Ageless James Bond turns 50

Nalaka Gunawardene and Vindana Ariyawansa

James Bond logo

Roger Moore

Sally Ride

The James Bond franchise in the cinema completes 50 years in 2012. James Bond, with code designation 007, is a secret agent with the British Secret Intelligence Service MI6. He was originally created by writer Ian Fleming.

James Bond movies are the longest continually-running film series in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to the present (with a six-year break between 1989 and 1995). The franchise is held by Eon Productions, a London-based, family-held corporation started in 1961 by film producers Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. They have produced 22 Bond films. (There have also been three other films not counted as part of the franchise.)

Today, we start off with a few questions on the legendary spy with the license to kill and proven ability to thrill.

1. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, wrote a total of 12 novels and two short story collections between 1953 and 1964. His inspiration for the lead characters’ name came from a scientific book he was reading in 1953.

As he later recalled, the authors’ name struck him as “brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name - just what I needed.” In fact, the real life James Bond was an American scientist. What kind of scientist?

2. Dr No, released in October 1962, was the first official James Bond film. It was produced on a relatively low budget of United States Dollar (USD) one million, after major Hollywood film studios declined to get involved, saying the central character was “too British” or “too blatantly sexual.”

After a considerable search, the producers cast the Scottish actor Sean Connery, then 30-years-old, as James Bond. But they had originally wanted to cast another actor who was far more famous for his debonair demeanor and “dashing good looks,” and was at the time one of classic Hollywood’s leading men. But this actor could only commit to one film, so it was ruled out. Who might well have been the first James Bond?

3. James Bond movies have featured a long line of perverted geniuses who are out to cause major harm to the civilized world when James Bond prevents their sinister schemes in the nick of time. Dr No was the first such ‘mad scientist,’of German and Chinese descent, and remains one of cinema’s most legendary villains.

He specialized in radiation, experimenting with which had cost him his hands that were replaced with bionic ones. The role was superbly played by actor Joseph Wiseman. What was Dr No’s full name?

4. Even though Dr No was the first James Bond movie, the Ian Fleming novel bearing that name was not where the character first appeared in print. The novel where James Bond debuted was published in April 1953. The writer said the character “ was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war”. What was the title of the novel, which inspired two movie adaptations, in 1967 and again in 2006?

5. The famous “James Bond Theme” is the main signature music theme of James Bond films. It has been included in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No. The piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the “gun barrel sequence” at the beginning of almost every James Bond film, with a calypso medley running under the title credits. Name the British composer who wrote this theme music written based on a previous composition.

6. In the 22 authorised James Bond movies that have been released todate, six actors have played the role of the world’s most famous secret agent. Sean Connery famously pioneered the role, which was later picked up by Roger Moore. But there was an Australian actor who played James Bond in a single movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, released in 1969. Who was he?

7. Outside (or prior to) the Eon series, there have been three additional film or television (TV) productions featuring the character of James Bond: first was an American TV adaptation of Casino Royale; second was a satirical film spoof, also named Casino Royale, in 1967. In 1983, some 12 years after he had left the franchise, Sean Connery starred in a one-off Bond film titled Never Say Never Again. It was a remake of which previous Bond movie?

8. During the past 50 years, the James Bond film series has grossed just over US$ five billion to date (mid 2012), which makes it the second-highest-grossing film series of all-time. Which is the top-grossing film series of all time, having earned $7.7 billion up to mid 2012?

9. James Bond has inspired many spoofs and spin-offs in different cultures and markets. A Lankan version was aptly named Jamis Banda, a local detective agent, who appeared in the Sinhala film Sorungeth Soru (1967), directed by Tissa Liyanasuriya and Mike Wilson. Name the versatile Lankan actor who played the role of Jamis Banda.

10. The next James Bond movie, which will be the 23rd in the Eon series, is due for release in United Kigdom (UK) in Oct 2012 and US in Nov 2012. It will once again feature Daniel Craig as James Bond. What is the films’ title?

11. Nihal Fernando, outstanding Lankan photographer and environmental activist, turned 85 on August 8, 2012. His is an extraordinary life where he has “travelled the length and breath of his country, seen, heard, experienced and above all, understood the land, its people and their life,” as one admirer has written. He acquired Studio Times in 1963 and nurtured it as the foremost repository of images on every aspect of Sri Lanka - landscape, people, culture, nature and social life. His first photographic coffee table book was published in 1986. What was its title?

12. Lanka’s leading photographer Nihal Fernando is much more than a perceptive man who captures the interplay of light, landscape, elements and people.

The focus of his very first book, published in 1965, was agriculture, stemming from his passion for farming and the belief of his island as fertile and his belief that the country can produce most, if not all, of its food crops on its own if only the right knowledge and skills were widely available. What was the title of this book, more instructional than visual?

13. The first American woman astronaut, Sally Ride, died in late July 2012 aged 61. Trained as a physicist, she joined the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1978 and first flew on the space shuttle in June 1983. She is also the youngest American (man or woman) to have flown to space todate: she was 32 years and 23 days old at the time of her first flight. She went to space again in 1984, and spent a total of more than 343 hours in space during her two missions. What space shuttle did she travel on both occasions?

14. Sally Ride was the third woman to travel to space from any nation. When she made her first journey to space in June 1983, two Russian women astronauts (or cosmonaut, as their space travelers are called) had already been to space. The first was Valentina Tereshkova who made a historic first flight in 1963, during the early days of human space flight. This was followed by a second Russian woman who spent time in Salyut-7 space station in 1982. Who was the second woman in space?

15. Who is the well known 20th Century personality and leader said: “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl -- but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward!”

Last week’s answers

1. Beneath the Seas of Ceylon (25 mins)
2. Shesha Palihakkara
3. Tissa Liyanasuriya
4. Titus Thotawatte (origi nally Titus de Silva)
5. Sri Chandrarathne Manawasinghe
6. Hector Ekanayake
7. Great Basses Reef (Maha Ravana Kotuwa)
8. Gampaha District
9. 323 persons per square km
10. Lord Alfred Tennyson
11. George Holliday
12. Manchester United Football Club
13. Albert II, Prince of Monaco
14. Mark Anthony Bracegir dle (1912 - 1999)
15. Duckworth-Lewis method