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

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.

I’m not one to rush the Summer away, as it is my favorite season after all, but the enticement of new Sam Mendes James Bond is just too strong.

Here’s the new trailer for SPECTRE, which emerged this morning, and reveals just how personal an antagonist he’s facing (and who may or may not be the new version of Blofeld?):

A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as SPECTRE.

Meanwhile back in London, Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), the new head of the Centre for National Security, questions Bond’s actions and challenges the relevance of MI6, led by M (Ralph Fiennes). Bond covertly enlists Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) to help him seek out Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who may hold the clue to untangling the web of SPECTRE. As the daughter of an assassin, she understands Bond in a way most others cannot.

As Bond ventures towards the heart of SPECTRE, he learns of a chilling connection between himself and the enemy he seeks, played by Christoph Waltz.

SPECTRE hits theaters on November 6th.

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.

We’re creeping ever so closer to the end of the week, here’s your round-up of entertainment headlines for this morning!

– While on the press tour for his new film, Chappie; Neill Blomkamp has, to no one’s surprise, been receiving a number of questions about his recently announced Alien sequel. Having Sigourney Weaver on-hand as a part of the Chappie cast likely provided additional temptation in that regard. SkyMovies (via Collider) got some pretty great details out of him in a recent interview, where he discussed the continuity of the new film:

I want this film to feel like it is literally the genetic sibling of Aliens, so it’s Alien, Aliens and then this film.

From the sounds of things, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection are being wiped from continuity, which I have mixed feelings about if that is indeed how things play out. It didn’t quite work for Superman Returns, and I’d be worried that it might lead to confusion here.

Blomkamp continued:

It’s a Freudian nightmare. That element to me is what is so appealing; to put the audience on the edge of their seat the whole time in a traditional, monster-stalking-you, dark-corridor-way. I love that. And then when you mix in all of the deign elements and the life cycle of the alien, it’s a powder keg of creativity for me.

Weaver also chimed in, basically confirming her involvement and the return of Ripley:

I would love to take Ripley out of sort of orbiting around in space and give a proper finish to what was such an excellent story. So when someone like Neill Blomkamp said, ‘Well, I’m interested in finishing the story,’ my little ears perked up… I think it’s a great series. It deserves a proper ending—I know the fans would love that.

– Empire has some new photos of Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell from Fantastic Four:

CBM has also pulled together the interview that features in that issue with director Josh Trank.

– Empire also brings us new Spectre images featuring Dave Bautista as henchman Mr. Hinx:

Bautista had this to say about taking on the role:

When I came over to meet Sam [Mendes], I only asked two questions. I asked him if Mr. Hinx was a badass. He said, ‘Yes, he’s a badass.’ I said, ‘Well, is Mr. Hinx intelligent?’ He said, ‘Very.’ That’s what I like about Mr. Hinx. He’s very well-dressed and very well-mannered. I’m not just here to fight people. He has a sense of humour. He definitely knows what a metaphor is.

Lea Seydoux also spoke to her new character, Dr. Madeleine Swann, seen below:

I don’t consider myself a Bond girl. I think I’m not really the stereotyped Bond girl. I feel quite different. You can’t be like, ‘Oh, James.’ You have to find something else. She’s not a fighter, she’s a doctor. She fights in another way.

The production team has also released another video featuring Sam Mendes elaborating on why he returned for another Bond film:

– Lastly, Steven Markus and Christopher McFeely spoke with Entertainment Weekly (spoilers at the link) about Agent Carter‘s finale, indicating that if a Season 2 were to happen they’d like to focus on Peggy’s background further:

MARKUS: When we were figuring out the show and the backstory of the show, we had a really nice story about who Peggy is and where she came from. We just didn’t have any time. I would love to tell that story.

MCFEELY: That’s one of our strongest ideas for the second season: What makes Peggy, Peggy? We like what Peggy is, but if you ask some hard questions, you might wonder: but why is she that way? We have some thoughts on that.

Sadly, the future of the series is in doubt given its ratings struggle. This week’s finale only pulled a 1.3 in the 18-49 demo, which on ABC is not a good sign.

Today, 5 October, we celebrate James Bond Day, and this year has been a great one for 007. In January, both song and score for Skyfall won Grammys, and 18 September marked the 50th anniversary of the general release of the film Goldfinger in UK cinemas. Shirley Bassey’s extraordinary rendition of the title song played a key role in its success. In these extracts from The Music of James Bond, Jon Burlingame recounts the stories behind some of the great title songs.

Goldfinger

More significantly, the public seemed to be paying equal attention to Goldfinger’s bold, brassy Barry score. “The musical soundtrack is slickly furnished by John Barry, who also composed the title song,” noted Variety’s film critic; its music critic later praised the album as “the strongest Bond film score to date.” In the United Kingdom, the soundtrack album made the charts on October 31 and reached number 14. But in America, it appeared on December 12 and rocketed up the charts, reaching number 1 on March 20, 1965. It edged out the Mary Poppins soundtrack (which in turn had displaced Beatles ’65 at the top) and remained the most popular album in America for three weeks.

Goldfinger would be the only Bond soundtrack album to reach the top of the charts. Barry was nominated for a Grammy Award, and although there was no Oscar attention—for Barry, that would come later, and not for James Bond—there was the satisfaction of worldwide commercial success. United Artists Records released Barry’s driving rock instrumental of Goldfinger (with Flick on guitar) and, a few months later, an LP titled John Barry Plays Goldfinger (acompilation of his arrangements from the first three Bond films plus a handful of easy-listening tunes).

Thunderball

The whole song was written over a mid-September weekend. And Welshborn singer Tom Jones, an old friend of Black’s who had already had two top-10 hits earlier that year (“It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat?”), quickly agreed to sing it. Black liked his “steely, manly voice.” Britain’s New Musical Express announced Jones’s signing on September 24, and they went into the studio on October 11 to lay down the track.

“I was thrilled to bits when they asked me to do Thunderball,” Jones remembered many years later. “There was a connection, because Les Reed, who wrote a lot of my big songs, was John Barry’s pianist. The most memorable thing about the session was hitting that note at the end. John told me to hold on to this very high note for as long as possible.” Jones’s now-legendary final note lasts nine full seconds, and in the isolated vocal recording he can be heard running out of breath, although that last part is buried in the final mix with the orchestra. “I closed my eyes, hit the note and held on,” Jones said on another occasion. “When I opened my eyes the room was spinning. I had to grab hold of the booth I was in to steady myself. If I hadn’t, I would not have passed out, but maybe fallen down. But it paid off, because it is a long note and it’s high.”

Diamonds Are Forever

Eighteen years earlier, Marilyn Monroe had sung “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” to iconic status in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Black’s words would make a Bond song equally famous. “Diamonds Are Forever” is more about fleeting relationships and less about the permanence of those shiny jewels that are often the remnant of a love affair—although one phrase in particular would result in the song becoming slightly infamous, and possibly costing it an Academy Award nomination.

It’s in the second verse: “hold one up and then caress it / touch it, stroke it and undress it.” “Seediness was what we wanted,” Black would later explain. “Sleaziness, theatrical vulgarity. It had to be over the top.” Or, as Barry himself would reveal in numerous interviews 20 years later, that particular verse was more about male genitalia than about precious stones: “Write it as though she’s thinking about a penis,” had been Barry’s advice to Black.

Moonraker

Williams met with Sinatra and his longtime aide “Sarge” Weiss at Sinatra’s office on the old General Services lot in Hollywood. “The amazing thing is, there was nothing there to play the demo on,” Williams recalled. “Sarge finally came up with a rusty old portable radio with a cassette player, mono, salty from the beach. And that’s what Frank heard the song on. And he loved it. ‘Marvelous, Mr. Paulie, marvelous.’ This from Music Royalty to me, and I was thrilled,” Williams said.

Sinatra opened a briefcase, which contained his datebook (and a .38, Williams noted), and they discussed possible dates for recording. “I left his office walking on air. We were all delighted. Then Frank was out. I don’t know what happened but, I was told at the time, Cubby and Frank had a big fight and he was history.”

No one remembers for certain why Sinatra ultimately declined to sing “Moonraker.” It may be that he had second thoughts, or that his ambitious Trilogy album was already in preparation and he preferred to concentrate on that. The story of a falling-out between Sinatra and Broccoli may be apocryphal, because Frank and Barbara Sinatra were all smiles at the New York premiere of Moonraker on June 28.

Skyfall

The final honors to come their way were the Grammy Awards, nearly a year later because of the later eligibility period of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Both song and score were nominated and, on January 26, 2014, both won. Newman was present to accept his award. Skyfall had been a worldwide sensation: it became the highest-grossing film ever in Great Britain, taking in over £94 million in just six weeks. It eventually earned more than $304 million in the U.S. to rank as the fourth highest-grossing film of 2012. Its final worldwide box-office tally of $1.1 billion propelled it to the no. 8 spot among all-time box-office leaders.

Its title song had become the first Bond music ever to win an Academy Award, its score only the second ever nominated. By the end of 2013, the Adele single had gone platinum, selling over 2 million units, while Newman’s score album had sold over 30,000. Sam Mendes was signed to direct the next Bond film, set for release in October 2015. Bond, and Bond music, was bigger than ever.

Image credit: Golden Girl © Eon Productions, 1964

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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.

Today is a momentous day for us here at Penguin Towers - today we announce to the world that BOND IS BACK.

It's been a closely guarded secret here for a little while, but thankfully the time has come that we can reveal to all that in May 2008, Penguin UK will be publishing the next literary instalment in the glorious tradition of Ian Fleming's most famous double 0 agent.

And so, we bring you DEVIL MAY CARE - the new James Bond novel. Most excitingly of all - I can tell you now that the author of this next instalment is one of the true greats of British writing ... Sebastian Faulks...

Famed for his "French Trilogy" (The Girl at the Lion D'Or, Birdsong, and Charlotte Gray), and more recently for Human Traces and Engleby - Sebastian has for the last twenty years reached out to readers with his masterful prose, his meticulous eye for detail and setting, and his exceptional ability to make his characters transcend the limits of the page. And now he is applying his style and skill to writing the next chapter in the life of our favourite spy - Bond, James Bond.

Picking up exactly where Fleming left off, DEVIL MAY CARE is set during the height of the Cold War, the action played out in exotic locations across the world - and it seems Sebastian very much enjoyed getting into the swing of things:

“In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkelling.”

I can't reveal too much about the book at this stage - you'll have to wait until next May I'm afraid - but believe me - it really will be worth it. DEVIL MAY CARE has everything one could possibly ask from a James Bond novel, everything one could possibly ask from Sebastian Faulks' writing, and most of all, it's a bloody good thriller. I promise you all - you're in for a real treat.

For more information - please visit www.Penguin007.com

Alex Clarke - Senior Editor

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Just little change of pace here. I've been getting more magazine work than ever before this year, and right now am working on a four page piece for the new Highlights magazine, High Five. I can't share any of the sketches/illustrations until the magazine comes out this November (the month of my birthday, a very nice present indeed!). Anyways, I love to watch movies while I work. Even if the movie has nothing to do with the subject I'm working on, it still inspires me. I guess the beauty of cinematography makes me view my books from a more cinematic point of view. Sometimes when I'm thinking of a scene I have to illustrate, I'll actually take an imaginary camera in my mind and move it around at all angles to find the best one. An illustrator can learn a lot about composition and timing from a quality film.

Anyways, one movie that I just can't seem to stop watching is "Casino Royale". The lead actor, Daniel Craig is absolutely brilliant and just perfect for the part. I'm glad too, because there were some mindless fools bashing the poor fella when it was revealed that he would be the new Bond. Well, I guess he showed them, and then some! I can't get enough of the soundtrack tune "You Know My Name" either. It's written and performed by Chris Cornell from Soundgarden:

Well folks, it's Double or Die.

At 11am yesterday Charlie Higson ripped open a heavily embargoed box of Young Bond books to reveal the title of the latest instalment. I was somewhere towards the back of a mob of several hundred eager fans and parents at Waterstone's Piccadilly shameless gnawing my fingernails in nervous anticipation of the morning's proceedings. You see, I only got back to work the day before, and so I had to scramble to make sure all was in order and set-up for the massively anticipated launch. Barring a few small kinks — I barely got a TV monitor working in time to display the cool secret cameras that were shown off by our guest partner Spy Shop Ltd and our MC had trouble saying Charlie's name correctly just about every time he had to say it (why I don't know) — the launch went off incredibly well. We are all pleased! Videos of the event can be found at Youngbond.com and Youngbonddossier.com and I threw together some of our digital picks on flickr here.

From what I gather, the books are flying off the shelves. Stores are already selling out of the limited edition wrapped series, so I would recommend you go out and grab one fast. These will be collectors' items down the road certainly. In fact on a December 06 episode of Antiques Road Show, Ian's secretary had a complete set of Ian Fleming James Bond First Editions worth somewhere around £20,000 each. At last glance, a signed copy from the event is already going for £35 on Ebay.

Justin Renard, Puffin Marketing Officer