Scanning through the book with Rankin, which is ordered via filming location, you can't help but attempt a little light detective work (this is Bond, after all) trying to figure out plot points, relationships, specific scenes and what each action shot may be capturing - that moment of Bond magic caught and documented for all time. In Blood, Sweat And Bond, Rankin curated a series of on-set photographs by Mary McCartney, Elliott Erwitt and Brigitte Lacombe together with his own studio-based portraits of the main cast and crew members. The audience is huge and the expectation is huge." Coming from a photographer who counts the Queen, former prime ministers and many of the world's most prolific actors, musicians and artists among his sitters, this is far from mealymouthed sycophancy. "No other project even comes close to the scrutiny that your work receives or the number of people who are going to see it. A new take on the legacy.Īnd once you prove yourself, they trust you to deliver."Īlthough Rankin has shot Craig a handful of times before this project, shooting for Bond was something special. It's never about selling something with Barbara or, indeed, with Sam Nothing happens by coincidence in the world of Bond, although to the huge credit of Eon there is experimentation also. "People speculated as to the similarities to Roger Moore's wardrobe in Live And Let Die" - Moore wore the same black rollneck, black trousers and shoulder holster as Craig - "and any references to the older films aren't pure coincidence. "I know that didn't want to do the suit-and-tie thing, as Bond has been done in the past, straight away," Rankin explains when considering the aesthetic and emotional brief given by the Bond "family" in regards to what sort of a Bond they wanted to convey for Spectre. The only other Bond accoutrements visible are his well-worn brown leather gun holster, his Omega Seamaster - a Bond brand staple since Goldeneye (1995) - and his Walther PPK pistol drawn (first given to Bond in Dr No), his finger on the trigger.Īs soon as the image was released into the digital ether, dissection and debate commenced. In that first Spectre poster, Craig as the evolution of Fleming's "anonymous, blunt instrument" - steel-blue eyes, pouting and defiant, as suits his metier - is dressed in a simple black turtleneck sweater and charcoal-grey trousers. The idea of reference and acknowledgement has always been essential to Bond - a visual reoccurring inventory of women, weapons, vehicles, drinks, even dialogue ("The name's Bond, James Bond") from 1962 to 2015 that serve as essential accessories and markers, reminders of the legacy, its power and the past. The shot, taken by Rankin, in many ways holds the key to the tone of the new film - something that looks to the future but that respectfully references Bond's heritage and élan. Take the first poster we saw of Daniel Craig in Spectre, for example, released in March and the first real piece of marketing since Mendes assembled the world's press on the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios - "Where budgets go to die" - to announce the name of the film and the cast in December last year. "I got the call around last November," explains Rankin, when asked of his involvement in the film, as we huddle around a 13in Macbook, sitting together on a small white leather sofa in his studio space in north London. Such is the success and the quality of the franchise - especially since Daniel Craig signed on, four films and almost a decade ago - that we've come to expect nothing less than perfection from the man with the prefix double "0" in his job description. We pay our money, dim the lights, suspend disbelief and go all in on this most seductive of male myths. The smoke and mirrors of Bond's cinematic secrets are culture as modern parlour game - a popcorn-flavoured cipher which we allow the film-makers (in 2015, a cast and crew of hundreds which pivot around Daniel Craig, director Sam Mendes and Eon producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli) to crack in front of us exquisitely. We've all wrung our hands over the curve of Bond's tricked-out Aston Martin DB10, bristled at a glimpse of Monica Bellucci as mysterious Bond hook-up, the widow Lucia Sciarra, and snapped our fingers in delight at a perfectly chilled line of dialogue delivered by the new villain (with potentially an old grudge), Franz Oberhauser played by Christoph Waltz: "It was me, James.
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