. Despite living a life filled with riches and luxury, Domino is unfulfilled by life with Largo, only feeling real closeness with her brother.

Domino has been in Nassau for three weeks when she meets Bond while snorkelling. Although she is attracted to him, she cannot act on her desires due to the ever-watchful eye of Largo. She spends time with Bond at the Café Martinique and begins to open up about her disenchantment. The flirtation continues and Bond reveals that Largo killed her brother and stole two atomic weapons.

Filled with vengeance, she helps Bond kill Largo’s henchman Vargas (Phillip Locke) and takes a Geiger counter camera on board Largo’s yacht, the Disco Volante, to discover whether the missing bombs are on board. Largo catches Domino with the gadget and interrogates her, leaving her in a state of shock. She is untied by scientist Ladislav Kutze (George Pravda) and goes up to the bridge, catching Largo holding Bond at gun point. She shoots Largo in the back, saving 007’s life and avenging her brother’s death. Largo falls onto the wheel of the yacht, jamming the controls. Domino and Bond leap overboard as the Disco Volante runs aground and explodes. The pair are subsequently rescued by the CIA and lifted into the air by a sky hook.

Focus Of The Week: Terence Young

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The director who introduced Bond to film-goers, Terence Young added style, wit and class to three 007 adventures, all infused with fast-paced action and thrills.

“In a Bond film, you aren’t involved in cinema-verite or avant-garde,” he once said. “One is involved in colossal fun.”

Shaun Terence Young was born in 1915, the son of an English police commissioner in the International Sector of Shanghai. He was educated in England, studying at Cambridge University. His love of cinema led him to get a summer job at BIP Studios and he later came to the fore as a screenwriter with melodrama Dangerous Moonlight (1941) starring Anton Walbrook and Sally Gray.

His film career was interrupted by World War II, serving with the renowned Guards Armoured Tank Division. Following the end of the war, he returned to screenwriting and became an assistant to such legendary filmmakers as Jacques Feyder, Alexander Korda, Josef Von Sternberg and King Vidor.

Young made his own directorial debut with One Night With You (1948). His next film, Corridor Of Mirrors (1948), starred Lois Maxwell, who went on to play Miss Moneypenny in the Bond series, and won the Best Film Of The Year Award in France. The Red Beret (1953) proved to be significant, becoming his first collaboration with Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli and screenwriter Richard Maibaum.

With an established reputation as an action director. Young was the perfect choice to bring James Bond to the screen with Dr. No (1962). Many believed he embodied the same qualities as 007, particularly a knowledge and understanding of the finer things.

“Terence Young could have played James Bond,” said DR. NO editor Peter Hunt. “It was his style and his schooling of Sean that really made James Bond James Bond.”

Young encouraged Connery to wear Saville Row suits at night even insisting the actor sleep in a suit and tie so he would wear it with ease and nonchalance. Young also guided Connery through the fine wines and menus in expensive restaurants.

With Dr. No a huge success, Young directed the next Bond film From Russia With Love (1963), which he believed was “the best of the Bond pictures. Not because I directed it, although I think it’s well directed, but because it was the best subject for a Bond film.” Developing the character further while maintaining the style and tempo of Dr. No, Young’s work found favour with fans and collaborators alike.

“Terence Young was a phenomenal character,” observed special effects supervisor John Stears. “He would just absolutely get into your mind what he was thinking. You’d do things for Terence without thinking — you’d just do it because you knew that was what had to be done.”

After taking a break for Goldfinger (1964), Young returned to 007 with Thunderball (1965), his final Bond adventure. Young continued to work consistently over the years directing Wait Until Dark (1967), Mayerling (1968), Red Sun (1971), The Valachi Papers (1972), Bloodline (1979), Inchon (1981), The Jigsaw Man (1983) and Run For Your Life (1988). In 1994, while preparing a movie in Europe, he fell ill and died of a heart attack in hospital at Cannes, France.

Focus Of The Week: Quantum Of Solace Boat Chase

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The Quantum Of Solace boat chase was shot at the harbour area in Colón, Panama standing in for Kings Quay, Haiti over a four-week period starting 25 February 2008.

Simon Crane was Second-Unit director for the sequence in Panama. For the first part of the shoot, Crane worked with stunt performers — Wade Eastwood, Lee Morrison and Ben Cooke doubling for Bond, Nikki Berwick and Teresa Arteaga doubling for Camille.

“This was a complex shoot,” recalled Crane. “It was like a car chase but on water but there were so many variables.”

Crane utilised the Ultimate Arm, a gyro-stabilised remote-controlled camera crane that facilitated incredible close up footage of the chase. This became invaluable to realise director Marc Forster’s desire to make the action look as believable as possible.

“The entire boat sequence was all shot for real,” recalled Forster. “There was no green screen work. When I was working with Daniel and Olga, I had to make sure they were secure with the stunt work, and at the same time we got what we needed action-wise.”

Forster and the principal cast arrived on March 19 for three days of filming. Daniel Craig recalled the logistical challenges of shooting the sequence in a busy working harbour.

“We cornered off an area of the marina and out into the ocean,” he said. “There were huge container ships going through and we were dancing around them while we were filming.”

For Olga Kurylenko playing Camille, there was a sharp contrast between rehearsing the scene and shooting the stunts for real.

“We were going really fast,” she said. “I thought they would fake the speed but they didn’t. When I practiced, I was attached and had a helmet, and lots of protection. I didn’t have any of that while filming. Suddenly I had to keep my stability while fighting and acting.”