Made in Iceland

James Bond and Iceland

James Bond
Played by: Roger Moore

Description: A View to A Kill marked the final appearance of Roger Moore as James Bond, and not a moment too soon. Moore looked far too old to be a believable 007 and the movie suffers because of it. Still, by this point he has the character down perfectly and if his age had not caught up with him he could have continued in the role.

Dead Agent
Played by: Unknown

Description: Bond's mission during the pretitle sequence is to recover a stolen microchip from this dead agent in Iceland.

Helicopter Pilot 1
Played by: Seva Novgorodtsev

Description: This man is one of two helicopter pilots who is trying to kill Bond during the pretitle sequence.

Helicopter Pilot 2
Played by: Unknown

Description: This man is the other of two helicopter pilots who is trying to kill Bond during the pretitle sequence.

Kimberly Jones
Played by: Mary Stavin

Description: Kimberly Jones is the pilot of the undercover submarine that picks up Bond in Iceland. She helps Bond "pass the time" until they get back to the mainland.

Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) is an evil mastermind holed up in a lair made entirely of ice and located, appropriately enough, in Iceland. Along with his henchman Zao (Rick Yune), Graves has developed an incredibly powerful weapon. Beginning in Korea, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) travels around the globe looking for the megalomaniac, and while doing so, meets up with Jinx (Halle Berry) and Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike).

Batman filmed in Iceland Set report from Iceland (from darkhorizons.com)

"Day 1 - They've set up about ten small huts and apparently it's supposed to be a village in Tibet, with more huts to be added by CGI. Yesterday Batman and someone were fighting with swords on the glacier. Tomorrow a magnificent scene will be filmed with Batman and the bad guy fighting while crashing down a steep hill toward a very high cliff. Of course this will be done with some elaborate wire work".

Day 2 - Liam Neeson has been spotted, he is sporting an Asian looking mustache with a one inch gap in the mustache under his nose. Also Christian Bale has a "one month beard". As far as I know he has not yet begun wearing the batsuit. He is wearing some leather clothes with a string belt. In one scene Christian Bale was being carried over the shoulder by someone. The buzz is that this is supposed to be the beginning of the movie. Oh and there is an buddist looking temple also"

Where do they all come from?

Sigur Rós are an Icelandic slow-motion rock band (according to the band's own definition) with shoegaze elements. The name is pronounced "see-or rous". It is derived from the Icelandic name of lead vocalist Jónsi Birgisson's little sister Sigurrós. Some of the band's contemporaries include Múm and Amiina, both of which hail from the same creative and vibrant Icelandic music scene. The band have just released their first ever foray into filmmaking with their tour documentary, Heima.

History

Jón Þór (Jónsi) Birgisson, Georg Hólm and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson formed the group in Reykjavík, Iceland in August 1994. They soon won a record deal with a local record label, Bad Taste. In 1997, they released Von (Hope) and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði. The name is Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "hope alteration". (In English, the album is sometimes known by the alternative name "Recycle Bin".)

International acclaim came with 1999's Ágætis Byrjun ("An alright start") for which the band were joined by Kjartan Sveinsson. The album's reputation slowly spread by word of mouth over the next two years. Soon many critics worldwide hailed it as one of the best albums of its time and the band was playing with Radiohead and other big names. Drummer Ágúst left the band after the recording of Ágætis Byrjun and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason.

After the release of Ágætis Byrjun, the band became perhaps most well known for Birgisson's signature style of playing guitar with the bow from a cello, accentuated with reverb, creating a sweeping, fluid sound that is unique for an electric guitar.

Released Rimur in early 2001, Sigur Rós set out to record some songs in their newly-completed álafoss swimming pool studio with their friend Steindór Andersen who is a fisherman and chairman of the Icelandic poetry society, called Iðunn. Steindór is a chanter/singer of the traditional Icelandic epic poetry form called Rímur. Only a 1000 copies of the EP were printed and sold in the spring tour of 2001.

In 2002, their highly anticipated follow-up album ( ) was released. Upon release all tracks on the album were untitled, though the band later published song names on their website. Famously all of the lyrics on ( ) are sung in vonlenska ("Hopelandic"), nonsensical vocalisations which resemble the sound of the Icelandic language. It has also been said that the listener is supposed to interpret their own meanings of the lyrics which can then be written in the blank pages in the album booklet.

In October of 2003, Sigur Rós joined Radiohead in composing music for Merce Cunningham's dance piece Split Sides; Sigur Rós’s three tracks were named Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do and released in March of 2004. The band's 1997 debut album Von also finally found a U.S. and U.K. release in October of 2004. Their latest album, Takk... (Thanks...), was released on September 13, 2005, with a legal download of their first single, Glósóli, made available on August 15. For North American fans, Sæglópur was made available for download on August 16. Hoppípolla, the second official single from Takk..., was released on November 28 alongside a new studio remake of Hafsól, a song which was previously released on the band's 1997 debut, Von.

An extended Sæglópur EP was released on July 10th in most parts of the world and on August 8th in the United States. Its original release date was May 8th, but because of the sudden demand of "Hoppípolla", especially in the UK due to its inclusion on BBC's 'Planet Earth', it was pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós recorded three new songs for the EP (Refur, Ófriður, and Kafari).

Sigur Rós has sold over 2 million albums worldwide.

As of July 2006, Sigur Rós are at the end of a major world tour with stops in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. They are currently playing a series of free outdoor concerts throughout Iceland, planned for late July through early August. The Icelandic dates are being filmed and recorded for a DVD release in the future.

"13 january: sigur rós have begun recording their new album and expect to finish it later this year. according to georg, it remains to be seen whether the band will be taking a new direction on the album. “we have finished recording a few songs but some more things need to be done. we don’t know exactly where the album is heading yet. we are really just experimenting at this stage. some of the songs we recorded are old songs which we had written a while ago, unreleased material which we never got a chance to finish. we decided it was time they were recorded.” georg believes the album could be released this year but nothing is confirmed at this point."

The Hvarf/Heim double album was released on November 5th 2007, comprising two separate albums. Hvarf contains reworkings of songs dating back to the bands' first album, whereas Heim contains live acoustic versions of more well known songs.

Albums

* Von (Hope) (1997)
* Von Brigði (Hope Alteration) (1998)
* Ágætis byrjun (An Alright Start) (1999) UK peak: #52. Voted best Icelandic album of the 20th century[1]
* ( ) (2002) #51 US, two Grammy nominations, one for Best Alternative Music Album, the other for Best Recording Package
* Takk... (Thanks...) (2005) #16 UK (Gold Album), #27 US, #1 Iceland, #5 Portugal (Gold Album) #18 AUS
* Hvarf/Heim (2007) double album

Singles and EPs

* Svefn-g-englar (1999)
* Ný batterí (2000)
* Steindór Andersen / Rímur EP (2001)
* Untitled 1 (a.k.a. Vaka) (2003)
* Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do (2004)
* Hoppípolla (2005) #24 UK
* Sæglópur (2006)
* Hljómalind (2007)

DVDs/Films

Heima (2007) - Documentary showing footage of the band's tour of Iceland, including live footage and interviews. The official web site is www.heimafilm.com and the US site is www.hvarf-heim.com

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