I’ve just been contacted by the owner of a new site devoted to Gemma Arterton. I’ve added them to our links sidebar. You might want to take a peek.

MI6 has a great write-up of the new Ultimate Edition Monopoly set that includes a list of all the locations on the game board.

This is all over the Internet. I swear, I go to sleep, I wake up, there’s fifty of these in my inbox:

British rockers DURAN DURAN are planning on teaming up with superproducer MARK RONSON to record a second BOND theme - 23 years after releasing the title track to A VIEW TO A KILL.

The band recently chose Ronson to remix a string of their hit singles and will be performing a one-off gig with Ronson in Paris, France on Wednesday (02Jul08) night.
And keyboardist Nick Rhodes insists they are keen to collaborate with the 32-year-old again - on a theme tune for forthcoming James Bond movie Quantum of Solace.
He says, “We’d love to collaborate with Mark on a single for the next Bond film. With him we may even surpass A View To A Kill.”

Speculation about who will sing the title track to the new 007 movie has been rife - with rumours that Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis and Beyonce Knowles are all being considered for the job.

So, weird things here. First, Nick Rhodes saying he’d like to is not the same as Duran Duran actually being considered. Second, this is Mark Ronson, who also produces Amy Winehouse and seems to have been behind the rumor that she was in the studio recording a Bond song. Third, Winehouse is no longer even rumored to be in consideration, but that’s a small point.

So is it happening? I doubt it. It looks like a way that Ronson is promoting his work; it worked for Winehouse so he’s going back to the well.

Not that I don’t think it’s cool.

That’s the headline of this review of the new Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

WHAT WE LIKE: The outstanding performance comes from great body rigidity. Aston Martin says it uses lightweight alloys, magnesium and advanced composites to keep the weight down. Its handling seems so intuitive when you take twists and turns in the road.
…

EXTRAS: Aston Martins are hand-assembled and finished, and that craftsmanship is quite evident. The quality materials used throughout the interior contribute to the overall richness of the vehicle. Plus, there’s actually an element of practicality in the V8 Vantage, which isn’t a given among sports cars. For instance, there’s a fairly deep storage area under the hatchback. The center console is neatly arranged. The premium audio system is terrific.

…
AND ANOTHER THING: Be prepared to make a few stops at the pump. The Vantage gets 13 mpg city and 20 highway.

…
Price: $143,155 as tested

Well, the next time I have $143,155 lying around…

It is heart-wrenchingly cool.

I love how it refers back to Casino Royale, how it develops real plot; it’s action-oriented and exciting, but we do know what the movie’s about. The scenes with Mr. White thrill me.

The Telegraph interviews Pierce Brosnan in anticipation of the release of Mama Mia! It’s a complex interview, meandering in and out of Brosnan’s personality and insecurities, Bond, musicals, the death of his first wife, and more.

As an adult he has been compared to an expensively elegant yet tightly furled umbrella, and that’s about right. But the unease you notice is also partly to do with the way he talks himself up, partly with his convoluted, overly wrought speech patterns - they are almost stream-of-consciousness at times, with him asking and answering his own questions. It is also to do with his mid-Atlantic voice. It seems self-consciously smooth, whispery and polished, tortured almost, as if he is still a teenage boy trying on various voices to see which one seems the most impressive, rather as schoolchildren try out different signatures before settling on one. There’s an obvious explanation for this: an identity crisis. He’s an Irishman who has taken American citizenship, but has made his name playing a well-spoken Englishman.

Read the whole thing.

The only Bond movie filmed in New York (among other places) is Live and Let Die. This is sad for me, because my beloved home city hosts one of my least favorite Bond films. LALD doesn’t use New York to its true advantage. The city can be so many things; mysterious, exotic, beautiful, dark, terrifying, friendly, welcoming, riotously funny, important, self-important, intimidating, dirty, and an architectural, cultural, artistic, and culinary wonder.

But in LALD it’s mostly the UN Building and the FDR Drive.*

Can I just mention that I hate the FDR Drive? In the many years that I drove frequently in the city, I came to know its every pothole with a kind of aggressive dread—like, yes, you bastard, I’m driving into you. And later, when I centered my life in the suburbs and NYC drives became rare, the ongoing construction, the closed on-ramps, became like a Rubik’s Cube; a puzzle I just could! Not! Solve!

So, not how I want my city showcased.

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Oh, man. Don’t you want Daniel Craig’s trunks?

Phew.

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The COSH Gallery asked artists to create new interpretations of movie posters.

If you’re a film fan, you’ll enjoy looking at them all. For now, take a look at two gorgeous Bond posters created by artist Michael Gillette: