Eon Productions

It's possible, depending on how things turn out, that the Dune publicity effort will get sidetracked by questions about Amazon Bond 1, aka Bond 26.

Is Pattinson really in the mix? And what does that tell us? When Eon Productions was in charge creatively of Bond movies, its choices for 007 weren't that famous.

Sean Connery was an experienced actor, but wasn't a star when first cast.

George Lazenby had little experience as an actor.

And the other thing that is really nice to know is Not only Volo, I don't want to give out any names of museums, but there are a handful throughout the country or the world that do have fakes, the replicas, but they say that they're authentic.

Now, anytime our vehicles go to a venue or museum, it says these are authentic vehicles of the Ian Fleming Foundation backed up by Eon Productions.

They're backing us up.

And if we have something that's not authentic, we're going to hear from them.

And as a result, the first Bond film, Dr.

No, in 1962, was made by Elstree's rival, Eon Productions.

We might, with English understatement, politely describe the Elstree decision as a monumental misjudgment.

because the 25 official James Bond films have grossed more than £15 billion, adjusted for inflation.

But the first proper attempt to make a production design was Henry Smolenski and Harold Blake's 1971 Ave Mizar, which consisted of half a Ford Pinto and half a Cessna Skymaster.

But whatever became of Smolenski and Blake? Is it A, they packed in the business after numerous failures and joined the ranks of the Texas Instruments tech firm? B, they both went off to work for the Penske NASCAR team to work in the aerodynamics department? C, they went off to work in the props department for Cubbly Broccoli's Eon Productions where they worked on James Bond films throughout the 1970s and 80s? Or D, they were both killed when the prototype they were demonstrating crashed in California in 1973?

Those are four tantalizing options.

I'm going to go and say, I don't know why I'm drawn to this one.

It did look a lot like, I don't know whether you remember The Man with the Golden Gun, Scaramanga's plane that takes off.

It is exactly modelled on that thing.

So they kind of had their idea nicked by Eon Productions.

But that was a red herring.

Now, to truly understand why Live and Let Die was such a massive shock to the system in 1973, yours truly was one years old, we have to travel back and look where the James Bond franchise was standing at the time.

By the early 1970s, Eon Productions was facing a major turning point.

The exit of Sean Connery, we love me a Sean Connery, James Bond.

After Diamonds of Forever in 1971, Sean Connery had hung up the Walther franchise PPK, that's the gun he used as James Bond for a second time.

So are we going to see prequels? Are we going to see remakes of previous Bond films that have already come out, like Dr.

No and Goldfinger and The Man with the Golden Gun? I mean, I'm confused because there have been no plot details, no script details that have leaked about the story and the direction that Eon Productions is going to go with this.

So it's making me wonder, okay, these younger actors that are being considered for the role of Bond, are they younger and being considered because they want to do kind of a rehash of Bond or do a prequel of Bond or what? Yeah.

Well,

Okay, this decade's long speculation over who will be taking over 007's tuxedo is officially entering its final act.

Reports have surfaced that Eon Productions and Amazon MGM Studios are holding the final deciding screen tests at Pinewood Studio.

After the shortlist, endless rumours and secret messages... and a selectful of actors stepping onto the legendary 007 soundstage, because it is one.

There is the 007 soundstage at Pinewood, isn't it? You can see it from my office window.