Jan. 10, 2012: All 22 Bond films will be released on Blu-Ray, 20th Century Fox announced in an event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. (Jeremy A. Kaplan / FoxNews.com)
Bond. James Bond. 22 James Bonds, that is.
The complete James Bond is coming to Blu-ray -- all the gear, girls and crazy action from all 22 movies -- Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn announced Tuesday at the world’s biggest consumer electronics event in Las Vegas.
The disk set is available for pre-order today, although pricing and the actual ship date of the kit have yet to be announced.
Why Blu-ray?
“Details matter,” Dunn said, “from sound quality to scenery.” The new high-definition film format showcases all the nuance that goes into the films, and to take a closer look at those nuances.
Panasonic presented a panel of three directors responsible for eight James Bond films -- not to mention two of those Bond girls themselves.
Olga Kurylenko from "Quantum of Solace" and Caterina Murino from "Casino Royale" opened up the event by introducing John Glen (who directed five Bond films including For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy), Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale) and Michael Apted (The World Is Not Enough).
The directors then offered a behind the scenes explanation of the thinking that went into some iconic scenes, and how they were translated from the script -- like one from the 1983 classic "Octopussy" in which actor Roger Moore surprises a group of militants by piloting a folding-wing plane through the closing doors of a barn, guiding the missile that pursues him directly into a bomb depot.
“It wasn’t in the script at all!” John Glen said of the scene.
That sequence wasn’t digitally created or enhanced, but instead set up with a barn door near the camera in order to create the illusion that the plane flew through. Throughout the franchise’s history, other directors relied more on film artistry than computer graphics -- such as the ski sequence from the 1977 film “The Spy Who Loved Me,” culminating in a tremendous ski jump off a cliff in the Arctic Circle.
“I don’t think it would have been as good if we had done it with CGI,” director Glen said.
Gadgets have been an integral part of the Bond franchise since day one, with Q unveiling the newest gizmos to save Bond’s life -- gizmos he invariably destroys, such as the rocket-launching BMW from the 1999 movie “The World Is Not Enough” that ultimately is sawed clean in half.
“Q’s not going to like this,” actor Pierce Brosnan notes in the movie.
It’s unknown what cool gadgets Bond will use in the 23rd film, “Skyfall.” Beyond the basic plot -- Bond’s MI6 headquarters in England is under attack and he must fight back against a threat close to home -- the newly unveiled website for the movie doesn’t explain much.
The movie itself won’t come out until Nov. 9, 2012.
Bond fans looking for a fix will have to study the details on YouTube until then -- standard definition only.
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