Will Sir Richard Branson Buy Himself A Cameo In Quantum Of Solace?
I watched Casino Royale again last night, because Quantum of Solace comes out this weekend and I wanted to make sure that I don't miss any buried Easter Eggs for the Superfans. Anyway, that movie is great! Well, let's be honest, parkour is great. But Casino Royale totally rides parkour's extreme coattails to greatness. Or does it scale parkour's coattails without any safety equipment? ANYWAY, do you remember the scene where James Bond has to stop a terrorist from blowing up a brand new jumbo jet, and they have an extreme fight inside of a speeding fuel truck on the tarmac? Nuts! Be careful, James Bond! But right before that excitement, when James Bond and the villain were casually passing through airport security as if they weren't about to go NUTS to the MAX, I noticed that one of the other passengers made a really big deal of turning and looking directly at the camera. And then I realized that he looked familiar, like an old billionaire I used to know. About. Know about. Is that Richard Branson?
Haha, yes it is! It's funny because he owns his own tropical island.
Supposedly the guy with the guitar is his son. I did some research online and apparently he did a favor for the production by sending a Virgin Airways jet to Prague for some reason, and in return he asked if he could just do a small cameo. Man, they weren't kidding! That is a very small cameo. These James Bond dudes don't fuck around. Just give them the jet, please. Here, have a day old bagel from craft services. No, YOU are welcome. But my favorite part of that story is this:
Virgin supremo Richard Branson is "somehow missing" from the version of Casino Royale shown on British Airways flights, the Telegraph reports.In the full-fat film, a short cameo shows the multi-trillionaire "passing through a security arch at Miami airport". This proved too much for BA's in-flight entertainment team, which "vets films on grounds of taste and suitability before allowing them to be shown", and Branson duly hit the cutting room floor.
A BA spokesman confirmed that changes had been made to the film, and rather marvellously explained: "All films are screened...we want to ensure they contain no material that might upset our customers."
British Airways cut out his boring cameo? Best. They didn't want to upset their customers is all. It's all about the customers. One minute you get lazy in editing out competing airline entrepreneurs from your in-flight films, the next minute your customers are like fuck this...
Anyway, everyone is curious (Everyone! So curious!) whether or not Sir Richard Branson will have another stiff-looking silent cameo in the new movie. Just look for someone who clearly has his blocking marked out on the floor in day-glo tape and who looks straight into the camera as he does something weird.
Posted by Gabe at 10:30 AM in Caught On Tape
Tags: Casino Royale | Daniel Craig | James Bond | Quantum Of Solace | Richard Branson
I dunno -- much though I'd like to believe it, this sounds like a British-tabloid invention. I'm guessing that BA showed the pan-and-scan version of the movie, which (in all likelihood) crops out Branson simply because he's at the far-right side of the frame, as far from the action as possible. And the article seems carefully written so that it never quite says that BA confirms they deliberately took Branson out of the movie -- it just cites a representative saying that "changes had been made" and then quotes him talking about the usual airline content-editing guidelines. (Although I'm not sure how they edited around the whole "Daniel Craig gets stripped naked and then hit in the balls repeatedly" scene.)
I have no proof for any of this.
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Richard Branson had a bigger cameo in Superman Returns as the shuttle co-pilot. I wonder if British Airways tried to cut that out?
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That WAS "rather marvellously explained." If your definition of "marvellously" is different than the one in the dictionary.
I love that movie so much.
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What a d-bag.
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After Die another day it is the best movie I ever watch. The cars and the weapons used by the bond was super cool. I need to see it for several times. So much action and adventure also did not feel the difference of the actor too. I think it is because the stronger appearance of the bond culture http://www.80millionmoviesfree.com allows me to enjoy it glad to see movies like this.
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a weightlifter friend exploded both his knees trying to jump-scale a wall in a parkour class and was confined to a wheelchair for months afterwards.
true story.
also, parkour - so amazing and the best ever.
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