Articles: Quantum of Solace

A variety of articles relating to the forthcoming Bond film (only one month to go here in the UK!)

Daniel Craig: Back For Bond 23 And The Next Few After That by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"Barbara Broccoli [producer]... confirmed that Craig would be back in Bond 23 and the ‘next few’ films... With news that the Quantum group represents a kind-of modern day SPECTRE... fans have been wondering which story lines in the Craig era would continue on from Quantum of Solace to Bond 23. Broccoli said: ‘This is a continuation, but I think the story kind of completes here. I think you know we had a lot of unanswered questions at the end of Casino Royale, and this story just kind of completes that cycle and will go on to other different stories from now on.’"
Doing a Bond sequel is a great idea -- the Connery ones had linking threads, but they were still totally standalone -- but it also makes sense to not drag it out too long. It would be quite nice if the Quantum group took a third film to finish off completely though, I think, even if it was in an otherwise unrelated story -- like the '60s ones.

David Arnold Gives Verdict On Another Way To Die by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"James Bond composer David Arnold has weighed in on the newest title theme... ‘Even from the first draft, I loved the atmosphere of it more than anything. You know, it’s got a kind of dirty, ugly, but very kind of sexy feel to it. I think when you see the song at the point in the movie where it comes, everything kind of fits in and makes sense.’"

The Name's Bond... Period. by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"Quantum of Solace to drop the famous introduction as well as 'shaken, not stirred' line." Read the full article for some interesting thoughts on the Bond formula.

New Quantum of Solace Poster Artwork Revealed by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
It's actually the soundtrack cover in this article, but it's since appeared elsewhere as a poster-shaped poster. Odd to have the girl the same size as Bond, but its simple, sparse style ties with the previous poster and those for Casino Royale.

Quantum of Solace: Shortest Bond Film Ever by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
Well, I didn't expect that! An economically-lengthed franchise film in this day & age? What's the world coming to? Intriguingly, virtually the same thing happened back in the mid-'90s, when Pierce Brosnan followed the two-hours-plus GoldenEye with Tomorrow Never Dies, easily the shortest Bond since Connery's films. Still, nothing like as brief as Quantum will be!

Articles

AMPAS Rejects Dark Knight Score
(from Studio Briefing)
"an uproar has now followed the decision of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's decision to disqualify the score of The Dark Knight because credited composers James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer were unable to establish that they were directly responsible for more than 70% of the music... The two had listed three others as composers on the official cue sheet... in order to qualify them for royalties. The Academy's music committee reportedly spent hours debating the issue, with several members arguing unsuccessfully that the score merited nomination notwithstanding the cue-sheet issue."

Quantum of Solace US Opening Day Haul Estimated At $27 Million by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
"The numbers are yet to be confirmed, but it’s clear that 007 convincingly beat off competition from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa ($8.1 million) and Role Models ($3.76 million). At $27 million, Quantum of Solace would have the 26th highest US opening day ever. The only 2008 release to top this opening would be The Dark Knight [obviously]... $27 million would place it above other 2008 big-hitters Sex And The City and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. It would also place it above [frequent film of comparison] The Bourne Ultimatum." The last Bond film, Casino Royale, had an opening day of $14.7 million -- nearly half QoS's. It leaves the new release "on track to a weekend haul of approximately $70 million" -- the franchise's opening weekend record is held by Die Another Day at $47.1 million.

The Showdown: Wall-E Vs. Batman
(from Studio Briefing)
"While many industry observers are predicting that The Dark Knight on DVD will become the year's biggest video hit, a few others suggest that Disney/Pixar's Wall-E [sic] should not be overlooked. They point out that animated features have a long history of dominance in home-video sales and that Wall-e [sic] is one of the few that holds as much appeal for adults as it does for children. Meanwhile, websites that focus on high-definition fare have unanimously endorsed the Blu-ray version of Wall-e as the HD gold standard."

The thick Sharpe's Peril and why Jonathan Ross and Brand should stay by AA Gill
(from Times Online)
Belated commentary on the Ross/Brand/Sachs thing (I'm not even going to bother linking back to it any more), but, as regular readers know, I love this position on it -- especially as it has added Piers Morgan-slating, which is always welcome. Also, eventually, Gill gets round to his point -- slating the latest Sharpe. He's mostly wrong about that though.

"We will take some more risks and shake things up a little bit more." by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
The great thing about fansites is that they often summarise interviews and articles from other sites, so you just get what's new or interesting instead of having to trawl through all the same old publicity fluff. Here, the best bits are comments from producer Barbara Broccoli: "In Casino Royale, the book, there was no Moneypenny or Q so that is why they are not in that story. And, in this follow-up, there didn’t seem to be a reason or a place for them. That doesn’t mean that they won’t appear later on. We made a decision to strip everything away. Some things will come back, some things won’t. Some things will come back in a different way. We will take some more risks and shake things up a little bit more and hope audiences are with us." Sensible, I think.
Also: "Hopefully at the end of Quantum of Solace, we have this ‘whole’ character [for Bond]. And now we can do what we want. I think in some way, he will go after the organisation [Quantum]. So in that sense, it may become a trilogy, but we haven’t really structured it that way." Super. And what else will be back? "I don’t want [Judi Dench] to leave. She keeps threatening to leave but I will not let her!" Good girl. Anything further? Gadgets, apparently! "The trouble is, everyone has gadgets. We will need to come up with a few that have not been invented by the Sony Corp!" Good luck!

My Quantum of Solace Film Season

In case you've somehow failed to notice, Quantum of Solace, the 22nd official James Bond film, hits UK cinemas this Friday. I'm more than a tad excited (and considerably annoyed that I won't be able to make it to the first screening in my area thanks to a seminar), and to celebrate I'm having myself a sort-of mini-ish film season-thing. Which I have dubbed My Quantum of Solace Film Season. You might've guessed that from the post's title.

The selection process is quite simple: one film a day, each representing a different key member of QoS's cast, plus one for director Marc Forster; and, to comply with 100 Films' normal rules, all films I've never seen before. Well, that was the idea, but as with any good plan some changes have had to be made -- there's no film for Judi Dench, for example (well, other than a certain already-seen previous entry in the franchise), and I initially forgot Daniel Craig. Ha! Luckily I could switch him in for Jeffrey Wright by virtue of the fact they both appeared in The Invasion. Then there's a double bill to try to get (almost) everyone in, and a film I've seen before too. "Oops." (It was also entirely unintentional that all but the first and last films are from 2007.) Naturally, things come to a close with QoS itself on Friday, so thanks to only having thought of this plan yesterday my time to watch things is rather limited.

Anyway, you don't really care about all that. Here's the schedule:

Sunday 26th October: The Director
Marc Forster's Stay.

Monday 27th October: The Villain
Mathieu Amalric ('Dominic Greene') stars in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Tuesday 28th October: The Girls
A double bill for Bond's two new women. Gemma Arterton ('Agent Fields') stars in St. Trinian's followed by Olga Kurylenko ('Camille') in Hitman.

Wednesday 29th October: The Spies
Daniel Craig ('James Bond', donchaknow) stars -- with support from Jeffrey Wright ('Felix Leiter') -- in The Invasion.

Thursday 30th October: The First Part
As has been (very) widely reported, QoS is the first Bond-sequel, starting within an hour of Casino Royale's climax. As such, it seems only appropriate to watch the preceding film the night before. (I've seen CR several times but will be reviewing it anyway, in light of having seen QoS, if that makes any difference.)

Friday 31st October: The Point
Ba-da, dum... ba-da, dum... ba-da ba-da-da! Phonetic renderings of iconic theme tunes aside, Bond is back! Hurray!

The exact order is subject to change depending on how readily I can get hold of the films (I only own two of the six), but that's the plan. Last time I tried to watch a film a day I failed miserably, so we'll see how this goes.

Articles

Christopher Nolan on Dark Knight and its box-office billion: 'It's mystifying to me'
and
Christopher Nolan revisits and analyzes his favorite scene in Dark Knight
and
Christopher Nolan says his Batman doesn't play well with others by Geoff Boucher
(from Hero Complex at Los Angeles Times Blogs)
A very exclusive, in-depth, three-part interview with the director of Batman Begins and (more pertinently) The Dark Knight.

Coppola's slow boat on the Nung by Gordon Coates
(from guardian.co.uk)
Quite simply, "Gordon Coates on the five-hour Apocalypse Now". That would be the workprint, long available as a bootleg, that -- depending on who you believe -- is anywhere from 289 to 330 minutes long. (Incidentally, the information that the film is an 18 is out of date -- the Redux was classified at 15 in 2001, and while the original (shorter) cut received an 18 in 2004 (what's that about eh?), all the materials on the recent DVD release -- which includes both cuts of the film -- were collectively rated 15.)

Quantum of Solace Grabs #1 Spot At International Box Office by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"the 007 film earned £15.7 million ($25.3 million) over the weekend" -- beating estimates by over $4 million, and "becoming the biggest three-day opening ever in the UK, surpassing Casino Royale’s equally impressive box office debut by 35%. [From] the UK, France and Sweden, [it] grossed a spectacular $38.6 million... ‘No other international release in 2008 has grossed more [playing in] fewer than 27 territories,’ said Mark Zucker, Sony’s president of international distribution." Super. From a different article: "Six movies can claim bigger UK openings than Quantum of Solace, but all achieved their grosses with the addition of paid previews, typically from the weekend prior and/or days immediately before their official opening."
Quantum of Solace opens around most of the world in the next two weeks, most significantly in the US on November 14th. Look here for a weekly-updated summary of its worldwide box office.

Articles

Mamma Mia! breaks UK film record
(from BBC News)
I'm not convinced by the stats in this story. Why are Harry Potter films included and Bond films not? Both are funded by US studios as much / more so than anything British. If Bond was included, Casino Royale would place 3rd on that chart.

Michael G. Wilson: Bond 23 Work To Begin Early Next Year by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
The new one's barely out, but it's time to talk about the next! "Last time when we were in post production on Casino Royale we were already working on Quantum of Solace. This time we haven’t started, but in January we are going to get some writers together and start kicking some ideas around."

Nolan dismisses Superman crossover by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
Thank goodness! That's not to stop DC doing it anyway, of course.

Quantum of Solace Sets Box Office Record In UK by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"Quantum of Solace got off to a momentous start in the UK yesterday with a stuning $8 million (£4.94 million) debut -- the biggest Friday opening of all time in the UK. In comparison, the previous record holder was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which had a $6.5 million (£4 million) opening. Along with Thursday previews, Casino Royale managed $4.7 in its opening day." It's like The Dark Knight all over again... only on a much smaller scale...

Roger's little rule book by Roger Ebert
(from Roger Ebert's Journal at the Chicago Sun-Times)
Wise words and sage advice (there's not one in there about cliches) from one of the world's most respected film critics.

S. Darko actor defends movie by Michael Thornton
(from Digital Spy)
"Jackson Rathbone said that the [Donnie Darko] sequel, which is released next year, "goes beyond" the idea of the original film, insisting that it should not be simply dismissed as a cash-in." We'll see, eh? "S. Darko is set seven years after the original film and tells the story of Donnie's little sister Samantha and her friend Corey, who experience bizarre visions on a road trip to Los Angeles."

Wahlberg's Daughter Loves Seeing Him In Pain
(from WENN)
Funny story.

Articles

Atheist buses ready to roll across country after making £31,000 in a day by Martin Beckford
(from Telegraph.co.uk)
Two thoughts: "Yay atheism!" and "Stupid Christians."

John McCain 'endorsed by al-Qaeda supporters'
(from Telegraph.co.uk)
"Supporters of al-Qaeda have said they would prefer Republican candidate John McCain to win the US election because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." Best news ever?

The Original Quantum of Solace Cliffhanger Ending
and
'Quantum' Organization To Return In Future James Bond Films
(both by Devin Zydel, from CommanderBond.net)
A pair of connected Bond stories here. In the first (which isn't as spoilery as it may seem), director Marc Forster reveals that he deleted a scene from the end of Quantum of Solace (after where it ends now) that would have ended the film on a definite cliffhanger and the "producers wouldn’t have had a choice but to make it a trilogy". (This scene will be on the DVD/Blu-ray.) The second article suggests this mightn't've been such a problem, however, as producer Barbara Broccoli confirms the long-held expectation/hope of fans that the secretive Quantum organisation will continue to be a presence in future franchise entries. Hurrah!

Sex and the City: The Movie R1 UCE in December by Dave Foster
(from DVD Times)
"another Ultimate Collector's Edition due before Christmas, and this time it's for a film that was only released on DVD last month." I don't really care either way about the film or the release, but the speed of the re-release is pretty shocking. Extras-packed re-releases are pretty much a given these days, a near-inevitable pitfall of DVD/Blu-ray collecting that are often unpredictable (some very successful films get re-churned-out (see Casino Royale), some relatively unsuccessful ones too (see I Am Legend), while others just don't (see Batman Begins)), but such a speedy re-issue is pretty cruel.

Review of Postal DVD by Eamonn McCusker
(from DVD Times)
In just a few short years (he only really came to prominence in 2005 after game adaptations Alone in the Dark and, previously, House of the Dead) German director Uwe Boll has become pretty widely reviled; genuinely loathed, in some circles. Over-loathed, some might say. And it really is very quickly, when you look at his filmography -- pretty much between a couple of movies, after only making two or three, he was suddenly The Worst Person Ever. Anyway, I've never seen one of his films, but Postal sounds great.

100 Films update

It is, once again, over a month since I last posted an update from my other blog, 100 Films in a Year. There have been numerous reviews posted there since then -- including one of Quantum of Solace, just 17 days after I actually saw it -- so here's a summary of them:

from 2008...

After the Sunset (2004)

Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)

Casino Royale (2006)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Hitman: Unrated (2007)

The Invasion (2007)

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

St. Trinian's (2007)

Stay (2005)

Zodiac (2007)

Also...

Inside-Out (a short)

Quantum of Solace also means that I finally have a "Q" in my collection (unlike the film! Haha!) Only "X" and "Y" to fill now -- damn having seen all the X-Men films! (Well, I suppose there's the unwieldily-titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine to look forward to next year.)

from 2007...

300 (2006)

Before Sunrise (1995)

Before Sunset (2005)

The Black Dahlia (2006)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)

Great Expectations (1946)

Miracles (1989)

Starter For Ten (2006)

Transporter 2 (2005)

There's still more to come from both years.

Films

My Quantum of Solace Film Season #7:
Quantum of Solace (2008)
[#73 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
It may not be as good as Casino Royale, and I do have a few specific reservations about it, but all things considered it's a more-than-solid action thriller. Also, the short-ish running time is (unsurprisingly) not a problem in the slightest.

This also means I managed to complete My Quantum of Solace Film Season exactly as planned. I have to say, I didn't expect that!

Articles

Bourne 4 Gets Writer by Emily Phillips
(from Empire Online)
But will it be called The Bourne Legacy?

First Look At Inglourious Brad Pitt by Dan Goodswen
(from Empire Online)
More interesting than the photo, in my opinion, is the (brief) article itself: "Quentin Tarantino has painted his WWII epic Inglourious Basterds [sic] as his take on a spaghetti western, even joking that he might title the film Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France. [It's about] a group of Jewish-American soldiers, known as 'The Basterds' who are chosen specifically to spread fear among the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis." Cool.

Movie Reviews: Max Payne
(from Studio Briefing)
"About the only thing it has going for it is the stylized production design and a few cool special effects, but the story couldn't be more inane nor the characters less credible." Oh dear. But no surprise, really.

Movie Reviews: W.
(from Studio Briefing)
"Somewhat surprisingly W. has turned out to be director Oliver Stone's best-reviewed film in ages... Josh Brolin's portrayal of the president receives nearly universal praise [but] 'making a Bush movie that doesn't dramatize 9/11 nor mention the historic 2000 election controversy is negligent at best' [and] 'Why, when Americans and citizens around the globe are still coming to terms with the implications of so many Bush policies, would they want to pay money at the box office to see what amounts to an extended Saturday Night Live skit?'" Too soon? I think so.

Review of Quantum of Solace by Kim Newman
(from Empire Online)
"A pacy, visually imaginative follow-up. If it doesn’t even try to be bigger than Casino Royale, that’s perhaps a smart move in that there’s still a sense at the end that Bond’s mission has barely begun and he’ll need a few more movies to work his way up to destroying the apparently undefeatable Quantum organisation. The only real caveat is that while it’s exciting, it’s not exactly anyone’s idea of fun. To keep in the game, perhaps the next movie could let the hero enjoy himself a bit more." It's sounding good to me! Still undecided on that poster though. I don't hate it, but it's not half as good as CR's.

As they did earlier this summer with The Dark Knight and... oh, some other blockbuster, I forget which... Empire are having a Bond Fortnight in the run up to the release of Quantum of Solace. It began yesterday with 30 Second Guides to Every Bond Movie, and continued today with their review of QoS (see above). There's 12 more features to come over the next two weeks.

this week on 100 Films

Six brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? (2015) (2015)

Jon Schnepp’s widely-reviewed documentary about the batshit-crazy Nic Cage-starring Tim Burton-directed Superman movie that almost happened in 1999. If all you’ve seen are the photos of a stoned-looking Cage in a light-up abomination of a Superman costume that leaked onto the internet a few years ago, prepare to be amazed.

Read more here.


Inherent Vice (2014)

Paul Thomas Anderson here turns his hand to adapting reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 opus. It met with notably less success than most of his previous works. The Alliance of Women Film Journalists were one of few organisations to recognise it come awards season, with a gong for “Movie You Wanted to Love, But Just Couldn’t”. Apt.

Read more here.


Now You See Me (2013)

the whole film works on many of the same principles as a magic show: it’s there to dazzle you, confound you, make you guess how the tricks were done. That there’s eventually a reveal and a twist is an end unto itself, regardless of the believability of the plot or the depth of the characters

Read more here.


RED 2 (2013)

The “retired, extremely dangerous” agents return for more of the same. “More of the same” is all the recommendation — or unrecommendation, or disrecommendation, or whatever the antonym of “recommendation” actually is — you really need.

Read more here.


Scanners (1981)

If you’re versed in sci-fi/fantasy cinema, you’ve heard of Scanners even if you haven’t seen it: it’s the one with the (in)famous exploding head. That moment is distinctly less shocking for those of us coming to the film as a new viewer at this point: gore perpetuates genre cinema nowadays, so it’s less striking, and the scene it’s in is quite obvious, so you know it’s coming. Fortunately, Scanners is so much more than one famous moment.

Read more here.


The Theory of Everything (2014)

Felicity Jones gives a first-class performance as Jane, building genuine poignancy by being impeccably understated. Eddie Redmayne contorts himself into the form of Stephen Hawking with uncanny accuracy, a truly remarkable performance of a truly remarkable man.

Read more here.


Plus seven archive posts were reposted on the new blog...


100 Films on a Cover

Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll to find the 500 greatest films ever made, also roped in 150 (as yet unnamed) "key directors and producers" and "the world's most influential film critics" to have their say. And Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll and gathering the opinion of key directors, producers and critics to find the 500 greatest films ever made, also created a "magazine milestone" — 100 different covers for the issue featuring the list

Read more here.


Alien vs Predator - Part 1

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, my repostathon is recapping my recaps of the Alien and Predator film series. In Part 1, the beginnings of them both...

Read more here.


Alien vs Predator - Part 2

Aliens and The Other Two Alien Movies...

Read more here.

(Part 3 will be live tomorrow, and so will feature in the next weekly update.)


The BAFTAs 2008

I won’t offer a comprehensive list of winners, or even many thoughts on them — such things are easily found elsewhere — but I will instead offer my thoughts on one of the few ceremonies this year to be presented in full (well, relatively speaking), and the only film awards ceremony that receives a terrestrial television airing in the UK.

Read more here.


An extended musing on falling in love with films

when was the last time I ‘fell in love’ with a film? It’s got me pondering not only that, but also what caused me to ‘fall for’ the films I do like? Was it the critical reaction as much as my personal opinion? The in-built notion of This Is A Good Film making sure I liked it?

Read more here.


My Quantum of Solace Film Season

Back in 2008, I marked the release of the 22nd James Bond film by watching a bunch of unrelated stuff.

Read more here.


Watchmen 2: a couple of suggestions

After finding Total Film's humourous suggestions for a Watchmen sequel a little lacking in the funniness department, I thought I'd jot down a few myself. It doesn't mean they're actually any better, obviously, but it kept me amused for a few minutes.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Articles: Bond

Bond 23 Expected In 2011 by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
So much for 2010, it seems they may be following the release pattern (or, at least, spacing) of Pierce Brosnan's era. The piece is an interview with Bond producer Michael G. Wilson and includes a few other snippets of interest to fans, such as thoughts on returns for Judi Dench and Jeffrey Wright, and comparisons between Quantum and SPECTRE.

Movie Reviews: Quantum Of Solace
(from Studio Briefing)
An intriguing set of reviews for Quantum of Solace in the US: some critics assert the view widely expressed over here that it's not enough like the Bond of old and too much like Bourne, while at least one other lists elements that may've seemed appropriate in Bonds of the past but don't fit now. Oh the irony.

Super Bond interviews

No, it's not a new super-powered direction for the franchise, but rather interviews that are super about Bond -- and, specifically, Quantum of Solace. They're from a German site, but don't worry, they're in English.

So, check out the latest utterances of...

Gemma Arterton ('Agent Fields')
She's in bloody everything nowadays, y'know. "I’m glamorous but I don’t think I’m hot glamorous. There was this thing with my character where we wanted to make her really retro and a bit of a throwback. I can’t reveal her first name yet but it’s typically Fleming and quite cheeky and a little bit tongue in cheek."

Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson (producers)
"Bond is pursuing the people behind Vesper’s betrayal and her death. He is tracking them down and the mystery unfolds. He runs into CIA people later who are very ambivalent about their role in all of this." Americans are bad! Yay!

Marc Forster (director)
"Judi Dench is one of the greatest actresses living today... personally I could watch her read the phone book... I wanted to give her more scenes and have her interact with Bond more because she is the only woman Bond doesn’t see in a sexual context... The relationship between them is fascinating and I think it’s really important so I wanted more scenes between them and to go into that relationship with more depth."

Quantum of Solace hits UK cinemas on October 31st and the US on November 14th (allow my to say, "ha ha!"). For a full list of release dates by country, look here.

A new trailer is due in the next couple of weeks.

Articles

Del Toro, Cuaron do voices in new Bond film
(from Mail.com)
A somewhat bizarre/random story, this one: "Mexican film directors Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron will both have voice roles in the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Quantum director Marc Foster [sic]... knows both directors and asked them to portray members of a fictional Bolivian army.

No Bond 23 Schedule Yet, Says Daniel Craig by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
Craig cites the current economic climate -- "who knows if we can afford to do another Bond movie anytime soon?" -- which sounds a silly point to me. Of course there's going to be another Bond! The economy might effect how much money Quantum of Solace makes (though, in the year of The Dark Knight, that might seem unlikely), but it will surely do well (in the wake of Casino Royale and all the hype), and all that's likely to be effected is whether Bond 23 is out in two years or three.

James Bond Ultimate Editions

My geekiness -- or, as some would surely say, sadness -- knows no bounds:

Two years ago -- or, if we're precise, 25.5 months ago -- MGM released the first 20 James Bond films as Ultimate Edition DVDs. These re-releases featured remastered picture and sound, as well as an array of new special features, creating two-disc releases for every film (previously only Die Another Day had been rewarded with one). As well as being released individually, there was a box set -- packaged in a rather stylish Bond-like 007-logo-embossed briefcase -- that housed all 20. I bought this on release. It is rather lovely.

The point of all this is that now, 25.5 months on, I've finally finished going through all 40 discs... not watching them, you understand, just having a general look through. And counting up what's on them. And as I've done all that legwork, I'm now going to share some of my findings with you.


The Films

We'll start with the films themselves. Assume that I'm leaving the 21st film (that's Casino Royale, by-the-way) out of things unless I say otherwise.

So there are, as I've said, 20 Bond films, and if you wanted to watch them all back to back from UK DVD it would take you 40 hours, 3 minutes and 27 seconds. Except of course you'd have to change discs and sit through menu load times and what have you -- not to mention sleeping and eating -- so in reality it would take notably longer, but you know what I mean. I specifically say "on UK DVD" because they of course feature PAL speed-up; if you were to watch all 20 from a film print, it would take more like 41 hours, 43 minutes and 36 seconds. But that's just an estimate. (Additionally, throw Casino Royale into the mix -- from the first, slightly cut UK DVD (hopefully the new one will be uncut, but don't bank on it) -- and it'll take you 42 hours 22 mins.)

The longest Bond film is 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, at 2 hours 16 mins. (Casino Royale now pips it by 2 minutes 10 seconds.) The shortest is the first, 1962's Dr. No. Only eight of the films run under 2 hours, and in 1997 Tomorrow Never Dies (1 hour 54 mins) was the shortest Bond for 30 years. And two final pointless statistics: the actor who's got the longest total running time as Bond is Roger Moore (beating Sean Connery by just under 3 hours), while the longest average length belongs to one-time Bond George Lazenby -- entirely logically, if you think about it. (He'll probably keep hold of that too, as reports say Quantum of Solace will be shorter than Casino Royale, thereby keeping Daniel Craig's average down.)

The Commentaries

Moving on to the only first-disc extras for these films: commentaries (apart from two exceptions that I'll mention in a minute). There's no way I'm going to do something crazy like list all of the commentary participants -- while some stick to only using a couple of people (especially the specially-recorded ones on later films), many compile interviews with several people. What I can say is that, across the 20 films, there are a total of 35 commentary tracks. That's just over 70 hours of people yapping away over the top of movies. The additional 15 are provided for as follows:

Goldfinger has a "director & cast" track and a "crew" track

Thunderball has a "director & others" track and a "crew" track

Live and Let Die has three tracks: "director & others", the screenwriters, and Roger Moore solo

For Your Eyes Only also gets three: "director & cast", "crew", and Roger Moore solo

Timothy Dalton's second (and final) film, Licence to Kill, features "director & cast" and "producer & crew" tracks

Tomorrow Never Dies has one from the director and one from the producer & 2nd unit director

The World Is Not Enough has one by the director and one by three members of the crew

Die Another Day features one with the director & producer, and one with star Pierce Brosnan and sporadic contributions from Bond girl Rosamund Pike

And finally, the number is rounded out by an additional five solo Roger Moore commentaries -- that's one for each of his films.

I mentioned two exceptions. They are an 'isolated score' track on Tomorrow Never Dies, featuring David Arnold's wonderful score unobscured by sound effects or dialogue (it makes some awkward edits painfully obvious however), and an "MI6 Datastream" on Die Another Day. The latter is a silly name for a trivia track, where random bits of info are displayed in boxes on screen throughout the film. This one also occasionally branches out to featurettes (19 of them), during which the film is minimised to a tiny box while the behind-the-scenes footage plays in a larger one. It makes the film impossible to follow if you're not familiar with it, and also makes the featurettes awkward to find (or quantify the length of) without sitting through the whole thing.

"007 Mission Control"

I'll get to the extras proper in a minute, but first I have something stupid to mention. In what seems to be an effort to pad out the content of the second disc, each film contains something called "007 Mission Control". This is merely a selection of clips from the relevant film, divided up into six sections: 007, Women, Allies, Villains, Mission Combat Manual, and Q Branch. It is in every way pointless and just a waste of space, especially on Die Another Day (more on that in a moment).

The only worthwhile bit of it is a seventh 'category', called Exotic Locations. These are in fact short featurettes (three to five minutes long), narrated by a couple of different actresses from the series, that detail some of the locations featured in their relative films. In total they run 1 hour 19 minutes, which is clearly far from insubstantial... but it doesn't justify the 18 hours total wasted by Mission Control! Bloody stupid idea that was.

The Extras

So to the extras themselves. I'm not going to attempt to list all of them -- there are 250+ separate items across the series -- but there are a variety of things included: original documentaries, including specific Inside... 'making of's on each of the first 16 films, as well as broader ones that cover specific elements or contributors; vintage featurettes from the time of the film's release; newly-uncovered behind-the-scenes footage; deleted scenes (though not on Die Another Day, despite various sources having confirmed their existence); storyboards; image galleries; music videos; trailers, for every film (except Die Another Day), and TV and radio spots for many... I think that broadly summarises what's there.

You'll undoubtedly have noticed me having several jibes at Die Another Day throughout this post. Well, they're with good reason. The first 19 films all receive well-deserved re-releases: the image quality on all of them is immeasurably better than the dirty, standard definition transfers from the old releases; and all have been treated to new extras, as well as retaining everything that was already there. Not so Die Another Day. Apparently the picture quality of the film is improved from the original release -- which, incidentally, was only three years old when this new one appeared -- but the extras have been ransacked! True, there are a handful of new elements that reuse some of the old material... but they only total 40 minutes, and one of the things now missing is the 81 minute Inside Die Another Day feature! Not to mention other bits and bobs, including multi-angle sequences, shorter featurettes and music videos. Plus, as mentioned earlier, the deleted scenes still aren't present and the trailers and TV spots -- surely easily available just three-and-a-half years after release? -- haven't been added to the package.

It's especially galling because there's clearly room on the disc. Die Another Day's extras total 2 hours 10 mins; with "Mission Control" wasting space, that's 3 hours... but the three other Brosnan films have around 3 hours 45 minutes of material on disc two, as do several of the older films (Thunderball for one). How ludicrous is that? Especially when there's the Ultimate Edition label slapped on it -- all things considered, it's not really as good as the first release, never mind better than it! Of all the Bonds, this is clearly the one to hold out on -- I'd wager that, when it comes time to re-release them on Blu-ray (the first releases, coming soon, will just duplicate these Ultimate Editions), Die Another Day will regain some of that missing documentary material, and maybe even rediscover its deleted scenes (the other three Brosnan films all have deleted scenes that weren't on their original releases).

Totals

Rant over, I'll get to the final point of this thing: the total running times for the extras and the collection as a whole.

But first... The best film in the extras department is GoldenEye, with 2 hours 59 mins of the stuff. The weakest is For Your Eyes Only, which only scrapes together 1 hour 19 mins. The amount of new material on each release varies wildly, from as little as 18 minutes to as much as 1 hour 40 mins. Several have over an hour of new stuff, and it's only a few that sink below 30 mins.

But what of that grand total? Well, I can tell you that the running time of all those extras exceeds that of the films themselves, topping out at 43 hours, 4 minutes and 37 seconds!

So, when you put all of this stuff together, how long would it take you to get through the whole damn lot? You're going to need plenty of time, because the total length of these 20 Ultimate Editions' content is 173 hours, 50 minutes and 18 seconds!

I'm so never going to watch all of that. It's over seven solid days for crying out loud!

Casino Royale

Just to finish up, a note on Casino Royale.

As I said way back at the start of this post (do you remember that? It must seem a long time ago now...), it's about to be re-released in a three-disc edition bursting with extras. I say "bursting" -- it bloody better be as I'm going to be buying it again. Anyway, the initial release wasn't quite as shoddy as some might suppose: as well as containing a good-looking (and sounding) copy of the film, it also manages 54 minutes of film-specific extras plus a 49 minute documentary on Bond girls. That's not a bad tally really, even though the new edition should easily top it. That considered, I won't be including those numbers in a total here... so expect an update before long.

Incidentally, if you're an extras fan and want the re-release, but already own the old one, I suggest selling it sharpish -- you've got 49 days til the new edition hits shelves...

Articles

Brand brands Sachs row 'meaningless' by Sarah Rollo
(from Digital Spy)
Ooh, controversial headline! I think I'll complain! Etc. However, he does have a point.

Quantum of Solace Rules International Box Office by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
I love a good round of statistics, and here's some good statistics: "on general release in 58 new markets around the world and opened bigger than Casino Royale in every single one of them (13 even managed to double what Royale did). [It] grossed a whopping $106.5 million this weekend in 61 territories, making it the 11th biggest international weekend ever. The film grossed more than triple the combined foreign take for the next four entries on the list... Despite not having opened in the US, Australia, Japan, Mexico and Spain yet, the 10-day cumulative total for Quantum of Solace stands at $160.3 million." Follow the link for loads more.

Review of The Incredible Hulk R1 DVD by James Gray
(from DVD Times)
"The two monsters dutifully tear apart a few apartment blocks before the Abomination keels over and surrenders and everyone goes home happy they’ve had their yearly fill of watching CGI monsters do battle while being simultaneously relieved they’ve left without getting the same headache as Transformers gave them last year."

Top Gear secret code mocks Strictly by Michael Thornton
(from Digital Spy)
It's the in thing these days to complain to the BBC about nothing -- especially if that nothing happens on a controversial show -- so I wonder how many this will manage?

Articles

Daniel Craig On Shaking And Stirring James Bond by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"I love those lines and I think they are absolutely valid but... if you drop them in just because a member of the audience thinks that it is not a Bond movie without them, they are bad gags."
A slightly different interview about what they were trying to achieve with Quantum of Solace, and what lies ahead for Bond 23. Hopefully, it'll be reassuring to both those who disliked QoS ("I do think Quantum of Solace is the end of this sort of intensity. The next... won't be so balls to the wall... Also, there will be a lot more gags.") and those, like me, who thought it was still pretty good ("If I start judging him or taking the piss out of him, which would be the worst thing to do, then it is all over and there is no room to go.").

Articles

Final Secret Crisis Invasion - But at What Cost? by Newsarama Staff
(from Newsarama.com)
Comics can be seriously ludicrous. This year, the two major publishers have each had major 'events', spanning new titles, miniseries, and issues in existing books: Secret Invasion for Marvel and Final Crisis (what's the betting that'll turn out to be a misnomer?) for DC. Obviously buying all the various issues would be very costly, but as they're doled out month by month over a year (or more) it can be easy to miss just how much one is spending. And the totals it would cost a dedicated comic fan to buy all of the relevant stuff? $378.78 for Secret Invasion, $135.08 for Final Crisis (or up to $317.56 if you include relevant prequel series published in 2007). It's because of things like this that I don't buy comics.

Getting Into The Graveyard Book With Neil Gaiman by Zack Smith
(from Newsarama.com)
Neil Gaiman discuss this & that, including why we won't learn much about his forthcoming two-issue Batman story -- titled Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? in tribute to the famous Alan Moore Superman story -- until it hits shelves.

Quantum of Solace Sets Bond Box Office Record With $70.4 Million Debut by Devin Zydel
and
James Bond Finds Solace At International Box Office For Third Straight Weekend by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
Quelle surprise. And it's expected to continue to do very well, even in the UK, where despite a lot of negative reaction it's only dropped 41% of business into its third week (while that might sound a lot, it really isn't).
The focus on the US by Bond fansites amuses or annoys me alternately, considering Bond is a British character in fairly British films who's always done a lot better in the rest of the world than he has in the US -- when most films were getting 50% of their total from the US and 50% the rest of the world, Bond was doing more like 40/60 (respectively), if not higher. Ah well, you can never escape the Americans' overdeveloped sense of self importance.

SFX 177 Preview: Red Dwarf News by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Teeny tiny snippets of new info on the forthcoming Red Dwarf specials. The new issue of SFX (which this is obviously taken from) is out on Wednesday, so there may be more then. (It also has some form of huge Watchmen feature. Yay!)

Watchmen – First Look by Jayne Nelson
(from SFX)
Absolutely bursting with spoilers -- including about changes they've made, so even people who've read the book may wish to skip this one.

Films

Changeling Trailer
"The debut trailer for the Clint Eastwood-directed thriller... Existing somewhere between L.A. Confidential and Flightplan, Changeling tells the based-on-true-events tale of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a single mum living in 1920's Los Angeles whose young son goes missing one day. Months later, the police find the boy and return him to his mother's loving arms - but the problem is, he's not her son... A case that rocked California's legal system and uncovered the institutionalised corruption that was eating away at the prohibition-era LA police department". (Description from Empire.)

The Prestige (2006)
[2nd watch]
Even better a second time through. Obviously you have to see it once not knowing all the plot's revelations, but when you do its fun seeing the clues layered in, virtually unnoticeably, right from the start.

Some behind-the-scenes videos from Quantum of Solace...

First up, a look at the work going on for the title sequence, an essential element for any Bond film. There's no shots from the finished sequence, but the behind-the-scenes look at filming the girls gives an idea where it must be going -- as with the posters and the music video, the desert. (Available in HD, if you want it.)

From Crackle: Blog: Ben Randatz and Tim Fisher

And second, a more general and generic 'news wrap' containing interviews with Daniel Craig, director Marc Forster and producer Michael G. Wilson.

From Crackle: Quantum Of Solace: News Wrap 1

this week on 100 Films

4 brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


Daybreakers (2009)

offers an original and imaginative world (how would mankind cope if we couldn’t go out in daylight? Maybe like this). It’s somewhat let down by a few campy performances and a sensibility that reverts to action sequences, but originality counts for a lot

Read more here.


Kill List (2011)

mixes in its genre elements — and they’re elements from a couple of different genres at that — so gradually that it’s hard to discuss them without spoiling the film... It’s kind of a compilation of traditional British movie genres: we begin with kitchen sink, then discover we’re actually watching a crime film, before the final act swerves (though not without foreshadowing) into folk horror.

Read more here.


Macbeth (2015)

The text is heavily cut (a copy & paste & delete-bits job that somehow took three screenwriters), to the displeasure of some critics, though this is primarily because Kurzel chose to supplant some of the dialogue with Filmmaking. In a film?! How very dare he! What I mean, more specifically, is that he’s visualised parts of the text; applied the old rule of “show don’t tell”.

Read more here.


The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Guy Ritchie is a self-confessed non-fan of the classic ’60s spy-fi series, so he seems a somewhat odd choice to helm this long-gestating big-screen reboot... Unsurprisingly, he gives it a bit of the Sherlock Holmeses (namely, a semi-comedic tone and appropriately swish, ’60s-ish direction)

Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Casino Royale (2006)

Bourne happened, shifting the playing field of the spy-action genre... What Casino Royale does skilfully is acknowledge the changes brought by Bourne, but adapt them to Bond’s slightly more classical style (something Quantum of Solace fumbled). At the same time, it acknowledges and frequently subverts that Bond formula

Read more here.


Children of Men (2006)

Cuarón mixes intelligent near-future sci-fi with exciting, and excitingly-realised, action sequences to create an action-thriller of a movie that stimulates both the mind and the adrenal glands. A fantastic film in every respect.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Casino Royale Refresher

Five Casino Royale Pointers For Quantum Of Solace
(from Empire Online)
Quantum of Solace is pretty reliant on the previous film's plot -- I should know, I've seen it -- but doesn't come with much exposition/reiteration or any flashbacks, so it might be worth swotting up a little before you go see it. Which you will, obviously.