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Daniel Craig in Casino Royale |
Here's some news that'll have you shaken, not stirred! It was announced today that the TIFF Bell Lightbox will be hosting the North American premiere of the exhibit Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style from October 26th, 2012 to January 20th, 2012.
In celebration of James Bond's monumental 50th anniversary, Piers Handling, CEO and Director, TIFF, and Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox, announced today details for the North American premiere of Designing 007 - Fifty Years of Bond Style. Running from October 26, 2012 to January 20, 2013, this innovative exhibition will focus on the distinctly British luxuriance of the world's most iconic movie brand and its influence on art, music, lifestyle, automotive design, travel, technology and fashion over the course of five decades. Designing 007 - Fifty Years of Bond Style is curated by the Barbican Centre, with guest-curation by fashion historian Bronwyn Cosgrave and Academy Award®–winning costume designer Lindy Hemming, and designed by Ab Rogers.. TIFF’s exhibition will feature a series of accompanying film programmes to be announced at a later date. The exhibition is organized by Barbican Centre, London, in partnership with EON Productions.…Designing 007 - Fifty Years of Bond Style is a natural progression for TIFF Bell Lightbox,” said Cowan. “This in-depth examination of one of the most significant film and cultural icons of all time will offer new and familiar visitors an unprecedented look at the cutting-edge design and décor of the Bond legacy, charting its influence on contemporary society and on the action genre as a whole.”
Highlights confirmed to date include the steel teeth worn by Richard “Jaws” Kiel in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977); storyboards for Diamonds are Forever (1971); the Anthony Sinclair overcoat worn by Sean Connery in Dr. No (1962); the poker table from Casino Royale (2006); multiple gadgets from Q Branch including the attaché case given to Bond in From Russia With Love (1963); and the 1961 United Artists/Eon Productions contract to produce the James Bond film series.
Very exciting news, I think, especially for anyone who is as big a Bond fan as I am. I don’t know what I’m more excited for, the exhibit or the potential Luma menu! (Octopussy, maybe? The true test will be whether it serves up the traditional vodka martini, or the new Heineken that Bond will be sipping in the upcoming film instead.) Maybe we can even hope that the festival will precede the event with a Gala of Skyfall? At the very least, festivalgoers can expect a preview much better than the oft-maligned Grace Kelly ad that ran at TIFF 2011, lol!