Season's Greetings

Merry Christmas and greetings from sunny Southern California! I hope that each of you are having a wonderful holiday season. May it be a peaceful one, filled with the joy of family and friends! 

I hope you will stop back by next week when I'll post a review of this year. In addition, I'll also be making a special announcement about 2015 that you will not want to miss! 

Until then, all the very best!

Bond Buzz Word: Spectre

To celebrate the announcement of Bond 24 or Spectre, Bond aficionado Brad Hansen (Commander Bond) of Visual Space Productions did a wonderful job editing together scenes from Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds are Forever that feature the evil secret organization, SPECTRE. SPECTRE, or Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, has been around for a long time and was led by the kitty-petting maniacal villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Before Bond fans ask what happened to George Lazenby and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Hansen's trailer focuses specifically on the 1960s/70s Connery's interactions with Blofeld and SPECTRE. It was nicely done and I hope you'll give it a watch and share with your Bond friends...

Spectre popped up this week with the announcement of the Belvedere Vodka partnership as the official vodka of the upcoming James Bond film. The company created two limited edition bottles, which were showcased at London's Film Museum on December 15th. 

Belvedere and James Bond Partnership Announced

The first is the MI6 which gives nods the 007's headquarters by switching inks (green ink is used by MI6 officials to sign documents) and etching the bottle with the MI6 building, replacing the Belvedere Palace. Sadly, this limited edition will not be available to buy in your local shop; Belvedere is gifting them to Bond aficionados and charity auctions only. 

Belvedere Vodka Presents MI6

The second vodka is the 007 Silver Saber, which will be available next year and will have a limited distribution. These bottles will have a built in LED so that the bottle lights up, which I really want to see! Since filming has only recently begun, it isn't known what "role" the Belvedere vodka will play. However, the association with the Bond franchise should see a boost in sales for Belvedere. 

Silver Saber will light up Bond aficionados

Other Bond items in the news this week included the brief, and quickly sold out issue 28 of mi6 confidential magazine featuring Daniel Craig in his 007 uniform on the cover. I ordered my copy in a bundled offer with issue 27, sporting a cover of The Man with the Golden Gun Roger Moore, Maud Adams and Britt Ekland. At the moment, MI6 Confidential is offering a set of 007's "banned" trading cards from Somportex that were originally released in 1964, but pulled a year later due to their controversial images of bikini-clad ladies. There were some signed back issues of the magazines as well, but those have already sold out. 

Did you get issue 28 ordered? 

The last bit of news this week happened over at the official 007 Bond shop. They advertised they had 100 of the Hot Wheels collectible of James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 that graced Goldfinger. Now a little backstory about this collectible. It was offered at San Diego International Comic Con this past July where at some point during the four-day event, I happened to be at a booth across from where they were selling Hot Wheels collectibles. Unfortunately I didn't know about this limited edition collectible until that moment, and I was bummed because it was the only toy that was sold out - figures! I was hoping to scoop it up with this announcement, but darn if I wasn't too slow and missed out again! 

I'll end with a parting shot of the collectible from Youtube poster Diescastic...I'm green with envy!

Bond 24 Announced!

The official Bond 24 announcement was made today around the world, and we can now begin referring to the 24th Bond film by its official title Spectre. For those who are new to the Bond franchise, the word Spectre or SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) refers to a global terrorist organization led by arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The organization debuted in Ian Fleming's novel Thunderball (1959) and was featured prominently, referred to in passing or implied in Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, For Your Eyes Only, and Never Say Never Again. Ownership of SPECTRE and its agents were part of an ongoing litigation battle that began in 1961, however by late last year, Eon Productions' parent company (Danjaq, LLC) had finally settled the issue and full copyright rights were returned to the franchise, setting up the opportunity to pit SPECTRE and Blofeld against a 21st century James Bond. As a Bond aficionado, I am excited for what this may mean for Bond in the next installment due out October 23, 2015 for UK audiences and November 6, 2015 for American audiences.

Sam Mendes will return to direct the film written by John Logan, with collaboration from Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Thomas Newman returns as the composer (he is phenomenal!), and Hoyte van Hoytema (Let The Right One In, The Fighter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Interstellar) will assume cinematography duties. 

Major cast appointments have been confirmed with today's announcement as follows: 

Daniel Craig as Bond. James Bond.  

As the sixth actor (Eon Productions only) to portray the British agent, this will be Craig's fourth film. The first three were Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. 

Ralph Fiennes as M

Fiennes returns after being introduced in the closing minutes of Skyfall as the new M, replacing Dame Judi Dench, who had filled the role in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall. 

Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner

I am very happy to see Kinnear is returning as Bill Tanner, M's Chief of Staff. Tanner has been portrayed by four actors, including Kinnear, and has appeared in six films - The Man with the Golden Gun, For Your Eyes Only, GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall - and Spectre will make the seventh.  

Naomie Harris as Miss Moneypenny

Harris returns after being introduced in Skyfall as the new Miss Moneypenny, and is the fourth woman to play the personal assistant to M. I do hope that unlike her predecessors, Harris will have more screen time. 

Ben Whishaw as Q

Whishaw returns after being introduced in Skyfall. The character Q (Quartermaster) has featured in 20 of the 23 Eon produced Bond films, most of those appearances were by esteemed Desmond Llewelyn before his passing in 1999. Whishaw had a huge hole to fill and honestly, he did a brilliant job of it! 

Andrew Scott as Denbigh

Scott is a new character to the franchise and was presented as part of the MI6 team in the announcement. You may recognize Scott from another very popular British literary based franchise: he was Moriarty in BBC's Sherlock. He's such a fantastic bad guy -- how will he do as a Bond ally? 

Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann

Seydoux is beautiful and has a fresh look about her which reminds me of British agent Strawberry Fields from Quantum of Solace as portrayed by Gemma Arterton. Some of Seydoux's recent films include The Grand Budapest Hotel, Blue is the Warmest Color and Midnight in Paris. 

Monica Bellucci as Lucia Sciarra

Another gorgeous woman, Italian actress Monica Bellucci may be remembered from her roles in The Whistleblower, The Brothers Grimm, Matrix trilogy, and Brotherhood of the Wolf. I do wonder if she will be a formidable henchwoman in Spectre....

Christoph Waltz as Franz Oberhauser

Although many of us became acquainted with Waltz in his amazingly cool and calculated portrayal of Standartenfuhrer Hans Landa in the 2009's Inglourious Basterds, he has actually been making films since 1979. If his performance as Landa is any indication, he is going to give Javier Bardem's Silva a run for his money in Spectre. 

Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx

Coming off Guardians of the Galaxy as Drax the Destroyer earlier this year, I think that Bautista will likely become one of those memorable henchmen, joining the ranks of Oddjob in Goldfinger, Red Grant in From Russia with Love and Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.

Jesper Christensen as Mr. White

Christensen will return as the villainous, Mr. White from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. This man seriously needs more screen time! 

And last, but certainly not least, the Aston Martin DB10 was unveiled at the beginning of the announcement, commemorating a 50-year collaboration. The DB10 a beauty, but I'm still partial the DB5 featured in Goldfinger. 

Please note: All images found on Wikipedia or through Google Images.