Old news (but still interesting)

[Anglophile]

It'm just astonished that I'm able to find really old stuff which I have never seen and heard before

This is an audio interview with Eva Green, Dame Judi Dench, Mads Mikkelsen and last but not least Daniel at the premiere in London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/features/day ... gallery660

click on "hear the interview"

Wow, thanks for finding that Dunda - another nightly intuition of yours?

What's this about him 'leaving while he's still ahead'??? I haven't heard anything about this!

Look here:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/1 ... _bond.html

[Dunda]

It'm just astonished that I'm able to find really old stuff which I have never seen and heard before

This is an audio interview with Eva Green, Dame Judi Dench, Mads Mikkelsen and last but not least Daniel at the premiere in London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/features/day ... gallery660

click on "hear the interview"

Wow, thanks for finding that Dunda - another nightly intuition of yours?

No , just a coincidence

[sigl]

Thanks, Dunda. I hope they keep the Bond movies fresh and the character continues to change and grow in some way in each film. DC is such a good actor that I think he will object if the scripts for the future ones seem stale or repetitive.

[Anglophile]

Guardian Writer Wants Daniel Craig to Quit Bond

Posted Nov 5th 2007 1:02PM by Peter Martin

Poor Daniel Craig! Even when his casting as James Bond was just a rumor, he was slagged for being too short, too blond or too "not who I had in mind (Clive Owen, etc.) as the next James Bond." Then he delivered a brusque, sexy performance as 007 in a movie that was miles better than everybody assumed it would be -- and now he's getting attacked for doing what any sane actor in his position would do. Craig has signed up to do another four sequels as the world's favorite secret agent, but Alice Fisher of The Guardian thinks he should stop while he's ahead.

Fisher acknowledges that the deal "makes good business sense" and that Casino Royale revitalized the franchise. Yet "it's hard to be thrilled by this announcement when formulaic movie franchises seem to be throttling cinema. ... Craig shook up Bond's familiar character, reinvented him as an action man. If the spy is now allowed to just putter along through four more similar adventures that invigoration will have been worthless."

Fisher appears to be advocating the end of the James Bond series even more than she bemoans the Daniel Craig deal, somehow dreaming that if franchises like Bond, Saw, Pirates, Harry Potter, and Aliens / Predator simply go away, cinema will somehow be better for it. Newsflash! Sequels and series have been embedded in the film group brain since the invention of celluloid. The problem isn't the existence of franchises, it's the decline in the quality of ideas and the execution thereof. Like all intelligent people, I'm concerned that the next James Bond may be too jokey, sure -- a concern well expressed by Danny Leigh, another Guardian writer -- but that's because I want to see more good, thrilling James Bond adventures -- not because the series should end.

http://www.cinematical.com/2007/11/05/g ... quit-bond/

The voice of reason

[Germangirl]

The voice of reason

Whatever it is with Daniel - he polarizes like hell in almost every department one can think of. Its not such a bad thing, afterall (if it doesn´t get too nasty), because it keeps his name vivid - and not all of it is bad stuff.

[Germangirl]

Since I (most of us) weren´t around at that time, I find the figures and actual remarks quite interesting.

Connery, Moore, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan ... and Craig? The newest James Bond has been announced in a high-profile public ceremony, ending three years of intense speculation and leaving fans all over the world shaken — and more than a bit stirred.

After emerging into the world's spotlight riding shotgun on a British military boat along the Thames River (and wearing a very un-Bond-like life jacket), Craig flashed a brooding grin for an army of photographers Friday (October 14).

It is a huge iconic figure in movie history, and those things don't come along very often," the star commented to The Associated Press in regards to the grueling interview process. "It was difficult [to decide], but I tried to think about [Bond] like any other job. We have got an incredible script, and that is my first line of attack. Once I read it, I knew I did not have any choice. ... It is a huge challenge, and I think life is about challenges."

Craig, a 37-year-old British actor whose wide-ranging résumé includes turns in "Road to Perdition," "The Jacket" and the recent thriller "Layer Cake," will step into 007's trademark tux with nearly 30 films behind him. His profile will undoubtedly continue to grow in the next several years, as his Bond appointment joins an already impressive list of upcoming projects including Steven Spielberg's "Munich," Nicole Kidman's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" remake, "The Visiting," and Gwyneth Paltrow's Truman Capote drama, "Have You Heard?"

Immediately following the official announcement that Craig would be earning his license to kill in the 21st Bond film, "Casino Royale," longtime devotees of the franchise buzzed with an equal mixture of anticipation and frustration.

"He isn't the sort of person that I see as being the Bond that the general public has become used to," offered Graham Rye, editor/designer/publisher and founder of the 25-year-old publication 007 Magazine. "[Bond is] a wise-cracking guy who can kill any number of bad guys and bed any number of luscious ladies, but has always got a quip on the end of it. He's not the type to be very serious."

"He's obviously not the best-looking actor in the world," Richard Schenkman, an independent filmmaker who founded the world's first James Bond fan club in the 1970s and published the 007 magazine Bondage for two decades, said of Craig. Like Rye, Schenkman feels that the new actor's appointment is worrisome since he comes from so far outside the Bond mold; he did admit, however, that certain aspects of the appointment intrigue him.

"They've gone a Timothy Dalton-route, hiring a solid actor, a guy with a really solid career and an enormous amount of range," Schenkman observed. "Remember, he played a weasely American in 'Road to Perdition,' and a babbling lunatic in 'The Jacket.' ... It's an interesting choice, because [Bond producers] went very pretty with Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan, and even to a degree George Lazenby, because he was a professional model at the time they hired him to be Bond. ... This guy's ruggedly handsome; it's just that he's not a looker."

Both Rye and Schenkman agreed that hardcore Bond fans have recently felt as unappreciated as an anonymous SPECTRE henchman, beaten down by a series of Brosnan films that enjoyed enormous box-office success while making the franchise louder, dumber and more generic. "The scripts of the last few Bond movies have been absolutely abysmal," Rye fumed. "The last film, [2002's] 'Die Another Day,' regardless of how much money it made ... I think was the worst Bond film of the entire series."

"The problem is that they really got into the 'top this' game," Schenkman lamented. "What can we do next? How can we top this?"

"From already reading stuff on Web sites all over the Internet, I think [Craig] is going to fall into two camps," Rye speculated. "There's going to be one set of people who will throw their hands up in the air and say, 'Oh my God, not this guy. Please, anybody but him.' And a second group will say, 'This is just what these films need, a harder edge and a harder-looking actor."

Remaining as optimistic as their hero when inevitably tied to a death machine, both men view Craig as a possible olive branch from longtime gatekeepers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who may finally be willing to lose the gloss and return to the basics of the original Ian Fleming source novels.

"I can't imagine for one moment that they would actually have Daniel Craig being a full-on blond James Bond," Rye insisted, slamming the media ballyhoo over the actor's natural differences from his predecessors. "Like for many other roles he's already played, he'll most certainly have his hair dyed black."

"It would seem to be an indication that they intend to get grittier and dirtier, but I don't trust them," Schenkman barked. "Michael Wilson really thinks he knows what's best. ... Until he's decided to make a complete change from what he was doing before, you're not going to see it, no matter who they hire."

"['Casino Royale'] is really the arc in which he becomes Bond," director Martin Campbell (who also directed 1995's "GoldenEye") said after the Craig announcement. "He starts out just having earned his double-0 stripes, and comes out at the end the Bond we know and love." The director also added that the movie will be "tougher and grittier" with "more character and less gadgets," all of which is music to the ears of Bond fans.

"When the 'XXX' movies are being made, Bond can either lump himself in with that kind of filmmaking, or go the other direction," Schenkman urged Campbell. "Go back to 'From Russia With Love,' go back to the books. The fact that they're doing 'Casino Royale' is potentially very interesting, because the climax of [the 1953 novel] 'Casino Royale' is Bond being tortured, nearly to death, via his testicles. ... It's basically a game of cat-and-mouse between Bond and this double agent with a gambling addiction, and Bond has to outdo him at the baccarat table."

"Is it going to be a cat-and-mouse game?" Schenkman wondered of the movie plot point that could very well define Craig's tenure. "Or is [the villain] going to have 47 nuclear bombs around the world in silos, aimed at all the world's capitals?"

"If you're a Bond fan of any sort, you're going to be interested," Rye conceded. "It's something that gets into your blood, and you just have to see what happens next."

These two lifelong fans ultimately admitted that they'll likely see "Casino Royale" during its opening weekend in 2006, and they then agreed to participate in a Bond game as timeless as the counting of his conquests. So, we asked them, how many movies will Daniel Craig make before they move on to the next guy?

"I say two," Schenkman offered.

"If, after they've gone to the cinema and they've seen it, [audience members] think 'I much preferred Pierce Brosnan, or anyone else for that matter,' it could be the kiss of death," Rye speculated, saying that Craig may end up a one-timer. "It could be the case."

According to the consensus worldwide, there will never be another Connery, another Moore, or even another Pierce Brosnan. Then again, if there's one thing Bond fans know all too well, it's to never say never again.

From another

There's been speculation that we offered it to other people, but that's not accurate," Wilson said. "In the end, Daniel was the only one we offered the film to."

Was that a mistake? The choice of Tom Cruise to play Lestat in "Interview With the Vampire" got more of a welcome than this. In an NBC poll conducted by 26 affiliate stations across the country, more than half of the 22,000 Americans polled thought Craig was the wrong man. And across the pond, the Sunday Mirror found that 54 percent of their readers still wanted Brosnan, and 31 percent wanted Owen, while only 15 percent liked Craig. Seventy-three percent of Glamour UK readers said Craig wouldn't have been their first choice. No wonder the James Bond international fan club posted this joke on their site: "How many James Bond fans does it take to change a light bulb? One to change it, and 10 to complain that the original was better."

No one did more complaining than the site DanielCraigIsNotBond.com (originally CraigNotBond.com), which has collected 20,627 signatures as of Friday for a petition trying to convince the filmmakers to rethink their casting. It's also urging a boycott of the movie. The site, which has had more than 1 million visitors since it launched in February, has a long list of reasons it doesn't think Craig makes the cut, the least of which is that he's not enough of a Bond fan for them. "He doesn't like Bond, he doesn't like the book, and he doesn't like the fans," the site's Joe McElroy said. "Pierce at least understood it. But Daniel's not even attempting to play Bond. He's changing Bond."

[Germangirl]

James Bond Signs Deal to Bring His Blue Eyes, Chiseled Features, Sculpted … Um … Sorry, We Got Distracted

Bond Franchise Secured: Just as Paul Haggis hands in his script for the temporarily titled Bond 22, Daniel Craig signs on for four more films as 007. That’s a long time to keep doing all those pushups and crunches, but presumably he can now do them atop a mountain of cash. [Dark Horizons


If you do read above - its so clear, he deserves every ....*** penny of it.

[Anglophile]

Too true...

[Germangirl]

Didn´t know where to put this - don´t know either, if anybody is interested in reading ALL this.

http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=h ... l%26sa%3DN

Astrology chart for Daniel

[redluna]

Didn´t know where to put this - don´t know either, if anybody is interested in reading ALL this.

http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=h ... l%26sa%3DN

Astrology chart for Daniel

Wow, thanks GG! I only flip through it, but I like it!

[zonzi]

Thanks, GG !!!!! I love astrological charts !

[Germangirl]

It’s a great time for movie tough guys
What makes Russell and Daniel interesting and Arnold not?

Men's Vogue
COMMENTARY
By Erik Lundegaard
MSNBC contributor
updated 6:13 p.m. ET, Fri., Oct. 26, 2007
There’s a seeming contradiction in playing a tough guy
in the movies. Acting is about revealing something while
toughness is about revealing nothing, so how do you
reveal something about a character whose goal is to
reveal nothing? This dilemma has stunted more than
a few careers and bored more than a few audiences.
At the moment, thankfully, there’s a host of dramatic
actors who can do it better than anyone, and they’re
in the midst of a kind of elaborate square dance,
changing partners round and round. So Clive Owen
faces down Denzel Washington in “Inside Man” and
Denzel goes mano a mano with Russell Crowe in
“American Gangster,” just after Russell takes the
measure of Christian Bale in “3:10 to Yuma.”
Off in the corner, there’s Tommy Lee Jones
tracking down Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men,”
while Daniel Craig, recalling a better Steve McQueen,
is the evening’s wallflower: unpartnered for the moment.
Great actors can portray anything, of course,
but these guys seem to have their own inner toughness.

Nice little tidbit

[Anglophile]

Nice little tidbit

Indeed. Thanks for sharing!

[Germangirl]

Old indeed - but interesting - so we know, what waits for us, if we ever get a chance to go to a Premier:

http://commanderbond.net/article/4649

A Fan With A View
Written by Mark Witherspoon

Photographs by Ajay Chowdhury
Consider me strange but there is nothing quite
like (literally) soaking up the atmosphere a Bond
premiere as a spectator: hanging around the
West End of London (usually in the rain), leaning
over the crash barriers and getting in the way of
the world’s press! Sure, I could be tuxed up and
make a generous donation to charity and watch
the film catching a glimpse of the latest 007 or
his leading ladies but there is a grass roots’
excitement in being part of the crowd! Since
The Living Daylights premiered on 29th June 1987,
I have always taken the day off work and loitered
around the venue to sample the electric energy of
a Bond-starved crowd. Although these days movie
premieres are as common as pigeons in London,
nobody does it better than Bond: they arguably helped
create the whole celebrity film premiere on the scale we
now see.
14th November 2006 and yet again I find myself
wandering around Leicester Square in the rain, but
this year it’s different: a new 007 and a new
studio (Sony); the whole night is either a PR department’s
nightmare or dream come true. Demand for tickets for the
premiere has been higher then ever before, so much so that
Sony have put on three simultaneous screenings in the three
main West End cinemas: The Odeon Leicester Square is hosting
the main premiere with the Queen and Prince Philip and cast
and crew in attendance; the Empire has a Sony charity screening;
and opposite at the Odeon West End is another charity screening for various celebrities and members of the public.

‘Blonde But Still Bond!’
I arrive around midday and because of heavy rain I’m not sure
if I want to stand around all day in the wet. The only thing I’ve
brought with me is my camera and a packet of Casino Royale
playing cards. For now nobody is allowed to enter the garden
in the square and fans are told to queue around the outside while
the area is prepared for the evening. The hours tick by slowly
and I find it amusing when a bunch of Bond fans (myself included)
start cheering at the simplest things, like posters and bunting
being tied to a tree by a man in a cherry picker crane!

Bond fans wait alongside the Aston Martin DBS
We spend most of our time working out where we will be
positioned, so at around 5pm when the gates are opened
it’s like a cattle stampede - we all run to the front of the
barriers with everyone pushing and shoving like fans at a
Bon Jovi concert. Soon afterwards the soundtrack to
Casino Royale starts playing on huge speakers positioned
in and around Leicester Square, just across from us I can
see a stage with the latest Aston Martin positioned on it.
Several members of the press come over to talk to myself
and my friend, Joe Story - mainly thanks to the home-made
sign Joe has brought, saying ‘BLONDE BUT STILL BOND!
GOOD LUCK DANIEL.’ They are interested in our opinions
on Daniel Craig
as James Bond. Joe ends up making the front page of the
next day’s London Times.
Just before 6pm Daniel Craig arrives to the sound of the
James Bond theme tune. He steps out of his chauffeur
driven car and the crowd goes wild. It’s so noisy, I think
Aerosmith are playing Wembley - the atmosphere is fantastic!
It’s obvious that Daniel Craig has turned up first so that he
has time to spend at least two hours with the press, doing
interviews and has some ‘Tom Cruise-style’ fan time.
He does it very well indeed.

Jay Kay of Jamiroquai attends the Casino Royale premiere
Many Bond stars from the past and present are here to
attend the main premiere screening in the Odeon, including
Mad Mikkelson, Eva Green, Dame Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright,
Dame Shirley Bassey, Sir Ken Adam, Sébastien Foucan,
Giancarlo Giannini, Rick Yune, Maryam D’abo, Michelle Yeoh,
David Arnold, Phil Meheux, Richard Branson, Anthony Waye,
Vijay Amritraj, Lindy Hemming, Terry Bamber, Chris Corbould,
Tom Pevesner, and of course Martin Campbell, Michael Wilson
and Barbara Broccoli. Other stars like avowed Bond fan,
Jay Kay of Jamiroquai also show up.
+
On the red carpet with the press
Mads Mikkelsen spends a long time with the fans and is
quick to come over to us. He is very pleasant, if slightly
ntimidating in a Kevin Spacey-like manner, and I can see
why the producers chose him for the role of Le Chiffre.
Daniel is besieged by the worldwide press gathered i
n a pen and on the red carpet. At one point it finally looks
like he’s coming our way his way when one of the PR ladies
mentions yet another interview for TV. ‘Make them wait!’,
he says firmly. Great!. He spots Joe’s banner and marches
across the red carpet towards us shouting out ‘What’s that?’,
then laughs as he realises what it says and that Joe is on
his side!
He signs as many, photos, banners and posters as he can in
the few minutes he spends with us and I manage to get a few
semi decent photos. He signs one of my Casino Royale ace
card and tells me ‘Don’t play poker it’s bad for your health!’
before heading off to the main stage to join other members
of the cast and crew for more interviews. By the end of
the evening, I have a full set of signed aces. Ace!
Finally I meet with friends for a drink then settle down in the
Odeon for the first public late night screening. It might be a
cold wet late night but there’s no way I’m going to miss this
performance!

So its obviously Fans first for him. Nice!

[Firstsupergirl]

Thanks for sharing , GG!

So everybody can start to think about what kind of sign we'll take with us and what we'll write down on it , if we really go to the Bond22 premier!
It must be a short but extraordinary message to catch his eye!