Dark Knight makes best film list

Batman film The Dark Knight has been named as one of the Top 10 movies of 2008 by the American Film Institute.

Others include political biopic Milk, animated fantasy Wall-E and Brad Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino and comic book blockbuster Iron Man also feature alongside the independent dramas Frozen River and Wendy and Lucy.

Frost/Nixon and The Wrestler complete the list, compiled by a panel of filmmakers, reviewers and academics.

Unlike other awards bodies, the institute does not rank films or pick one as the year's best.

The filmmakers behind the AFI's Top 10 choices will be honoured at a luncheon on 9 January.

Longlist

Meanwhile, The Dark Knight has also been named as one of the 15 semi-finalists for the best visual effects Oscar.

Others include the second Chronicles of Narnia film, Prince Caspian, and the latest James Bond adventure, Quantum of Solace.

Cloverfield, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the fourth Indiana Jones film also feature on the longlist, to be whittled down to seven in early January.

Three will then be nominated for the Visual Effects prize, to be handed out at the Oscar ceremony on 22 February.

Last week, the late Heath Ledger was nominated for a posthumous Golden Globe for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

No sequel for Quantum of Solace: Craig

Bond actor Daniel Craig has denied the next 007 film would be a sequel to their latest film 'Quantum of Solace'.

The new superspy film, which released last month, was a continuation of Craig's debut Bond flick 'Casino Royale' in 2006.

But Craig is adamant that his third outing as the secret agent will feature a brand new storyline, the Daily Star reported.

"No way. I'm done with that story. I want to lie on a beach for the first half an hour of the next movie drinking a cocktail," he told 'Collider'.

"We've finished this story as far as I'm concerned. We've got a great set of bad guys. There is an organisation that we can use whenever we want to. The relationship between Bond and M is secure and Felix is secure. Let's try and find where Moneypenny came from and where Q comes from. Let's do all that and have some fun with it."

But Craig admits there is currently no filming schedule in place for the next Bond movie.

"Nobody's thinking about it at the moment. We're giving it a rest for the moment. If I can squeeze something in next year I will... but I haven't figured out what that'll be yet. But nothing in the cold," he said.

"Madagascar" ends Bond's foreign rule

A batch of Central Park zoo animals returning to their jungle habitat ended James Bond's five-week domination of the international box office.

"Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which began a record-busting rollout in late October in eastern Europe, roared to an estimated $52.2 million from 35 territories during the weekend. The film's foreign gross soared to $125 million.

And it's still early in the film's run, according to Paramount Pictures International, the distributor of the DreamWorks Animation sequel.

In the U.K., the zoo brigade charged in at No. 1 to $9.5 million. The animated entry also was No. 1 in Germany ($11 million), France ($9.8 million), Mexico ($4.2 million), Belgium ($1.6 million), Argentina ($1.2 million) and Austria ($1.1 million).

A solid $10.8 million from 72 markets greeted "Quantum of Solace" as it slipped to second place during its seventh week of international release. "Quantum's" international total stands at $357.8 million. Market grosses include $77.4 million in the U.K., $30.8 million in France and $37.1 million in Germany.

"Twilight" grabbed third place overseas with $9.8 million from 18 markets, raising its total to $33 million. The vampire romance opened at No. 1 in Spain with $4.2 million.

"Bolt," the TV dog superhero, took fourth place with $9.5 million from nine markets.

The long-running "WALL-E," thanks to a $5.5 million No. 1 debut in Japan, lifted its foreign gross to $271 million and took fifth place in the overseas weekend standings.

Quantum of Solace - James Bond

James Bond broke into a cold sweat. He’d just survived a Quantum of Solace after a blistering car chase, rooftop chase, aerial chase and an incomprehensible climax. But nothing had prepared him for this terrifying moment. The spy with the license to kill looked down helplessly at his shoes. Somebody had tied up his shoelaces together and now he couldn’t walk! The British secret service had taught him everything and armed him with the most wondrous gadgets… but how does one deal with shoelaces? Bond called up M. But she was having a haircut at Aalim’s. So 007 sat in despair, reminiscing the last four decades of his amazing career…
It all began with Sean Connery as James Bond, who seduced women with appalling names like Honey Rider, Kissy Suzuki and Pussy Galore! He was this famous secret agent with incredible knowledge of women and wine. In fact, Bond could not only tell you the vineyard and year but also the name of the girl who stomped the grapes!
But all that food and wine took its toll and James Bond’s car was seen tipping on two wheels in Diamonds Are Forever - not because of his daredevil driving but due to his weight! However, before Connery retired, the hunt for a new Bond resulted in George Lazenby having an incredible 90-minute career On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Maybe, because, at six feet three inches, he’s the tallest Bond and the only one to kneel and shoot in the gun barrel opening!
So Roger Moore became James Bond - at 45! In other words, at an age when most people go through midlife and midriff crises, Bond was bedding women young enough to be his daughter! Moore was 58 when he retired, but by then he’d made 007 so light-hearted that the series became too lightweight and in danger of being blown out of business.
Thus Timothy Dalton was summoned. But the Shakespearean actor with a Hamlet hangover insisted on holding the skull of the villain in his hand and saying, “To beat or not to beat, that is the question!” So they replaced him with Pierce Brosnan, who was so handsome that even his enemies started having a crush on him! That’s when craggy Craig stepped in. He’s arguably the best Bond after Connery.
But right now James Bond is just as shaken and stirred by his tangled shoelaces as he’s by the story of Quantum of Solace!

Mathieu Amalric wanted to be director, not actor

French actor Mathieu Amalric doesn't care about winning awards because he cares more about being a director.
According to contactmusic.com, Amalric explains that he got into acting by chance and still cannot believe that he has won three Cesar acting awards.
Speaking to a magazine, he says: "Me, a guy who never thought of being an actor, I have three. It's stupid. The real me is a director. In April (09), I'm going to stop acting and direct another film."
Amalric plays the villain in the new Bond movie "Quantum Of Solace".

Bond breaks box office record

The new James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" enjoyed a record opening weekend in Britain, earning 15.4 million pounds at the box office, Hollywood studio Sony Pictures Entertainment said on Monday.
The amount eclipses the previous record of 14.9 million held by "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" released in 2005, Sony added in a statement. It also passes the total set by the previous Bond instalment, "Casino Royale," which earned 11.4 million pounds in ticket sales over its three-day weekend opening in 2006.
In Quantum of Solace, the 22nd official Bond film and Daniel Craig's second outing as the suave secret agent, 007 crosses South America and Europe on an action-packed, stunt-filled mission to discover why the woman he loved betrayed him.
Despite mixed reviews, industry experts predicted Quantum of Solace would outperform Casino Royale, itself a big success earning $594 million in global ticket sales.
Quantum opened in Britain on Friday and is released in the United States on November 14. It is distributed by Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the media wing of Japan's Sony Corp.

Top 10 James Bond travelling links

Quantum of Solace, the new Bond movie, is released this week and its glamorous locations will inevitably, with the dark winter nights closing in around us, get you dreaming of a holiday somewhere a bit warmer. Siena, the scene of much of the early action in the movie, is close enough for you to zip over for a long weekend (choose "Italy", then click "Explore Italy" and "Tuscany"). If you'd like to stay in a house that appears in the movie

Baja California
The extraordinary low-flying and aerial combat sequences in Quantum of Solace (check out the video diary entries at 007.com/blog) were filmed in the deserts of Baja California, Mexico. This is a much-maligned part of the world, having formerly become a sort of drug-addled Californian version of Majorca; but for an interesting reappraisal

Atacama Desert, Chile
This desert is not somewhere you would go on a whim. But its salty lagoons, set in a landscape of flat plains and spiky mountains, have received rave reviews from travellers to South America, many of whom rate it as far more memorable than the much-visited Machu Picchu. Follow Bond to the observatory at Paranal

Top 10 James Bond locations
Lonely Planet's Bluelists are top tens of recommendations from other travellers. Usefully, this particular list (to find it, click "Browse All Keywords" and search for "James Bond") features links to the appropriate travel guide pages. The most daring suggestion is Baku in Azerbaijan; the least glamorous is Brent Cross shopping centre in north London: they filmed the remote control car chase for Tomorrow Never Dies in its car park.

Bond film opens with guns blazing

The new James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," debuted in Britain on Friday to record one-day ticket sales of 4.94 million pounds ($8 million), distributor Columbia Pictures said on Saturday.
The total tops "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," the previous record holder with an opening day haul of 4.025 million pounds ($6.5 million) in 2005, and it also beat the 2.9 million pounds ($4.72 million) first-day total for the last Bond flick, "Casino Royale" (2006), Columbia said.
In "Quantum of Solace," British super spy Bond (Daniel Craig) is on a mission across South America and Europe to stop an eco-terrorist from controlling precious natural resources, and he wants to learn why the woman he loved in "Casino Royale" betrayed him.
"Casino Royale," was a huge box office success with a global haul of $594 million.
Friday's British opening of "Quantum of Solace" in 542 theatres will be followed by a November 14 debut of the film in the United States and Canada.
Columbia Pictures is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the media wing of Japan's Sony Corp.

Most girls prefer Joe Bland to James Bond

Job security, an accountant boyfriend and marriage beat adventure and an exciting Bond-style boyfriend for most British women, a new survey said.
Only one in four people said they would leap at the chance to take up the offer of a round-the-world trip from a boyfriend/girlfriend of just four months, according to a poll of 13,000 by online dating service PARSHIP.com.
"Whilst an all-expenses paid year-long adventure certainly has some appeal, it seems that for most people this would only be pure fantasy," said Victoria Lukats, psychiatrist and PARSHIP's dating expert.
"Even in this hypothetical situation, perhaps even imagining the perfect partner in the scenario, the people who would openly throw caution to the wind are in the definite minority."
However, the number of acceptances increased to more than half of the women surveyed (52 percent) if they believed their boyfriend would guarantee their job, accommodation and financial security on their return.
PARSHIP, Europe's largest matchmaking service for singles wanting a committed relationship released results of the poll on the same week as the latest Bond film "Quantum of Solace" had its royal premiere in London.
However, its results showed that although women may fantasize about a glamorous James Bond-style romance, in reality they prefer job security, an accountant boyfriend and marriage over a high-octane adventure.
The majority of people surveyed (55 percent) said they wouldn't risk their job or give up their social life for a relationship of just four months' standing.
However, if their partner proposed marriage, one in three - 32 percent of women and 29 percent of men - would say yes to a lifetime of commitment.

Quantum of Solace 007 - Photos

James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace - review

When we last spied James Bond, at the end of the forceful if oddly-structured Casino Royale, he announced his name while pointing a submachine gun into the sky above Lake Como. The image said: he's back, and nothing if not well-endowed.

Quantum of Solace begins minutes later, with the elusive killer Mr White (Jesper Christensen) now in the boot of Bond's Aston Martin, and a breakneck pursuit in progress which makes claims of a different kind for this new Bond and his supersized franchise.

This film catches Ian Fleming's hero on the run, keeps him running, and zips along with a jolting, almost offensive velocity, catching its ragged breath in the rare opportunity for dialogue. Fans of the series who like to slow down and savour the scenery, enjoying a drip-feed of dodgy innuendo, may consider this a rude awakening - it's the shortest Bond movie to date, and easily the most terse.
But consider how many of the pictures, to include Casino Royale, run out of steam as they drag themselves across the two hour mark, if not long before. Quantum of Solace may hurtle through its own (sketchy) plot as if it's not quite the point - there have been more satisfying narrative pay-offs than we get here - but its best sequences bring you up short in the best way, adding up to the giddiest straight ride since The Living Daylights.
In a career filled with diligent but pedestrian Oscar-bait (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland), it's a true surprise that director Marc Forster has come up with the goods as often as he does. Working with many of the action crew, among them editor Richard Pearson, who made the Bourne series so snappy and exhilarating, he closes in on the set pieces with refreshingly creative skill.
The starting point can be nonsense - when Mr White, murderer of Eva Green's Vesper Lynd, is sprung from captivity in a dungeon beneath Siena, it's too, too Bond that it happens to be on the day, hour and very minute of the Palio horse race.
The gambit of cross-cutting from bolting nags to scarpering baddies starts out strident and doesn't seem necessary. But Forster is biding his time with this skittish prelude: we emerge into the crowd for a chase on foot, across rooftops, and down some scaffolding in a church, and the ensuing scramble with ropes, swinging girders, and out-of-reach revolvers leaves you gasping with its constricted tension and vertigo.

It's briefly to London for some Paul Haggis-scripted soundbites about our changing planet, and then to Haiti, where we meet pouting Bolivian agent Camille (Olga Kurylenko) and villain du jour Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a petulant eco-criminal busily finessing the oil and water reserves of South America for his own gain. Amalric, who with every goggle-eyed smirk cements his credentials to star in a Roman Polanski biopic, brings a wickedly childish spite to this role, certainly proving a more interesting foil to Bond than his latest foxy-but-cross female sidekick.
James, of course, is still hung up over the betrayal and demise of Vesper in the last instalment, motivating a morose six-martini binge while he's flying across the Atlantic, as well as his avoidance here of any serious entanglements, save those in stray lengths of rope dangling from the roofs of Tuscan churches. He isn't alone: Camille, having had her family raped and burnt alive by a deposed Bolivian dictator, also has her mind on other things. Instead, there's a just-for-fun fling with MI6 emissary Gemma Arterton, who pitches up looking like a John le Carré strippogram in a trenchcoat, and exits in a homage to Shirley Goldfinger Eaton which had me reaching for bad oil puns. Crude? Unrefined? It's not exactly slick.
What's clever, and slick, and even a little ingenious about the movie, though, is how it postpones Bond's Vesper vendetta by submerging it beneath his present tasks - he gets an angry kick out of scuttling this international cabal of utility profiteers, who in the barmiest conceit get to negotiate through earpieces while seated for a state-of-the-art production of Tosca.
If there was any remaining doubt that the world is bartered and sold by people who can afford opera tickets, it's roundly dispelled, though how Amalric persuades his backers that Haiti, of all places, is some kind of model example for neocapitalist progress leaves us just a little foxed. "I don't give a s--- about the CIA," announces Judi Dench, inimitably, but it's not the best line in the movie: those are all the ones on Daniel Craig's face, particularly the deep vertical groove between his eyebrows when he's found yet another score to settle.

Quantum of Solace offers next to no solace, if we mean respite, but in plunging its hero into a revenge-displacement grudge mission, it has the compensation of a rock-solid dramatic idea, and the intelligence to run and run with it.