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Marking the anniversary of Ian Fleming's fictional spy, Leica launches a limited edition camera with rare behind-the-scenes photographs shot by the No Time To Die's cast and crew.

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No Time to Die, the 25th instalment in the James Bond film franchise, has been one of the most anticipated movies for at least two years.

If it were not for the pandemic, fans of the iconic fictional spy would have been able to see Bond in action earlier. The last Bond film, Spectre, released six years ago. So, the wait has been truly agonising for fans.

Thankfully, the release date is upon us and we cannot explain how excited we are to see Daniel Craig for one last time as the MI6 agent who somehow has always remained an enigma for over six decades.

Here is what we know about No Time to Die — Daniel Craig’s swan song as James Bond.

What is the plot?

The official synopsis of the film says the following:

In No Time To Die, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.

Whatever else is known is based on the trailers and Fukunga’s confirmation that the story is set five years after the events of Spectre.

What does the trailer reveal?

The fourth and final trailer of the movie was released on 31 August. In between were a Super Bowl 2020 TV Spot on 3 February 2020 and a 14 September 2020 video introducing Safin.

Together, the trailers reveal quite a lot about what to expect from this instalment.

We see that Safin is looking for revenge and is after Swann. In one of the clips, a wounded Bond tells a shocked Swann, “The past isn’t dead.” What exactly is the past is not clear. What is certain is that Safin has a history with Bond, too.

In a scene he says, “We both eradicate people to make the world a better place. I just want to be a little…tidier.”

There is also a hint that Bond may join hands with his enemy Blofeld, who is now imprisoned following the incidents in Spectre. “James, fate draw us back together. Now your enemy is my enemy.”

Besides, there is enough action in the trailer to get our adrenaline pumping. There’s jumping from a stone bridge, racing a bike over an old wall, piloting a unique flying machine, missiles firing from a navy ship, and the return of a legendary Aston Martin DB5 that can fire machine guns.

The cast of No Time to Die

First up, Daniel Craig. The English actor plays the titular MI6 007 agent James Bond. In the film, Bond is shown as having retired from active duty but is forced out of it when a major threat makes landfall.

That threat is Lyutsifer Safin — a criminal mastermind played by Academy Award winner Rami Malek. Speaking to Daily Mirror in July 2019, after he was cast in the role, Malek, who is of Egyptian heritage, said that he told Fukunaga that he didn’t want Safin to exhibit any kind of religious or ideological identity.

“I said, ‘We cannot identify him with any act of terrorism reflecting an ideology or a religion. That’s not something I would entertain, so if that is why I am your choice then you can count me out’,” Malek said. “So he’s a very different kind of terrorist,” he added.

In a promotional video introducing Safin, Malek says, “What I really wanted from Safin was to make him unsettling; thinking of himself as being heroic.”

The other major new face is Lashana Lynch. The Jamaican-origin British actress is so far best known for playing fighter pilot Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel (2019). Lynch will be playing an MI6 agent who becomes 007 after Bond’s retirement. This makes her the first Black female 007 agent.

Her casting resulted in a racist backlash from some quarters of Bond fans forcing Lynch to take a break from social media and focus on meditation and family. Responding to the controversy she was subjected to, Lynch told Harper’s Bazaar, "I am one Black woman – if it were another Black woman cast in the role, it would have been the same conversation, she would have got the same attacks, the same abuse. I just have to remind myself that the conversation is happening and that I’m a part of something that will be very, very revolutionary."

Ana de Armas, who plays CIA agent Paloma, joins the cast. Armas has starred alongside Craig in the critically-acclaimed detective thriller Knives Out (2019) as well. Billy Magnussen, Dali Benssalah and David Dencik are among the other new faces.

Returning cast members include Ralph Fiennes as MI6 chief M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q, Jeffrey Wright as CIA agent Felix Leiter, and Rory Kinnear as M’s chief of staff Bill Tanner.

Of the major Bond actors who will once again be seen in the movie are Léa Seydoux and Christoph Waltz.

Seydoux reprises her role of French psychologist Madeleine Swann while Waltz returns as SPECTRE head Ernest Stavro Blofeld. The characters of both Seydoux and Waltz made their first appearance in Spectre (2015).

What led to the delay in release?

Academy Award winner Danny Boyle was initially roped in to direct this Bond movie. He began writing the script with John Hodges in 2018 but quit the same year. At the time, the film was expected to release sometime in November 2019. Boyle’s departure led to makers hiring Cary Fukunaga to take over the responsibilities. All of this led to the first round of delay, with the film pushed to a February 2020 release.

It was then again postponed to April 2020. By then the COVID-19 pandemic was raging through the world forcing theatres to close. The makers then pushed the release to November 2020 and then to 2 April 2021 since the theatres were still suffering from the effects of the pandemic. Finally, it was decided that the film will see the light of the day on 30 September 2021 in the UK and 8 October 2021 in the US.

Release info for other countries can be found here.

Daniel Craig’s last film as James Bond

Yes, it is. This will be Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as the fictional spy. He first appeared as Bond in Casino Royale (2006) and subsequently in Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). Craig is the sixth actor to play Bond in films by Eon Productions after Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.

In celebration of his 15-year career as Bond, the makers released a retrospective titled Being James Bond. The 45-minute special can be streamed on Apple TV. It contains unseen footage from all Bond films Craig has starred in and his interview with producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

In the special, Bond also addresses members of the crew on the last day of the shoot for the film.

"A lot of people here worked on five pictures with me. And I know there’s a lot of things said about what I think about these films or all of those... whatever. But I’ve loved every single second of these movies, and especially this one, because I’ve got up every morning and I’ve had the chance to work with you guys. That has been one of the greatest honours of my life,” a visibly emotional Craig says.

A video of the same has now gone viral on social media.

Daniel Craig’s farewell speech after wrapping #NoTimeToDie

End of an era 🍸pic.twitter.com/45obvVsuo1

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) September 17, 2021

It is unclear what the makers plan to do with the Bond character. It is noteworthy that the character has only changed faces over the decades but has never been killed off.

It will be interesting to see who replaces Daniel Craig as James Bond in the future movie. There has been a lot of speculation around this and actors including Idris Elba, Regé-Jean Page, Tom Hardy, James Norton and Sam Heughan among others are in the running.

Filming locations of No Time to Die

Bond films have always been like a travelogue packed with excitement, intensity, fun, thrill and the usual danger.

No Time to Die also takes fans on a world tour of sorts. It has the usual exotic places fitted perfectly with regular ones in a mosaic that would delight anyone who loves to travel.

One of the most famous shots in the trailers is on a Roman bridge from which Bond jumps to escape enemies. That is in Matera in Italy.

Then there is Port Antonio in Jamaica, Kalsoy in Faroe Islands and Nittedal in Norway, the last of which is the location of a snow-covered terrain in the trailer. Cairngorms in Scotland was also one of the filming locations. Interestingly, Bond’s family is from Scotland.

Of course, London and Pinewood Studios in England are part of the Bond film too.

No Time to Die theme song

The theme song titled “No Time to Die” was released on 13 February 2020. It was performed by American singer and songwriter Billie Eilish, the youngest ever to sing a Bond theme.

At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards held on 14 March 2021, the song won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. It thus made history as the first song from an unreleased movie to win a Grammy.

The song has been co-written by Eilish’s brother Finneas O'Connell.

(Main and Featured images: 007.com)

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More than a hotel, Stoke Park is a travel destination in itself. This iconic place has been featured in numerous blockbusters and I am sure you didn’t know it. Let’s review a few of them so you may want to book your next weekend stay there! London has a lot of five-star locations, but Stoke Park is really out-of-world. “Daniel…

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Despite ubiquitous coronavirus delaying the release of the new names on film from April to November, anyone who has seen the No Time To Die trailer is struck by its opening sequence, in which our conflicted espionager high-speed chases through the Italian villae of Matera, and finds himself surrounded by assassins on foot. He’s suddenly a sitting Aston Martin DB5, a car first driven by Sean Connery in 1964’s Goldfinger. What’s a Bond to do? Fast as a whop, he donuts the classic Aston, as the car's in-built machine guns blast from its sidelights and lays waste to his pursuers.
It’s epic Bond. But the most remarkable part is not the car (ecstatic though it is), nor the girl (Lèa Seydoux, ecstatic though she is), but his wardrobe. Craig, as Bond, James Bond, in his final cinematic outing as one of the most bankable movie franchises of all time, is sporting, ahem ... a corduroy suit. Cord. James Bland, anyone? Moment. The last time corduroy was cool was when Roger Moore, who self-evidently wasn't always, was playing but never wearing it, as 007.
Counter-culture has defined Danial Craig's kinetic 21st-century James Bond from the get-go in Casino Royale in 2006, and this new sartorial accord is typical. Cord has been dissed as fusty and academic, with schoolmasterly associations. But cord also represents the anti-establishment badge of cool, associated with working-class identity and political radicalism. Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin made cord cool. And so has Jarvis Cocker. And, guess what, Daniel Craig wears it in real life when he’s not playing his alter ego 007.
The man who began the Bond franchise when he was 37 [he's now 52] and has been the longest-serving Bon007 at 14 years, has toughed out five films grossing more than US$3 billion in revenues. Casino Royale was auspicious; Craig became the first Bond ever to be nominated for a Bafta in 2007. More remarkable is how Craig has shaken and stirred the slickly packaged blockbuster that Brosnan  [Pearce, his predecessor] Bond had become.

Craig told the film's head costume buyer Jane Gooday he wanted cord in No Time to Die. And not just any old cord but Italian designer Massimo Alba cord. And if you've ever met Daniel Craig and been targeted by those gas-ring blue eyes of fire and near-psychotic madness, he's not a man you'd want to deny. (Craig's choice is so hip you can't find Alba in Hong Kong yet, though the brand hopes to change that in the blink, or the donut, of a DB5.)

[caption id="attachment_203863" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Italian fashion designer Massimo Alba[/caption]

"You can tell Daniel Craig knows how to wear clothes," Massimo Alba tells me from his headquarters in Milan. "He's a very stylish man, and not just when he plays James Bond on screen. Formal or casual, he uses clothes to let his personality exude." So much in fact, that Alba religiously follows the IG handle @whatsdanielwearing. "I like browsing it, his taste is extremely eclectic, and I have become acquainted with his choices. I like his attitude."

Craig has done similar before. One of his coolest Bond looks came in the less-than-great Quantum of Solace, in which he wars cardigan and sunglasses. Like the cord, it might have looked fusty, but on Craig the look had a sharp Steve McQueen-esque flair. Craig panached it.

Alba says the process of dressing Bond for certain parts of the film (Tom Ford dresses much of the rest) was straightforward given Craig's existing relationship as a customer. "The customer designer contacted our Milan office requesting look books. Mr Craig owned Massimo lab pieces already, and this is how it all started, in a very organic way. Look books were sent, a selection was made and order placed."

Was he nonetheless surprised to get the call from Her Majesty's Government's go-to galavanted? "I feel humbled by their choice. My brand is small and independent. It really means a lot." And the cord? "The Sloop suit [the beige corduroy] is a carry over, that's been in my menswear collection since season one, so to have that be part of one of the most famous film sagas of all time made me very happy."

But is the world ready, or Bond's legions of style aficionados and attendant Bondmania ready, for their conflicted hero in cords? "I like to think of the new Bond as a more 'human' one, if I may use such a term," says Alba. "I think of James Bond now as a man who, in a way, doesn't need to wear a suit like a form of armour any more, as if he's found a new confidence." Alba hadn't seen the film when we spoke to him. "At least, this is how I imagine it, or maybe how I would like it to be," he qualifies.

"I think the cord translates into a new kind of confidence, and this permits him to be more casual in what he wears; since my clothes are informal I like to think he feels more comfortable in them." In that way, Alba feels Craig's Bond is doing what the spy nonpareil has always done -- reflected the times. "Bond is a character that has evolved over the years, along with men and men's clothing. There's definitely a need for less formality and a quest for comfort now."

License to regenerate. Part of Bondmania's enduring success is the ability to change -- think Dorian Gray-esque permanent youth -- into a floating cultural icon, continually renewed and rejuvenated in the face of social change. In that way, Bond reflects the cultural codes of consumerism and tourism and what's become luxury lifestyle. And now cords. "I would say that the Bond style has always been able to seize the moment," says Alba. All Bond films have become a reference for a specific frame of time, an era, defining it in terms of style. Men and women featured in each film, their style, but also the objects, architecture and interiors, encompassing the history moment in which the film was filmed and released."

The future of the Bondian ecosystem is a hyperreal world where the distinction between real and imaginary has become increasingly blurred will be the producer's biggest challenge post-Daniel Craig. Under his raw and razor-edge auspices, Craig's 007 has never felt more real, or more alive. There's a passage in Ian Fleming's original Casino Royale novel where agent Mathis says to Bond: "Surround yourself with human beings, dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles... Bud don't let me down and become human yourself. We would lose such a wonderful machine." Craig has delivered the man behind the Bond brand.

[dual-images right-image-url="https://www.prestigeonline.com/hk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ALBA_9075_Easy-Resize.com_.jpg" left-image-url="https://www.prestigeonline.com/hk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ALBA_9121_Easy-Resize.com_.jpg" right-caption="The Massimo Alba Showroom at Via Corsico 8" left-caption="Massimo Alba's studio at Via Corisco 8"]

Asking an Italian whether he prefers Fellini or Antonioni is a tantamount to asking a Brit whether they prefer the secret agent James Bond Connery'ed (Sean) or Moore'd (Roger). That is, until Craig came along and out-007ed them all. Craig is intense, drive, compulsive viewing.

What of Alba and the Fellini vs Antonioni debate. "They are great masters of the history of Italian cinema, unapproachable from any criticism and comment. From the image point of view, Antonioni's films, like Whirr's photographs, and belong to an imaginary that I feel close to," says Alba.

"Antonioni is fantastic," he declares. "Blow-Up is among other things the greatest fashion film ever made," he pauses and extends the pause... "but in the end I'm a Fellini man."

"I'm endlessly fascinated by La Dolce Vita and its languid beauty; La Strada will always break my heart and Amarcord is deeply ingrained into my consciousness. The sheer confusion and exhilaration of adolescence, the humour, the heartbreaking loneliness of the man yelling, "I want a woman," and the transcendent moment, the grandfather lost in the fog. I often think about that scene -- Fellini knew we're all lost, in one way or another, that we miss our home, a place to feel at peace, like human beings. He knew we're just trying to get there, all of us."

And then he reconsiders his favourite fashion film. "For Blow-Up, people usually remember the off-screen murder, the models, Redgrave's Mona Lisa smile, the invisible tennis ball. I remember the small moments of quiet-- the battered Nikon F in the Rolls-Royce glove compartment, the darkroom minutiae, David Hemmings -- a Greek god more than a young man, the way Antonioni lingered on his hosts -- driving to a London that simply isn't there any more. And yes, Veruschka, The Byrds, that faraway Swinging London forever committed to film. It's a young man's film, with an old man's wisdom and commitment to acknowledging that things, simply, are never what they seem."

Which is Daniel Craig's Bond. His final hurrah, or 007's, is like the commingling of Blow-Up and La Dolce Vita, and those Italianate suits favoured by Sean Connery's Bond in the '60s, made all the more contemporary by Craig's cord of 2020 reality.

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