My autograph of Tanya Roberts.
I had a crush on Tanya since the early days of Tourist Trap and Charlie's Angels.
It was amazing to meet her. She was lovely.

Attachment 235510

At long last...in cinemas September 30

The 'final' international trailer for 'No Time To Die'

The trailer is extremely well constructed and has done a great job of piquing my interest in the film. It has massively increased the chances I'll be in a cinema in five weeks, probably watching the first showing on a weekday when it will be quieter than in the evening.

I am fairly reluctant to go to the cinema, but I know if I don't see No Time to Die on the big screen with full cinema sound, I'll watch it at home several months later and regret not watching it at the cinema.

This Bond Breakdown is an interesting database which does 'Bond by the numbers', breaking down each film into a number of different categories.

It's easy to see that Sean Connery's Bond is a drinker, Roger Moore's likes his gadgets, and Daniel Craig's films feature a lot of stunt actors.

https://www.olbg.com/insights/bond-breakdown/

That looks fun

Don't know about Connery being the drinker with 12 units. According to SPECTRE Craig drank 25 units.

Plus it seems Moore despite his seemingly lighter portrayal is actually the most ruthless killer.

I've been looking through and have taken screenshots of each actor's profile, so they might be easier to look through that way.

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...an-connery.jpg

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...oger-moore.jpg

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...ge-lazenby.jpg

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...thy-dalton.jpg

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...ce-brosnan.jpg

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/mem...niel-craig.jpg

Looking at the averages, Pierce Brosnan is the deadliest bond, Timothy Dalton is a gadget man, a booze hound, a ladies man, and a jetsetter!

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/att...able.jpg?stc=1

No idea how those averages work but Dalton's booze doesn't add up.

If he drank ten units across two films then to me his average is five. How they get 24 is beyond me.

That is weird and it seems there is a bug in the programming. When making the table, I had to switch to the numbers around because one of them, I think it was the number of villains killed, had a higher average than the total.

Hardy leads next James Bond frontrunners

Venom star Tom Hardy and Bridgerton actor Rege-Jean Page continue to lead the pace as contenders to be the next James Bond.

London’s Royal Albert Hall will host the world premiere of No Time To Die on Tuesday, September 28, with the film set to roll out nationwide from September 30.

And with that the curtain will come down on Daniel Craig’s time as the famous super spy, 15 years and five films after his maiden outing in 2006’s Casino Royale; officially the longest serving actor in the role.

But as one door closes, another one opens, and Revenant and Venom star Hardy is the lead choice to be the next Bond at 5/2.

The Hammersmith-born 43-year-old has starred in such films as Star Trek: Nemesis, Warrior, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Dunkirk, and Venom, but could James Bond be added to his CV?

“Tom Hardy has been our favourite for sometime and he remains the obvious choice for a like-for-like Daniel Craig replacement,” said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams. “That said if they want to shake up the franchise then they could do a lot worse than Rege-Jean Page and that is where my money is going.”

Bridgerton’s dashing Duke of Hastings, Rege-Jean Page, has long been the internet’s choice to land the role amid news that he will star alongside Bond girl Ana de Armas in the Gray Man. This, as well as the news that Page will feature in Dungeons and Dragons alongside Chris Pine and Hugh Grant, show demand is high for the leading man’s services.

Page is joint second favourite at 3/1, alongside James Norton, whose Hollywood credentials have continued to grow. From Grantchester to Happy Valley, his CV is strong, and the 36-year-old Brit really raised the stakes with his turn as Alex Goodman in crime drama McMafia.

Welsh actor Luke Evans, who has made no bones about his willingness to take up the coveted role, continues to attract interest at 6/1. Completing the top five is London-born Luther star Idris Elba, along with Superman Henry Cavill (both 8/1).

Craig recently spoke out against the idea of having a female James Bond, but after 70 years and six male leads, would it be creatively rejuvenating to see what a female actor would bring to the role? And would it be enough to redress Hollywood’s diversity balance?

“In 2015 we offered 1000/1 that the next 007 would be female, we are now just 11/2,” said Adams. “Clearly our customers now think it is a real possibility.”

William Hill is offering odds of 11/2 for a female James Bond in the next movie, with star of BBC underwater thriller Vigil Suranne Jones (9/1) and 007 Lashana Lynch (10/1) to lead a female fronted spy thriller.

To view the full market from William Hill ahead of the UK release of No Time To Die visit: https://sports.williamhill.com/betti...r-daniel-craig

Henry Cavill would be my choice. He looks like Bond.

Why Sean Connery broke his promise to never play James Bond again

On this day on 27 September, 1982, Sean Connery taped on his James Bond toupee one last time to start filming Never Say Never Again on the French Riviera. Boasting an all-star cast that included Kim Basinger, Max Von Sydow, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Barbara Carrera, Bernie Casey, Rowan Atkinson, and Edward Fox, Connery’s 00-seventh Bond film would also shoot in the Bahamas and Elstree Studios.

It had been 12 years since his last outing as 007 in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, after which he’d sworn he would ‘never again’ play Ian Fleming’s secret agent, but he’d been tempted back for one last mission with a deal that offered more than just a huge payday.

His return in the unofficial, non-canon Bond film came with a side dish of revenge that would leave the producers of the official 007 films shaken and stirred.

Having left the role behind in 1971, Connery felt he was getting too long in the tooth for the rough and tumble required of the Bond blockbusters. But in the early 80s, the Scottish star had found himself backed into a corner by a series of movie flops and an ongoing legal dispute with a former accountant which had bled the coffers dry.

Enter Kevin McClory — the enterprising Irish filmmaker who had been a thorn in the side of the producers of the James Bond films for decades —- who was ready to make Connery a deal he simply could not refuse.

To play Bond again in Never Say Never Again, Connery asked for — and reportedly got — $5m, casting and script approval, and a share of the profits. On top of the money, the film also represented an opportunity to get revenge on Albert R ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films, who Connery felt had cheated him out of millions when he refused to make him an equal partner on the films in the 1960s.

But for Never Say Never Again, Connery wouldn’t have to deal with Broccoli (he’d split from Saltzman in 1971 over another money issue) as McClory had the rights to make a Bond film without him.


Having helped Ian Fleming formulate the story for his 1961 Bond book Thunderball — which crucially introduced Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld — the Irishman had gone to court to claim co-authorship of the book and any film adaptations.

Broccoli and co-producer Harry Saltzman made a deal with McClory to make Thunderball starring Connery in 1965, and McClory agreed to not adapt it again for at least ten years. With that moratorium over McClory had been doggedly trying to remake Thunderball for years (and had blocked the use of Blofeld in the official films) when the Connery situation reached critical mass.


So not only would Connery earn a fortune with a guaranteed box office hit, and give him the chance to have a hand in production on a Bond film for the first time ever, it would be a chance to settle an old score.

Never Say Never Again would go toe-to-toe with Octopussy at the box office giving Connery the chance to prove to Cubby that he was bigger than Bond and not the other way around.


Legal battles continued behind the scenes, with Broccoli’s lawyers doing all they could to delay or block the release of Connery’s 007 swansong.

But in 1983, after a myriad of production issues and escalating budget, Never Say Never Again was ready to go up against Octopussy, the official, Cubby Broccoli-produced, James Bond film starring Connery’s friend Roger Moore as 007. It was dubbed in the press as the Battle of the Bonds, but neither actor was prepared to bad mouth the other in the press.

Released in June 1983, Octopussy was first out of the gate and grossed over $182 million worldwide. Later that year, in October 1983, Never Say Never Again was met with warmer reviews, and enjoyed a bigger opening weekend in North America, but grossed less than Roger Moore’s Bond film overall, taking $160 million.

Financially, Never Say Never Again lost the battle, but ultimately James Bond fans were the real winners having two 007 adventures to enjoy in 1983.

McClory continued his battle long after Never Say Never Again, mounting plans to remake Thunderball again throughout the 80s and 90s, and even approached Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan to return as Bond after their tenures ended, but all efforts were blocked in the courts.

Eventually James Bond distributors MGM acquired the rights to Never Say Never Again in 1997, and then following McClory’s death in 2001, his family sold his claim over Thunderball back to Eon Productions, paving the way for the return of Blofeld in 2015’s Spectre.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sean-conne...063716640.html

That would make filming another season of The Witcher very difficult, if not impossible, so I'd be against it. :)

Also, although he looks very different in The Man from U.N.CL.E. to his portrayal of Superman, he doesn't generally have "a taciturn mask, ironical, brutal, and cold."

That said, he's an actor with enough skill to 'become' James Bond and convincingly play a cold-blooded killer.

As evidence of these traits i offer you Mission Impossible: Fallout.

I completely agree – it's a fine performance in a terrific action movie. Annoyingly, I wrote that he had already displayed that ruthless streak in my post but the page refreshed as I was posting it, so I had to rewrite everything and forgot to mention Mission: Impossible – Fallout at the end. :doh:

Have to agree with the bookies I'm afraid.....only one next Bond for me......

Allan Bryce, from 'The Dark Side' magazine, writing on FB:

"Just got back from watching No Time To Die, a cuddly, soft farewell to Daniel Craig's Bond. Impressive action scenes as expected, but this one is way too long and frankly goes so far in being inclusive that all the fun is sucked out of the 007 franchise. I'll spend some time reviewing it for Infinity later, but it will surely be a Marmite entry. The Guardian have already given it five stars, quelle surprise. In reality it's a three star entry, pretty good but not great, and the only time it felt like a proper old fashioned Bond flick to me was when 007 teamed up with the lovely Ana de Armas as a trainee agent who proves more than capable of handling herself. There are a lot of twists that I won't be giving away but others probably will, but I will say that this must be the end of the Bond franchise and if so it will probably be about time because the character as written by Ian Fleming doesn't fit into the modern world. Hans Zimmer's score was very good as expected, but his nostalgic use of We Have All The Time in the World from OHMSS just reminded me of better films and better times."

"Just one further thought on the Mills and Bond film I just watched. When I saw Bond films as a kid I tuned out whenever he jumped into bed with a woman and wanted him to get on with fighting those sinister SMERSH lads. Sorry, but Bond is not a romantic character and though Daniel Craig is excellent in the role I feel they have now gone so far away from Fleming's (admittedly outdated) concept that there is just no point in continuing this franchise. I hope they make their money back but to me the Bond films, like the Carry Ons and the Hammer greats, are enshrined in the past and can never reach the standard of the best films of old. Let's have new heroes for a new generation."

Nah totally disagree Brycie.
By the time Brosnan was on his final outings,it had gone stale again.
It needed a boot up the modern era arse,and Craig,romantic or not did that in style.

I see Britain's biggest benefit cheats were out for the freebies again......:happy:

The Brosnan films were solid with the exception of the last one - it's total dogshit - starts really well too. In fact both Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough start with very gritty pre-credit sequences but the producers didn't have the bottle to follow through on that for the rest of each film.

Eon has aleays been a follower rather than an innovator. You can see the where the changes in the series happen and pinpoint almost all the influences, whether it's blaxploitation (Live and Let Die), kung fu movies (The Man with the Golden Gun)post-Star Wars sci-fi (Moonraker), 80s action antiheroes a la Die Hard (Licence to Kill) and the Bourne films (Craig's run).

Spot on.

You seen some of the names on that William Hill link?

FFS!:scared:

Tom Hardy is 5/1

Surrane Jones 9/1

Take it Damien Lewis is no longer in the running seat for the role

I couldn't wait to see Bond films in the Dalton / Brosnan era. They had to be seen in the cinema.

With this as with all the Craig films i couldn't give a monkeys really. Casino Royale was brilliant, the others simply aren't Bond in my opinion.

I'll watch it on Blu-ray but am in no rush. For me Mission Impossible has become Bond in the anticipation levels and Bond has become nothing really.

‘Absolute beast’: critics go wild for No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s last Bond film

Despite a few dissenting voices bemoaning a bloated plot, film reviewers largely agree that this is the 007 blockbuster to tempt audiences back into cinemas

No Time to Die, the James Bond film on which so much has been pinned, received its world premiere in London on Tuesday night, heralding what arguably the entire film industry hopes will be a return to mass moviegoing after months of pandemic shutdown. And the first wave of reviews – embargoed until one minute past midnight on Wednesday morning – should set their minds at rest.

UK broadsheet critics largely agreed that the film – supposedly Daniel Craig’s final outing as Bond – had delivered in spades, with the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Times all giving the film five-star raves. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it an “epic barnstormer … delivering pathos, action, drama, camp comedy (Bond will call M ‘darling’ in moments of tetchiness), heartbreak, macabre horror, and outrageously silly old-fashioned action”. The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin said the film was an “extravagantly satisfying, bulgingly proportioned last chapter to the Craig era, which throws almost everything there is left to throw at 007 the series can come up with”, while in the Times, Kevin Maher proclaimed: “It’s better than good. It’s magnificent.” In contrast, however, the Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey offered a dissenting view, suggesting the film was “strangely anti-climatic … a rotating sideshow of old characters and plot points”.

Reaction elsewhere is a tad more measured. The influential US trade magazines are broadly positive, with Owen Gleiberman in Variety calling it “an unabashedly conventional Bond film that’s been made with high finesse and just the right touch of soul, as well as enough sleek surprise to keep you on edge’”, while the Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney says that Cary Joji Fukunaga, the first American to direct a Bond film “handles the action with assurance and the more intimate interludes with sensitivity” but is hampered by a plot “so convoluted and protracted you might find yourself zoning out through much of the villainy”. Stephanie Zacharek in Time magazine agrees it is “overstuffed with plot”, but adds: “No Time to Die, its flaws notwithstanding, is perfectly tailored to the actor who is, to me, the best Bond of all. With his fifth movie as 007, Craig is so extraordinary he leaves only scorched earth behind.”

In fact, Craig receives plenty of plaudits for his work, even for critics who are not necessarily sold on the film itself. In the Express, Stefan Kyriazis calls him “an absolute beast as Bond, dominating every moment on screen”, while for Total Film Matt Maytum suggests: “No Time To Die plays to his strengths, giving his tough but tender Bond a memorable and fittingly stirring finale.”

Most obviously though, the film has been greeted with relief, after a difficult production history (including original director Danny Boyle dropping out and Craig sustaining a serious ankle injury) followed by repeated shifts in its release date due to Covid. Time Out’s Phil de Semlyen said: “The nicest surprise of them all, though, is just how good it is … it finally arrives as a reminder of the big-screen power of a blockbuster franchise firing on all cylinders.”


https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...no-time-to-die

Sorry totally disagree Dem.

Of all the Bond films the Craig series are the ones I've watched most.
Brycie's Mills and Bond dig above-I'm afraid he comes from an era where it was considered okay to slap a woman on the arse or cop a feel,the Bond films of days of yore,even in Brosnan's era,the female characters were basically 'target practise' for the let's be honest,rather smarmy spy in the tux.
To give Craig's Bond some real romance and then tear it down with demons continually haunting him,only serves to make him more human.
A guy from this era and not the caveman mentality era is only a good thing.

Although the likes of Suranne Jones? WTF?

Sorry the character is male as the name James hints at......:rolleyes:

The casual sexism has always been a bit cringey.

One of the things i don't like about the new films is Christoph Waltz. He's a parody of himself playing the same role in every film he makes. In fact all the villains have been crap in the Craig films. Not one of them is as memorable as Kananga, Scaramanga, Goldfinger, Red Grant or even Alec from Goldeneye.

No I'll give you that one.But this era is less 'pantomime' villain,far less memorable,yes but more grounded in reality and todays technology.Times change mate.Like the bank robbers of The Sweeney era the stocking over the head and the sawn off shooter are gone.You rob someone now with a laptop as Q quite rightly tells him in Skyfall.

Waltz was a disappointment as the big bad be all SPECTRE.

IMO Mads Mikelsson was the best of the new villains.

However,Raimi Malek with his Les Yeux Sans Visage mask and scarred face may be the one to top the Craig era's villain list.;)

I thought Mikelsson was great as well then they killed him off almost matter of factly which was poor i thought.

Having read a few of the reviews Malek isn't supposed to be that great either.

Obviously we'll make up our own minds when we see No Time to Die.

:lol:
As I said you're right but ffs 'Alec'-they could've come with something a wee bit more threating!

Bet you Pierce was shaking in his boots!

He had a scar down his cheek. What more do you want? :lol:

Famke's Xenia Onatopp was the coolest villain in that one for me.

Ach don't pay too much attention to the critics mate.

They don't know their arse from their elbows.;)

One of the reasons I stopped buying Empire aftter 20 years,boring arty films with five stars and enjoyable but less intelligent films recieving one star.
Toffs.

Wonder what they'll rate NTTD......

Four stars...Must be crap! :lol:

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/...o-time-to-die/

Famke-oh yes indeed! Easily.

Scar on his 'coupon'? Everday sight up here!:lol:

Nah Bond for me is the Roger Moore era, gadgets and goofiness, otherwise i liked Dalton, but i'm not a purist, they are just the most enjoyable or interesting to me.

Roger to me was sexual but he didn't seem rapey, just very lucky, cheesy and tongue in cheek, a chancer.

Craig's films I find really dull, he is a personality vacuum.

Couldn't agree more.

Yeah each to their own.:)

I actually prefer Moore to Connery,Dalton,Lazenby and Brosnan.

The Spy Who Loved Me must rate as one of the best.

I'm with you.

I prefer Moore to Connery. He's my Bond. The one i grew up with. Seeing The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker and Octopussy at the pictures were highlights of growing up.

Yep, Roger Moore is the Bond for me.

Spoken like a true oldie

Ver kidz of today would speak of seeing the films 'at ver flix' or 'on ver tube' or (worse) 'on netflix'

Tom Hardy is surely too old? He's 44 and judging from recent years, it could take quite a while before any filming of a new Bond film would begin.