Collectors of James Bond printed magazine material have been given an excellent New Year present in the shape of previews of No Time To Die in two of the UK’s leading film magazines.

The new issue of Total Film magazine (no.293), in its ‘2020 Preview’ section, has devoted two nicely glossy pages to the new 007 movie, which includes some new comments by EON producer Barbara Broccoli. The Bond producer says that Daniel Craig has been ‘the most extraordinary Bond. When you trace the evolution of the Bond character from Casino Royale to now, it feels very epic. This film feels like it’s a culmination’.

Interestingly, Broccoli’s EON co-producer, Michael G. Wilson, when asked about the movie’s eagerly anticipated new villain Safin (played by Rami Malek), responds teasingly: ‘Is there somebody worse than Blofeld? Well, maybe there is, out there…’.

Meanwhile, the new issue of Empire magazine (February, 2020), in its own preview of upcoming movies, devotes a pleasing 12 pages to No Time To Die, which includes some new comments by Craig, who spoke to the magazine in New York in early December and explained why he decided to do a fifth Bond adventure: he said that, although he had been ready to go after finishing Spectre, ‘somehow it felt like we needed to finish something off. If I’d left it at Spectre, something at the back of my head would have been going, “I wish I’d done one more”…’.

The magazine also contains some fascinating insights from Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch and director Cary Fukunaga. According to Fukunaga, his goal was to retain the feel of the classic Bonds: ‘There is plenty of room for improvisation, and creative spice, but there’s also a strong sense of responsibility to not upset the apple cart’. Referring to the Bond franchise’s action-packed legacy, Fukunaga said: ‘Hopefully the action is exciting, but it was more important that it felt threatening. Rather than thinking about the action before the story, how could the story drive the action?’ Empire also mentions the last day of principal photography on the new movie, which happened on 25th October, 2019, at Pinewood Studios, on a set designed to look like a Cuban street. Craig told the magazine: ‘Actually, it was very emotional The whole crew came round and gathered outside. Everybody was hugging each other. I tried to make a speech and couldn’t get it out’.

Both magazines, Total Film and Empire, are on sale in major UK retail outlets now, and will be must-buy purchases for all Bond aficionados. Watch this space for further news as it develops. You know the name and you know the number.

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