GoldenEye Workprint
Bond007Fan
Posts: 14MI6 Agent
Greetings, Bond fanbase. I am Bond007Fan, and I just registered on this site to talk to you about a certain topic.
Five years ago, in 2013, talk of a workprint of the Martin Campbell-directed GoldenEye, which was released in 1995 with heavy cuts by the MPAA and BBFC.
I heard about it in 2014 or 2015, I believe, on the MI6 Community forums, and what intrigued me the most is that this particular version of the film is the only fully uncut version, albeit in an unfinished form.
The MPAA and BBFC cuts are, as follows:
[list=*]
[*]During the pre-credit sequence, when 006 is shot, originally one clearly saw the impact to the head, but this has now been deleted[/*]
[*]The sex scene with Xenia making out with the admiral and eventually suffocating him has been much reduced.[/*]
[*]Bond's rabbit punch on Xenia during a car ride was moved offscreen.[/*]
[*]The Severnaya hijack sequence was also cut with numerous shots removed of the workers being gunned down by Xenia.[/*]
[*]Furthermore, Xenia's death was also toned down; originally her body was seen writhing against the tree for longer, before her back breaks with a crack and she slumps dead. The slump, sans sound effect, is all that remains.[/*]
[*]When Trevelyan turns over after falling from the dish, the shot showing his bloodied face and a trickle of blood running oozing from his mouth was shortened.[/*]
[/list]
There were also what the Melon Farmers website calls "UK Specific Cuts" to headbutts during the Xenia/Bond confrontation and the climatic antenna fight. These cuts were eventually restored, although the rest of the cut material is yet to surface.
This is what made me want the full workprint to pop up on the internet. I was recently talking to Jeff Roman and Martin Muller on Facebook about the workprint, and the latter directed me to www.independenttalent.com where I was able to contact the agent of Martin Campbell, and I highly recommend you do too, to get some clarity on the workprint version.
Jeff Roman told me that only hardcore Bond fans are in possession of the workprint, and refer to keep it to themselves to keep it "rare". It was then that he told me his best bet was to ask the people on the Bond forums and maybe someone would bite.
And now, here we are.
Five years ago, in 2013, talk of a workprint of the Martin Campbell-directed GoldenEye, which was released in 1995 with heavy cuts by the MPAA and BBFC.
I heard about it in 2014 or 2015, I believe, on the MI6 Community forums, and what intrigued me the most is that this particular version of the film is the only fully uncut version, albeit in an unfinished form.
The MPAA and BBFC cuts are, as follows:
[list=*]
[*]During the pre-credit sequence, when 006 is shot, originally one clearly saw the impact to the head, but this has now been deleted[/*]
[*]The sex scene with Xenia making out with the admiral and eventually suffocating him has been much reduced.[/*]
[*]Bond's rabbit punch on Xenia during a car ride was moved offscreen.[/*]
[*]The Severnaya hijack sequence was also cut with numerous shots removed of the workers being gunned down by Xenia.[/*]
[*]Furthermore, Xenia's death was also toned down; originally her body was seen writhing against the tree for longer, before her back breaks with a crack and she slumps dead. The slump, sans sound effect, is all that remains.[/*]
[*]When Trevelyan turns over after falling from the dish, the shot showing his bloodied face and a trickle of blood running oozing from his mouth was shortened.[/*]
[/list]
There were also what the Melon Farmers website calls "UK Specific Cuts" to headbutts during the Xenia/Bond confrontation and the climatic antenna fight. These cuts were eventually restored, although the rest of the cut material is yet to surface.
This is what made me want the full workprint to pop up on the internet. I was recently talking to Jeff Roman and Martin Muller on Facebook about the workprint, and the latter directed me to www.independenttalent.com where I was able to contact the agent of Martin Campbell, and I highly recommend you do too, to get some clarity on the workprint version.
Jeff Roman told me that only hardcore Bond fans are in possession of the workprint, and refer to keep it to themselves to keep it "rare". It was then that he told me his best bet was to ask the people on the Bond forums and maybe someone would bite.
And now, here we are.
Comments
And in the case of the shot of 006 being shot it surely raises more problems for the plot!
The alternate takes thing does sound more interesting, then.
Now, I think the headshot should've been kept in the PG-13 cut of the film, because there was barely any blood in it. And if there ain't no blood, don't fix it.
Alec's faked death was the subject of several pages of debate in the Little Niggles thread a while back, see posts 885 onwards. I hope Firemass and Punker are seeing this.
Jeff Roman off Facebook says they "want the **** to stay rare". He then added, "if it got spread out all over the internet then it's not rare".
What does that mean? Did somebody give you the workprint or not at the end?
Add me to the list.
Why you do this, collectors?
But I'm afraid this makes even less sense now.
Was Ourumov's gun a paint squirter or did Trevelyan use Mission Impossible style face-swapping sometime during the facility with a hired actor?
Unless it was a Octopussy style headshot like the one on the Russian guard Bond shoots as Orlov escapes the trailer.
Screencap of the alternate taken from the actual workprint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r90b0jLEAUI
The reason this was changed is because originally there was a removed scene where Bond would chase Xenia on the yacht when she tries to flee it. In the released film we only get to see Bond finding the dead body of the admiral and then cutting straight to bond jumping on the speedboat to chase Xenia to the tiger helicopter omitting the earlier chase. I don't have any footage of that scene itself however there is a rare promotional still of it when they were filming that chase scene on the yacht:
GoldenEye is starting to become much, much more interesting with the workprint cut.
Why don't they just release it themselves a-la Blade Runner?
GE is unanimously loved by non-fans due to the Nintendo 64 game and it would certainly stir up the hive, guaranteeing sales.
A welcome to you as-well.
Now I just hope the footage for the uncut 006 headshot will show up soon~
Apparently, Robert has a Imgur account known as Gunbarrels007 (at least, I think it's him), and he was nice enough to upload this rarity from the film.
This is a screencap from the uncut version of the Admiral/Xenia sex scene, with extra footage of the pair's shadows on the wall. I have no idea the source of this pic other than, but it's good to see one of the long lost uncut scenes has finally been unearthed.
Now, if only we can get this version of the scene in video form...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJZc0uFif7M
As soon as it got to the bit where Alec is taken hostage, I was expecting the headshot to be in it, but my expectations were sadly dashed.
Those clothes look perfect. Hope to see Craig in something like that.
Did all Bond work-prints use placeholder music and sound-effects?
The casino music does sound like an extended version of "We Share The Same Passions"
This isn't exactly legal but I would be very interested to see the full movie in its work-print form.
Can't it be uploaded to MEGA or something and have the link pm'd to interested parties?
That MEGA thing sounds like a brilliant idea to share the workprint so we can put this to rest.
How come the music plays without a cut when the scene jumps from the Aston arriving at the casino to Bond talking to Xenia? If that’s the tune on the work print the music should jump too, unless the uploader was making weird edits of his own.
But what’s the point of that? The music is the only thing that makes it different: all of the footage is identical to the finished film isn’t it? And I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of Out of Africa being used as a temp track there before; hence the finished music bearing such a close resemblance.
I wonder if this isn’t a workprint but some sort of highlights reel sent out to persuade important types of how Brosnan will work out as Bond: hence the spoiler of Alec’s death being omitted. It shows Brosnan doing some spy stuff, some suave stuff and a bit of villain confrontation too: just what you would do to show off your new star to some industry insiders. Maybe even film journos?
The lack of cutting in the music makes me very suspicious of this being a workprint.
In fact, go to the video web address and ask in the comments why Alec's uncut death is omitted from the compilation. I did something similar and got a reply back lickity-split.
Take some of his other videos as more proof that a workprint does indeed exist of the film. Like the deleted barrel shot (if you can find it) and the alternate takes of dialogue.
If any of you have any suspicions of the workprint, take it up with Mr. Bolton or the Workprint Collectors on Facebook.
In the meantime, it is important to be aware of one additional international censor cut. One that I found out about on an earlier version of the James Bond Censor Cuts page on melonfarmers.com using the Internet Wayback Machine.
According to the DVD commentary, Bond's ear clap and knee to the head against Alex in the antenna room fight were reported to have vanished.
Well lit's pretty easy to make stuff low quality!
But my point is that a pre-release highlights reel would likely be made from a workprint, and then distributed on VHS more than likely, so that would explain why this looks like that. The music edits are very odd though: I'm not seeing any explanation for those.
I have uploaded the original video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mR12nlXVYU
As for GE, I don’t recall at the moment, but were there any versions of the script written for Timothy Dalton? It would be interesting if there were scenes that had him in mind but which were filmed intact with Brosnan.
It started off in a European self-driving bullet train when the brakes are suddenly pulled and there is a fight sequence where Bond steals a DB7 out of a train car and drives on top of the train with an attacking helicopter on top.
Bond drives off the train and right next to a woman in her broken down Peugeot/Citroën and said something along the lines of "need a ride?".
At least that's what I remember off the start of it, if we're both talking about the same thing.