Lots of eyebrows were raised nine years ago when Daniel Craig was confirmed as Pierce Brosnan’s replacement for the role of the world’s most famous, um, secret agent.
His debut in Casino Royale silenced most of his critics and the movie became the highest grossing James Bond film. In his fourth reprisal of Ian Flemming’s hero, many lovers, kills and shaken martinis later, all hail the most successful movie of the franchise ever.
Bond 24, official release title Spectre, which debuted last Monday in London, has raked in US$80.4 million in its first week of release in six territories, with the UK accounting for a massive US$63.8 of the total, breaking the record held by 007’s previous flick, Skyfall. It also bumped Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to second place for the biggest opening in the country.
“We’re so grateful to all our James Bond fans and the British public for making Spectre’s debut in the UK box office history”, producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli told the Daily Mail.
Of course, the cars are an integral part of the mythology, perhaps even more so than the Walther PPK and the dry martinis. In the books the MI6 agent drives a Bentley. On the big screen, his car of choice has always been an Aston Martin (yes, we’d rather skip BMW’s product placement, especially the puny Z3), most famously the DB5 and, later, the Vantage, Vanquish, DBS and, now, the DB10.
The British automaker does not have such a model in its inventory: it was created exlusively for Spectre with Vantage underpinings clad in a bespoke bodywork. Sadly, only one lucky individual will get to sample the sole example that will be auctioned off, and it’s bound to cause quite a stir.
Well, we hope he won’t keep it in a garage for his eyes only but, whenever he can, beat the living daylights out of the rear-wheel drive little monster. After all, he will have a view others would kill for – license or no license.
Bond jokes; well, what were you expecting, an exploding pen?