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Capone With Further Tales Of His QUANTUM OF SOLACE London Adventure!!
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here, with my second report about my recent QUANTUM OF SOLACE adventures in London. I've already filled you in on the centerpiece of my four-day, three-night journey--interviews with QUANTUM director Marc Forster and James Bond himself, Daniel Craig--but the good folks at Columbia/Sony Pictures had many an activity planned for myself and small group of online journalists.
The interviews actually took place on the morning of our second day in London. One the first day, the afternoon began with high tea at the historic Brown Hotel, the first and oldest hotel in London, located in Mayfair. The hotel was founded by Lord Byron's butler, James Brown, in 1837, and has been hosting dignitaries and celebrities ever since. Alexander Graham Bell made the first-ever European telephone call from the Brown; both Roosevelt presidents stayed at the Brown for their respective honeymoons; and while staying at the Brown, Rudyard Kipling wrote "The Jungle Book" and Agatha Christie wrote "At Bertram's Hotel."
Bond creator Ian Fleming was also quite fond of this hotel, and so it was appropriate that we met his niece, Lucy Fleming in the hotel's English Tea Room. Now, I'm not much of a tea drinker, but the lemon tea I had at the Brown was one of the greatest things I've ever tasted. Daughter of actress Celia Johnson and writer Peter Fleming, Lucy Fleming was really enjoyable to talk to about her history with her uncle's work. Since 1997, she and her sister Kate have been in charge of Ian Fleming Publications, which continues to publish James Bond titles as well as a series for young adults called Young Bond, which are apparently quite popular in the UK and have seen five books published since 2005. She admitted that she's been approached about adapting Young Bond into movies, but the company hasn't decided whether this will happen.
After spending another hour in the adjoining bar (serving Bond-themed drink, and not just for our benefit--I highly recommend the Goldfinger, a sort of champagne/tequila mixture), we were swept away to our next destination, a screening room in Soho to watch 10 minutes of QUANTUM OF SOLACE footage in preparation for our interviews the next morning.
I'm not 100 percent certain what footage we saw can be considered spoiler material and what isn't, but let's wrap a big blanket SPOILER WARNING around this whole report, okay? I won't give too much away, but the footage opens quietly, with a young attractive couple entering a room. Bond is waiting for them, gun in hand and angrily tells them to "Sit down!" He asks the woman her name, and she say "Corrine." He dismisses her by saying to tell "your people" to checks their seals, they have a leak. Then says that he and her male friend have some unfinished business to attend to (this line is in the new trailer).
The scene quickly transitions to a car chase, guns a-blazing, through a series of tunnels. A title card then tells us the action is moving to Siena, Italy, where Bond, M, and a couple of other agents are interrogating Mr. White, the man Bond captured at the end of CASINO ROYALE. He looks like he's been a tad bit tortured. This is similar to the sequence in the trailer. He's laughing at them and saying that the first thing Bond needs to realize is that "we have people everywhere." What we don't see in the trailer is the next line Mr. White delivers to one of the unknown figures in the room: "Am I right?" Suddenly a gun battle erupts and seems to lead Bond and whoever is shooting at him into a foot chase in a sewer system.
A great deal of the footage we saw was extended out from what we see in the newest trailer. But many of the action sequences (I think I counted six or seven such sequences represented in the 10 minutes; and remember the film is only about 100 to 105 minutes long) were new to me. There's a brutal knife vs. glass shard fight between Bond and a mystery man, which leads to the moment in the trailer where Bond meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who believes Bond is the man he's just disposed of. As they drive away, Bond opens the case to reveal a gun and a photo of Camille. This sequence is also in the trailer when Bond casually makes mention to Camille that it would appear someone wants her dead. Someone she gets Bond out of the car and she arrives at the lair of Dominic Greene (the great French actor Mathieu Amalric), who is clearly surprised to see her still alive.
There's plenty of M (Judy Dench) footage as well, as she tries fruitlessly to reign in Bond, rather than allow him to seek revenge on the people responsible for the death of his one true love. We also see a few other familiar faces in the trailer, including René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) from CASINO ROYALE and Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), which shouldn't come as any surprise since this film begins 10 minutes after CASINO ROYALE ends.
A bit of the old Bond sexiness reappears when a woman from the consulate appears to take him back to London on the next available flight, which happens to be the following morning. "Well, then we have all night," he says to the sexy redhead (or should I say bed head?), played by Gemma Arterton. Greene and Bond seem to keep getting thrown in with each other on a couple of occasions. The best line from the trailer?
Greene: "My friends call me Dominic."
Bond: "I'm sure they do."
Zing! Greene seems way too familiar with Bond's personal and professional history. "Everything he touches withers and dies," he says to Camille.
There's one sequence in which Bond prepares Camille to take a life that is so loaded with tension that it seems out of place in the action-heavy film. He talks about the listening to the adrenaline versus remembering your training, and it's such a great speech that it reminds you we are dealing with the single greatest pure actor to ever play James Bond.
After the interviews were done on Day 2, we were taken about an hour outside of London to the legendary Pinewood Studios, where we had lunch and spent a few hours touring the grounds. Every single Bond film has had some portion shot at Pinewood, not be mention dozens of other films and TV series. We even saw the building that houses "The Weakest Link" set! Clearly the big film that had taken over much of the studio's larger sets (including the 007 soundstage) was PRINCE OF PERSIA. Although we didn't see any actual filming, we did see elaborate and ornate sets being built in several locations. I even saw a fake palm tree being constructed. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A fantastic primer about Pinewood's history was given to us on the bus by "Cinema Retro" publisher and noted Bond historian Dave Worrall, who also guided us through Pinewood's vast acreage.
NOTE: CLICK TO ENLARGE ANY IMAGE
Our first stop at Pinewood was the stunning dining room, where we had lunch with Bond executive producer Anthony Waye. That name should be very familiar to all of you since he began his career as an assistant director on such films as STAR WARS, CLASH OF THE TITANS, THE ELEPHANT MAN, JULIA, and nearly every Bond film since FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. I believe his first executive producer credit came with DIE ANOTHER DAY. I'll have a separate piece on some of the things he said about QUANTUM OF SOLACE as well as the new take and tone of the Bond franchise.
The tour was like walking through movie history (at least British movie history), as Worrall showed us the mansion gardens and grounds, which included a few landmarks you might recognize. He also walked us into the massive Paddock Water Tank (complete with blue screen). That hole in the middle of the tank is used when filmmakers actually want to sink something in the water, like a car or small boat.
Then we made our way to the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, which might be the most massive building I've ever seen. Not the tallest, but just massive. You could build a city inside of this building, which is exactly what some people have done over the years.
As we talked down the long road to get to the 007 Stage, I tried to look into another other building with an open door, just to see what went on in these magnificent confines. I didn't see much (aside from the PRINCE OF PERSIA sets, which we were forbidden from taking pictures of), but I did see this coffin!
And just to remind you that Pinewood owes so much of its success to the Bond franchise, many of the more highly traveled roads that go through the grounds are named accordingly. By the way, the brick building sporting the Broccoli Road sign is called the Stanley Kubrick Building, since Kubrick shot a great deal of EYES WIDE SHUT at Pinewood.
After a quick trip to the makeshift general store for some extremely cool souvenirs, we were off to one last destination--the Imperial War Museum in London, which currently houses the "For Your Eyes Only" Exhibition dedicated to the life and influences of Ian Fleming in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday this year.
This wasn't so much about the Bond films as it was about the people and events that went into the creation of James Bond in the many Fleming novels. It was kind of staggering to see Fleming original hand-typed first draft of "Casino Royale," or first-edition copies of all the Fleming-written Bond books, or the original Fleming-written screenplay for the pilot of a proposed Bond TV series (pre-DR. NO) for British television. It's a phenomenal collection well worth the price of admission.
I'll have one more report for you. It won't be particularly long, but it will have some sweet photos of Aston Martins, including the one that Daniel Craig drives in QUANTUM OF SOLACE and the one that he wrecks. I'll leave you with this parting image from Pinewood Studios.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
NOTE: CLICK TO ENLARGE ANY IMAGE
The tour was like walking through movie history (at least British movie history), as Worrall showed us the mansion gardens and grounds, which included a few landmarks you might recognize. He also walked us into the massive Paddock Water Tank (complete with blue screen). That hole in the middle of the tank is used when filmmakers actually want to sink something in the water, like a car or small boat.
Then we made our way to the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, which might be the most massive building I've ever seen. Not the tallest, but just massive. You could build a city inside of this building, which is exactly what some people have done over the years.
As we talked down the long road to get to the 007 Stage, I tried to look into another other building with an open door, just to see what went on in these magnificent confines. I didn't see much (aside from the PRINCE OF PERSIA sets, which we were forbidden from taking pictures of), but I did see this coffin!
And just to remind you that Pinewood owes so much of its success to the Bond franchise, many of the more highly traveled roads that go through the grounds are named accordingly. By the way, the brick building sporting the Broccoli Road sign is called the Stanley Kubrick Building, since Kubrick shot a great deal of EYES WIDE SHUT at Pinewood.
After a quick trip to the makeshift general store for some extremely cool souvenirs, we were off to one last destination--the Imperial War Museum in London, which currently houses the "For Your Eyes Only" Exhibition dedicated to the life and influences of Ian Fleming in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday this year.
This wasn't so much about the Bond films as it was about the people and events that went into the creation of James Bond in the many Fleming novels. It was kind of staggering to see Fleming original hand-typed first draft of "Casino Royale," or first-edition copies of all the Fleming-written Bond books, or the original Fleming-written screenplay for the pilot of a proposed Bond TV series (pre-DR. NO) for British television. It's a phenomenal collection well worth the price of admission.
I'll have one more report for you. It won't be particularly long, but it will have some sweet photos of Aston Martins, including the one that Daniel Craig drives in QUANTUM OF SOLACE and the one that he wrecks. I'll leave you with this parting image from Pinewood Studios.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
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Get yourself up Soho. ;)
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I live in London and it's nice to see a guy from the US geek out at British stuff. I thought you considered all the cool film history to come from you guys. Nice to be proven wrong. You really see the broader scope of cinema. I also always wondered whether Americans took Bond seriously or saw it as a big joke, or a way of saying, "Hey look! The Brits are trying to make an action film again, let's go stare!".
Again, glad to be pleasantly surprised. -
That would make it the shortest Bond film ever. What's the deal?
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Oct 10, 2008 4:12:35 PM CDT
I wonder who had sex with more men......Daniel Craig...
by dannyglovers_dickblood
...or Robert Downey Jr. in the 80s.
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One month to go.
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Also, wouldn't 105 minutes make it the shortest Bond film in history?
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Why? Do you not have men's shitters over in the U.S? Was there some holiday romance going on in there? What am I missing?
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I don't believe it, even from the guy on set....that's way too f'n short, and short movies that are supposed to be epic end up being awful (X-Men 3 anyone?)....hopefully this movie will get longer magically.
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Oct 10, 2008 6:00:06 PM CDT
Dr.No, Goldfinger, and From Russia...are under 2 hours.
by iamjack'suserid
And those are only a few that I looked up. Still though, not quite as short as this one. Hope that just means a tightly made action movie but with good character moments.
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so many movies these days suffer from going on forever and thus losing momentum. 100 Minutes is a great length for any action movie.
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will cranky-menopause judi dench once again way too much screentime or will bond run around like the energizer bunny again?
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For a movie that is packing in so much in such a realtively short time, it has got me suddenly thinking that this film could fail. Check this out... a movie that has at least twice as much action as Casino Royale, a multi layered plot premise which sounds sooo very complex and constantly developing, plus we also are supposed to get a movie which is further developing and exploring the character of Bond, like Casino Royale did an extending it. So you got all this ground to cover, plus you want the film to still have room to breathe and maintain a certain epic feel, which is one of the things that makes Bond unique and like has been said above, lifts it above a mediocre in one eye out the other standard action movie. I personally just don't see these guys cramming all of this into this short running time. What feels like it should be one of the longer Bonds has been stated by other websites as being officially the SHORTEST of ALL Bond movies. I'm not casting judgement on Cumquat of Sausage and jumping to conclusions about it, all I'm saying with all of this, is that all things considered, I have great doubts about this movie now, when before I had great confidence. I hope it all works out extremely well, I'm just not sure it will.
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I've already read reviews talking along the lines of "next Goldeneye" - if you know anything about gamming, you know what high praise that kind of comment is.
Of course, that's probably not the first time that's been used and it may fall short of the acclaim, in the hands of the masses - but be prepared for (yet another) resurgence in the Bond franchise... -
Come on, you guys know it. I'm tired of good action movies being reduced to passable action movies because of an unnecessary tacked on half hour. So many just lose momentum way before the end. This running time sounds just right. Casino Royal could have been alot better a half hour shorter. Forster has the right idea.
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I believe it was you who,s had more men up their backsides in the 80,s.
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Is the oldest 5 star hotel in London. Do you really think a hotel that only opened in 1837 was the oldest in London? This is the UK! Not some n00b country with only just over 200 years under it's belt..... ;)
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must have been from the fire a couple of years back. I remember the 007 stage set was gutted. Anyway, nice photos and interesting article. Lucky you.
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Not a lot of interest in this set visit. Do you think it's because there's not a lot interest in the movie? The report? The contributor? The fact that it is a weekend?
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... there being plenty of other sites where Bond fans can air their views, Superjim, and AICN is renown for its geeky comic book, torture porn leanings where talkbackers like to discuss the size of their manhood and how much jism is in their balls. This Bond film is probably too high-brow for most of them. Anyway, I welcome these reports... just tell us more please.
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I think they're about a year away from its release!
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Was there a Glory Hole like the one in Paddys Pub (in Philadelphia)? LOL!
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I must admit that I'm concerned about the length, also. Mostly because this script was written on the quick; Haggis turned over his polished version just before the writer's strike began. Also, Forster has spoken publicly about how difficult the editing process has been. He was dictated a length by the producers and has struggled to meet it. I don't mind a shorter Bond film, but these various factors make the length seem more like a necessity than a creative choice. Let's hope that EON wasn't merely trying to continue the momentum of CR by pushing QOS out before it was ready.
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seriously....I cant be the ONLY person who thought Casino Royale was a decent action movie, but a Bond movie?!?!? sorry NO!!!!!It was missing too many aspects of Bond- the women, the gadgets-a Bond movie without Q or Moneypenny??? You could rename Bond and it wouldnt be missing anything....
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Casino Royale was the worst Bond movie, because it wasn't a Bond movie. A Hulk-looking motherfucker with a potato face and blonde hair, should have been cast as a fuckin bond villain.
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