Is it a good story?”

“It depends if you like those kind of stories.” 

Becoming Bond promises a unique documentary narrative look at the very stranger-than-fiction true story of George Lazenby, an Australian car mechanic, come model who eventually landed the role of James Bond in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. With very little acting experience under his belt, he was then purportedly offered the next six Bond films and a $1 million signing bonus. He turned it down.

 

Is there romance?

Yes.

Directed and written by Josh Greenbaum, Becoming Bond takes the audience back to Australia, a childhood and eventual parking lot where an unknown man called George worked his way up, became a model and eventually landed the part of the world’s most famous secret agent. The story doesn’t end there – though his time as 007 very much did.

Becoming Bond looks at the duality of one of the most controversial choices in screen casting history in a Bond film that audiences and the Bond fan community have long cited as the best 007 movie ever made. A mix of real-life footage, interviews new and old with a unique dramatized thread throughout, Becoming Bond promises to be a quirky and fresh take on the rise and fall of a movie legend. Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die, 1973) appears as Lazenby’s English agent Maggie Abbott, Josh Lawson as Lazenby, Jeff Garlin as Harry Saltzman, Dana Carvey as Johnny Carson, Adamo Palladino as Peter Hunt and George Lazenby as himself.

“How can I remember it if it wasn’t true?”

Josh Greenbaum is an Emmy Award-winning director in film, TV, and commercials. A graduate of Oxford and Cornell Universities, his feature documentary The Short Game won the Audience Award at SXSW and was acquired by Netflix to launch their Originals film division. He received his MFA in film from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Director:  Josh Greenbaum

Producer:  Rafael Marmor, Christopher Leggett, Josh Greenbaum

Screenwriter: Josh Greenbaum
Cinematographer: John Rutland
Editor: Billy McMillin
Production Designer: Caity Birmingham
Music: John Piscitello
Principal Cast: George Lazenby, Josh Lawson, Kassandra Clementi, Jeff Garlin, Jake Johnson, Jane Seymour, Dana Carvey
Additional Credits: Line Producer: Kourtney Gleason, Casting By: Angela Demo, C.S.A., Associate Editor: Terry Yates

Further information : SXSW / Hulu

 

Becoming Bond

91 mins / 2017

Available on Hulu (US) from May 20th 2017. Further availability and screenings to follow.

 

Further screenings :

Becoming Bond – Cinedelphia Film Festival 2017, Philadelphia

Sunday, April 23, 7:30 pm / $12

PhilaMOCA
531 N. 12th Street
12th/Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123

 

Becoming BondAmerican Essentials Film Festival 2017, Australia

Sydney – Palace Verona
Thursday 11th May, 6.30pm
Sunday 14th May, 6.00pm
Sydney – Palace Norton Street
Saturday 13th May, 8.15pm
Saturday 20th May, 6.15pm
Melbourne – Palace Cinema Como
Friday 12th May, 6.15pm
Saturday 13th May, 8.15pm
Saturday 20th May, 6.30pm
Melbourne – Palace Westgarth
Brisbane – Palace Centro
Canberra – Palace Electric
Adelaide – Palace Nova Cinemas