Agence France Presse -- DUBLIN -- A small Irish town on Thursday honoured its most famous son, James Bond film star Pierce Brosnan, by making him its first freeman.
Brosnan, 47, said it was "lovely to be coming back in such a fashion" to Navan, County Meath, where he was born and lived until he was 14. Brosnan was presented with a parchment by local council chairman Paddy Fitzsimons at a specially convened meeting of the nine councillors in a local hotel. It was only eight years ago that legislation was brought in to allow small towns to confer the accolade of freeman, and the star's name is the first on Navan's new roll of honour.
The actor's mother accompanied him to the ceremony along with other relatives, including a cousin he grew up with, who is known locally as 006. Brosnan said the day he left Navan in August 1964 was the day James Bond creator Ian Fleming died. He recalled that there had been two cinemas in the town when he was a child and said the first film he ever saw in colour there was Goldfinger, which starred Sean Connery as 007.
Brosnan said he had a contract for three Bond movies which he had already done and an option for a fourth. "I'd love to do a fourth, I am just getting the hang of it," he said.
Belfast Telegraph Newspapers -- 007 actor Pierce Brosnan was stepping away from the glamorous showbiz whirl briefly today to receive a civic accolade in his home town in Ireland.
The debonair actor, who premiered the latest Bond film The World is Not Enough in Los Angeles on Tuesday, was to be granted the freedom of Navan, Co Meath, before an audience of 500 people from the town.
Brosnan (46) was brought up in the mining town, best known for producing tin, carpets and furniture. He left as a teenager to pursue an acting career which brought him fame and fortune, playing suave action heroes like Remington Steele, and since 1995 the ultimate leading man, James Bond 007.
Brosnan also suffered personal tragedy, losing his wife, Cassandra Harris, to ovarian cancer in 1991. He has since settled down with journalist Keely Shaye-Smith and they have a two- year-old son, Dylan.
His return to Navan was scheduled to be brief, lasting just 45 minutes.
By Rick Fulton
Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd. Daily Record -- James Bond was surrounded by his arch enemies last night - but for once Britain's best spy let them off the hook.Actor Pierce Brosnan settled down to watch the premiere of his latest movie with fiancee Keely Shaye Smith. Robbie Coltrane lined up alongside Brosnan at the cinema in Hollywood to watch The World Is Not Enough. Italian temptress Maria Grazia looked stunning as she appeared in a revealing but stunning red dress that even outshone new Bond girl Denise Richards.
Brosnan delighted fans when he revealed plans to continue in his Bond role. As he entered the cinema, he said: "I have a contract for another film and we will go again." It will be his fourth Bond film and he pledged to do even more of his own stunts. He said: "It is fun,but you feel it. Not just at the end but before and during you feel it. "I get to do what most guys can only dream of. I love the action. I love the speed. "But in reality, I hate gadgets. Don't understand them.
"During the first Bond film they gave me this tiny little computer gadget. I loved the idea, opened it up, thought I would write a screen play. Then I switched it off - fade out. I couldn't get it to work."
He said that he has little in common with the spy character and explained: "He is nothing like me. I'm a much more shy and retiring person."
Hundreds of fans lined the streets to catch a glimpse of Bond and his baddies at the cinema. But Brosnan, 46, was staying more guarded about his imminent wedding. He has picked the time and the place for it -but he is not telling. And he revealed, he didn't get down on one knee to propose. The star said: "I would have done, but we were too busy holding and hugging and kissing. I knew I had found a great lady. "I told her it was about time to say: 'Will you marry me? Will you be my wife?'"
Brosnan recently became a granddad when former wife Cassandra's daughter Charlotte had a baby. He said: "I have been Charlotte's dad since she was five. At first I was Pierce, then I was daddy to her. Now I am a grandad."
Bootlegged copies of the latest Bond film are being sold over the Internet and executives from the movie makers are furious. The illegal copies of the film are changing hands for as little as pounds 20 over the world wide web before the film is released in cinemas. Detectives from the MGM Studios and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were yesterday trying to track down the mastermind behind the scam which could cost the film makers millions in lost revenue. Brosnan's salary is linked to the profit of the film.
(Newcastle) Evening Chronicle -- James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan was accompanied by screen beauties and his real life love at the world premiere of 007 movie, The World Is Not Enough, in Los Angeles.
The 46-year-old star posed with the latest Bond girls and his fiancee Keely Shaye Smith, 33. The couple decided to get married last month but have refused to say where and when the ceremony will take place.
The Bond girls include American actress Denise Richards, who plays nuclear scientist Dr Christmas Jones, and Italian Maria Grazia Cucinotta, who plays Cigar Girl. The film is released in Britain on November 29.
Gary Morgan
The Scotsman -- The famous bachelor may not have approved of Pierce Brosnan's decision to marry his long-time lover, but 007 would certainly have approved of the actor's co-stars who appeared at the gala premiere of the 19th Bond film. The sultry actresses are living proof that political correctness has yet to influence the physical attributes of Bond girls, even if modern film-makers permit their characters to display a level of intellect to match their assets.For in The World is not Enough, which opens in the United States on 12 November, Denise Richards stars as a nuclear weapons specialist, Dr Christmas Jones. Her co-star Maria Grazia Cucinotta, however, must be content to play Cigar Girl.
But, in a departure from 007's preference to love them and leave them, Brosnan preferred to watch the film with Keely Shaye-Smith, his fiancee and mother of his child, Dylan. However, he had not lost his taste for playing the part and will star in the next Bond film.
Fans lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the stars, including Robbie Coltrane and Desmond Llewelyn, who makes his 17th appearance as Q, arriving for Monday night's premiere the Westwood Village Theatre in Los Angeles. The UK premiere will take place on 22 November in London. Rene Russo, who starred with Brosnan in this summer's The Thomas Crown Affair, was also present.
After the premiere, the stars moved to Santa Monica airport where martinis were handed out by Bond girls, and guests feasted on shrimp and oysters and fillet of beef in a hangar decked out as a casino.
The popularity of the latest Bond film, in which Brosnan has a vested financial interest, has attracted the interests of bootleggers. Pirated copies are being sold over the internet for GBP 20 before it goes on general release.
Baz Bamigboye
Daily Mail (London) -- It has been hailed as the biggest and best Bond movie of all time.The World Is Not Enough has more action, more stunts and enough gadgets to satisfy the most ardent 007 addict. The opening quarter hour, where James Bond pursues a villain along the Thames in a speedboat and onto the roof of the Millennium Dome, is said to have cost GBP 750,000 a minute to film. This time out, Pierce Brosnan has to hunt down Robert Carlyle's character Renard who attempts to hold the world to ransom by hijacking a Russian nuclear submarine.
The Daily Mail's Chief Showbusiness Writer Baz Bamigboye, who was one of the first to view The World Is Not Enough, sees whether Bond is still licensed to thrill.
"Once they simpered like latter-day damsels in distress or smouldered a la Mata Hari. Now, it seems, the Bond beauties have discovered Girl Power. What struck me most watching the new 007 extravaganza was how the girls were not being put down. After 37 years Bond's world has been shaken and stirred by feminism, and about time.
Ian Fleming's hero, Bond, James Bond, in the impeccably coiffed shape of Pierce Brosnan, is on tiptop form in The World Is Not Enough, although more cold-hearted and ruthless than before. He performs the most improbable action scenes and not a hair falls out of place - he has the suavity of Cary Grant; but it's a woman, the gorgeous scientist Dr. Christmas Jones,who defuses a nuclear bomb and another, the villainess Elektra King, played by Sophie Marceau, who powers the film along.Robert Carlyle as Renard, who feels no pain because of a bullet lodged in his brain, is the official bad guy but I was more taken by Miss Marceau's ice-cool wickedness.
What other movie would give us Denise Richards as the sexy Dr. Jones, wearing revealing shorts - fashion experts insist they're not hot pants - and tank top, plus a smile that boasts Farrah Fawcett-style gleaming dental work? Once upon a time she would have looked, well, all scientific in white gown, glasses and sensible shoes. Dr. Jones has one of the picture's best lines. 'Could you translate that into English, for those of us who don't speak spy?' she snaps at Bond. It was almost inevitable that 007 and the scriptwriters would come up with: 'I didn't know Christmas came more than once a year.' I must confess that I didn't have high hopes of Miss Richards coming up to scratch in this movie, but she has an interesting, attractive Bond girl look and good comic timing.
Then, of course, Dame Judi Dench as M is Bond's boss , and Samantha Bond's Miss Moneypenny with her razor-sharp wit can run rings round 007. Role models all, apart from the duplicitous Elektra King, that is.
But gorgeous girls, clever or not, are only part of the reason the Bond franchise has lasted nearly four decades and 19 films. It's the edge-of-your seat action that gives you an adrenalin rush. That fifteen-minute opening set-up, before the main titles, begins in Switzerland and ends with Bond chasing a hit woman in a Q-designed super-boat on the Thames to Greenwich and the Millennium Dome. There's one perilous situation after another, but you know not one fabulously groomed hair on Mr. Brosnan's head will be harmed, because he has already signed to do Bond Number 20 next year!
There are fun gadgets, from a coat that turns into a protective cocoon (perfect for two) and X-ray security glasses for checking out girls... sorry, whether your opponents are armed. There is a plot, something about oil pipelines and blowing up half of Turkey, but it's no great shakes. It's the action and those shorts that grabbed my attention. The World Is Not Enough opens on November 26, although a gala premiere will be held in London on November 22.
Alexander Walker
The Evening Standard (London) -- From its opening minute, The World Is Not Enough, the 19th James Bond film, is determined to take our breath away - and not let us draw it again for another 125 minutes.In a bank in Bilbao a wicked Swiss banker finds himself looking down the gun barrel of a client seeking a speedy withdrawal. "Count up to three," 007 (Pierce Brosnan) tells the moneyman, "You can do that, can't you?" But once delivered to MI6's Embankment HQ - this turreted ogre's castle making its first official appearance on the screen by permission of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook - the cash hoard explodes in the face (or thereabouts) of Dame Judi Dench's headmistressy M.
Exit 007 on the latest amphibian vehicle designed by Q to pursue the responsible terrorist up, down and indeed under the Thames, zooming through Docklands, vaulting bridges, leapfrogging wharfs, disrupting restaurant service and swamping traffic wardens, until he shins up the ropes of an ascending hot-air balloon in which his enemy is making her escape. From there, it's one easy drop on to the Greenwich Dome, also making its movie debut.
The sequence lasts 15 minutes before we ever get to the opening credits. The mistake the makers then make is to err on the side of generosity and overdo the rest of the Bond blow-out. Far from being "not enough", Bond's world this time round feels much too much.
Brosnan stands up to his third outing without showing fatigue, but the non-stop action gives him no chance to show anything else except incredible feats of physical endurance. He skis down a mountainside in Khazakistan while being machine-gunned by a pursuing flotilla of power-driven paraglid-ers; barrels through an empty oil pipeline in Baku with a primed nuclear bomb on his tail; is chased along an Istanbul fishing wharf by a helicopter dangling six circular saws like an aerial egg-slicer that bisect Bond's BMW. Finally, he dives into the Bospho-rus to use his underwater gills and stop a Russian sub suffering nuclear meltdown at the hands of Robert Carlyle's omnipotent, omniscient, ubiquitous villain.
Ungratefully, you find yourself hankering for something calmer, a little more characterful, a touch of Sean Connery's latent menace, a reminder of Roger Moore's flippant insouciance. We are shaken, but not moved. Even the derring-do has lost a little of its edge of human risk, now that we know such superhuman feats can be safely created on digital computers.
The best jokes - to judge by the reaction of the preview audience at the Odeon, Leicester Square - were those to do with double entendres, like Bond murmuring that he could stand "one last screw" when Sophie Marceau's villainess is garroting him.
No expense has been spared on furnishing the formula with all the old ingredients. Gizmos like the ski jacket that self-inflates into a huge puffball and ingests Bond into its protective innards when an avalanche overtakes him; the X-ray spectacles that forewarn Bond which heavies are packing lethal hardware. And, as a bonus, which bimbos are sporting the sexiest underwear. But too many sequences seem to end with someone screaming "Bomb!" so that being repeatedly blown up soon loses its freshness.
This time around, Q (Desmond Llewellyn) announces his retirement and hands over to his "new young man", who turns out to be John Cleese bringing a touch of the Ministry of Funny Walks to MI6.
Denise Richards plays the latest Bond girl heroine, a nuclear physicist called Dr. Christmas Jones whose work clothes consist of halter top and hot pants and whose name prompts a Bond quip about "having Christmas in Turkey."
But what the 007 saga now finds really tough work is supplying a truly exotic villain. Robert Carlyle's arch-criminal makes a splendid entrance as a giant holograph image. But when he finally appears in the flesh, his reality is a letdown. He resembles a superannuated skinhead.
Nevertheless, director Michael Apted has done a superhuman job just holding The World Is Not Enough together while an army of indefatigable artists and technicians construct their close shaves, cliff-hangers, last gasps and assorted nicks of time around the indestructible 007. This adventure will see Bond nicely into the millennium; but it's not the one I'd want to place in my time capsule.
Pat Flanagan
The Mirror -- Hundreds of James Bond fans - most of them men - queued up yesterday for tickets to see 007 star Pierce Brosnan. Two male Bond fans even went on an overnight mission, camping outside the ticket office in Brosnan's home town of Navan to be sure of a rendezvous with the world's top secret agent.On Thursday, fans get to meet Brosnan when he receives the freedom of the town. Two hundred tickets were made available to the public and were snapped up in less than an hour from the UDC office. More than half of those in the rush for passes were male, many of them in their teens.
Brosnan, the first person ever to be presented with the award, will collect it at a function in the Newgrange Hotel. Navan Urban District Council voted in favour of honouring the 007 star on Tuesday night. The council chairman, Paddy Fitzsimons, said the town was proud of their favourite son and pleased to be able to pay tribute to him.
"We all admire Pierce and we wish to honour him for his many achievements in film and television," he said. A landscape painting will be presented to Brosnan, a talented painter himself, at the ceremony.
The Mirror -- Pierce Brosnan has renewed James Bond's Licence To Thrill, says co-star Robert Carlyle. Carlyle, who plays a Bosnian terrorist in The World Is Not Enough, has nothing but good things to say about the leading man.
"Pierce has set fire to the whole thing again," he told Total Film magazine. "He's got a quality very few actors have, he's got charisma about him which is very tangible. You can feel it coming off him."
Belfast News Letter -- A mining town is to roll out the red carpet for home-grown film star Pierce Brosnan when he visits Ireland next week.
Brosnan, 46 - famed for his debonair roles including James Bond - will be given the freedom of his native Navan, Co Meath, at a civic reception next Thursday. Council chairman Paddy Fitzsimons said: "Pierce is possibly the best-known actor in light entertainment in the world and we're very proud of him here in Navan.
"He has been back on private visits over the years but this is the first time he has been given a public acclamation."
Known for furniture and carpeting manufacturing as well as its zinc and lead mines, Navan is commonly portrayed in Ireland as epitomising the midlands backwater, the antithesis of sophisticated Celtic Tiger-booming Dublin. But Mr. Fitzsimons said Brosnan and other entertainers, such as rising comic star Tommy Tiernan, were evidence of Navan's cultural credentials. "It's a powerful town," he said.
Brosnan left Navan as a teenager to pursue an acting career and established himself in America as the quint- essential urbane action hero. He found fame in the TV series Remington Steele and made his debut as 007 in 1995 in GoldenEye. His wife, Cassandra Harris, died of ovarian cancer in 1991 and he has since settled down with journalist Keely Shaye-Smith and they have a two year-old son, Dylan. Brosnan's last film, The Thomas Crown Affair, was a box-office hit this year. His next Bond movie, The World is Not Enough, is to be released at Christmas.
John Harlow and Dominic Rushe
Sunday Times (London) -- The pop star Robbie Williams wants to be the next James Bond.He has told Eon, the film company behind 19 Bond films including the soon-to be released The World is Not Enough, that he is willing to take acting lessons and a year off from his music career to succeed Pierce Brosnan as 007.
Brosnan is expected to step down after the next Bond film, due for release in 2001. The abdication will open the floodgates for would-be Bonds, but Williams has stolen a march on the competition by registering his interest with Eon. Sources within the company said he was a bright prospect who would be a serious candidate.
"Robbie has always been mad keen on Bond, as everyone who saw his video for the song Millennium, where he dresses up as 007, will know. He set out to become an actor rather than a pop star, and although it may seem presumptious, he cannot resist the opportunity to go for the role of his lifetime," said a source close to Williams.
The singer, the only former Take That member to have forged a successful solo career, has amassed a fortune estimated at £12 million over the past 18 months, scoring No. 1 hits across Europe and being critically acclaimed in America. But this is apparently not enough.
It was reported last week that he is weary of the pop music treadmill, and wants to go back to school to learn how to act. A Hollywood source said last week: "Robbie has undoubted charisma, but he would have to prove himself in a few minor roles before he could come close to claiming Brosnan's crown, never mind his pay cheque. James Bond takes a lot more than the ability to moon at teenage girls."
John Millar And Vicky Davidson
Sunday Mail (London) -- The look of fear in Pierce Brosnan's eyes was for real as he grappled with Bobby Carlyle on the set of the new Bond movie. Brosnan reckons Carlyle's character Renard is the most fearsome 007 villain ever.He shivered: "Bobby makes an excellent bad guy. He will not disappoint." Renard is a skinhead psycho who feels no pain after being shot through the head by a bullet. Brosnan said: "He's the kind of guy who does not want to rule the world - just blow it to hell."
The World Is Not Enough premieres in London tomorrow, and the few people who have seen it reckon it is the best ever. Carlyle is joined by fellow Scots Robbie Coltrane and rap star Goldie.
One American critic said: "Carlyle is outstanding. But the most amazing thing about the new Bond film is that they have actors who can actually act."
Apart from Brosnan, Coltrane and Carlyle, there's Dame Judy Dench. Any director would give his eye teeth for a line-up like that. Brosnan's sure the movie will be a huge success: "We wanted the film to be as big and bold as the last two."
Renard could be the best Bond baddie yet. "He's virtually indestructible," says Carlyle, who spent hours in make-up each day having the right side of his face transformed into the character. But Carlyle looked beyond Renard's evil side. "Whenever I'm confronted with a nasty character, I always try to make the audience work a bit," he says. "It's easy to dislike the guy but I always put a grey area into a part like that."
He couldn't resist appearing in a Bond film. "It was an easy choice because I have grown up with them." He admits that Sean Connery's suave 007 inspired him when he was a child. "I believed he was the only Scottish actor because he was the only guy up there on screen who spoke like me. That affinity with the man is still very strong."
Carlyle is coy about the money he was paid, but he says it was a pittance compared with Brosnan's £3 million. Awesome-looking Carlyle is the sidekick of sexy Sophie Marceau's evil Elektra King. Not far behind with the frighteners is cult drum 'n' bass music star Goldie, whose mum is from Glasgow. He tackles his biggest acting role so far as new bad boy Bull and he'll fill you with fear with those gold inlaid teeth.
There's also a welcome return of Robbie Coltrane, as Russian Mafia-style gangster and ex-KGB agent Valentin Zukovsky, who proved such a formidable foe in GoldenEye four years ago. Coltrane jumped at the chance to play Zukovsky again: "He was supposed to be killed in GoldenEye but I suggested it might be a good idea if he wasn't."
He had more room to develop Zukovsky's character in The World Is Not Enough and grew fond of the big baddie. "It's a bigger role this time and a lot more interesting. I think of him as an Arthur Daley/Bilko kind of bad guy!
"He is on the wrong side of the law, but he wouldn't shoot your granny. But he'd shoot you if you were too cheeky."
Like Renard, Zukovsky also has a close face-off with Bond, and Coltrane found the hands-on approach was the best way to get back into the swing of shooting 007.
"On my first day of filming, Pierce beat me up and said: 'God, it's ages since I strangled you Coltrane.' "
If the Scots have made a big impression on the movie, the bevy of Bond beauties is no letdown either. As well as Sophie as the daughter of a murdered tycoon, who is hell-bent on revenge, Denise Richards, of sci-fi action movie Starship Troopers, plays nuclear weapons expert Dr. Christmas Jones. Dame Judi Dench, returns as M for the second time, to be joined by Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, and John Cleese makes his debut as R, deputy of long-serving inspector gadget Q, played for the 17th time by Desmond Llewelyn.
It's not hard to disagree with Brosnan that this will be the best Bond yet. From its explosive opening sequence, when the MI6 headquarters are blown up and 007 chases the female baddie down the Thames, it's a thrill-ride that will keep fans hooked. Boats zoom through London at 60 mph, there's a punch-up on a hot-air balloon, a breathtaking battle on top of the Millennium Dome and a deadly helicopter with giant chainsaws suspended underneath it wreaking havoc on oil-rigs. But smiling Brosnan says: "It's like putting on an old pair of shoes," he says. "Somebody said the third time is a charm...so fingers crossed." Somehow, though, you don't think Pierce and gang will need too much help from Lady Luck.
It's a dirty job... but some poor guy has to plot world domination. No Bond movie would be complete without a villain doing his damndest to give James a suitable send-off. Here's the rogues gallery:
Dr. No (1962): Dr Julius No (Joseph Wiseman). Worked for Spectre. Drowned in scalding radioactive liquid.
From Russia With Love (1963): Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya). Worked for Spectre. Shot by Tatiana Romanova.
Goldfinger (1964): Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe). Worked for Red China. Sucked out of a plane.
Thunderball (1965): Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi). Worked for Spectre. Shot with a harpoon.
You Only Live Twice (1967): Ernst Blofeld (Donald Pleasance). He was Spectre. Escaped.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969): Blofeld (Telly Savalas). Escaped.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971): Blofeld (Charles Grey). Escaped.
Live and Let Die (1973): Mr Big/Kananga (Yaphet Kotto). Died of inflation.
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974): Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). He was shot dead by Bond.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): Carl Stromberg (Kurt Jurgens). Shot by Bond.
Moonraker (1979): Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale). Sucked into space.
For Your Eyes Only (1981): Harris Kristatos (Julian Glover). KGB agent stabbed in the back.
Octopussy (1983): Kamal Kahn (Louis Jourdan). Plane crashed into a mountain.
Never Say Never Again (1983): Blofeld (Max Von Sydow). Escaped again.
A View To A Kill (1985): Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). Took a swan-dive off San Fransisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
The Living Daylights (1987): Brad Whittaker (Joe Don Baker). Crushed to death by a bust.
Licence To Kill (1989): Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi). Killed by by a gadget.
GoldenEye (1995): Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean). Dropped from a satellite dish and crushed by it.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997): Elliot Carver (Jonathon Pryce). Crushed by a sea drill.
Jason Kilby;Jackie Mcewen
Mail on Sunday (London) -- James Bond is back, in his most spectacular big-screen adventure yet, The World is Not Enough, which opens on November 26.Playing 007 for the third time, Pierce Brosnan once again sports a stylish wardrobe as Britain's most elegant super-spy, courtesy of Italian label Brioni. In the film's pre-credit sequence, oil tycoon Sir Robert King, who is building one of four pipelines to vital new oil reserves under the Caspian Sea, is killed by a female assassin (known as the 'Cigar Girl') at MI6's London HQ.
James Bond is dispatched by M (Judi Dench) to find the killers and protect King's daughter, Elektra (Sophie Marceau), heir to his business.
Bond gets his first lead when he learns that Elektra had once been a hostage of Renard (Robert Carlyle), a mercenary renowned for being impervious to pain. His investigations then lead him to an atomic test facility in Kazakhstan, where nuclear weapons expert Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), is disassembling nuclear warheads.
Renard, however, plans to steal a nuclear bomb to destroy three of the Caspian Sea pipelines, so granting unlimited power to the owner of the fourth pipeline.
According to the lyrics of the new Bond theme, performed by Garbage: "The world is not enough - but it's a very good place to start." You can do no better than to start with Night&Day's special guide to the most exciting 007 movie yet.
Ever since 007's second outing in From Russia With Love - in which he silences his opponent with a jet of deadly gas from his booby-trapped briefcase - an arsenal of gadgets has been as vital to Bond's appeal as cars and girls.
Over the years, the concealed weapons, specially created by MI6's head gadgetmaster, Q, have kept one step ahead of modern technological advances, and The World is Not Enough boasts some of the most impressive kit yet. While Bond's car, a BMW Z8, comes equipped with plenty of deadly add-ons (for more details, turn to page 46), his enemies are also armed with their own high-speed vehicles and precision weaponry.
Here, we look at the latest technology Bond puts in his exploding briefcase before setting out to save the Western world - and the weapons his adversaries use to fight back.
Parahawks
A hybrid of the snowmobile and the parachute, the parahawk is used by Bond's enemies during an ambush on the Caucasus Mountains in Central Asia. The high-speed vehicle is kept aloft with a large canopy - its thrust is provided by a large propeller at the rear. When the vehicle lands on snow, the parachute is ejected and four skis provide manoeuvrability. The specially mounted multiple mortar launchers on its side, and a front-mounted machine gun, enable the pilot to shoot targets in his line of fire. The high-speed chase ends when Bond leads the fleet of attacking parahawks over a cliff-edge, followed closely by an avalanche.
Ski jacket with airbag
One of Q's most fortuitous gadgets, the life-saving jacket with secret airbag, is given to Bond for his trip to the snowy Caucasus Mountains. It comes in handy during the ensuing high-speed ski chase -*the airbag cushions Bond's fall after he skis over a precipice during his hasty getaway. As Bond actor Pierce Brosnan was not a natural skier, a two-man set of skis with a mounted camera boom was needed to film the sequence's close-up shots. Brosnan rode pillion on the contraption, which was steered down the snowy slopes by a stuntman.
Q-boat
Used in the film's opening sequence, Bond's state-of-the-art Q-boat -- so-called because it was dreamed up by MI6 gadget-maker, Q -- is able to operate in just three inches of water thanks to its jet propulsion system. Water is sucked in from the front of the boat and blown at high pressure out of the back. Powered by a special 350hp V12 Chevy jet engine, the Q-boat's tremendous speed is coupled with excellent steering. Two external rocket boosters propel the boat faster still, enabling it to perform dramatic barrel rolls and even to travel for short periods over land. It also comes equipped with gas canisters, which, when released from the rear of the vehicle, erect a wall of fire.
Killer bagpipes
Having relocated to the Scottish MI6 headquarters after a terrorist attack on the London offices, Q conjures up a set of killer bagpipes that can fire a volley of bullets or a devastating jet of flames.
Omega wristwatch
The Omega Seamaster wristwatch has appeared in the past three films and is now a tried-and-trusted Bond accessory. In GoldenEye, the watch was equipped with a laser, and in Tomorrow Never Dies it doubled up as a bomb detonator. In The World is Not Enough, the watch features a miniature grappling hook with 50ft of high-tensile retractable microfilament wire, capable of supporting up to 800lbs - more than enough to whisk 007 and the Bond girl away from danger. Bond uses the gadget to escape from a nuclear test chamber in Kazakhstan, when he is cornered during a fight with enemy troops.
Glasses
As always, Bond is dressed to kill, and is provided with two pairs of spectacles, each with concealed gadgetry. The first pair look like reading glasses, but when a small button on the frame is pressed they emit a blinding flash of light or a jet of tear gas - particularly useful when disabling an enemy. The second pair is equipped with an x-ray capability, which allows Bond to perform a discreet body search, uncover concealed weapons, sweep a room for bugs, and check himself for internal injuries or bone fractures. Bond also uses the x-ray specs to his advantage in the casino. And, of course, in the hands of a ladykiller like 007, they are not only invaluable when it comes to business, but pleasure, too.
Hewlett Packard Jornada 430se Palm-size PC
This sleek, hand-held computer, which weighs less than nine ounces, boasts a 16MB RAM and is powered by Microsoft Windows CE software, goes on sale in Britain this month. It also makes its film debut in The World is Not Enough. The computer is used by nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones to diagnose and defuse a nuclear device, primed to detonate by arch-villain Renard. She is forced to use the palm-size PC while travelling at high speed, utilising its on-screen keyboard and one-hand operation ability. Thanks to an attachable modem, the PC has e-mail and Internet facilities, stereo sound and a high-resolution display that can render more than 65,000 colours. The HP Jornada 430se Palm-size PC costs £399, but you can win one of five in Night&Day's brilliant James Bond competition, in association with Hewlett Packard.
Cigar Girl's boat
With the frame of a Sunseeker Superhawk 34 - the only British-built boat used in the film's opening chase sequence on the Thames - and powered by a twin Volvo engine, this impressive craft can reach speeds of more than 50 knots (60mph), using only finger-touch controls. When stationary, it acts as a weapons platform for offensive attacks. The boat is equipped with a two-metre mounted machine-gun at the stern,*which fires gold-tipped rounds, and twin mortar launchers, giving its pilot - James Bond's enemy Cigar Girl - a formidable arsenal.
Helicopter with chain saw
When Bond returns to the coastal republic of Azerbaijan, he is attacked by a helicopter mounted with a giant, vertically suspended saw. Based on the choppers used in heavily forested areas of Scandinavia and Canada to cut down trees encroaching on power lines, its saw comprises five, metre-length spinning circular blades that dangle from a large rig at the helicopter's rear.
Lina Das
The Evening Standard (London) -- As choices go, the one confronting French actress Sophie Marceau was a tough one.After years on the fringes of popular cinema, she had been chosen to play Elektra King, the female lead in the new James Bond movie. It was a plum role, and promised to open doors to even greater things. But her partner of 14 years, director Andrzej Zulawski, opposed it. He is said to have declared the film 'beneath her' and was supposedly jealous that she'd be working with Pierce Brosnan (Zulawski is 24 years older than Sophie). Apparently, while she was in negotiations with the film-makers, Sophie kept her whereabouts secret lest her lover scupper the deal.
So what was she to do? Sensibly, she took the film.
Bond, it seemed, had won the girl again. But at what price? With the release of The World is Not Enough later this month, she will become a household name. However, she has now separated from Zulawski, by whom she has a four-year-old son.
Sophie Marceau was born Sophie Maupu (she is not the daughter of mime-artist Marcel Marceau, and is tired of answering that one). She grew up in a Paris suburb, the daughter of a shop assistant and a lorry driver, but was always ambitious. At 13, she answered an advertisement for child models, was invited to an audition, which led to a role in the French teen flick La Boum, and she was on her way.
In career, if not in personal, terms, she has always made smart moves. At 33, Sophie has appeared in nearly 30 movies. She has a huge following in France, was voted the woman French men would most like to sleep with, and, with her comely face and voluptuous figure ("I'm curvy, so what?" she once said), regularly graces the pages of Paris Match.
She met Zulawski when she starred in his 1985 film L'amour braque (Crazy Love). The film flopped, but, despite the age gap, they fell in love. In 1994, Sophie had the lead in D'Artagnan's Daughter, a French movie which enjoyed some success in America. She was required to swash and buckle her way through the film in true musketeer style, which brought her to the notice of Mel Gibson, who chose her for a pivotal role in his Scottish epic Braveheart.
With her career in the ascendant, Sophie opted to take time out and have a baby.
"My career is 49 per cent of me, and my life is 51 per cent," she said. But it wasn't long after the birth of Vincent that she was back at work, and in demand.
With her strength of character, both on screen and off, she seems well cast as a Bond girl. But Brosnan better watch out: in the past, she has proven more than a match for the charms of her leading men. She referred to Sean Bean, with whom she starred in Anna Karenina, as "very ordinary," and Leonardo DiCaprio as "a boy, a child. He is 13; perhaps 11." After meeting Bruce Willis, she said, "I thought, 'So what?' "
She even managed to upset President Mitterrand when she accompanied him on a tour of the Far East. She chose an official dinner as her moment to tell him that she didn't like the Louvre's glass pyramid - his pride and joy. Mitterrand stalked out.
But can Sophie take as good as she gives? He must hope so, because her performance as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream was condemned by respected critic Alexander Walker as 'unspeakable.'
As well as acting and being a mother, Sophie has also directed a short film and written a novel. Menteuse (Liar) had a lukewarm reception when it was published, not least from her former lover, who, according to Sophie, simply "didn't like it." Their break-up was undoubtedly traumatic: only last year, while she was still with Zulawski, Sophie proclaimed: "He is my only lover; the only other men I go to bed with are on screen."
So it can't have been an easy decision to put Bond before him. But after her sultry performance in the new 007 film, a host of other offers will surely come flooding in.
Tribune News Services -- If James Bond must die, Pierce Brosnan wants to be the one to take him out. The star of the upcoming 007 flick, The World Is Not Enough, would love to be the one who takes Bond's last gasp. "I'd like to see him killed off," Brosnan tells writer Jesse Nash. "I want to have a death scene with Bond. Now, that would be something." Meanwhile, Brosnan was honored yesterday by his childhood town of Navan, Ireland. Hundreds of townsfolk from the industrial hamlet outside Dublin, where his boyhood home is up for sale, turned out when Brosnan was given the "Freedom of the Town" award and presented with artwork painted by a local friend.
NEW YORK (AP) - The newest Bond Girl says the idea of playing opposite Agent 007 at first excited her, until she turned on the TV and saw her casting announced on the evening news. "I didn't realize just how huge James Bond was until that moment," Denise Richards says in the December issue of Cosmopolitan. "It scared me, because I thought, `Wow, this is a huge move, people are going to see this!' I'm used to doing stuff where you never know if anyone's going to see it." Ms. Richards, who has acted in "Wild Things" and "Starship Troopers," will play a nuclear weapons expert, Dr. Christmas Jones, in "The World is not Enough," which opens Nov. 19. As for her co-star, Ms. Richards says Pierce Brosnan is "a class act, a real gentleman."
MGM will be promoting the latest James Bond thriller The World Is Not Enough with some 100 hours of programming on MTV channels worldwide during the next three weeks, the New York Times reported today (Tuesday), citing no sources. The newspaper said that the programming, which will include multiple showings of the movie's theme-song video, a special on the making of the video, a contest in which a $200,000 BMW featured in the movie is given away, and other promotions is being paid for "wholly or in part" by MGM, the Times said. MTV declined to discuss financial details of the elaborate promotion, telling the newspaper via MTV exec John Shea, "As much as we are in television, we are also in business. To say anything else would be naive. This campaign is an understanding between smart marketing people."
MILFORD, Conn., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- BIC Corporation today announced the worldwide launch of BIC Limited Edition Lighter Series 007. Each of the 12 collectible lighters in the series features an authentic, colorful James Bond movie poster.
"This exclusive licensing agreement couldn't come at a better time, as the new action-packed James Bond movie, The World is Not Enough, starring Pierce Brosnan, is set to open in November," said Scott Prud'homme, BIC's product manager -- lighters. "Not only will the BIC brand name and our firm commitment to quality support these lighters at retail, the popularity of the James Bond franchise, premiere of a new movie and barrage of promotional support surrounding the film will drive purchases as well."
"These lighters will be sold for a limited time, so we encourage interested retailers to cash in on their share of fanfare surrounding the new movie," Prud'homme added. "In addition to the media blitz by MGM, BIC will be offering special die-cut header cards designed to maximize visibility and impulse purchases at retail."
The launch of these new lighters is timed to coincide with the release of the 19th James Bond film, The World is Not Enough, which opens in the U.S. on November 19, 1999. An estimated 30 million people will see the movie this fall. Brosnan, the film's star, has rejuvenated the popularity of the James Bond character in the last two Bond films, GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. The last Bond film grossed nearly $700 million worldwide theatrically.
"The James Bond character appeals to both men and women of all different backgrounds," Prud'homme noted. "There are few licenses out there with this type of reach. James Bond is a name that is recognized around the world. And, interest has steadily increased in the last few years with the most recent films. We are pleased to be able to offer such a terrific opportunity to retailers and consumers."
BIC Limited Edition Lighter Series 007 will be sold in 50-count trays only. The Suggested Retail Price of each lighter is $1.49. The lighters are scheduled to ship to stores in October.
BIC Corporation, headquartered in Milford, Connecticut, is a leading manufacturer and distributor of stationery products, lighters and shavers. BIC Corporation is a subsidiary of Societe BIC, located in Clichy, France. Societe BIC is traded on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Leicester Mercury -- James Bond fans will be in Double O heaven when Leicester's Odeon cinema screens the region's first showing of the suave spy's new flick, The World is Not Enough.
The Freemen's Park complex is one of a handful of cinemas to show Pierce Brosnan's third outing as the allnaction 007 agent, with proceeds going to charity. Staff at the venue were shaken but not stirred when they heard the good news and are already preparing for a star-studded night.
The premiere will be screened on Wednesday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m. General manager at the Odeon, Mr. David Holmes, said he was very pleased that the Odeon had been selected to host such an auspicious event.
"The film will be shown in one of the larger houses, which has a capacity of 330," he said. "We don't know at this stage how many celebrities will be attending but I know arrangements are currently being made.
"Whatever happens it will be a great night, a fantastic coup for the Odeon and a good thing for Leicester."
The film follows Bond as he fights to save the world's oil supply and overthrow yet another corrupt international political regime. En route, he encounters scar-faced villains, escapes unscathed from a myriad of explosive situations and sidesteps the advances of a string of luscious ladies.
All money from the regional premiers n the film is also being shown at cinemas in Ipswich, Norwich, Reading, Cornwall, Brighton and Cambridge will be donated to the FSID, the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths. General tickets are still on sale, priced GB £15. For more information, contact the FSID head office on 020-7235-0965.
Coventry Evening Telegraph -- Britons would rather get a good night's sleep than paint the town red with some of the world's most beautiful celebrities, according to a survey published today.
Just 9 per cent of UK women would give up their bed for a date with James Bond heart-throb Pierce Brosnan, the poll for The Sleep Council found. And only 8 per cent of men were willing to swop sleep for an all-night date with Posh Spice Victoria Beckham.
Hard cash would tempt more people to forego a restful slumber, with 55 per cent of people admitting they would be tempted to brave a sleepless night in return for money.A 24-hour round trip to New York would seduce 41 per cent from their pillows.
The survey also showed what people like to do between the sheets - 75 per cent watched television and read, 49 per cent retreated under the duvet to "get away from the world" and 43 per cent had discussions with partners or children. And a quarter of those questioned said they would have a bigger bed if they had more room.
The survey was conducted in advance of National Sleep Day tomorrow as the clocks go back giving an extra hour in bed.
Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail (London) -- As Pierce Brosnan prepares to launch the latest James Bond thriller, a hush-hush search has begun to find the next star who will be 'licensed to kill'.
One name that keeps cropping up on secret shortlists that movie executives claim do not exist, is that of handsome Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, who is already popular thanks to his role in the high seas TV drama Hornblower. Mr Gruffudd, 26, is a fast-rising actor who has landed a series of plum roles, from Pip in Tony Marchant's adaptation of Great Expectations to co-starring in 102 Dalmatians.
Picking a new James Bond is an exercise that can leave you shaken and stirred. Take George Lazenby. When, in 1969, he replaced Sean Connery, he was a disaster, totally lacking the gravitas required. Connery, the original, is perceived by many as the archetypal Commander Bond, with Mr. Brosnan close behind.
Brosnan's portrayal in the latest Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough, is much more hard-edged and lethal than of late. Roger Moore was too comic. Timothy Dalton was hardboiled, but lacked a certain exuberance. Brosnan has let it be known that he does not want to do too many more 007 movies.
When Mr. Brosnan was anointed as a future Bond, it took him eight years before he appeared before the cameras as Ian Fleming's hero. It is early days for Mr Gruffudd-indeed he may not get it - and there's plenty of time to groom him to appreciate the finer things Bond enjoys such as Dom Perignon '53 at a temperature above 38f and knocking back a martini or or two.
Meanwhile, The World Is Not Enough opens here on November 26.
Coventry Evening Telegraph -- Customers at a Coventry store could have the chance to be James Bond for a day as part of a contest to promote 007's latest film, The World is Not Enough, starring Pierce Brosnan (left). Entry forms are available from Coventry and East Mercia Co-operative stores until November 12.
New Musical Express -- The name's Manson, Shirley Manson... Garbage, who have recorded the theme tune to the latest James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, previewed the song on Windows Media.
The song of the same name was written by composers David Arnold and Don Black especially for the film which is set for release on November 25 featuring Pierce Brosnan as in his third outing as gentleman thug 007 with a supporting role for Goldie. (Go to http://www.jamesbond.com/ for more on the new Bond movie.)
David Arnold previously collaborated with Bjork on the track "Play Dead" in 1993, and he also provided the instrumentation for the James Bond tribute album Shaken And Stirred which featured Iggy Pop, David McAlmont and Pulp. The soundtrack album for The World Is Not Enough is released on November 9.
The new James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, will open in Singapore and Malaysia ahead of the rest of the world.
The Nov. 18 release in the Asian countries beats the United States launch by a day in an effort to forestall piracy in the region. "The reason Singapore and Malaysia are sharing the same release is to cut down on the potential threat of video piracy," said Roger Pollock, managing director of United International Pictures, the overseas distributor.
"We are releasing the Bond movie early here for strategic reasons," he added. "First, we are looking at the school holidays. Second, we want to make Bond the event of the year. With competition around, you want to get a head start, be the early bird."
The Arnold Schwarzenegger action-thriller End of Days arrives Nov. 25. Compact disc piracy has grown increasingly rampant in this region, in a way benefiting moviegoers, as distributors rush out their releases at the earliest possible moment. Many Hollywood blockbusters are being released here concurrently with the United States, or even earlier, as was the case with The Matrix and Entrapment.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - 007 is tying the knot. James Bond star Pierce Brosnan and Entertainment Tonight correspondent Keely Shaye Smith are engaged but have yet to set a date, said Dick Guttman, a spokesman for Brosnan.
Brosnan and Ms. Smith met at a fund-raiser to protect whales. The couple have a 2-year-old son, and Brosnan has a teen-age son from his first marriage. Brosnan's first wife died in 1991 of ovarian cancer. It is the first marriage for Ms. Smith.
*** Her first day on the job Wednesday, Entertainment Tonight TV reporter Keely Shaye Smith had a scoop - she was engaged to movie star Pierce Brosnan. No date. She had the actor's boy, Dylan, 2. Smith's filling in for maternity-leaving Julie Moran. She and Rob Moran greeted a girl, Maiya, last week.
Knight-Ridder Newspapers -- Spice Girl Mel C. will join an elite group when she does the theme song for the next James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough. Ex-007 singers include Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow, Tom Jones, Lulu, Rita Coolidge and Duran Duran.
Associated Newspapers -- Baku --Cameras were rolling in Azerbaijan on Thursday when the latest James Bond thriller, steeped in the high-stakes intrigue of the international oil industry, went into full-swing production.
Called The World is Not Enough, the newest instalment of the lucrative spy series features Irish-born actor Pierce Brosnan and France's Sophie Marceau.
The two stars arrived late Tuesday night, along with producer Michael Wilson and director Michael Apted, and spent the next day shooting scenes outside the Azeri capital. A second crew will film establishing shots over the weekend.
"One of the themes of our film is Caspian oil, so we thought we would come where the Caspian oil is," said Apted. "So we came to Baku and we fell in love with the oil fields and the great constructions out in the sea."
Bond's latest incarnation, Brosnan, fights an international group of bad guys intent on dominating the production and transport of the world's oil supply, the film's makers say.
Marceau plays Elektra King, "the daughter of a murdered oil tycoon Bond is hired to protect." Rounding out the cast are US actress Denise Richards and Robert Carlyle, from The Full Monty, as the villain.
According to those involved with the project, the agent from Her Majesty's Secret Service will defend the concept of a trans-Turkish pipeline.
Interestingly, the future of a real-life pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey has been thrown in doubt by world oil prices and doubts about the actual size of Caspian oil reserves.
The film offers up the usual mix of death-defying stunts and exotic locations, starting with the new Guggenheim Art Gallery in Bilbao, Spain and moving on to Turkey and the Scottish Highlands.
In Azerbaijan, Bond and Elektra will watch the destruction of a caviar factory -- "accessible only by a network of raised walkways constructed above the waters of the Caspian Sea" -- which they have escaped from.
The release date is scheduled for sometime in November of this year.
The Daily Mail (London) -- The macho image of 007 took something of a dent yesterday when a stunt for Pierce Brosnan's new James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, had to be postponed - because of a breeze.
About 100 film extras (at GBP 70a-day each) were to take part in the scene, in which Bond soars over the Millennium Dome dangling from a rope attached to a hot air balloon.
"Bond - or rather one of the stunt doubles - doesn't actually fly over the Dome.He just hangs from a crane to make it look as though he's flying. But even that was too dangerous because it was quite windy," says a crew member.
"While we were waiting for the wind to drop, we had a good look at what's going on at the Dome actually, not very much."
South Wales Evening Post -- The name is Arnold, Terry Arnold - and the Llanelli sales adviser is enjoying every moment of his role in the latest Bond blockbuster.
Terry can be seen on the big screen later this year at the premiere of The World is Not Enough.
He plays a police sergeant in the film starring Pierce Brosnan as Ian Fleming's 007 and Dame Judi Dench as M.
Terry, of Elizabeth Street, spent a day in the company of heartthrob Brosnan filming his role.
He is also hoping to be called back for further action on the London set later this year.
It is the latest coup in the acting career of the 41-year-old father of two.
Terry has appeared alongside television stars such as David Jason in Only Fools and Horses, Leslie Grantham, French and Saunders and Ewan McGregor, of Trainspotting fame.
He has also played roles in Casualty and Up'n'Under, the movie featuring Samantha Janus and Neil Morrissey.
However, fame is far from going to the head of Terry, a sales adviser with Phoenix Windows, who is very bashful about his screen success.
"I just go to the auditions and have a go, it is a lot to do with luck.
"It is nice to work with these people and see what they are like but at the end of the day they are just normal like anyone else.
"I have always been interested in the stage and got my first break with the Academy Theatre Group in Llanelli playing Bill Sykes in Oliver.
"I've got a tiny part in a funeral scene in the Bond film, it is a big budget movie and I would have liked to have done some action shots.
"However, it was great to work on a Bond film with Pierce Brosnan who was really great to talk to and a nice, down-to-earth guy."
Associated Newspapers -- Pierce Brosnan's plans to re-unite all the Bond girls for his latest caper The World Is Not Enough have been dealt a swift kick in the 007s by the most famous of them all, Pussy Galore. Honor Blackman says: "I don't want anything to do with it. I'm not a Bond girl, I just played the most fabulous character. She wasn't a bimbo, she was one of the best women who ever came out of a Bond story."
Knight Ridder Newspapers -- James Bond, who smoked 60 hand-rolled cigarettes a day when he was a literary character, is going smoke-free. Bond, as played by Pierce Brosnan in the forthcoming The World Is Not Enough, will drive a BMW with a "Please do not smoke" sign on the dashboard. The very first image of Bond in a movie showed him taking a lighter to his cigarette when he said his name: "Bond. James Bond." Although Brosnan is a smoker, the actor is said to have thought that smoking set a bad example for kids likely to see the movie.
The Times (London) -- Pierce Brosnan and Sophie Marceau have opted out of going skiing because of avalanches. They were to film the James Bond flick, The World Is Not Enough, in Chamonix but have been told to hold tight in their ejector seats. "Brosnan," I hear "doesn't want to be shaken and stirred."
The Mirror (London) -- James Bond has been told he can't save the world - because his insurers say it's too dangerous.
007 star Pierce Brosnan and actress Sophie Marceau were due to fly to the Alps this weekend to film scenes for the 19th Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough. But the action sequence was due to be shot in and around the French resort of Chamonix where 11 lives have been lost in the area's worst avalanche disaster for almost 100 years.
Now the insurers covering the filming have told Pinewood bosses that Brosnan and other stars are not to be risked.
That has put the fledgling £70 million production well behind schedule. An insider told The Mirror yesterday: "It's a major headache. There are people already close to a nervous breakdown.
"We are talking about millions of pounds that could be lost. The insurers decided it just wasn't a risk worth taking."
Rescuers were still working in the area yesterday after recovering the 11th victim, a woman found under 23ft of snow.
WENN - FIRST - HOLLYWOOD, SHOWBIZ & PEOPLE NEWS - JAMES BOND's secret service pal Q is being axed from the movie series after 35 years.
Hollywood chiefs are replacing the gadget wizard with weapons expert R in the next 007 movie The World Is Not Enough.
Welsh actor DESMOND LLEWELYN, 84, has played Q in 17 Bond movies. But executives think he's too old to continue.
A source says, "The scriptwriters had to introduce R because by the time the Bond film after this is shot, Desmond will be getting on for 90 and may not want to do it any more. No one has been cast as R yet."
Llewelyn is the only actor to have appeared on screen with all five James Bonds - SEAN CONNERY, GEORGE LAZENBY, ROGER MOORE, TIMOTHY DALTON and current 007 PIERCE BROSNAN.
He is best known for his catchphrase, "Do pay attention, 007."
James Bond battles worldwide nuclear destruction on -- and off -- the screen. "The nuclear issue is something we have to stand up and fight against," said Pierce Brosnan at the Children at Heart Celebrity/Fantasy Auction to benefit Chabad's Children of Chernobyl. Vowing to do whatever he can to stop nuclear proliferation, he said, "When I pop my clogs, I'd like to leave this place a little better than I found it."
Brosnan joined Kathleen Turner, Armand Assante, Joe Torre, Heidi Klum and Jon Voight. The latter was honored with the Children at Heart Award for helping chairman Nancy Spielberg (Steven's sister) raise $1 million for the charity, which helps to relocate kids from the former Soviet Union to Israel.
Among the hottest items auctioned off were Leo DiCaprio's Rolex watch, which fetched $6,000, and dinner with Robin Williams for $16,000.
Not everyone got what they came for. Nancy's daughter, Jessica, was left wondering what happened to no-show Adam Sandler, who was supposed to auction
off the first item, a private screening of Dreamworks' Prince of Egypt. Jessica "sat on the sidewalk in front of Pier 60, waiting for him and asking, 'Where's the Waterboy? He's supposed to sit at my table,"' one guest reported.
(OCT. 7) WENN/P - SECRET BOND PLOT REVEALED BY FAN CLUB BOSS Highly secretive James Bond movie bosses have been outwitted by a 007 fan who covered the confidential plot of the new Bond movie.
007 star Pierce Brosnan is set for a steamy love affair with a stunning but deadly nuclear weapons expert in the new film, The World Is Not Enough.
The 19th instalment of the super sleuth's adventures will begin filming in Istanbul, Turkey, next January (99), according to the chief of the International James Bond Fan Club, Laurent Perriot.
The Frenchman revealed the plot after recently dining with Brosnan's stunt double Douglas James and Desmond Llwellyn, who plays gadget boffin Q.
In the movie, Bond faces a terrorist from the breakaway Soviet republic of Chechnya who kidnaps Elektra, a female tycoon, and falls for a nuclear weapons expert named Christmas.
A spokesman for 007 movie maker Eon Productions refused to comment on the revelations, describing them as "pure speculation."
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - British director Michael Apted is in negotiations to take the helm of MGM's next James Bond film, tentatively titled Bond 19.
The picture is slated to begin production in January, with Pierce Brosnan taking on the role of agent 007 for the third time, following GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies.
The film would mark the 19th Bond film in the highly valuable series from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. since Dr. No in 1962.
MGM/Universal Artists previously staked its claim to Nov. 19, 1999, as the release date of Bond 19.
Although producers are keeping the film's storyline tightly under wraps, it's understood that James Bond's adversary in this installment may be a woman who has a personal grudge against the suave secret agent.
Numerically speaking, Bond 19 fits in well with some of Apted's previous credits -- 14 Up, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up and the recently completed 42 Up, the latest in the long-running documentary series about a group of socio-economically diverse British schoolchildren.
Apted's previous feature credits include Extreme Measures, Nell, Thunderheart, Gorillas in the Mist, Gorky Park and Coal Miner's Daughter.
The British director is finishing work on his sequel to Inspirations, his documentary about the creative process told through the stories of seven celebrated artists.
Bond 19 will be Apted's next feature, which he may follow with Enigma, a World War II-era film scripted by Tom Stoppard and to be produced by Mick Jagger's Jagged Films and Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video.
(AUG. 13) WENN/P - British super-sleuth JAMES BOND is set to tackle formidable Scottish bad guys ROBERT CARLYLE and ROBBIE COLTRANE in the next 007 movie.
The 19th Bond movie, tentatively titled DANGEROUSLY YOURS, will hit cinema screens on November 19 1999 with Irish actor PIERCE BROSNAN playing the spy for the third time.
THE FULL MONTY star Carlyle has completed a screen test in London for ultra-secretive movie bosses, who also want to resurrect Coltrane's role as Russian VALENTINE ZUKOVSKY from GOLDENEYE.
A pal of Carlyle says, "Robert has been screen tested and has been looking at the script, which was delivered in June (98).
"He's considering a role in the film but more discussions will have to take place before anything is final."
The title of Pierce Brosnan's next Bond film is Pressure Point. This time the usual themes of world domination by megalomaniacal men take second place to the new film's main story line: A woman loved and wronged by 007 is the villain. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned by Bond, James Bond.Speaking of Brosnan and his role of 007, which he inherited from Sean Connery and Roger Moore, he says he does not want to grow old playing the man with the licence to kill.
He told London's Daily Mail: "I don't want people to watch me getting old and see my waist getting bigger and my hair thinner. That would be horrible."
This may well leave 007 serioulsy (but seductively) stirred, for all the Bond girls from the 18 spy thrillers made over the past four decades will gather for the last Bond picture of the century, James Bond No 19 starts filming at the end of the year, with Pierce Brosnan and Robbie Coltrane in the leading roles, but the film's producers also want to honour the actresses who have draped themselves over Ian Fleming's famous spy over the decades.It was secret and very hush-hush -- till now -- but I can reveal that Bond film executives will be approaching the likes of Ursula Andress, who famously strode out of the surf wearing only a white bikini and a knife for Sean Connery's first outing as Bond in Dr. No, 36 years ago.
Pussy Galore is the name most folk particularly remember and she was memorably portrayed by Honour Blackman in Goldfinger in 1964; Shirley Eaton, her body painted in gold, shone in the same movie.
Others being pursued by producers and casting agents around the globe include Jill St.John from Diamonds Are Forever in 1971, Jane Seymour from Live and Let Die, and let us not forget Britt Ekland and Maud Adams in The Man With the Golden Gun.
Barbara Bach took no nonsense from Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me and it's hoped she'll agree to a cameo spot in the new Bond picture.
There will, however, be a poignant moment when the film's researchers come to the name Cassandra Harris, who appeared with Moore in For Your Eyes Only. She ws married to Brosnan but died on 1991 after a long illness.
Later Bond girls were less exciting -- who remembers Tanya Roberts in A View To A Kill? At the time, I was more taken with the dangerous bad girl Grace Jones as May Day.
Maryam D'Abo bored the Living Daylights out of audiences, as did Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto in Licence To Kill, opposite Timothy Dalton.
There were plenty of thrills, though, with Izabella Scorupco and Famke Janssen in GoldenEye and Michell Yeoh in the last Bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies. The plan is for the 'girls' to do fleeting walk-on parts in the picture, which Michael Apted will direct.
The current script has Bond going underground as he attempts to unearth corruption at every top of the British and Russian spy agencies.
Irish movie idol Pierce Brosnan has beaten an array of stars to claim the title of Britain's Best Dressed Man.The James Bond hero pushed comedians Jack Dee and Vic Reeves into second and third place to pick up the award from London's Maxim Magazine.
Brosnan came top of the poll of 30,000 readers who voted him the coolest thing about Britannia.
Readers of the men's magazine were given 20 high-profile figures from around the world to choose from.
But 84 per cent had no trouble in picking Brosnan as their best-dressed man.
Simon Munk, chief of the Maxim Poll, yesterday said: "It was no surprise to us that Pierce won the award by a mile.
"Everyone knows he's James Bond, therefore the coolest man on the planet.
"Pierce was judged by his piers and he easily beat stars such as Liam Gallagher and grey politicians like William Hague."
Brosnan can be seen across screens in Ireland starring in The Nephew, a love story directed by Eugene Brady which features Sinead Cusack.
The story takes place on the west coast of Ireland with Brosnan, who produced the film, as the romantic lead.
Brosnan, 45, was born and brought up in Navan, Co Meath and moved to live in England as an 11-year-old in 1964.
Before he landed the role of super spy Bond, he was best known as private investigator Remington Steele.
The top ten best dressed men are:
1. Pierce Brosnan
2. Jack Dee
3. Vic Reeves
4. Tony Blair
5. Glenn Hoddle
6. Prince Charles
7. Jerry Springer
8. Chris Eubank
9. Chris Evans
10. Liam Gallagher
