Set Pictures from Skyfall

Bond 23 has been named Skyfall...yeah I missed that news too.  But not only that, there are set pictures.  A whole bunch of set pictures here.  Next year seems an awful long way off right now.

The Case for From Russia With Love

It is my firm belief that movies can suffer the effects of the “middle child syndrome.”  Sequels in trilogies that don’t push the envelope enough or are forgettable for not being the beginning or end of a story, can often fall into this middle child territory.  Falling in between the first James Bond(Dr. No), and what is arguably perceived as the best James Bond (Goldfinger), From Russia With Love suffers this inglorious syndrome with no just reason other than its placement.  It is superior to Dr. No in every aspect, and if the series had ended with only two movies it would be viewed as a masterpiece.  However, the success of FRWL allowed the producers to make a third movie and with Goldfinger the series took off to the stratosphere.  Here now, let us take the opportunity to make the case for FRWL and why it should be regarded as a Bond masterpiece.

***Spoiler Alert***This article is full of spoilers, so if for some ungodly reason you haven't seen From Russia With Love then what is wrong with you?  Watch it first, or at least don't complain.  You've been warned.

Bondtastic Wishful Thinking: Blofeld

I just finished reading the book "The Battle For Bond" and was discussing the following scenario with Steve: In 2004 Sony bought MGM and became a majority partner in the Bond Series.  Sony also bought the rights to McClory's Thunderball remake in the 1990s.  Isn't it possible with them holding both of those cards, that the division is no longer there, and they could utilize elements of Thunderball (like Blofeld) in the Bond movies again?

This led to the following exchange in chat:

Erhardt: that's the common belief, yeah
Erhardt: but there was apparently the opinion that they were done with Blofeld by then anyway.  =\
Erhardt: too much mclory-soured milk, I guess
seanseger: yeah, but I contend with Quantum, they could revive Blofeld, modernize him and give Bond that ultimate bad guy that he needs
seanseger: while also having a nice nod to the past
Erhardt: I agree
Erhardt: though as much as I like quantum, it just won't be the same as spectre LOL
seanseger: no
seanseger: it won't be the same as Spectre....but it would still be cool to have Blofeld back

As with all of our conversations like this, it led past the idea of Blofeld back to...well, you can see for yourself:

Erhardt: who to play him now... may seem fanboyish, but... Patrick Stewart?
seanseger: oooh nice
seanseger: Actually that leads to an unconventional casting I think could really work:  Avery Brooks
Erhardt: ooh... nicer yet!
seanseger: because who says Blofeld *HAS* to be white
Erhardt: yeah
seanseger: dammit I'm picturing Brooks with that cool relaxed demeanor behind a desk talking to Craig's Bond....fuck that would be so awesome lol
Erhardt: LOL totally agreed

So here's the deal.  Steve and I are both Star Trek and comic book fans, so we know Patrick Stewart from Star Trek: The Next Generation and the X-Men movies both of which got a lot of press and with Star Trek's movies got Patrick Stewart much of the recognition as an actor he so richly deserves.  And he would make a great Blofeld.  However many of you may not be as aware of Avery Brooks.  He is the actor who played Hawk in the 1980s series Spencer for Hire and Captain Benjamin Sisko in Star Deep Space Nine.  He may not be the first choice as he isn't a widely recognized name outside of Trek fans, and he is black which the character never has been.  But that being said, watch this clip and imagine that quiet intensity in a confrontation with Bond.



Who do you guys think would make a great Blofeld, or do you think they should come up with a new character and let Blofeld stay dead?  I'd love to hear back from you regarding this.

Bondtastic Locales Updated

We have updated the Bondtastic Locales page with new and interesting locations.  It is not exhaustive, yet, but Steve is hard at work getting it to be as exhaustive as possible.

Bondtastic Congratulations

To Daniel Craig for being one lucky S.O.B. and marrying Rachel Weisz.  I'm not sure what gadgetry Q Branch came up with as a wedding gift for the two of them, but we here at Bondtastic HQ are praying for a leaked video at some point.

A Bondtastic Bond Movie Marathon

Over the weekend I played a lot of Warhammer 40K, and had a James Bond marathon.  The James Bond movies were a fun diversion where we sat around watching and talking about movies.  I decided to journal the time spent for the blog.  We watched Goldfinger, The Man With the Golden Gun, and License to Kill.  We had The World is Not Enough and Casino Royale on the list, but after 6 hours we needed a break and never got back to those movies.  The cast of characters watching the movies were myself, fellow Bondtastic author Steve, and our friends James and Scott

Just a word of warning, this was written as we watched James Bond and drank (beer, whiskey, and martinis).  Comments were not edited for mixed company, and tongues loosened as booze flowed.  So if anything offends you, my apologies.  Not a lot of swearing, but topics of conversation might offend.


Hit the jump to see my journal while watching these movies.

A Tribute to the Martini

While he seems to prefer the *gasp* stirred not shaken method for mixing the martini *gasp*, Cracked.com's Gentleman Bastard has written a wonderful tribute to the Martini.

Personally, I prefer a vodka martini with a twist of lemon, but I will have a gin martini if vodka is not available.  I will also have a cocktail onion, but I hate olives so I try to skip those whenever possible.

I think for the next time I'm watching a Bond film that is not at 8:00 in the morning (thank you USA Network) I might try the Vesper Martini:

• 3 measures of Gordon's Gin
• 1 measure of vodka
• 1/2 measure Kina Lillet
• lemon peel for garnish

 Or maybe I'll drink James Bond's preferred drink from the books, bourbon (I like mine on the rocks).

Anyhow, enjoy the Martini tribute, and while you're at it, enjoy a good martini too.

The Mysterious Abandoned Plane in the Bahamas

Take a look at this picture.

This picture was stumbled on by Steve as he was working on his Bondtastic Locales project.  He was visiting this page about Nassau.  When he saw the caption for the picture said it was an abandoned plane used in a James Bond movie, well thus began the Mystery of the Abandoned Plane in the Bahamas. Now these tangents are fun, and frustrating.  So much is learned, and so many little golden nuggets of joy are gleaned, but as Steve puts it, "If it weren't for...tangents like this, I might actually have been finished with the file a long time ago...but that's half the adventure, heh heh."

Here's what we've done on the search.  The very first plane I thought of was a Jetstream.  But the tail doesn't match this plane.  Looking at the tail and the windows we are leaning towards this plane being a DC-3.  However, the only DC-3 we can think of being used was in Quantum of Solace (filming of the plane chase was in Mexico).  So if it was that plane then the mystery deepens, because the paint job is different (all silver in QoS) not to mention the whole "How in the name of Q did it end up in Nassau?" question that is lingering.

However, as much as we think it's a DC3, the angle of the shot, the foliage, the shadows, the damage to the plane, and the small size of the photo make it very difficult to say absolutely that it's a DC-3.

So we looked at what movies were filmed in the Bahamas to see if we could pin point something that was used that would have been abandoned after filming was done...or was left in the Bahamas and eventually abandoned.  Here are the films that actually filmed in the Bahamas:

1. Thunderball
2. The Spy Who Loved Me
3. Moonraker
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. Never Say Never Again not officially canon, but cannot be ruled out since the Nassau site didn't specify that it was a canonical Bond film
6. Casino Royale

From there we looked at the Wikipedia list of aircraft used in Bond movies and the Air & Space Magazine list of airplanes used in all 22 Bond films.  Both lists were helpful, but the Air & Space Magazine list didn't include pictures.  So that led us to wonder about their entry of a DC-3 used in Goldfinger.  However, I know Goldfinger used the ATL-98 Carvair to take his car from England, and that Carvair was actually a heavily modified DC-4.  So is that a misprint?  I don't have a copy of Goldfinger available to scan through and see.

So back to the list of movies filmed in the Bahamas.