THE ESTABLISHING SHOT

The first law for a secret agent is to get his geography right...
     – Ian Fleming - The Man with the Golden Gun, 1965

He had arrived at Royale-les-Eaux in time for luncheon two days before. There had been no attempt to contact him and there had been no flicker of curiosity when he had signed the register 'James Bond, Port Maria, Jamaica'.

M had expressed no interest in his cover.

'Once you start to make a set at Le Chiffre at the tables, you'll have had it,' he said. 'But wear a cover that will stick with the general public.'

Bond knew Jamaica well, so he asked to be controlled from there and to pass as a Jamaican plantocrat whose father had made his pile in tobacco and sugar and whose son chose to play it away on the stock markets and in casinos.
     – Ian Fleming Casino Royale, 1953

Over the years, the film industry has produced a plethora of films that capitalise on the theme of espionage and the life of a spy. Due to the illusive nature of those who work with top-secret government intelligence, a whole host of different characters have been concocted in a bid to represent the life of a person with one of the most mysterious occupations on the planet. We’ve been shown debonair men, who drive around in extravagant cars and adorn expensive suits, like the infamous James Bond, to the more unassuming and calculating spy characters such as George Smiley.

The new film Our Kind of Traitor reimagines the spy once again, this time through the eyes of an unsuspecting couple who are thrust between the Russian Mafia and British Intelligence, neither of whom are as clear-cut good and bad as one would assume.

     What did the world look like as it was transforming into the horrifying apocalypse depicted in The Walking Dead? This spin-off set in Los Angeles, following new characters as they face the beginning of the end of the world, will answer that question.

Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, was a worldwide box office phenomenon, opening #1 in 70 territories around the world, taking over $1.1 billion worldwide and setting a new all-time box office record in the UK by becoming the first film to take over £100 million.

The 23rd Bond Film Wins More Than 30 Awards. As well as breaking international box-office records and being named in the “top 10 films of the year” lists by over 90 globally renowned film critics, SKYFALL’s cast and crew also won a number of prestigious filmmaking awards.

We did have the conversation: it’s got to be bigger and better,” Craig says. “The stunts, the action, every department.” He holds out his palm, flat. It’s shaking. “I’m all jangly at the moment because it’s over. Sam has to lock the picture off for 7 September, so he’s got fuck-all time, basically. That’s it. Can’t go back and do it again. Tough shit.”

He doesn’t want to jinx it but, “I feel like we’ve all done our absolute fucking best and that’s a good feeling. Whether that makes a better movie we’ll see.”

Is the “classic Bond” ethos still in place, I wonder? “Times 10!” Craig almost shouts, momentarily revelling in his role as hype man. He repeats it when I laugh, holding his beer in the air. “It’s Skyfall times 10!”

And that is a point he is keen to make. For all the soul searching, he says, Spectre is “a celebration of all that’s Bond”.

There is a new supercar, the Aston Martin DB10. There are beautiful women, played by the va-va-voom Italian bombshell Monica Bellucci and the kittenish Léa Seydoux. There are signature set pieces: a thrilling opening in Mexico City; a car chase through Rome; action sequences in the Austrian Alps, in Tangier and in London. There’s a thuggish henchman (the first of Craig-era Bond) played by the former wrestler Dave Bautista. And there’s an evil megalomaniac, played by the great Christoph Waltz, devilish star of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.

Naomie Harris stars in a 60 second campaign film, as she fights to deliver Bond’s must-have Xperia mobile phone

Sony's new campaign film from Sony features brand new technologies that have been ‘made for Bond’

Set against a backdrop of London’s South Bank, Moneypenny uses Sony’s RX100 IV camera to capture super-slow-motion surveillance as a drama unfolds with an intense chase to deliver Bond’s Xperia Z5 smartphone

Directed by Danny Kleinman – the man behind many of the legendary Bond title sequences