October 2008 Archives

BBC WM has had great fun today over claims that the next Bond movie (after Friday's release of Quantum of Solace) could be made in Birmingham.

Listeners to Richard Wilford (breakfast) and Paul Franks (drivetime) eagerly contributed story and location ideas as well as localised suggestions for the name of the film. Dr Knowle was a good one.

Anyway, this story resulted from my persistence yesterday when I was at Bond HQ in London - and where others were overhearing ready to pinch my story. The rotters!

One by one, I asked star Daniel Craig, director Marc Forster and producer Barbara Broccoli why they couldn't shoot part of the next one in Brum.

Daniel said if the credit crunch kicked in they might have to.

I thought about filing this line overnight for a news story, but I didn't in the end because, as I'm pretty sure it will never actually happen, I thought I'd save it for for one of the features I've got planned for this Friday's Birmingham Mail.

This decision was also partly made because I had to hang around computerless at Euston for 70 minutes (just to avoid having to pay an extra £60 to get home earlier than envisaged) and partly because I already had two good stories holding which had failed to make Monday's paper because of the city's half marathon.

Some you win, some you lose... but if you carry on reading the features below you'll see how my line of thought yesterday echoed my work for the release of The World Is Not Enough on November 22, 1999.

As ever, I was banging the drum for Brum... and Pierce Brosnan even came out with a line about the time he used to work here. Fancy that.

It's also fascinating to see how Birmingham's city centre Arena Central development was a pipedream in 1999 because it has still not been built!

And to recall the still-boyish enthusiasm of Q-star Desmond Llewelyn, who sadly died just a month after our chat - on December 19, 1999. He was 85.

My guess is that were Desmond still alive and working today, the producers woulndn't be making films like Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace without Q.

BIRMINGHAM MAIL
NOVEMBER 1999

Pierce Brosnan returns for the third time as James Bond this week in The World Is Not Enough.
GRAHAM YOUNG meets him - and suggests that next time out he stops by for some excitement in Birmingham.

WHEN the 19th James Bond movie opens on Friday, it will feature the usual exotic mixture of stupendous stunts, glamorous girls and lovely locations.

This time around, the 007 roadshow has been filming everywhere from Istanbul to Azerbaijan, the French Alps, the Nervion River in Bilbao and Cuenca in Spain and the Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland.

There is also a scene filmed at the Motorola factory in... Swindon.

Now, excuse me. If this bleak town on the southern edge of the Cotswolds can be a James Bond location, then so can Birmingham.

We've got the attractions. All that's needed is the will.

Pierce Brosnan rolls his eyes when I ask him to remember Swindon.

The real-life factory set looked like a grey Airfix kit gone wrong - think of a Russian space rocket that's about to be launched sideways - and, in early March, the chill wind and snow flakes were enough to send a Polar bear scurrying for cover.

Yet Pierce had to pretend that this was Turkey in 80 degrees of heat, with the factory doubling up as an oil installation.

Nearby in the car park, were the location caterers and two giant marquees - one for eating in, the other for costumes and make-up - so that was a lot of effort for just a single day's shooting.

Ironically, the scenes I watched being shot outdoors that day have largely been cut out of the movie, save for a helicopter swooping down to bring in M (Judi Dench) after about an hour's running time.

'Swindon was a great place to be - the ultimate in glamour,' recalls deadpan Pierce. 'But this is an honest living and, although filming like this was hard work, we were well looked after.'

So why not come to Birmingham?

'Ah, Birmingham,' says the softly-spoken County Meath-born Irishman whose first job after school was acting assistant stage manger at the York Theatre Royal.

'I had some good times there during my days visiting the Rep.'

Whatever Pierce thinks, it's the producers who decided where 007 goes, and he knows it.

So how about it Barbara Broccoli, beautiful daughter of the late and legendary Cubby?

'We are open to shooting anywhere - and there are some very lovely locations in England,' she says, preferring to be noncommittal.

But there are a few things moving in Birmingham's favour.

Bond's image means that each film has to try to be bigger, better and bolder than the one before, yet the makers are also looking to be increasingly topical with each movie, hence the media war in Tomorrow Never Dies and the eastern European oil supply drama of The World Is Not Enough.

In the latest thrilling opening chase, Bond is on the heels of a glamorous assassin on the River Thames and the chase ends on the roof of the Millennium Dome.

Soon, Birmingham could have its own larger-than-life structure on which to play out an international drama - Arena Central, a £300 million development for the eight-acre block around the former Central TV headquarters on Broad Street, includes plans for Britain's tallest building at 232 metres as well as a Las Vegas-style theatre restaurant, casino and interactive Disney-style theme ride.

The plans are currently with deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's department awaiting approval but, if he gives it the thumbs up, we could yet see a 007 version of Die Hard filmed in central Brum.

To justify the trip north - and Birmingham isn't much further up the M40 from Pinewood than Swindon is east along the M4 corridor - Bond could take advantage of other facilities in the Midlands.

Any indoor sets could be built at the NEC and, instead of using a Scottish castle as an MI6 operations centre, why not Warwick Castle?

Since Michael Apted, the director of The World Is Not Enough, admits that it is hard to think of things which Bond hasn't done before, why not send him back in time... at the Black Country Museum?

In Goldfinger, Pussy Galore was covered in gold... but if Bond wants a chocolat-covered girl with a golden honeycomb centre, why not dunk her in a vat of cocoa at Cadbury's in Bournville? (*)

And if Bond is ever to get back in a BMW or, preferably, an Aston Martin for a proper car chase, why not make best use of Birmingham's famous inner and outer ring roads, not to mention Spaghetti Junction?

Just imagine. What better climax could there be than for one of the cars to zoom off the top flyover - and crash through the roof of Star City, the 30-screen multiplex that's set to be Europe's biggest cinema when it opens in July next year?

Come on up, Mr Bond.

The Midlands has been expecting you.

(*) See Quantum of Solace and you'll see how perceptive these words were!

THE STAR

I'VE MET Pierce Brosnan after every James Bond film he's done but this time there's a noticeable transformation in his demeanour.

Suddenly, at 46, he's come of age as 007 and he knows it.

The shooting of the first film, GoldenEye, was riddled with doubts as to whether the decision to revive the silver screen's most famous secret agent was the right thing to do.

Then, after making Tomorrow Never Dies two years ago he admitted he was still only just getting his feet under the table.

Now, there no mistaking his mood. Pierce Brosnan has arrived - and he's going to enjoy the moment, thank you very much.

'I've got more confidence and assuredness so I've had more time to enjoy playing the part,' he explains.

'I've had more time to experience the day to day rhythm of the film instead of it being an overwhelming experience where you are trying to look like you know what you are doing. 'There was fierce trepidation during the making of GoldenEye and we didn't want to let it go out of control.

'This new film has, I feel, the right balance of character, story and action, which I think was lacking with the last one. The character is more interesting in the grey areas instead of the black and white cut-out character who has been alluded to before.'

Another, much more personal reason adds to his current sense of well being.

It is now more than seven years since his Australian actress wife, Cassandra Harris, died from ovarian cancer, but, next year to complete his contentment, Pierce plans to marry his long-standing partner Keely Shaye-Smith, the mother of his three-year-old son, Dylan.

'I knew early on that this was someone I wanted to be with, always. We have set a date and a place and it will be quiet, simple. I feel happy again. It is a great feeling to have a wonderful partner whom I respect and admire.'

Back in 1964, Goldfinger was the first film Pierce ever saw just before he left Ireland for London with his parents.

Sean Connery remains his hero, but the tremendous worldwide box office successes of both GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, together with his satisfaction at the character development in The World Is Not Enough has convinced him that he's made the part as much his own as could be expected of any fifth-generation star.

Barring unforeseen disasters, he'll definitely be taking up his option to make a fourth film which will be 007's 20th. (Die Another Day)

What will then be interesting to see is if Pierce, who will then be 50, decides to hang on for a fifth instalment and to play Bond in his 21st adventure so that both character and star can come of age together. (No, Daniel Craig got the Casino Royale gig).

Pierce himself had to wait ten years for the part, his contractual obligations to TV drama Remington Steel allowing Timothy Dalton to slip through for Licence To Kill and The Living Daylights before a series of contractual wrangles threatened to kill off Ian Fleming's greatest creation once and for all.

Sitting back in his chair and savouring the moment, Pierce won't even think about which young pretenders might be trying to follow in his footsteps.

'Let them wait,' he smiles. 'They all need patience and will have to fight it out amongst themselves - I am only just getting the hang of it.

'I just want to see The World Is Not Enough go out into the market place and to finish this Millennium on a high note with a character who is loved and cherished universally. This is the time to just sit back and to enjoy it.

'If am only remembered for being James Bond, then so be it - to be able to bring this sort of joy to people all over the world is a wonderful thing.'

What makes the Bond movies so special is that virtually all of the stunts are real with little reliance on computer-generated images.

To that end, Pierce takes his hat off to the stunt men who put their lives on the line and help him to do his own fair share of risk taking.

'These men are right at the top of their game,' he says. 'They give you the greatest confidence. That's what makes the 007 films stand head and shoulders above the action films which just rely on CGI.

'If it's not me in front of the camera, it's some mighty fine stunt man who is risking life and limb.'

As ever, Pierce undertook a strict physical training course before shooting started - and then found it increasingly hard to keep it going once the cameras were rolling.

'You have to get fit beforehand if you are to have the stamina for a six months shoot,' says Pierce whose favourite exercise is to play tennis.

'Once filming begins, you start off with the best intentions but it gets very difficult to keep the training up by the 15th to 20th week you are trying to stay off the ropes.'

THE DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR Michael Apted came into the Bond family wondering what on earth he had let himself in for.

He knew from the off that this would be the longest, most complex and expensive shoot he'd ever been involved with.

Originally, he believed that he had been chosen for his ability to director women - such as Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas In The Mist.

And, there is no doubt that the best part of The World Is Not Enough is played by French actress Sophie Marceau who stars as Elektra - Bond's first female enemy.

But overall he is delighted with the experience - and says he will make a second movie if asked.

'I am most proud of just getting through it all,' says the man who looks remarkably like another silver-haired man with a very similar name, Michael Aspel.

'There were times, especially in pre-production when I wondered if I would just be overwhelmed by it all because I came in as a drama director, not an action director.

'The producers wanted to change the emphasis. I think I've pulled it off, but since I only just managed to finished the film three weeks ago, it's too early for me to say.

'Everything you see on screen, though, is pretty much real - though there is a tightrope to tread between making sure the audience sees Pierce in action while you are protecting your investment.'

Michael says it helped him that some of his Oscar-laden backroom team had worked on as many as 14 Bond movies - but Pierce was the real star.

'He brings a tremendous range to Bond. He can be mean, nasty, funny and vulnerable.

'I think it's a great movie to have done. I would like to do a small film next, but it's very gratifying that more people will see this film than any of my others.'

THE LEGEND

AT THE grand old age of 85, one man who has been there, seen it and done it in more Bond movies than anybody else is gadget king Desmond Llewelyn.

As Q, he has despatched 007 into battle in the last 17 movies with everything from a bullet proof vest to an underwater camera, radioactive fluff, shark gun, wet bike, cigarette-lighter camera, TV watch and video, a rocket-firing ghetto-blaster, an explosive alarm clock, missile-launching leg cast and a boat that can work in three inches of water.

In The World Is Not Enough, Bond takes one of Q's latest boats and, even though it is not finished, haphazardly zooms along the River Thames in pursuit of his foe.

Like Pierce himself, who doesn't even use a computer, Desmond is a technophobe - but hopes to go on making the films as long as he can.

'I am available as long as the producer wants me and as long as the Almighty doesn't,' he laughs.

'I think this new movie has gone right back to the traditions of Goldfinger and From Russia With Love.

'The gadgets always go wrong, but they are all believable. A pilot once told me that we could fly from Britain to Australia in two hours if we wanted - it's not so much a case of what can be invented, but what can we afford.

'I can't work anything and I haven't got a computer or fax. I even hire my television so I can change it and not have to pay to get it fixed.'

As for Pierce as 007 - Desmond is a total fan.

'Pierce has really made the role his. He's got something Sean never had... Irish charm. I'm a Welshman, but I think the Irish can outdo the Scots and the Welsh with this odd charm.

'There is something there that I don't think any of the other Bonds have. I may be prejudiced, but it is absolutely wonderful working with him.'

I've spent the day with the 007 team - star Daniel Craig, new Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and director Marc Forster.

Read more about my Quantum of Solace adventures in the bumper What's On section of Friday's Birmingham Mail!

FUNNY how many other critics have been a lot kinder to Ricky Gervais' new movie Ghost Town than I was yesterday.

Suddenly, it makes you think: 'Are they right?'

Or, even worse, 'Am I Wrong?'

Well, for starters, how can I be wrong about my own, honest opinion?

It's impossible!

And, if you were a newcomer to this site taking trouble trouble to read all the way through it, you'd soon see my middle names could actually be 'Not often wrong' in terms of the market I love.

Hopefully, I've been watching films on behalf of the Mail for sufficiently long - almost 20 years - for you to also know that if I like something, you might hate it.

And vice-versa.

Which is exactly how things should be.

Just for a Brit like Ricky Gervais to get the chance to lead this film shows how well he's doing, so good luck to him.

But, half way through, I typically asked myself if I'd ever want to go and see Ghost Town again in a cinema and the answer was a resounding 'No'.

Ghost Town is also one of those films where they've given away too much in the trailer, which weakens the more obviously funny bits and thus exposes the over-contrived plot for what it is.

And so, two stars it had to be for me (just like Wendy Ide from The Times).

Some critics have even made reference to It's a Wonderful Life, for example.

But, while my brother-in-law could watch James Stewart in Frank Capra's classic film every year - and very often does - I can't see too many people finding Ghost Town as endearing.

Which is probably why some critics have been almost apologetic for awarding four stars (and how any of them could give Incendiary any stars at all is another matter altogether) out of their love for Ricky.

With Ghost Town, then, it might well be that many viewers who go expecting a lot will be disappointed.

Whereas anyone who read my review might well come out thinking it was better than expected - and that's very often a really good emotion!

It will be interesting to discover how Ghost Town plays on the small screen, though, since far too many 'comedies' are no longer fit to be seen in a family living room.

As soon as Tea Leoni's role kicks in, I thought she was the best thing in it and that maybe she's one of the few actresses who can be warm, funny and sexy.

On this form, she must have been relatively shortchanged in her career to date with films like The Family Man, Jurassic Park III, Fun With Dick and Jane and You Kill Me.

But she's certainly brave, given that you can already imagine some headlines if she gets her next film wrong.

It's title is... Manure.

BIRMINGHAM'S first digital festival will close on Sunday night with 'Into the Light', a tribute to one of the city's most famous sons from the world of film.
Sir Michael Balcon (1896-1977) was the former head of Ealing Studios.
As well as giving Alfred Hitchcock his first directing job, Sir Michael went on to run a US studio for MGM.
He also helped to set up BAFTA and chaired the Experimental Film Fund in the 1950s - later to become the BFI, which was an organisation committed to helping unknown film makers as well as pioneering new technologies.
His most famous films include A Yank At Oxford, Goodbye Mr Chips, The Good Companions, Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob and The 39 Steps.
And naming the policeman in The Blue Lamp (1954) after his old Birmingham school, George Dixon, later led to title of the long-running TV series, Dixon of Dock Green.
On Sunday, October 26, his actress daughter, Jill Balcon - the mother of double Oscar-winning best actor Daniel Day-Lewis - will attend a special screening of Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), directed by Robert Hamer and starring Alec Guinness as entire aristocratic dynasty.
In the spirt of Sir Michael's passion for helping young filmmakers, the winning 'Film Dash' entry of a short-film competition at the city's first Hello Digital festival will also be screened as a curtain-raiser.
The gala evening will begin promptly at 7pm on Sunday at the Odeon New Street.
Tickets are free - contact organiser Roger Shannon via www.swishproductions.co.uk or telephone 0121 449 5598.
+ A four-day showcase of sights and sounds at Millennium Point, Hello Digital is a pioneering blend of interactive fun, gaming, education and workshops and includes everything from robotics to communications, films, gaming, animations and installations. The whole event is free and aimed at all ages. For more details visit www.hellodigital.net

SIR MICHAEL BALCON EVENT - BIRMINGHAM, OCTOBER 26 at 7pm.

THE winning short film in the Hello Digital festival running at Millennium Point this weekend will be shown at the New Street Odeon on Sunday - in front of a very special guest of honour.
It's part of a 7pm gala evening to celebrate the life of Birmingham-born film producer Sir Michael Balcon, the former head of Ealing Studios who also set up experimental funds to help industry newcomers.
The event will include an introductory speech by Sir Michael Balcon's daughter Jill Balcon, the mother of double Oscar-winning star Daniel Day-Lewis.
Cinemagoers will also have a rare chance to see the classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) directed by Robert Hamer and produced by Sir Michael Balcon.
Tickets are free, just contact Roger at www.swishproductions.co.uk or telephone 0121 449 5598. The evening will begin at 7pm prompt.

+ For more information about the Hello Digital weekend at Millennium Point, visit the Hello Digital website at www.hellodigital.net

BATMAN is back... less than a week after we all thought he'd left the building!

Christopher Nolan's piledriving thriller with Christian Bale in the lead role of The Dark Knight (12A) is making an unexpected comeback at Birmingham's giant IMAX cinema.

Two screenings on Saturday and Sunday last weekend were supposed to be the last outing for the film which stars Heath Ledger on breathtaking form as The Joker.

But the fact is that the first Hollywood thriller to have been shot using IMAX cameras on the big action sequences has already drawn nearly 40,000 visitors to the IMAX from all over the country.

Even now, at this late stage, it refuses to die.

Last weekend, some people even came to Birmingham to watch it from as far afield as Cardiff, while others in the past have travelled from Devon and London.

Sensibly, the IMAX management have changed their schedules for this weekend.

The Dark Knight will now play again at 8.30pm on Saturday, October 25 and at 6pm on Sunday, October 26.

With the clocks changing this weekend to make the nights even darker, what a great idea!

Enjoy.

PS. Do look back to my initial reactions to the film on July 21 and July 22 to see how I predicted the size of its impact.

AFTER I went on a movie bender at the beginning of month and saw 16 movies over a long weekend I wrote the following on October 5 about a new film called What Just Happened...

"Great to see Robert De Niro back on real form. Can't believe director Barry Levinson is, too. After the likes of An Everlasting Piece (2000), this is the first decent movie he's made since Wag The Dog in 1997."

Even Capt Bob must be thinking the same - for the first time in years he must be really chuffed with his work.

Waiting for me in my email inbox at work today was a personal invitation to meet screen legend Robert De Niro next month in good time for the (delayed) opening of What Just Happened at the end of November.

Any questions about Robert De Niro you'd like to know the answer to?

+ By the way, as part of the Film Education brief I've written about several times recently including last night, I really enjoyed discussing a little known German/Turkish film called The Edge of Heaven today with pupils from King Edward's (boys and girls wings from Edgbaston) and Bishop Challoner in Kings Heath.

It was a challenging, subtitled two-hour film in more ways than one, so it was as interesting for me to seek the opinions of the next generation as I hope it was for the students to learn more about my kind of work.

In these situations, it's particularly fantastic when you have what I call a 'lightbulb' moment, when you go away thinking that you've fired somebody else up with your own enthusiasm.

Touch wood, every year there's at least always one.

This time I have to say full marks to Ivan for coming up to me just out of the cinema eager to ask some intelligent questions in a bid to learn more.

Ivan was soon joined by several equally inquisitive friends who bombarded me with good questions.

He might not know it yet, but Ivan has already got what it takes to do really well for himself - in whatever he chooses to do.

In contrast, I despair every year when teachers from Edgbaston's George Dixon International School use the end credits as cover in order to (politely) waltz their pupils straight out of the screening under the excuse they 'need to go back for their lunch'.

A couple of years ago, this kind of unexpected antic removed most of the children from the end of a screening that I had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare for.

And not only me, but a Birmingham Professor, too, who was going to help discuss the geographical implications of The Day After Tomorrow.

I was really angry that the children had lost a good opportunity to possibly learn a few things from a leading academic, as well as someone (me) who has had the good fortune to see at first hand what makes some of the world's most successful people tick.

Luckily, the pupils from King Eds and Bishop C were the bulk of my audience this year and it was good to see so many of them were as keen as mustard to make the most of a rare trip out of school.

In future, I recommend that the George Dixon lot bring a packed lunch to eat on the bus.

Or, better still, that they don't sign up for 'my' film so that the children don't feel as if they might be losing out.

Once an opportunity is gone, it's gone. End of.

FURTHER to my September 5 notes about Film Education, this is the week when many children will miss school lessons in favour of being able to watch a movie instead.

Good for them.

It's really important to realise there's a world outside of the classroom as it's the place where all of the skills they learn at school will one day become relevant.

And, in any case, there is nothing quite like seeing a film where it should be seen on the big screen.

As well as hopefully being entertaining and/or thought-provoking, every film is educational, too, both in terms of our understanding of the world and human behaviour within it.

As usual, I'll be hosting a Masterclass for the children attending one of this week's screenings in Birmingham.

It just so happens that this year it will be tomorrow. And, since it will be a two-hour German film about a Turkish story that I was not familiar with before, this means I'll be learning just as much as the children.

Luckily I've sourced a DVD and I'm about to watch it tonight in advance as part of my preparation.

It will be the first foreign film I've discussed in this context (and more's the pity it's not this year's Oscar contender The Diving Bell and The Butterfly which I think every teenager should see).

But, because tomorrow's film has also been given an English title, I wonder if the children themselves will be expecting anything other than a bog-standard Hollywood film.

I rather hope so, because it's important to see things without prejudice or preconception.

Which is why I always try to review films based on my reaction to seeing the film, the whole film and nothing but the film.

If it all falls flat tomorrow because the children don't appreciate seeing a German film, I can always fall back on what it was like to have been at the world's first screening of the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace on Friday night (see my previous notes about my reaction to that).

That is sure to grab their attention.

JUST 24 hours after I was watching the world's first screening of the new James Bond thriller Quantum of Solace (see previous posting for my initial, full verdict) and I'm already beginning to develop an itch to see it again.

That is a really good sign... and one that I probably haven't had with Bond since Tomorrow Never Dies.

I really enjoyed Casino Royale, but its 144-minute running time counted against a quick repeat viewing and, in the end, I never did make the time.

But, although my initial reaction during last night's final credits was that it probably wasn't as good as Casino Royale, the comparative shortness of the new movie and Daniel Craig's electric performance means I've been left wanting more.

Much more.

Bring it on again!

QUANTUM OF SOLACE (12A)

JUST back from London having just seen the 'world's first screening' of the new 007 movie.

As you would expect, I was the very person first in the queue.

And I had one of the best seats in the house at the Leicester Square Odeon - A12 on the front row of the circle.

Five rows behind in F15 was the BBC's alleged £18 million man, Jonathan Ross (I've never seen anyone eat popcorn so fast before a film has even started)...

So how was the film?