Today 50 years ago Dr No premiered in London, giving birth to the most successful film franchise ever.
Based on the books of Ian Fleming about MI6 assassin James Bond, 22 more films, video games, further books, spoofs and filmic references galore have all flowed from that first successful film.
Bond film number 23, Skyfall, opens in the UK on October 26, November 9 in the US and November 30 in SA and already the media hype has started.
Of course, it being the golden anniversary of that first film’s release, the film-makers are planning all sorts of events to get started on the marketing for the next one.
The theme songs and just who gets to sing them are always a fun topic for fans to discuss. So what if it was an open secret that Adele would be singing the Skyfall theme? So what if the song was leaked on Soundcloud days before the official launch today?
What little I’ve heard of the theme suggests a return to the big Bond sound, with Adele channelling the most successful Bond theme singer, Dame Shirley Bassey.
Since the filmmakers (that’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment AND Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment) have decreed it, today is Global James Bond Day, with all sorts of events planned.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York will host a film retrospective, in the proper order from today till the end of the month (they did something similar 25 years ago, with the first 14 films).
The Toronto International Film Festival will host an exhibition entitled Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style, while the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will host a Music of Bond night in Los Angeles.
Christies auction house has organised an online-only auction until October 8 of 40 lots of Bond memorabilia from the EON Productions archives, plus donations from the Bond cast. A further 10 lots will be made available in an invitation-only auction today with all proceeds going to charity. (for more information visit www.christies.com/bond).
Closer to home South Africans can take part in a global online survey to discover the favourite Bond film by country http://www.007.com/vote/favouritebondfilm/
There’s no word yet on which local distributor has picked up a new feature documentary entitled Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 which was directed by Stevan Riley (Fire in Babylon). It focuses on Bond producers Albert R Broccoli, Harry Saltzman and author Ian Fleming and how it came about that the trio worked on this particular film franchise.
Last week the 22 films were released as a Blu-ray box set called Bond 50 ... but of course this will have to be repackaged once Skyfall is released on DVD.