Random Intelligence Dispatches For September 8, 2008

Trying to catch up on a few stories from last week...

Bond Repackaged

Commander Bond.Net reported that in addition to the new Blu-Ray Bonds, the entire Bond back catalog will be reissued on regular old DVD this fall in the UK. The covers are much better than the most recent wave of Ultimate Edition covers... though still leave a lot to be desired. Why can't MGM just leave the Photoshopping alone and use some of that excellent poster art in their archives? For some reason, despite having some of the best theatrical poster art of all time, Octopussy always loses out the worst with the video and DVD covers. The new wave is no exception, although even that is better than the last one! CBN follows up that story today with news that at least the Bonds will be getting re-jacketed in America, too. All content remains the same as the last release, so there's no reason to rebuy.

24 Title Redeemed

Fox sent out a press release announcing the the title of the upcoming 24 TV movie, the prequel to January's Season 7, has undergone a title change. Ditching its former moniker, Exile, the movie now boasts the uncharacteristically hopeful title, 24: Redemption. It airs on Fox November 23 and hits DVD two days later.

Double O Fashion

American reality series Project Runway, a competition for aspiring fashion designers, finally challenged its contestants to design a spy dress in last week's episode, "Double O Fashion." Unfortunately, they didn't base the competition on Sixties Bond fashion, which would have been great (and could make a terrific tie-in with Quantum of Solace, if a minor Bond Girl were to wear the winning dress at a premiere or something... oh well), but instead on glamorous 1940s spywear, as typified by Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair. That's a good look too, but most of the designers didn't seem to get it. My friend Liz has a full write-up on the episode at her Project Runway blog. A viewer poll during a commercial break asked the audience to vote on what host Heidi Klum's spy name should be, and they dubbed the Teutonic beauty "Venus Schnitzel"... perhaps forgetting that she's actually been a Bond Girl already with the rather mundane name Katya Nadanova.

Len Deighton Site

There's a new spy website out there aiming to fill a conspicuous void on the Internet... The Deighton Dossier aims to be the one-stop source for all things related to the Ipcress File author, and it's off to a great start! Check it out.

Bond Cars On DVD

A new DVD, The Cars of James Bond, available in Australia on October 23. EZYDVD have the artwork, which David Foster passed along. Curiously, the cover appears to picture toy Bond cars rather than the real thing, along with a publicity still of Craig with the Aston Martin DBS from Casino Royale. Is the documentary about the toys? That would be cool, but it doesn't appear so. According to the copy, "Second only to the sleek lines of the Bond girls, the British secret agent's cars have been an essential part in making the most successful movie franchises of all time. Starting with the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger, our documentary chronologically details the history of the James Bond film cars, including Bentley, Aston Martin, Lotus, Jaguar and Ford with manufacturer interviews and rare archive footage from building and testing." Well, that sounds pretty cool too! I hope this becomes available in the US eventually; the price tag on the import is a little steep...