If you wanted that original T.I.E. fighter miniature from Star Wars, you missed your chance. You could have outbid the person who spent $402,500, and it would have been yours. At an auction in Calabasas, CA, on July 31 and August 1 from Profiles in History sold a variety of items for more than $4.1 million.
Fans of the James Bond franchise have a lot to look forward to this fall, as the first ever Bond graphic novel, Silverfin, will be coming out and, of course, Daniel Craig returns as Bond in The Quantum of Solace.
On the graphic novel front, Bond site Commander Bond has some previews of the art and the cover, seen at right. There’s also a little information on the story, right here.
Puffin Books have released the official blurb for the forthcoming graphic novel adaptation of Charlie Higson’s SilverFin. Adapted from Higson’s debut Young James Bond adventure by artist Kev Walker and featuring more than 300 full color illustrations, the SilverFin graphic novel is slated for release on 2 October 2008 in the UK.
The blurb follows: It’s James Bond’s first day at Eton, and already he’s met his first enemy. This is the start of an adventure that will take him from the school playing fields to the remote shores of Loch Silverfin and a terrifying discovery that threatens to unleash a new breed of warfare.
Meanwhile, the Bond central site, 007, has the trailer for Quantum of Solace. It looks like another more cerebral Bond film, hewing a bit closer to the novels.
There’s also a reference that can’t help but conjure up the Bourne films, as Bond apparently goes rogue and M calls out: "Find Bond!"
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of spy-turned-writer Ian Fleming, this Tuesday the British post office will be issuing a half-dozen "extra-long" stamps featuring reproductions of various James Bond books.
Royal Mail will be issuing other stamps honoring popular culture throughout the year, including a set commemorating the Hammer horror movies this summer.
Can Judge Dredd be far behind? More important, can Royal Mail cough up Brian Bolland’s cover rate?
My spidey-cents are tingling, and I don’t know that I like what I’m thinking.
First we have a piece from the Financial Times (via Salon) that says MGM may have delays in raising funding for a number of upcoming blockbuster movies, including the next installments in the James Bond and Terminator franchises due to the global credit crunch that is causing chaos in financial markets. Then we have a piece in Variety that shows that the bill for Endemol, the European production giant famous for "Big Brother" and "Deal or No Deal," has become a bit pricier thanks to the same credit crunch, and that it’s also put a hold on the planned sales of Virgin Media, the U.K. cable outfit.
So now I’m thinking about the $525 million in financing that Merrill Lynch has lined up for Marvel to produce its slate of films, which is really little more than a credit line — and I’m wondering how stable it really is. Does anybody how secure Marvel’s financing really is at this moment?
Marc Foster, director of Finding Neverland and Monster’s Ball, is set to direct the next James Bond movie. Monster’s Ball earned Halle Barry an Oscar, so maybe we’ll get to see Daniel Craig smooched onstage as well.
The film, not yet written (although there’s a draft by Neil Purvis and Robert Wade) is scheduled to open November 7, 2008. Foster will work on the re-write with Paul Haggis.
Since Finding Neverland, Forster directed two movies yet to be released: The Kite Runner and Stranger Than Fiction.
"I have always been drawn to different kinds of stories, and I have also always been a Bond fan, so it is very exciting to take on this challenge," Forster said.
Last July, Pinewood Studio’s famed 007 Stage – once the largest in the world – burned down like the final action scene in a James Bond movie. Given the type of movies being made these days, that was quite a setback to the British film industry.
The folks in Pinewood immediately started rebuilding, and now the 007 Stage is reopening as the largest sound stage in Europe – all 59,000 square feet of it.
Want to take a tour? Yep, it’s got its own website.
(Glenn Hauman contributed mightily to this story.)