EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE |
|
![]() |
||||
![]() |
||||
“Think on your
sins...” |
||||
![]() |
||||
Skyfall then transferred to the Odeon Leicester Square on October 24, 2012 for the rest of its West End engagement, and opened at 587 cinemas across the country on Friday October 26th, going on to take a staggering £102-million at the box office to then become the highest-grossing film of all time in the UK. In addition to the general release quad-crown posters, a series of alternate versions celebrating the critical and commercial success were also displayed across the country in late 2012. |
||||
![]() |
||||
|
||||
“Bond is Back at the
PCC” |
||||
![]() |
||||
In January 2015 the Prince Charles Cinema showed every James Bond film from Dr. No to Skyfall in what was easily their most ambitious season yet. Thanks to distributor Park Circus, the PCC managed to secure every single James Bond film for a one-off screening on consecutive Sunday nights starting with Dr. No on January 4, 2015. All films were shown in their newly restored 4K DCP format and the retrospective also included Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983). The PCC had hoped to screen the entire series in chronological order but Goldfinger (1964) was screened out of sequence due to the new 4K digital restoration receiving its premiere at the 65th Berlin film festival on February 7, 2015. Goldfinger therefore screened at the PCC on Sunday April 5th, the week after For Your Eyes Only (1981). Composer David Arnold was also interviewed on stage before the screening of Casino Royale (2006) on Sunday June 14th. The six-month 007 retrospective concluded with Skyfall (2012) which shown at 8.15pm on Sunday June 28, 2015. |
||||
![]() |
||||
“The Dead Are Alive” |
||||
![]() |
||||
Empire Design once again provided the rather uninspired photographic advertising campaign, with teaser posters appearing in the London Underground and on buses in the weeks leading up to the release. The Aston Martin DB10 from Spectre was on display in the foyer of the Odeon Leicester Square from Sunday September 27th until Monday October 5th, and then joined by the Jaguar C-X75 driven by Hinx (Dave Bautista) in front of the Royal Albert Hall for the World Premiere. |
||||
![]() |
||||
Spectre was the third James Bond film to premiere as a Royal Film Performance after Die Another Day (2002) and Casino Royale (2006). Proceeds from the evening supported the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund. The World Premiere of Spectre was held once more at the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington on Monday October 26, 2015 in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. In attendance were Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Naomie Harris, Christoph Waltz, Dave Bautista, Andrew Scott, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Stephanie Sigman, Jesper Christensen, Rory Kinnear, Director Sam Mendes, Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and ‘Writing's on the Wall’ singer/co-writer Sam Smith. Maryam d'Abo who played Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights (1987) also attended, as did three-time James Bond title singer Dame Shirley Bassey. |
||||
|
||||
Controversially, ticket prices to see Spectre were significantly higher than those charged for other films, with Londoner's paying almost £10 more at the Odeon Leicester Square where the film played for the rest of its West End run. |
||||
![]() |
||||
“Nobody Does It Better” On May 23, 2017 came the sad news that much-loved seven-time James Bond actor Roger Moore had died at his home in Switzerland at the age of 89. A week later a double-bill of two of his best James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and For Your Eyes Only (1981) were re-released in selected Odeon cinemas in the UK and other venues worldwide. The newly restored 4K versions of the films were screened for one night only on Wednesday May 31, 2017 as a tribute to the actor, with 50% of all proceeds benefiting UNICEF. As a Goodwill Ambassador, Sir Roger had been a dedicated and passionate supporter of UNICEF since 1991. |
||||
![]() |
||||
The first James Bond All-Nighter at the Prince Charles Cinema had been a sell-out success and the same line-up of six films was then repeated starting at 9.00pm on Saturday July 29, 2017. |
||||
“Casino Royale in Concert” |
||||
![]() |
||||
“Happy Anniversary 007!” |
||||
|
||||
Before the 50th Anniversary screening of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) comedian and writer David Walliams presented a Q&A with one-time 007 George Lazenby. Aston Martin also displayed their new DBS Superleggera Special Edition, and also a heritage Aston Martin DBS (the same model as seen in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) outside the Light Box entrance in Theatre Avenue from 12noon until 6.00pm. Before the 40th Anniversary screening of Moonraker there was a discussion with five-time James Bond composer David Arnold, who also introduced the 20th Anniversary screening of The World Is Not Enough (1999) at 8.00pm. |
||||
![]() |
||||
“Skyfall in
Concert” |
||||
![]() |
||||
Rounding off 2019 were three more anniversary screenings at the Prince Charles Cinema. The World Is Not Enough screened at 8.45pm on Tuesday November 26th, which was closer to the actual 20th anniversary of its European premiere than the event at the National Film Theatre two months earlier. The screening of On Her Majesty's Secret Service which took place at 3.10pm on Thursday December 19, 2019, was just one day later than its World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in 1969 50 years earlier. Similarly the screening of The Man With The Golden Gun at 3.10pm on Friday December 20th, was also one day later than its debut at the Odeon Leicester Square 45 years before. Repeat screenings of both films took place at 3.25pm on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th December 2019. |
||||
“James Bond will return...” |
||||
|
||||
The premiere of No Time To Die was scheduled to take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday March 31, 2020. The film would then have been released across the UK on 2nd April and the US on 10th April. The troubled production had already seen two changes of release date, and in a cruel twist of fate the world was then plunged into a global crisis as the Coronavirus pandemic took hold at the start of 2020, with many countries going into lockdown in order to control the spread. Cinemas, theatres and other entertainment venues were among the first to be closed, and on March 4, 2020 distributors MGM, Universal and James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson & Barbara Broccoli announced that the release of No Time To Die would be postponed until November 2020. A season of all 24 official James Bond films which was due to take place at the Cineworld cinema at the O2 Arena in Greenwich was also cancelled. Situated within the Millennium Dome which featured in the pre-credit sequence of The World Is Not Enough (1999), the 19-screen Cineworld cinema is the largest in the UK, and had planned to show all 24 films in order from March 9th in the run up to the opening of No Time To Die on April 2nd. |
||||
![]() |
||||
![]() |
||||
At the time of writing No Time To Die was due to be released in the UK on November 12, 2020 with worldwide dates to follow, including the US launch on November 20, 2020. The advertising campaign was put on hold and teaser posters quickly revised to reflect the new release date. With worldwide venues closed, the James Bond films have remained popular small screen entertainment in many households, and frequent TV screenings on the ITV network in the UK continued unabated. On Sunday April 19, 2020 Men's magazine Esquire invited fans to a live GoldenEye watchalong with James Bond himself Pierce Brosnan providing the commentary and answering questions about his 1995 debut as 007. The advertising campaign ahead of the rescheduled November release resumed in September 2020, with new posters, trailers and marketing tie-ins appearing almost daily. Although some cinemas had reopened with new safety measures in place and reduced capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions, several distributors were still reluctant to release their films in an uncertain marketplace. With the world, and particularly the USA, still in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic, cinemas in key cities such as Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco remained largely closed. Then on October 2, 2020 it was announced that the release of No Time To Die had been delayed once again, and the film will now been be seen in cinemas from April 2, 2021. The industry has been hit hard by the global pandemic, and the latest delay to the release of No Time To Die has been blamed for the temporary closure of 536 cinemas in the USA, and 127 in the UK operated by global giant Cineworld. If the new date is met the eventual release of Daniel Craig's swansong as James Bond in No Time To Die will coincide with the 25th Anniversary of GoldenEye in cinemas, and marks the longest gap between films since the premiere of Pierce Brosnan's record-breaking debut as 007 a quarter-of-a-century ago. Whether the latest James Bond film will live up to the success of its predecessors remains to be seen, but for the time being all we know is the indisputable fact that James Bond will return! |
||||
![]() |
||||
![]() |
©007 MAGAZINE 2020 |
|||
|