What the sh*t Skyfall?

Skyfall is coming... Any time now.

By Donnelly. David Donnelly.

It's not everyday that the highly anticipated Bond 23 is released. In fact, depending on where you live it could take weeks to trickle down to your slice of the world.  Take Australia for example, the film is released to the public on the 22nd November, while the Premiere took place all the way back in October (on the 23rd to be exact).  Given there was a delay to most regions, we are still seeing the staggered release approach usually reserved for much less sought after, box office record-breaking fare.

The Middle East and Africa, generally speaking, were the first cabs off the rank, receiving Skyfall as early as October 26th.  Whilst most of Latin America and Europe got their first taste of Bond towards the start of November.  That's before even North America, where the film opened to mostly positive reviews in it's widest, highest grossing release to-date, on November 9th.  Meanwhile us Aussie's are sitting over here, presumably throwing another shrimp on the barbie, while we wait for the rest of the world to come to us.  That's comparatively late even for Asia Pacific, with most of our region screening to the public at the start of the month.



Following the poor U.S. Box office performance of the Timothy Dalton film, Licence to Kill, the release of Bond films have traditionally taken place between October 31st and mid-December to avoid the risk posed by the minefield that is the summer blockbuster season.  In all likelihood, Australia was the last stop on the world wind tour to celebrate Bond's 50th anniversary, with 007 himself, Daniel Craig attending the Australian Premiere in Sydney. And don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they didn't just phone this one in, but still, Why were we left so long to salivate like Pavlovian dogs?

I'm probably too close to this to be able to write objectively with any form of sincerity. As a Bond fan and self-confessed cinephile, a delay of 24 hours would have prompted a similar response - more Hulk than Bruce Banner.

But with the proliferation of torrenting sites such as Pirate Bay - which have been the subject of considerable media attention (read: a copyright proprietor lead witch hunt) in recent times - but hey, there's no such thing as bad press, right? - I would have thought that a simultaneous release date would have been the way to avoid the high seas of piracy.  And yet, Universal, Sony Pictures and MGM still consider Australia to occupy that region of the map marked "here be dragons"... and the von Trapps.

That is of course, unless they already have the piracy side of things covered. Less of a random torrent-able simulacrum, more of a personal statement.

Perhaps a strongly worded letter to the custodians of the Bond legacy is in order.  Just to say "Hey, with the advances of modern technology, Australia isn't so far to come when Bond 24 is released, so don't leave it so long between Vesper Martini's.  And yes our toilet's flush in the opposite direction."