22 replies to this topic

[doublenoughtspy]

Please take a look at my report from this great event, I can't believe it was a decade ago.

GoldenEye Convention and World Premiere
A Report by Charles Helfenstein

[Turn]

I was just thinking of starting a GoldenEye 10th anniversary thread. Thankfully, you had a better angle, Charles. I remember getting a flyer for that Bond event at that time. I really wanted to go, but had no way of scrapping together any kind of plan to get to it.

Regardless of GE not being one of my favorite Bonds, I think most fans can look back with good memories of FINALLY getting another Bond film after 6 long years. Suddenly, there were all types of news articles, magazines TV shows and reports and other media attention focused on 007 again.

I remember going to a book store and spending $30-40 on out-of-town Sunday newspapers with Bond stories as well as the Empire Magazine Bond special a few days before the film came out. Christmas was also fun that year with a lot of Bond stuff under the tree.

As much fun as that time was, I'm hoping for deja vu all over again a year from now.

[Qwerty]

Great article Charles, and happy 10th GoldenEye! Must have been a blast to attend this.

And just so CBn readers know, this is the first of a few planned articles we've put together celebrating 10 years of a great 007 film.

[TheSaint]

Another excellent report-of course, I might be biased since some of my photos were used in the article.

God, the lobby of the Hudson Theatre(next door to the Millenium Hotel), where the con was held, was way too small an area to hold a convention. What was Creation thinking, especially when you consider the space they booked in L.A. for their 1st Bond con? Still, a good time was had by all, and it was very cool to be able to hand to Pierce the original art to the centerspread of the Brosnan comic bio Charles & I did, and to hear him say how good the likeness was.

With the possible exception of the BCW's, it's a shame that there hasn't been an actual Bond convention since this one. I wonder what the chances of something like a combined world premiere and convention occuring in November 2006.

[Donovan]

Good recollections. I remember Desmond was in character as Q when he got on stage. He addressed the audience by saying, "now I want you to pay *particular* attention: we've had a Scottish Bond, an Australian Bond, an English Bond, and a Welsh Bond..." (he didn't forget Lazenby). When Pierce got up on stage, he introduced the cast and Martin Campbell, whom he described as the loudest director he's ever worked for, and the entire cast all smiled and nodded. When Campbell spoke, he joked that looking at this packed house he hoped there would still be people out there left who want to see the film.

During the convention itself Pierce was very gracious, and funny, in answering questions from the audience. I sat behind John Cork, who was shaking his head in embarrasment at some of the goofier ones like this one guy who asked Brosnan about Saturday Night Live and if he thought that show would survive. Another guy who I used to know from alt.fan.james-bond, Kees Boer, had this pamphlet that he was handing out to everyone comparing Bond with religion, specifically Christ. He asked Pierce if he could hand him one, calling it a poem or something. "Sure, let's see it." Brosnan starts reading it, and says, "This isn't a poem, man, it's a mini-series!" On the stage there was a cardboard standee of Brosnan as Bond. Someone asked him about shooting the gunbarrel, and he explained that they tried it once, but it wasn't working. He needed his director (Campbell) and they reshot it. In explaining this he backed into that cardboard display and jumped, saying, "I just got goosed by my campaign!" He described his long road to Bond ("It was in my life, then it was out of my life, then it was back in") and getting the call from his agent ("Congratulations, Mr. Bond!").

"GoldenEye" is the only Bond film I actually got to see three times before it was out (local film critic's screening, world premiere, and a screening sponsored by BMW---this all helped make up for the lost time of six years without a Bond film). By the time of the premiere, I had seen it once. I told Campbell, Wilson, and Broccoli how much I liked it. Campbell was the most interested, it was like I was complimenting one of his kids. Barbara Broccoli seemed surprised anyone recognized her. I congratulated her on becoming a full producer and told her this one would take in more than $100 mil. in the US.

During the film, people applauded during the gunbarrel and when Albert R. Broccoli's credit came up. I remember seeing someone in the audience petting a stuffed white cat. Occasionally, some fool would try to take a flash picture of the film as it was playing. After the film, I too was at Sardi's. I talked with Raymond Benson about the movie for a bit and others who I had met earlier at the convention. But it was all a very good time. This and the '94 convention a year earlier were certainly a lot of fun for Bond fans.

I heard Creation lost a lot of money on both conventions. Probably why we haven't seen any lately.

http://home.comcast..../convention.jpg

[jaguar007]

What great memories. I probably met many of you who attended the convention in 1995. Charles, I certainly remember some conversations with you (I published a small fanzine at that time called HMSS). Now I will have to go and pull out all the old pictures. The best part was meeting so many people who I knew on alt. fan.james-bond before it became nothing more than a stomping ground for trolls. Lets hope someone does something similar for Casino Royale next year.

-Fred Armstrong

[Mr. Somerset]

Great article. It is hard for me to believe GE was ten whole years ago. To me it was easily the best Brosnan Bond film, though if asked at the time, I'd have ranked it somewhere in the series' middle.
I still have my issue of Empire Magazine, GoldenEye film mag, and other related magazines.

[Genrewriter]

Great article, Charles. Very cool.

[ACE]

What a wonderful article, DoubleNoughtSpy!

Fascinating stuff. I have heard a lot about that time but this was the best thing I've read about it.

Good timing too! This date next year...

Wonderful stuff, Charles.

ACE

[stromberg]

Great piece

Expected nothing less of you

[Gabe Vieira]

GREAT aritcle, Chucky.

And a happy Tenth to GoldenEye.

[zencat]

Great article, doublenoughtspy. What a terrific event and memories and how great that's all connected with a film that I now view as one of the "classics." I regret more than ever not attending this, but I was a penniless struggling screenwriter in those days.

Happy 10th Anniversary, GoldenEye. This is a milestone really worth celebrating.

[doublenoughtspy]

Thanks everyone. This one was a real pleasure to write, it just came out even better than I had hoped.

I thought it was pretty wild that I helped the two main writers of Goldeneye track down Bond parodies they were looking for.

Donovan, I remember the Kees pamphlet incident too. That was quite painful. The fan asking about the next film title was so typical of Bond fandom - GoldenEye hadn't even been released yet and we were already wondering about the next one.

Yes, Creation really did not understand the Bond license. A friend was in a consulting meeting with them and warned them that this was not Star Trek. They couldn't just slap a 007 logo on things and expect them to sell.

And what did Creation do? They slapped a 007 logo on mugs, t-shirts, hats, leather jackets, etc., and ended up with a warehouse full of it because it didn't sell.

I had a great time at both their LA Convention in 94, and the NY one in 95 - but they didn't really have a good marketing plan in either case.

The fiasco with Roger Moore for LA was the worst: promoting his name before he ever said yes - even up til the end after he said no.

And even if they had gotten him - "Come celebrate the 30th anniversary of Goldfinger...with Roger Moore" Huh?

[B007GLE]

I was at that premiere at Radio City Music Hall as well. It was one of the best if not THE BEST movie going night of my life.

To walk into that oppulent theater and hear an honest to god orchestra playing Thunderball and then seeing all those great Bond people on the stage, realizing that my seats were in row Q!

My wife and I were supposed to go with this other couple who could not make it. So another couple joined us, Jim and Daria. Well three films later and Jim and Daria and Mary and I always see the Bond film on opening night together. And each time we still talk about the opening of Goldeneye.

[onthetracksof007]

Great article, Charles

Must have been a great weekend in NY!

[Donovan]

The fiasco with Roger Moore for LA was the worst: promoting his name before he ever said yes - even up til the end after he said no.

And even if they had gotten him - "Come celebrate the 30th anniversary of Goldfinger...with Roger Moore"  Huh?

Instead, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Goldfinger with...George Lazenby. Actually, seeing THE DB5 before she went M.I.A. was cool.

[TheSaint]

Maybe, with some gentle prodding, we can get Doublenought to write a report on the '94 Creation Bond con that ALMOST featured Roger, but did feature George, Richard Kiel, Lynn Holly Johnson, Martine Beswick, Gloria Hendry, Bruce Glover, John Stears, Peter Hunt(I think), and Bill Conti.

[jaguar007]

Yes Peter Hunt was there. I will try to dig up some pictures from both the 94 and the 95 conventions and put them online and post a link. Both were great fun.
-Fred Armstrong (for anyone who I may know from these conventions but don't know by our CBN alais)

[bonded56]

The crowded 1995 convention was definitely nothing like the 1994 convention in LA. Also, the hotel room was half as big and cost twice as much as the LA convention. But, there were bright spots. Seeing the stars/director and others talking of GOLDENEYE and answering questions. Isabella Scorupco looked very nice with her blonde hair. I rember she spoke of singing in the shower. I asked my wife if I could go up to the microphone and ask Izzy if I could sing a duet with her one day in the shower. My wife said go ahead, but she had that look that if I did, I may live to regret it.

We had seats in the front left area of Radio City Music Hall for the premiere, which were great to see the stars talk before the movie, but were terrible for viewing the movie and hearing all the sound.

I also remember that Saks 5th Avenue had a display in the windows from many (if not all) of the Bond movies/books. There was one for Casino Royale which was covered up the next day. I assumed some EON people had seen it and commented that they didn't want it shown as they hadn't the rights to the movie. Now, 10 years later they are about to begin filming it.

We brought a camcorder with us and my one regret is not getting any footage of Desmond Llewelyn at the convention. The person who was selling the replicas of Bond movie props (T'Ball rebreather, Golden Gun etc.) had Desmond at his dealer table promoting the replicas. I heard the man say he had flown Desmond over here and was hoping to do a commercial with him for the props. There was a sign on the table not to ask Desmond for his autograph. I did get a photo with him, although it turned out dark. Years later when TND came out, I bought a box of the TND trading cards. In it was the randomly inserted card to send in for a Bond star autograph--Desmond Llewelyn. I e-mailed back and forth with the manufacturer to find out if it was available since Desmond had recently passed away. They told me that the cards had been signed and that his agent would be going to collect them. I received it a few weeks later.

[TheSaint]

Good recollections. I remember Desmond was in character as Q when he got on stage. He addressed the audience by saying, "now I want you to pay *particular* attention: we've had a Scottish Bond, an Australian Bond, an English Bond, and a Welsh Bond..." (he didn't forget Lazenby).

Actually, he did forget Lazenby. I remember he said "We've had a scottish Bond, an English Bond, a Welsh Bond, and now an Irish Bond." I was tempted to yell out "What about the Australian Bond!?" but, seeing as how this was the first world premiere I had ever attended, I didn't want to be escorted out by security.

[Napoleon Solo]

Yes Peter Hunt was there. I will try to dig up some pictures from both the 94 and the 95 conventions and put them online and post a link. Both were great fun.
-Fred Armstrong (for anyone who I may know from these conventions but don't know by our CBN alais)

Mr. Hunt showed some clips from Dr. No, then asked the audience what flaws they might have spotted. When they didn't find any, he pointed out a few (it was the sequence where "Mr. Jones" is driving Bond from the airport). He talked about how proud people are they can spot errors by rewatching movies over and over on VCRs (this was 1994, afterall), and how it was his job to make those mistakes as invisible as possible.

[Kees Boer]

Donovan, I remember the Kees pamphlet incident too. That was quite painful.

It never hurt me... You can actually see a copy of the stuff in the pamphlet at:

http://www.integrity...net/icabout.htm

Later on, I actually did an interview with Pierce Brosnan. Nice guy!!!

You can read that at: http://www.positive-entertainment.com under celebrity interviews.

Great memories indeed!

Kees

Another guy who I used to know from alt.fan.james-bond, Kees Boer, had this pamphlet that he was handing out to everyone comparing Bond with religion, specifically Christ. He asked Pierce if he could hand him one, calling it a poem or something. "Sure, let's see it." Brosnan starts reading it, and says, "This isn't a poem, man, it's a mini-series!"

Hi, Donovan! I don't remember ever calling it a poem. There was another guy, who gave something like that to Pierce. You can actually read the text of the pamphlet at http://www.integrity...net/icabout.htm It's got a picture of me and Desmond Llewelyn at that event too. He was very gracious.

Kees

[sharpshooter]

Happy 12th anniversary GoldenEye. A milestone worth shouting about.

I will be celebrating this with happiness and also a tinge of sadness. I will watch the film and later a play of the N64 game for some nostalgia. What the perfect combination, the great film and game that defined the FPS genre.

The movie soundtrack will be playing also in the background, a soundtrack that has taken criticism for it being so different. I like it because of that, it stands out and is unique to itself, fitting the mood of the film perfectly!

I am pleased people are now viewing the film as a Bond classic now. It is an unique and still truly Bondian ride with great moments.

Edited by sharpshooter, 08 July 2007 - 10:45 AM.