Bloodfire (2006)
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Infobox
Director: Christopher Nolan
Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli
Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Jeffrey Caine, Bruce Feirstein
Cinematographer: Wally Pfister, Hoyte van Hoytema
Editor: Lee Smith
Composer: David Arnold
Running Time: 144 minutes
Budget: $150 million
Box Office: $463.5 million
Rating: T
Production Companies: Syncopy Inc., Eon Productions
Distributed by: United Artists
Release date: 14th November 2006 (London), 16th November 2006 (United Kingdom), 20th November 2006 (United States)
Bloodfire is a 2006 spy film, the twenty-fourth in the Eon Productions
James Bond series, the first to star Henry Cavill as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond and the first to be an original story, but with elements from the works of Bond author Ian Fleming. Directed by Christopher Nolan from a story from Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein, with later collaboration from Christopher and his brother Jonathan Nolan, Bond joins MI6 and works to stop a plot by a rogue MI6 agent from using a biological weapon in London to launch a new Cold War.
Plot
In the pre-title sequence, James Bond (Henry Cavill) is a Royal Navy Special Boat Service operator with the 30 Special Forces Unit[1], which has been assigned to conduct a raid on a rebel compound deep within the Democratic Republic of the Congo to rescue an MI6 agent, Alan Carver (Jamie Bell), who was on the tail of a terrorist known as Renard (Claudio Santamaria), leader of the terror group known as Vulpius, before being caught.
After infiltrating by river, Bond and 30 SFU manage to get through to the compound, and fight their way through. The 30 SFU secure the site for intel while Bond finds Carver, who has been severely tortured.
Even though Bond tries to save him, it is too late and instead, Carver relays to Bond that “Vulpius will have Bloodfire”, but also warns Bond that his cover was blown by someone within MI6, someone known as Janus. Before he dies, Carver tells Bond the password for his personal computer at his home containing more information on Vulpius.
Days later, the 30 SFU are soon called upon to rescue hostages on board the cruise liner
Atlantic Star[2], off the coast of Spain, being held by terrorists from Vulpius, who state that unless their demands are met, they will destroy the liner with a set of bombs they have onboard.
30 SFU infiltrate the liner via Royal Navy submarine and work their way through the lower levels, to find that the devices are seemingly fake, to which Bond’s commanding officer believes to think that the terrorists are bluffing, although Bond is unsure and thinks that the devices are meant to be found, meaning that the real bomb is still out of sight.
While 30 SFU rescues the hostages, Bond then finds out that Renard himself is onboard the vessel and heads over to confront him, despite receiving orders not to engage until they have a fix on the bomb.
Bond gets into an intense fight with the terrorist leader, until Bond overpowers him. However, when Bond tries searching for the detonator for the device, the terrorist leader mocks him and tells him that he entrusted it to Janus, who triggers it.
The bomb explodes, causing the liner to go up in an ablaze, and one explosion knocks Bond out as he falls into the sea.
After the title song, armed operatives enter a former Soviet biological weapons facility named Sovblisk-7 and manage to steal a particular biological weapon from the facility.
Later, at the Copenhagen Opera House in Denmark, “Mr. Cochrane” (Cillian Murphy), a representative from an unnamed criminal organization[3], meets with Grigori Pavelovich Alexeyev (Ciarán Hinds), a former Soviet KGB general who arranged for the theft of the weapon, codenamed Bloodfire, on the behalf of Janus after receiving backing from Mr. Cochrane’s organisation (namely the armed operatives) in exchange for a sum of $560 million.
Meanwhile, Bond wakes up in hospital, learning that his comrades have been killed or injured and many of the hostages died. Dismayed with how things have gone, Bond goes on a leave of absence and visits his ancestral home in the Scottish highlands, where he reunites with his paternal aunt Charmian (Annette Badland)[4].
He takes time relaxing, but finds himself restless with inaction, until a woman who only goes by the name of "M" (Emma Thompson), arrives to speak to him in regards to offering him a position with “Universal Exports” so that he can go hunt down Vulpius and stop whatever they have planned, for another attack is due via a weapon codenamed Bloodfire, which catches Bond’s attention, remembering the dying words of the MI6 agent in the Congo. M offers him a Universal Exports card and leaves, telling him that she hopes to have her answer by the end of tomorrow.
After thinking it through the evening, Bond manages to locate and find Universal Exports, and sneaks his way past security, straight to M’s office, where he learns that she is in charge of the 00 Section of the Secret Intelligence Service/MI6.
Impressed, M has one of her top agents, Trevor Burton/006 (Paul McGann), assigned to mentor him, while Bond is placed on a “probationary” stage.
Introduced to M’s Chief of Staff Bill Tanner (Colin Salmon), Bond then uncovers Carver’s personal computer and with Burton’s help, manage to uncover Carver’s files, namely his discoveries that several of the terrorists responsible for the recent attacks, including the one in charge of the hijack of the
Atlantic Star, were paid though a bank account in the Bahamas, the bank itself being owned by Zacarias Greene (Mathieu Amalric), the CEO of Greene Enterprises, a multinational conglomerate involved in environmental issues.
Determined to investigate Greene’s links to Vulpius and the recent theft at Sovblisk-7, M has Bond and Burton head down to Spain (after receiving their equipment from Q (Dominic West), the head of MI6’s Q Branch, and Q’s assistant Smithers (Tobias Menzies), accompanied by MI6 field agent Eve Moneypenny (Thandiwe Newton).
They reach Madrid where Greene is holding a business party at his private villa to which Bond identifies Greene and Alexeyev, as well as a woman also watching the party from afar.
At the Casino de Madrid, Bond not only meets Greene and Alexeyev, but the woman whom she identifies herself as Katya Zukova (Clémence Poésy) and Greene’s wife Solange (Caterina Murino), who is living in an unhappy marriage.
After defeating Greene in Baccarat, Bond charms and romances Solange, learning that Greene is about to head to Algeciras for a business deal, so later, Bond and Burton infiltrate the villa, finding shredded documentation of payments made to the terrorists responsible for the attacks as well as the money having been received from a figure named Janus, which Bond realises must be the same Janus who is the mole at MI6.
Leaving the villa, Bond is detected by the guards and a struggle takes place, with Eve providing vital assistance to help them escape.
The next morning, Bond receives an invitation from Greene to take part in a private race at one of his racetracks, that he has arranged, with Bond to drive an Aston Martin DBR9 against Greene himself in a Porsche 911 GT3, so Bond has Burton and Eve go to uncover more information.
Burton heads to plant a tracking device on Alexeyev’s private plane at an airfield, while Eve heads to Greene’s private yacht in Algeciras.
After putting a tracking device on Alexeyev and Greene’s cars, and sneaking onboard the yacht, Eve manages to access Greene’s computer, uncovering blueprints for a biological weapon dispersal device, and an email to Janus detailing that the device will be ready to receive Bloodfire at “the train station outside Lille”. Eve is then captured by Dietrich (Clemens Schick), Greene’s chief of security.
Despite Greene’s efforts, Bond wins the race, and escapes the track to head to the rendezvous given by Eve, only to find himself surrounded.
Surrendering, Bond is knocked out.
Waking up, Bond and Eve are tied to chairs near the villa's swimming pool, finding Solange having been killed by Dietrich, as well as Burton captured. Interrogated by Alexeyev, Bond and Eve are defiant until Alexeyev has Dietrich “take care of Burton”, dragging him inside the villa, before addressing Greene that until everything is in place for London, he cannot afford any more leaks, and has Dietrich kill Greene, who is thrown into the swimming pool.
Eve tries to get free, only to be shot in the process and thrown into the pool along with Bond, before Alexeyev has the villa burned down with Burton inside. It seems like Bond and Eve are about to drown, until Katya Zukova (who had been observing from a distance), rescues them. However, the villa burns down completely, thus Bond is unable to rescue Burton.
While patching up Eve, Bond learns from Katya that she has been on the trail of Alexeyev, who is suspected of having been behind the theft at Sovblisk-7, and to find out who Janus really is, for whispers are amounting that Janus is planning a coup in Russia.
So Bond finds out that the tracking device planted by Eve, pinpoints Alexeyev at a high speed train station near Lille, the same location that Eve found that the Bloodfire device will be ready.
After arranging for Eve to catch a flight to London, Bond and Katya head to the train station, where they find that the Bloodfire device is ready and operational and is being loaded onto a high-speed train. Boarding it, they travel through the Channel Tunnel and stop off at a station in the Southeast of England, where Bloodfire is soon put onboard a converted lorry.
Bond and Katya make their way to try and put an end to the scheme, only to be caught and surrounded with Burton revealing himself as Janus, much to the surprise of Bond.
Burton reveals to Bond and Katya that he had faked his death, and has been Janus for six years, organising terrorist attacks through Alexeyev and Greene “as a warm-up to the main event”, the deployment of Bloodfire in London, to which once he has a coup arranged for Alexeyev to take power in Moscow, he’ll manipulate the narrative in that Vulpius was sponsored and backed by the new USR government in such a way that tensions will renew between the West and the USR, relaunching a new Cold War. Plus, if he claims “the credit” for the death of Janus, whom he’ll use a double in the role, he’ll be credited as a hero for saving the 00 Section, as the British government has been seeking to disband it, and he’ll also save his own job, for M had been seeking to dismiss him.
So, Burton has Katya taken by Dietrich, to be framed as Janus, but before he can have Bond killed, UK Special Forces and armed police arrive on scene (having been alerted by Eve contacting MI6 on the situation). A battle rages, with Bond taking advantage to try and stop the lorry, only for Dietrich to drive away with Katya restrained in the passenger seat.
Alexeyev attacks Bond, only for Bond to wound him.
Soon, Bond gets his Aston Martin V8 Vantage (which he had arranged to be delivered on scene) to pursue them, only to be pursued by Burton in his Jaguar XK.
An extensive car chase takes place on the motorway, with Burton and Bond bashing their cars in the process, before Katya manages to free herself from her bonds and attack Dietrich, causing the lorry to crash over a bridge into a river, after clipping Burton’s Jaguar. Bond stops and heads over to the sinking lorry, jumping in to save Katya, succeeding and reaching shore only to find Burton there, intent on achieving revenge on Bond for foiling his plot.
An three-way fistfight ensures, between Burton, Bond and Katya, before Burton manages to subdue Bond and put Bond at gunpoint, preparing to kill him when Katya throws a knife into his back, killing Burton.
Later, Bond is debriefed by M at MI6, congratulating him for foiling Burton from unleashing Bloodfire on London, as well as revealing that Alexeyev has been arrested and is to be taken to the USR to be imprisoned. M also welcomes Bond to MI6, revealing that Bond’s actions have earned him a place into the 00 Section, and assigns him a codename, 007.
Afterwards, Bond meets Katya at his Aston Martin, and after his offer of dinner is declined, he instead takes her to the airport for her to catch her flight back to Moscow in his Aston Martin, with Katya giving Bond her number “in case he needs a friend” and a kiss before leaving.
Smiling, Bond drives off.
Cast
Henry Cavill as James Bond/007.
Paul McGann as Trevor Burton/006/Janus.
Clémence Poésy as Yekaterina “Katya” Zukova.
Caterina Murino as Solange Greene.
Thandiwe Newton as Eve Moneypenny.
Ciarán Hinds as Grigori Pavelovich Alexeyev.
Mathieu Amalric as Zacarias Greene.
Clemens Schick as Dietrich.
Claudio Santamaria as Renard.
Cillian Murphy as “Mr. Cochrane”.
Emma Thompson as M.
Colin Salmon as Bill Tanner.
Dominic West as Q.
Tobias Menzies as Smithers.
Annette Badland as Charmian Bond.
Jamie Bell as Alan Carver.
Production
After the release of
Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger in 2001, Eon Productions were now in the midst of deciding where to take the Bond franchise from there, for Ralph Fiennes had made perfectly clear that it would be his last performance as Bond.
In an interview in 2022, producer Michael G. Wilson explained the conundrum, “After Ralph departed, we decided that we couldn’t recast his Bond, then do any of the short stories from the
For Your Eyes Only collection. For one thing, they were not substantial enough to hold up a movie on their own. Nor could we combine them into one movie, for trying to make them all into a plausible movie would have been a whole complete mess. And finally, we couldn’t skip over and do
Thunderball,
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,
You Only Live Twice and
The Man with the Golden Gun, for Blofeld and SPECTRE were still held up in the legal dispute raging between Kevin McClory and Eon[5]. Plus, by around 2000, when we were doing
Dr. No and
Goldfinger[6]. we felt that we weren’t doing anything too new with those films. Don’t get me wrong, we had fun with Fiennes, doing
Casino Royale and adapting the Fleming novels more closely and doing a retrospective look on them, but we were at the risk of going stale by sticking with Bond in the 50s and 60s, so we figured that it was time for something new and the decision was made for us to relaunch Bond into a whole new continuity, set in the 21st Century”.
Although there were growing voices from the fandom to go back to doing Bond in the vein of Connery and Moore, going down that route was a non-starter, “The
Basil Shagwell films and
Lord Albion films, had basically satirised all those tropes that the Connery/Moore films were best known for, with a lot of reliance on computer-generated imagery and plots that delved within the realms of fantasy a lot of the time. So we couldn’t go back to the whole ‘Old New Bond’ thing, even if we wanted to, not to mention that we reckoned that in light with the rise of terrorism in the world, especially after the Bismarck attack in 2002, frivolity didn’t feel all that appropriate[7]”, Wilson explained.
So with the decision to reboot taken, Eon hired Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein to write the script and develop the story of what was then known as
Bond 24 in 2002, with initial drafts including a media tycoon, an oil baron, an entrepreneur/philanthropist, an industrialist and an 00 agent as villains, while plots and the macguffins were said to be quite “varying” and “all over the place”, with “not one of them sticking in such a way that it gripped us”.
But troubles with script and story lead to delays, not to mention that many directors were considered to take Bond into a new direction, with Alex Proyas, Ang Lee, Louis Leterrier, Marc Foster, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle, Tom Hooper, Paul King, Mike Newell, Matthew Vaughn and Guy Ritchie considered as well as Martin Campbell (who previously directed 1994’s
Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale and 1996’s
To Live and Let Die), Roger Spottiswoode (who previously directed 1997’s
Ian Fleming’s Moonraker), Philip Noyce (who previously directed 1998’s
Ian Fleming’s Diamonds are Forever) and Michael Apted (who previously directed 1999’s
Ian Fleming’s From Russia with Love) among those looked at before Barbara Broccoli brought to Eon’s attention, Christopher Nolan, director of 2000’s
Memento, 2002’s
The Keys to the Street[8] and 2004’s
The Prestige[9].
Impressed with his work and feeling he had the appropriate cred to bring Bond in a different direction, as well as challenging and engaging the audience in new ways, whilst still paying homage to iconic elements of the Bond franchise, plus his reliance on practical stunts and effects rather than on computer-generated imagery, Broccoli managed to convince Eon to give him a call.
Even though reluctant to direct a Bond movie, Nolan was intrigued by what Wilson and Broccoli were pitching to him, a chance to bring Bond into the 21st century and they agreed with his notion on updating Bond to modern sensibilities while also continuing to explore Bond's character traits and maintain the overall darker, grittier tone found in Ian Fleming's novels.
And thus the announcement was made in February 2005, with Nolan as director of
Bond 24.
Immediately getting to work, Nolan included his brother Jonathan onto the writing team, where they immediately got attracted to the idea of a 00 agent as a villain and worked in elements of a post-Cold War world as well as writing in the use of biological weapons as the macguffin of the film, in light of the Bismarck bombing which had increased fears of more usage of dirty bombs, chemical and biological weapons in future terror plots at the time.
Initially, gadgetry was going to make a introduction into the script, but Nolan elected to drop the heavy usage of gadgets from his script, feeling that many of the gadgets in the script were there “for the sake of having gadgets” and that their usage were “cop-outs for Bond to get out of tricky situations, rather than him relying on himself”, and leaving only the minimal amount for this film only, with only an Omega SeaMaster watch (equipped with an high intensity light on the dial, an garrotte wire, akin to Red Grant's watch in 1963's
From Russia with Love)[10], a microchip implant, binoculars with digital camera, night vision, thermal vision functions and a mobile phone issued by Q Branch, along with a Browning Hi-Power pistol and a Walther PPK.
As for the title of the movie, names like
At Your Service,
Risico,
Janus,
Licence to Kill and
Everything or Nothing were considered until
Bloodfire was chosen by June 2005.
To replace Ralph Fiennes as James Bond, names like Daniel Craig, Dominic West[11], Dougray Scott, Sam Worthington, Hugh Jackman, Rupert Friend, Karl Urban, Eric Bana, Matthew Rhys, Christian Bale, Goran Višnjić, Alex O'Loughlin, Julian McMahon, Ewan McGregor[12], Orlando Bloom, Tom Hiddleston, Tobias Menzies, Clive Owen, Gerard Butler, James McAvoy, Sam Heughan, Rupert Penry-Jones and Jamie Bamber were considered.
Bale declined to take the role because he didn’t want to commit to a franchise that was “very British” and thought James Bond represented “every despicable stereotype about England and British actors”[13], Craig declined due to prior commitments with
Star Trek: Discovery, while Clive Owen wanted gross profit points, which Eon and United Artists rejected[14] and Goran Višnjić was rejected for being unable to master an British accent[15].
The search was then narrowed down to Butler, Penry-Jones, Bamber, McAvoy, Heughan and Henry Cavill, before Nolan chose Cavill for the role, despite Eon’s concerns that the 22-year old Cavill was much too young.
Then on 18th October, 2005, Eon Productions and United Artists introduced Cavill at a press conference at
HMS President, after Cavill boarded a Royal Marines Rigid Raider from
HMS Belfast, flanked by Royal Marines, announcing him as the sixth actor to portray James Bond[16].
Being the youngest compared to Sean Connery’s 32, George Lazenby’s 29, Roger Moore’s 45, Sam Neill’s 39 and Ralph Fiennes’ 32, criticism arose from fans and critics, feeling that Cavill did not fit with the ideal image of Bond in their minds, with many newspapers running headlines of “Bond, Baby Bond” on account of his age, and internet chat rooms feeling that Eon was making a mistake in choosing someone so young for the role and vowed to boycott the film in protest, although there were those who did believe that he had both the looks and the potential.
The next casting was for Katya Zukova, the main Bond girl.
In earlier drafts, before the role was written as a Russian FSB agent, the character was originally an CIA agent named Pamela, with Angelina Jolie to be strongly considered for the role. Another draft included Doctor Scarlet Fields, a scientist specialising in chemical and biological weapons.
Actresses Olivia Wilde, Eva Green, Audrey Tautou were in contention for the role[17], before Clémence Poésy was chosen for the role.
For the role of the main antagonist Trevor Burton (a name lifted from a planned prequel developed for
The Living Daylights[18]), Eon considered Jason Isaacs, Robson Green, Dominic West, Dougray Scott, Liam Neeson, Sean Bean and Paul McGann (Neeson, Bean and McGann having been contenders for the role of Bond[19] in
Casino Royale), before Nolan asked Paul McGann if he wanted the role.
Initially reluctant, McGann agreed after Nolan pitched to him that Burton would be “a Bond villain like none Bond had faced before”.
To replace Pete Postelwaithe as M, Emma Thompson was cast, making
Bloodfire to be the first film in the series to have a female M, while to replace Desmond Llewelyn (who had passed away in 2004) as Q[20], Bond contender Dominic West was chosen.
Initial drafts had Moneypenny already as Secretary to M, but with Nolan entering the film, the role was rewritten to have her as a MI6 field agent, as Nolan felt that the original character in the films was “just part of the background” and felt more excitement in rewriting her character into being more involved in the plot.
Names like Jodhi May, Shelley Conn and Rhona Mitra were considered before Thandiwe Newton was chosen (replacing Caroline Bliss as Moneypenny).
Other casting choices included Ciarán Hinds as Grigori Alexeyev, Mathieu Amalric as Zacarias Greene, Clemens Schick as henchman Dietrich, Caterina Murino as Greene’s wife Solange, Colin Salmon as M’s Chief of Staff Bill Tanner, Tobias Menzies as Smithers and Cillian Murphy as the mysterious “Mr. Cochrane”.
Filming
As with all his films, Nolan refused to utilise a second unit, in order to keep his vision consistent throughout the whole movie, even if this practice raised eyebrows with Eon.
Filming began on the 6th of January 2006 before being concluded on the 20th of September.
The raid on the rebel compound in the Congo was filmed at Black Park in Buckinghamshire[21], while Ardverikie House and it’s estate up at Kinloch Laggan in Scotland were used to film Bond’s ancestral home[22], while the Farmiloe Building in Clerkenwell, London, was used as the exterior of the Universal Exports building.
Further filming took place at the Copenhagen Opera House in Denmark, various locations around Madrid (one in particular being the Casino de Madrid), Gibraltar (standing in for Algeciras), the Le Mans Circuit (for the racing sequences), exterior shots of the Channel Tunnel, the Nene Valley Railway (for the train station scenes), the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire and the Itchen Bridge in Southampton (for the car chase scenes on the motorway and the lorry crashing into the river), as well as Heathrow Airport (for the film’s final scenes) and the British Army's Stanford Battle Area in Norfolk (for certain exterior scenes at Sovblisk-7)
Sound stages at Pinewood studios, including the 007 Stage, were utilised for filming the rest of the film, mainly, interiors of the Sovblisk-7 facility, several levels onboard the
Atlantic Star as well as scenes onboard the high-speed train, supervised by production designer Nathan Crowley.
Effects
Long time veteran special effects and miniature effects supervisor Chris Corbould returned for his twelfth Bond film[23], with Paul Franklin as visual effects supervisor.
Miniatures were made of the
Atlantic Star, the Royal Navy
Trafalgar-class submarine deploying Bond and 30 SFU, and the closed city of Sovblisk-7 (which were matched with filming at the Stanford Battle Area).
The second movie in the three-film deal with Ford Motors’, Aston Martin’s owners[24], after
Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger utilised the Aston Martin DB Mk III as per the original book,
Bloodfire sees James Bond utilise Aston Martin's recently released V8 Vantage as his main car, while Jaguar, Ford Motors’ other subsidiary[25], provided their latest Jaguar XK model for Trevor Burton’s car.
Aston Martin Racing, Aston Martin’s auto racing team in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, provided the film crew with around 3 Aston Martin DBR9s for the racing sequences, with AMR driver Darren Turner doubling for Bond.
Daniel Kleinman, the Bond title designer since 1994[26], designed the
Bloodfire title sequence.
On the request of Christopher Nolan, who felt that they did not fit with the film's spirit, Kleinman did not include woman silhouettes for the titles, the first time since 1962’s
Dr. No, but instead utilised a silhouette of Bond going through "phases", namely a military uniform being swapped out for a suit, his assault rifle swapped for a Walther PPK, all emphasising Bond transitioning over from a military environment straight into the world espionage. The sequence held heavy emphasis on foxes (referencing Vulpius and Renard), two-faced masks (referencing Janus) as well as aerosol particles, cells and microbes, which emphasised the Bloodfire biological weapon.
Music
The soundtrack for
Bloodfire, released by Decca Records, featured music composed by David Arnold, his sixth soundtrack for the Bond film series[27] (the score being orchestrated and conducted by Nicholas Dodd), while David Bowie[28], who had starred as Nikola Tesla in Nolan’s
The Prestige, performed the title song, “Bloodfire”, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 79th Academy Awards.
Unusually in a Bond film, the “James Bond Theme” was only played during the end credits, making
Bloodfire the first film to not feature the "James Bond Theme" in its entirety until the very end of the movie.
Reception and Legacy
Bloodfire premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on the 14th of November 2006, two days before it’s release in the United Kingdom on the 16th and six days before it’s release in the United States on the 20th, and would gross around $463.5 million at the box office, against a budget of around $150 million.
In terms of critical reception, critics praised Henry Cavill’s performance as Bond, calling him “a Bond to look forward to”, as well as the direction of Christopher Nolan, and the script diverging from usual Bond tropes, making
Bloodfire “even more of a breath of fresh air after Ralph Fiennes’ take”, although many felt that the scenes between Bond and Katya Zukova “could have been better”, and the other antagonists, Greene and Alexeyev, were “underdeveloped”, compared to Trevor Burton.
Nonetheless, the success of
Bloodfire lead to the green-light for a sequel.
[1] Based on No. 30 Commando/30 Assault Unit, Ian Fleming's unit during the Second World War, in which the commando types and their wartime experiences provided one of the many basis for James Bond.
[2] In OTL's
Casino Royale, instead of an attempted bombing of the Skyfleet prototype, there would have been a hijacking of a cruise ship in Cape Town, but this was scrapped after Eon Productions were unable to secure filming locations in South Africa.
[3] Due to copyright issues of the time, this organisation could not be identified as SPECTRE.
[4] Mentioned in the
You Only Live Twice novel, Charmian Bond did appear in an
an Bond 15 script made by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson by around the time of
The Living Daylights, which was rejected by Albert B. Broccoli, as even though he liked the script, he felt audiences were not ready to see a rookie Bond (no doubt that he was influenced by the box-office failure of
Young Sherlock Holmes).
[5] Yes, the infamous dispute between Kevin McClory and Eon Productions which dated all the way back to Ian Fleming writing up
Thunderball in 1961, born from a collaboration between Fleming, McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo. Initially, Fleming had solely claimed himself as the sole author, resulting in McClory going to the High Court for breach of copyright, leading to the matter being settled in 1963, and thus McClory and Whittingham being credited. Then, in 1964, a deal was made between Eon Productions for McClory to produce
Thunderball, and soon, McClory worked on developing a second adaptation of
Thunderball in the 1970s, which lead to a ruling that McClory owned the sole rights to SPECTRE and Blofeld, thus, Eon Productions had to remove them from
The Spy Who Loved Me and replace them with Karl Stromberg, and thus why John Hollis's character in the pre-title sequence in
For Your Eyes Only is uncredited and unidentified. McClory's attempts to adapt
Thunderball a second time continued on until he was eventually able to get
Never Say Never Again made in what became known as "the Battle of the Bonds". Afterwards, a sequel was planned,
S.P.E.C.T.R.E, before that idea was scrapped and McClory tried to adapt Thunderball again with
Warhead 2000 AD by around the 1990s, only for it to be scrapped. In the end, it wouldn't be until 2013, after Kevin McClory died in 2006 (on the 20th of November, four days after the British release of
Casino Royale), when McClory's heirs would sell the
Thunderball rights to Eon, and SPECTRE and Blofeld would be reintroduced into the Eon series with 2015's
Spectre.
[6] Since I've already selected who is directing the other Ralph Fiennes Bond films (since Geekhis Khan only described Martin Campbell as directing
Ian Fleming's Casino Royale), I've decided that
Ian Fleming's Dr. No and
Ian Fleming's Goldfinger (which I've taken the decision to add "Ian Fleming's" to the titles as a way to distinguish the films from their predecessors) is directed by Renny Harlin.
[7] This is a similar feeling in OTL, in which Eon Productions felt that after the September 11th attacks,
Die Another Day delved too far into the realms of fantasy, on a level not seen since
Moonraker, and thus they needed to "go back to reality".
[8] After
Following,
Memento and
Insomnia, Nolan had adapted Ruth Rendell's novel of the same name into a screenplay and was planning to direct it for Fox Searchlight, only to choose to direct
Batman Begins with Warner Bros. instead.
[9] Nolan had planned to direct this film in around early 2003, before production of
Batman Begins was accelerated, thus meaning he had to wait until afterwards.
[10] Due to Lindy Hemming being costume designer, she will still be introducing the Omega SeaMaster as the replacement watch for Bond's Rolex Submariner. Also in this film, Bond utilises the watch as an improvised knuckleduster, like in OTL's
Casino Royale.
[11] He was considered for the role of Bond around 2005, when the search for replacing Brosnan was on for
Casino Royale, and somehow, he had heard a rumour that Brosnan was going to return (even though this was impossible, as Brosnan's deal was for 4 films and that had been fulfilled by
Die Another Day), so he ruled himself out.
[12] Was offered the role, but due to already being cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, he feared being typecast, so he passed on the role.
[13] True! Plus, he felt he already "played a serial killer" in
American Psycho.
[14] Yes, this was true as well. Plus, Clive Owen was of the opinion that Sean Connery was the definitive Bond.
[15] Apparently, this was why he was rejected in OTL.
[16] Same event occurred when Daniel Craig was announced to portray Bond.
[17] Olivia Wilde and Audrey Tautou were in contention for Vesper Lynd in OTL, only for Eva Green to win the part.
[18] The character of Burton Trevor/Bart Trevor, would later be reworked into Augustus Trevelyan/Alec Trevelyan for
Goldeneye.
[19] Neeson declined to play Bond, initially claiming he was not interested in starring in action films, but later admitted that his then-girlfriend, Natasha Richardson, would not have married him if he had agreed to play Bond. Bean had been a second choice for Eon for playing Bond in what would become Goldeneye if Timothy Dalton did not return, only for Pierce Brosnan to be given the part, and the producers instead giving Bean the role of Alec Trevelyan, while McGann had been given an audition and impressed the producers, but MGM demanded Brosnan for the role.
[20] With a different direction for the Bond movies, Desmond Llewelyn does not die in a car crash in 1999, but instead lives a bit longer, but still passes away, albeit more peacefully.
[21] The Black Park was used to film the scenes in Uganda for OTL's
Casino Royale.
[22] Another addition to the Bond 15 script would have been Bond's ancestral home. In OTL, this idea would eventually appear with Skyfall Lodge in 2012's
Skyfall.
[23] Corbould worked on Bond as far back as
A View to a Kill, as an uncredited special effects technician, and worked his way up to special effects supervisor.
[24] Ford Motors owned Aston Martin from around 1987 to 2007.
[25] Ford also owned Jaguar from 1989 till 2008.
[26] In OTL, Daniel Kleinman became the Bond title designer for
Goldeneye after Maurice Binder's death in 1991, so in TTL, Kleinman designs the titles for 1994's
Casino Royale and following Bond films onwards.
[27] In OTL, David Arnold started his work on the Bond franchise in
Tomorrow Never Dies after John Barry recommended him to Barbara Broccoli due to
Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project, so in TTL, I reckoned that after maybe John Barry does
Casino Royale in 1994 and another film composer does
To Live and Let Die in 1996, David Arnold will compose for
Ian Fleming's Moonraker.
[28] In OTL, David Bowie had actually been considered to play Max Zorin in
A View to a Kill, but instead decided to play Jareth in
Labyrinth instead because he disliked the script and in his own words, "didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs".