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Go inside 007's throwback Moonraker tech with exclusive look inside 'The James Bond Film Guide'
Look at exclusive spreads on the gadgetry and vehicles of Moonraker in the new HeroCollector book, The James Bond Film Guide.
From the humble pen of writer Ian Fleming in 1953 was birthed the fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. The global publishing phenomenon then migrated to the big screen and this year marks 59-years of the James Bond cinematic universe. In that time, there have been 25 Bond movies featuring seven different actors to have embodied the suave spy, and the world still can't get enough.
In time for the holiday season comes Eaglemoss Collection's brand new coffee table book, The James Bond Film Guide which celebrates all aspects of the franchise from actors to vehicles, props, gadgets and more. Covering all 25 movies, including the latest film No Time to Die, the James Bond Film Guide includes, in full color, 1,000 photographs, posters, and movie images from the filmmakers' extensive archives, arranged film by film. Editor Will Lawrence catalogs the significant set pieces, characters and various contraptions in every film, and charts the history of each title. There are also profiles of all seven of the Bond actors and the multiple producers who brought 007 to the big screen.
SYFY WIRE has an exclusive look at several pages from the 288-page book. The Moonraker chapter charts the box office hit which arrived in theaters in 1979. Roger Moore was playing Bond at the time and this was his fourth adventure in the title role.
With it's mix of globe-trotting and then space-trotting via the Space Shuttle, Moonraker eventually became the highest-grossing Bond film of all-time amassing $210,300,000 worldwide, which was the record for the franchise until Goldeneye surpassed it in 1995.
The book explains that Moonraker was inspired by the success of Star Wars (1977) and gave Bond a more fantastical storyline. Famed Bond movie producer Albert R. Broccoli wanted to make sure the film was still grounded in science-fact and sought NASA as a consulting partner for the space-related set pieces.
For the terrestrial locations, Moonraker was filmed in Paris, Venice, Brazil, California and London's Pinewood Studios where the visual effects for the space sequences took 10-months to create via miniature sets.
The James Bond Film Guide points out that Moonraker was also the film to bring back Richard Kiel's villain Jaws, a fan favorite. And it features the infamous sequence where Bond drives a gondola outside of the canals in a chase unlike any seen before in any film, much less a James Bond movie.
The James Bond Film Guide is available at all book retailers on December 14, 2021.
