No Time To Die is now scheduled for a November 2020 release, after the April 2020 delay due to the worldwide pandemic.  

Plenty of speculation of what will happen in the film – we have about 6 podcasts out on No Time To Die already!  The biggest
question is:  What will happen to Bond?   Will he survive?  Die? Be Dying?  Will someone big, who we are used to, die?

James Bond has been around since Ian Fleming first published “Casino Royale” in 1953.   He has been on television with Barry Nelson playing an American version of Jimmy Bond, in the 1954 production of Casino Royale.  The first actor to play Bond on screen.   Then Eon Productions took over striking a deal with Fleming to produce James Bond movies, and Dr. No was the first one they produced, released in 1962. It was an immediate hit.    About $1 million to produce, and it grossed over $59 million!

Eon continued to produce James Bond movies, and No Time To Die will be their 25th film in the franchise. Over the decades, they grossed at the box office over $7 billion.  And then there are licensing fees, DVD and Blue Ray sales and more that bring in revenue.

The formula, although changed gradually over the decades, has worked well for Eon Productions.   It has made them a lot of money, has gained them tons of recognition around the world, and continues to be a juggernaut.   Skyfall (2012), their 23rd movie, grossed over $1 billion at the box office.   And Spectre, in 2015, grossed over $878 million dollars.   So, this franchise is strong and continues to grow in popularity and in making money.   Which is a good thing.

So, now we have No Time to Die, the 25th entry, scheduled.   And speculations abound.  Many serious reports that Bond will survive, and others that he will die.   Now, if you are Eon Productions, which has successfully tweaked Bond’s character over the decades, reducing his misogynist tendencies and womanizing, and make him more in tune with the brave new world.  

And, as of the last film, Spectre (not one of the fans’ favorite films in general), they still grossed over $879 million. Not bad, right?

 

You’re in a meeting with Eon.  Where should the franchise head?

So, now suppose you are sitting in one of the Eon meetings where they are deciding what to do next.   Are you raising your hand saying, “I think what is best for the business is if we kill off Bond in our next release?”

Well, if not you, who?  Danny Boyle?  And what is the argument?

“I think in Bond 25, we should kill off Bond and start afresh with a new 007 – perhaps a woman.   It would fit the social narrative of our cultures now, and we can gain a large part of the female audience that we lack so much now.   The male audience will continue to come to see the “Bond” movies because they are used to it and will want to see how the new 007 develops. We can merchandise lots of clothing and other items around the new 007 who is female.   We won’t lose out massive Bond audience if we do this right.”

What happens if you’re wrong?

Well.   What if you DO lose your audience – your multi-billion-dollar business might be competing with Charlies’ Angels instead of dominating the spy movie world.   What happens if the new 007 is NOT accepted?  IF people want Ian Fleming’s Bond still around – after all, THAT is the whole basis of the James Bond franchise – the original Ian Fleming manuscripts.

 Yes – James Bond has changed over the decades as we have said. He is becoming more of a good social citizen.   But we must remember, a spy by nature is two-faced.   When we talked to Roberto Schaefer, Director of Photography for Quantum of Solace, he said as much.   A spy is something else in the known world and an undercover assassin in the dark underworld.   So, how much do we want him to change IN the dark underworld where his business takes him? Do we want a completely different spy? A nicer spy in this dark world?  

Then what?

Basically, what else do we demand to be changed in the character of James Bond?   Let’s make a list.

  1. He is still too much a misogynist.  So, we must get rid of that.
  2. He still does not have enough respect for women.  So, we must change that
  3. He has been a cold-hearted killer.   Shooting and killing people who are unarmed, like Professor Dent on Dr. No.  We can’t have that.
  4. Bond knows how to do everything.  He can fly any craft, drive any vehicle, get out of any jam, disarm bombs – is anyone THAT good?  He needs to be more realistic. 
  5. And on what an agent makes, how can Bond afford the best clothes, the best food and drink, the best of everything?  MI6 isn’t paying for all that stuff, are they? Unrealistic.   Need a more grounded agent – grounded in the real world.

And if we change all of this in Bond, no one will accept this new iteration of Bond.   So, maybe we switch to a whole new spy.  A female “Bond-like” character.

This is all possible. With the delay of No Time to Die, we have more time to speculate. 

Our thoughts

Now, if it were SpyMovieNavigator making this decision, we would do one of two things.

Leave Bond alone.  People for decades have been loving James Bond in the movies, so leave him alone.
Sure, tweak some things as you have done in the past.   The faithful audience can accept that people, even spies, change over time.    And James Bond in the movies, HAS changed over time, and the last couple of Bond movies were the highest-grossing box office Bond films ever.   So, there is plenty of reason to stay the course.

If you are going to introduce another MI6 agent to take Bond’s place – a complete replacement – then do it as an experiment.  Do NOT kill off Bond.  Ian Fleming left us hanging at the end of his novel, “From Russia With Love, not knowing if Bond would survive the poison unleashed upon him by Klebb.   In No Time to Die, do a similar thing then, if you must.  Leave us hanging.

If you KILL off Bond, and the new agent replacement for 007 is NOT accepted, what do you do?   Now, if this were science fiction, you have no problem.   Because no one ever dies in science fiction.  You can write anyone back into the next script. 

But this is not science fiction.

Where have we seen this before?

But wait.   Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did it with Sherlock Holmes!  Sherlock Holmes died in “The Adventure of the Final Problem”, after falling off Reichenbach Falls.  Sherlock Holmes.  Dead.   And fans did not like it!  They were outraged!

So, after pressure from his publisher and the public, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle “brought back” Sherlock Holmes in “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, which was
a prequel to Holmes’ death in “The Final Problem”. So, he really was not brought back from the dead.   Yet.
They COULD do the same with Bond. Bring back Bond, if the new non-Bond 007 is a flop – in a series of prequels.  

But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle finally did bring Holmes back to life, in a series of short stories, “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”.

So, maybe EON Productions can bring back James Bond in a similar manner.   He dies, let’s say, in No Time to Die.  The movie-going public is outraged and rejects the new 007 in the next film released.   A board meeting.   Eon decides, we must bring Bond back.  And, they fabricate a screenplay that does just that.  It is possible.

And would the public accept it?  Yes, of course!  They did for Sherlock Holmes and they will for Bond!  

And that takes us to … To die or not to die?  That is the question . . . that may not matter!

So, it seems:

  1. If Eon Productions kills off Bond in No Time to Die, they could probably bring him back to life somehow in a future movie, that is either a prequel or he is resurrected and is alive again to “Die Another Day.”  Or, perhaps the new 007 is even more popular than James Bond, and he remains dead as long as the money is rolling in. 
  2. If they leave us hanging, with Bond appearing to die, or dying at the end, then Eon could easily choose to do what they want next.
  3. If Bond survives, then life goes on.  And so does the Bond franchise.

So, it looks like Eon Productions can do whatever they want in No Time to Die, and all will be fine for them.   Sure, some rough waters could be ahead, but they can always return to calm seas.  

For us James Bond 007 fans, let’s see what they do.  But, whatever they do, let’s just chill out.  In fiction, where you write it and it is done, anything can happen. 

 

 

 

 


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Join Dan and Tom as they dive into the latest No Time To Die trailer that appeared as an ad on the Oscars, February 9, 2020!

We examine the new scenes that are in the trailer and try to make sense of what is happening in each new scene and what it might mean for the entire film!

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In the No Time To Die Oscars Ad/Trailer podcast, we talk about the new scenes that they reveal to us:

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James Bond Spy Movie Collectibles

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James Bond Spy Movie Collectibles

Join Dan (Tom was on vacation during recording!) as he looks at some of the collectibles that SpyMovieNavigator owns from some of the James Bond movies! It’s a quick 14 minute look – take a listen! See video podcast on YouTube on our Cracking the Code of Spy Movies channel!

Join Dan (Tom was on vacation during recording!) as he looks at some of the James Bond collectibles that Spy Movie Navigator owns from some of the James Bond movies!   And the collectible concept from screen-used props, props made for films but maybe not used on-screen, and reproductions!   It’s a quick 14-minute look – take a listen!

Items from:

  • From Russia With Love
  • The Spy Who Loved Me
  • Octopussy
  • Licence to Kill
  • Tomorrow Never Dies
  • Casino Royale

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Spy Movie Collectibles

James Bond collectibles are hot and it’s fun to have a few!  Here are a few of the favorites we have!

Hi, this is Dan Silvestri – while Tom Pizzato is traveling at the time of this recording – so I’m here solo, doing a podcast on some James Bond collectibles that are in our vault!  Think about owning a cool James Bond movie replica, or a prop manufactured for the movie that may have made it into the film or not, or an actual screen-used prop!  These are all fun to collect, so let’s take a look!

If you have listened to other podcasts of our, you know I am into collectibles, especially autographs.  But I have things from ancient Rome, NASA (US space program) collectibles and more.

So, naturally, I have some spy movie collectibles, especially Bond!

Autographs

Let’s start with a few autographs.

  • Sean Connery, one of my top favorite Bonds, is certainly an area of interest, and so I have a signed publicity still of Sean Connery as James Bond in From Russia With Love,in the train car.  This is very cool, and so I actually framed it myself and found a small, inexpensive digital recorder and speaker kit – I don’t even know if they make them anymore . . . and attached the kit to the rear of the frame (takes 4 double A batteries) and the “play” button to the side of the frame.   When you press the button on my Sean Connery signed and framed photograph, it is Sean Connery, as Bond, saying, “A martini, shaken, not stirred” with the James Bond theme music playing.  Very fun!
  • I also have a Pierce Brosnan signed photograph, and just recently bought a George Lazenby signed photograph from Anders Frejdh (FRAID). This last one was from the 50th-anniversary tour for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, one of my all-time favorite Bond films.   I’m going to try to get all of the Bonds – Timothy Dalton, Daniel Craig, and Roger Moore.
  • My favorite Felix Leiter before Jeffrey Wright is David Hedison.  I say before Wright, but I probably like them both equally.  So I have purchased a David Hedison signed check!  This is very cool. This item was purchased at auction and had a PSA/DNA Pre-Certified Status – meaning it was reviewed by experts at PSA/DNA and is guaranteed to pass final testing and marking.   And bank check are great – because they tell a story in themselves: this one is made out to the Beverly Hills Postmaster for $15, on October 25, 1968 – for stamps!
  • One of my favorite autographs is Caroline Munro’s!  Of course, she plays Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me – Stromberg’s assistant who comes to collect Bond and Triple X (posing as Mr. and Mrs. Sterling) in Sardinia Italy and is later the helicopter pilot chasing bond driving the Lotus into the water, and the first woman Bond kills on-screen!  Tom and I met with her in London once for a few hours – she is a delight!  She signed a bunch of autographs for us, and we took pictures with her.  Wonderful woman!  Inscription on card: “Dear Dan – it’s so lovely to meet with you – your knowledge of Bond is amazing – Thank you so much for the lovely afternoon – All my Best Wishes, Caroline Munro as Naomi 007”   How lovely indeed!

Other things and props

I would love to own some screen-used props from the Bond movies – these are hard to come by and very expensive.   I know a guy who has one of the spearguns from Thunderball!  So, I have some stuff which is cool – made for the films and might be buried in some shots.

  • I have a $100 bill from Licence to Kill – you remember the shot where Bond highjacks Sanchez’s drug delivery plane, and Bond cuts open the packets of money and the bills are flying all over the place – I have one of those bills!  This one looks pretty good from a distance and does say on the upper left: “THIS IS NOT VALID.  IT IS FOR USE IN MOTION PICTURES ONLY AND IS NON-NEGOTiABLE.  ITS USE FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE WILL BE IN VIOLATION OF LAW.”    Its provenance is that the bill was originally obtained at the shooting location in Key West Florida (Sugar Loaf Key) at the airport office from the airport manager who was keeping a bunch as a collectible from the film.
  • I also own a $100 bill from the Pierce Brosnan Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.  When Bond breaks into the safe, there are a few piles of bills stacked on the left side of the safe.  This one I have looks like a real $100 bill – except . . . it has printed in the upper right-hand corner: “For Motion Picture Use Only” – and if you notice in this scene in the film, the bills are stacked in piles strategically to cover the upper right corner of the bills!   This one is cool!  So maybe it as somewhere in one of those stacks!  It was originally obtained from Pinewood Studios.
  • In Licence to Kill, again, one of my favorite Bond movies, the title sequence shows a casino table, a roulette table to be specific, and there are chips all over the table.   I have two clay chips: a green $25 chip and a purplish $100 chip.  Again, there are piles of chips, and others made for the movie but these are marked Casino de Isthmus and have the top-hat and cane indented patterns along the edges, which were the ones used for the movie.   My contact says that these chips can be seen in the opening title sequence of the film.
  • From Octopussy,  I have a $100 Rupee paper money prop, issued from the fictitious Reserve Bank of Indapur.  The seller claims it was used in the film scene where Bond and Kamal Khan are playing backgammon, and Bond wins $200,000 Rupees.  Khan starts writing a check and Bond says, “I prefer cash.”
  • From Casino Royale, I have 4 playing cards that were made for the movie (probably nowhere on-screen) that have Casino Royale logo on the backside twice and the crown logo.   AND a $500 chip, with Casino Royale around the center, and the crown pattern along the edges.  Cool!  These were probably overruns, and never used in the film, or who knows – they could be in the background somewhere, or in the card shoe!  But fun to have!

Books:

I have one weird book that is apparently a collectible.   A friend found it in a used book shop, and it is a hard-cover only about 5.5  inches by 7.25 inches, it is entitled: “The Book of Bond – Or Every Man His Own 007” and is written as though it was by Lt. Col. William (Bill) Tanner *M’s assistant) who authored the book.     It is “written” by him – a fictional character!  It is a Viking Press book from 1965, and on the inside cover flap is priced at $2.50 US.  The book is broken up into chapters entitled things like, Drink.  Looks.   Smokes. Etc. and in the margins, to validate what is written, are the initials of the title of the relevant Bond story, like FRWL (From Russia With Love), along with a number indicating the relevant chapter.  And he does something similar for the short story collections.  And it really is about YOU becoming like 007 in all these chapter aspects, and more amusing than serious for sure.  This is really written by Kingsley Amis, who wrote three books including “The James Bond Dossier” and the first Bond continuation novel, “Colonel Sun”, under the pen name, Robert Markham.  Thanks to my friends on Facebook, Nick, Oliver and Daryl for this insight!  Very odd indeed!

If anyone knows more about this book, email me at Dan@SpyMovieNavigator.com – I have found some info on it but not a ton.   I know there were two different versions of the book.  On one version the cover reversed and the opposite side said the Bible – in case you wanted to read clandestinely!  My version, the cover does not have anything printed on its reverse side.  Even in this used book store, it was priced at $40!

Replicas

If you remember in Casino Royale (2006) when Alex Dimitrios is playing poker and Bond joins in at the Ocean Club, Dimitrios wants to up the stakes and throws in a keyring with an Aston Martin DB5, and car key, as part of the pot.   Well, I purchased the same kind of DB5 keyring along with the Lotus Esprit keyring – you remember the Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me that turns into a submersible.   These are VERY cool and are available with a lot of other reproductions and collectible at 007.com, and their US counterpart https://usa.007store.com/.   Tell them SpyMovieNavigator.com sent you!  They have a lot of 007 collectibles and are awesome to work with.

There are also other prop shops and online stores to purchase real movie props and additional replicas.   We will get you more info on these places, on our website.   Tons of fun stuff on the 007.com site!

Well, this concludes our quick look at some of the James Bond memorabilia that we have  – remember, there are lots of places online to purchase movie memorabilia.   We have a place near us in Chicago which we are going to visit, and the guy has tons of movie memorabilia, including spy movie stuff!  So look for that podcast soon, and maybe even a video!

This has been Dan Silvestri – and Tom Pizzato is still on vacation even after recording this – hah!  If you were listening to this podcast. Check out our YouTube channel.   We plan on shooting a video of the items for your viewing pleasure!

Have fun collecting, always ask about the provenance (history of ownership of the item,)  and have a great time!  Please tell your friends about our podcasts, and give us a 5-star rating!   Thanks!

 


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