Celebrating 200! …..Day 146 of Bond 365

It’s kind of a special day – Spyfi & Superspies has hit 200 posts today! I don’t mean to sound cliché, but it does seem like yesterday when I celebrated 100 posts and now sitting with 200 posts, it does seem a bit surreal. I wish I could say that it has been an easy 100, but being candid, the commitment to post a blog a day has been tough some evenings when I just had no motivation. Happily, there have been several days where it has been hard to stop writing, especially when a person had an interesting past or worked on a project I admired. So, now on to 250!

Today in 2011, Hodder & Stoughton released Jeffery Deaver’s novel Carte Blanche, the 37th James Bond adventure, this time set in contemporary times, 2011. It was the first reboot of the Bond literary series with Bond being born in 1979; hence, Bond becomes an Afghanistan veteran rather than World War II/Cold War as created by Ian Fleming. I think reading a modern interpretation of James Bond in comparison to Fleming’s creation may reveal diverse and perhaps opposing character elements. I recently picked up a copy, so hopefully I can sit down soon and read through it.

Richard Maibaum

Born this day in 1909

Screenwriter for multiple Bond films

Celebrating 106^th birthday of screenwriter Richard Maibaum, I wrote a lengthy entry back on January 4. Here’s a link.

McCallum (right) accepting his BAFTA

Gordon K McCallum

Born this day in 1919

Sound Recordist for Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, For Your Eyes Only

Dubbing Mixer for Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me

Chief Re-recording Mixer for Moonraker, Octopussy

I was blown away when I took a look at Gordon McCallum’s IMDB filmography. He had a whopping 324 sound department credits, which could have been a mini look at British cinema! He got his start as an uncredited boom operator (interiors) for the classic story A Canterbury Tale (1944) directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. His last credit as a dubbing editor was for The Jigsaw Man (1984). He worked on several amazing films over the intervening decades. I think one of my favorites was Zulu (1963) starring Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and newcomer Michael Caine. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Others include A Night to Remember (1958), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and Greystoke:  The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984).

McCallum won an Academy Award for Best Sound on Fiddler on the Roof (1971) shared with David Hildyard and a BAFTA for Best Sound Track for Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) shared with Les Wiggins and Keith Grant. Interesting, he was also nominated for Diamonds Are Forever the same year he won for Fiddler on the Roof.

© Copyright. Michele Brittany. 2011 - 2015. All rights reserved. All text, graphics, and photos are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without written permission.