The Many Lives of James Bond

by Mark Edlitz

  Stunt work requires calculated risks. But that’s what you get paid for; that’s why you train; that’s why you stay sharp. It’s so that you’re ready for moments like the tanker stunt. Those ten months of preparation pay off in those ten seconds of work. That’s what it all boils down to. You are judged in those moments. The rest of your life can be a reflection of those moments.

  THE ILLUSTRATED BOND

  ROBERT MCGINNIS

  James Bond posters are designed not solely as marketing tools intended to attract filmgoers and sell movie tickets; they have also played a vital role in shaping the way we perceive 007. With the strokes of his brush, veteran artist Robert McGinnis has played a prominent role in crafting Bond’s image.

  McGinnis created the bold and suggestive poster artwork for Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and The Man with the Golden Gun. With Frank McCarthy, McGinnis also illustrated the posters for Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.1 McGinnis painted the psychedelic image of a naked woman holding two guns for the poster of the spoof Casino Royale, and his depiction of Roger Moore for The Man with the Golden Gun was utilized for the Moonraker teaser poster2 and the book cover for the novelization.3

  In 1999, McGinnis created the cover art for a feature story on Bond for England’s Sunday Times Magazine. It sumptuously combined depictions of sneering villains, contorted and nearly naked women, touchstone moments from many of the films, and the five Bond actors to date—his intricately detailed painting paid homage to the entire series.

  McGinnis’s pulp art helped forge the image of Bond holding a gun near his face into the public’s consciousness. Though we do see Bond in that pose in the films, it’s the movie posters that have played a significant role in creating and reinforcing that iconography. All six of the Eon-produced movies he worked on include Bond portrayed in this classic stance. In our interview, McGinnis proudly asserted, “I believe that for at least one of the poster images I created, that pose was shown eight stories high on a building in Times Square.”4 He is quick to point out that he did not create the stance. McGinnis observed that the “pose with him holding his gun up near his face had been used in James Bond images prior to the ones I created.”

  The seemingly inexhaustible artist is responsible for more than twelve hundred book covers and scores of movie posters, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Barefoot in the Park (1967), The Odd Couple (1968), Barbarella (1968), Sergio Leone’s Duck, You Sucker (1971), Gator (1976), Semi-Tough (1977), and Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004).5

  In the rest of our brief interview, McGinnis shares his approach to his work.

  How did you arrive at the concepts for your Bond posters?

  The concepts were [devised] by the publicity department at United Artists. In part, because I had gained a reputation for, among other things, femme fatales on detective/mystery novel covers, I was requested through the marketing firm Smolen, Smith & Connolly to create poster art.

  What direction did the studio give you for the posters?

  My challenge was to compose all the desired elements and bring the most dramatic life and adventure that I could to each theme. For the most part, the producers knew what they wanted, but I was able to exercise creativity in making the image exciting. In the last stage of the process, I was left to sort everything out—including the various opinions, comments, and desires—and bring the image alive.

  Once you’ve fleshed out your concept, how do you finalize the image you want to paint?

  I translated those ideas to compositions done in pencil, which typically were referred to as “pencil studies” (or “pencils”) or “rough drawings” (or “roughs”) or “comps” (for “comprehensives”), and then the marketers would review the sketches and provide feedback as necessary. Usually, I would submit a variety of sketches and then the favored sketches and elements would be chosen.

  What materials do you use?

  In most cases I used Winsor & Newton designer’s colors applied on plate-finish superior illustration board.

  What are you given for reference material?

  To record scenes for publicity, photographers took still pictures on the set of each film, and I was supplied with [and worked from] some of those reference pictures by the marketing firm Smolen, Smith & Connolly.

  When creating a Bond poster, what is your main goal?

  The main goal was to create the most exciting image possible—an image that conveyed Bond’s handsomeness, sophistication, masculinity, cunning, and dangerousness. And, of course, the image also had to feature the other characters and allusions to scenes of danger, violence, sensuality, and romance.

  How long does it take to create a poster?

  From preliminary pencil studies to finished painting, creating a poster image could take anywhere from about three weeks to a month or maybe even as much as two months, depending on variables. Sometimes nearing a deadline and making revisions would impose pressure, but I enjoyed the challenge.

  What did you want to convey about the character of Bond?

  A main goal of mine was to depict his suave charm and masculinity.

  What aspects of Bond’s character did you want to convey through his expression?

  I sought to impart a commanding attitude of strength, courage, worldliness, and cunning.

  How did you use body language to convey his character?

  Body language—alert and cat-like. [Harry Saltzman asserted that one of the reasons that he and Broccoli cast Sean Connery as Bond was because the actor moved “like a cat.”6]

  What’s your favorite Bond poster and why?

  Diamonds Are Forever gets a slight edge! I particularly enjoyed painting the diamond-encrusted satellite in space, the two ladies surrounding Bond, and the oil rig explosion in the sea below.

  What has your Bond association meant to you personally?

  To follow in the wake of Ian Fleming, even in a small way, has been a privilege and blessing that I enjoy.

  RUDY OBRERO

  The artists Robert McGinnis and Frank McCarthy were instrumental in creating the template for the Bond movie posters that began with Thunderball in 1965 and informed the style used through The Living Daylights in 1987. Many other artists, including Brian Bysouth, Bill Gold, Bob Peak, and Dan Goozee, have also made significant contributions to the look of the posters during this era.7

  This twenty-two-year period is for many Bond fans the golden age of Bond posters, coming after the posters for the early Bond films, which are not representative of the cohesive style that would evolve, and before the post–Living Daylights artwork, which relied heavily on still photography and digital techniques that were in keeping with the industry standard and have also resulted in striking imagery like the moody Casino Royale teaser poster, which heralded a new, introspective Bond. It was also during this period that Roger Moore and Sean Connery appeared in two different Bond films (Octopussy and Never Say Never Again, respectively) that were released the same year. The Eon-produced Octopussy poster was in keeping with the design elements of the earlier posters, whereas the poster for the rogue Bond movie Never Say Never Again took a different approach.8

  Dan Goozee, the artist behind the poster for Moonraker and, later, A View to a Kill, also created the poster for Octopussy in the grand tradition of the painters who preceded him. Illustrator Rudy Obrero—who painted the art for The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and who would later work on the advertising campaigns for A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Cat in the Hat (2003), and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)—was selected to create artwork for posters for the domestic release of Never Say Never Again, a film made without the budget or filmmaking expertise of Albert Broccoli’s Eon Productions.9

  The legal constraints under which Never Say Never Again was made extended to all aspects of the production, including the advertising campaign. Speaking to the Bond fan website MI6, Obrero lamented that his artwork could have used a splash of brighter colors:
“If you’ll notice there [are] no flames in there. No fire, no explosions. We had to keep the fire out, [and it] is kind of weird for an action movie not to have explosions [on its poster]… there was no big orange flame.”10 Against a blue background, Obrero’s uncluttered but vivid painting for the film depicts a tuxedo-clad Sean Connery flanked by two much smaller renderings of Bond women Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera.

  When Never Say Never Again was first released on VHS (remember those?), my local video store set up a large standee of the poster. After a little pleading, the manager gave me the four-and-half-foot and nearly three-foot-wide display.11 Though I admired the art, which contained elements that appear in most posters of the franchise—Bond in a tuxedo, beautiful women, and guns—little did I know that Obrero was dissatisfied with the finished work.

  Rudy Obrero, with three different versions of his Never Say Never Again poster.

  PHOTO COURTESY OF RUDY OBRERO AND THOMAS NIXDORF

  How were you chosen to work on the Never Say Never Again advertising campaign?

  I believe I was selected to work on the Never Say Never Again poster because I had established myself as an artist who could depict action images and still paint celebrities with some accuracy. I was hired by New York West, an ad agency specializing in film advertising. David Fairrington was the art director for the project. His creative partner was Tami Masuda.

  Can you walk me through the process of creating a poster?

  I came in the creative process when David and Warner Bros., the client, agreed on a direction for the art. He gave me some rough thumbnail sketches to develop more comprehensive drawings from. Sean Connery had a “size clause,” his head was to be the largest image, with Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera being smaller. The original concept was to fall in line with all the other Bond movie posters. There were action elements included with the celebrities, scuba divers, Bond in a one-man hovercraft, a shark, a helicopter, and a yacht.

  After that, I did three color comps. Comps are tight paintings to help the client visualize what the poster will look like. Titles and credits are put on clear acetate over the illustrations to simulate the final poster.

  And here’s where the nightmare began.

  This poster art was directed by a bunch of lawyers. Because Never Say Never was a film that was not done by the Broccolis, the lawyers at Warners started to hack up the art, worried because of possible infringement lawsuits from the Broccoli folks. Warners was concerned that the poster looked too closely like all the previous Bond posters. So one by one I had to remove the action elements until none were left. What was left was only Sean and the two ladies. The blue background, which was supposed to be the ocean, no longer made any sense. As for me, of the four pieces I painted, the last one was the worst. I was embarrassed by the outcome. Remember the old adage: “A horse designed by committee is a camel.” Sometimes I just have to shake my head and move on.

  Let’s talk about Connery’s expression. There’s a twinkle in his eye and a slight suggestion of a smile. You could have depicted him another way; he could have been a little more stern and determined. But your Connery is somewhat welcoming.

  Sean’s expression is less intense because that was my understanding of his character. Sort of the “wry spy.” More cool than killer. He’s a ladies’ man after all. Was I wrong?

  Many of the Bond posters created for Eon traditionally depict Bond holding a gun. Yours doesn’t. But you incorporated guns into the art—two slanted guns suggest the outline of Connery’s lapels.

  As for Bond not holding a gun, the lawyers again butted in here as well. Because all the previous [Eon] posters have Bond holding the gun in his hands, we had to come up with a different solution for having a gun in the image.

  What does your poster suggest about Bond and his character?

  Not much. I ended up painting an image that didn’t portray James Bond the way he should’ve been. The three unused comps say a lot more.

  [Note: In comp 1, the portraits of Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera are the same size as the portrait of Connery. Beneath the three figures is a montage of different action sequences, including Bond with a diver’s knife facing off against a shark and Bond and Bernie Casey as Felix Leiter flying through the sky on human rocket platforms. The skull from SPECTRE’s secret headquarters rests near the center of the painting. Directly beneath the images of Bond and the two women, Maximilian Largo’s yacht, the Disco Volente, and his harpoon-wielding frogmen are also shown, all over an expanse of a blue sea.

  Comp 2 consists of full-body illustrations of Basinger and Carrera, which are smaller than the head and chest image of Connery, and they are seductively leaning against two guns, which point upward and overlap the lapels of Connery’s tux. The gold skull has been replaced by a relatively small but central image of Bond on his rocket platform. Other images depict Bond jumping through the air on his motorcycle, a helicopter, Bond fighting off a shark with his knife, three of Largo’s frogmen in attack mode with spearguns, and other henchmen using underwater sleds. Felix Leiter has been dropped from the art.

  Comp 3 is the approved art.

  Comp 4 is similar to the accepted art but retains the action elements from comp 2. Connery’s portrait, the two women, and the action components are all flopped—facing the opposite direction. As is the case with the finished poster, Basinger and Carrera are not supported by the guns.12]

  Can you talk about the placement of the two women around Connery?

  Sir James surrounded by beautiful sexy women usually clinging tight or close to him. That’s what you should expect, right? Lawyers again. I had to put some distance between him and the two ladies for the same reasons stated above. You should see a pattern here. Sexy was okay, though.

  Aesthetically, what should a Bond poster do?

  A Bond movie poster should convey a suave spy action thriller of the highest order. I grew up reading all of Ian Fleming’s Bond books. Those paperback covers are the reason I got into illustration in the first place. A chance to do a James Bond movie poster was a dream come true. And I took it as quite an honor. Too bad we had to do it with one hand tied behind our backs. It practically broke my heart to keep taking out the action elements. We can just execute the art to the best of our abilities. Personally, I would’ve opted for more explosions and wreckage.

  What are your thoughts on the finished poster?

  I wished that any one of the first three comps would have ended up as the final. They all contain the elements and attitudes that belong on a Bond poster. Don’t get me wrong, despite some of the craziness that went on, I am extremely glad and proud to have had the opportunity to be on that project. I just wished the final outcome of the art was a bit more comprehensive and exciting than it was. I want all the Bond fans out there to know what we had to deal with at the time. And that we didn’t have much control over what went into the illustration.

  For me as an illustrator the Never Say Never poster was one of the major highlights of my career. Not to mention that the fee for that poster set up investments that continue to pay off today.

  DAN GOOZEE

  Many effective James Bond posters are jam-packed with montages of action, promises of breathtaking stunts, and eye-popping pyrotechnics. But Dan Goozee, who painted the artwork for Moonraker, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill, often takes a different approach. A few of his best Bond posters strip away the action in order to keep the attention focused squarely on James Bond. His Moonraker teaser poster is an unadorned but effective image of Bond wearing an astronaut suit as he is floating in space, and his posters for Octopussy and A View to a Kill feature a tuxedoed Bond standing beside a beautiful adversary set against a white background.13 Even when Goozee amps up the action, as he did in his more elaborate Moonraker poster in which he places 007 in Hugo Drax’s crowded space station, the viewer’s eye is drawn to Bond, and all other details seem relatively insignificant.

  For me, no artist has surpassed Dan Goozee’s renderings of Roger Moo
re’s Bond. As a teenager, my bedroom walls were covered with his posters. He depicts Moore’s Bond just as I imagine him to be—debonair, unflappable, confident, fearless, and in command. In my formative years, Goozee’s artwork helped to inform, reinforce, and even expand my already deeply held love of Bond.

  In addition to his work for the Bond movies, Goozee is an award-winning fine artist whose work has been displayed in many galleries. As a commercial artist, he has also painted the posters for Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Clash of the Titans (1981), The Black Stallion Returns (1983), and The Mission (1986).14

  You created the artwork for three Bond movies.

  I painted three separate images for Moonraker. Octopussy was pretty much one image. However, some of the paintings have additional action elements. There were also a few different paintings for A View to a Kill.

  Did the advertising agency you were working for have a clear idea of what it wanted?

  It’s different in each case. For the first piece I did for Moonraker, they already had the idea of Bond wearing a space suit and floating in space. Tony Seiniger, the head of the agency, had already been in London, talked to Roger, and, while standing on a ladder, had taken a photograph of Moore in his space suit. The steep angle of the reference photo required redrawing because Roger looked like a little person from that perspective. Of all the images I did for the Bond films that was the simplest one. For other posters, like Octopussy, they just said, “Come up with ideas and do some thumbnails.” Of those ideas, the one they used was the image of Octopussy with eight arms. They were intrigued by that, so then they said, “Let’s try a full figure drawing.” It was a pretty smooth process.

  I saw that reference photo on the Illustrated 007 website, and Moore is not wearing a tuxedo underneath the space suit.15 Did you add that?

  Yes, I did that because James Bond and a tuxedo go hand in hand. James Bond is a cosmopolitan guy, so why wouldn’t he be wearing a tux underneath his space suit? A glimpse of the tux also helped with the identification factor.