IT'S PAINTING AND DRAWING HERE From Monday 25th. April

James Bond Fan Club Newsletter

Bond  
Royale: 007 is well and truly back!

No more 'speculation'. Our wait for SPECTRE is very nearly over!
You know the name. You know the number. And you know the release date: October 26th. After eight long months of principal shooting both in Britain and across the globe, not counting the extra months of additional hard work on pre-production and post-production, the 24th James Bond adventure will receive its Royal World Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in central London this Monday evening.
All the main members of the cast are expected to be there, including 007 star Daniel Craig, together with the director Sam Mendes and the two EON producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. An incredible amount of energy and creativity has gone into the new James Bond film, and an impressive large-scale marketing campaign has increasingly raised the excitement and anticipation over the last few weeks.
The standard was set very high by the award-winning Skyfall, arguably the most successful Bond movie ever, and so all members of the team working on SPECTRE were determined to maintain this 'golden touch' and, if possible, take things even higher. The JBIFC are very confident that Craig and his Bond crew have more than succeeded in this mission.
From a View to a Thrill

In what was something of a surprise, but very welcome, move for the James Bond franchise, SPECTRE will also hit the ground running (so to speak) and go on general release in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on the very same evening as the World Premiere.
It will then be rolled out in markets across the world, accompanied by a sophisticated publicity drive. Indeed, as many Bond fans are more than aware, the latter campaign push has already started, with a variety of short TV spots being shown across a wide number of markets, a large number of tie-in interviews with the key stars appearing in magazines and newspapers, a well-conceived and colourful poster campaign and, of course, a huge internet operation. In a special tribute to all the fantastic help they received from local people in Mexico City, SPECTRE will have its 'Premiere of the Americas' in Mexico City on Monday, November 2nd.
It will then be rolled out in North America and South America on November 6th. Four days prior to the Royal Premiere (on Thursday, October 22nd), Daniel Craig was joined by his female co-stars Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux at a special press event held at the Corinthia Hotel in London, and they all looked very relaxed and very happy. And they had every reason to be: the first advance reviews had just been published that same day and they were overwhelmingly enthusiastic!

Golden High: First SPECTRE reviews hugely positive
 
The special UK press screening for SPECTRE took place on Wednesday, 21st October, and quickly led to a mini-avalanche of advance reviews in the British press and on TV channels. The vast majority all agreed on one central thing: that this is one of the best 007 films in the series, and clearly takes the franchise to a new and golden high. So, what did our hard-nosed journalists have to say in response to their exclusive advance screening? The BBC, that bastion of Britishness, was one of the first TV channels to offer a detailed verdict. Speaking on the BBC's 'Breakfast' early morning TV programme on October 22nd, for example, the film critic Jason Solomons said SPECTRE has all the things you would want in a James Bond movie, and more! In his estimation, the movie ticks off a checklist of 'Bondian' features; moreover, it delves into Bond's psychology more than ever before. Turning to Bond's newspaper of choice, The Times (October 22nd), the newspaper offered a review from film critic Kate Muir, entitled 'Cool, sleek, powerful: it's Bond at his best'. And this was the tone struck by many of the other newspapers: The Guardian (October 22nd) said the movie is 'terrifically exciting', while the Daily Telegraph (October 22nd) summed up its enthusiasm in the very title of its review: 'Journey through the ghosts of Bond's past is pure cinematic delight'. The more populist British middle-market newspapers, who can sometimes be very difficult to please, also strongly echoed the high praise. The UK's Daily Mail (October 22nd), for example, proclaimed in a headline at the top of its front page: 'Brilliant Bond is back!', and Brian Viner's review inside the paper said it is 'a spectacular joyride of a movie'. The Mail's main rival, the Daily Express (October 22nd) entitled its review with 'It's Bond at his spectacular best'. The reviewer, Allan Hunter, noted that Skyfall was the most successful 007 film ever made and asked: 'How do you follow a triumph like that? Director Sam Mendes and the Bond team rise to the challenge in spectacular fashion with Spectre. The latest Bond extravaganza is thrill ride from the first chase to the last bullet'. High praise indeed! 

Bond, James Bond: Craig's four-film odyssey
 
Naturally, there has been tremendous media and other interest in Daniel Craig since filming on SPECTRE began and, especially for Bond fans, in the extent to which he has pushed his interpretation of James Bond in new and exciting directions, helped by the very close creative 'bond' he has developed with Sam Mendes, both on Skyfall and now on SPECTRE. In many ways, SPECTRE puts forward a kind of story-arc that draws on all of Craig's previous Bond films. We suspect that was not really the original intention when Craig first took over as James Bond for Casino Royale or, moreover, when early pre-production ideas for the latest Bond film were first put forward. However, it is something that seems to have developed incrementally as the SPECTRE storyline evolved and it went through various drafts, and it nicely ties up some loose ends. Sam Mendes has announced that he has now completed his own particular 'two-part' story and his involvement with the Bond franchise, and wants to move on to other projects and new challenges. This must be giving Daniel Craig cause for reflection, too. From his perspective, the possibility of doing a fifth 007 movie under a new director must be something quite difficult to think about. We sometimes underestimate how draining and exhausting the role of 007 can be, especially when it seems like the whole world is watching your every move. Craig has given a large number of interviews, including in the days just after the main filming on SPECTRE had ended, and some more recently. We could quote endlessly from some of these, but one or two interviews in particular created something of a flurry, when a clearly very tired but elated Daniel tried to convey how relieved he was that the filming and very long hours on SPECTRE had finally come to a close.

Time up or just time out?
 
In an interview for the famous London Listings magazine Time Out, for example, given in early July (and finally published in their October 20th-26th edition), Craig had finished filming on the movie just four days earlier and offered some characteristically honest and blunt views, fuelled by an espresso coffee or two. He said at one point: 'Every idea I've had for a Bond movie I've stuck into this one. It's gone in. The Bond bank is dry. If you're asking me what I would do with another Bond movie? I haven't a clue'. When asked at another point whether he could imagine doing another Bond movie, Craig responded: 'Now? I'd rather break this glass and slash my wrists. No, not at the moment. Not at all. That's fine. I'm over it at the moment. We're done. All I want to do is move on'. When asked whether this meant he wanted to move on from Bond for good, Craig replied: 'I haven't given it any thought. For at least a year or two, I just don't want to think about it. I don't know what the next step is. I've no idea'. Daniel also offered similar comments in at least one other interview. Some journalists in the media immediately jumped on these comments and saw a chance to create some dramatic headlines, subjecting them to misinterpretation, and assuming that Craig was announcing his time as Bond was now definitely over! He wasn't. His attitude is more complex. Moreover, we should remember that the producers remain determined to hold on to him. On the question of how long Daniel Craig will continue as 007, its worth recalling that Michael G. Wilson said some time ago in an IGN interview: 'We want him for as long as he'll have us', while his co-producer Barbara Broccoli revealed: 'He's got an open-ended contract'.
His bond with Bond: Craig speaks at eve-of-premiere press call
 
Things perhaps became a little clearer during the special SPECTRE press call held at the Corinthia Hotel, mentioned earlier, where Craig at one point offered his views on his 'bond' with Bond. The press event saw a nicely relaxed and very happy-looking Daniel pose for photographs with Monica Bellucci, Lea Seydoux, Naomie Harris, and Christoph Waltz, together with director Sam Mendes. During the course of the photocall, the 007 star was asked about the comments he had made not long after completion of filming on the movie, comments which had led some journalists to conclude that he had finally finished with the role.
Craig explained to one journalist that he had said things like that because he had just finished shooting after long eight months: 'I said what was on my mind. That's the way I've always spoken'. He also revealed to the same journalist that it was actually up to him whether he returned as 007: 'There is no contract. It is up to me'. At another point, when faced with the question of whether he would return as Bond for one last time, Craig responded jokingly: 'Do I have any choice?' He then added: 'I love making these films. Skyfall was a huge success but you want to move on and make a bigger and better version. We've spent a huge amount of time making sure this story is as strong and real as possible'.
Live and Let Why: Mendes on Bond and Fleming
 
Sam Mendes has also given a range of interviews over the past few months, and - in the process - has offered some very interesting insights into his creative approach to interpreting the character of James Bond, including which parts of Ian Fleming's writings have helped him in this task. He also reflected at times about which of the previous Bond films have given him some inspiration. We could quote lots of different points from these interviews, but those that appeared in two magazines in particular stood out for us, as they gave some intriguing clues on which Bond films Mendes admired, and also indications of just how deeply Mendes has delved into 007's psychological make-up in order to underpin both his previous and latest Bond films. One piece was a straightforward interview, given to the British SFX magazine (no. 267, for December, 2015), which hit the news-stands in the UK in October; the other was a series of comments he gave that formed part of a compilation of comments that appeared in the British GQ magazine (for November, 2015). In SFX Mendes was asked about the now familiar fact that his own personal favourite Bond movie is Live and Let Die. He confirmed that one of the elements of SPECTRE - the pre-title sequence, with Bond wearing a skeletal mask - did indeed owe something to Roger Moore's first Bond movie. He said: 'You see the skullface and you're like, "Oh, it's Baron Samedi!" It's actually quite different, but of course there are echoes there. But part of the joy of Bond is a riffing on the iconography of it, and teasing you with things...'. In British GQ magazine, the influence of Fleming on Mendes emerged in some of his comments. At point, for example, he reflected: 'There's a short story that Ian Fleming wrote called The Hildebrand Rarity, which I thought about when I was making the two films'. According to Mendes, the story brought out the 'darkness' in Bond that had perhaps been lost in the screen interpretation at times. 

From Mendes With Love: Bond director guest-edits Empire
 
A superb new issue of the popular British movie magazine Empire (November, 2015) appeared in early October, and what a treat it proved to be! It was something of a 'must-have' purchase - a SPECTRE special edition, with no less than 39 pages devoted to 007 and his world. Moreover, it was also guest-edited by director Sam Mendes. Bond magazine collectors must have thought they had died and gone to 00-heaven! Published with a striking cover image of Daniel Craig and Christoph Waltz posing against a Bond gunbarrel design, the glossy new issue of Empire began with a special 'Editor's Letter' introductory page from Mendes, who commented that, for those of us who believe - as he does - that 'James Bond is one of the greatest of all contemporary mythologies', the magazine was offering plenty to get excited about ahead of the official release of the movie on October 26th. The magazine commenced its coverage with a report from Mexico, where the action-packed pre-credits sequence was shot earlier this year against the backdrop of the famous 'Day of the Dead' festival. At one point, Daniel Craig commented that: 'By having Sam back we've created a language that's one foot in the past but hopefully very modern as well...'.
Waltzing with Waltz: Christoph Waltz profiled
 
You have got to admire his dogged determination: ever since the original SPECTRE press launch at Pinewood Studios in 2014, Christoph Waltz has been adamant he would not give anything away whatsoever about his role in Bond 24 - not one iota of information has passed his lips. He was clearly sworn to secrecy by the Bond production team. Indeed, so much so that we suspect not even Auric Goldfinger's industrial laser could make Waltz crack! In fact, the director and producers must be really pleased about Waltz's admirable and strict self-discipline. The main villain of SPECTRE (Franz Oberhauser) is, of course, played by the acclaimed Austrian actor, and there has inevitably been much speculation in recent months over the precise nature and background of his character in the film. As we noted in our previous JBIFC newsletter, the British GQ magazine obtained a nice coup when they were able to interview Mr. Waltz at length for their May, 2015, issue (with the 58-year old actor also featuring prominently on the front cover). Conducted at the Corinthia Hotel in London, when Waltz was taking a break from filming SPECTRE, and entitled 'We've been expecting you, Mr. Waltz', the 10-page profile provided a run-down on his general acting career and an opportunity to give Waltz a chance to explain his approach to cinema acting. GQ also tried to delicately tease out some brief details on the topic of his Bond role, something quite brave to do with the notoriously cautious Waltz, who has tended to dance around any such questions and skilfully bounce them back; he has certainly been quite challenging to pin down. But we can safely say that Waltz was not giving anything away about Oberhauser, and remained as tight-lipped as ever!
Try Another Way
 
True to form, while the special SPECTRE edition of Empire, guest-edited by Mendes, also offered some coverage of Waltz, the magazine only managed, as with GQ previously, to tease very little out of him about the mysterious Franz Oberhauser. However, in Empire's interview with Waltz, under the title 'The Phantom Menace', the ultra-cautious Austrian did comment that 'You're asked to do more than play a part when you're asked to play in Bond', and it was abundantly clear to Empire that cinema audiences are in for an absolute treat later this month. As Daniel Craig also commented to Empire on Waltz: 'He's got something brilliantly dark inside him, when he turns it on'. Although, as per usual, he would not give way on any Oberhauser details, Waltz did give some brief assessments of the past James Bond actors, together with his views on the EON family business. Once SPECTRE is out, we wonder whether Waltz will be more prepared to discuss Mr. Oberhauser and any particular qualities to the character that he wanted to come across on screen? Perhaps... then again, perhaps not! Intriguingly, those thirsty for some clues about Oberhauser were given an indirect helping hand by none other than Lea Seydoux back in July. Lea, who plays Dr. Madeleine Swann (and has also acted with Waltz before, in the wartime tale Inglorious Basterds), gave an interview to USA Today and said of Oberhauser: 'He's mean. But he has a human side. I don't know if I can say touching, but you can have a real attachment to him. You have empathy (for him), and that's why he's going to be great in this role'.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
 
Arguably one of the most visually-striking pieces of publicity for Mr. Waltz and his SPECTRE character Franz Oberhauser came with an interview the actor gave to the British newspaper The Guardian, which appeared in their glossy 'Weekend' magazine on October 10th. The magazine's front cover, headlined 'Be afraid. Be very afraid', showed a pensive but dangerous-looking Waltz, sitting in mysterious dark shadow in a chair and looking directly into the camera lens, holding the reader's gaze. A very similar shot appeared inside the magazine, but from a side angle, with Waltz looking even more villainous and stony-faced. He was clearly having tremendous fun playing up to the camera, and we loved it. What a powerful image! The newspaper proclaimed that 'Christoph Waltz is the baddest Bond villain yet', and was clearly having much fun as Waltz himself was with the Sp.e.c.t.r.e. angle and all the associated speculation. The interview, conducted by Xan Brooks, found Mr. Waltz to be an 'erudite and charming' personality, but with firm views on what he likes and dislikes (especially when it came to the choice of wine!). The article provided some detailed exploration of Waltz's long career, noting how things really began to take off for him in 2008 when he took the role of SS colonel Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds. Unsurprisingly, Waltz was not prepared to give anything away about his Bond villain role, but the interviewer, after seeing some advance footage of the new 007 movie, seemed to sum his role up for him: he was like a 'sadistic dentist'!
Double-O Heaven: More film mags cover SPECTRE
 
One of the great pleasures of witnessing the production of the new 007 adventure was seeing which of the popular British film magazines would be the first with detailed Bond coverage designed to wet our appetites. The ball quickly got rolling. First came Total Film (April, 2015, issue), which carried two pages on SPECTRE, including early photos from the snowbound Austrian scenes. Similarly, Empire (April, 2015, issue) gave us a 14-page profile (no less) of SPECTRE and other aspects of the James Bond universe, plus an excellent Daniel Craig cover-page. The magazine had been allowed special access to the set at Pinewood Studios, and included interviews with the Bond producers and also with Bond's new leading women, French beauty Lea Seydoux and gorgeous Italian star Monica Bellucci. Since then, we have seen a mini-avalanche of magazines with SPECTRE coverage, much to the delight of dedicated Bond magazine collectors, but gobbling up their pennies at an incredible rate! These mags have included Cosmopolitan (profile of Naomie Harris, September 31st), the Mail On Sunday's 'Event' magazine (special collector's edition, September 27th), the Sunday Times 'Culture' magazine (Craig interview, October 4th), Sunday Times 'Style' magazine (Naomie Harris, October 11th), Esquire (Craig profile, October, 2015), Starburst (October, 2015),Total Film (October, 2015), Total Film (November, 2015), Empire (bespoke collector's edition, November, 2015) (discussed earlier in this newsletter), SFX (November, 2015), TV and Satellite Week (on Craig, October 17th), Mail on Sunday 'You' magazine (Lea Seydoux interview, October 18th), Time Out (Craig interview, October 20th), Radio Times (exclusive on Naomie Harris, October 24th), British GQ magazine (November, 2015)... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Phew!
  
Golden Touch: Trigger Mortis receives high praise 

So, what else has been happening in the Bond universe recently? Plenty! The world of the book version of Bond has seen another great success. In fact, for Anthony Horowitz, the latest author to take up the challenge of writing a James Bond novel, it has evidently been a case of 'Mission Accomplished'. His Bond novel Trigger Mortis became an immediate best-seller, and was also very well received by both the critics and the fans, many commenting that here was an author who had been able to really capture the style and excitement of Ian Fleming, compared to previous attempts by other authors. Critics in the UK were especially positive about the new book. Nicholas Lezard, for example, writing in the London Evening Standard ('Reborn Bond is back at his best', September 3rd) wrote that it was a 'hugely enjoyable story, which has everything in it we want from Bond, and more'. On the eve of the publication of the new novel, Horowitz spoke to The Times (October 5th) about his lifelong passion for Bond, and explained how this had helped him write his new 007 adventure. He said: 'I loved writing Trigger Mortis. Part of the pleasure was rereading the original novels and working out all the tricks and the techniques that make them so great'. It is more than clear than all this hard work has really paid off handsomely! Indeed, it has been an incredibly busy year for the workaholic author, with old projects dropped and brand new ones taken on. He announced in January, for example, that - after 13 highly successful years - his popular TV detective series Foyle's War had now definitely come to an end. The series, which starred Michael Kitchen (chief-of-staff Bill Tanner in two of Pierce Brosnan's Bond movies), saw the very final episode air on the UK's ITV channel earlier this year, on Sunday, January 8. Sunday nights have never been the same again! The series regularly drew in very large TV audiences. On the other hand, in addition to bringing his new Bond book to fruition, Horowitz took a bold move into writing for the stage. His new play Dinner With Saddam was premiered at the Menier Chocolate Factory, in London, in September, with none other than Steven Berkoff in the key role of the late Iraqi dictator. Berkoff, of course, as many fans know, played the excellent role of ruthless renegade General Orlov in Octopussy (1983). Uniquely, Horowitz, who has written an amazing 42 books, including two exciting Sherlock Holmes novels, was able to use some original unused Ian Fleming material short-story material for part of his new 007 novel, which is set in the 1950s. And he has woven this into the novel extremely successfully, in our humble opinion.
From Moneypenny With Love
 
As mentioned earlier, there has been a lot of magazine interest in Miss Eve Moneypenny, played by Naomie Harris.
Naomie's career is a great inspiration to others: she got herself from a single-parent home to studying at Cambridge University, where she studied social and political sciences at Pembroke College. After Cambridge she trained at the Bristol Old Vic, and just nine months after her graduation Danny Boyle cast her in the film 28 Days Later, which was her breakthrough hit. In an interview for the Sunday Times 'Style' magazine (October 11th), it was claimed that Naomie is now known in the film industry for two things - playing Miss Moneypenny and having laser-focused ambition. The latter might be changing, though. The 39-old actress admitted: 'My thing was always "hard work", "succeed". Now I want to be less led by society's goals and dreams...'. Looking back on her selection as Miss Moneypenny, she said she had found it difficult to keep it a secret and was glad when it finally came out in the open: 'Having to do that whole Skyfall tour and keeping that secret was hard'. On her reprisal of the role for SPECTRE, Naomie said the character is 'Strong, powerful and independent - I think that's what people were yearning for'. In another interview, given to the BBC's Radio Times magazine (October 24th), she also praised the Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson for keeping the franchise relevant while still keeping the essence of Bond: 'You need the cars, the gadgets and the humour but you also have to move with the times. A large part of Spectre is about surveillance, how much are people delving into our private lives, collating information without us knowing. That's a huge debate around the world today and it's all reflected in the film'. Interestingly, Naomie has also helped be the key face of SONY's 'Made for Bond' new technology campaign, which has seen a tie-in mini-movie (shot on London's Southbank), and also a striking poster of Harris as Moneypenny, an image that has appeared all over London. 
Frederick Forsyth: A real-life 007?

The thriller writer Frederick Forsyth, perhaps most famously known for his best-selling novels The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, and who recently penned his memoirs (The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue), has sometimes been seen as an author who could have written a great James Bond novel. But what has also now emerged is that he led something of 'Bondian' existence himself in real life. In a fascinating article for the Daily Mail in July, the writer Guy Walters (himself a big expert on espionage) explored Forsyth's early career in some detail, asking whether 76-year old Forsyth had perhaps even modelled himself on Bond author Ian Fleming? Moreover, Forsyth evidently did some occasional work for MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service. The Service has often made use of journalists and writers, and this was especially the case during the Cold War. In 1963, for example, as a young 25-year old journalist, Forsyth was posted to East Berlin to cover East Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. What happened next was like something from a Fleming Bond novel: the Czech secret police sent a 'very pretty girl' to pick him up in a bar, and, after a midnight swim and the inevitable 'liaison', she revealed she was a spy. Furthermore, it is quite likely that Forsyth was feeding information back to MI6 from behind the Iron Curtain, and possibly did the same when he worked in Africa later on, possibly putting his life in great danger from capture and torture.
The Name's Bond, Samantha Bond
 
From present to past: Samantha Bond, who was Miss Moneypenny in Pierce Brosnan's four 007 films, still has a very loyal Bond-based following. She was back on British TV earlier this year, starring in ITV's wartime drama Home Fires. In an interview about her career in the 'Weekend' magazine of the Daily Mail (May 9), the former Moneypenny said at one point that 'there's whole generation of men who get misty-eyed when they meet me because I was their Moneypenny when they were growing up'. The ever-busy Bond has also been on British TV again recently, with a role as the formidable Lady Rosamund in the final series of Downtown Abbey. Interviewed by 'You', the magazine of the Mail on Sunday (September 27), the 007 connection was inevitably tapped into again ('The name is Bond...'), with Samantha posing in a sleek white sports car. Although it is 13 years (wow! Is it really?) since she appeared in a Bond film opposite Brosnan, the role still follows her around. She said she 'adored' Pierce and making the 007 films was a 'huge adventure', but she also admitted that: 'I'd never seen a Bond film in a cinema until I was in one'. The magazine noted that 007 fans won't let her forget her past, and Bond commented: 'They're always a bit younger than me, because they were late teens when I was Moneypenny'. Bond's next project is shooting a second series of Home Fires.
Did You Know?
 
In the new book The Man With The Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming's James Bond Letters, edited by Fergus Fleming, which has just been published by Bloomsbury, there is a letter written by the Bond author from April, 1958, where he reflects on James Bond's life and how 007's profession requires him to be more or less constantly involved in violent action: 'It is also true that, as in any real-life spy, when the villain gets hold of Bond, Bond is made to suffer painfully'. 

Bond Bits: Brief Items of News You Have Missed

Now, pay attention, 007: The UK toy and model maker Hornby has high hopes that SPECTRE will help its boost its Christmas sales. It has included an impressive Scalextric set themed on the new Bond film in its latest sales lists... 

From Mexico with love: ahead of her turn as a Bond woman, Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman (who is in the pre-credits of SPECTRE), gave an interview to the Sunday Times 'Style' magazine (August 30th). She said she is a particular fan of Monica Bellucci: 'I'm gonna meet her at the premiere and ask for a selfie!'...
The Italian beauty herself was profiled in The Guardian newspaper on September 19th, in a page entitled '30 minutes with Monica Bellucci'. She said she was 'proud to be a Bond lady, because actually, Bond is the most amazing man. You know why? Because he doesn't exist!'...

Licensed to spill? 
Some UK newspapers in September were fascinated by a study for The Grocer magazine (we kid you not!) on James Bond's alcohol habits. It claimed Daniel Craig's Bond is the 'booziest Bond ever', knocking back an average of 20 units per film since his debut...
Appropriately, Craig is fronting a £64million TV advertising campaign for lager-maker Heineken to coincide with the launch of SPECTRE. The lager also appears on screen in the film... 

For our ears only: The radio music channel Classic FM have been very generous to Bond fans recently. Saturday October 10th saw a John Barry special, followed just a week later (on October 17th) by a Thomas Newman special (with a first hearing for some SPECTRE soundtrack music). Brilliant stuff...

The music channel then had a SPECTRE special on October 24th, playing instrumental music from all the James Bond films, with comments from Daniel Craig, Thomas Newman and Sam Mendes...
So, which pieces of classic Bond music do Craig and Mendes prefer? Craig praised the iconic Monty Norman James Bond theme, while Mendes chose You Only Live Twice and Live and Let Die... 
  
And talking of the iconic sound and sheer style of 007, look out for Bond by Design: The Art of the James Bond Films, a new official book which was released earlier this month. This great book gives readers an exclusive tour of EON Productions' James Bond archives...
It explores the set, storyboard, vehicle, gadget and costume designs by the now legendary designers who have worked on the 007 movies over the years, including Sir Ken Adam, Syd Cain, Peter Murton, Peter Lamont, Allan Cameron and Dennis Gassner...
The book is written by Meg Simmonds, EON Productions' Archive Director, and reveals each Bond film's design approach, as well as a nice range of stories behind the individual designs created for each new 007 adventure...

Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), speaking at a boat party in early October on a man-made island just off Butler's Wharf on London's South Bank (close to where some SPECTRE scenes were filmed), told the London Evening Standard that she was 'so excited' to reprise her role, and loves the part: 'She's really strong, powerful, dynamic, witty, and playful'. Other guests at the event included Dame Judi Dench, Moneypenny's former boss 'M'...

Dame Judi, who is now 80 years young, was a special guest on BBC Radio-4's Desert Island Discs on September 9th, and briefly touched on her iconic role as Bond's boss and how her casting came about. She also managed to keep hold of a big, big secret connected with 
SPECTRE. We will say no more...