James Bond 'Skyfall' storyboards leaked.

With all the turmoil of MGM filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of 2010, it took some time getting the new Bond movie going, but Skyfall, the 23rd movie in the series starring Daniel Craig for the third time as Britain's top spy will finally be out on November 9th (UK premier is October 26th), while celebrating it's 50 years existence. The script was co-written by triple time academy award nominee John Logan, ('Gladiator', 'The Aviator' and 'Hugo') who also wrote the screenplay for this year's Oscar winning animated feature 'Rango'. But apparently the story isn't as secret as Bond would' ve liked, as someone has been selling off the authentic call sheets and storyboard artwork on Ebay.

The scenes starring the top spy driving a motorcycle under heavy circumstances have been filmed in Turkey, at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, at Fethiye and Adana. The snapshots below clearly show Craig on the motorbike, which in reality appears to be more of a scooter/buggy type of rig, fully equipped with digital cameras. 'From Russia with Love' and 'The World is not Enough' also had exotic scenes shot on location in Turkey.

Fortunately, MGM's lion is still roaring. The restructured studio is now lead by Ann Mather, former Executive Vice President and CFO at Pixar, who also worked for Disney earlier. They sold the distribution rights for Bond 23 and 24 to Sony last year, so the screen credits will definitely be listing 'James Bond will return' once more. Great!

James Bond was created by Ian Fleming, who was a Naval Intelligence Officer himself, trying to break the Nazi's 'Enigma Code' while also being in charge of Operation 'Golden Eye', a plan to sabotage the Nazi's during WWII. In 1952 he wrote his first book 'Casino Royale' at his home in Jamaica (where he did all of his writing) which sold out completely within weeks after it got published. He wrote 14 books in total, while his final one, 'Octopussy and the living Daylights' a collection of shorter stories, was published after his death in 1964. Several authors have picked up the book series since then, resulting in the latest (37th) Bond novel from Ian Fleming productions, 'Carte Blanche' by Jefferey Deaver in May 2011. A new yet untitled novel is currently written by Willliam Boyd, which will be out in autumn 2013. Unlike the latest novels, it will be set in the 1960's to portray a more 'classic' Bond story. Boyd, familiar with screenplay writing (he co-authored David Attenborough's 'Chaplin') worked with actor Daniel Craig on 'The Trench', a movie he directed himself in 1999.

Above left: Fleming working away on his next story behind the typewriter at his 'Goldeneye' estate in Jamaica. Right: After the success of his first novel, Fleming bought a custom made goldplated Royal Quiet de Luxe typewriter, which was bought by Bond actor Pierce Brosnan at an auction in 1995.

Bond in Comics.

Bond has been the focus of many comic books adaptions, most notably through a long lasting comic strip series, published between 1958 and 1983 in the Daily Express and other (British) newspaper. With art by John McLusky and most stories by Henry Gammidge thirteen story arcs were published based on Fleming's books between July 7, 1958 and January 8, 1966. When the team of Russian artist Yaroslav Horak and writer Jim Lawrence took over, they adapted the remaining Fleming material and Kingsley Amis' Bond novel 'Colonel Sun' from 1968. Between January 10, 1966 and January 22, 1977, they also introduced 20 original stories, with extreme titles such as 'The League of Vampires'.

An original strip by McLusky from 'Live and let Die' published between December 1958 and March 1959 (Click to enlarge).

After publication in the Daily Express was seized, Horak and Lawrence continued to do five more stories until 1979. Lawrence wrote several more stories after that, with McLusky returning to artwork. In 1984 the comic strip definitely came to an end with the 'Snake Goddess' and 'Double Eagle' storyline, with Horak again doing the artwork.

As of 2009, Titan Books has done an excellent job of bringing these great strips back in print in several volumes through their 'Omnibus' collection. Volume three just appeared in March (featuring the 'Colonel Sun' adaption). The next volume will be released in November containing nine stories, from the 'Isle of Condors' (June 12, 1972 - October 21, 1972) to 'The Black Ruby Caper' (February 19, 1975 - July 15, 1975).

Check out the first trailer for 'Skyfall' below, which was released on May 21st (toggle 1080p switch for superior quality).