Tomorrow Never Dies (James Bond 18)

Genre: Action/Adventure.

Studio: MGM/UA.
Production Company: Danjaq Inc./United Artists.

Project Phase: In the Can.

Who's In It: Pierce Brosnan (James Bond, Agent 007); Michelle Khan (Wai Lin); Jonathan Pryce (Elliot Carver); Teri Hatcher (Paris Carver); Vincent Schiavelli (Dr. Kaufman); Daphne Deckers; Judith Dench (M); Desmond Lewellyn (Q); Samanthan Bond (Miss Moneypenny); Götz Otto (Stamper); Christopher Bowen (Commander Day); Michael Byrne (Admiral Kelly); Julian Fellowes (Minister of Defense); Geoffrey Palmer (Admiral Roebuck); Terence Rigby (General Bukarin); Colin Salmon (Robinson); Cecile Thomsen (Professor Inga Bergstrom); Nina Young (Tamara Kelly).
Who's Making It: Roger Spottiswoode (Director); Bruce Feirstein (Screenwriter); Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Brocolli (Producers); Robert Elswit (Director of Photography); Dominique Fortin, Michel Arcand (Editors); Allan Cameron (Production Designer); David Arnold (Musical Score).

Premise: A billionaire plans to use his far-reaching media empire to play-up international tensions - all for the sake of profit. The Chinese take-over of Hong Kong may play an important part in the storyline. Further details to come.

Release Date: December 19, 1997.

Comments: Once you've finished reading up on the rumors, pass the Tylenol.

Developments:

March 10, 1997... Finally, it's official. The title for the new Bond film is officially annouced: Tomorrow Never Dies.

June 27, 1996... Albert "Cubby" Broccolli passes away in his home in California. He was 87.

Rumors: See Scoop Feedback and take the day off work.

Scoop Feedback:

March 10, 1997... Tomorrow Never Dies is now officially the name of the eighteenth James Bond film. After much speculation, rumor and a torrent of Internet lies (of which we share no small measure), MGM finally cleared the air and announced the name of James' new romp, along with a tiny amount of plot detail to keep Bond fans sated for a while longer. As quoted from MGM's official press release:

""Tomorrow Never Dies is a high octane tale of media power as a lethal weapon. In the wrong hands, it can manufacture the news and even alter the course of history-- a fact not lost on one dangerously powerful man who controls a global daily newspaper and satellite systems able to access every television set on earth. In his mind, the Gulf Conflict was remarkable only for its network ratings surge...and triggering off World War III seems the next logical progression. It all starts quietly enough for James Bond during a routine assignment high in the Khyber Pass--and ends with an international confrontation of epic proportions."

Filming occurs in Malaysia (Kuala Lampur), Florida, Southeast Asia and various European locales beginning April 1. The Vietnamese government has reportedly denied filming permits for the production, forcing them to look elsewhere. And just think: it took all that hypertext above just to get to this point. [Scoops handed in by (deep breath...): 'B.O.', 'Tekton', 'gka001', Joe Hanna, Nick Corporon, 'bz652', Gavin, '221B Baker Street', 'keiko8', 'collin', 'cjust', Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, 'Lord Fnord', and many anonymous individuals.]

Although we don't really offer comments on the titles of films, because of this projects unusual process leading up to the official title annoucement, we offer a comment from one scooper who was among the first to file us their scoop:

"As reported literally a few minutes ago on the British film programme Film 97 - the title of the new Bond movie will be Tomorrow Never Dies. If they've told Barry Norman (the presenter of the show for about 20 years now) this should be pretty much a safe bet for the title. However, as he said himself 'I think I preferred "Bond 18" better.'" [Sent in by Gavin.]

And Danish Model Tina Kjaer is rumored to be the other Bond girl. [Scoop sent in by 'gka001'.]

April 17-20, 1997... We finally get around to reporting that Teri Hatcher, a graduate of Fremont High School in the lovely town of Sunnyvale, California, has been cast in the role of Pryce's wife (Teri took awhile returning our calls - y'know how it is.) She'll be hiding a secret from her hubby: she shares a former 'secret history' with Agent 007. Whether that history is as an ex-lover or filling in as the fourth player for James' weekly Bridge game, Teri wasn't at liberty to say to us. [Scoops sent in by 'H.B.', Todd Dupler, 'Sefster', 'dspry', 'Mysterio', L. W. Miller, 'sting', 'Josh the Sandman', 'LB2000', Scott, fellow Fremont High grad 'Sylvester', 'emschmel', 'coffelt', 'buffs', Christian, 'taggart', 'jkaminski', 'wax ecstatic', 'Sancho', 'MacReady', 'rdw75wu', 'frankie', 'sssandy', 'Meglar', 'Herbie3118', 'jlee', Kate, 'widgett', 'Player1327', Jeffrey A. Peterson, Tony Hane, Humphrey C. Earwicker and pretty much the rest of the free world who have access to the Internet. MGM, take note: people are looking forward to this film.]

The techno-dance-metal group Moby may be writing the theme song. [Scoop filed by 'widgett' and 'rdw75wu'.]

This scooper heard that Hatcher's character is named Paris. [Reported by 'Meglar'.]

May 20, 1997... 'Mysterio' tells us that the villain's name is Elliot Carver, and his wife being Paris Carver. Also, they've heard Joe Don Baker will return as CIA Agent Jack Wade. [Scoop tucked in our inbox by 'Mysterio'.]

May 24, 1997... While watching a TV show called Veronica's Film & Video, this CA reader from Holland saw an interview with Jonathan Pryce. In the article Pryce mentioned that the actress playing his right hand secretary is none other then Daphne Deckers. Faster than you can ask 'Daphne who?', the scooper gave us the answer. Ms. Deckers, is the 27-year old Dutch blonde model and girlfriend of Wimbledon '96 champion Richard Krajicek. [Scoop filed anonymously.]

We've also been hearing rumors that there are two other supporting female roles cast. Some individuals claim that Danish model Cecilie Thomsen (who is also the girlfriend of rocker Bryan Adams) in in the pictur. 'Duck' reports that Cecilie's character, who replaced actress Tina Kjaer, will be a Scandinavean professor who actually teach Bond a few words of Danish in the movie. Also, Black Adder star Nina Young is reported to play Pryce's evil assistant. [Scoops by 'Duck', Nikhil Soneja and 'frankie'.]

"I've read about another Bond girl from Germany. Her name is Antje Schmidt, she plays a clerk at a car rental." [Scoop sent in by 'leeloo'.]

When you watch Bond buy a newspaper at Hamburg Airport (in Germany), look for producer Michael Wilson's cameo as the paper vendor. The paper, the Tomorrow and its headline 'British Fleet threatend by China', belongs to Pryce. Brosnan is coming back in summer to Hamburg for additional scenes. [Sent in by 'gustav'.]

May 27, 1997... "Roger Spottiswoode is reportedly battling cost-overruns, producers, writer Bruce Fierstein and stars Jonathan Pryce, Terri Hatcher and even 007 himself, Pierce Brosnan. The film is already about $20 million over-budget putting it into the $100 million range with at least a month to go. The producers are understandably upset about this. However, Spottiswoode is already mad at them for hiring Teri Hatcher against his objections. This has obviously caused some friction between the leading lady and the director. But that's nothing compared to what happened when the Broccolis re-hired Bruce Fierstein for a final re-write. Spottiswoode was so livid that he refuses to work with or speak with the writer. While all this is going on, Brosnan and Pryce are complaining to the studio about Spottingwoode's 'incisiveness'. They're tired of coming to the set at 6:30 in the morning to sit around waiting for Spottiswoode to yell action; which doesn't happen until mid-afternoon some days. Sound like a fun set doesn't it?" [Report sent in by Diane; originally appeared in Liz Smith's column and Variety.]

June 17, 1997... Entertainment Tonight runs a teaser of the film's trailer.

In addition to his scoring duties for the film, composer David Arnold is producing a extremely cool soundtrack album of all things Bond. Arnold has lined up modern bands to perform new treatments classic 007 theme songs, such as: a Bjork rendition of You Only Live Twice; Pulp doing All Time High; Aimee Mann giving a psychedelic touch to Nobody Does it Better; and Iggy Pop siging All the Time in the World. He's also lined up The Cardigans to do From Russia with Love and Chrissie Hynde to sing Live and Let Die. Arnold notes that the songs may sound utterly different from the original versions, but that "they're done with love and care." The album should be out sometime this fall. [Ace reporting done by Diane, who's our secret agent.]

And it's confirmed that Sheryl Crow will sing the lead track for the film. [Sent in by Joe Hanna and anonymously.]

October 21, 1997... Some British reports indicate that MGM executives are very pleased with the film. Those privy to early test screenings say the film is spectacular. [Credited to 'Zarathustra'.]

October 26, 1997... The new album by Moby, I Like to Score, is made up of his previously released songs, redone songs, and new songs used in various movies - which just happens to include his 'reversion' of the James Bond Theme. The liner notes list it as "inspired by" Tomorrow Never Dies. Whether it will actually be used in the film or not is a different story, but our scooper tells us it's still a "cool version nonetheless..." [Field communicae transmitted by 'Widgett'.]

October 28, 1997... This scooper has told us they've read the shooting copy of the script. Since we haven't read it, we don't know if the scooper is telling us the truth or not - but nevertheless, we're going to post the plot summation they provided. Well, almost all of the plot - the scooper didn't want to ruin the show's ending for him/herself either, so they stopped reading two-thirds of the way through the script. Therefore, we wish to give fair warning: people wishing to not have the storyline (possibly) blown for them should skip the next few paragraphs.

BEGIN SPOILER ALERT!

"My roommate is an intern at a production company on the Paramount lot, and part of his job is covering scripts. This gives him access to their script library, which is full of released and even soon to be released films. They get a lot of scripts for other studios' projects, which they keep for a while, then junk. Since it's not their project, they let my roommate keep copies of the other studios' scripts occasionally, and he brings them home and shares them with me. One of those scripts was the shooting script for Tomorrow Never Dies.

"I read only the beginning and a bit of the middle (I didn't want to ruin too much). The opening sequence was interesting, with M and some other bigwigs watching an arms deal in Iraq on a surveillance camera, being aimed by an agent referred to as 'White Knight' ('Black Rook' is the name of his counterpart in M's office). They decide to take out the airfield in a missile strike. Some of the bigwigs express concern about neighboring Khurdish villages, but supposedly the nearest one is two miles away, so there's little danger. Then 'White Knight' pans his videocamera down to one of the fighter jets being sold. There's a gasp from the bigwigs...it's a nuke. 'White Knight' springs into action, and we find out that 'Knight' is in fact James Bond (big surprise, right?) He manages to fight his way to the cockpit of the plane, removes the pilot, knocks out the copilot, and takes off right as the missiles are descending. His plane escapes, but just barely. (If you've seen the trailer, the last shot of the plane escaping the inferno is likely from this part of the opening.) But lo, another MiG managed to escape, and he's coming after Bond. Bond moves his plane underneath his pursuer (who is clueless, of course). Then the copilot in Bond's jet wakes up, and begins grappling with him. Bond hits a button marked 'co-pilot ejection', and the copilot is sent flying. He flies right up through the enemy plane, crashing into the cockpit, right into the co-pilot chair, of course. After that I couldn't tell you, because the copy of the script I read was missing page twelve (on which the opening sequence ends).

"I read on for a bit more, just far enough to see the main plot begin to open up. Apparently a British warship wanders off-course, into Chinese waters. It's attacked, and goes down. The survivors of the British ship are packed into a lifeboat, when something mysterious shows up...a stealth boat!!! (oooh...) The main henchman, I forget his name, sprays the sailors with machine gun fire. Slaughters them all. Then we go back to London, where M is telling the Minister of Defense that they should form an investigative committee with the Chinese to find out wht happened. This is a very controversial suggestion, it seems, and puts her job in danger. Bond has been called away from a liason with a blond professor (possibly german or swedish, I don't recall). He shows up, and we find out about a certain encoding device which is used to control navigation satellites. There are only a certain number of these, but we find out that one was missing in some explosion or other. Then we see that one of these same encoding devices was sold at the arms deal that was broken up earlier, and the video shows that it was in the hands of a known 'techno-terrorist', who has connections to the media mogul character played by Jonathon Pryce. Bond is sent to investigate. He gets a remote-control BMW which talks, and then he meets Pryce, Hatcher, and Khan at a party being thrown by Pryce to celebrate the first global newspaper. We find out more of Pryce's character's history -- illegitimate son of an English lord, cast off, raised by poor chinese family, made a fortune, crushed his father's business, yadda yadda yadda). Hatcher's character, it turns out, knew Bond some years ago, Pryce's character is jealous, tries to have Bond killed (surprise). Khan's character is another government agent, I think working for the Chinese (I didn't get far enough in the script to find out). They team up when Pryce's thugs try to take out Bond, and that's where I stopped reading.

The unoriginality of it all had gotten to me. My impression was that the film will be better than GoldenEye (which I didn't care for), but is a tad bland and cliched." END SPOILER ALERT [Scoop sent in by 'Grendel12357'.]

November 11, 1997... The score is already recorded and will be released on November 25th by A&M records, says this person who's company has already received a demo tape from the record label. [Thanks to 'lperriot'.]

November 20, 1997... [Thanks to an anonymous scooper for submitting additional character names.]

Official Web Site: www.tomorrowneverdies.com



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