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Artical by Hollie Mckay | Photo by Hollie Mckay

07DANIELCRA G

Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor best known for playing British secret agent James Bond since 2006. Craig is an alumnus of the National Youth Theatre and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music &Drama in London and began his career on stage. His early on screen appearances were in the films Elizabeth, The Power of One and A Kid in King Arthur's Court, and on Sharpe's Eagle and Zorro in television. His appearances in the British films Love Is the Devil, The Trench and Some Voices attracted the industry's attention, leading to roles in bigger productions.Craig achieved international fame when chosen as the sixth actor to play the role of James Bond, replacing Pierce Brosnan. Though initially greeted with scepticism, his debut in Casino Royale was highly acclaimed.

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Artical by Hollie Mckay | Photo by Hollie Mckay

077DANIELCRA G

Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor best known for playing British secret agent James Bond since 2006. Craig is an alumnus of the National Youth Theatre and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music &Drama in London and began his career on stage. His early on screen appearances were in the films Elizabeth, The Power of One and A Kid in King Arthur's Court, and on Sharpe's Eagle and Zorro in television. His appearances in the British films Love Is the Devil, The Trench and Some Voices attracted the industry's attention, leading to roles in bigger productions.Craig achieved international fame when chosen as the sixth actor to play the role of James Bond, replacing Pierce Brosnan. Though initially greeted with scepticism, his debut in Casino Royale was highly acclaimed.

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Daniel Craig is doing a terrific impression of a smiling buffoon. The 43 year old is currently shooting his third Bond film, ‘Skyfall’, although when we meet in late September in a downtown Soho hotel in New York City – he lives in Manhattan with his new wife, Rachel Weisz. He’s between finishing some pick-up shots for ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ in August in Los Angeles and flying to London to begin working on ‘Skyfall’ with the British director Sam Mendes.

Interviewwith

JamesBOND

Interview by Elisabetta Povoledo

You’ve said before that talking to the press is like going to the dentist. Do you feel any differently now you’ve played a journalist?

‘Oh yeah, now I understand! I feel so much better about it! The truth is, I don’t have any problem with journalists – I count some of them as friends – also some of my heroes are journalists, I’m a big fan of Robert Fisk – great people or crazy people who are prepared to stand up for what’s right.

‘And I like the guy in this film, Mikael Blomkvist, but what I like about him is that he’s flawed, he’s a complex, weak, egotistical man on a moral crusade. And all those things combined are interesting, plus he has this brilliant relationship with this girl, Lisbeth Salander, this damaged, hyper-intelligent human being. On paper, they shouldn’t come together, but they do and they respond to each other. She’s the one with the balls in the relationship. He’s happy to watch while she beats someone up.’

Rooney Mara looks terrifying as Salander. Can you tell me more about Rooney Mara?

‘There were shenanigans going on while she was being cast. David Fincher was adamant and I get that. Just look at the beginning of “The Social Network”, she’s phenomenal. She’s got something about her, but also she’s physically perfect. When she puts the hoodie on and the leather jacket, she looks like a 14-year-old boy, she looks sexless. Which is perfect. The other side of it is that when she doesn’t have that on, she’s really sexy.

‘That combination is absolutely true to the book. Salander’s someone who would walk down the street and you wouldn’t notice. That’s how she wants it, that’s how she’s survived in her life. She’s switched herself off from humanity and she walks in the shadows.’

Your character is Swedish, it’s set in Sweden, but you speak English with no accent. Can you talk about more?

‘Some people in the film have accents and some don’t. I don’t. I had a long conversation with David about it and said that a lot of Scandinavians speak English perfectly. I’m one of those guys. We’ve got Danish people, Swedish people, English people, American people. The only thing that matters, as far as I’m concerned, is that no one sounds American. We sound as

European as possible. We’re all speaking one common language and that happens to be English. I didn’t want an accent to get in the way, and for me it would. Salander has no formal education and she has a street accent, it’s quite specific.

Were you into the books before?

‘I had read them already. I stole a paperback off someone on holiday. Then I read the other two. You’d be at the airport and see the cross-section of people who were reading them, that’s how I noticed them. I kept seeing it on the bestsellers list and had no idea what it was about, and then you’d find 80-year-old men and 14-year-old girls reading it. That’s phenomenal.’

You can’t have needed much encouragement to work with David Fincher after ‘The Social Network’.

‘I think that film was a real shift for him in the way he makes movies. I think his visual style was all there, but it was embedded in the movie in a way I hadn’t seen before. I love all his movies, but “Fight Club” dated because the visual style was copied in commercials and if you’re that cutting edge you’re always going to be up against that. You’re creating new things in movies and people are going to steal them. With “The Social Network”, I felt there was a maturing of him, he’s always been a great filmmaker but he suddenly became confident about storytelling and visual stuff and the two married together in a way I hadn’t seen him do with such confidence.’ That’s what we tried to instill in the script. He’s been working his arse off to tie all these things together so they make sense – in a Bond way.’

You’re about to start shooting the new Bond film. How do you feel about it? Is there a sense of ‘Hell, here we go for the next seven month’ just because it’s such a massive undertaking? What is the real reason?

‘Yes, I think that there’s definitely some of that, but I’m genuinely really excited because we’ve got a script. The deciding factor for doing “Casino Royale”, even though I was umming and aahhing, going “I don’t know if I want to do it”, was that they showed me the script and I thought: I’ve got to do this. And I think this one is better. I really do. It’s a totally original story. ou’re creating new things in movies and people are going to steal them. That’s what we tried to instill in the script.

B JIt sounds like you’ve become even more involved behind the scenes as time has gone on.

‘I said from the very beginning to Barbara: “If you give me this responsibility, I can just walk on that set and pretend to be James Bond,” but they allowed me to be involved more. It’s naturally progressed. I don’t want to get in people’s way, I just want to encourage things along. Sam got involved and then we got Roger Deakins, for fuck’s sake, who’s shooting it. The air is rare, and we’ve had the chance to employ some brilliant people.

I love that Sam Mendes’s last film was ‘Away We Go’ his most indie film yet.

‘Yes, that’s true, and now he’s making a $200m Bond movie. He’s an OCD control freak and I mean that in the nicest possible way, as all directors are. David Fincher included. They are all absolutely single-minded and all they want to do is get it right. On a movie like this, you need that – maybe I shouldn’t call him an “OCD control freak”: it’s a joke, but you need someone with lots of different heads – there’s a producing head, a directing head, a special-effects head, a publicity head. More than any other movie, you need someone with all that going on, and he just does, he’s a manager, a great manager, and one of the skills doing a Bond movie is about is managing a lot of people, saying, “Okay, do that, that’s got to be done, and I’ll do that.”

Did you have anything to do with getting Sam Mendes on board as director?

He is a interesting guy I have to say that about him. ‘I did, yes, I did. He’s English, he’s Cambridge-educated, he’s smart. He’s lived with Bond all his life, he grew up with Bond the way I did. We grew up at exactly the same time, and I said to him, “We have to do this together, we have exactly the same reference points, we both like the same Bond movies and we both like the same bits in the same Bond movies we like.” We sat down and we just rabbited for hours about “Live and Let Die” or “From Russia with Love”, and talked about little scenes that we knew from them. That’s how we started talking about it. That’s what we tried to instill in the script. He’s been working his arse off to tie all these things together so they make sense – in a Bond way.’

Did you worry about being seen forever as Bond? You know the James Bond has a strong impression.

Yes. The audience already have a strong impression of James Bond. ‘I weighed everything up and the only reason not to do it was fear. The fear of losing everything else. And you can’t not do something because you’re afraid. Well, you can, jumping off cliffs and things like that, but to be afraid of losing something because I was going to play James Bond is kind of nonsense. That’s how I convinced myself. I thought: Even if it goes wrong, hopefully I’ll earn enough money to live on an island when I’m old and get a leathery brown tan! And drink cocktails in the afternoon. Which sounds quite good to tell the truth.’ Rewinding to the start. Did you really leave home in Chester at the age of 16 to join the National Youth Theatre in London? It seems young.

5 6

Did you worry about becoming public property – tabloid fodder – when you took on Bond?

‘Yes, it’s unavoidable, you can’t deny it. In some respects, I still fight with it now. I can’t go to war with paparazzi. The Daily Mail loves saying – “He never smiles”, because I know you’re fucking taking pictures of me, that’s why. Because the Daily Mail comes to mind every time I see a camera. I challenge anybody to fucking

smile. I’m just not that person. ‘But I do get it, you can’t just come out and be angry. You’ve got to live your life. I’m never going to arrive at an airport after a 12-hour flight and go. You’ve got to live your life, you’ve got to enjoy it. And this is a great time, I’m playing James Bond. That’s what makes me secure about it, I’m having a lot of fun with it and getting a kick out of it, and people have a perception I’m grumpy all the time.’ Win or lose, we’ve done the best we can because we’ve put the right people in the job.

Daniel Craig is doing a terrific impression of a smiling buffoon. The 43 year old is currently shooting his third Bond film, ‘Skyfall’, although when we meet in late September in a downtown Soho hotel in New York City – he lives in Manhattan with his new wife, Rachel Weisz. He’s between finishing some pick-up shots for ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ in August in Los Angeles and flying to London to begin working on ‘Skyfall’ with the British director Sam Mendes.

Interviewwith

JamesBOND

Interview by Elisabetta Povoledo

You’ve said before that talking to the press is like going to the dentist. Do you feel any differently now you’ve played a journalist?

‘Oh yeah, now I understand! I feel so much better about it! The truth is, I don’t have any problem with journalists – I count some of them as friends – also some of my heroes are journalists, I’m a big fan of Robert Fisk – great people or crazy people who are prepared to stand up for what’s right.

‘And I like the guy in this film, Mikael Blomkvist, but what I like about him is that he’s flawed, he’s a complex, weak, egotistical man on a moral crusade. And all those things combined are interesting, plus he has this brilliant relationship with this girl, Lisbeth Salander, this damaged, hyper-intelligent human being. On paper, they shouldn’t come together, but they do and they respond to each other. She’s the one with the balls in the relationship. He’s happy to watch while she beats someone up.’

Rooney Mara looks terrifying as Salander. Can you tell me more about Rooney Mara?

‘There were shenanigans going on while she was being cast. David Fincher was adamant and I get that. Just look at the beginning of “The Social Network”, she’s phenomenal. She’s got something about her, but also she’s physically perfect. When she puts the hoodie on and the leather jacket, she looks like a 14-year-old boy, she looks sexless. Which is perfect. The other side of it is that when she doesn’t have that on, she’s really sexy.

‘That combination is absolutely true to the book. Salander’s someone who would walk down the street and you wouldn’t notice. That’s how she wants it, that’s how she’s survived in her life. She’s switched herself off from humanity and she walks in the shadows.’

Your character is Swedish, it’s set in Sweden, but you speak English with no accent. Can you talk about more?

‘Some people in the film have accents and some don’t. I don’t. I had a long conversation with David about it and said that a lot of Scandinavians speak English perfectly. I’m one of those guys. We’ve got Danish people, Swedish people, English people, American people. The only thing that matters, as far as I’m concerned, is that no one sounds American. We sound as

European as possible. We’re all speaking one common language and that happens to be English. I didn’t want an accent to get in the way, and for me it would. Salander has no formal education and she has a street accent, it’s quite specific.

Were you into the books before?

‘I had read them already. I stole a paperback off someone on holiday. Then I read the other two. You’d be at the airport and see the cross-section of people who were reading them, that’s how I noticed them. I kept seeing it on the bestsellers list and had no idea what it was about, and then you’d find 80-year-old men and 14-year-old girls reading it. That’s phenomenal.’

You can’t have needed much encouragement to work with David Fincher after ‘The Social Network’.

‘I think that film was a real shift for him in the way he makes movies. I think his visual style was all there, but it was embedded in the movie in a way I hadn’t seen before. I love all his movies, but “Fight Club” dated because the visual style was copied in commercials and if you’re that cutting edge you’re always going to be up against that. You’re creating new things in movies and people are going to steal them. With “The Social Network”, I felt there was a maturing of him, he’s always been a great filmmaker but he suddenly became confident about storytelling and visual stuff and the two married together in a way I hadn’t seen him do with such confidence.’ That’s what we tried to instill in the script. He’s been working his arse off to tie all these things together so they make sense – in a Bond way.’

You’re about to start shooting the new Bond film. How do you feel about it? Is there a sense of ‘Hell, here we go for the next seven month’ just because it’s such a massive undertaking? What is the real reason?

‘Yes, I think that there’s definitely some of that, but I’m genuinely really excited because we’ve got a script. The deciding factor for doing “Casino Royale”, even though I was umming and aahhing, going “I don’t know if I want to do it”, was that they showed me the script and I thought: I’ve got to do this. And I think this one is better. I really do. It’s a totally original story. ou’re creating new things in movies and people are going to steal them. That’s what we tried to instill in the script.

B JIt sounds like you’ve become even more involved behind the scenes as time has gone on.

‘I said from the very beginning to Barbara: “If you give me this responsibility, I can just walk on that set and pretend to be James Bond,” but they allowed me to be involved more. It’s naturally progressed. I don’t want to get in people’s way, I just want to encourage things along. Sam got involved and then we got Roger Deakins, for fuck’s sake, who’s shooting it. The air is rare, and we’ve had the chance to employ some brilliant people.

I love that Sam Mendes’s last film was ‘Away We Go’ his most indie film yet.

‘Yes, that’s true, and now he’s making a $200m Bond movie. He’s an OCD control freak and I mean that in the nicest possible way, as all directors are. David Fincher included. They are all absolutely single-minded and all they want to do is get it right. On a movie like this, you need that – maybe I shouldn’t call him an “OCD control freak”: it’s a joke, but you need someone with lots of different heads – there’s a producing head, a directing head, a special-effects head, a publicity head. More than any other movie, you need someone with all that going on, and he just does, he’s a manager, a great manager, and one of the skills doing a Bond movie is about is managing a lot of people, saying, “Okay, do that, that’s got to be done, and I’ll do that.”

Did you have anything to do with getting Sam Mendes on board as director?

He is a interesting guy I have to say that about him. ‘I did, yes, I did. He’s English, he’s Cambridge-educated, he’s smart. He’s lived with Bond all his life, he grew up with Bond the way I did. We grew up at exactly the same time, and I said to him, “We have to do this together, we have exactly the same reference points, we both like the same Bond movies and we both like the same bits in the same Bond movies we like.” We sat down and we just rabbited for hours about “Live and Let Die” or “From Russia with Love”, and talked about little scenes that we knew from them. That’s how we started talking about it. That’s what we tried to instill in the script. He’s been working his arse off to tie all these things together so they make sense – in a Bond way.’

Did you worry about being seen forever as Bond? You know the James Bond has a strong impression.

Yes. The audience already have a strong impression of James Bond. ‘I weighed everything up and the only reason not to do it was fear. The fear of losing everything else. And you can’t not do something because you’re afraid. Well, you can, jumping off cliffs and things like that, but to be afraid of losing something because I was going to play James Bond is kind of nonsense. That’s how I convinced myself. I thought: Even if it goes wrong, hopefully I’ll earn enough money to live on an island when I’m old and get a leathery brown tan! And drink cocktails in the afternoon. Which sounds quite good to tell the truth.’ Rewinding to the start. Did you really leave home in Chester at the age of 16 to join the National Youth Theatre in London? It seems young.

5 6

Did you worry about becoming public property – tabloid fodder – when you took on Bond?

‘Yes, it’s unavoidable, you can’t deny it. In some respects, I still fight with it now. I can’t go to war with paparazzi. The Daily Mail loves saying – “He never smiles”, because I know you’re fucking taking pictures of me, that’s why. Because the Daily Mail comes to mind every time I see a camera. I challenge anybody to fucking

smile. I’m just not that person. ‘But I do get it, you can’t just come out and be angry. You’ve got to live your life. I’m never going to arrive at an airport after a 12-hour flight and go. You’ve got to live your life, you’ve got to enjoy it. And this is a great time, I’m playing James Bond. That’s what makes me secure about it, I’m having a lot of fun with it and getting a kick out of it, and people have a perception I’m grumpy all the time.’ Win or lose, we’ve done the best we can because we’ve put the right people in the job.

Bond is back and still saving the world after 50 years ou’re about to start shooting the new Bond film. How do you feel about it? Is there a sense of ‘Hell, here we go for the next seven months, just because it’s such a massive undertaking?

‘Yes, there’s definitely some of that, but I’m genuinely really excited because we’ve got a script. The deciding factor for doing “Casino Royale”, even though I was umming and aahhing, going [puts on moody voice] “I don’t know if I want to do it”, was that they showed me the script and I thought: Fuck, I’ve got to do this. And I think this one is better. I really do. It’s a totally original story. I read it and it just works as a story. It sounds like a simplistic thing to say, but you read it and you go: “Oh yeah, I get that, yeah, and oh, yes, yes, okay,” and that’s unusual.’

I love that Sam Mendes’s last film was ‘Away We Go’ – his most indie film yet.

‘Yes, that’s true, and now he’s making a $200m Bond movie. He’s an OCD control freak and I mean that in the nicest possible way, as all directors are. David Fincher included. They are all absolutely single-minded and all they want to do is get it right. On a movie like this, you need that – maybe I shouldn’t call him an “OCD control freak”: it’s a joke, but you need someone with lots of different heads – there’s a producing head, a directing head, a special-effects head, a publicity head. More than any other movie, you need someone with all that going on, and he just does, he’s

a manager, a great manager, and one of the skills doing a Bond movie is about is managing a lot of people, saying, “Okay, do that, that’s got to be done, and I’ll do that.” It’s a tricky fucking job to do.’

It sounds like you’ve become even more involved behind the scenes as time has gone on.

‘I said from the very beginning to Barbara and Michael [Wilson, the producers and guardians of the Bond franchise]: “If you give me this responsibility, I can just walk on that set and pretend to be James Bond,” but they allowed me to be involved more. It’s naturally progressed. I don’t want to get in people’s way, I just want to encourage things along. Sam got involved and then we got Roger Deakins , for fuck’s sake, who’s shooting it. The air is rare, and we’ve had the chance to employ some brilliant people. Win or lose, we’ve done the best we can because we’ve put the right people in the job.

Did you worry about becoming public property – tabloid fodder – when you took on Bond?

‘Yes, in some respects it’s unavoidable, you can’t deny it. In some respects, I still fight with it now. I can’t go to war with paparazzi. The Daily Mail loves saying – “He never smiles”, because I know you’re fucking taking pictures of me, that’s why. Because the Daily Mail comes to mind every time I see a camera. I challenge anybody to fucking smile. I’m just not that person.

he James Bond franchise has yielded some of cinema’s most memorable titles, some taken directly from Ian Fleming’s novels – “From Russia With Love,” “The Spy Who Loved Me”; “Live and Let Die”, and others spawned from the fertile minds of creative screenwriters and producers,“The World Is Not Enough.” So it was with some anticipation and some ceremony that the filmmakers behind the 23rd installment in the long running series revealed the title of their movie on Thursday. And that title is “Skyfall.” Reuters reported that the director Sam Mendes officially unveiled the name – really, “Skyfall”? No, just sounding it out, getting used to it at a news conference in London. Mr. Mendes, whose previous work includes such felicitously titled films as “American Beauty” and “Road to Perdition,” said that “Skyfall” – so they’re definitely committed to “Skyfall”? Not, like, “Falling From the Sky Will Kill You Another Day”? “On Her Majesty’s Secret Skyfall”? O.K., O.K., just spit-balling here – would be consistent with long-running Bond traditions. “I think it has all the elements of a classic Bond movie, including, to quell any rumors, a lot of action,” Mr. Mendes said, over what we assume were the murmurs of other reporters saying “Skyfall” over and over in a kind of hypnotic trance and the rapid tapping of fingers quizzically typing the word into smartphone search engines. The cast will once again feature Daniel Craig as 007 and Judi Dench as M, as well as Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney, one of whom we hope is portraying the evil Colonel Skyfall, who from his lair at dreaded Castle Skyfall holds the world hostage with his deadly Skyfall device. Sony Pictures will release the film in the United States on Nov. 9, 2012, and we hope to be fully acclimated to the title “Skyfall.” I believe that it will be the best one in 007 moives.

The New James Bond Movie Has a Title. And That Title Is ‘Skyfall.’

T

James Bond Actors Since 1960sSean Connery 1962-1965George Lazenby 1969, 1969Roger Moore 1981, 1983, 1985Timothy Dalton 1987, 1989Pierce Brosnan 1997, 1999, 2002Daniel Craig 2006, 2008, 2012

9

Y

Bond is back and still saving the world after 50 years ou’re about to start shooting the new Bond film. How do you feel about it? Is there a sense of ‘Hell, here we go for the next seven months, just because it’s such a massive undertaking?

‘Yes, there’s definitely some of that, but I’m genuinely really excited because we’ve got a script. The deciding factor for doing “Casino Royale”, even though I was umming and aahhing, going [puts on moody voice] “I don’t know if I want to do it”, was that they showed me the script and I thought: Fuck, I’ve got to do this. And I think this one is better. I really do. It’s a totally original story. I read it and it just works as a story. It sounds like a simplistic thing to say, but you read it and you go: “Oh yeah, I get that, yeah, and oh, yes, yes, okay,” and that’s unusual.’

I love that Sam Mendes’s last film was ‘Away We Go’ – his most indie film yet.

‘Yes, that’s true, and now he’s making a $200m Bond movie. He’s an OCD control freak and I mean that in the nicest possible way, as all directors are. David Fincher included. They are all absolutely single-minded and all they want to do is get it right. On a movie like this, you need that – maybe I shouldn’t call him an “OCD control freak”: it’s a joke, but you need someone with lots of different heads – there’s a producing head, a directing head, a special-effects head, a publicity head. More than any other movie, you need someone with all that going on, and he just does, he’s

a manager, a great manager, and one of the skills doing a Bond movie is about is managing a lot of people, saying, “Okay, do that, that’s got to be done, and I’ll do that.” It’s a tricky fucking job to do.’

It sounds like you’ve become even more involved behind the scenes as time has gone on.

‘I said from the very beginning to Barbara and Michael [Wilson, the producers and guardians of the Bond franchise]: “If you give me this responsibility, I can just walk on that set and pretend to be James Bond,” but they allowed me to be involved more. It’s naturally progressed. I don’t want to get in people’s way, I just want to encourage things along. Sam got involved and then we got Roger Deakins , for fuck’s sake, who’s shooting it. The air is rare, and we’ve had the chance to employ some brilliant people. Win or lose, we’ve done the best we can because we’ve put the right people in the job.

Did you worry about becoming public property – tabloid fodder – when you took on Bond?

‘Yes, in some respects it’s unavoidable, you can’t deny it. In some respects, I still fight with it now. I can’t go to war with paparazzi. The Daily Mail loves saying – “He never smiles”, because I know you’re fucking taking pictures of me, that’s why. Because the Daily Mail comes to mind every time I see a camera. I challenge anybody to fucking smile. I’m just not that person.

he James Bond franchise has yielded some of cinema’s most memorable titles, some taken directly from Ian Fleming’s novels – “From Russia With Love,” “The Spy Who Loved Me”; “Live and Let Die”, and others spawned from the fertile minds of creative screenwriters and producers,“The World Is Not Enough.” So it was with some anticipation and some ceremony that the filmmakers behind the 23rd installment in the long running series revealed the title of their movie on Thursday. And that title is “Skyfall.” Reuters reported that the director Sam Mendes officially unveiled the name – really, “Skyfall”? No, just sounding it out, getting used to it at a news conference in London. Mr. Mendes, whose previous work includes such felicitously titled films as “American Beauty” and “Road to Perdition,” said that “Skyfall” – so they’re definitely committed to “Skyfall”? Not, like, “Falling From the Sky Will Kill You Another Day”? “On Her Majesty’s Secret Skyfall”? O.K., O.K., just spit-balling here – would be consistent with long-running Bond traditions. “I think it has all the elements of a classic Bond movie, including, to quell any rumors, a lot of action,” Mr. Mendes said, over what we assume were the murmurs of other reporters saying “Skyfall” over and over in a kind of hypnotic trance and the rapid tapping of fingers quizzically typing the word into smartphone search engines. The cast will once again feature Daniel Craig as 007 and Judi Dench as M, as well as Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney, one of whom we hope is portraying the evil Colonel Skyfall, who from his lair at dreaded Castle Skyfall holds the world hostage with his deadly Skyfall device. Sony Pictures will release the film in the United States on Nov. 9, 2012, and we hope to be fully acclimated to the title “Skyfall.” I believe that it will be the best one in 007 moives.

The New James Bond Movie Has a Title. And That Title Is ‘Skyfall.’

T

James Bond Actors Since 1960sSean Connery 1962-1965George Lazenby 1969, 1969Roger Moore 1981, 1983, 1985Timothy Dalton 1987, 1989Pierce Brosnan 1997, 1999, 2002Daniel Craig 2006, 2008, 2012

9

Y

EEmma Watson

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress and model. Watson rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series. She was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays. From 2001 to 2011, she starred in all eight Harry Potter films alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. Watson's work on the Harry Potter series has earned her several awards and

more than £10 million.

Artical by Harriet Walker | Photo by Harriet Walker

EEmma Watson

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress and model. Watson rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series. She was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays. From 2001 to 2011, she starred in all eight Harry Potter films alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. Watson's work on the Harry Potter series has earned her several awards and

more than £10 million.

Artical by Harriet Walker | Photo by Harriet Walker

SHOWTIME | December

Movies-Coming Soon

Storyline:

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a big revolution.

Cloud Atlas

Directors: Andy WachowskiTom Tykwer

Stars: Tom HanksHalle BerryHugh Grant

Producers: Grant HillStefan ArndtTom TykwerLana WachowskiAndy Wachowski

(172min)

Reviews:

The very opening of the film is mesmerizing and sets pace. Six stories are intertwined to create one magical ride through time and space, as all stories move forward as one. To those who haven't read the book, I expect you might find the movie confusing at first. The end ties it up quite well, but for a three hour film, it is too long grasping at straws.

Storyline:

An Unexpected Journey follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug.

The Hobbit

Directors: Peter Jackson

Stars: Ian McKellenMartin FreemanRichard ArmitageAndy Serkis

Producers: Peter JacksonFran WalshZane WeinerCarolynne Cunningham

(195min)

Reviews:

The Hobbit is a classic hero quest story. It has become the inspiration and template for the modern fantasy genre. It is an adventure that is filled with wonder, magic, action and vividly memorable characters. These are impressive accomplishments for any story. But considering the fact that The Hobbit was originally a children’s tale.

Skyfall (143min)

Directors: Sam Mendes

Stars: Daniel CraigJavier BardemJudi DenchRalph Fiennes

Producers: Michael G. WilsonBarbara Broccoli

Storyline:

In the film James Bond investigates an attack on MI6; it transpires that it is part of an attack on M by former MI6 operative, Raoul Silva. The film sees the return of two recurring characters after an absence of two films.

Reviews:

The film opens with a sequence that is from any recent movie in the series. 007 is in Turkey pursuing a hired gun who has stolen an encrypted MI6 hard drive containing the identities of deep cover agents. Bond must retrieve drive before the information goes public. You breathe a sigh of relief while the stunning opening credits.

Dark Shadows Frankenweenie (87min)

Directors: Tim Burton

Stars: Charlie TahanFrank WelkerWinona RyderMartin Short

Producers: Tim BurtonAllison Abbate

Storyline:

Young scientist Victor Frankenstein lives with his parents and dog Sparky in the quiet town of New Holland. Concerned with his son's isolation, Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements of science.

Reviews:

In the spooky world of Frankenweenie, not only is a seemingly average suburban town home to dark secrets-- that's pretty common for a horror movie-- but the town itself is a lot weirder than it might seem on the surface.

Directors: Tim Burton

Stars: Johnny DeppMichelle PfeifferHelena Bonham CarterBella Heathcote

Producers: Richard D. ZanuckGraham KingJohnny DeppChristi DembrowskiDavid Kennedy

Storyline:

In 1760, the Collins family migrates to America from Liverpool and sets up a fishing port in Maine, naming it Collinsport. Some years later, the son, Barnabas, seduces his family's maid, Angelique Bouchard, who is a witch.

Reviews:

If you're not interested in what Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are cooking up, you're missing out on one of the best go-your-own-way teams in screen history. Dark Shadows, their eighth collaboration to date, doesn't occupy the rarefied air of Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd.

(113min)

Release Date: 19 Dec 2012

Release Date: 13 Dec 2012

Release Date: 9 Dec 2012

Release Date: 16 Dec 2012

Release Date: 22 Dec 2012

15

BACKSTORY | Buseness

Disney Buys Lucas, the Star Wars Saga Continues, and the Internet Breaks in Half.

esterday afternoon my cell phone was buzzing with so many texts one after the other that I sort of felt like I was a character on

The West Wing after some geopolitical crisis has just occurred. Thankfully it was nothing as serious as all that, but in geek terms, the events were probably as momentous. The entertainment story of the day and probably the week that is the Walt Disney Company got one step further in its eventual goal of owning every piece of intellectual property ever created by gobbling up the entirety of George Lucas' Lucasfilm, lock, stock, and barrel-shaped robot. This is news I honestly never expected to hear because it just never even occurred to me that Lucas would ever want to walk away from the massive, multimillion-dollar empire he created.

Whatever the whys-and-wherefores, the big picture result of this deal is that, in addition to now owning ILM, LucasArts, Skywalker Sound, etc., Disney controls the destinies of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones brands forever and always, effective immediately. Indeed, it's right there in the initial press release that the first thing they have on tap with their shiny new toy is to bring the Star Wars movie series roaring back to life after we all assumed it was over and done with in '05, with a new trilogy consisting of episodes VII, VIII, and IX due to begin unspooling at your local cineplex in three short years

As far as my own thoughts about this, it's hard to know what to feel, to be honest. Initially, and purely reflexively, I viewed the news of an impending Star Wars sequel with an arched brow, with visions of Disney riding the franchise into irrelevance like the Pirates of the Carribean flicks dancing in my brain. Like or dislike the prequels, the story was complete. Let's just leave it alone and let it stand. But then it occurred to me that it might well be the best thing possible for the Star Wars brand to let it breathe, building on the foundation that Lucas built while benefitting from the creative input of other voices. So that initial skepticism turned into, if not anticipation, at least optimism. However, while I've had plenty to say about how Lucas mismanaged his brands, I do have to admit feeling a little

Y

sadness that his entire legacy -- the greatest independent filmmaking operation in history -- is now subsumed as another appendage of the Disney monster. From a purely nostalgic standpoint, I can't imagine a Star Wars unspooling on the big screen without the Fox logo (and Alfred Newman's iconic fanfare) in front of it. But if the Marvel and Pixar product under the Disney umbrella proves anything, it's that the Mouse House knows when to get out of its own way and let its creatives create.

There are a whole lot of questions that people are understandably going to have about the Disney-Lucas merger, such as what this means for Indiana Jones, the future of the Clone Wars animated show, and the way forward for the various Star Wars licensees, but I'm sure plenty more information will emerge in the days and weeks ahead (look for an in-depth discussion with the Mr. Boy gang about this topic in next week's MovieFilm show). For now though, all we need to know is that in 2015, the Star Wars saga continues. Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd type.

There are a whole lot of questions that people are understandably going to have about the Disney-Lucas merger, such as what this means for Indiana Jones, the future of the Clone Wars animated show, and the way forward for the various Star Wars licensees, but I'm sure plenty more information will emerge in the days and weeks ahead. For now though, all we need to know is that in 2015, the Star Wars saga continues.

Artical by Zaki Hasan | Photo by Zaki Hasan

14

Artical by Michael Black | Photo by Steve Zhou

SHOWTIME | December

Movies-Coming Soon

Storyline:

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a big revolution.

Cloud Atlas

Directors: Andy WachowskiTom Tykwer

Stars: Tom HanksHalle BerryHugh Grant

Producers: Grant HillStefan ArndtTom TykwerLana WachowskiAndy Wachowski

(172min)

Reviews:

The very opening of the film is mesmerizing and sets pace. Six stories are intertwined to create one magical ride through time and space, as all stories move forward as one. To those who haven't read the book, I expect you might find the movie confusing at first. The end ties it up quite well, but for a three hour film, it is too long grasping at straws.

Storyline:

An Unexpected Journey follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug.

The Hobbit

Directors: Peter Jackson

Stars: Ian McKellenMartin FreemanRichard ArmitageAndy Serkis

Producers: Peter JacksonFran WalshZane WeinerCarolynne Cunningham

(195min)

Reviews:

The Hobbit is a classic hero quest story. It has become the inspiration and template for the modern fantasy genre. It is an adventure that is filled with wonder, magic, action and vividly memorable characters. These are impressive accomplishments for any story. But considering the fact that The Hobbit was originally a children’s tale.

Skyfall (143min)

Directors: Sam Mendes

Stars: Daniel CraigJavier BardemJudi DenchRalph Fiennes

Producers: Michael G. WilsonBarbara Broccoli

Storyline:

In the film James Bond investigates an attack on MI6; it transpires that it is part of an attack on M by former MI6 operative, Raoul Silva. The film sees the return of two recurring characters after an absence of two films.

Reviews:

The film opens with a sequence that is from any recent movie in the series. 007 is in Turkey pursuing a hired gun who has stolen an encrypted MI6 hard drive containing the identities of deep cover agents. Bond must retrieve drive before the information goes public. You breathe a sigh of relief while the stunning opening credits.

Dark Shadows Frankenweenie (87min)

Directors: Tim Burton

Stars: Charlie TahanFrank WelkerWinona RyderMartin Short

Producers: Tim BurtonAllison Abbate

Storyline:

Young scientist Victor Frankenstein lives with his parents and dog Sparky in the quiet town of New Holland. Concerned with his son's isolation, Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements of science.

Reviews:

In the spooky world of Frankenweenie, not only is a seemingly average suburban town home to dark secrets-- that's pretty common for a horror movie-- but the town itself is a lot weirder than it might seem on the surface.

Directors: Tim Burton

Stars: Johnny DeppMichelle PfeifferHelena Bonham CarterBella Heathcote

Producers: Richard D. ZanuckGraham KingJohnny DeppChristi DembrowskiDavid Kennedy

Storyline:

In 1760, the Collins family migrates to America from Liverpool and sets up a fishing port in Maine, naming it Collinsport. Some years later, the son, Barnabas, seduces his family's maid, Angelique Bouchard, who is a witch.

Reviews:

If you're not interested in what Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are cooking up, you're missing out on one of the best go-your-own-way teams in screen history. Dark Shadows, their eighth collaboration to date, doesn't occupy the rarefied air of Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd.

(113min)

Release Date: 19 Dec 2012

Release Date: 13 Dec 2012

Release Date: 9 Dec 2012

Release Date: 16 Dec 2012

Release Date: 22 Dec 2012

15

BACKSTORY | Buseness

Disney Buys Lucas, the Star Wars Saga Continues, and the Internet Breaks in Half.

esterday afternoon my cell phone was buzzing with so many texts one after the other that I sort of felt like I was a character on

The West Wing after some geopolitical crisis has just occurred. Thankfully it was nothing as serious as all that, but in geek terms, the events were probably as momentous. The entertainment story of the day and probably the week that is the Walt Disney Company got one step further in its eventual goal of owning every piece of intellectual property ever created by gobbling up the entirety of George Lucas' Lucasfilm, lock, stock, and barrel-shaped robot. This is news I honestly never expected to hear because it just never even occurred to me that Lucas would ever want to walk away from the massive, multimillion-dollar empire he created.

Whatever the whys-and-wherefores, the big picture result of this deal is that, in addition to now owning ILM, LucasArts, Skywalker Sound, etc., Disney controls the destinies of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones brands forever and always, effective immediately. Indeed, it's right there in the initial press release that the first thing they have on tap with their shiny new toy is to bring the Star Wars movie series roaring back to life after we all assumed it was over and done with in '05, with a new trilogy consisting of episodes VII, VIII, and IX due to begin unspooling at your local cineplex in three short years

As far as my own thoughts about this, it's hard to know what to feel, to be honest. Initially, and purely reflexively, I viewed the news of an impending Star Wars sequel with an arched brow, with visions of Disney riding the franchise into irrelevance like the Pirates of the Carribean flicks dancing in my brain. Like or dislike the prequels, the story was complete. Let's just leave it alone and let it stand. But then it occurred to me that it might well be the best thing possible for the Star Wars brand to let it breathe, building on the foundation that Lucas built while benefitting from the creative input of other voices. So that initial skepticism turned into, if not anticipation, at least optimism. However, while I've had plenty to say about how Lucas mismanaged his brands, I do have to admit feeling a little

Y

sadness that his entire legacy -- the greatest independent filmmaking operation in history -- is now subsumed as another appendage of the Disney monster. From a purely nostalgic standpoint, I can't imagine a Star Wars unspooling on the big screen without the Fox logo (and Alfred Newman's iconic fanfare) in front of it. But if the Marvel and Pixar product under the Disney umbrella proves anything, it's that the Mouse House knows when to get out of its own way and let its creatives create.

There are a whole lot of questions that people are understandably going to have about the Disney-Lucas merger, such as what this means for Indiana Jones, the future of the Clone Wars animated show, and the way forward for the various Star Wars licensees, but I'm sure plenty more information will emerge in the days and weeks ahead (look for an in-depth discussion with the Mr. Boy gang about this topic in next week's MovieFilm show). For now though, all we need to know is that in 2015, the Star Wars saga continues. Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd type.

There are a whole lot of questions that people are understandably going to have about the Disney-Lucas merger, such as what this means for Indiana Jones, the future of the Clone Wars animated show, and the way forward for the various Star Wars licensees, but I'm sure plenty more information will emerge in the days and weeks ahead. For now though, all we need to know is that in 2015, the Star Wars saga continues.

Artical by Zaki Hasan | Photo by Zaki Hasan

14

Artical by Michael Black | Photo by Steve Zhou