Production designers behind James Bond franchise set to receive Cinematic Imagery Award from The Art Directors Guild's Excellence in Production Design Awards.
LOS ANGELES -- The Production Designers behind the 23 James Bond films will be honored with the prestigious Cinematic Imagery Award from the Art Directors Guild Excellence In Production Design Awards Presented by BMW, it was announced by John Shaffner, ADG Council Chair, Producers Greg Grande and Raf Lydon. Set for February 2, 2013, the ceremony will honor 50 years of the longest running franchise in film history for its visionary and innovative design.
The Cinematic Imagery Award will go to production designers Sir Ken Adam, Peter Lamont, Allan Cameron and Dennis Gassner.
“For 50 years the Bond films have entertained and inspired us with their audacious sense of style, imagination and sophistication. Their visual mastery of detail are to design what ‘shaken not stirred’ is to the creation of the perfect dry Martini!” Shaffner stated.
The ADG's Cinematic Imagery Award is given to those whose body of work in the film industry has richly enhanced the visual aspects of the movie-going experience. Previous recipients have been the principal team behind the Harry Potter films, Bill Taylor, Syd Dutton, Warren Beatty, Allen Daviau, Clint Eastwood, Blake Edwards, Terry Gilliam, Ray Harryhausen, Norman Jewison, John Lasseter, George Lucas, Frank Oz, Steven Spielberg, Robert S. Wise and Zhang Yimou.
Production Designer Sir Ken Adam set the standard for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s. Adam made his name with his innovative, semi-futuristic sets for the James Bond films such as Dr. No (1962), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), whose supertanker set required the building of the largest sound stage in the world. His last Bond film was Moonraker (1979). In 1964, Adam won the British Film Academy Award® for Dr. Strangelove. In 1975, he won the Academy Award® for Best Art Direction for his re-creation of 18th century England in the non-Bond film Barry Lyndon. In 1994, he won the Academy Award® for Best Art Direction for the second time with The Madness of King George.
Production Designer Peter Lamont is most famous for working on eighteen James Bond films. Throughout his nearly 60-year career, he has worked as an Art Director, Set Designer, as well as Set Decorator. Lamont has been nominated for three Academy Awards® for his work on Fiddler on the Roof (1971), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Aliens (1986). He was nominated a fourth time and won for Titanic (1997). The Bond films he has worked on include Goldfinger (1964) – uncredited draftsman; Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) as Assistant Art Director; On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971) as the Set Decorator; Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) as Co-Art Director; The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979) as Visual Effects and Art Director; For Your Eyes Only (1981),”Octopussy” (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), The Living Daylights (1987), Licence To Kill (1989), Golden Eye (1995), The World Is Not Enough (1999), Die Another Day (2002), and Casino Royale (2006) as the Production Designer.
Production Designer Allan Cameron designed the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), which was the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Cameron's credits include The Mummy (1999), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Van Helsing (2004), and Angels & Demons (2009). He was nominated for the Art Directors Guild Award in 2007 for The Da Vinci Code and again in 2010 for Angels & Demons. He was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for his work as the Production Designer for the film 1984.
Dennis Gassner is one of cinema's foremost Production Designers boasting a career spanning over 25 years. Gassner started his career working in the art department on Apocalypse Now (1979), he was fortunate enough to work closely with Francis Ford Coppola and Production Designer Dean Tavoularis at Zoetrope Studios.
Today, Gassner's creative abilities are consistently applauded by both the American Academy® and the British Association of Film and Television Arts. In 1991, he won the Oscar® for 'Best Production Design' on Bugsy starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening and was nominated the same year for his work on the Coen brothers' Barton Fink. He also won BAFTA awards for Sam Mendes' Road To Perdition (2002) and Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998) and was BAFTA nominated for Production Design on Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003). His work on the fantasy thriller The Golden Compass (2007) earned him an Oscar® nomination. Gassner returns to the Bond team after having worked on ”Quantum Of Solace” in 2008.
Nominations for this year's ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards Presented by BMW will be announced on January 3, 2013. The ADG will present winners in nine competitive categories for theatrical films, television productions, commercials and music videos on February 2, 2013. Jonathan Frakes will be awarding Herman Zimmerman with the Lifetime Achievement Award Presented by BMW. Hall of Fame inductees are Preston Ames, Richard MacDonald and Edward S. Stephenson. Paula Poundstone will host this year's ADG Awards for the fourth consecutive year.
ADG Awards are open only to productions, when made within the U.S., by producers signatory to the IATSE agreement. Foreign entries are acceptable without restrictions.
Presentation and Lifetime Achievement sponsor is BMW. The gold sponsor is Fox Studios Productions Services and silver sponsors are Astek Inc./On Air Design, HBO, The Golden Oak Ranch, Warner Bros. Studio Facilities and WME. Media sponsors are The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, and SHOOT.
Fifty years of images from James Bond films can be found in a recently published story in Architectural Digest.
Source: The Art Directors Guild
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
