This Week In Bond (December 2nd, 2022)

Flattery will get you nowhere. But don't stop trying.

Dec 2, 2022

‘GoldenEye’ has taken over as the cultural touchstone film of the franchise, in the UK at least, over the traditional favorite ‘Goldfinger.’ Beyond the titular precious metal, there are a number of nods back to the 1964 classic, not least the return of the DB5. But hidden in plain sight all these years is an almost identical shot. We recently noticed this in our Twitter thread about the last shot of each film in the series.

Goldfinger:

GoldenEye:

This cannot be a coincidence!

Next time we chat with director Martin Campbell we’ll be sure to ask about this (he’s currently filming a new movie ‘Dirty Angels’ with Eva Green in Greece).

A blatant later example of this was Marc Forster harking back to Goldfinger’s golden girl moment when he recreated the scene with Agent Fields on the bed having drowned in oil.

Have you noticed any shot-for-shot similarities between different Bond films? The re-use of the Naval missile launch from 'Tomorrow Never Dies’ in ‘Die Another Day’ does not count as that is literally the same shot! Drop us your findings in the comments below.

News

LaLaLand Records have a new remastered and expanded 2-CD re-issue of the original motion picture score to the 1997 feature film 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. It’s a treasure trove of previously unreleased music, showcasing Arnold’s legendary score as well as the movie’s opening and closing songs, along with additional bonus music featuring alternate score cues and the previously unreleased source cues “It Had To Be You” performed by Simon Greenaway and “Adrift” and “Shaken But Not Stirred” performed by Simon Greenway and Sacha Collisson. Also here, is a never-before-released alternate opening for “Surrender”! Produced by David Arnold and Neil S. Bulk, and mastered by Doug Schwartz, from original stereo digital tapes provided by MGM, the special release is limited to 5000 units and features exclusive, in-depth liner notes by writer Tim Greiving, which include new comments from the composer.

Listen

The creative path on the 24th James Bond film had more twists and turns than perhaps any of the 007 productions before it, and due to a massive Sony Pictures leak, some of those debates, decisions, and debacles were exposed. We run through the early 2014 state of the film before the serious work was done on getting the script tightened up for filming (months behind schedule) and run through the later drafts scene by scene picking out the changes that were made from the version we all saw on screen. A female villain, a stolen Heineken truck, the return of Irma Bunt, buckets of eyeballs, Moneypenny's redemption arc, 'dopey' passport documents, Tanner's dark fate, terrible one-liners, Q earning his stripes, African diamond mines.... and lots, lots more!

Watch

The excellent YouTube channel Secret Galaxy finally took on the mid-90s anomaly of James Bond Jr and the complex history that led up to its creation. A well-researched and fast-paced primer on the bit of the franchise that’s rarely covered.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Exclusive offer for readers in the USA: MI6 holds a number of original ‘Licence To Kill’ storyboard sheets dating from July 1988, before the cameras rolled, and we are releasing them as an affordable collector's item from Timothy Dalton’s final picture.

These unique pages give an insight into what filmmakers were planning; some pages even show ideas that never came to fruition in the film. You can own a single page - selected at random from our collection - from our 4th July 1988 storyboard series. These are original production papers from 1989, some have small notes written by the crew, and are A3 (11.7 × 16.5 inches). Pages in our collection cover two major action pieces in the 1989 film, the pre-titles sequence, and the tanker finale. Click here to order - strictly whilst stocks last.