Quantum of Solace

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Germangirl
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Post by Germangirl »

Elvenstar wrote: Totally agree about mainstream direction. Nolan succeded because he has a way of making big movies but Mark doesn't :cry:
Martin seems to know how to make Bond movies that people want.
As much as I love this movie I would have preferred it to be more public friendly.
Yes. Maybe a bit too much between the lines thinking needed here - not everybody can or wants to do that in a Bond film.
As for Dan's acceptance as Bond Im sceptical because of what I read in the comments on some local movie sites, JB sites, sites like Aint it Cool etc. He's not as accepted by almost everyone as Broz and Christian Bale as Batman.
I don't care about it though cause I love him :wink:
There are, of course, still the naysayers, but as far as I understand it, the majority of the people is glad to have him IMO. As for Pierce, I feel, it was easy to like him, because he seemed so appropriate at the time as JB - but if you read, what people say about him now, that they have seen, what you can make with the role, he gets some serious bashing everywhere. One thing is for sure IMO, whoever proceeds in that role will need some real acting shops, because I don´t think, someone with just good looks and limited acting abilities will be accepted anymore.
Sorry, I don´t know, how to write this, without making it sound like PB bashing.
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Guinness
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you should write in newspaper

Post by Guinness »

GG-you are correct in everything about PB-all the james bonds will be compared to the other JB's so you are not bashing PB-they are different actors with different directors...can you see DC in an invisible car? hopefully he would say "_uck off, that is cheeky", but PB pulled it off as best as he could and did okay.....~guinness, too early probably tonight
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Post by JoniJoni »

An interview:

Entrevista a Daniel Craig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zri1GaxyGvc
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Post by Daskedusken »

`Quantum of Solace` top of Asian box office charts
Quantum Of Solace - 06-12-08

"Quantum of Solace" remained on top of the box office in Asia last weekend by virtue of its wide release, ahead of "Red Cliff," currently showing only in Japan.
Sony Pictures Releasing Intl.'s James Bond pic collected $5.56 million in its fourth frame for some territories and was showing mid-chart fatigue in most. Pic was on top in only Taiwan and Indonesia, reports Variety

First part of the John Woo-helmed "Cliff" was released in much of Asia in July, but in Japan preemed at the beginning of November after it opened the Tokyo Film Festival. Rights owners Avex and distribber Toho-Towa have managed to keep it on top of the chart for fifth successive week and added $2.33 million this weekend from 548 outings for a cume of $39.3 million. Local distribbers now forecast that it will hit $50 million.

Toho's "I Want to be a Shellfish" held second place in the Nippon chart, dropping only 24% to $2.05 million from 330 locations for a 10-day cume of $9.19 million.

Universal's "Death Race" opened in Japan only in fifth place with $743,000 from 225 locations, while "Saw V" opened sixth with $684,000 from a tighter 123 screens.

Elsewhere in Asia, performance at the Korean B.O. delivered the region's highest numbers. First weekend perf of local romantic drama "Hello Schoolgirl" and third frame for "Portrait of a Beauty" were so close that different data sources reverse their standings.

According to Rentrak, "Portrait" emerged on top for the third week adding $1.39 million from 475 locations and extended its cume to $8.23 million. Rentrak positioned "Schoolgirl" as scoring $1.37 million from 459 locations and a cume of $1.66 million including previews. Distributor CJ Entertainment handled both releases.

Korean charts also included three other local pics "Antique," "Overspeed Scandal" and "My Wife Got Married" at No.5, 6 and 9 respectively, giving Korean-made efforts five out of the top 10.

Data offered some solace to "Quantum," which added $679,000 in fourth place and a cume of $9.35 million, and a strong perf for Julianne Moore starrer "Blindness." Helped by the popularity in Korea of the original novel, pic only slipped to third for Sidus FNH, grossing $710,000 for a local cume of $2.32 million.

Other international titles also did well with SK Telecom's Hong Kong thriller "Connected" taking its cume to $726,000 from 252 screens and Swedish vampire pic "Let the Right One In" adding $46,000 for a three-week cume of $281,000 from a tight 42-screen release.

Chinese-language films -- Mandarin and Cantonese -- scored an unusual victory at the Hong Kong box office over a quiet four-day weekend.

Lark Film Distribution's police procedural thriller "Beast Stalker," a Cantonese-language Hong Kong-China co-production between Emperor Entertainment Group and Sil-Metropole, took $377,000 from a wide 35-print release in its first week to take top spot.

Three other Chinese-language films preemed this week; Cantonese-romantic comedy "Nobody's Perfect" in third spot, the conspiracy thriller "Ballistic" seventh with coming-of-ager "Miao Miao," a Taiwanese-Hong Kong co-production presented in Mandarin, in 10th place.

"Perfect" scored $167,000 from a 34-print release, while "Ballistic" took $35,000 from 28 prints and "Miao Miao" $20,300 from 10 prints.

Gross for Taiwanese hit "Cape No.7" dropped only 13% to $227,000 in second weekend and pic slipped to second place. Distributors, Lighten and Group Power added seven screens, helping film to an 11-day Hong Kong cume of $590,000.

In Taiwan itself, "Cape" held 10th place in its 15th week. Rentrak data, which does not cover the whole territory, puts local cume at $7.05 million. Producer's own numbers place it closer to $8 million.

Behind "Quantum," territory saw six new releases score top ten rankings. These included Sony's "Quarantine" with $62,000, Fox Intl.'s "Big Stan" with $61,000 in second and third spots, and Good Films Workshop's local drama "Parking" taking $12,300.

Running on a different time-scale, Singapore chart was headed by a third-week win for "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," with $266,000 for a local cume of $2.55 million. Warner Intl.'s "Body of Lies," in its second week, took second place with $170,000 and a cume of $556,000, and its "Four Christmases" opened third with $164,000 from 26 venues. Taiwan's "Cape" opened in eighth place scoring $72,000 for Universal Intl. from 12 locations, and delivering a cume of $108,000 including last week's previews.

"Twilight" opened on top in Malaysia, biting in to $294,000 from 53 sites, and in Thailand bowed stronger with $733,000 from 119 locations for Mongkol Major.

With reliable Chinese data unavailable, local producers reported Zhang Jianya's comedy romancer "Fit Lover" as delivering Yuan 25 million ($3.65 million) in its first week of release date (Nov. 26 to Nov. 30,) while Ma Liwen's "Desire of Heart" has notched a cume of $.38 million.

In India, UTV Motion Pictures reported that its buddy movie satire "Oye Lucky Lucky Oye" scored Rs46.1 million ($915,000) in its opening frame. Company said that Mumbai terror attacks significantly damped Friday take, but that revenue enjoyed a big bounce over Saturday and Sunday.

http://www.mi6.co.uk/news/index.php?ite ... mi6&s=news
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Post by advicky »

Friday's box office results confirm that this will indeed turn out to be the slow weekend that many predicted--especially for the biggest new movie in theaters, Punisher: War Zone (No. 6), which banked a mere $1.7 mil on its opening day. That being the case, the rankings are essentially unchanged from a week ago, with Four Christmases, Twilight, and Bolt leading the way. Friday's returns are below, and please check back on Sunday for a full weekend wrapup in the Box Office Report.

1. Four Christmases -- $5.8 mil
2. Twilight -- $4.6 mil
3. Bolt -- $2.5 mil
4. Australia -- $2.3 mil
5. Quantum of Solace -- $2.2 mil
6. Punisher: War Zone -- $1.7 mil
7. Transporter 3 -- $1.5 mil
8. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa -- $1.3 mil
9. Cadillac Records -- $1.2 mil
10. Role Models -- $0.9 mil


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Post by advicky »

The James Bond thriller "Quantum of Solace" slipped one place to No. 5 with $6.6 million, and has earned $151.5 million after 4 weekends. It is about $12 million ahead of where star Daniel Craig's 007 debut "Casino Royale" was at the same point in its run in 2006; that film ended up with $167 million. The films were distributed by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp.

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertai ... EV20081207

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Post by Daskedusken »

A 'Quantum' Of Editorially-Driven Visual Effects

Kevin Tod Haug on racing against the clock to create the visual effects for James Bond #22

Written by Devin Zydel on 05 Dec, 2008

Marc Forster’s comment that Quantum of Solace was a bit like a bullet applies not only to the film itself, but also the production work that went into making it.

As reported in the past on CommanderBond.net, time was always a factor when it came to all levels of production on the 22nd James Bond film and this included the visual effects creation.

In a new interview with VFXWorld, designer Kevin Tod Haug discusses working along with director Marc Forster, special effects designer Chris Corbould and many other members of the 007 crew in order to create the 900+ visual effects shots in the film.

‘I pretty much did what I’ve always done for Marc,’ Haug said. ‘There is a certain amount of polishing that Marc needs out of the visual effects department because he’s developed a recognition that a certain amount of what is too expensive to do on the day could be managed later: “I know I have the raw material here and ultimately I want to see how it cuts before I deal with some of these issues.” And unlike a lot of directors who go back and do reshoots, he just fixes them. So the stuff tends to be 98% there. There’s just that little bit of tweaking to make things look better.’

‘I told Marc that I thought he was intentionally crazy to do it because they only had 12 weeks of post, and we’d never done anything that quick…’ -Kevin Tod Haug

He continues: ‘Since Stay, we usually have our own in-house level of compositing so that we can do what I call “editorially-driven visual effects”: splitting performances and retiming things, taking a performance from one scene and putting it in another in order to shorten a scene or transplant a scene or a performance.’

‘But the thing about working on a Bond movie is that neither of us had ever done a giant action movie before. And so it’s the pure scope of doing action and the number of things that you have to pull off. We had a conversation early on where I told Marc that I thought he was intentionally crazy to do it because they only had 12 weeks of post, and we’d never done anything that quick—he’d never done a director’s cut that fast. But I think we all agreed that the opportunity to be the first [predominantly American crew] ever to do a Bond was too hard to turn down. I am the first vfx designer (or supervisor for that matter). The rule was don’t do anything that you’re not 100% certain won’t look good, don’t get experimental, don’t over reach, just do what needs to be done and do it as well as possible. It was a sort of rear-guard action from day one to make sure that we didn’t end up with 12 weeks to go and some horrible mess to sort out.’

Forster, who tried to incorporate elements of earth, water, air and fire into the many different action sequences featured in Quantum of Solace, also relied heavily on precise organization from the very beginning in order to minimize the time issue as much as possible.

‘We only had six weeks to cut the movie and then another few weeks for the sound,’ he stated, ‘so from the get-go, I said we have to figure out how to shoot as much as we can ‘real’ or get ‘real’ elements because we have such a limited time to make the visual effects and to make them look real would be really tricky. So everything in the plan was to follow that brief, and we had to map out when we shoot what just to [keep it all straight]. There wasn’t a huge amount of CG effects, but a lot of it came either through small elements or [in combination with special effects].’

‘I said we have to figure out how to shoot as much as we can ‘real’ or get ‘real’ elements because we have such a limited time to make the visual effects.’ -Marc Forster

For being a first-time crew member on the Bond series, Haug said he was struck at how integral the coordination between the visual and special effects were. ‘Chris Corbould and I linked up the day I prodded him off of The Dark Knight long enough to sit down and have lunch. We immediately understood what each other was doing and why we were going to work that way.’

‘We got together with the First AD [Michael Lerman] and we frontloaded the stuff that was heavy visual effects rendering in the beginning part of the schedule and the stuff that was heavy special effects-oriented at the back end so he had time to build his rigs and then they were going to happen mostly in camera, and we had time to deal with our stuff after the plates had been generated. So we figured out how to schedule it in such a way so neither one of us got too hammered.’

‘There has to be proof of that so we brought the flame within inches of them just to make sure there was no doubt in anyone’s mind.’ -Kevin Tod Haug on Quantum’s fiery finale

He singled out the aerial dogfight and the climactic encounter at Perla de las Dunas as the two most difficult sequences in the film. ‘That set of the ESO hotel with the explosions and the DC-3 rig that Chris had to build: both of those had to obviously happen far back in the schedule from his point of view. And that left us to do the skydiving and things we had to do in the beginning. As it is, I still wish I had a few more weeks on some of the CG planes. I think that the lines are heavily blurred as to what’s all-CG and what’s not. I don’t think there’s a single thing in the movie that’s entirely synthetic.’

http://commanderbond.net/article/5870
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Post by Ang »

thanks for posting the interview Aragorn. I do think the special effects team and Mark were massively handicapped by the amount of time they had to edit the film and sort out CGI effects. The plane in particular, when it explodes looks quite dodgy although the dogfight was really good and I thinks that's because they didn't have time to sort out the CGI to make it look really convincing. Mark strikes me as a perfectionist, he's probably used to focusing completely directing the actors whilst making the film and then spending several months editing the film to his high standards but on a Bond film everything needs to be done so quickly and the edit on this film does the work of someone who felt overly rushed.
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Post by Daskedusken »

Ang wrote:thanks for posting the interview Aragorn.
You're welcome, Ang :D :D
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Post by Germangirl »

Daniel Craig Wants Q and Moneypenny in the Next Bond
December 7, 2008
Source: Collider
by Alex Billington

With Quantum of Solace already passing the $150 million mark, things are still looking bright for the future of the James Bond franchise now lead by Daniel Craig. Even though not everyone loved Solace, most have come to respect Craig as a formidable Bond that challenges the likes of even Sean Connery. Being a huge Bond fan myself, I'm already anxious to see where the franchise will go next, especially since Solace finally finishes the origin of Bond and puts us on track to see the kind of stories we've been familiar with since Dr. No in 1962. Collider talked with Craig recently and got an update on where they might head next.
"We've finished this story as far as I'm concerned," Craig asserts. "We've got a great set of bad guys. There is an organization that we can use whenever we want to. The relationship between Bond and M is secure and Felix is secure. Let's try and find where Moneypenny came from and where Q comes from. Let's do all that and have some fun with it." I'm actually very impressed by Craig's understanding of the Bond franchise and know that we're in good hands with him leading the way. I'd love to see an origin of Q and an origin of Moneypenny story, although I'm slightly worried - since Desmond Llewelyn passed away, no one has been able to fill his shoes. Would they actually find a suitable alternative that isn't John Cleese?
As for when we'll see the next Bond movie, Craig doesn't even know. "We don't know when we're going to do the next Bond. Nobody's thinking about it at the moment. We're giving it a rest for the moment. If I can squeeze something in next year I will… but I haven't figured out what that'll be yet." Bond 23, as it's currently being called, is tentatively scheduled for 2010, because the time between Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace was also two years. Just like the team behind The Dark Knight, however, everyone is taking a break and no one is thinking about the sequel just yet. Don't worry, it'll happen soon enough!

http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/12/07/ ... next-bond/

Daniel Craig talks about the future of JAMES BOND
12/7/2008
Posted by Frosty

Written by Steve ‘Frosty’ Weintraub

Earlier today I attended the press day for Paramount Vantage’s upcoming film “Defiance”. If you aren’t familiar with the movie, it stars Daniel Craig and it’s based on the extraordinary true story of a group of Jews that banded together to survive in a forest in Eastern Europe during WW2. And while surviving would’ve been enough, they also managed to fight the Nazis and save over a thousand people. It really is an incredible story and in the coming weeks I’ll have interviews with most of the cast and director Edward Zwick.

But let’s get to the reason you’re here.

Since Daniel is the current James Bond, while talking with him about “Defiance”, we were able to ask a few James Bond questions and his answers told us a lot about the future of the iconic franchise.

As most of you know from an interview I did with director Marc Forester, when Marc made “Quantum of Solace”, he originally had a different ending in mind. The original ending made “Quantum” the middle chapter of a trilogy. But after their first screening, Marc removed the last scene (which ran about a minute) and ended the movie in such a way that it leaves the door open for the next filmmaker to decide what to do.

For the next film, they can either use the deleted ending as their start point, or they can pretend that it never happened and just begin fresh.

And according to Daniel Craig, that’s what they’re going to do. When asked if the next “Bond” would be part of a trilogy, he said, “No fucking way. I’m done with that story. I want to lie on a beach for the first half an hour of the next movie drinking a cocktail.”

While he was obviously kidding about lying on the beach for the first thirty minutes, I’m sure he meant every word about the next “Bond” movie starting fresh. In fact, he had a few ideas about what he wants to do and they sound really good. Here’s what he said:

“We’ve finished this story as far as I’m concerned. We’ve got a great set of bad guys. There is an organization that we can use whenever we want to. The relationship between Bond and M is secure and Felix is secure. Let’s try and find where Moneypenny came from and where Q comes from. Let’s do all that and have some fun with it.”

The way he’s talking about the future, the next film might feature a return to the technology that’s been missing in these first two Daniel Craig “Bond” movies. In fact, the introduction of Q could be a main part of the movie. Maybe Bond has to rescue Q from whatever bad guys are in the next movie and turn him. Maybe he’s a genius inventor that the entire world wants and that’s the way they can introduce his ability to invent gadgets for future movies. The possibilities are endless.

While this is me just speculating, one of the things I’ve loved about both Daniel Craig Bond movies are the way they’re set in the real world. They’re not loaded with sci-fi special effects. While I’d love to see Q enter into this new Bond universe, I just hope they find a real world way of using his technology.

Finally, when asked about his future plans and if he’d like to make another movie before the next “Bond” film:

"We don’t know when we’re going to do the next Bond. Nobody’s thinking about it at the moment. We’re giving it a rest for the moment. If I can squeeze something in next year I will…but I haven’t figured out what that’ll be yet. But nothing in the cold."

With the amount of money James Bond makes, I’m sure we’ll be hearing about the next film being greenlit sometimes next year. Until then…

http://www.collider.com/entertainment/n ... 063&tcid=1


'Quantum of Solace' Passes $500 Million Mark Worldwide

Totals include $357.8 million (international) and $151.4 million (United States/Canada)
Written by Devin Zydel on 07 Dec, 2008

Quantum of Solace broke the $500 million barrier at the box office this weekend.

After dominating the international market for five straight weekends, Daniel Craig’s second James Bond film finally fell to second place after Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa rolled out around the world this weekend to great success
Quantum of Solace grossed solid $10.8 million from 6,350 screens in 72 markets, bringing its international total to $357.8 million.
The sole new opening for the 007 film was in Venezuela, where it brought it $415,000 from 75 screens, hailed by Sony as 98% bigger than the comparable bow for Casino Royale. Notable market grosses to date include $77.4 million in the UK, $30.8 million in France and $37.1 million in Germany.
In the United States and Canada, Quantum grossed $6.6 million over the weekend, falling down one spot to fifth overall. Its cumulative total stands at $151.4 millon, which Reuters points out is about $12 million ahead (inflation unadjusted) of where Casino Royale was at the same point in its run in 2006.
Two more worldwide openings remain on the schedule for Bond: Uruguay on 26 December and Japan on 24 January.

http://commanderbond.net/article/5872
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Post by Daskedusken »

`Madagascar 2` gives `Quantum` a run for its money at global box office

Quantum Of Solace - 08-12-08

A batch of Central Park zoo animals returning to their jungle habitat ended James Bond's five-week domination of the international boxoffice - reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Paramount/DreamWorks' "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which began a record-busting rollout in late October in Eastern Europe, hit the jackpot during the weekend, roaring to an estimated $52.2 million from 5,129 locations in 35 territories. The film's foreign gross soared to $125 million, thanks to openings in key European markets plus strong holdovers.

And it's still early in the film's run, according to distributor Paramount Pictures International.

"'Madagascar 2' continued its record-breaking run this weekend with outstanding performances around the world," PPI president Andrew Cripps said. "With holidays to come, it is shaping up to be one of the strongest films of this year."

In the U.K., the zoo brigade charged in at No. 1 to $9.5 million from 517 screens. The animated entry also was No. 1 in Germany ($11 million from 820 screens), France ($9.8 million from 779), Mexico ($4.2 million from 438), Belgium ($1.6 million from 115), Argentina ($1.2 million from 102) and Austria ($1.1 million from 101), with Peru ($1.1 million from 101) completing the over-$1 million scorers.

A solid $10.8 million from 6,350 screens in 72 markets greeted "Quantum of Solace" as it slid to second place during its seventh week of international release. The film's sole new opening saw Venezuela bring in $415,000 from 75 screens, hailed by Sony as 98% bigger than the comparable bow for 2006's "Casino Royale." "Quantum's" international cume stands at $357.8 million. Market grosses include $77.4 million in the U.K., $30.8 million in France and $37.1 million in Germany.

Summit Entertainment's "Twilight" grabbed third place overseas with $9.8 million from 2,169 screens in 18 markets, raising its cume to $33 million. The film opened No. 1 in Spain with $4.2 million from 492 screens.

Disney Animation's "Bolt," the TV dog superhero, took fourth place with a noticeable $9.5 million from 1,700 screens in nine markets. A three-day opening in Spain delivered $1.9 million from 325 screens, and Russia was off only 30% for the film during its second weekend there, with $3.2 million from 525 screens for a market cume of $9 million.

Disney/Pixar's long-running "WALL-E," thanks to a $5.5 million No. 1 debut in Japan, lifted its foreign gross to $271 million and took fifth place in the overseas weekend standings.

Warner Bros.' "Body of Lies," which took in $5 million from 3,000 screens in 57 markets, hoisted its foreign gross to $52.5 million.

Disney's "High School Musical: Senior Year" moved up to a cume of $140.4 million after a $4.5 million weekend from 3,900 screens in 40 markets. The film's weekend takes saw Australia bring in $2.6 million from 255 screens and New Zealand bring in $350,000 from 80.

Universal's "Changeling" tallied $3.3 million from 1,012 dates in nine territories for an early international total of $19.1 million.

According to Fox International, "Australia" held up strong during its second weekend in its native Oz, taking in $2.4 million from 641 screens. Baz Luhrmann's Western epic has reached an international cume of $9.6 million, mainly from Australia.

More weekend estimates include "Burn After Reading," $1.1 million ($74.5 million cume); "Saw V," $2 million ($40.7 million cume); and "Max Payne," $1 million ($42.4 million cume).

The weekend top five in the U.K. were, in order, "Madagascar 2," "Four Christmases," "Transporter 3," "Quantum" and "Changeling." Boxoffice results for New Line's "Christmases" and the indie "Transporter 3" were not available Sunday.

http://www.mi6.co.uk/news/index.php?ite ... mi6&s=news
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Post by Daskedusken »

`Quantum` loses theatre count in North America, is ahead of `Casino Royale`

Quantum Of Solace - 08-12-08

As had been expected, the 22nd James Bond film lost some of its screens this weekend in North America as the box-office crowds around 007 in the top ten.

On its fourth weekend in the USA and Canada, "Quantum of Solace" was #5 in the box office and dipped to 3,423 engagements - down from its peak of 3,501 the previous weekend.

"Quantum" is still enjoying more screens than its predecessor "Casino Royale", which only had 3,161 after the same time on release back in 2006.

The combination of the record opening for Daniel Craig's second outing as 007, and a higher theatre count, means that "Quantum" is outperforming "Casino" - $151,468,000 versus $129,020,082 according to studio estimates for this weekend's box office.

"Quantum" crossed the $150m barrier in North America after 24 days on release, compared to
the 43 days that "Casino" needed.

"Quantum" now only needs an additional $17m to surpass "Casino" totals from North America.

http://www.mi6.co.uk/news/index.php?ite ... mi6&s=news
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Post by Thelma »

Anthony Lane: The Ten Best Films of 2008

How many movies from 2008 will bear revisiting in later years? That is the test, and it is dismaying to recall how few productions passed it. The year began with frightening promise, as a début work—“The Orphanage,” from the Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, released in the dying days of 2007—oozed into general release. It was followed by two foreign-language films of equal vigor and dread: “The Edge of Heaven,” from the German-Turkish director Fatih Akin, and “Four Months, Three Weeks, and Two Days,” from the Romanian Cristian Mungiu. More recently, “I’ve Loved You So Long” was, though compelling, tamed and compromised by its ending, and, too often this year, strong tales seemed to falter and lose heart; everything directed by James Gray is worth watching, but nothing in “We Own the Night” could match its velvety beginning and the confused furor of its car chase (the single best sequence of 2008). There were instances, over the year, where a stuttering vehicle found itself outgunned by the star: Daniel Craig was tougher than “Quantum of Solace,” Robert Downey, Jr., smiled darkly at the silliness of “Iron Man,” and Mickey Rourke pinned “The Wrestler” to the mat. For period drama, Clint Eastwood continued to lead the way, as if honoring the emotions, not just the hats and suits, of another era: “Changeling” stayed almost bewilderingly reticent in the face of the outrages it chose to report. Which leaves us with the only American release of the year that fulfilled its imaginative brief, down to the last beep. To the inexpressible joy of buffs and kids, it peered into a trash-compacted future while nodding fondly at the lustre of films past. All hail “Wall-E.”

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Post by Daskedusken »

General Medrano (Joaquín Cosio)

Datastream
Actor: Joaquín Cosio
Character: General Medrano
Movie: Quantum of Solace
Date of Birth: 1962
Distinguishing Feature: Propensity to rape women
Appearance: Heavily built physique
Status: Terminated
Organisations & Alliances: Quantum, Dominic Greene, Bolivian Police Colonel

"My country is not some fly-speck in the middle of the Caribbean."

Profile
Ousted from his home country of Bolivia for orchestrating a series of dodgy deals, General Medrano is a scheming and power hungry ex-army officer. Having sought out Dominic Greene to fund a coup in the South American nation, Medrano meets his match in the two-faced villain who stacks the deal in his own favour.

With a lust for blood and a sadistic passion, Medrano delights in disposing with untoward and rebellious acquaintances personally. The General was responsible for the death of Camille's mother, father and sister and when the feisty Bond-girl infiltrates Greene's organisation, Medrano's days become numbered.

Medrano has many connections to the police in Bolivia and rogue officers willing to do the bidding of this would-be dictator. After initiating plans to overthrow the Bolivian authorities, Medrano is confronted by Greene with a dead-end proposition. As part of the arrangement, Greene's organisation acquired a plot of land, which was hoarding water from underground streams thus leaving Green Planet the only provider of services for Medrano's new dictatorship. Before the proceedings are complete, however, Camille ably disposes of Medrano in a bloody fight at the Perla De Las Dunas hotel.

Biography
Born in Mexico in 1960, Joaquín Cosio held a number of jobs before electing to train for stagecraft. He made his theatre debut in the early 1980s and shortly thereafter became a regular player with the National Theatre Company in Mexico.

Since winning his place in the prestigious theatre company, Cosio worked with a number of well-respected Mexican directors including David Olguin, Antonio Castro and Luis De Tavira. At the turn of the century, he made a break into Mexican cinema - his first on-screen role was to be as Tío Luis in 2002's "Una de dos" - directed by Marcel Sisniega. For his work on "Matando Cabos" (2004), Cosio won the prestigious Mexican "Arial" award granted by the Mexican Cinematographic Academy. Prior to his work on "Quantum of Solace", he appeared namely in local Mexican productions - the Bond picture was his first Hollywood outing and first English-speaking film.

Quotes
"I am really very happy because a film of this scale, a film of this level, will have the participation of a Mexican actor."

Cosio on his first outing in Hollywood: "For now it is not in my head to go there, but this is a movie made by Hollywood, but I am quite happy with my projects which I have some door at the national cinema."

http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/villains/ ... s&id=02109
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Daskedusken
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Post by Daskedusken »

'Crawl, End Crawl' Now Available On iTunes

'Quantum of Solace' end credits track now downloadable

Written by Matt Weston on 08 Dec, 2008

Late last month, the CommanderBond.net Podcast exclusively revealed that “Crawl, End Crawl”, the David Arnold/Four Tet composition that closes Quantum of Solace, would become commercially available. That track is now available to purchase from Apple’s iTunes store.

The 3:22 song was not included on the soundtrack to the latest James Bond film due to its late inclusion to the pic.

Four Tet is the moniker of 28-year-old UK electronic musician Kieran Hebden. On his official website, Hebden describes “Crawl, End Crawl” as “kind of remix of stuff from the score of the film.”

http://commanderbond.net/article/5876
"Love anyway. Live anyway. Choose to part of this anyway”
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