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A nostalgic trip through lost and now found Bond websites

grunthergrunther
edited February 2014 in Bond Movies Posts: 158
In the music section I noticed @oo7 provided a link to the long defunct website: “Bond Smells a Rat” that was hosted on Geocities. The links provided through a web archive that crawls and takes snapshots of billions of web pages.

This got me inspired to look through some of my old (and now dead) Bond bookmarks to see which other sites and highly valuable information I could recover. Here are my findings:

First up is a website linked from BSAR – The John Barry Resource by James Ollinger. Most interesting is an article from 2001 covering the Norman v The Times lawsuit. Although Burlingame’s book covers the ownership fairly satisfactorily, this is the only source that covers the 7 day court case in depth:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070829215411/http://www.jollinger.com/barry/jbarry.htm

One of my old favourites was John Cork’s Ian Fleming Foundation site, now a pale shadow of what it used to be:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070430131306/http://www.ianfleming.org/007news/

They did a great article on the Bond PTS:
http://web.archive.org/web/20051120093203/http://ianfleming.org/mkkbb/guide/teasers/index.shtml

I think most will agree that one of the all time best Bond websites in terms of presentation, quality and information was Red Grant’s www.theartofjamesbond.com the restoration of the posters were amazing. I don’t know why the site closed but portions of it remain:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050217101408/http://www.artofjamesbond.com/

An interesting page here on rankings of past ITV Bond TV showings:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041030162817/http://website.lineone.net/~007bonds/on/itvpast.htm

And a bonus for true nostalgia:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110225121334/http://www.mi6forums.com/

So, has anyone else got any old favourites they can share?
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Comments

  • MrBondMrBond Station S
    Posts: 2,044
    Oh how the old layout of this forum almost brings tears to my eyes. It isn't fault with this current forum, i think it's the best Bond-forum around. But the old forum just had a atmosphere and camaraderie which were indescribably. During my 5 years there i had a lots of fun and i learned a lot!
    Thank you for that trip down the memory lane, @grunther!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,336
    Yes, very nice indeed to see how MI6 looked before. I was not a member here back then, so this is all very much new to me, although I do remember the MI6HQ site back then.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Thanks for those links. Will have a look around later.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    Even some of the posters listed on that site are still here. That's always good to see.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Wow, that was a blast from the past. Bain123, Barryt007, Dimi and Sam were all posting on the old forum, to name a few.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited February 2014 Posts: 13,356
    As were a few other known members back then. I wonder what they're doing with themselves now?
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    yes, i often wonder what happened to sillius, for example
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited February 2014 Posts: 13,356
    He returned once, a couple of years ago, only to leave again. He even published a novel during that time.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Ah. Shame that
  • MrBondMrBond Station S
    Posts: 2,044
    Samuel001 wrote:
    As were a few other known members back then. I wonder what they're doing with themselves now?

    Well, some of them are on BaB. Some on CommanderBond.
    I had contact with some of them on MSN but since that service were shutdown i haven't heard from any of them.. That was a shame. :-S
  • grunthergrunther
    Posts: 158
    I think the majority along with The White Tuxedo are on BaB.
    One member I can't seem to get hold of again is vmsns. Did anyone MSN with him?
    Samuel001 wrote:
    Even some of the posters listed on that site are still here. That's always good to see.
    I don't know if this site was forced to shutdown by someone like MGM but if that's the case its fairly pointless nowadays. Sites are even easier to create, especially the blog style ones. It would be a loosing battle, and lets face it- most people are just trying to share and promote their interest. Not rip-off a copyright. Ultimately its good for them.

    I came across some nice sites over the weekend I've not seen before like illustrated 007 and The James Bond 007 Dossier
    I was in double-o-heaven!
  • grunthergrunther
    Posts: 158
    There a lot of exclusive material on this recovered website dating back to the late 90's:

    http://www.007forever.com/films/

    There's some rare script comparisons from Maibaum's archive and details of things like Per Fine Ounce long before they appeared on MI6.

    Some nice director/actor/producer interviews as well...

    Director John Glen & Producer Michael Wilson:
    Despite the reliance on stunts, Glen finds it strangely amusing that these films can actually shoot key sequences without an actor having been signed for the lead role. He cites a climactic scene in OCTOPUSSY as an example. In this sequence, James Bond is on horseback pursuing a plane taxiing for takeoff. He leaps from the horse to the plane and hangs on for dear life as it soars skyward. It is undoubtedly one of the most stunning sequences ever filmed. We shot that before we commenced main shooting," Glen admitted with a wry smile. "We hadn`t cast James Bond yet, but the favorite was a fellow with black hair, so the double had black hair."

    Pierce Brosnan:
    "I think we`ve kind of got the foundation to do a fourth and maybe a fifth," he continues, referring to events in WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH that point in the direction he would like to go: "Because of his guilt, he lends himself to a particular woman, and then how foolish could he be to let it get out of hand so far?" He adds that he would like to extend the character by "taking all of those sequences one step further. You have a rating on this film, which is PG, which should always be there. But there`s a part of me that would love to do an R-rated Bond, or just take the PG rating off it and do it--not for real, because you want the fantasy--but just to see some surprises and explores facets of the character more."

    Michael Wilson on TWINE:
    THAT LAST LINE OF DIALOGUE WAS A BIT MUCH. WHOSE IDEA WAS IT?
    That was Rob and Neal, the original writers on it. We`ve always pushed a bit. At the very end of the film, we kind of pushed a bit, for the teenagers. We`re family films, and you`ve got to have something for everybody in the family.

    HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT SELECTING COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS FOR THE THEME SONG?
    We`ve had a lot of different forces acting on us in the music area over the years. We have a view, Barbara [Broccoli, Wilson`s sister] and I, that we should have the composer do the theme song, the title song, because the theme will be integrated throughout the score of the film. The lyric may be done by the performer or some other guy. We feel ballads by female singers probably work the best in the Bond films, so we aim for that.

    ANY CHANCE OF BRINGING BACK SPECTRE OR BLOFELD?

    Well, with Spectre and Blofeld, the last film we did was DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER in 1971. When I talk about not looking backwards, that is looking backwards. We`ve kind of moved beyond that.

    WELL, HE WAS IN FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

    The guy down the chimney? [laughs and quickly takes a question from another journalist]

    Brosnan-era Screenwriters - Feirstein, France, Wilson...
    One person not entirely pleased with the final results was Bruce Feirstein. "I personally did not want all of the running and shooting in the film," he says. "I had a different kind of conception for the character of Eliot Carver. I wanted him to be much more like Goldfinger. I have a background in journalism, where I have at one time or another worked for all the moguls. I didn`t see this as being a character who was surrounded by eighteen guys in black camo-gear, carrying uzis or whatever. I saw him as a guy being surrounded by eighteen guys with briefcases. That was lost. At the box office, obviously I was wrong. Michael Wilson and I had long conversations about this. Michael has very firm beliefs that this is why people go to see these movies. We have tremendously funny arguments where I would say to Michael, `You basically believe that in the basement of every building in the world there are eighteen guys in camo-gear waiting to spring.` In the end, TOMORROW NEVER DIES did $350 million worldwide. When I went to work on THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, Michael and I had this very conversation where he said, `You see, I was right.` And the truth is, the numbers are on his side."
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited March 2014 Posts: 18,336
    grunther wrote:
    There a lot of exclusive material on this recovered website dating back to the late 90's:

    http://www.007forever.com/films/

    There's some rare script comparisons from Maibaum's archive and details of things like Per Fine Ounce long before they appeared on MI6.

    Some nice director/actor/producer interviews as well...

    Director John Glen & Producer Michael Wilson:
    Despite the reliance on stunts, Glen finds it strangely amusing that these films can actually shoot key sequences without an actor having been signed for the lead role. He cites a climactic scene in OCTOPUSSY as an example. In this sequence, James Bond is on horseback pursuing a plane taxiing for takeoff. He leaps from the horse to the plane and hangs on for dear life as it soars skyward. It is undoubtedly one of the most stunning sequences ever filmed. We shot that before we commenced main shooting," Glen admitted with a wry smile. "We hadn`t cast James Bond yet, but the favorite was a fellow with black hair, so the double had black hair."

    Pierce Brosnan:
    "I think we`ve kind of got the foundation to do a fourth and maybe a fifth," he continues, referring to events in WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH that point in the direction he would like to go: "Because of his guilt, he lends himself to a particular woman, and then how foolish could he be to let it get out of hand so far?" He adds that he would like to extend the character by "taking all of those sequences one step further. You have a rating on this film, which is PG, which should always be there. But there`s a part of me that would love to do an R-rated Bond, or just take the PG rating off it and do it--not for real, because you want the fantasy--but just to see some surprises and explores facets of the character more."

    Michael Wilson on TWINE:
    THAT LAST LINE OF DIALOGUE WAS A BIT MUCH. WHOSE IDEA WAS IT?
    That was Rob and Neal, the original writers on it. We`ve always pushed a bit. At the very end of the film, we kind of pushed a bit, for the teenagers. We`re family films, and you`ve got to have something for everybody in the family.

    HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT SELECTING COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS FOR THE THEME SONG?
    We`ve had a lot of different forces acting on us in the music area over the years. We have a view, Barbara [Broccoli, Wilson`s sister] and I, that we should have the composer do the theme song, the title song, because the theme will be integrated throughout the score of the film. The lyric may be done by the performer or some other guy. We feel ballads by female singers probably work the best in the Bond films, so we aim for that.

    ANY CHANCE OF BRINGING BACK SPECTRE OR BLOFELD?

    Well, with Spectre and Blofeld, the last film we did was DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER in 1971. When I talk about not looking backwards, that is looking backwards. We`ve kind of moved beyond that.

    WELL, HE WAS IN FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

    The guy down the chimney? [laughs and quickly takes a question from another journalist]

    Brosnan-era Screenwriters - Feirstein, France, Wilson...
    One person not entirely pleased with the final results was Bruce Feirstein. "I personally did not want all of the running and shooting in the film," he says. "I had a different kind of conception for the character of Eliot Carver. I wanted him to be much more like Goldfinger. I have a background in journalism, where I have at one time or another worked for all the moguls. I didn`t see this as being a character who was surrounded by eighteen guys in black camo-gear, carrying uzis or whatever. I saw him as a guy being surrounded by eighteen guys with briefcases. That was lost. At the box office, obviously I was wrong. Michael Wilson and I had long conversations about this. Michael has very firm beliefs that this is why people go to see these movies. We have tremendously funny arguments where I would say to Michael, `You basically believe that in the basement of every building in the world there are eighteen guys in camo-gear waiting to spring.` In the end, TOMORROW NEVER DIES did $350 million worldwide. When I went to work on THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, Michael and I had this very conversation where he said, `You see, I was right.` And the truth is, the numbers are on his side."

    Gosh, thank you so much for reuniting me with that site, @grunther! I used to spend many an hour looking through that site in 2001/2002. Great to see it and indeed read the articles again.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited March 2014 Posts: 13,356
    Michael Wilson has changed his view over time on villains it seems. Now, we want more. Carver was just not good enough.

    Great site and quotes, thanks.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited March 2014 Posts: 12,480
    Really appreciate sharing these quotes and the sites. Thanks! It is interesting to read. :)
    And I wonder if Newman was told this part directly or not:

    HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT SELECTING COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS FOR THE THEME SONG?
    We've had a lot of different forces acting on us in the music area over the years. We have a view, Barbara [Broccoli, Wilson`s sister] and I, that we should have the composer do the theme song, the title song, because the theme will be integrated throughout the score of the film. The lyric may be done by the performer or some other guy. We feel ballads by female singers probably work the best in the Bond films, so we aim for that.

    Perhaps because Newman did not write any part of the theme song, he did not want to incorporate it into the score. But it does need to be there; that is a "Bond" film.
  • JamesBondBlogJamesBondBlog
    Posts: 19
    Was anyone here on the old Alt.fan.James-bond Usenet group? I remember hanging there in the late 90's. Only guy I remember was a bloke with the handle of Rhino.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,336
    JamesBondBlog wrote:
    Was anyone here on the old Alt.fan.James-bond Usenet group? I remember hanging there in the late 90's. Only guy I remember was a bloke with the handle of Rhino.

    Yes, I remember reading over it, and I do remember Rhino too! There was another guy called Dragonpol on it, but it wasn't me!
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    I visit this one quite often:
    http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/

    Sometimes they even break stuff before MI6 gets to it, surprisingly.
  • grunthergrunther
    Posts: 158
    Nice link. I like the fact they are covering Man from UNCLE as well.

    @4EverBonded I don't know why at the very least they can't arrange for the composer to work on the song with artist and co-write with them or their producers as John Barry did in the mid-80's. A lot of the time when studio execs have got involved the artist has been signed too late and the composer has already written a large amount of the score. I think George Martin might be the only one that took the theme song and integrated it into the score.
    As the theme songs become more important for marketing and as studios have their own music supervisors, there seems to be a view that if past songs did not perform in the charts, they would take control for the next one.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    I think Hamlish included Nobody Does It Better well in TSWLM; oh wait, he wrote, it, though, didn't he? I am rather tired just now. I-)

    Too many people are involved in the process now for it to go smoothly, it seems.
  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    Anyone knows whatever happened to Drummond Grieve's, aka Blofeld's Cat, funny websute about OHMSS and the Bontles (or something like that?)
  • grunthergrunther
    edited March 2014 Posts: 158
    I think I know the one you mean, I found it through the archive site recently but it was only the first couple of pages- nice graphics. I can't remember what the link was though

    -here, found it through my Never Say McClory Again bookmark!
    http://www.ohmss-007.com/
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited March 2014 Posts: 18,336
    bigladiesman wrote:
    Anyone knows whatever happened to Drummond Grieve's, aka Blofeld's Cat, funny websute about OHMSS and the Bontles (or something like that?)

    Is that he formerly of CBn Forums (Blofeld's Cat)?
  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    grunther wrote:
    I think I know the one you mean, I found it through the archive site recently but it was only the first couple of pages- nice graphics. I can't remember what the link was though

    -here, found it through my Never Say McClory Again bookmark!
    http://www.ohmss-007.com/

    YEEEEES! Thanks!!!
    Dragonpol wrote:
    bigladiesman wrote:
    Anyone knows whatever happened to Drummond Grieve's, aka Blofeld's Cat, funny websute about OHMSS and the Bontles (or something like that?)

    Is that he formerly of CBn Forums (Blofeld's Cat)?

    As far as I recall he was actually active on forums... It's just that I'm not sure about his nick...

  • grunthergrunther
    Posts: 158
    This is impressive - try and spot the author:

    600high.jpg
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    bigladiesman wrote:
    grunther wrote:
    I think I know the one you mean, I found it through the archive site recently but it was only the first couple of pages- nice graphics. I can't remember what the link was though

    -here, found it through my Never Say McClory Again bookmark!
    http://www.ohmss-007.com/

    YEEEEES! Thanks!!!
    Dragonpol wrote:
    bigladiesman wrote:
    Anyone knows whatever happened to Drummond Grieve's, aka Blofeld's Cat, funny websute about OHMSS and the Bontles (or something like that?)

    Is that he formerly of CBn Forums (Blofeld's Cat)?

    As far as I recall he was actually active on forums... It's just that I'm not sure about his nick...

    He was called Blofeld s Cat on CBn as well. Look for him there, have not been there for a long time myself.
  • MayDayDiVicenzoMayDayDiVicenzo Here and there
    Posts: 5,080
    grunther wrote:
    This is impressive - try and spot the author:

    600high.jpg

    Haha, is Mr Fleming the guy in the yellow outfit?!
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 41,007
    That's an awesome image, but while I was scanning it, I honestly thought Hugo Drax was Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie in 'Django Unchained.'
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,541
    Great photo!

    I printed it in the past when I found it, but I'd never save it and it was very difficult to find online!

    Thanks for this treasure from the past!
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    grunther wrote:
    This is impressive - try and spot the author:

    600high.jpg

    That's cool!
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