LICENSED TO THRILL: The gadgets-laden Aston Martin series, including the DB 3, is every Agent 007 fan’s dream car. Among its “features” are: a homing device; a gun compartment under the driver’s seat; secret compartments that hold a “mini-hospital” including a small defibrillator; front-firing rockets; spike-producing tires; passenger ejector; a camouflage that makes the car invisible; pop-out gun barrels behind the front indicators; and an ability to self-destruct, to name a few. Oh, hey, it gets the beautiful girls too. © 1962-2002 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation.
PREMIUM BOND As James Bond prepares for his 23rd film adventure and celebrates his cinematic 50th birthday, ANDY ROUND talks to the collectors and dealers to discover classic Bond is always box-office gold.
G
ood old James Bond. He may be entering serious middle age, but there’s still plenty of life in the world’s most famous spy. Fifty years after the release of the first 007 film, Dr No, super villains worldwide will be gnashing their steel jaws in frustration that Bond’s appeal is bigger than ever. This year sees the release of the 23rd film in the Bond franchise, the highly anticipated Skyfall, starring Daniel Craig; there is a new DVD box set of all 22 films by MGM and 20th Century Fox; a reissued autobiography by legendary Bond producer Chubby Broccoli; the commissioning of a new as-yetuntitled Bond novel from author William Boyd, and the reprinting of all 14 of Ian Fleming’s 007 thrillers. Quite frankly there are more 50th anniversary Bond
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tributes than you can throw a razor-sharpened bowler hat at. Bond has always been a big box-office draw, but in auction houses around the world, demand for memorabilia associated with Her Majesty’s most famous spy is now generating stratospheric interest. In 2010, Christie’s sold the Walther air pistol held by Sean Connery for the Russia with Love poster for US$437,500—a world record for a Bond gun. When the original artwork for Diamonds Are Forever was sold for $129,500, it was another record, this time for a Bond poster. “It will always be the case that props and associated memorabilia from the earliest films will attain the largest sums at auction,” says Christie’s Helen
THE BOND IDENTITY Dramatic Bond changes were introduced for 2006’s Casino Royale to return Bond to the roots of the original book, portraying him as a cold-blooded assassin. The move followed the grittier 24 series and Matt Damon’s Bourne Identity.