Ian Fleming initially wanted Alfred Hitchcock to direct the first James Bond movie. It didn't materialise. Cary Grant was also approached to play the character but it didn't work out as he committed to do only one movie.
The helicopter scene in "From Russia with Love" (1963) was Terrence Young's idea and is a homage to the scene in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (1959).
During the filming of this scene, a camera operator's leg was hit by the blades of the helicopter that came in too low and he had to have his foot amputated. Sean Connery too came close to death when an inexperienced pilot flew a little too close, endangering his life.
(Sources:
1. "Revealed: The secret telegram that shows Ian Fleming wanted Alfred Hitchcock to direct the first Bond film", Graham Smith, Daily Mail, 2012.
2. "How Cary Grant nearly made Global James Bond Day an American affair", Amanda Holpuch, The Guardian, 2012.
3. "REVISITED: the ‘banned’ FRWL commentary", The Spy Command, 2014.
4. "Production Notes - From Russia With Love", MI6)
@Tangytang123@JimmyRTorres@JasonBassler1 I objected to doing it once myself. Even asked to speak to a supervisor. Was told I either take the pic or don’t fly. Not cool. The sign made no difference to them.
We say goodbye to our founder, the visionary Ted Turner. Ted’s love of classic films inspired him to create a channel dedicated to preserving them. He considered TCM one of his greatest accomplishments.
His passion continues to inspire us all as we work to fulfill his mission.
Joseph Kahn (film/music video director) is venting about skyrocketing costs and headaches filming in LA.
Unions (SAG-AFTRA etc.) won't budge on high wages or rules. Locations/permits are rigid and expensive. Non-union jobs get forced into unions ("flipped"). SAG extras constantly angle to upgrade to OCP (on-camera principal performer) status for much higher pay—so he rewrites them out. Police overtime for traffic/security is mandatory and insane. He's eyeing cheaper/easier Thailand instead.
Cloris Leachman's final scene in "The Last Picture Show" (1971) was filmed without any rehearsal. She wanted to rehearse the scene but Peter Bogdanovich was against the idea as he thought that it would ruin the scene.
Bogdanovich was so happy with the first take, he said to her, "Cut, print, you just won the Oscar.’
Leachman replied, ‘I can do it better.’
Then Bogdanovich said, ‘No, you can’t.’
Bogdanovich felt that way since the scene was so fresh and she was shaking. He knew she couldn’t possibly do it better. She could hardly breathe after filming the scene.
He was proved right when she won the Oscar for her performance.
P.S: Remembering Cloris Leachman on her 100th birthday!
("Remembering Cloris Leachman, an Oscar- and Emmy-Winning Actor of Stunning Range", Stuart Emmrich, Vogue, 2021 & IMDb)
Happy 86th Birthday to one of my favorite Brits, Penelope Keith!!
Some of you may not know this hilarious lady, but if you do, you definitely do! #BOTD
Everyone needs to hear this...
Michael Caine on his defining philosophy for life:
Use the Difficulty
As a young actor, he was rehearsing a play when a chair got stuck in the door and blocked his path. He told the other actor he couldn't get by the chair to enter the scene.
The actor's response:
"Use the difficulty...if it's a comedy, fall over it, if it's a drama, pick it up and smash it."
This idea became a defining mantra for his life.
"There's never anything so bad that you cannot use that difficulty...if you can use it a quarter of one percent to your advantage, you're ahead, you didn't let it get you down."
I can't stop thinking about this...
How can you use the difficulty you're currently facing? How can you embrace the struggle? How can you find flow through the friction?
As with everything in life, control the controllable:
The difficulty is already there. You can't control it. But you can control how you react to it. You can control your response to it. You can control your attitude towards it.
Lesson: Difficulty is inevitable. Use it.
A happy 95th birthday to William Shatner. An actor who started out in the era of 'live' television drama and who appeared in so many of my favourite US shows: The Twilight Zone, Naked City, Route 66, Columbo...
The biggest skill you can develop is the ability to reset fast. Bad conversation? Move on. Bad day? Start fresh tomorrow. Missed workout? Hit it the next day. Poor decision? Learn and adjust. You can’t control what happens to you, but you control how long you let it affect you.