Bond to get his own television channel
The British are going to get a whole lot more Bond this Fall, according to The Guardian. Starting on October 5th, Sky Movies will be launching a month-long “pop-up” channel that will exclusively air James Bond films – all 22 of them, plus the two “unofficial” releases, Never Say Never Again and Casino Royale (the original). This follows a rights acquisition by the network in early April of Bond’s entire back catalog, and they will now be providing them both live and on-demand in a lead-up to the premiere of 007’s latest outing, Sam Mendes‘ Skyfall. This event marks the first time since 1975 that a James Bond film was licensed to any British network other than ITV, and will be the first time that the films will be aired “uninterrupted, in HD, on demand and on the go,” according to Sky Movies director Ian Lewis. Most importantly, the news comes as part of James Bond’s 50th anniversary, which has been celebrated in various ways over the course of the year. The 23rd official James Bond film, Skyfall, opens November 9th. ~Devin Garabedian