RW357 - James Bond Rewatch - Tomorrow Never Dies

In this episode of the James Bond 007 Rewatch, Cory and Nathan hit the headlines as they discuss "Tomorrow Never Dies."

Trailer:

The Music of Tomorrow Never Dies:

At first, the theme song was to be written by Arnold himself, with the help of lyricist Don Black and singer-songwriter David McAlmont, who recorded the demo. However, MGM wanted a more popular artist, and invited various singers to write songs before one was picked through a competitive process. There were around twelve submissions, including songs from Swan Lee, Pulp, Saint Etienne, Marc Almond, and Sheryl Crow. Crow's song was chosen for the main titles.

Prolific composer John Barry was in talks to return to the James Bond films for the first time in a decade but could not reach an agreement over his fee and because the producing team insisted that he not have anything to do with the title song, which had already been assigned to Sheryl Crow. Barbara Broccoli subsequently chose David Arnold to score Tomorrow Never Dies on a recommendation from Barry. David Arnold was equally unhappy about having a song imposed on him. Arnold's solution was to write a new song for the end credits, "Surrender", performed by k.d. lang, which thematically crops up throughout the score.

Our Favourite Trivia:

Following the success of GoldenEye in reviving the Bond series, there was pressure to recreate that success in the film's follow-up production. This pressure came from MGM which, along with its new owner, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, wanted the film's release to coincide with their public stock offering.

This was the first Bond film to be made after the death of Albert R. Broccoli, who had been involved with the series' production since its beginning; the film is dedicated to his memory.

The producers were unable to persuade Martin Campbell, the director of GoldenEye, to return; his agent said that "Martin just didn't want to do two Bond films in a row." Instead, Roger Spottiswoode was chosen in September 1996. Spottiswoode said he had previously offered to direct a Bond film while Timothy Dalton was still in the leading role.

The title was inspired by the Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows". The eventual title came about by accident: one of the potential titles was Tomorrow Never Lies (referring to the Tomorrow newspaper in the plot) and this was faxed to MGM. But through an error this became Tomorrow Never Dies, a title which MGM found so attractive that they insisted on using it. The title was the first not to have any relation to Fleming's life or work.

Teri Hatcher was three months pregnant when shooting started, although her publicist stated the pregnancy did not affect the production schedule. Hatcher later regretted playing Paris Carver, saying "It's such an artificial kind of character to be playing that you don't get any special satisfaction from it."

The role of Elliot Carver was initially offered to Anthony Hopkins, but he declined in favor of The Mask of Zorro.

Natasha Henstridge was rumoured as cast in the lead Bond Girl role, but eventually, Yeoh was confirmed in that role. Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work". She reportedly wanted to perform her own stunts, but was prevented because director Spottiswoode ruled it too dangerous and prohibited by insurance restrictions.

Spottiswoode tried to innovate in the action scenes. Since the director felt that after the tank chase in GoldenEye he could not use a bigger vehicle, a scene with Bond and Wai Lin on a BMW motorcycle was created. Another innovation was the remote-controlled car, which had no visible driver, an effect achieved by adapting a BMW 750i to put the steering wheel on the back seat.

The film was also adapted into a third-person shooter PlayStation video game, Tomorrow Never Dies. The game was developed by Black Ops and published by Electronic Arts on 16 November 1999. Game Revolution described it as "really just an empty and shallow game", and IGN said it was "mediocre".

For the fight scene in the bicycle shop, the producers had to call in Jackie Chan's stunt team, because none of the stuntmen wanted to do the scene with Michelle Yeoh, due to her full contact stunt fighting style, which she perfected while she was a member of the Jackie Chan stunt team.

What's Up Next?

Can we find friend or foe in "The World is Not Enough"?

Contact Us:

Send us an email! TheRewatchPodcast@gmail.com

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RW356 - Firefly S01E12-13 - Message of Gold

In this weeks episode of The Firefly Rewatch, Cory and Tom help old friends and new as they discuss episodes 12 & 13, "The Message" and "Heart of Gold."

The Message:

Episode Title: The Message

Written by: Joss Whedon & Tim Minear

Directed by: Tim Minear

Original airdate: July 28, 2003 (second run in the UK) as episode 14

As the crew stops in at a carnival aboard a space station, Kaylee and Simon have a date that ends up going a bit wrong when he again inadvertently insults her while Mal checks in with the local postmaster and picks up two packages, one of which is a hat for Jayne from his mother, and the second of which is for Mal and Zoe, the body of a former soldier they served with in the war, Tracey Smith, who had left a dying request for them to get his body back home to his family. 

Serenity takes off and begins their journey but are quickly contacted by the Alliance police who had tracked the body to the station and after interacting with the postmaster, has now found Serenity. Mal stalls then and orders Simon to do an autopsy to find out why Tracey’s body is so important to the Feds, reasoning that using bodies to smuggle contraband is not unheard of. However when Simon begins his incision, Tracey awakens, screaming and attacking the doctor while Mal rushes in and gets control of him, calming him down. 

Tracey reveals he was smuggling internal organs to Ariel, where his buyer would take those organs out and replace his original ones back, but he then received a better offer for more than enough money to help his family move to a better planet and a better life. Unfortunately the original buyer found out, killed the new buyer, and set off to find Tracey. He reasoned if he was found dead, then he would have been safe. 

Mal orders Wash to set them down in an area on the local planet with a rough and complex landscape, hoping to buy some time, but the Feds begin sending down explosive charges to locate the vessel. Book finds that even though the Feds are nearby a local precinct, they don’t call for backup, alerting him that something about the situation is not on the up and up, and ultimately recommends to Mal that he turn over Tracey. 

Tracey however, grabs a gun and holds them all at gunpoint, refusing to be turned over, even going so far as to shooting and grazing Wash when Mal orders him to call the cops and let them know they are giving him up. Zoe shoots Tracey in the chest but he grabs Kaylee, asking her to help him get away, given their brief flirting and connection they had earlier. Mal faces Tracey down and while he’s distracted by Jayne advancing from his rear, Mal shoots him, incapacitating him. 

The Feds arrive in the cargo area with all hands showing guns aimed at them. The lead, Womack, starts to inform them of the multiple charges they will be facing now but Book appears and approaches him, not afraid, and calls him on his story, saying that he knows that this organ smuggling job is not an official one for them and if they happened to be shot here and left for dead, no one would be missing them. Womack takes his men and leaves the ship as Tracey apologizes for the ruse, before finally succumbing to his wounds, leaving Mal and the crew to take his body back home to his mourning family.

Shiny Trivia:

Tracey was played by Johnathan M. Woodward. He doesn’t have a whole lot of credits but was on an episode of Buffy the year before this, likely where Whedon had found him. He followed this up with 7 episodes of Angel playing Knox. Apparently, in each of his Whedon roles he appears happy and nice but eventually turns out to be the opposite.

Womack was played by Richard Burgi. He’s had a run of major recurring roles on General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, Desperate Housewives, Point Pleasant and 24, as well as a run of roles where he was a supporting or guest actor. He was the lead in The Sentinel, playing a detective with heightened senses. We’ve seen him in The Flash ‘90 episode “Deadly Nightshade” where he played Curtis Bohanon, a man wanting to atone for his father’s crimes by becoming a vigilante who brutally murders the criminals he comes across.

Heart of Gold:

Episode Title: Heart of Gold

Written by: Brett Matthews

Directed by: Thomas J. Wright

Original airdate: August 4, 2003 (second run in the UK) as episode 12

When Rance Burgess, the richest rancher on a distant planet threatens to take his unborn baby from the mother, Petaline, a prostitute working at a whorehouse, the madam, Nandi, who was once studying to be a companion, calls in a favor from her old friend Inara, who brings Serenity in to help.

Mal and Inara do some recon to learn about Rance, leading him to decide that they should all just leave. Nandi however has pride in her work and establishment that she's built up over the years and she’s ready for a fight, to which Mal and crew agrees to help with. 

Unfortunately, one of the prostitutes, Chari, has turned and informed Rance of their plans to fight him, leading him to prepare plans of his own for the next morning’s attack.

The afternoon finds Wash and Zoe preparing for the attack, discussing her desire to have a child while he is adamantly against it while the evening finds Mal getting close with Nandi, eventually spending the night with her. When Inara discovers this the next morning, she hides her disappointment but later ends up breaking down when alone. 

As Rance and his posse come riding in to take his child, in the process of being born at that moment, the Serenity crew and prostitutes attack. Meanwhile, Wash and Kaylee are trapped in Serenity by some of Rance’s men, leaving those at the whorehouse to try and hold the fort down themselves. Mal and friends manage to take out a number of men while suffering some casualties of their own, however Rance disappears from their view as he sneaks in via Chari’s subterfuge and steals the newly born baby away from Petaline.

Nandi confronts Rance while Inara grabs him from behind, holding him at knife point, allowing one of the other girls to retrieve the child. Rance manages to get the drop on Inara and fatally shoots Nandi and runs away with Mal close behind. After a brief struggle, Mal gets the better of Rance and takes him back to the whorehouse, where Petaline comes out to introduce her baby to her father before she shoots the rancher, ending his dominion over them, sending the remaining men and Chari back to town. 

Back on Serenity, Inara thanks Mal for his help while he begins to confront his hidden feelings for her, but before he can voice them she stuns him with the information that she has decided to leave Serenity.

Shiny Trivia:

Thomas J. Wright, got his start as a storyboarder on the Alfred Hitchcock film Topaz (1969), and became a production illustrator and sketch artist on films such as The Andromeda Strain, Diamonds are Forever, Jaws, Family Plot, Rocky II, Staying Alive and Terms of Endearment. As a director, he got his start in the second unit department, having worked on, again Staying Alive, as well as Beverly Hills Cop, Howard the Duck and Final Destination. His first directing credit is the film Torchlight about a young married couple whose life becomes jeopardized by cocaine abuse. He then got into television, directing on series such as The New Twilight Zone, Max Headroom, Highlander, The X-Files, Angel, CSI, Alias, Dinotopia, Smallville and Supernatural (to name just a few).

Brett Matthews was Joss Whedon’s assistant during his time on Buffy, Angel and Firefly. This episode is his first writing credit, followed by the animated shot The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. He went on to write and produce for the series Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Scream The TV Series and Legacies (where he has his only directing credit).

Melinda Clarke played Nandi, the brothel owner. She also played Lady Heather, the proprietress of a bondage establishment, in six episodes of CSI. She played Amanda in Nikita, Julie in The O.C, Margo in Soldier of Fortune (based on the movie), all with multiple seasons. She had a run of 60some episodes in Days of our Lives, but we’ve seen her as Allisandra in the Sliders episode “This Slide of Paradise.” She was also the lead role, Candy, in Killer Tongue.

Chari was played by Kimberly McCullough. She has done 1000 episodes of General Hospital, as well as the spinoff called Night Shift. The same character (Robin Scorpio) also appeared in All My Children. In recent years she’s done some directing for episodes of The Conners, Almost Family and One Day At A Time, among others. 

Fredric Lehne played Rance. He appeared in Lost as the Marshall escorting Kate. Besides making guest appearances in shows all over the place, we saw him in the Sliders episode “Dead Man Sliding” as Phil. 

In keeping with the idea of fusion between the American and Chinese cultures, during the funeral the predominant color is not black, but white, the Chinese color of mourning.

Whats Next?

Cory and Tom will be discussing episode 14, "Objects in Space."

Thanks:

For more information, head over to the Firefly-Serenity Fan Wiki. We thank them for compiling information on the show.

Contact Us:

Send us an email! TheRewatchPodcast@gmail.com

Follow the show on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and discuss Seaquest with the fans on Reddit

Support the Show:

Head over to our TeePublic store today and buy some merch! Every item sold sees a small return to us to cover our hosting costs and we appreciate every purchase.

RW355 - James Bond Rewatch - GoldenEye

In this episode of the James Bond 007 Rewatch, Cory and Nathan reevaluate where they stand as they discuss "GoldenEye."

Trailer:

The Music of GoldenEye:

The theme song, "GoldenEye", was written by Bono and the Edge, and was performed by Tina Turner. As the producers did not collaborate with Bono or the Edge, the film score did not incorporate any of the theme song's melodies, as was the case in previous James Bond films.

Swedish group Ace of Base had also written a proposed theme song, but label Arista Records pulled the band out of the project fearing the negative impact in case the film flopped. The song was then rewritten as their single "The Juvenile".

Our Favourite Trivia:

Following the release of Licence to Kill in July 1989, pre-production work for the seventeenth film began in May 1990. The project entered development hell caused by legal problems between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, parent company of the series' distributor United Artists, and Broccoli's Danjaq, owners of the Bond film rights.

With Broccoli's health deteriorating, his daughter Barbara Broccoli described him as taking "a bit of a back seat" in the film's production. Barbara and Michael G. Wilson took the lead roles in production while Albert Broccoli oversaw the production of GoldenEye as a consulting producer. Broccoli died seven months after the release.

While the story was not based on a work by Ian Fleming, the title GoldenEye traces its origins to the name of Fleming's Jamaican estate where he wrote the Bond novels.

With Dalton's contract expired, the producers chose Pierce Brosnan, who had been prevented from succeeding Roger Moore in 1986 because of his contract to star in Remington Steele. Before negotiating with Brosnan, Mel Gibson, Hugh Grant, and Liam Neeson passed on the role. Paul McGann was the studio's original choice for it. He would have been cast as Bond only if Brosnan had turned down the role.

John Woo was approached as the director, and turned down the opportunity, but said he was honored by the offer. The producers then chose New Zealander Martin Campbell as the director.

First 007 movie in the franchise to feature a woman, Dame Judi Dench, in the role of "M", head of the U.K.'s security agency MI6 (Foreign Intelligence). Dench's character was reportedly inspired by the career of Stella Rimington, former Director-General of the U.K.'s MI5 (Domestic Intelligence) and first woman to head that organization.

Licence to Kill (1989) used a contest advertising campaign to help generate interest for the movie. The winner of the contest was promised a cameo role in the next James Bond movie. Unfortunately, due to many production issues, work on this movie did not begin for many years. Nevertheless, the contest winner was given a scene after the long delay. She does not have a speaking part, but you can see her in a lovely gold and black evening dress looking over Xenia Onatopp's shoulder as she plays Baccarat against Bond.

Minnie Driver earned just $5,000 for her role as an inept singer who performs "Stand by Your Man" in Robbie Coltrane's club.

What's Up Next?

Stop the presses, next week we discuss "Tomorrow Never Dies."

Contact Us:

Send us an email! TheRewatchPodcast@gmail.com

Follow the show on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and discuss Seaquest with the fans on Reddit

Support the Show:

Head over to our TeePublic store today and buy some merch! Every item sold sees a small return to us to cover our hosting costs and we appreciate every purchase.

RW354 - Firefly S01E10-11 - War Trash

In this weeks episode of The Firefly Rewatch, Cory and Tom strike back and go antiquing as they discuss episodes 10 & 11, "War Stories" and "Trash."

War Stories:

Episode Title: War Stories

Written by: Cheryl Cain

Directed by: James Contner

Original airdate: December 6, 2002 as episode 9

While River and Kaylee playfully run around the ship, Book talks with Simon about the state of River, referencing a psychotic dictator named Shan Yu, who said the only way to know someone truly is through torture and wonders if that is why she was subjected to the experiments, to which Simon disagrees, believing that there was another goal the Alliance had in mind. At the same time, Mal’s nemesis Niska, in the middle of torturing a new victim, received word that his men have found Serenity as he gleefully orders them to bring Mal to him. 

Wash shows signs of jealousy regarding his wife Zoe’s close and long relationship with Mal. Things get further muddled between Wash and Zoe when it’s revealed that Wash’s idea of selling their previously acquired medicine without using a middle man was shot down by Mal. Zoe had told Wash she hadn’t even asked Mal about his plan, revealing she had lied to her husband to spare his feelings, and leading her to explain that she didn’t think it was a good idea, leaving him hurt with the realisation that Zoe defers to her captain over her husband.

Elsewhere River talks with Simon, enjoying the freedom his treatments have brought her but suddenly breaks down knowing that it won’t last while Wash has acted out on his feelings and switched around the shuttle controls so that HE will have to be the one to accompany Mal on their next sales trip instead of Zoe, giving him a chance to create a few old war stories with the captain.

As Wash and Mal meet up with the prospective buyers, they find themselves being attacked by Niska’s men, eventually being overcome and taken to Niska. After a freak out from Wash, Niska enters and begins his torturing. In order to keep Wash awake and from breaking, Mal continues bickering with Wash, even going so far as to suggest he and Zoe had a sexual history as well. The two even make a deal that Mal should sleep with Zoe so she can get over her fixation on the captain. 

Back on board Serenity, Inara entertains a local counselor while Zoe starts to realize something is wrong when Mal and Wash are late from their trip. She, Book, and Jayne go to investigate and from what they see, Zoe surmises it was the work of Niska and hatches a plan to go and barter for Wash and Mal’s lives, taking all their profits from the medicine sales. 

Niska accepts the money but says it is not enough for both of them and asks her to choose to which she immediately picks Wash and the two leave but not before Niska cuts off Mal’s ear to give her a little refund from the money. 

Once back on board Serenity, Wash, impressed with Mal’s ability to not break, decides that they have to go back and get him, and the whole crew jumps in to assist, including Simon and River. 

Meanwhile, Mal continues being tortured horribly, and eventually dies but is quickly revived by Niska so he can drag out the pain for longer. Serenity’s crew manages to cut their engines and drift in silently to get the jump on Niska’s men, leading to a firefight in which Book effortlessly shoots off the enemy’s kneecaps and River, grabbing a gun from a shell shocked Kaylee, fires at several guards with her eyes closed, hitting them all and killing them instantly. 

The distraction of the attack allows Mal to get the upper hand with Niska, knocking him down but then results in him fighting with a henchman and Niska escapes. As Zoe, Jayne and Wash enter the room, Zoe tells them that Mal wants to handle the fight himself to which he quickly yells his disagreement and they all open fire, sending the henchman to his death. 

Back on board Serenity, his ear healed, Mal tells Zoe that he and Wash made a deal that the two need to have sex in order for the three of them to fix their relationship, to which Wash responds by quickly taking a Zoe away to their bunk.

Shiny Trivia:

James Contner is a director we’ve seen many times before; he directed The Flash ‘90 episode “Twin Streaks”, the Lois & Clark episode “Honeymoon in Metropolis” and the SeaQuest episode “Greed for a Pirate Dream.”

Cheryl Cain only has 3 writing credits on IMDb; this episode of Firefly, an episode of Roswell and an episode of Threat Matrix.

The counselor was played by Katherine Kendall, who is known for playing the Dorothy impersonator in Swingers. She’s had a handful of small roles but starred in Deep in the Valley with Chris Pratt, Tracy Morgan and Denise Richards (two guys get transported to an alternate reality based on porn plot lines). 

The Tortured Man was played by Johnny Shakespeare. He was in Fright House and Vampires, playing a workman in both. 

The torturer was John Dunn who had a small part in the sequel to Hard Ticket To Hawaii called Picasso Trigger.

Shanyu or Chanyu, was the title used by the rulers of the Xiongnu, a nomadic Altaic people. Thus Shan Yu may be named after Modu Chanyu the Hun, though he does not appear to be the same individual. Shan Yu is also probably based on Xiang Yu, a Qin Dynasty era Chinese military leader and political figure. In popular culture, Shan Yu is also the villain in the Disney movie Mulan.

Trash:

Episode Title: Trash

Written by: Ben Edlund & Jose Molina

Directed by: Vern Gillum

Original airdate: July 28, 2003 (second run in the UK) as episode 13

Mal faces off against Saffron once again when she turns up married to an old friend of his during a routine drop off. The two spar before Mal’s friend breaks it up and takes off, leaving Mal to deal with her, which he does by ordering her to leave but  she seems to pique his interest regarding an item she had heard of and foolproof plans of how to get it.

Mal returns to his ship and visits Inara who had requested he stop by. She suspects that Mal has been finding less jobs in order to impact her finding less clients to which he denies. As they argue, Inara insults him by calling him a petty thief, getting under his skin enough so that he reveals to the crew that he has brought Saffron aboard inside a cargo crate to explain her plan to steal a valuable laser from a man named Durran. While the crew wants a high paying job, they make their misgivings about Saffron known, ending with Zoe punching her, and Inara insulting them for trusting the con artist. 

As the plan begins, Mal and Saffron easily locate the laser but are caught by Durran in the room. While it looks like all is lost, the man changes when he sees Saffron, calling her Yolanda and thanking Mal for returning his wife to him. 

Meanwhile, Jayne is attempting to replace a circuit board on a trash receptacle, part of the plan to order the bin to their own chosen set of coordinates after Mal and Saffron toss the laser in the trash after stealing it. Unfortunately he gets knocked out from a shock and is left incapacitated, leaving Kaylee and Zoe to attempt it. 

After Durran leaves the room in order to get Mal a reward, he begins disabling the security around the laser, commenting that he thinks Durran is actually her true husband to which she responds by holding him up at gunpoint. Durran returns  and while Saffron tries to explain it away, he reveals that he notified the authorities as soon as he had seen her, via a silent alarm on his ring. Saffron ends up knocking him out as Mal and her begin to try to escape the building while the alliance begins to pour into it, eventually getting away. As the two talk on the shuttle, she manages to dupe Mal again  and gets his pistol, ordering him to strip down and then leaving him on the planet below.

Meanwhile, Kaylee managed to get the circuit board in place just in the nick of time, sending the garbage off to their rendezvous point while Jayne awakes immobilized in the med bay. Simon explains that he did that to Jayne so that he wouldn’t further hurt his spine after his fall earlier. Simon then reveals he knows that Jayne ratted them out back on Ariel, but despite that and what may happen in the future, he won’t harm Jayne because he is a doctor. River adds that if Jayne ever did plot against them, that she could kill him with her brain, which leaves him shook while Kaylee deals with a sabotaged engine due to Saffron’s earlier machinations. 

Back at the rendezvous point, we see Saffron desperately searching the garbage bin for the laser, looking disheveled and dirty, when Inara appears and holds her at gunpoint, explaining that the whole plan was a ruse in which the Serenity crew had actually duped Saffron, as she closed the garbage bin lid, waiting for pickup from the authorities, as Mal returns to the now working Serenity, commenting on the successful heist.

Shiny Trivia:

Franc Ross played Monty Reynolds. We’ve seen him before in the Sliders episode “The Other Slide Of Darkness” as Billy T. He’s had bit parts here and there, including 15 episodes of Days of Our Lives.

Durran was played by Dwier Brown. We’ve seen him in the Quantum Leap episode “Promised Land” (3 brothers in Sam’s hometown trying to rob a bank). He’s had some lead roles in movies like The Intervention and Rip Girls, as well as supporting roles like House and House II and guest spots in TV shows.

Nathan Fillion wore a picture of director Joss Whedon over his private bits during some of the nude scenes. For other takes, he wore a sack displaying a figure reminiscent of Wilson from the film Cast Away (2000).

The tattoo visible on Mal's hip is an Egyptian glyph meaning peace. Nathan Fillion got it at the age of 19 and reportedly regrets it.

Whats Next?

Cory and Tom will be discussing episodes 12 & 13, "The Message" & "Heart of Gold."

Thanks:

For more information, head over to the Firefly-Serenity Fan Wiki. We thank them for compiling information on the show.

Contact Us:

Send us an email! TheRewatchPodcast@gmail.com

Follow the show on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and discuss Seaquest with the fans on Reddit

Support the Show:

Head over to our TeePublic store today and buy some merch! Every item sold sees a small return to us to cover our hosting costs and we appreciate every purchase.