CONFESSIONS OF A BONDAHOLIC

15 years ago today I formally became a James Bond fan. So, am I supposed to repeat telling the same story every five or ten years? The answer is probably yes; this is the price you got to pay for all the exclusive stuff I’ve been uploading. No hard feelings, I hope.

Yet, this time I won’t tell you the same story again. You know I became a Bond fan after watching GOLDENEYE on TV when I was seven years old. Oh God! Said it again!

In the Argentinean 2010 Oscar winning film EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS (THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES), Guillermo Francella’s character claims “men can change their face, family, girlfriend or God, but not of passion”.  And what I certainly feel is that Bond is my passion. I say Bond is not my life, but a big companion of my life, because it has indeed joined in the most alluring and disgraceful moments in my life: when I was having a hard day on my graduation trip, THUNDERBALL was on TV; when I had a bad week at the office, I won a YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE signed poster; and well, I gave my first kiss by saying repeating the “shared bodily warmth” line Roger Moore and Barbara Bach speak in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. And, of course, the unforgettable moments where daddy rented the Nintendo 64 and the GOLDENEYE 007 game after school.

Original artwork by artist Patricio Carbajal
shortly before my 10th Bond anniversary in 2008

As I write these words, SKYFALL is nominated for five Oscars, has reached more than a billion dollars worldwide and is the eight most successful motion picture in cinema history. My collection is quite big, but of course, not at the scale as my virtual friends. Still, either you can buy the latest Bond on Set book or the Bond 50 BluRay boxset, I feel Bondmanship is not about collecting, it’s about enjoying. It’s about the first time you watch a film on TV or theatre with your friends, girlfriend or alone after waiting for its release for a long period. It’s about waiting hours and hours with your back almost broken to intercept Simon Lebon and get an autograph of the Duran Duran vocalist on your A VIEW TO A KILL soundtrack cover, or about dressing up in a tux for the CASINO ROYALE premiere. These are priceless moments, as was that very first moment where I spotted the image of Pierce Brosnan with his PPK around Santa Fe Avenue back in December ’97. Putting your credit card number on eBay is no match for all of this!

Not sure if I could accomplish the 2.45pm exact schedule of 1998, but during the day I’ll try giving GOLDENEYE a watch… VHS? Special Edition DVD? Ultimate Edition DVD? BluRay? What should I try? Widescreen or Pan & Scan? No matter the format, I cannot reprise watching it with the first time feeling – and that’s, perhaps, what makes reliving that moment even more magic!

Nicolás Suszczyk,

Editor,

THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER

Patricio Carbajal's artwork can be seen and purchased via his site (patart-pat.blogspot.com). Alan J Porter's upcoming book, The James Bond Lexicon, will contain special commisioned skecthes by the artist.

THE LOST ART OF INTERROGATION - Daniel Kleinman Interview

What was the first James Bond film were Daniel Kleinman worked in? If you answered GOLDENEYE, you're wrong! It was LICENCE TO KILL. Actually, he didn't worked in the film per se, but in the music video for Gladys Knight's song for Timothy Dalton's swan song as 007 in 1989.

Graduated from Hornsey Art School, Kleinman worked as an illustrator and collaborated on storyboards for the music video industry, which led to design many videos since 1983 for icons like Prince and Madonna. He also created commercials during the '90s with complex special effects for Sony, Johnny Walker and Guinness, to name a few brands, and directed some TV drama and comedies like BAFTA winner SMASHIE AND NICEY - THE END OF AN ERA. Nowadays, Daniel works in Rattling Stick staff, a company of commercial directors he co-founded.

Daniel Kleinman, main title designer for
six James Bond films since 1995

After Maurice Binder's death in 1991, he was known the man responsible for transporting the classic James Bond visual iconography into the 21st century: he redesigned the gunbarrel sequence for GOLDENEYE, giving it a slightly digital touch, and created the main title sequences for all the Pierce Bronsan and Daniel Craig adventures except for QUANTUM OF SOLACE, where MK12 did a not so memorable job. From the fall of the Soviet Union to the cybernetic ladies and the black gold. From Bond's torture in the North Korean cell to the flying poker cards and shadows stalking our hero in an underwater limbo, we practice the "Lost Art of Interrogarion" with Daniel Kleinman, discussing GOLDENEYE, SKYFALL, design and Maurice Binder trough the other side of cyberspace.

First of all, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed for the site, Daniel. How did you get to work in the GOLDENEYE main title sequence? Was it related to your work in Gladys Knight's "Licence to kill" music video?

I believe it was, there had been a 7 year hiatus between Bond films and sadly Maurice Binder died during that period. I was asked to take his place probably because people had liked my video for Gladys Knight "Licence to Kill", I'd meant it in part to be a "homage" to the title sequences, which I had always admired.

The main titles of GOLDENEYE reflected the
end of Communism in a rather suggestive way

Let's talk about GOLDENEYE a little. How did you concieve the idea of the Cold War political context of it? It was absolutely your idea or the writers gave you a hand?

I was given the script to read, there was nothing written in there for the titles, but the fact that the pre title sequence was at an earlier time to the post title film gave me the idea to make the titles be about time passing and also to illustrate the great political upheaval that had occurred during the period in question. The fall of the Soviet State and Communism was also very pertinent to the plot of the film so it all fit. I liked the idea of making the titles help the narrative of the film and I love classic Soviet art, it's very graphic.

Have you heard some of the left-winged parties in India protested against it? What do you think of that? I mean, nobody usually makes so much noise about a main title sequence, even when the Bond ones are very memorable.

I didn't know about that, I believe the film didn't get a release in some Communist countries, I think it was due to the titles and Michael Wilson joked with me about it, although I don't think the producers were very happy that they'd lost a territory. I suppose that the events in Soviet Russia and the shift away from Communist ideology was still fairly recent at the time of the film's release, I certainly didn't think I was making any moral judgements just illustrating in a playful way factual events. Statues really were torn down, as is seen later in the movie, and although it wasn't literally girls in lingerie who caused icons to fall and the Soviet State to break up, in an analogous way perhaps it was, the Soviet people wanted what the west had, goods and glamour, remember not that long time before then people had been smuggling in Levi's. 

Have you met somebody of the cast of GOLDENEYE? Or you just worked with the crew and your team of artists?

I worked with my own crew and chose the team to create the titles. To a certain extent the titles are an autonomous unit, the rest of the main film unit is usually still working and very busy.

The classic gunbarrel was CGI rendered for Pierce Brosnan's debut
in GOLDENEYE. The animation was until DIE ANOTHER DAY,
where a digital bullet was added.

Who was your mentor in animation designing? Was Maurice Binder an influence for you in Bond and beyond?

I went to art school, I didn't really have a mentor as such, I admired many designers Maurice Binder among them, of course Saul Bass and Robert Brownjohn are also great in terms of title sequences. I didn't really set out to make titles and I have only ever worked on James Bond titles as I'm a fan, my influences are really more painting, illustration and film than title sequences per se. 

Your only absence in Bond since 1995 was for QUANTUM OF SOLACE. You were unable to do it or they didn't hire you? And what do you think of MK12's work there?

The director of that film (Marc Forster) wanted his own team MK12 so I was left behind on that one. I thought they did a great job, I like the ideas and images and there is certainly a different vibe to it compared to my work, which is a good thing. There are many difficulties, practical and intellectual, when creating such a sequence and I felt they pulled it off well.

Now, if you had to rate all your Bond main title sequences from GOLDENEYE to SKYFALL, which was was the most difficult to create and what was the one you enjoyed the most doing?

Each sequence has had it's own difficulties and challenges, much of this is due to the changing nature of the technology, digital editing and post production. For GOLDENEYE the sequence was edited in an analogue edit suite first, then copied by eye on a high resolution digital film compositing machine which at that time was very, very slow and a cumbersome way of creating optical effects. The good thing about that method was that I had a lot of control and was able to get the sequence just how I wanted quite easily in the relatively flexible analogue suite but at far too low a resolution to be able to put it back to 35mm film. The bad side to it was that the sequence had to be created twice making the process long and expensive and very labour intensive. For the next few films I worked on I went straight to the digital machines to try and streamline the process but even then the time it took to process and render the pictures made the work very slow and frustrating, also it gave me very little room to change anything if I wasn't happy with it. Finally by the time I did CASINO ROYALE the technology had sort of caught up and I was able to work in a more spontaneous and flexible way so I think I started enjoying the process more. I certainly enjoyed the 'creative' part of GOLDENEYE, CASINO ROYALE and SKYFALL as I feel they were closest to what I had in my mind.

The acclaimed titles of 2012's SKYFALL, the latest
work of Kleinman in the Bond series.

What about your other projects, anything on the horizon yet?

I am always working on commercials, that is really my main job, I do the James Bond titles for fun.

From THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER we'd like to thank Miss Florence Roberson from Rattling Stick (www.rattlingstick.com) for making the arrangements for this interview, and of course we thank Daniel for sparing a little of his time for us to answer the questions and, of course, we wish him success in his projects and, oh yes, we hope he returns for Bond 24 and surprises us as he always did with his creative mind!

All stills copyright of EON Productions and Danjaq and used with illustrative purposes only.

OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS – Bringing back the Aston Martin DB5 for GOLDENEYE

Pierce Brosnan poses with the 
Aston Martin DB5

With Aston Martin celebrates its centenary this week, we’ll be looking back at the Bond machine resurrection as James Bond’s trademark car in GOLDENEYE.

 When Desmond Llewelyn’s Q introduced it to James Bond portrayed by Sean Connery in GOLDFINGER, released in 1964, the Aston Martin DB5 –number plate BMT 216A– was equipped with lots of gadgets including the famous ejector seat device that saves Bond’s life later in the film. It’d make a re-appearance in 1965’s THUNDERBALL, too, getting the status of “the Bond car”.

Reaching 0-60 in 8,1 seconds and with a top speed of 148.2mph (238.5 km/h), the Aston Martin DB5 was discarded by the Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton eras now known as Sean Connery’s 007 car, but in 1995, the engine key of the silver machine would belong to the fifth actor with a licence to kill…

Shooting the close-ups of Brosnan
driving the DB5

After the six year and a half hiatus of the series, Pierce Brosnan took over the role and, while Michael France’s early draft from 1994 saw Bond behind the wheel of the Aston Martin DB7, it was finally decided that Pierce Brosnan would take the GOLDFINGER machine (this time number plate BMT 214A) out of the dust with a heart-braking race against Xenia Onatopp’s Ferrari 355 GT trough the Monte Carlo Grande Corniche.

On February 1995, Ian Sharp’s second unit was ready to film the resurrection of the Bond mobile beating the Ferrari. It was also said that producers allowed Ferrari to play a part on the 17^th James Bond film under the condition it’d lost the race against Bond’s DB5.

Bond racing veteran Rémy Julienne supervised the scene, with his son Dominique doubling for Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp for the dangerous scenes.

"We were afraid of hurting it (the Aston) when driving it" –said Rémy Julienne– "The Ferrari is a race machine, it can be brutalized, but the Aston... we were always worried about".

Pierce Brosnan as 007 and Serena Gordon
as Caroline  in the Aston Martin DB5

The shooting was quite complicated when a day of snow in the mountains turned out to be a wasted opportunity to shoot: "Days like this makes you appreciate the security of filming inside Leavesden (studios) –producer Michael G Wilson recalled– I dare not think about the cost of one wasted day out here. Don't ask." Another troubled day occurred when the Aston Martin DB5 collided against the Ferrari, but thankfully, the Aston Martin service team was there to repair the time in a record time.

Xenia's Ferrari 355 takes the
advantage... for a while

Movie magic of course was there to make the DB5 survive against the Ferrari: spikes were attached to the tires to make it slide through the mountains, in a race where the Bond car was –unlike its last appearance 30 years before– absolutely unarmed, except for inoffensive gadgets like an Alpine 7817R car radio that works as a printer and communicating voice device, and a champagne cooler between the seats where Bond hides a Bollinger Grand Anné '88 champagne to show MI6 neurotic evaluator Caroline he has “no problem with a female authority”.

GOLDENEYE was not the end of the Aston Martin DB5. It would made a short appearance in Pierce Brosnan’s next Bond film TOMORROW NEVER DIES and would become a part of the Daniel Craig era for CASINO ROYALE (Nassau number plate 56526) and the Oscar nominated 50^th anniversary film SKYFALL, where the old BMT 216A number plate (as well as some old gadgets) returned.

Source:
THE MAKING OF GOLDENEYE by Garth Pearce (Boxtree, 1995)
James Bond, An Interactive Dossier CD-ROM (MicroInteractive, 1995)
“Rémy Julienne, Driven to Bond” from the GOLDENEYE Ultimate Edition DVD (2006)
“Aston Martin DB5” – Bond Lifestyle (http://goo.gl/sVxht)

All stills copyright Danjaq and United Artists Coorporation

Nicolás Suszczyk,
Editor
THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER

THE LOST ART OF INTERROGATION - John Altman Interview

Welcome to The Lost Art of Interrogation. Here, we will practice this "lost art" with some people involved in the world of GOLDENEYE. Interviews have been done by private e-mailing and might have had some slight editing to fit the structure of the site, but the opinion of the interviewed remains, of course, untouched with its actual words.

Our first interviewed really needs no introduction. He's a famous composer, as famous as James Bond is in a way, and he was also responsible for making Pierce Brosnan a big star after suggesting director John McKenzie to cast him in a leading role in 1987's THE FOURTH PROTOCOL. Born in London in 1949, John Altman has composed and produced music of many famous films like the critically acclaimed TITANIC, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. 

A Bond fan for decades, John finally had the chance to leap into the incredible world of 007 in 1995 when GOLDENEYE came out - he had to re-score what it is one of the best scenes in the whole franchise.

Altman has many friends between the Bond
alumni, including DR NO composer Monty Norman

How where first involved with GOLDENEYE? How did you get to re-score the tank chase sequence?

I came on board since I had done two movies previously with Eric, ATLANTIS and LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL as his orchestrator/conductor. When the producers and director indicated they were unhappy with the way Eric had scored the tank chase and Eric refused to rewrite, they approached me to rescore. I did this on condition that Eric gave his approval as it was he who had brought me into the movie in the first place.

How would you professionally rate him and his work in the film?

He (Eric) loved Ryuchi Sakamoto's work on SHELTERING SKY, which I had orchestrated and conducted, and hired me to replicate that role in his first ventures into orchestral writing. The producers hired him to write Eric Serra but decided they wanted a more traditional approach. I think he was ahead of his time but, as we have seen, nearly 20 years later Bond music still follows the traditional paths.

You know the tank chase scene is perhaps one of the best moments in GOLDENEYE, of not in the entire James Bond franchise. Do you think that is in a way related to the re-scoring of the music you did?

I would hope that what I wrote added to the excitement. I was scoring a couple of movies at the time as composer too so it was fun to jump in and do Bond! - I wish the original soundtrack version which has never been issued on CD would come out as it sounds amazing - it was all written and recorded in four days so it has a wonderful energy.

The famous GOLDENEYE tank chase scene
 was re-scored with an epic sound by Altman.

Let's talk about James Bond and his music. Have you grown up as a Bond fan and listening the John Barry scores? And what do you think of Thomas Newman and David Arnold in the modern Bond films with Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig?

I was a big Bond fan - curiously I was a very good friend of Terence Young who directed several Bonds, Monty Norman sings with my jazz group from time to time, and I've written songs with Don Black who was an early mentor of mine! I do love the Bond tradition and am honoured to be a part of it. I'm off now for lunch with David Arnold!

Now, let's finish talking about your future projects. Anything in the horizon right now?

I have just recorded a big band album which will come out this year. I'm heading to China to do some concerts with the band. I hope to have a couple of movies to score, a BBC show to do, and am still working on live shows and concerts. I produced one CD for the TITANIC 3D Anniversary Edition so I am also involved with that and its aftermath.

We thank John for being the first GOLDENEYE member answer our questions, and we wish him good luck in all his projects. Now, let's see who's the next one to visit us in the Lost Art of Interrogation sessions.

TRIVIA FACTS ABOUT THE WORLD OF GOLDENEYE - Part 3

After a one year and a half hiatus, we proceed with the "trivia facts about GOLDENEYE" article. We've seen some trivia of the 1995 film in part 1 and the 1997 Nintendo 64 videogame in part 2 back in 2011. Now, in part 3 we'll explore some trivia facts of another videogame, Electronic Arts' GOLDENEYE: ROUGE AGENT, released in 2004.

WARNING - SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD

• GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT was the first Bond videogame ever not starring James Bond. The player gets on the role of an unknown MI6 agent who loses his eye in a fight against Dr No, which causes him to carry on missions in a gratitous violent way and gets fired by MI6. He's then recruited to join Auric Goldfinger's war against Dr No, which rewards him with a bionic eye built by Francisco Scaramanga and gets christened as "GoldenEye" by Pussy Galore.

GoldenEye, a vengative agent dismissed from
MI6 who joins forces with Goldfinger

• Due to his short cameo in the game, Pierce Brosnan didn't provide his likeness or voice to James Bond. The character got the artificial look of 2001's AGENT UNDER FIRE and was voiced by Jason Carter, and is a victim of one of GoldenEye's "brutality attacks" during a virtual reality simulation of the Fort Knox mission inspired by the climax of the 1964 film GOLDFINGER.

Xenia Onatopp was voiced by
Jenya Lano.

• Despite the appaerance of various Bond characters in the film, only Judi Dench and Christopher Lee provided their voice to the roles of M and Scaramanga. Xenia Onatopp, Dr. No, Pussy Galore were voiced by Jenya Lano, Carlos Alazraqui and Jeannie Elias, respectively.

• Veteran Bond set designer Ken Adam worked on the game, re-designing his original film sets.

• As it later happened with Activision's GOLDENEYE 007 remakes, it was also rumoured that this game would be a second-generation version of Rare's 1997 game because of the title. Othe rrumors even implied that parts of the original game would be included as an easter egg on the game.

Natasha Bedingfield sings
"If You're Gonna Jump" for the end credits.

• Actress Jessica Biel, who starred in THE ILLUSIONIST oposite Edward Norton, was rumoured to provide the likeness and voice for Pussy Galore. It's still unknown why the idea hasn't prosperred.

• The game's multiplayer version includes Bond maps like Fort Knox, the Volcano Lair and Zorin's Blimp from GOLDFINGER, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and A VIEW TO A KILL. For unknown reasons, two maps were axed from the final game: St Cyril's monastery from FOR YOUR EYES ONLY and Piz Gloria from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. The latter would resurface from the single campaign and multiplayer modes for Activision's 007 LEGENDS.

• In the tradition of the Electronic Arts 007 games, it was expected that a talented singer would perform a song for the main titles for the game. Finally, the opening credits contained a remix by composer Paul Oakenfold (who remixed the James Bond Theme for the DIE ANOTHER DAY promotions in 2002). For the game end credits, we can hear "If You're Gonna Jump" by British singer Natasha Bedingfield, who would later provide the  voice and likeness for the character of Elizabeth Stark for the 2005 game FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. The song can be found on Bedingfield's album "Unwritten."

Source: MI6-hq.com and IMDB

GOLDENEYE: SOURCE - The True Ressurection for Rare's Game?

To be honest, I've never cared about GOLDENEYE: SOURCE. I've played some of COUNTER STRIKE or HALF LIFE in my early youth days, but this HALF LIFE 2 mod based on the Nintendo 64 1997 game never took my attention. It seemed so... unofficial.

It took about five years and possesing a decent computer to see what was this about. GOLDENEYE 007 developed by Rareware for the N64 console system was truly the bomb. It is, still, the best Bond videogame ever. Why? Well, just try to shoot down your friends in NIGHTFIRE - you'll get a "mission failed" disclaimer and that's it. Do it in GOLDENEYE 007, and you'll be able to play for fun (even when your mission is still failed). Oh, and make sure to test the power of Grenade and Rocket Launchers in any other Bond game. I'm quite sure you'll know what I mean.

Well, let's go back to the "source". 

What is, exactly, GOLDENEYE: SOURCE?

It is a "mod" for HALF LIFE 2, that means, is a modification of the original game that recreates some of the most beautiful single player and multiplayer levels like Runway, Cradle, Bunker, Control and Facility, and some creative designers also offer for free download classic Bond maps inspired in the Casino Royale from the 2006 film and Scaramanga's Fun House from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.

The characters have also been adapted to classic GOLDENEYE multiplayer characters like Bond, Mishkin, Ourumov, Trevelyan as well as some previous 007 film villains like Jaws, Baron Samedi, Oddjob and May Day, tough the likeness of Bond doesn't quite resemble Pierce Brosnan. And we also have, of course, remixes of the original Graeme Norgate and Grant Kirkhope soundtrack for the 1997 game - it's all there, including the beloved weapons PP7, Klobb, KF7 Soviet, Golden Gun. Plus the gunbarrel sequence (only in 4.1 versions or higher) and the blood death screen animation (still, you can toggle it off).

How do we get this? It's easy. All you got to do first is downloading Steam, a Valve game service. Download it, install it and create an account. Then you can download and install the GOLDENEYE: SOURCE itself (check out the download section in the official site). After the installation, just run the game and, depending your connection, you'll have to wait some hours to download the SDK Base 2007, which will help you to run the game without HALF LIFE 2. After SDK Base 2007 is installed, just open the game, and that's it.

It's hard to connect into the multiple online servers, but versions higher to 4.2 contain AI Bots to help you exchange some shoots.

Even with the lack of an idillic single player campaign, I'd strongly recommend this game for true fans of the N64 original game. It's its true sucessor, much more than Activision's 2010 remake.

Follow GOLDENEYE: SOURCE on Twitter @goldeneyesource

Nicolás Suszczyk

Editor, THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER

PURVIS & WADE OUT OF BONDAGE

After writing two Bond films that ended with the Pierce Brosnan era (THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, DIE ANOTHER DAY) and the three adventures that started Daniel Craig's era (CASINO ROYALE, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, SKYFALL), scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade confirmed they're leaving the Bond series, while John Logan has signed up as a sole writer for the 24th and 25th Bond films, set to be released in 2014 and (probably) 2016.

Neal Purvis & Robert Wade in 2006,
on the set of CASINO ROYALE

The writers, actually taking part in the Docca Tribal Film Festibal in Qatar, said: “We’re very happy to have done five Bond movies, I think we’ve gotten it to a good place. I know that John Logan and Sam Mendes have come up with a plot for another one, which takes the pressure off because these films take up a lot of time.”

They've also said that they've considered leaving the series with QUANTUM OF SOLACE, but they've felt tempted to retire in a better way with SKYFALL, one of the most (if not the most) emotionally deep screenplays in the whole Bond series.

In the Bond series, Purvis and Wade worked with writers like GOLDENEYE's Bruce Feirstein and Oscar winners Paul Haggis and John Logan.

NATALYA'S BIKINI FOR AUCTION

Izabella Scorupco as Natalya
Simonova in GOLDENEYE 

After many years of declining, Swedish actress Izabella Scorupco will be kindly selling the La Perla three-piece white bikini (top, bottom and sarong) she wore in character as computer programmer Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova, Bond's love interest, in 1995's GOLDENEYE. The costume can be seen in the film's climax in Cuba.

The bidding will take place on November 14th (World Diabetes Day). Those without an invitation will be able to bid via phone  (check out Auktionsverket.se for more info), and the money resulting from the auction will be in use for juvenile diabetes research.

Check out more details at From Sweden With Love, who kindly let us know of this important event.

RADIO INTERVIEW WITH THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER

Last Saturday, October 27th, Argentinean radio hosts Sebastián de Caro and Diego Fernández put in practice the "lost art of interrogation" in their Metro 9.51 FM programme "Cómo Robar el Mundo" (How to steal the world) with our editor Nicolás Suszczyk, who talked about GOLDENEYE, SKYFALL and everything concerning the world's most famous secret agent celebrating it's golden anniversary this year. You can listen to an excerpt (subtitled in English) of the programme here.

Our editor wants to deeply thank the producers and hosts of the show who, besides showing there are still some hopes of having a decent Bond chit-chat with the Argentinean media, gave him the SKYFALL soundtrack and one sheet poster as a gift, plus the chance of drinking a Vesper Martini!

007 LEGENDS: Mission Round-up

All the 007 missions were revealed in the last months with trailers for each movie plot adapted and updated to fit with the Daniel Craig era. MOONRAKER, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, LICENCE TO KILL, DIE ANOTHER DAY, GOLDFINGER and possibly SKYFALL are the six missions that PC, XBOX360, Wii U and PS3 users will be able to play.

No GOLDENEYE? well, I'm afraid we can't complain since we've had four games re-adapting the story!
007 LEGENDS will be released on October 16th worldwide.

GOLDENEYE RARE CONCEPT ART PUBLISHED

The recently released book "James Bond: 50 Years of Movie Posters", features a concept art of what might have been the theatrical poster artwork for GOLDENEYE. It shows Bond surrounded by Xenia and Natalya (in totally different poses than in the final designs) plus the 007 gun logo as well as the image of Pierce Brosnan running and the Severnaya MIG planes, which get a more prominent ubication than in the final result.

Thanks to Marcos Kontze from James Bond Brasil for the scans.

WIN A GOLDENEYE POSTER SIGNED BY THE PRODUCERS

The official 007 Twitter account (twitter.com/007) has opened the usual weekly signed poster contest for GOLDENEYE.

By tweeting an imaginative message, or posting photo related to the film, you can win an A3 reproduction of the GOLDENEYE poster signed by producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

Good luck!

PIERCE: "BOND WILL FOLLOW ME FOR THE REST OF MY DAYS"

In Venice, promoting his new film ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, the fifth 007 actor and star of GOLDENEYE, Pierce Brosnan, told the BBC that James Bond will "follow him of the rest of his days."

After being cool-as-cucumber about his relationship with 007 since he was left out of the franchise in 2004, two years after his last role as Bond in DIE ANOTHER DAY, the Irish actor also claimed that he could identify with the secret agent's grief after the death of his wife Cassandra Harris who played Countess Lisl in 1981's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY opposite Roger Moore's Bond) in December 1991.

Source: BBC.co.uk

GOLDENEYE ON BLU-RAY: More details & Steelbook!

THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER can now confirm what it seemed obvious: the Blu-Ray edition of the 1995 film will contain the same cover atwork as the DVD reissue set to be released in October 2012.

The release, as Play.com has just confirmed, will also contain an exclusive "steelbook" which includes a classic shot of Pierce Brosnan as 007, and the US poster artwork.

It is most likely that the Blu-Ray extras will be exactly the same than the 2006 Ultimate Edition DVD release. The Blu-Ray edition is expected for October 2nd.

Special thanks to Alan More, CommanderBond.net and Play.com for the alert.

GOLDENEYE GETS DVD REISSUE (And probably Blu-Ray, too)

As SKYFALL is getting closer to its release date, Twentieth Century Fox will reissue all the Ultimate Edition DVDs with brand new cover artwork. The first 20 Bond films from DR. NO to DIE ANOTHER DAY, including GOLDENEYE, will arrive on October 1st on the UK for  £ 9,70  each. 

It is most likely that the Blu-Ray individual releases of the films will also feature the same artwork, as it was shown in MI6-HQ.com

Thanks to JamesBondBrasil.com for the alert. 

YATCH MANTICORE IS FOR SELL

The Northen Cross yatch, which doubled for Janus' Manticore Yatch in 1995's GOLDENEYE, is up for sale now.

In the Martin Campbell film, Xenia Onatopp, an absolutely handsome Russian assasin played by Famke Janssen and linked to the Janus Syndicate, seduced and killed Admiral Farrel (Billy J. Mitchel) in order to gain access to a French warship where the super secret Tiger helicopter was being shown. As we all know, Xenia and General Ourumov (posing as the pilots they've recently shot) stole the helicopter and took it in direction of Severnaya, Northern Russia.

The price is of 4,950,000 euros. More details here.

THE SILOHUETTE MAN IS BACK - Daniel Kleinman returns for the main titles of SKYFALL

After the rather disappointing vectorized main title sequence for QUANTUM OF SOLACE in 2008, by designers MK12, Daniel Kleiman returns for the SKYFALL opening credits.

Photo credit: Julian Hanford

Kleinman was hored to design the opening credits for GOLDENEYE after his work on Gladys Knight music video for the 1989 Bond film LICENCE TO KILL, starring Timothy Dalton.

He continued his association with 007 with TOMORROW NEVER DIES, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, DIE ANOTHER DAY and Daniel Craig's debut as a rebooted James Bond, CASINO ROYALE. 

When Marc Forster took the helm of the 22nd James Bond film, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, he hired his usual main title designers, MK12, who worked in other Forsters productions like STRANGER THAN FICTION and THE KITE RUNNER.

Thanks to our friends at MI6-hq.com for the alert.

IAN FLEMING IS BACK! (on screen)

Nearly one week before the 104th anniversary of Ian Fleming's birth, British director Duncan Jones has announced he'll be directing another Fleming biopic, based on Andrew Lycett's book "Ian Fleming, The Man Behind James Bond".

The announcement was made during the Cannes Film Festiva, where Duncan said: "Fleming lived through one of the most perilous periods in world history, in a position that allowed him a unique vantage point of all the players, all the stakes. He witnesses true heroism first-hand. And he saw the evil men could do. Then, when the war ended, he went off to write fiction. The essential question for me is where did Ian Fleming end and Bond begin?"

The film is set to be produced by the K5 Film company, and no cating announcement has been done yet.

The creator of James Bond has been subject of three TV biopics so far: 1989's GOLDENEYE, THE SECRET LIFE OF IAN FLEMING, starring Charles Dance, 1990's SPYMAKER, starring Jason Connery (son of Sean), and 2005's BBC production BONDMAKER (starring Ben Daniels). In 2011, James D'Arcy also played Commander Ian Fleming in AGE OF HEROES, a film based on a top-secret mission assigned to the 30 Assault Unit created by Fleming and led (in the movie) by Major Jones, portrayed by GOLDENEYE's Sean Bean.

Source: MI6-hq.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR BOND!

Here at THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER, we wish Mr. Pierce Brendan Brosnan a very happy 59th birthday. We thank him for being a great talent, a great person, and an absolutely great Bond who brought a new generation of Bond fans to this world.

Happy birthday Pierce!

Oh, and don't forget to stay tuned at THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER tomorrow to get the first look at the SKYFALL teaser poster!

UNUSED GOLDENEYE ACTION SCENE TO FEATURE IN SKYFALL

According to a report by MI6-hq.com, an unused scene from Michael France's 1994 GOLDENEYE script, written a while before Pierce Brosnan was cast as James Bond, will be featured in the soon to be released 23rd Bond film, SKYFALL.

In the GOLDENEYE first draft, Bond and Marina Varoskaya (who would later become Natalya) are about to face death as helicopters implemented with electric buzz saws (as seen in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH), are about to destroy a bridgein an attempt to make the train Bond and his female companion are aboarding fall down to a river.

A slight variation of this scene will feature in the Varda Railway train bridge in the Taurus Mountains, in Turkey.