In what is unlikely to shake the confidence of Daniel Craig, branded the "best Bond ever" by some critics, Sydney is hosting another legendary James Bond this week.
With tough-guy Craig in town to promote the new Bond flick Quantum Of Solace, Sir Roger Moore, who followed Sean Connery as the suave British spy in seven films from 1973's Live And Let Die to 1985's A View To A Kill, arrived yesterday to spruik his autobiography My Word Is My Bond. Knighted in 2003 for his work as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the urbane Sir Roger was booked to have dinner at ARIA tonight, 24 hours after Craig dined there with 007 producer Barbara Broccoli. Now there's a missed photo opportunity.
Perhaps it's for the best: Moore, now 81, made headlines last week when he told reporters he was "sad" that the new Bond movies were so violent. He, of course, preferred to play up to Bond's womanising ways.
Stay in Touch's mole at ARIA confirmed, disappointingly, that no martinis were ordered by the current Bond's table.
SURPRISE ROLE
The filmmaker Marc Forster admitted yesterday he was surprised when the producers of the James Bond franchise invited him to direct Quantum Of Solace.
"I was a little surprised, I was not so sure I wanted to do a Bond movie," said Forster, best known for films with the "critically acclaimed" tag, included the Academy Award-winning Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland and last year's adaptation of the Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner. Forster's interpretation of the superspy is grittier than most. Following on from where Casino Royale left off, Bond is still heartbroken after and looking to avenge the death of his love interest Vesper and, in the meantime, destroy a crime syndicate seeking to control the water supply of Bolivia.
Forster said some of the crew were none too happy when he chose to film a large part of the production in the streets of Panama City, along with desertscape sequences in Mexico. "I don't think it was as glamorous as what they had in mind," Forster told SiT.
ALL HARD WORK
One cast member who wasn't expecting cocktails in the Caribbean on the set of Bond was the star of the film, Daniel Craig. "That's not really what a Bond film is about," the shoot-'em-up Craig told SiT yesterday.
He said making Quantum of Solace was a natural progression. Casino Royale "felt like the beginning of a story rather than the ending of a story", he said.
And while in Casino Royale he broke the rules by falling in love, this time Craig again snubbed Bond conventions by not going to bed with the leading lady, Camille, played by the Ukrainian-born actress Olga Kurylenko. "It would have been wrong if he had jumped into bed with her … he tends to fall in love a lot in the books, where he meets somebody and there is a passionate connection."
Craig, who is signed for a third Bond film, also denied reports he hoped the next Bond would be played by a black actor. "I never said that … James Bond is a white Etonian … [but] whoever does take it on, however, you want to say to them to have the best time they can because it is an extraordinary thing to do."
(Credit: Fairfax)
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