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After a big hit like Skyfall, how does 007's next adventure fare?

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The durable Bond is back once more in Spectre. Little has changed and there has even been reversion. M has back-morphed into a man, Judi Dench giving way to Ralph Fiennes. 007 still works miracles, and not the least of these is financial – Pinewood Studios hope for another blockbuster movie. Hollywood roll over and die.

The post Spectre and Bond do the damage appeared first on OUPblog.

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Now’s the moment to be a fan of the Bond songs. SPECTRE, the new film, comes out this November. That means we’ll hear an official unofficial leak of the title song sometime this summer. Everybody’s been guessing who the singer is. Twitter says it'll be Sam Smith or Lana Del Rey. Sam Smith says it isn’t him and claims that he “heard Ellie Goulding was going to do it.” The Telegraph wants to know why no one has considered Mumford and Sons (don’t answer that). Even Vegas is paying attention. Who would you put your money on?

The post Who will be singing the next Bond song? Who should be? appeared first on OUPblog.

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Even though filming seemingly just began about a month and a half ago, MGM and Sony have started to rev up the marketing machine for Spectre full blast.

Here’s the first teaser which gives us just enough to get rather excited about, including the debut of Christoph Waltz‘s shadowy villain(?), who is maybe Blofeld?

One thing that’s clear, much like Quantum of Solace was for Casino Royale, with Spectre we’ll be getting another direct sequel, this time to the billion dollar grossing Skyfall. I’m holding out hope that it lives up to its predecessor’s legacy (unlike QoS).

Spectre arrives on November 6th, here’s the official synopsis:

A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

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It’s new comic book day, the best day of the week! Before I rush off to my LCS, let’s round-up the few relevant entertainment headlines that are out and about:

– Last night’s episode of The Flash was pretty excellent, with easily the best final 10 minutes that I’ve seen in a superhero television adaptation. Some of the key players of the latest installment spoke with the press yesterday about the ramifications of Barry’s actions and what’s to come:

SPOILERS!!!!!! Look away now if you’re behind on your viewing….

What happens when you interrupt the space/time continuum on The Flash?

ANDREW KREISBERG: Like Wells has said in a previous episode, there are different versions of time travel. There’s the fixed loop, and then there’s the version where time is more plastic and mutable. One of the fun things is discovering what’s a fixed point in time, what can’t be changed and what things always have to happen, and then what things are changeable and are mutable. It’s a mixture of both. Obviously, none of us knows how time travel really works, but we’ve come up with our rules and we try to stick by them. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but a lot of what we’re doing now is stuff we set up in the pilot. You can go back and watch the pilot and go, “Oh, I get it! That’s why that stream of things is happening!

Will Barry still have to stop Mark Mardon (Liam McIntyre) again?

KREISBERG: The ramifications of this episode are the fun of Episode 16, and seeing how much of what happened in Episode 15 still happens and how much of it might possibly change.

Cisco is a very smart guy. Will he still be suspicious of Dr. Wells, even though they’ve gone back in time?

KREISBERG: Part of the fun of Episode 16 is watching that when time changes, certain events will occur that prevent Cisco from following along the same trajectory. You’ll see how things play out, but in a completely different way.

Now we know that Harrison really is Eobard Thawne. How will that tie into Eddie Thawne, and what will their connection be?

KREISBERG: You can take him at his word that there obviously is a family connection between the two of them. There are some great scenes coming up, between Tom and Rick [Cosnett], that starts to become a storyline. It’s cool stuff. We’re not trying to purposely trick the comic book fans. Being one myself, you can get upset when it’s not quite the way it was in the book. But, the show has to live on its own and it has to be for everybody. It can’t just be an adaptation of comic books that people have already read and know so well. Obviously, we’ve thought of this, from the very beginning, and it’s been leading up to this.

And then there’s the kicker:

Is there a parallel universe now, where there is no Flash?

KREISBERG: Is there?

TOM CAVANAGH: Is there? Answer a question with a question.

I’m still predicting that the season ends with Barry saving his mom and the time ramifications of that taking shape in some way to set up Season 2 (someone else is The Flash perhaps? Wally? Jay?). Make sure you check out the link above for more quotes including further details from Tom Cavanagh about Dr. Wells’ latest revelation and Candice Patton on the future of Barry and Iris.

– Latino Review has a new report this morning with the rumored front-runner to direct Star Wars Episode IX, J.J. Abrams. The Star Wars: The Force Awakens director would make some level of sense given that Episode VIII director Rian Johnson is reportedly scripting Episode IX, and were Abrams to helm it, it would be a sort of “synthesis” of their two visions for the franchise.

– Here’s the first SPECTRE poster, looking as non-descript as possible, but if any of you are like my significant other, any picture of Daniel Craig is a good picture:

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Wasn’t Skyfall just the best?

I know there are a few people that disliked the walk back into Bond’s past from the slightly grittier first two Daniel Craig offerings, but beyond that, its hard to deny the technical marvel that was Sam Mendes‘ first foray into the adventures of 007.

With the sequel, Spectre, just around the corner, the production team has released a fun little Behind the Scenes vignette to whet your appetite a bit:

Here’s the official synopsis for the film, which releases on November 6th and stars Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Lea Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Dave Bautista, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Scott, Naomie Harris, and Rory Kinnear:

A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

 

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Newly released Cowboys & Aliens may not be an Oscar contender, but it’s darn good fun and worth the price of a movie ticket … which, in the current movie climate, is saying something. Simple plot line:  “A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys are all that stand in their way.”

Sounds like the cowboys might get their asses handed to them, you know? But as a friend of mine pointed out, “If James Bond and Indiana Jones can’t save the world, who can?”

I grew up watching Harrison Ford (and not because my friends thought my dad resembled the guy). I watched all the Indiana Jones movies, and embarrassingly, they may be the reason I minored in classical civilizations in college. I was among the many viewers who were thoroughly disturbed by the movie What Lies Beneath, when <spoiler spoiler SPOILER> Harrison Ford turned out to be a bad guy. That said he’s not exactly a good guy in Cowboys & Aliens—at least not at the beginning.

At the beginning, we zoom in on Daniel Craig in the middle of what resembles Sedona, covered in dirt and blood. (The film was actually shot in New Mexico, by the way.) He doesn’t remember who he is, where he came from, or why he’s wearing a wacky metal bracelet. Despite his lack of memory, he sure can kick some cowboy butt, and I’ve been proven wrong: Daniel Craig (most famous as James Bond) should not always wear tuxedos—he should always wear leather chaps and cowboy hats.

From there, the stranger waltzes into town and causes a raucous, until alien spaceships show up and he uses his mysterious bracelet to blow ‘em away. So begins the battle of cowboys versus aliens.

Jon Favreau is the director. He did Iron Man. (Robert Downey Jr. was the original choice for Daniel Craig’s character, in fact.) So expect lots of fast-paced action scenes, explosions, and comic quips amidst the bloodshed—alien and human alike.

The aliens themselves are reminiscent of the aliens in … well, Alien. They’re really cool and gross; you’re gonna love them. There are good creep-out moments that had me jumping and enough shallow character development to keep you rooting for the good guys.

Harrison Ford is his charismatic, comic self. The man’s still got it, despite being sixty-nine years old. Daniel Craig is hotter than the desert heat, as is Olivia Wilde, for you Y-chromosomes out there. There are plenty of other interesting cameos. No name stars, but people who’ll make you say, “I know that guy.” And you’ll like him, because there’s plenty to like about this movie.

As I mentioned, it’s not going to win any Oscars (except maybe for special effects), but it’s good, clean, action-

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An apparently pirated copy of the trailer for David Fincher‘s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has materialized on YouTube. Above, we’ve embedded the shaky video.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the trailer features Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” in the background. We also see glimpses of Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.

The trailer calls it “the feel bad movie of Christmas”–what do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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The first trailer for Steven Spielberg‘s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn has been released. Above, we’ve embedded the trailer.

What do you think about this first peek at the footage? The adaptation of Herge’s beloved Tintin series hits theaters December 23rd.

Here’s more about the film: “Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures Present a 3D Motion Capture Film ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish. Starring Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliot,” “Defiance”) as Tintin, the intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure, and Daniel Craig (“Quantum of Solace,” “Defiance”) as the nefarious Red Rackham.” (Via i09)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Some colleagues and I were lucky enough to be invited to an advance screening of the new film starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schrieber, and Jamie Bell, Defiance. In 1942 a small group of Jewish resistance fighters established a community deep in the forests of western Belorussia, offering protection to all Jewish fugitives who could find their way to them. Within two years they numbered more than 1200 - it was the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in perhaps any war in history.

Their leader, the charismatic Tuvia Bielski (played by Daniel Craig) told his story to author Nechama Tec two weeks before he died in 1987, and she went on to write the book (published by OUP) on which the new film is based: Defiance - The True Story of the Bielski Partisans.

The film itself didn’t disappoint. As well as all the action you would expect from a war movie, there was also the human story of the hundreds of fugitives that were rescued, as well as the story of the Bielski brothers themselves. I’m not ashamed to admit that I shed a few tears in that cinema! Below is an extract from the book.

Tuvia was not interested in military glory. To live, to keep his people alive, to bring more Jews into the otriad, these were his goals. He would avoid talking to the non-Jewish partisans about his main preoccupation: the saving of lives. To them he presented himself as a guerrilla fighter and continually repeated that he had come to the forest to wage war against the enemies of the Soviet Union, the Germans. And when Panchenko suggested that they cooperate in anti-Nazi moves he readily agreed.

Their joint military ventures began in the last quarter of 1942 and continued into the second half of 1943. Although such anti-German moves were initiated by Panchenko, the two otriads each carried the same burden. Publicly Tuvia continued to emphasize his personal commitment to anti-German activities. In reality he and his group were under pressure to participate. A refusal could have endangered the very existence of the Bielski otriad. Russian partisans would not have tolerated an unwillingness to fight, especially not from Jews whom they suspected of cowardice. At this early stage, all forest dwellers were united in their hatred toward the Germans and their collaborators. These feelings of hostility were supported by equally strong ideas that it was important to fight their common enemy, the Germans.

Russian partisans were very belligerent when they talked about their enemy—killing Germans was equated with patriotism. Hero worship was common. How much of a hero a person was depended on how daring and life-threatening the person’s opposition was to the Nazis. But this high value placed on fighting the enemy did not correspond to actual combat; their belligerence was merely verbal. Inevitably, however, these favorable ideas about guerrilla fighting came with a devaluation of those who could not wage war. Nonfighters were subjected to ridicule and contempt. The disheveled and hungry ghetto runaways in particular were sometimes greeted by Russian partisans with a sneering, “Why did you work for the Germans instead of fighting?”

The forest was pervaded with ideas that fighting and causing damage to the Germans and their collaborators was good. Even young ghetto runaways after they were accepted into a Russian otriad would soon become strong advocates of the “wage a war ethic.” In their case, as with others, the admiration of anti-German fighters came with a disapproval of non-fighters.

One of these young Jewish partisans admits, “I looked at the Bielski otriad with its one thousand Jews, most of whom could not fight, and thought: ‘So what? But they do not fight!’ I believed that they should have fought the Germans. As a Russian partisan I felt self-important.” The idea that waging war against the Germans was more important than saving lives was implicitly accepted by many others. And while the degree of such acceptance varied, to some extent it was always there. Indirectly, support for this ideology sometimes had tragic consequences. The actions of known Jewish partisan fighters reflect this attitude. Dr. Icheskel Atlas, Alter Dworecki, and Hirsz Kaplinski each distinguished himself as an outstanding partisan leader. Each courageously battled the enemy. By the end of December 1942, they had all been killed in action.

During their short careers as partisan leaders, the three operated in and around the huge Lipiczańska forest. With its jungle-like growths, islands of swampy terrain, and irregular, poorly built country roads, this forest promised safety to many of the persecuted. Lipiczańska forest became home for both Jewish and Russian partisans. It also became a haven for ghetto runaways, many of whom were older people, women, and children. Small family clusters or units of unattached fugitives were scattered all over this forest. Disorganized and unprotected, these groups lived in primitive bunkers. Some would beg for food from surrounding farms; the few who had guns would get their provisions by using force. Still, the very few who brought some money or valuables with them would exchange these for food. Unaccustomed to life in the forest, many fugitives were attacked by unruly partisan bands and robbed of their meager belongings, and some were murdered in the process. Without the support of a large group like the Bielski otriad many died from cold, starvation, and epidemics.

Defiance will be in UK cinemas from January 9th and will be in US cinemas from January 16th.

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I'm absolutely giddy about the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. A perfectly timed release as well since it's coming out one day after my birthday. I've watched Casino Royal more times than I can count - hope this new installment is just as good.

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