The latest issue of the popular British science fiction and and fantasy magazine, SFX, contains some coverage of the new James Bond movie No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s final adventure as 007. As many Bond aficionados know, the new film will be released in UK cinemas later this month, two days after a glittering premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The new issue of SFX has six glossy pages devoted to the new 007 film, penned by the mag’s writers Nick Setchfield and Jordan Farley. Short mini-interviews with the main stars of the movie are also provided, including Craig, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, and Lashana Lynch. Craig, asked by SFX what story opportunities has he been given in his final film, responded: ‘We have an ending, which is great. You work back from that. So we knew what we were kind of aiming for. And that was always a help’.

The current 007 said he is ‘constantly amazed’ by the interest that Bond generates: ‘But I get it. That’s one of the reasons that they’ve lasted for so long’.

Lea Seydoux, responding to SFX‘s observation that it is very unusual for the women in Bond’s life to return, said she was ‘not surprised’ to get the call, given the storyline in Spectre: ‘So I was not surprised, but I was so happy – very happy – because I loved working on Spectre‘. She also commented that Bond ‘has a thing for French women!’

Interestingly, Rami Malek (who plays the villain Safin in the new film) was asked by SFX about his accent in the movie: ‘We can’t place your accent as Safin’. Malek responded: ‘I think it’s good that you couldn’t quite place it. That was our goal’. He revealed that the director, Cary Joji Fukunaga, kept offering thoughts about Safin ‘sounding as if he could be from centuries past’, with a sound of voice ‘that could be considered timeless, and just difficult to nail down from what region of the world…’. Malek said he worked on a number of accents for the character, and – in the end – it was ‘an amalgamation’ of a few different places ‘that I thought collectively would make a mysterious impact vocally’.

In past interviews, Fukunaga has expressed his admiration of Roger Moore’s A View To A Kill (1985), as it was the first Bond movie he saw. Another fascinating revelation in the new issue of SFX is therefore that Fukunaga is a big fan of George Lazenby’s one-off Bond adventure from 1969: ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service might be my favourite of all time. It’s hugely underrated and I just think the cinematography and the construction of it are incredible. And it has an emotional story, which doesn’t really exist in any other Bond film until Casino Royale‘.

The new issue of SFX magazine (no. 344, October, 2021) is on sale now at all good UK retailers, priced UKP £5.99. It’s another great addition for the shelves of collectors of Bond coverage in printed magazines.

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