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After a two month delay, the 23rd James Bond
film "Skyfall" finally enjoyed its Chinese premiere on Wednesday
night (16th January 2013) in Beijing. Chinese authorities had
pushed the release back from the originally planned date of November
2nd, 2012, to protect the box-office performance of native
films such as "Back to 1942" and "The Last Supper".
Daniel Craig appeared via a live video link
to take questions and introduce the film. When asked who his
favourite Bond girl is so far in his three-film tenure, Craig
said: "It’s
very difficult to answer this without offending anybody. I
have my own particular favorite among them, the very beautiful
Judi Dench, she is probably THE Bond girl, and always will be."
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Two Chinese locations feature in the film:
the neon metropolis of Shanghai and the old Portuguese
gambling outpost Macau. A splinter unit filmed on location
in Shanghai to capture the driving sequence and the skyline
shots were captured by helicopter with the help of Chinese
authorities. However, Macau was a complete fabrication
and built on the backlot at Pinewood Studios.
Craig was up-front with the audience about
how these were achieved. "I have been to Shanghai
and Beijing in the past," Craig said, "but in
this movie, because of the way the movie is shot, I didn’t
actually go to Shanghai or to Macao. We faked it. I shot
most of my stuff in London. But I enjoyed my time in both
Beijing and Shanghai."
When asked about the future of the franchise,
Craig said: "I hope the Bond series will last for
another 50 years… not with me. I hope it will last
for a long time. I think the truth is the movies have always
been event movies, exciting, fun to watch and always been
about the audiences, more than anything else, and I think
that gives them longevity." |
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"James Bond is, we try to remain firmly in the
world of fantasy, a character that doesn’t really exist
in the real world. But I think for all of us having the idea
that there’s a hero who can save us all, it’s a universal
feeling. James Bond has an individuality that we filmmakers try
to bring back to this movie."
Licence To Cut
Chinese censorship authorities
have made some subtle changes to the film to gloss over themes
of
torture
and
prostitution. The changes mostly involve tweaks to subtitle
translations to
avoid
touchy
subjects
or undesirable
themes in the Communist
state, but one scene was deleted.
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When hitman Patrice enters the
skyscraper in Shanghai, the sequence of him shooting the Chinese
guard at the security desk
was removed.
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As Bond grabs Severine's wrist and reveals
his knowledge of the Chinese tattoos marking the sex trade and
prostitution
rings,
the English dialog is kept, but the Chinese subtitles allude
to her being coerced in to 'the mob' instead.
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The Chinese subtitles
also blur over Silva's back story and hide the implication
that a Chinese intelligence agency imprisoned
and tortured him for months after the Hong Kong hand-over.
Sony declined to comment to the trade press on the alterations,
which are mild compared to cuts made to other Hollywood films
recently.
Above: The subtly altered poster
for China includes the Shanghai skyline in the 007 logo.
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The film opens nationwide in China on Monday 21st January, 2013.
Briefing
The 23rd James Bond
film, "Skyfall", commenced principal studio photography on 7th November
2011 for a UK
release on October 26th, 2012 and the USA on November
9, 2012. MGM will produce, finance and distribute 007's
23rd adventure in
partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Daniel Craig will
be returning as the legendary British secret agent, alongside Judi
Dench as "M", with Sam Mendes directing a screenplay written by Neal
Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan. The cast will also include Bérénice Marlohe,
Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney and Ben Wishaw.
The film will shoot at Pinewood Studios and on location in London, England;
Scotland; Shanghai, China and Istanbul, Turkey.
It will be the longest gap between Bond movies without
a change in the lead role. In addition, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of
the EON Productions series of James
Bond films.
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