Limbaugh: Buh-Buh-Buh-Bond Isn't Buh-Buh-Buh-Black Is there no end to the injustices faced by professional reverse-racism victim Rush Limbaugh? The latest offense: A six-word private email from Amy Pascal suggesting Idris Elba should play James Bond. Leaked Amy Pascal Email: Idris Elba Should Be the Next James Bond Gawker favorite Amy Pascal wants Idris Elba to play James Bond, The Daily Beast reports. "Idris should be the next bond," Pascal wrote in a January 4, 2014 email to Elizabeth Cantillon, former executive vice president of production for Columbia Pictures. Columbia distributes the Bond franchise. Jimmy Fallon Murders Pierce Brosnan at GoldenEye 007 Jimmy Fallon got to live the (1997 version of the) dream on his show last night, playing the classic Nintendo 64 shooter GoldenEye 007 with James Bond in GoldenEye himself, Pierce Brosnan. Sam Mendes, director of the 2012's James Bond installment Skyfall, has just signed on to direct James Bond 24, set for release in the fall of 2015.
Daniel Craig will continue to play Bond, John Logan is writing the script. The James Bond of Sweden Sells Spark Plugs: A Dispatch From the Nybro Action Team Hjalmar Sveinbjőrnsson and Alex Bejerstrand · The Nybro Action Team consists of Hjalmar Sveinbjőrnsson and Alex Bejerstrand, two under-employed roommates living in Nybro, a small industrial town in southern Sweden. Hjalmar is a chef; Alex takes woodworking courses. They offered to visit the James Bond Museum in their city and send us a dispatch, which we gladly accepted. We have lightly edited their post for grammar and punctuation. A Visit to the James Bond Museum with the Nybro Action TeamThese are the photos from their trip to the James Bond museum in Nybro. James Bond Is the Reason Richard Cohen Can't Date 23-Year-Olds Richard Cohen, who is employed by the Washington Post as an opinion writer for reasons which, like God's peace, passeth all understanding, saw Skyfall this weekend, and something is bugging him: This Daniel Craig fellow is rather... muscly.
Here's Adele's Bond theme, "Skyfall," in its entirety. Spoiler alert: It's smoky, brassy and utterly inoffensive. Daniel Craig has signed up for at least two more James Bond movies, making him the third longest-tenured Bond. Skyfall: James Bond Is Still James Bond Last night, Daniel Craig's James Bond picked up the Queen at Buckingham Palace and flew her over the Olympic Stadium, where Her Majesty parachuted into the crowd. Here's the First Teaser Trailer for the Next James Bond film, Skyfall Dropped in the still of the night by Sony, the first official teaser trailer for Skyfall — the twenty-third installment in Eon Productions' 50-year-old James Bond film series — reveals about as much as those next-episode previews at the end of Mad Men. Friday Night Lights Is Not Dead Yes, our beloved football friends may yet live. Also today: good news for an American Horror Story, bad news for an American idol, and James Bond has a new title. James Bond Composer John Barry Dies at 77
John Barry, the Oscar-winning composer most famous for scoring eleven James Bond films, has died in New York at 77. Barry often claimed to have written the well-known "James Bond Theme," though credit is still officially given to Monty Norman. That time Odd Job Went on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show and Destroyed his Set Here is a clip from 1965 that features the beloved Bond villain Odd Job walking onto the Tonight Show set. He and Johnny Carson do not exchange words; rather, Odd Job segues from having a cough to wrecking the set. If Quentin Tarantino Had His Own Line of LEGOs There are official Star Wars LEGOs and official Indiana Jones LEGOs. So why not official Quentin Tarantino LEGOs? Oh, right, the violence and curse words. Here's the next-best thing, though: LEGO recreations of famous movie scenes, courtesy brickmaster Alex Eylar. You Just Missed Your Chance to Buy James Bond's Aston Martin Each day, we all wake up thinking, "Maybe today's the day I buy James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger."
No longer: The car was sold at auction for $4 million today. Maybe you can put missiles on your Prius? The Great Gay Hunk Mystery Is Finally SolvedRead no further if you don't want a big, gay hunk mystery spoiled. Also today: Some completely gross Battleship casting, a timely Gossip Girl cameo, and an alien-related war brews in Los Angeles. Another Alleged Russian Spy Caught, Deported from US The Russian spy story continues: A mid-twenties software tester at Microsoft, Alexey Karetnikov, has been deported on immigration charges and is said to be the 12th member of the spy ring. Last chance for reporters to overuse Cold War clichés! Lady Gaga May Perform the James Bond Theme Song The pop music thingamajig is the top target for the film's producers to ink and sing the ditty for the franchise. Be careful, she might try to change the title to "Skipaldeedoo Gobbeldygook" to fit her lyrics. What James Bond Does On His Days Off There's nothing like enjoying a nice day in the outdoors with your friends.
Oh, and blowing stuff up with a tank is cool, too.A helicopter roars across the screen, firing two missiles at its fortress target, as Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’ booms across the soundtrack. Say what you want about Matthew Vaughn, but he knows how to get your attention. Setting the tone for what’s to come – a good old-fashioned rollicking spy film – it’s an opening that showcases what he does best: blockbuster values spiced with British irreverence.His third comic-book adaptation in a row, Kingsman: The Secret Service returns Vaughn to the creator of his first, Kick-Ass’s Mark Millar. While Kick-Ass riffed on superheroes, Kingsman – based on Millar’s 2012 comic series The Secret Service – takes on the superspy. Inspired by old-school James Bond and others, it flaunts a yearning for the days before 007 got all serious and rebooted his dinosaur image.With regular scribe Jane Goldman, Vaughn changes the mechanics of Millar’s plot whilst preserving the essence of a story revolving around elite espionage team Kingsman (secret base: Savile Row).
Our guide into this world is Harry Hart (Colin Firth, brilliantly cast), who looks more Harry Palmer with his dark-rimmed spectacles than he does 007 (and in one of the myriad self-referential nods, the original Palmer, Michael Caine, plays Harry’s boss).Hart, though, is not our main man; teenage tearaway Gary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin (Taron Egerton) is. Turns out that Eggsy is the son of a fellow agent, who died back in that Middle East opener, due to a mistake made by Harry. Raised on a council estate by his mum, Eggsy’s heading for reform school if he’s not careful. Thankfully, Harry’s kept an eye on him, even giving him a number to ring if ever he lands in trouble. ing to the rescue, Harry takes Eggsy under his wing. “We are first and foremost gentlemen,” he says, and one of Kingsman’s delights is watching the plummy Harry tutor the hoodie-wearing Eggsy. Think My Fair Lady meets Moonraker and you won’t be far off. With the agency a man down after an agent is killed, Eggsy is put forward for intensive training up against Oxbridge toffs – though he does make an ally in the resourceful candidate Roxy (Sophie Cookson).
Some of these scenes, as we briefly detour into The Apprentice territory, are among the film’s best, with Mark Strong’s Celtic-tongued agent putting these applicants through their paces. A restroom turns into a rapidly-filling water tank; elsewhere, a collective skydive becomes a frenzied freefall (with one candidate minus their ’chute). Amid this teamwork, the trainees are even made to nurture a puppy each, with Eggsy naming his pooch JB. Jason Bourne?” he’s asked. “No, Jack Bauer,” he replies.Like Millar’s original, Kingsman is deliberately, defiantly self-aware – although Vaughn tones it down. While Millar’s story saw a series of celebrities kidnapped, opening on a scene with Mark Hamill plunging to his death, Vaughn ditches the famous faces – though he does retain Hamill, cast as a bearded boffin snatched by Kingsman’s main villain, biotech pioneer Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson).It’s here where Kingsman has its fun, returning us to the old “far-fetched” James Bond films, with gadgets, guns and girls.
As we’re told, those films were “only as good as the villain”, and Jackson’s lisping baddie – with an outlandish plan to control our minds via mobile phones – is good value, even if he’s not quite on the Blofeld level. Even better is his henchwoman, Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), who slices up her opponents with her ‘blade runner’-style legs (a sort of Oddjob Pistorius, if you will).Amid all this, Firth is a revelation in what is his first real action role, dispatching thugs with his umbrella like a jacked-up John Steed. But it’s his relationship with Eggsy that draws you in. In a sense, the plot – like many of the Roger Moore-era Bonds – is a bit daft, and when that takes over in the final third, Kingsman loses some lustre. As good as Egerton is (especially considering the contrast to his performance in this month’s Testament Of Youth), he’s not quite able to sustain our interest for two hours.Vaughn, however, has hit on a fantastic twist on the action movie – a pinch of Lock, Stock cheekiness blended with a dash of ’80s retro (even quoting Trading Places).