Get Excited For The Ultimate Bond Experience With ‘Bond 50’

Bond 50 – Get Excited For The Ultimate Bond Experience

Bond 50, a 50th anniversary collector’s edition that features all 22 films on bluray is just over a month away and I want to share with you my excitement over the release of this collection. There is nothing better than sitting down and watching a good Bond movie; whether it’s for the action, the entertainment, or the Bond girls – You can always count on great entertainment. Now, for the first time, all 22 movies will available to enjoy on bluray in this collectors set. It comes at a great time as we’ll be able to enjoy all of our favorite Bond movies along with a massive amount of bonus features that will lead up to the release of Skyfall. What better way is there to get excited for the release of Skyfall than to pick up the biggest Bond collectors set yet with Bond 50?

To help fire you up even further I am sharing with you the official Bond 50 release trailer, additional video clips from the set and a “50 years…50 facts” press release. I look forward to sharing with you my opinions on the collector’s edition when it releases next month on September 25th. I might have to do a weekly Bond article to cover everything that is featured in Bond 50 right up to the release of Skyfall. We’ll have to wait and see for sure, but I do know I will provide some sort of coverage for you! Until then, enjoy the following!

Bond 50 Release Trailer

Bond 50 – Special Features: Being Bond

Bond 50 – Special Features: Meet The Villians

Bond 50 – Special Features: The Bond Girls

JAMES BOND 007
50 YEARS…50 FACTS

• James Bond 007, produced by Eon Productions Ltd., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, is cinema’s longest-running film franchise, with 22 official movies released since DR NO first played in 1962. The forthcoming SKYFALL will be the 23rd.

• Beginning with 1952’s ‘Casino Royale’, author Ian Fleming penned one James Bond novel a year until his death in 1964.

• During his 50-year film history, James Bond has killed more than 150 men and has enjoyed amorous adventures with more than 40 women.

• Three-quarters of those women have tried to kill him.

• The first gadget used in a Bond film was the Geiger counter in DR. NO.

• James Bond films have earned seven Oscar nominations, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME scooping three, and two wins.

• Upon its release in 1964, GOLDFINGER recouped its $3 million budget in just two weeks and earned a place in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ as the fastest-grossing film of all time.

• During production on 1983’s OCTOPUSSY a ‘docile’ crocodile escaped its handler and hibernated for two weeks beneath the Pinewood set.

• SPECTRE is an acronym for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.

• DR. NO is the only James Bond movie to feature SPECTRE without showing its supreme commander, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

• DR. NO is also the only Bond film not to feature a pre-title sequence.

• Fleming always wrote the Bond novels at his holiday home, Goldeneye, in Jamaica.

• US sales of James Bond novels soared in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy included ‘From Russia with Love’ on a list of his favourite books.

• ‘You Only Live Twice’ was the last of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels to be published during his lifetime, coming out in March 1964.

• Only three actors have played M (Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and Dame Judi Dench), while six have played Bond and seven have played Blofeld (including Robert Rietty’s voice-only performance in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY).

• Several actors have appeared in more than one role in the Bond series, including Maud Adams (as Andrea Anders and Octopussy), Charles Grey (as Henderson and Blofeld), and Joe Don Baker (as Brad Whitaker and Jack Wade).

• The Rolls-Royce has proved a popular car among Bond villains, cruising into GOLDFINGER, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE, OCTOPUSSY, A VIEW TO A KILL and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH.

• The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II driven by Sir Godfrey in A VIEW TO A KILL was producer Cubby Broccoli’s very own vehicle.

• James Bond attended Fettes College in Edinburgh; Sean Connery was once the school’s milkman.

• The Lotus Esprit S1 in 1977’s THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was a hand-built machine, and the manufacturers only granted one road car to the production. When the filmmakers needed a second, Lotus chairman Colin Chapman lent his own vehicle to the crew. A total of seven Esprit shells were then produced for the underwater action.

• Kingsley Amis wrote two books about Bond in 1965 under the pseudonym Bill Tanner and then wrote the first Bond novel published after Fleming’s death, ‘Colonel Sun’, under the pseudonym Robert Markham.

• At 106 minutes, QUANTUM OF SOLACE is the shortest official Bond movie. Its predecessor, CASINO ROYALE, is the longest at 145 minutes.

• Opening just one-hour after the end of CASINO ROYALE, 2008’S QUANTUM OF SOLACE is the only direct Bond sequel.

• Honor Blackman is the oldest-ever Bond Girl, shooting her role as Pussy Galore in GOLDFINGER at 37 years of age.

• Roger Moore is the oldest-ever Bond, shooting 1985’s A VIEW TO A KILL at the tender age of 58.

• Moore received Connery’s blessing for his debut in 1973’s LIVE AND LET DIE after the Scot turned down a reported $5.5 million fee.

• Shooting ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE at the age of 30, George Lazenby is the youngest actor to portray James Bond.

• The stunt team on CASINO ROYALE earned a place in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ after barrel-rolling Bond’s Aston Martin DBS seven times.

• An extra scene was written into 1971’s DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER after a continuity error with Tiffany Case’s Ford Mustang saw the stunt drivers enter an alley with the car’s left-hand wheels off the ground and exit with its right-hand wheels off the ground.

• Ian Fleming wanted his cousin Christopher Lee to play Dr. No in the first Bond movie. Lee would later appear as Scaramanga in 1974’s THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.

• Fleming is then said to have suggested his friend and neighbour Noel Coward as the villain for the first Bond film. Legend has it that Coward replied: ‘Dr No? No. No. No.’

• Dame Judi Dench is the longest-serving current cast-member, with the forthcoming SKYFALL standing as her seventh outing since her debut in 1995’s GOLDENEYE.

• In 2003, the Fleming estate commissioned The Fast Show’s Charlie Higson to write a series of novels about the young James Bond at Eton College. Sales of the first book, ‘SilverFin’, are said to have surpassed those of the first ‘Harry Potter’ novel.

• The novel of ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’ was adapted as a comic strip in the Daily Express from 10 January to 10 September 1966.

• The Glastron speedboat jump in LIVE AND LET DIE, which sees Bond leap over Sheriff Pepper’s car after fleeing Kananga’s crocodile farm, earned the stunt team a brief stay in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’.

• Ross Kananga, the owner of the crocodile farm in LIVE AND LET DIE, performed the stunt in which Bond escapes the hungry reptiles, prompting the producers to name the villain in his honour. The farm owner almost lost his foot to the crocs during filming.

• Dalton was originally considered for the role of James Bond in the late 1960s, after Sean Connery left the role following YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.

• The boat chase sequence in 1999’s THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH took seven weeks to film as the producers had to deal with the River Thames’ 9mph speed restrictions.

• The autogyro scene in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE was written into the script after production designer Ken Adam heard a piece about the inventor, Wing Commander Ken Wallis, on the radio. All the gadgets and weapons fitted to the gyro worked, though Wallis vetoed an intended corkscrew drilling device to be fitted above the flying blades.

• The jaw-dropping construction site chase near the beginning of CASINO ROYALE was inspired by the free-running documentary Jump London. The producers employed the film’s star performer and ‘parkour’ master Sébastien Foucan in the movie as the would-be terrorist, Mollaka.

• The 007 stage at Pinewood Studios was built for 1977’s THE SPY WHO LOVED ME although it was destroyed by fire in 2006 and was rebuilt. The new building, at 59,000 sq ft, is the biggest sound stage in Europe.

• THE SPY WHO LOVED ME launched a small, recurring cameo role for crewmember Victor Tourjansky as ‘man with bottle/glass’. He popped up on screen again in MOONRAKER and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

• The natty water transport used by Bond in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, when travelling from the USS Wayne to Atlantis, was the world’s very first Wetbike, a prototype built by engineer Nelson Tyler with a 50bhp 2-stroke Suzuki engine that delivered 500lbs of thrust. Tyler had pitched his machine to the producers who immediately had it written into the script.

• The Jet Packs used in 1965’s THUNDERBALL made it to commercial production. Bell-Textron developed them for the US army so that soldiers could leap over walls and rivers, though they were abandoned due to a mere 20-second flight time and dangerous operation. The machine reappeared in Q’s lab in 2002’s DIE ANOTHER DAY.

• Keen-eyed viewers will also spot that Q’s lab in DIE ANOTHER DAY featured the crocodile sub and the Acrostar jet from OCTOPUSSY, along with Rosa Klebb’s spiked shoe, which featured in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

• The BD-5J Acrostar jet that starred in the opening to OCTOPUSSY has a wingspan of just 12ft and yet it can hit speeds of 320mph.

• Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton all wear the Rolex Submariner timepiece. Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, meanwhile, only wear Omega Seamaster watches.

• Q has appeared in 19 official Bond movies and is referred to by his real name, Major Boothroyd, in DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME.

• Acclaimed French motorcycle rider and multiple World Record-holder Jean-Pierre Goy conducted all of the riding in 1997’s TOMORROW NEVER DIES, including a leap from one building that was 21m high, to another, which was 6m lower. The feat was all the more impressive given the weight of the BMW R1200 Cruiser, the fact that he declined the use of a harness, and that he carried a pillion passenger.

• The tank that Bond commandeers in GOLDENEYE is a Soviet T-80BV, a 46-tonne beast that is powered by a 1250bhp gas-turbine engine.

In case you missed it, here is the latest Skyfall trailer to get you fired-up for Bond!

Skyfall Trailer