James Bond to drive an electric car
Long-haul flights, tons of guns and a bagpipe flamethrower: Such are the special demands of his career that James Bond has never been considered a poster boy for an eco-friendly lifestyle. But next year’s 25th Bond film looks set to have Ian Fleming’s hero make his first concession to climate change, by driving an electric Aston Martin — albeit one which retails at £250,000. According to reports, the film — whose working title of Shatterhand was recently debunked — will see Daniel Craig’s 007 behind the wheel of an Aston Martin Rapide E, one of only 155 electric cars being built by the British manufacturer.
The Sun reports that director Cary Joji Fukunaga has spearheaded the change, with their source describing him as “a total tree-hugger”. “This is something Cary pushed for and Daniel and the producers are going along with. Everybody is afraid of Bond getting labelled ‘too PC’ but they all felt the time was right to put him in a zero-emission vehicle.”
Aston Martin’s relationship with the spy franchise began in 1964, when Sean Connery drove a DB5 sports car in Goldfinger. Shooting on the new film is expected to start in April, after a series of delays involving the replacement of Danny Boyle as director following reported “creative differences” between he and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson.
Many suggested Boyle and his co-writer John Hodge were eager to bring Bond up to date with a plot including nods to the #MeToo movement — and, potentially, 007’s own death.
MJ fan groups to sue his accusers
Three Michael Jackson fan groups are suing his alleged victims in France for “sullying his memory” by taking part in the Leaving Neverland documentary, the fans’ lawyer told Agence France-Presse. The Michael Jackson Community — which claims to be the “official fan club forum” — and the MJ Street and On The Line groups accuse Wade Robson and James Safechuck of “lynching” Jackson.The case, which will be heard by a court in Orléans in northern France in July, follows reports that Jackson’s children were also considering taking legal action against the men, who say that Jackson sexually abused them when they were children.
Lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, who has previously successfully sued Jackson’s doctor for causing distress to his fans by giving him the drugs that killed him, said the groups “want to discredit the accusations of paedophilia” against Jackson.
Ludot said the “indignity of the extremely grave accusations” made by Robson and Safechuck in Leaving Neverland had sullied the memory of the singer, who died in 2009.
Jackson’s image had been affected by the allegations as well as “the whole community of his fans”, the lawyer said. Leaving Neverland was first broadcast in the US on HBO earlier this month and has since broken streaming records in Britain.
The film has outraged some of Jackson’s fans, who have waged an often vicious social media campaign against his accusers.
Real disaster scene out of Bird Box
Four months after it first appeared on Netflix, footage of a real-life rail disaster will be removed from the movie Bird Box, the post-apocalyptic thriller starring Sandra Bullock. The stock footage used concerns a 2013 tragedy in the Québec town of Lac-Mégantic when an unattended train carrying crude oil rolled down an incline, came off the tracks and exploded, killing 47 people.
Earlier this year, the streaming giant said it would not remove the clip, which in Bird Box is used to illustrate mass deaths in the wake of an invasion of spectral beasts who cause a person’s worst fears to materialise, leading them to kill themselves.
But in a statement to TheWrap recently, Netflix confirmed that both it and the makers of Bird Box have decided to replace the clip. They also apologised, saying: “We’re sorry for any pain caused to the Lac-Mégantic community.” In response, Quebec’s Minister of Culture and Communications, Nathalie Roy, praised the decision, saying it shows that “by uniting and pooling our efforts, everything is possible”.
