Busting through the sheetrock (Casino Royale)

Shooting the fire extinguisher as a smoke screen (Skyfall)

The way the female MI6 agent picks up Ryan on the back of her motorcycle and his subtle response to the idea (NTTD) Or how she comes out of nowhere earlier when they first meet and orders him "Get IN!" (QOS) During a fight scene also reminiscent of QOS.

There were a handful of others too.. anyone else pick up on them ? What did you notice ?

Happy New Year my fellow Bond Fans! 

Here's hoping we get some great Bond news this year. What do you want to hear most from the world of James Bond?

For me: 

The usual:

Bond 26 news, new adult Bond novel, 007 First Light to make its release date. I'm simple.

On the humor of Bond:

"The only thing I said to the producers was that the character had one defect, there was no humor about him; to get him accepted, they’d have to let me play him tongue-in-cheek, so people could laugh." (Playboy, 1965)

On Bond's personality: 

"I don’t really suppose I’d like Bond if I met him. He’s not my kind of chap at all." (New York Times, 1964)

On Fleming's original vision:

"When I spoke about Bond with Fleming, he said that when the character was conceived, Bond was a very simple, straightforward, blunt instrument of the police force, a functionary who would carry out his job rather doggedly." (Playboy, 1965)

On his favorite: 

"On the Bond front it would be From Russia With Love, because that story worked." (Golden Globes interview)

On the "Bond" label:

"I would never deny that Bond made me, and I’ll be everlastingly grateful to him. But that doesn’t make me a Bond-slave. I can cut the shackles free any time I want to." (New York Times, 1964)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrqCLmXNmjA

As is broadly known, Sean Connery appears to wear a Rolex ref. 6538 in the first four Eon Productions Bond films. It is also generally known that he wore the watch on a leather strap in the first of the two films (“Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love”), and on a one-piece nylon strap in the latter two films (“Goldfinger” and “Thunderball”). It seems most likely that the Rolex was owned personally by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, one of the producers. Details are quite scarce on the leather strap, and there exists a lot of misinformation about the nylon strap. There are no known photographs of the watch being worn by Broccoli, so it is not known for sure what strap or bracelet it was on just prior to the production of “Dr. No.”

THE LEATHER STRAP

 It is often asserted that the strap was black, but on closer examination of many scenes from both “Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love,” it strongly appears to have been a dark brown color. The color of the buckle is not as clear cut; in the best still of the buckle I’ve seen it looks at first glance to be gold in color, but it could easily be silver in color and simply reflecting the tree Connery is resting against in the photo. There are very few photographs that do a good job of communicating the texture of the strap, but there is one publicly photo I’ve seen that seems to suggest it was alligator or crocodile. This is intriguing, as my understanding is that crocodile/alligator was quite expensive in the early sixties, and usually paired with gold watches (making the color of buckle perhaps likely to have been gold, as it appears). If it indeed was crocodile or alligator as it appears to have been, I’m inclined to believe this was the personal strap of Cubby Broccoli, as I think it unlikely the production would have given it that much attention. There is however one somewhat interesting peculiarity about the strap: If one looks closely at some stills, they appear to show that the strap was actually 19mm, not quite fitting the 20mm lugs of the Rolex. This is particularly apparent in a shot in “From Russia With Love” shortly before Bond steals the Lecter. This is fairly humorous, given the later nylon strap was 16mm, so at no point in time was the watch ever worn onscreen with a fitting strap.

THE NYLON STRAP

It is usually asserted that the nylon strap was a NATO variant, or at least a military strap of some description; this is nonsense:

1. The first specification for the NATO strap - DefStan 66-4 Issue 1 - was published in August of 1968; principal photography for “Goldfinger” began in January of 1964
2. Aside from being one piece nylon straps, there is very little in common between the NATO strap and the Bond strap; the NATO strap has metal keepers while the Bond strap has a fixed nylon keeper, the buckle of the NATO strap is rectangular while the buckle of the Bond strap is horseshoe shaped, the NATO strap uses chrome plated brass hardware while the Bond strap has the duller appearance of nickel plating, the NATO strap was defined as being either “steel gray” or “admiralty gray” (depending on the revision of the standard) while the Bond strap features black (or possibly dark blue) and green stripes with red piping, on paper the NATO strap was either 18.5mm or 18mm +/- 0.5mm (depending on the revision of the standard) while the Bond strap was 16mm.
3. I have access to a strap that appears to be almost identical to Bond strap, only with navy blue and red stripes with green piping, and brushed brass buckle (but of the right general shape). The only other difference I can detect is that the Bond strap appears to have had 7 holes, while this strap has 8. This strap has no military provenance, it appears to be just a cheap commercial watch strap, purchased by my dad perhaps 15 years ago at a (now demolished) antique shop in Bothell, Washington of all places.

In all likelihood the leather watch strap failed by the time principal photography of “Goldfinger” began necessitating a replacement, and the most expedient strap available was thrown on with next to no thought. It’s even possible the strap originally belonged to a member of the crew, like a grip. The Cuba scene featuring the best closeup of the watch in the whole series was filmed at Pinewood Studios very early in the production, making it likely this is the only strap worn on the watch in the film.

AFTER THUNDERBALL

At this point the watch drops completely off the map. We neither have solid evidence that Connery returned the watch to Broccoli, nor that Connery ever wore it again on or off screen. What is known is that by “You Only Live Twice” the relationship between Connery snd Broccoli became severely strained to say the least. Probably the best likely outcome is that Connery did in fact return the watch when their professional and personal relationship degraded, Broccoli kept but retired the watch, and it now exists today in the possession of the Broccoli family somewhere. If that’s not the case, it seems unlikely the watch will ever resurface with provenance

https://www.rogerdeakins.com/reflections/

This thread is for showcasing the different print advertisements and visual media that are related to James Bond

Could be a tv ad for a film, An original Bond commercial featuring Bond alumni, A print ad from a magazine direct from Eon or simply winking to 007, a book launch etc etc.

I'll start: Heres John Cleese reprising his role as Q promoting Die Another Day (2002)

A real Octopussy Egg is incredible, but this story is more incredible than first appears.

Its 'all guts, but no glory!'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vm754r80vo

James Bond in

https://twitter.com/ThatTallGinger/status/1548771729689952260

https://thehollywoodnews.com/2024/05/05/first-look-at-new-spy-movie-knightfall-with-geoffrey-moore/

Inspired by articles like this

https://notperfectedyet.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/five-changes-to-the-spectre-script-that-could-have-improved-the-film/

And this:

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2567543/in-defense-spectre-james-bond-movie-unfair-rep-007-daniel-craig

I thought I would try to 'improve' Spectre. But there are ground rules. It can't be a page one rewrite, that would be too easy. Instead I will work within as much of the story as possible but fixing the 'problems' that many fans have with the film.

For example, while the third act will significantly change, the MI6 HQ demolition and bridge helicopter crash will still occur.

I have an idea for resolving the 'brother' plot point but won't reveal it for now.

The finished script won't be put online until next year hence the 2022 in the title.

Some key scenes are already done. Here is one, enjoy.

Someone Will Return.

This display, in the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, sets Bond's Walther PPK against Dirty Harry's 44 Magnum, and whatever it was that Rambo used. By comparison, it looks like Bond's Walther is next for the same "lady's handbag" that DN's Quartermaster had in mind for the Beretta.

These DAF and 'Dirty Harry' posters caught my eye in the display case; the films are of the same vintage. The Magnum features heavily in the 'Dirty Harry' poster. The Walther in the DAF poster is metely a prop in Bond's conventional pose; the playboy idea being more to the fore.

An official screenwriter(s) for Bond 26. NOT Purvis and Wade, please.

Pierce Brosnan 4K remaster collection announcement.

Some news on Iridescent by Gail Simone for Dynamite Comics.

An original Adult Bond adventure novel, or another spinoff series, from IFP. Preferably modern day.

Some more information and updates on 007 Cypher and First Light.

Some more info on James Bond and the Secret Academy, from M.W. Craven.

An official title for the Q Mysteries second book, and The 00-Trilogy Finale (for now).

Also, that The Hook and the Eye and Quantum of Menace make their October releases.

IFP publishing an affordable edition of Ian Fleming's recently unearthed Moonraker film script would be a nice treat for us literary Bond fans. It would make sense, as it is the 70th anniversary of Moonraker. Maybe, a Dynamite Comics version of the story. Unfortunately, it sounds like Van Jensen is done with Bond, for now.

Maybe a re-release of Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz, for it's 10th anniversary.

The usual Bond research books.

Biographies of those associated with the series.

Above all, IFP restores Fleming's original text to his books.

That's all I can think of for now. To be honest, this list is somewhat from other lists that I've made on other Bond sites. I'm sure we'll be getting some unique announcements! We are being spoiled as Bond fans quite a bit this year so far!

They all have big Bond action and real Bond music. As a lifelong Bond fan I get a lot of enjoyment from making these.

Enjoy!

I have now completed the build of my fourth James Bond Goldfinger Aston Martin Model DB5.

But this one is TOTALLY UNIQUE. 

After over two years of building, creating and inventing it’s finished. 

In my YouTube (link above) video you will see how I have made ALL of ‘Q’s gadgets work from armrest buttons.  

All of the following items are built into the model:

Fully Carpeted,

4 x LiPo Rechargeable Batteries, 

1 x 30 Amp Li-ion Rechargeable Battery and a Hand Twisted & Coiled Sub 1 ohm Nichrome Heating Element (for the smoke),

3 x Electro Magnets,

2 x Stepper Motors,

1 x 2-phase 4-wire Stepper Motor Driver Control board,

4 x Electric Motors, 

3 x Electric Fans,

2 x Electric Water Pumps, 

14 x Pushbuttons,

3 x Reed Switches,

4 x Micro Switches,

4 x Relays,

1 x Latching IC (for the side lights),

2 x Buck Voltage Controls,

2 x Sound Recording Cards,

1 x Machine Gun Sound & LED Circuit, 

1 x Dual H-Bridge, Forward and Reverse, motor driver IC

5 x Wire Hand Wound Screw Movements,

2 x Water Tanks (Custom Made from Pill bottles),

1 x Volt / Amp Meter,

20 x LED’s,

And an 18 Watt Audio Amplifier with a 2” Full Range Speaker (for All Sounds and music).

I know its a little small (50mm wide, should probably be more like 75mm), but it was the biggest piece of pearl I could find.

I was inspired by these: