michael wilson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The British Times has gotten word that Bond 22 will be filming a scene next week at the Barbican, a performing arts center in the north of London. The center is typically used to host music concerts, art exhibitions and theater productions, and according to the paper the "a sign has gone up giving warning that next week it will be the venue for the filming of a scene from the next James Bond film, currently working title Bond 22, which will again star Daniel Craig. Relax, ladies, Craig won't be there as far as I know, but in the Sculpture Court ... they will film a man talking on a mobile phone, the sign says. We'll have to wait for the release of the film, set for November, to see why it was necessary to go to the Barbican to film someone talking on their mobile phone." And that's it. At first blush, this sounds to me a lot like the Miami Body Worlds scene in Casino Royale, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, a source who would know tells me that Eon Productions has yet to release any information whatsoever on Bond casting to Sony, and that includes a thumbs up or down on Gemma Arterton having a role in the film. In other words, they are trying their level best to keep all of this information secret for the time being. Still, I bet that whoever the actress is, she'll eventually be spotted lunching or walking down the street with Barbara Broccoli or Michael Wilson and the game will be up. The last time a major hiring decision was made -- Marc Forster -- the press knew about it before the release could be put out, because the press knew that Daniel Craig was incongruously walking down the street with Broccoli in L.A, obviously to talk business.

While I'm not the biggest James Bond fan, I've watched a ton of the films and often enjoy the suave, stylized action sequences (complete with cool, sexy dialogue) found in a good amount of the twenty Bond flicks currently available. After listening to all those Daniel Craig haters over the course of the past year, I was pumped to find the latest Casino Royale trailer to be, well, fantastic.

Add to that this very promising test screening review over at AICN, and folks -- we could be in store for one heck of a fun ride. According to the scooper, Casino Royale was recently screened in London under the top-secret title, Alkazan. (Remember that name folks, just in case you're asked to attend a similar screening.) Producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli were on hand to ask the audience (roughly 40 people) some questions afterward. What did they think? Says the scooper, "There was a huge round of applause after. And, believe me folks, this is London, you won't get a huge round of applause if you walked inside a toy shop and purchased a board-game called 'Huge Round Of Applause'. Our reviewer goes to on to call the film "fantastic" and even compares its setting to that of a Quentin Tarantino flick. What? Tarantino? You may have to just read it for yourself ...

Odds and ends from Friday:

• It worries me to watch the producers of Casino Royale talk so much about the film they plan to make after Royale, instead of, well, the film they have coming out this fall. While it's already been discussed on several occasions, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson officially announced their plans to release the 22nd film in the James Bond franchise on May 2, 2008. Pic, which will be competing against Paramount's big screen adaptation of the Marvel comic Iron Man, will find Daniel Craig reprising his 007 role.
• You've already heard me rant about those clever little pop-culture phrases Hollywood writers dream up, so there's no point in regurgitating my own shtick. Yes, they're annoying. Yes, I hate them. Let's move on. Paramount Pictures has snatched up the spec script Swingles, written by Duncan Birmingham. Romantic comedy will center around a single guy who is dumped by his "wingman" and forced to team up with a woman he can't stand in order to meet single ladies. Birmingham said he came up with the idea after stalking thousands of women in karaoke bars throughout the country. Okay, the stalking part isn't true -- but it does make the story more interesting, right? The Swingle Stalker? I like that.
• If you live in China and have spent numerous hours praying Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible 3 would somehow find a way onto the big screen, you're in luck -- the film has finally made it into theaters ... minus six minutes. And now we finally know which scenes were removed: One showed Cruise distracting Chinese soldiers by throwing baseballs, then killing them; the other involved elderly Chinese playing mahjong, while Ethan Hunt's wife is being held hostage next door. Seems fair, but how did they miss the fact that Tom Cruise is in the film? Shouldn't he be censored as well?