News round-up (Spare me the Freud)

Hello world, hope these final days of this treacherous 2020 finds you well.

There's been so much more going on that I barely had the time to write here, my only leisure thing lately was watching the original Mission: Impossible series upon recommendation of a friend.I'm about to finish the first season and I have to say I'm enjoying it quite a lot.

Other than that, I finally published The Films of Martin Campbell. You know, this was going to be my first book, but for many reasons I dropped the project and aimed at GoldenEye first which was a more familiar subject. Speaking of which, in a couple of days you'll be able to have in your hands For England, James, another book on that film. This one wasn't planned, but given the importance of GoldenEye's 25th in a year where No Time To Die has been delayed and the lovely memories older Bond fans have of Christmas 1995, I decided to take another shot at my favoruite movie and make a scene-by-scene analysis of it, mostly focusing on the cinematography and editing, which are two areas that define the excellence of this movie to me. Oh, you'll also find some of my drawings replacing copyrighted stills. I think I draw quite well, but in any case, just... please be kind.

A couple of days ago, the great Peter Lamont passed away aged 91. He worked in the James Bond series from 1964 to 2006, acting as a production designer for nine movies including GoldenEye. A huge loss indeed, and I not only lament his death but a couple of things that made his passing more hurtful. First of all, that Warner Bros ignores that he put up Leavesden Studios on earth, turning the abandoned aerodrome/factory into a film studio to make GoldenEye. Leavesden was made for the film, not after the film, as many documentaries and informative books prove. I do really hope they consider naming a studio after Lamont or at least modify the History section on their website, where they mention GoldenEye as if it was just another movie shot there when the studio was up and running.

The second impacts me in a more personal way. A group of scoundrels who love talking in the name of the James Bond fandom have used Lamont's memory to undermine the great task behind The World of GoldenEye: months of research as I was peniless and hungry, weeks of finding alternatives to make the book cover creative without touching copyrighted stuff, and making sure everything was justified enought to clear any doubts of my research. Those who have bought both editions of The World of GoldenEye in English or Spanish certainly know how accurate my research was, and even those who at first thought the book was purely a love-letter to the movie were surprised, seeing how far I reached in comparing a second of screentime to a historical fact like as the failed 1991 coup in the Soviet Union.

These people have used their account to say that Peter Lamont called them weeks before passing away, claiming to be "unhappy" that a book on GoldenEye had false information about the production, offering himself to fix those mistakes in a special number of their publication. Quoting a dialogue from For Your Eyes Only: "Really, have you no respect for the dead?"

I'm going to tell you this is extremely unlikely. First of all, The World of GoldenEye wasn't primarily aimed to the film's production, but to the relation of the film's story itself with the context of the 90s. Most of the chapters deal with subjects such as the Cold War, Betrayal, Technology, Religion, Feminism... only one chapter really covers the movie's making of, and all the information has been taken from reliable sources. When I mean "reliable sources", I mean names like Cork, Pfeiffer, Lisa, Rye... people who have worked with EON Productions or have covered the making of this film, visiting the set. Also, I highly doubt books like The Making of GoldenEye, by Garth Pearce, released by Boxtree in 1995 under EON's licence, or The James Bond Archives, by Paul Duncan, from Taschen, which quotes many members of the cast and crew, are spreading false information. Add up to that the home video extra content, one of which features the late Mr. Lamont at work on Leavesden explaining how this abandoned spot will become a film studio to house the 17th Bond adventure. Other sources were people who worked in GoldenEye and other Bond movies: Keith Dyett, Derek Lyons, Brian Muir, UA's Vice-president Jeff Kleeman, and one of the screenwriters who preferred to remain anonymous, but that he gave me good details on how the script muted to the film we know as it is. 

Even more so, I was extremely appreciative of Lamont's work, particularly the task he undertook to recreate the streets of St Petersburg at the Leavesden backlot. Not a single word was said against his job, because I think what he did was perfect just like every other area of GoldenEye. So I seriously doubt the word "unhappy" fits in this context. I can't think of an artist feeling unhappy at an essay praising his work, and even if he did find something that was wrong, I wonder why he didn't contact me to clarify this as I'm perfectly reachable through my book's page. Of course, he would have had to also alert EON and tell them their material is loaded of false information, too, or claim that production notes dated 1994 or 1995 were also wrong. I seriously doubt it. But, unfortunately, the dead can't speak and speculative people use that in their advantage.

Fortunately, The World of GoldenEye is still selling well and this tiny incident only resulted in appreciation towards my job with a lot of revelations from people who distanced themselves of that site. Things I won't make public, because I'm not the destructive force they are. I'm don't do mafia anthics like destroying what others do be it books, magazines, YouTube videos or paintings. I don't root for their destruction, I don't care if they are successful or not, I just move on and keep focusing on writing about what I love.

That said, I hope you will all enjoy For England, James and once again I thank you for all the continued support of my work. And my best Christmas wishes to the members of the Bond community that continually fight for making it a pleaseant place to stay.