Word: bond
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...Queen Elizabeth will go to the movies for the only time this year, to Die Another Day's world premiere at London's Royal Albert Hall. We will never really know whether the Queen was amused, but it's only proper that she should come out to support Bond: after all, he has been in Her Majesty's public service for 40 years (50 if you count the books) as a stalwart of the British film industry and global ambassador of British cool--even before Cool Britannia existed...
...When Bond first introduced himself onscreen in 1962, Britain's geographic empire was breaking up, but its cultural one was burgeoning. In the prole-chic era of the Beatles and Carnaby Street, of kitchen-sink realism and blue-collar movie stars, Bond was at best a blithe anachronism--a specter from the early postwar era, when spies dressed for dinner, and class was a matter of the right accent and breeding. Politically and culturally, the impossibly suave Bond was curiously old school, even if that school was Cambridge...
...codified and inviolable, part of the charm lies in the fresh ideas and small tweaks that Wilson and Broccoli allow. The danger du jour, for instance, comes straight out of the headlines. "The films have adapted to make them relevant to the contemporary world," says Michael Harvey, curator of "Bond, James Bond," an exhibition of 007 cars, gadgets and memorabilia at London's Science Museum. From Russia with Love (1963) arrived at the height of the cold war; Moonraker (1979) took off at the zenith of the Star Wars craze; and in Die Another Day--in a move that will...
...dresses like one: tracksuit bottoms and a worn T shirt. But perhaps most important for the franchise, Tamahori is trying to think like a teen and make a film that appeals to that prized demographic. The best way to do that, the director says, is not to dumb down Bond movies but to make them smarter. "A lot of action movies are very lame because they ask you to just accept them for what they are," he says. "Teenagers are far sharper than that--and they don't like to be insulted...
...that film--not just the sexiness but also the classic fight scenes and the feel of a true thriller--and says he's trying to deliver a 21st century update of that. "Filthy and snappy!" he says to Brosnan and Berry as they film the scene in which Bond and Jinx meet after her swim. He wants more lust and leer in this encounter--and the whole film. Rosamund Pike, who plays MI6 agent Miranda Frost, jokes that "Lee wants to make this an X-rated Bond film." In truth, he just wants a "traditional" Bond. After...