JAMES BOND - Tomorrow Never Dies - JONATHAN PRYCE - Autograph Card A1 - 2002

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JAMES BOND - Tomorrow Never Dies - JONATHAN PRYCE - Personally Signed Limited Edition Autograph Card A1 - 40th Anniversary Set - Rittenhouse Archives 2002.

Jonathan Pryce CBE (born John Price ; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Pryce began his career as a stage actor in the early 1970s. His work in theatre, including an award-winning performance in the title role of the Royal Court Theatre's Hamlet , led to several supporting roles in film and television. His breakthrough screen performance was in Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil . Critically lauded for his versatility, Pryce has appeared in big-budget films including Evita , Tomorrow Never Dies , and Pirates of the Caribbean , as well as independent films such as Glengarry Glen Ross , The Age of Innocence , Carrington , The New World and The Wife .

Pryce's career in theatre has also been prolific, and he has won two Tony Awards—the first in 1977 for his Broadway debut in Comedians , the second for his 1991 role as The Engineer in the musical Miss Saigon . He was a guest actor as the High Sparrow in the HBO series Game of Thrones in 2015, before becoming a main cast member in 2016. Since early 2017, he has starred as Sir Stuart Strange in the series Taboo . In 2019, Pryce earned his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Pope Francis in The Two Popes .

Early life

Pryce was born John Price on 1 June 1947 in Carmel, Flintshire, the son of Margaret Ellen (née Williams) and Isaac Price, a former coal miner who ran a small general grocery shop with his wife. He has two older sisters and was raised a Welsh Presbyterian. He was educated at Holywell Grammar School and, at the age of 16, went to art college before he started training to be a teacher at Edge Hill College (now Edge Hill University) in Ormskirk, Lancashire. While studying, he took part in a college theatre production. An impressed tutor suggested he should become an actor, and applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for an application form on his behalf; Pryce was subsequently awarded a scholarship to RADA. When he joined Equity, he took "Jonathan Pryce" as his stage name because his birth name was too similar to that of a performer already represented by Equity. While at RADA, Pryce worked as a door-to-door salesman of velvet paintings.

Career

1970s

Despite finding RADA "strait-laced" and being told by his tutor that he could never aspire to do more than playing villains on Z-Cars , Pryce joined the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool upon graduation and eventually became its Artistic Director, as well as performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Nottingham Playhouse. To gain his Equity card, he made his first screen appearance in a minor role in "Fire & Brimstone", a 1972 episode of the sci-fi programme Doomwatch . He then starred in two television films, both directed by Stephen Frears: Daft as a Brush and Playthings . After the Everyman, Pryce joined director Sir Richard Eyre at the Nottingham Playhouse and starred in the Trevor Griffiths play Comedians , in a role specially written for him. The production then transferred to London's Old Vic Theatre and he reprised the role on Broadway in 1976, this time directed by Mike Nichols, for which he won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. It was around this time that he appeared in his first movie role, playing the character Joseph Manasse in the film drama Voyage of the Damned , starring Faye Dunaway. He did not, however, abandon the stage, appearing from 1978 to 1979 in the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of The Taming of the Shrew as Petruchio, and Antony and Cleopatra as Octavius Caesar.

1980s

In 1980, his performance in the title role of Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre won him an Olivier Award, and was acclaimed by some critics as the definitive Hamlet of his generation. That year, Pryce had a small but pivotal role as Zarniwoop in the 12th episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, one that he reprised for the Quintessential Phase which was broadcast in 2005. In his original role as Zarniwoop, Pryce's character questions the "ruler of the Universe", a solipsist who has been chosen to rule arguably because of either his inherent manipulability, or immunity therefrom, on his philosophical opinions. Around the same time, in 1980, he also appeared in the film Breaking Glass . In 1983, Pryce played the role of the sinister Mr. Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes , based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same title. After appearing mostly in films, such as the Ian McEwan-scripted The Ploughman's Lunch , and Martin Luther, Heretic (both also 1983), he achieved a breakthrough with his role as the subdued protagonist Sam Lowry in the Terry Gilliam film, Brazil (1985). After Brazil , Pryce appeared in the historical thriller The Doctor and the Devils (also 1985) and then in the Gene Wilder-directed film Haunted Honeymoon (1986). During this period of his life, Pryce continued to perform on stage, and gained particular notice as the successful but self-doubting writer Trigorin in a London production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in late 1985. From 1986 to 1987 Pryce played the lead part in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth , which also starred Sinéad Cusack as Lady Macbeth.

Pryce worked once again with Gilliam in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), playing "The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson". The film was a notorious financial fiasco, with production costing more than $40 million, when the original budget was $23.5 million. The following year Pryce appeared in three of the earliest episodes of the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? , alongside Paul Merton and John Sessions, and in Uncle Vanya , again a play by Chekhov, at the Vaudeville Theatre.

1990s

After a series of major dramatic roles on stage, including Vanya and Macbeth, Pryce decided he wanted to do musicals after seeing his friend Patti LuPone in the original London production of Les Misérables . He successfully returned to the stage originating the role of The Engineer, a Eurasian pimp, in the West End musical Miss Saigon . His performance was praised in England where he won the Olivier and Variety Club awards, but when the production transferred to Broadway the Actors' Equity Association (AEA) would not allow Pryce to portray The Engineer because, according to their executive secretary, "[t]he casting of a Caucasian actor made up to appear Asian is an affront to the Asian community." Cameron Mackintosh, the show's producer, decided to cancel the $10 million New York production because, he said, he would not let the freedom of artistic expression be attacked. Realizing that its decision would result in the loss of many jobs, and after Pryce received much support from the acting community (both Charlton Heston and John Malkovich threatened to leave the union if Pryce was not allowed to perform) the AEA decided to make a deal with Mackintosh, allowing Pryce to appear in the production. He then, in 1991, won a Tony Award for his performance. Made in the same period, Pryce starred in the ITV mini-series Selling Hitler (1991) as Gerd Heidemann. Pryce returned to the London stage the following year to star for one night only at the Royal Festival Hall for an AIDS charity alongside Elaine Paige and Lilliane Montivecchi in the 1992 revival of the Federico Fellini-inspired musical Nine .

Pryce featured, alongside Kathy Burke and Minnie Driver, in the BBC serial Mr. Wroe's Virgins (1993), directed by Danny Boyle. Pryce played Henry Kravis in the HBO produced made-for-TV movie Barbarians at the Gate (1993). He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and for a Golden Globe Award for his role. Also during 1993, Pryce starred alongside River Phoenix and Judy Davis in the unfinished film Dark Blood , but production had to be shut down when, 11 days short of completion, Phoenix died from a drug overdose. Director George Sluizer, who owns the rights to what has been filmed, has made available some of the raw material, which features Pryce and Phoenix on a field in Utah, on his personal website. Between 1993 and 1997, Pryce, on a multimillion-dollar contract became the spokesman for the Infiniti automobile marque in a series of American television commercials, in particular for the Infiniti J30 and Infiniti Q45. In one of these advertisements Pryce appeared alongside jazz singer Nancy Wilson in a Prague nightclub. In 1994, Pryce portrayed Fagin in a revival of the musical Oliver! , and starred alongside Emma Thompson in the film Carrington (1995), which centres on a platonic relationship between gay writer Lytton Strachey and painter Dora Carrington. For his portrayal of Strachey, Pryce received the Best Actor Award at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

2000s

During the early 2000s Pryce starred and participated in a variety of movies, such as The Affair of the Necklace (2001), Unconditional Love (2002), What a Girl Wants (2003), and Terry Gilliam's aborted project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote . While the success of some of these films was variable, the 2001 London stage production of My Fair Lady and his portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins was acclaimed by observers. This production turned out to be very stressful for Pryce because Martine McCutcheon, who portrayed Eliza Doolittle, was sick during much of the show's run. McCutcheon was replaced by her understudy Alexandra Jay, who would also fall sick hours before a performance, forcing her understudy, Kerry Ellis, to take the lead. Pryce was understandably upset and on her first night introduced Ellis to the audience before the show by saying "This will be your first Eliza, my second today and my third this week. Any member of the audience interested in playing Eliza can find applications at the door. Wednesday and Saturday matinee available." Pryce ended up dealing with four Elizas during the course of 14 months. Despite the difficulty, the show was nominated for four Laurence Olivier Awards on 2001: Best Actress in a Musical for Martine McCutcheon, Outstanding Musical Production, Best Theatre Choreographer and Best Actor in a Musical for Pryce. Pryce lost to Philip Quast, although ironically McCutcheon won in her category having played fewer performances than any of her understudies. Pryce did express interest in doing My Fair Lady in New York, but when asked if he would do it with McCutcheon he said that "there's as much chance of me getting a date with Julia Roberts as doing My Fair Lady in New York with Martine McCutcheon."

In April 2003 Pryce returned to the non-musical stage with A Reckoning , written by American dramatist Wesley Moore. The play co-starred Flora Montgomery and after premiering at the Soho Theatre in London was described by The Daily Telegraph as "one of the most powerful and provocative new American plays to have opened since David Mamet's Oleanna ." Pryce had a role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), in which he portrayed a fictional Governor of Jamaica, Weatherby Swann, a film he has described as "one of those why-not movies." After Pirates , Pryce appeared in several large-scale motion pictures, such as De-Lovely (2004), his second musical film, a chronicle of the life of songwriter Cole Porter, for which Kevin Kline and Pryce covered a Porter song called "Blow, Gabriel, Blow". The Brothers Grimm (2005), Pryce's third completed film with Terry Gilliam, starred Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, and The New World (2005), in which he had a cameo role as King James I. In 2005, Pryce was nominated for another Olivier Award in the best actor category for his role in the 2004 London production of The Goat or Who is Sylvia? , where he played Martin, a goat-lover who has to face the recriminations of his cheated-on wife, played by his real-life wife Kate Fahy. Pryce's performance was highly praised, but he lost the Olivier to Richard Griffiths.

Pryce lent his voice to the French animated film, Renaissance (2006), which he stated he wanted to do because he had never "done anything quite like it before." He reprised the role of Governor Weatherby Swann for the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). Both were filmed at the same time but released a year apart. Pryce returned to the Broadway stage replacing John Lithgow, from January to July 2006, as Lawrence Jameson in the musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels . During early 2007, the BBC serial Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars was first broadcast with Pryce in the lead. From September 2007 through June 2008, he returned to the theatre portraying Shelly Levene in a new West End production of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross at the Apollo Theatre, London.

In 2015 he joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones in Season 5 as the High Sparrow. Pryce admitted that one of the main reasons he took on the role was because of how influential the character is plot-wise. While initially being quite sceptical about "sword and sorcery" shows, Pryce later had a change of heart after his positive experiences on the Thrones sets. In 2015 he also appeared at The Globe Theatre as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice . His real life daughter Phoebe played Shylock's daughter Jessica. In 2015, he joined the cast of The Healer starring with Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Camilla Luddington, and Jorge Garcia.

Personal life

While working at the Everyman Theatre in 1972, Pryce met actress Kate Fahy; after a decades-long relationship, they married in 2015. They live in London and have three children together: two sons named Patrick (born 1983) and Gabriel (born 1986), and a daughter named Phoebe (born 1990). In 2006, Pryce was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Liverpool. He is a fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Pryce was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

Filmography

Film

Year

Title

Role

Notes

1976

Voyage of the Damned

Joseph Manasse

1980

Breaking Glass

Ken

1981

Loophole

Taylor

1982

Praying Mantis

Christian Magny

1983

Something Wicked this Way Comes

Mr. Dark

The Ploughman's Lunch

James Penfield

Martin Luther, Heretic

Martin Luther

1985

Brazil

Sam Lowry

The Doctor and the Devils

Robert Fallon

1986

Haunted Honeymoon

Charles Abbot

Jumpin' Jack Flash

Jack

1987

Man on Fire

Michael

1988

Consuming Passions

Mr Farris

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson

1989

The Rachel Papers

Norman

1992

Glengarry Glen Ross

James Lingk

Freddie as F.R.O.7

Trilby (voice)

1993

Dark Blood

Harry

The Age of Innocence

Rivière

1994

A Business Affair

Alec Bolton

A Troll in Central Park

Alan (voice)

Deadly Advice

Dr. Ted Philips

Great Moments in Aviation

Duncan Stewart

Shopping

Conway

1995

Carrington

Lytton Strachey

1996

Evita

Colonel Juan Perón

1997

Regeneration / Behind the Lines

Dr. William Rivers

Tomorrow Never Dies

Elliot Carver

1998

Ronin

Seamus O'Rourke

1999

Stigmata

Cardinal Houseman

Deceit

Mark

2001

The Affair of the Necklace

Cardinal Louis de Rohan

Bride of the Wind

Gustav Mahler

Very Annie Mary

Jack Pugh

2002

Unconditional Love

Victor Fox

2003

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Governor Weatherby Swann

What a Girl Wants

Alistair Payne

2004

De-Lovely

Gabriel

2005

The Brothers Grimm

General Vavarin Delatombe

The New World

King James

Brothers of the Head

Henry Couling

2006

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Governor Weatherby Swann

Renaissance

Paul Dellenbach (voice)

2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Governor Weatherby Swann

2008

Leatherheads

CC Frazier

Bedtime Stories

Marty Bronson

2009

Echelon Conspiracy

Mueller

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

President of the United States

2011

Hysteria

Dr. Robert Dalrymple

2013

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

President of the United States

2014

Listen Up Philip

Ike Zimmerman

The Salvation

Mayor Keane

2015

Woman in Gold

Chief Justice William Rehnquist

Narcopolis

Yuri Sidorov

Dough

Nat

2016

The White King

Colonel Fitz

2017

The Ghost and The Whale

Whale

The Healer

Raymond Heacock

The Wife

Joe Castleman

The Man Who Invented Christmas

John Dickens

2018

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Don Quixote

2019

The Two Popes

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Note: The source for Pryce's filmography is taken from the British Film Institute.

Television

Year

Title

Role

Notes

1972

Doomwatch

Police Constable

1975

Daft As a Brush

Donald

Television film

1975, 1979

Play for Today

Gethin Price / Tommy

2 episodes

1976

BBC2 Playhouse

Playleader

Episode: "Play Things"

Bill Brand

Jamie Finn

Episode: "It Is the People Who Create"

1977

After the Boom Was Over

Mr. Ambrose

Television film

Chalk and Cheese

Dave Finn

Episode: "Pilot"

1978

Daft As a Brush

Donald

Television film

1980

The Day Christ Died

Herod Antipas

Television film

Spine Chillers

Reader

5 episodes

1981

Timon of Athens

Timon

Television film

Roger Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Roger Flower

6 episodes

Theatre Box

Drippens

Episode: "School for Clowns"

1982

Murder Is Easy

Mr. Ellsworthy

Television film

1983

Praying Mantis

Christian Magny

Television film

1988

Tickets for the Titanic

Rev Richard Hopkins

Episode: "Everyone a Winner"

The Storyteller

King

Episode: "The Three Ravens"

1988, 1989

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Himself

6 episodes

1990

Screen Two

William Wallace

Episode: "The Man from the Pru"

The Jim Henson Hour

King

Episode: "Food"

1991

Selling Hitler

Gerd Heidemann

5 episodes

1993

Mr. Wroe's Virgins

John Wroe

4 episodes

Barbarians at the Gate

Henry Kravis

Television film

Thicker than Water

Sam

Television film

1997

David

Saul

Television film

1999

Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death

The Master

Television short

2001

Victoria & Albert

King Leopold I of Belgium

2 episodes

2002

The Wonderful World of Disney

Master Schoenmacker

1 Episode

2007

Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars

Sherlock Holmes

Television film

2008

My Zinc Bed

Victor Quinn

Television film

Clone

Dr. Victor Blenkinsop

6 episodes

2009

Return to Cranford

Mr. Buxton

2 episodes

2015

Under Milk Wood

Mr. Pugh

Television film

Wolf Hall

Cardinal Wolsey

4 episodes

2015–16

Game of Thrones

The High Sparrow

12 episodes

2016

To Walk Invisible

Patrick Brontë

Television film

2017

Taboo

Sir Stuart Strange

8 episodes

Tomorrow Never Dies is a 1997 spy film and the eighteenth entry in the James Bond series to be produced by Eon Productions, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, with the screenplay written by Bruce Feirstein, the film follows Bond as he attempts to stop Elliot Carver, a power-mad media mogul, from engineering world events to initiate World War III.

The film was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and was the first James Bond film made after the death of producer Albert R. Broccoli, to whom the movie pays tribute in the end credits. Filming locations included France, Thailand, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Tomorrow Never Dies performed well at the box office, grossing over $333 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest grossing film of 1997 and earned a Golden Globe nomination despite mixed reviews. While its performance at the domestic box office surpassed that of its predecessor, GoldenEye , it was the only one of Pierce Brosnan's Bond films not to open at number one at the box office, as it opened the same day as Titanic , and finished at number two that week.

Plot

MI6 sends James Bond, agent 007, into the field to spy on a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border. Despite M's insistence on letting 007 finish his reconnaissance, Royal Navy Admiral Roebuck orders the frigate HMS Chester to fire a missile at the bazaar. Bond then discovers two nuclear torpedoes mounted on an L-39 Albatros, and is forced to pilot the L-39 away seconds before the bazaar is destroyed.

Media baron Elliot Carver begins his plans to use an encoder obtained at the bazaar by his henchman, cyberterrorist Henry Gupta, to provoke war between China and the UK. Meaconing the GPS signal using the encoder, Gupta sends the frigate HMS Devonshire off-course into Chinese-held waters in the South China Sea, where Carver's stealth ship, commanded by Mr. Stamper, ambushes it – sinking it in the process – and steals one of its missiles, while shooting down a Chinese J-7 fighter jet investigating the scene and killing off the Devonshire 's survivors with Chinese weaponry. The British Minister of Defence orders Roebuck to deploy the fleet to recover the frigate, and possibly retaliate, leaving M only 48 hours to investigate its sinking and avert a war.

M sends Bond to investigate Carver after he releases news articles about the crisis hours before MI6 had learned of it. Bond travels to Hamburg to seduce Carver's wife, Paris, who is also an ex-girlfriend of Bond's from many years before, to get information that would help him enter Carver's newspaper headquarters. He defeats three of Stamper's men, cuts Carver off the air during the inaugural broadcast of his satellite network, and recovers the GPS encoder; Carver orders Paris and Bond killed. Carver's assassin Dr. Kaufman kills Paris, but after Bond finds Paris' body, Kaufman attempts to shoot him. Bond is able to kill Kaufman and escapes, protecting the encoder.

At a U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Bond learns that the encoder had been tampered with, and goes to the South China Sea to investigate the wreck (which was actually in Vietnamese waters). He and Wai Lin, a Chinese agent on the same case, explore the sunken ship and discover one of its cruise missiles missing, but are captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Saigon. They soon escape and decide to collaborate on the investigation. The two contact the Royal Navy and the People's Liberation Army Air Force to explain Carver's scheme; Carver plans to destroy the Chinese government with the stolen missile, allowing a Chinese general to step in and stop war between Britain and China, both of which have waged a naval war. Once the conflict is over, Carver will be given exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century. Finding Carver's stealth ship, they board it to prevent him from firing the missile at Beijing.

During the attempt, Wai Lin is captured, forcing Bond to devise a second plan. Bond captures Gupta to use as his own hostage, but Carver kills Gupta, claiming he has "outlived his contract." Bond detonates an explosive which damages the ship, rendering it visible to the Chinese and British navies' radars, and vulnerable to a subsequent Royal Navy attack. While Wai Lin disables the engines, she is recaptured by Stamper. Bond kills Carver with his own sea drill and attempts to destroy the warhead with detonators, but Stamper attacks him, and sends a chained Wai Lin into the water. Bond traps Stamper in the missile firing mechanism and saves Wai Lin as the missile explodes, destroying the ship and killing Stamper. Bond and Wai Lin share a romantic moment amidst the wreckage as HMS Bedford searches for them.

Cast
  • Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, MI6 agent 007.

  • Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver, a psychopathic media mogul who plans to provoke global war to boost sales and ratings of his news divisions.

  • Michelle Yeoh as Colonel Wai Lin, a skilled Chinese spy and Bond's ally.

  • Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver, a former girlfriend of Bond who is now Carver's trophy wife.

  • Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade, CIA liaison, reprising his role from GoldenEye .

  • Ricky Jay as Henry Gupta, an American "techno-terrorist" in the employ of Carver. Bruce Feirstein said he named this character after a Gupta Bakery, which he passed on the way to the studios.

  • Götz Otto as Richard Stamper, Carver's henchman, who is skilled in the art of Chakra torture.

  • Desmond Llewelyn in his penultimate appearance as Q, MI6's gadget-master.

  • Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufman, a professional assassin used by Elliot Carver.

  • Geoffrey Palmer as Rear Admiral Roebuck, M's contentious military contact.

  • Colin Salmon as Charles Robinson, M's Deputy Chief of Staff.

  • Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary.

  • Judi Dench as M, head of MI6, reprising her role from GoldenEye .

  • Nina Young as Tamara Steel, Carver's anchor.

  • Daphne Deckers as PR person of Carver Media Group Network.

  • Julian Fellowes as the British Minister of Defence, who orders Admiral Roebuck to send the fleet to the China Sea. He is the successor to Sir Frederick Gray (Geoffrey Keen).

  • Cecilie Thomsen as Professor Inga Bergstrom.

  • Gerard Butler as a HMS Devonshire seaman.

  • Julian Rhind-Tutt as a HMS Devonshire yeoman.

  • Hugh Bonneville as a HMS Bedford Air Warfare Officer.

Production

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. Co-producer Michael G. Wilson also expressed concern regarding the public's expectations subsequent to the success of GoldenEye , commenting: "You realize that there's a huge audience and I guess you don't want to come out with a film that's going to somehow disappoint them." 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 rush to complete the film drove the budget to $110 million. 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.

Writing

As had been the case with several previous films in the series, an entirely original story was required as there remained no Ian Fleming novels or stories to adapt. The scriptwriting process was finished very late due to lengthy disputes.

Initial writers on the project included John Cork, Richard Smith, and novelist Donald E. Westlake. In 1995 Westlake wrote two story treatments in collaboration with Wilson, both of which featured a villain who plans to destroy Hong Kong with explosives on the eve of the city's July 1997 transfer of sovereignty to China. Westlake used some of his ideas for a novel he completed the next year, though it wasn't published until 2017 under the title Forever and a Death . Director Roger Spottiswoode said that in January 1997 MGM had a script that was also focused on the Hong Kong handover; however, this plot could not be used for a film opening at the end of the year, so they had to start "almost from scratch at T-minus zero!"

Bruce Feirstein, who had worked on GoldenEye , wrote the initial script. Feirstein claimed that his inspiration was his own experience working with journalism, stating that he aimed to "write something that was grounded in a nightmare of reality." Feirstein's script was then passed to Spottiswoode, who gathered seven Hollywood screenwriters in London to brainstorm, eventually choosing Nicholas Meyer to perform rewrites. The script was also worked on by Dan Petrie, Jr. and David Campbell Wilson before Feirstein was brought in for a final polish. (Although Feirstein retained sole writing credit in the film and in the advertising, Meyer, Petrie and Wilson were given credit with Feirstein on the title page of the film's novelization by Raymond Benson.) While many reviewers compared Elliot Carver to Rupert Murdoch, Feirstein based the character on Robert Maxwell. There is a reference to the mogul's death when M instructs Moneypenny to issue a press release stating that Carver died "falling overboard on his yacht."

Wilson stated, "We didn't have a script that was ready to shoot on the first day of filming", while Pierce Brosnan said, "We had a script that was not functioning in certain areas." The Daily Mail reported on arguments between Spottiswoode and the producers with the former favouring the Petrie version, but the latter reinstating Feirstein to rewrite it two weeks before filming was due to begin. They also said that Jonathan Pryce and Teri Hatcher were unhappy with their new roles, causing further re-scripting.

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.

Casting

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." Actress Sela Ward had auditioned for the role, but lost out, reportedly being told the producers wanted her, but ten years younger. Hatcher, at 32, was seven years Ward's junior and was in the midst of playing Lois Lane on the television show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman for which she had been voted the "Sexiest Woman on Television" by readers of TV Guide the previous year. According to Brosnan, Monica Bellucci also screen tested for the role but as Brosnan remarked, "the fools said no." Daphne Deckers, who portrays the PR Lady, also confirms that she saw Belluci the same day she herself auditioned. Bellucci would later go on to play a role in the 24th Bond film, Spectre .

The role of Elliot Carver was initially offered to Anthony Hopkins (who also had been offered a role in GoldenEye ), 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.

When Götz Otto was called in for casting, he was given twenty seconds to introduce himself; his hair had recently been cropped short for a TV role. Saying, "I'm big, I'm bad, and I'm German", he did it in five.

Filming

Second unit filming began on 18 January 1997 with Vic Armstrong directing; they filmed the pre-credits sequence at Peyresourde Airport [fr] in Peyragudes, in the French Pyrenees, and moved on to Portsmouth to film the scenes where the Royal Navy prepares to engage the Chinese, with HMS Westminster (F237) standing in for the various fictional Type 23 Frigates in the story. The main unit began filming on 1 April. They were unable to use the Leavesden Film Studios, which they had constructed from an abandoned Rolls-Royce factory for GoldenEye , as George Lucas was using it for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , so instead they constructed sound stages in another derelict industrial site nearby. They also used the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios. The scene at the "U.S. Air Base in the South China Sea" where Bond hands over the GPS encoder was actually filmed in the area known as Blue Section at RAF Lakenheath. The sea landing used the vast tank built for Titanic in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. The MH-53J in the film was from the US Air Force's 352d Special Operations Group at RAF Mildenhall. Some scenes were planned to be filmed on location in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the production had been granted a visa. This was later rescinded, two months after planning had begun, forcing filming to move to Bangkok, Thailand. Bond spokesman Gordon Arnell claimed the Vietnamese were unhappy with crew and equipment needed for pyrotechnics, with a Vietnamese official saying it was due to "many complicated reasons". Two locations from previous Bond films were used: Brosnan and Hatcher's love scene was filmed at Stoke Park, which had been featured in Goldfinger , and the bay where they search for Carver's stealth boat is Phang Nga Bay, Thailand, previously used for The Man with the Golden Gun .

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 car chase sequence with the 750i took three weeks to film, with Brent Cross car park being used to simulate Hamburg – although the final leap was filmed on location. A stunt involving setting fire to three vehicles produced more smoke than anticipated, causing a member of the public to call the fire brigade. The upwards camera angle filming the HALO jump created the illusion of having the stuntman opening its parachute close to the water.

During filming, there were reports of disputes on set. The Daily Mail reported that Spottiswoode and Feirstein were no longer on speaking terms and that crew members had threatened to resign, with one saying "All the happiness and teamwork which is the hallmark of Bond has disappeared completely." This was denied by Brosnan who claimed "It was nothing more than good old creative argy-bargy", with Spottiswoode saying "It has all been made up...Nothing important really went wrong." Spottiswoode did not return to direct the next film; he said the producers asked him, but he was too tired. Apparently, Brosnan and Hatcher feuded briefly during filming due to her arriving late onto the set one day. The matter was quickly resolved though and Brosnan apologised to Hatcher after realising she was pregnant and was late for that reason.

Tomorrow Never Dies marked the first appearance of the Walther P99 as Bond's pistol. It replaced the Walther PPK that the character had carried in every Eon Bond film since Dr. No in 1962, with the exception of Moonraker in which Bond was not seen with a pistol. Walther wanted to debut its new firearm in a Bond film, which had been one of its most visible endorsers. Previously the P5 was introduced in Octopussy . Bond would use the P99 until Daniel Craig reverted to the PPK as 007 in Quantum of Solace in 2008.

Music

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 according to his then-agent Richard Kraft. Barbara Broccoli subsequently chose David Arnold to score Tomorrow Never Dies on a recommendation from Barry. Arnold had come to Barry's attention through his successful cover interpretations in Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project , which featured major artists performing the former James Bond title songs in new arrangements. Arnold said that his score aimed for "a classic sound but [with] a modern approach", combining techno music with a recognisably Barry-inspired "classic Bond" sound–notably Arnold borrowed from Barry's score for From Russia with Love . The score was done across a period of six months, with Arnold writing music and revising previous pieces as he received edited footage of the film. The music for the indoor car chase sequence was co-written with the band Propellerheads, who had worked with Arnold on Shaken and Stirred . The soundtrack was well received by critics with Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks describing it as "an excellent tribute to the entire series of Bond score".

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. Arnold's composition, "Surrender", performed by k.d. lang, was still used for the end titles, and features the same prominent melodic motif as the film's score. This was the fourth Bond film to have different opening and closing songs. Moby created a remake of the "James Bond Theme" to be used for the movie. Two different versions of the soundtrack album were released, the first featuring only music from the first half of the film, and the second rectifying this but cutting several tracks, including the songs, to make room for the missing score tracks. Pulp's effort was re-titled as "Tomorrow Never Lies" and appeared as a b-side on their single "Help The Aged".

Release and reception

The film had a World Charity Premiere at The Odeon Leicester Square, on 9 December 1997; this was followed by an after premiere party at Bedford Square, home of original Ian Fleming publisher, Jonathan Cape. The film went on general release in the UK and Iceland on 12 December and in most other countries during the following week. It opened at number 2 in the US, with $25,143,007 from 2,807 cinemas – average of $8,957 per cinema – behind Titanic , which would become the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point. Tomorrow Never Dies ultimately achieved a worldwide gross of over $330 million, although it did not surpass its predecessor GoldenEye , which grossed almost $20 million more.

The critical reception of the film was mixed, with the film review collection website Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 58% rating, and similar site Metacritic rating it at 52%. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

In the Chicago Sun-Times , Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four-stars, saying "Tomorrow Never Dies gets the job done, sometimes excitingly, often with style" with the villain "slightly more contemporary and plausible than usual", bringing "some subtler-than-usual satire into the film". James Berardinelli described it as "the best Bond film in many years" and said Brosnan "inhabits his character with a suave confidence that is very like Connery's." However, in the Los Angeles Times , Kenneth Turan thought a lot of Tomorrow Never Dies had a "stodgy, been-there feeling", with little change from previous films, and Charles Taylor wrote for Salon.com that the film was "a flat, impersonal affair".

The title song sung by Sheryl Crow was nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Original Song – Motion Picture" and a Grammy for "Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television". The film received four nominations for Saturn Awards, with Brosnan winning "Best Actor". It also won a MPSE Golden Reel Award for "Best Sound Editing – Foreign Feature" and a BMI Film Music Award.

The original UK release received various cuts to scenes of violence and martial arts weaponry, and to reduce the impact of sound effects, to receive a more box-office-friendly 12 certificate. Further cuts were made to the video/DVD release to retain this rating. These edits were restored for the Ultimate Edition DVD release in the UK, which was consequently upgraded to a 15 certificate. However, upon the release of the Blu-ray in 2012, it was rated back down to a 12 uncut.

Reflective reviews

Critics and audiences today have started appreciating Tomorrow Never Dies for its prescience. Den of Geek, on the film's twentieth anniversary, observed of the film's plot: "It’s an improbable set-up which was likely intended as a satire of Murdoch’s unaccountable media empire, but the risks of such technological manipulation have since proved to be frighteningly plausible." Den of Geek also highlights that "technology wasn’t the only modern danger to be pre-empted by Tomorrow Never Dies – it also offers a revealing peak into the confused state of the British national psyche, which might help to explain the country’s ongoing Brexit debates." Similarly, Headstuff highlights its relevance today, noting that "some modern critics argue that Carver’s emphasis on traditional journalism date the film and that if the Internet existed to such an extent as it does twenty years later, his plan would be instantly foiled… not really sure those people have been following current events over the past two years."

Andrew Heritage mentions Tomorrow Never Dies in his book, 100 Years Of Great Movies alongside the likes of Goldfinger and From Russia with Love .

  • Condition: Ungraded
  • Subject Type: TV & Movies
  • Card Size: Standard
  • Autographed: Yes
  • Set: James Bond 40th Anniversary
  • Autograph Format: Hard Signed
  • Character: Elliot Carver
  • Signed By: Jonathan Pryce
  • Film: James Bond - Tomorrow Never Dies
  • Year Manufactured: 2002
  • Material: Card Stock
  • Approximate Size of Card: 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches
  • Franchise: James Bond
  • Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
  • Vintage: Yes
  • Type: Non-Sport Trading Card
  • Language: English
  • Manufacturer: Rittenhouse
  • Features: Personally Signed Autograph, Limited Edition
  • Genre: Spy-Fi, James Bond, Espionage Fiction, Thriller, Cult Spy-Fi Franchise, Blockbuster Movie Franchise, 007, Action
  • Featured Person/Artist: Jonathan Pryce
  • Card Number: A1
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
  • Metric Dimensions of Card: 89 mm by 64 mm

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