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Alright, now it is time for the $1,000,000 question.
How did you find all those Bond girls!?
(Laughs) Well, a lot of the people there were varying
ways to locate them. Some people I might have already had
contact with them, sometimes people called up Eon Productions
and asked about the project, and a lot of it is just going
through the normal channels to set up an interview. David
Naylor was mainly in charge of setting up interviews for
the first and second wave, and some of it on the third wave,
for which we also worked with our associate producer Lisa
Karadjian who also did a lot of the setups. So you just
find the people, you find their management, call them and
ask them if they would be willing to sit down for an interview.
And a lot of these people were just incredibly generous
with their time.
Were there any people you really wanted but couldn't
get?
Oh, yes, there were many people we wanted but couldn't
get. We really wanted to interview Diana Rigg tremendously
(who played Bond's one and only wife in On Her Majesty's
Secret Service), but she at that point and time just had
scheduling conflicts or just didn't want to. But we never
found out all the details. She's an actress I would have
loved to sat down and talked with, as anyone who appreciates
good acting would have as well.
And there were a number of other people we just couldn't
get. Timothy Dalton didn't want to sit down and do an interview
with us. We certainly made the offer to him.
And Sean Connery as well, I'm sure.
Yes, with Sean Connery, we didn't get any new interview
footage. For Connery, the problem really is, and I'm sure
it is the same with Dalton, every time he does a project
and he goes on a publicity interview, the questions constantly
come back to Bond. "What do you think about Timothy
Dalton, what do you think about Pierce Brosnan?" And
you know, he has to answer them, because he's publicizing
his new movie. So it is tough on him in that way.
It is also no secret that Connery never felt like he got
paid quite enough for Bond and made as much money off of
it as he deserved. And I'm certainly not one to judge that
one way or another, but I think it makes it harder for him
to want to get up there and continue to publicize something
(like the Bond DVDs) that he sees is going to make a lot
of money for other people and not so much money for him.
But that may not be the case and that may not be the reasons
we were turned down for our interview requests, and I'm
certainly not trying to prejudge the situation.
I think I speak for most fans when I say we really
loved having Patrick Macnee narrate the documentaries. And
why didn't he narrate the "Inside A View To A Kill"
documentary? (Laughs)
Hey, you can't have Patrick Macnee say "And then
Roger Moore got to act with a longtime friend..." and
they you cut to Patrick Macnee! (Laughs) That would just
be too weird. Really, he is a wonderful, wonderful man.
Basically, when we were doing the laserdisc documentaries
back in 1995, I went and asked Barbara Broccoli directly,
and went "Listen, we have got to find someone who can
narrate these things." And we thought about trying
to get a woman with a British accent, who has sort of a
sexy intonation to her voice and everything. But we had
to find someone who was based in Southern California (for
production reasons), and Barbara said "Why not Patrick
Macnee?" And it was like "Perfect!" Absolutely
perfect. But how do we approach him? And Barbara just says
to her assistant "What's Patrick's number?" (Laughs)
And about five minutes later, Patrick Macnee had agreed
to do the narration on Goldfinger and Thunderball.
So when it came time to do the DVDs, we just called him
back up said we would love for him to continue to work on
these. And he was always game for it and always gave us
everything we needed. But on the third wave, we had to do
some recording (with Patrick) in places I normally wouldn't
really want to do any recording in. There just weren't the
best recording facilities available to us, but yet he never
complained one iota. And sometimes we had to keep coming
back and re-recording certain narration bits not because
of any problem on his part, but because something would
happen technically that would make his narration unusable.
But he was always willing to give us the retakes and take
the time to do that. I just can't say enough about Patrick
Macnee. So to all the other DVD producers out there, if
you need that wonderful talent to narrate your project,
call up Patrick because he does a great job.
So, what were the budgets on these things?
(Laughs) You'll have to go to MGM for that. But I will
say that like the Bond films themselves, to put the money
up on the screen and make sure it showed that we had done
the work. We wanted to make sure it showed we had done our
research, that we had gotten that one extra person, even
if they were only in there for one sentence. We really tried
to reach out there and find everyone we could.
What was the most fun about the whole Bond DVD project?
For me, the most fun aspect was just getting the chance
to meet and talk with in-depth so many people's work that
I've admired all of my life. These are films that have given
millions of people millions and millions of hours of enjoyment.
So being able to meet the people and find out the stories
was wonderful. These people's work have really shaped the
way I think about film. For example, Ken Adams is someone
who I think is one of the most remarkable production designers.
Really, everyone we interviewed about Ken Adams would agree
that he was a genius, just a genius. It was the word that
kept coming up, and I really do think he is a genius. He
lives in a wonderful house in West London, right near Harrah's
department store. And the interior of it is just like a
Ken Adams set! It has been so designed and has this wonderful
feel about it. And you're talking about a man who not only
designed the Bond films, but also The Madness Of King George,
who worked with Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove and Barry Lyndon.
So that especially was a real treat, to meet Ken Adam and
his wife and just sit down and have discussion with him.
And so many of the people who work on Bond films, they
just explode with joy talking about the work that they do.
Peter Lamont is another one who just doesn't forget a single
detail of his life. He has this absolutely razor sharp mind.
There is a bit we didn't end up using where he talks about
location scouting for Octopussy, And he remembered in order
every location he went to on this lengthy trip, And it was
great to get someone with that kind of memory give so many
details for the documentaries. And I got to meet so many
people...John Barry. I spent so many hours listening to
his scores, when I've been writing or just cleaning the
house. The emotions that music has brought me through, and
then to be able to sit down for the two different interviews
we were able to do with him about his work was incredible.
So that for me was the highlight of doing this project.
And I'm not someone who goes out of their way to meet celebrities,
but these were people it was a real honor to spend time
with. And they were all, to the last one of them, they just
all couldn't have been better.
Special thanks to John Cork, David Miller,
Stacey Studebaker and all at MGM Home Entertainment. All
images copyright MGM/UA. All rights reserved.
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