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“Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square”
2002 marked the 40th Anniversary of James Bond in the cinema, and Pierce
Brosnan's fourth 007 outing was celebrated in style with a lavish premiere
held at London's Royal Albert Hall on Monday November 18th. Die Another
Day was also chosen as the Royal Film Performance, an event that has
been held annually since 1946 in aid of the Film & Television Charity
(formerly the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund). The event is used to
showcase a major film premiere and is attended by members of the British
Royal Family. Proceeds from the event enable the charity to offer
financial support to people associated with the screen industries. The
Die Another Day premiere was attended by Her Majesty The Queen
(her first James Bond premiere since You Only Live Twice in 1967)
and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (his first Bond premiere since Moonraker).
The exterior of the historic Royal Albert Hall was decorated with 54 giant
icicles which surrounded the building, with the interior transformed into
a replica of the ‘Ice Palace’ seen in the film. |
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EON Productions also
invited many other significant alumni who had contributed to the James
Bond films over the past 40 years. Guests included three former James
Bond's - George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton, alongside current
007 Pierce Brosnan and leading lady Halle Berry. Other former leading
ladies also attending were Lois Chiles (Moonraker), Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger),
Maryam d'Abo (The Living Daylights), Maud Adams (The Man With
The Golden Gun & Octopussy). Other co-stars from Roger
Moore's tenure as 007 included Vijay Amritraj (Octopussy)
and Fiona Fullerton (A View To A Kill). Die Another Day's Toby Stephens,
Michael Gorevoy, Rosamund Pike and
Rick Yune were joined by former villains Richard Kiel (The Spy Who
Loved Me & Moonraker), Julian Glover (For Your Eyes Only), and Burt Kwouk (Goldfinger,
Casino Royale (1967) and You Only Live Twice). John Cleese
(newly promoted to the role of Q after the death of Desmond Llewelyn), Judi Dench,
Colin Salmon and Samantha Bond
provided links to Pierce Brosnan's tenure as 007; whilst Shirley
Bassey (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever & Moonraker), Monty Norman (composer of ‘The James Bond Theme’),
George Martin (Live And Let Die soundtrack composer) and John Barry
(eleven-time James Bond composer) represented musical links to four decades of the
James Bond legacy. Die Another Day's main title singer Madonna also
attended with her then husband, film director Guy Ritchie. |
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Director Lee Tamahori was
also presented to Her Majesty The Queen, alongside Die Another Day co-producers Michael G. Wilson and
Barbara Broccoli, along with their mother Dana (widow of original James Bond film
co-producer Albert R. Broccoli). |
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In addition to the
premiere at the Royal Albert Hall there was also a special preview
screening held simultaneously at the UCI Empire Cinema in Leicester Square,
followed by several regional charity premieres and after show parties on
Tuesday November 19, 2002. Die Another Day had regional premieres
at the ODEON cinemas in Newcastle and Birmingham, and Warner Village
cinema in Plymouth.
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ABOVE: (left) The UCI Empire Cinema, Leicester Square also held a special
preview screening on the same evening as the Royal Film
Performance, with the cinema displaying the version of the artwork
favoured in the UK campaign. (centre & right) Die Another Day then
had its exclusive West End presentation at the UCI Empire cinema for thirteen weeks. |
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Die Another Day
then opened at the ODEON Marble Arch on Friday November 22, 2002, where
it played for eight weeks. Despite some less
than positive reviews Die Another Day quickly became the most
successful James Bond film to date (when not adjusted for inflation),
taking £1.4 million in the UK in its opening weekend. Die Another
Day played at the Empire Leicester Square (then part of the UCI chain of cinemas, and now part of the Cineworld group) for
thirteen-weeks from Tuesday November 19, 2002. For the first seven
weeks Die Another Day was playing simultaneously in the main
1,330-seat screen one, and smaller 349-seat screen two - which gave
the cinema seven separate performances each day. From Wednesday
January 8, 2003 Die Another Day played only in screen two, and
then the 77-seat screen three at the end of its run.
Die Another Day
was the first James Bond film since Thunderball not to screen at
the ODEON Leicester Square during its premiere engagement in London,
although it did later play at the adjoining five-screen ODEON
Mezzanine complex for nine-weeks from Friday January 31, 2003. |
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James Bond's 40th
Anniversary was also celebrated in London with a BAFTA Tribute hosted
by Michael Parkinson on Sunday November 17th (the day before the
Die Another Day premiere), which was later screened on BBC1 on
Saturday December 28, 2002. The star-studded occasion was held in the presence
of four incarnations of Ian Fleming's debonair spy - Pierce Brosnan,
Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby who each discussed
their own interpretations of the role, with Sean Connery adding his
thoughts in a pre-recorded interview. Halle Berry, who played
American agent Jinx in Die Another Day, talked about the
re-creation of the iconic beach scene featuring Ursula Andress from
the first James Bond film Dr. No in 1962.
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Christmas 2002 became
the most profitable holiday release period for any James Bond film
since the record-breaking debut of Thunderball in 1965.
Londoner's could also see a spectacular tribute to the official James
Bond films in special film-themed window displays showcased at the
world-famous Harrods store in Knightsbridge. The window
displays featured vehicles, costumes and props from 40 years of James
Bond films, along with other expensive items then on sale at the
prestigious Knightsbridge store. Die Another Day then made its
DVD debut in June 2003, in a two-disc special edition with many
additional features that were not carried over to later releases. |
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Despite the enormous
worldwide success of Die Another Day, producers Barbara
Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were aware of the largely negative
reviews, and criticism of the story and its more over-the-top
elements, particularly the poorly executed computer-generated
kite-surfing sequence. In 1999 EON Productions had finally acquired
the rights to film Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel CASINO ROYALE.
Although Pierce Brosnan's four James Bond films had grossed over
one-billion dollars at the box-office, and he had become arguably the
most publicly popular actor to inhabit the 007 role since Sean
Connery, EON did not feel they could do justice to Ian Fleming's
origin novel with their current star. In 2003 EA Games released
Everything Or Nothing, a computer videogame which used the likeness
and voice of Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, and proved to be his last
official association with the character. On February 23, 2005 it was
announced that Casino Royale would be the title of the 21st
James Bond film, and Martin Campbell who had helmed Pierce Brosnan's
debut as 007 GoldenEye (1995) would return to direct, although
its star would not. |
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“You Know My Name”
After an exhaustive search for a new actor to play James Bond, the
blond-haired sixth incarnation was first seen at mid-day on Friday October 14,
2005 racing down London's river Thames in a marine speedboat wearing a Brioni suit, sunglasses and a lifejacket! After a gruelling press
conference on board HMS President near London’s Tower Bridge, the world’s
media got to work on the next day’s front pages. The Daily Mirror
ran the headline ‘Bland, James Bland’ based on the actor’s low-key
and abrupt answering of questions hurled at him by the hordes of
journalists. ‘Blond, James Blond’ was another headline that made an
issue of Craig being the first natural blonde to play Bond. Other
complaints about him were that he was too short; his eyes were
too blue, and even that he was too ugly to play Bond. Throughout the
filming of Casino Royale Daniel Craig was subjected to a great deal
of negative press comment, far more than even George Lazenby received
after he took over from Sean Connery in 1968. In the days before the rise
of social media, a group of fundamentalist anti-Craig fans conspired to
boycott Casino Royale upon its release in November 2006, and their
website www.craignotbond.com further fuelled the negative publicity toward
the production. It was not until the release of the first trailer and
moody teaser posters that the world began to realise that EON's gamble may
have paid off. |
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