James Bond: Secret to spy's success

The following is a script from "James Bond" which aired on Oct. 14, 2012. Anderson Cooper is the correspondent. Tanya Simon, producer.

Turning 50 is a major milestone in anyone's life, but when the world's most famous secret agent turns 50, we think that's as good a reason as any to raise a glass, provided of course it's a vodka martini, shaken not stirred.

James Bond is celebrating his 50th anniversary on screen with a new film due out next month. Bond is the longest running movie franchise in history and one of the most profitable, earning nearly five billion dollars in ticket sales worldwide.

What's the secret to 007's longevity? We found that while onscreen Bond has consistently changed with the times, behind-the-scenes one family of producers has been responsible for his success from the very beginning.

Back in 1962, a small-time producer named Albert "Cubby" Broccoli made the first Bond film and went on to produce 15 more. Before he died he turned over control to his daughter and stepson, producers who still own half the franchise and oversee every aspect of every film including the latest one, "Skyfall."

Cubby Broccoli's daughter, Barbara Broccoli, and his stepson, Michael Wilson, recently wrapped production on "Skyfall," the 23rd Bond film in the franchise they inherited.

Anderson Cooper: Before your dad stepped down, did he give you any advice?

Barbara Broccoli: Well, I guess the main thing was he said, "Don't let other people screw it up."

Anderson Cooper: The fact that you've kept this in the family, do you think that's critical to the success of this?

Michael Wilson: I think so.

Barbara Broccoli: We are, well, control freaks, you know? And we're excited. We're still excited by, I mean, every morning, you know, you get up, you think, "Wow, I get to go, you know, on a Bond set." And it's thrilling.

"Skyfall" stars Daniel Craig in his third outing as 007. He's the sixth actor to play Bond in its 50-year history.

Anderson Cooper: Why do you think it's lasted for 50 years?

Daniel Craig: Sort of giving value for money to the cinema-going public has been the credo of the Broccoli family.

Anderson Cooper: Cubby Broccoli talked about putting all the money on the screen?

Daniel Craig: Yeah. And they still give a large bang for your buck. I mean, the fact they haven't been bought out by a studio over the years is incredible. And I think if it-- it'd been sold in the past, if a studio had taken it, it would've died. They love making these movies. And that shows, when you're making the film.

The film's opening, over the top-action sequence -- a Broccoli family trademark -- was shot in Turkey, with Daniel Craig performing many of his own stunts.

Daniel Craig: I get a huge thrill out of it like a schoolboy thrill, you know. That is about being, you know, being an action hero on top of a train, which is, like I said, so far removed from who I am. But I'm getting to sort of live out a few fantasies.

Fantasy has always been at the heart of James Bond's appeal. When Ian Fleming, a former British naval intelligence officer, published the first Bond novel, "Casino Royale," in 1953, it offered readers a much-needed escape from the austerity of post-war Britain. Cubby Broccoli's dreams of bringing Bond to the screen were realized when he met another producer, Harry Saltzman, who'd obtained the screen rights to Fleming's early Bond books for a mere $50,000.

For their first film,1962's "Dr. No," Broccoli and Saltzman picked Sean Connery, then an unknown Scottish actor, who introduced himself to audiences with three words that are now movie history.

[From film "Dr. No"]

Woman: Mr.?

Bond: Bond, James Bond.

Barbara Broccoli: He sort of exploded on the screen in Technicolor with Jamaican locations, and--

Anderson Cooper: And hot women.

Barbara Broccoli: --hot women, and bikinis.

[From film "Dr. No"]

Honey Ryder: Looking for shells?

Bond: No, I'm just looking.

Barbara Broccoli: It's a pretty exciting world that Bond inhabits.

But it's a world Sean Connery almost wasn't part of. Hard to believe, but in the beginning, Broccoli told us, Ian Fleming didn't think he was right for the role.

Anderson Cooper: What do you think his concern was about Connery?

Barbara Broccoli: Well he didn't fit the sort of typical British hero. But Cubby and Harry saw him as a rough diamond. They just felt this electricity.

[From film "Dr. No": Where were you measured for this?]

To help him look the part, the film's director took Connery to a Savile Row tailor to get him fitted for a suit.

Barbara Broccoli: He said to Sean, "All right, now it fits like the glove. And I want you to go home, and I want you to sleep in it. And I want it to become your skin."

Anderson Cooper: He made Sean Connery sleep in his Savile Row suit?

Barbara Broccoli: Sleep in his suit.

Over the course of six films, Connery set the bar for the five actors who followed - George Lazenby for one film, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and now Daniel Craig.

Anderson Cooper: Do you have a favorite Bond?

Barbara Broccoli: It's like asking, you know, who's your favorite child or your favorite sibling. You know, you have to understand, we grew up with all of them.

Anderson Cooper: I heard that you actually believed Bond was real when you were a child.

Barbara Broccoli: I did. Because that was all everybody ever talked about in our house. So it was like some-- you know, exotic, distant uncle who was going to appear at any time.

Anderson Cooper: Do you wish he was real?

Barbara Broccoli: Well, he is real to me, in a way. Because he's, you know, so much of my life is-- you know, dedicated to him. But I'm not sure he'd be that much fun in real life. I think, you know, maybe to spend a weekend with him. But I don't think you want to live with him permanently.

Anderson Cooper: He's not a long-term relationship kind of guy.

Barbara Broccoli: No, he's definitely not a long relationship.

[From film "Thunderball"]

Woman: Behave yourself Mr. Bond.

[From film "Live and Let Die"]

Woman: James.

Bond may not be dependable, but his films certainly are and that's one reason for their success: the Broccoli family formula. A big budget, high-octane mix of ruthless gunplay, that racy girl-play and often risque wordplay.

[From film "Goldfinger"]

Bond: Who are you?

Pussy: My name is Pussy Galore.

Bond: I must be dreaming.

Few Bond films would be complete without a visit with Q, the eccentric mastermind behind 007's hi-tech and often outlandish gadgets which over the years got him out of many sticky situations.

Turns out some of Q's gadgets are stored with other Bond movie memorabilia at this nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of London.

Anderson Cooper: It's like something out of "Citizen Kane."

Meg Simmonds oversees the collection of half a century's worth of artifacts. There was this box of crystals from "Die Another Day."

[From film "Die Another Day"]

Halle Berry: No, leave it in please.

Meg Simmonds: One of those was in Halle Berry's belly button. We're not sure which one.

Meg Simmonds: Please put on the gloves.

She handles the most iconic bond props like museum pieces. The oldest one is from "Dr. No."

Meg Simmonds: Oddly enough a champagne bottle survived.

[From film "Dr. No "]

Dr. No: We'll have dinner at once...

Meg Simmonds: That's from the scene when Dr. No has asked Bond and Honey to his dinner table

[From film "Dr. No "]

Dr. No: Take her away...

Meg Simmonds: Dr. No's henchmen start manhandling Honey.

Honey Ryder: Nooooo...

Meg Simmonds: And Bond comes to her aid and the only weapon at hand is the champagne bottle on the dining room table. Dr. No says, "Don't please, don't it's a Dom Perignon 1955. And Bond being Bond says...

Bond: I prefer the '53 myself

Meg Simmonds: It is a real bottle.

Anderson Cooper: It is, really?

Meg Simmonds: Yes.

Meg Simmonds: There you go.

That's the booby-trapped briefcase Sean Connery used in "From Russia With Love" in 1963.

We saw Jaws' deadly dentures...

Anderson Cooper: Wow.

Meg Simmonds: Those are Jaws' teeth

The golden gun from "The Man with the Golden Gun." And perhaps the most famous piece of Bond memorabilia: the deadly hat worn by the henchman Oddjob in 1964's "Goldfinger."

Meg Simmonds: This was one of a few that they used...

Anderson Cooper: That's cool.

Meg Simmonds: Yeah. This one has, you can see the blades, and it's weighted.

Anderson Cooper: So there is actually a metal rim to this?

Meg Simmonds: Yeah and it's used in the final scene when it gets stuck in the bars and then when he goes to retrieve it Bond manages to electrocute him.

Anderson Cooper: How much is something like this worth?

Meg Simmonds: It's about 62,000 pounds.

Anderson Cooper: Wow that's about a $100,000 hat.

Meg Simmonds: That's right, yeah.

Anderson Cooper: So I shouldn't throw it across the room?

Meg Simmonds: No, please don't.

Not far away, parked on Goldfinger Avenue at Pinewood Studios, where nearly all of the 007 films have been made, we found James Bond's Aston Martin. On screen, it was outfitted with machine guns, tire slashing hubcaps, and an ejector seat for those unwanted passengers. A secret agent's dream, but for the Broccolis, it's also a business opportunity - perhaps the most successful product placement in film.

Sean Connery started driving this model Aston Martin in 1964. Since then it's shown up in five other bond films. There's no doubt 007 has done a lot for Aston Martin's brand. And these days there are plenty of other companies eager to get their products into his hands.

[From the film "GoldenEye"]

Q: BMW...

After the Z3 roadster appeared in 1995's "GoldenEye," sales of the car skyrocketed. Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson told us companies don't pay to be placed in a Bond film but agree to spend millions marketing the movies. Heineken, 007's beer of choice in "Skyfall," is spending $75 million on a worldwide ad campaign.

Getting sponsors on board with Bond has been easy, but convincing Daniel Craig to take on the role of 007 wasn't. When he was offered the part...

Daniel Craig: I said, "No." I said, "Thanks very much, you need to go away and find the right person." It was gonna be a life-changing thing if I said yes.

Anderson Cooper: Life-changing how so?

Daniel Craig: It was going to change everything, change how I was perceived in the world and I suppose I was incredibly nervous about that.

Anderson Cooper: Was part of the concern that, you know, though you were well known before, this is a global thing?

Daniel Craig: Yeah and also because everybody says, "Oh well you're going to get typecast. And that's obviously true, you're going to get -- I'm now, forever known--going to be known as James Bond. But that's not a bad thing, I mean, that's not a bad label to have.

Craig finally accepted the role after nearly two years. When he was introduced as the newest 007, some fans complained he was too short and too blond to be Bond. But once filming began on "Casino Royale," Barbara Broccoli was convinced the critics would be proven wrong.

Barbara Broccoli: He was just electrifying. We knew what we had. And so--

Anderson Cooper: Are you talking about the scene where he gets out of the water in the bathing suit?

Barbara Broccoli: Well, yeah, how did you know that was what I was thinking about?

Bathing suit aside, Craig plays Bond like Fleming wrote him - dark, flawed, very human. In a scene taken right from the pages of "Casino Royale," Bond is tied down to a chair and brutally beaten.

Anderson Cooper: When you go back to the Ian Fleming books, I mean, he's basically a guy who gets tortured a lot. And that's what happens to you, it seems, a lot.

Daniel Craig: Yeah, I mean he is tortured. He gets tortured and is tortured. You know Fleming has a love-hate relationship with him, and wants to kill him off all the time. But that's kind of part of the whole deal.

Anderson Cooper: But there's a danger to your Bond, that you know, Roger Moore didn't have.

Daniel Craig: Look, if I could play it like Roger Moore, I would. It'd be a lot easier on my limbs.

But no matter who's playing him, what man doesn't secretly -- or not so secretly -

Joss Skatto: I'll give you this gun.

Want to be James Bond?

Joss Skatto: This is the Walther PPK.

That's Bond's signature gun.

Joss Skatto: Both eyes open.

Anderson Cooper: OK.

And at this firing range, Joss Skatto taught Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan how to shoot like James Bond.

Joss Skatto: You don't hold it like a bunch of flowers.

He tried to show me.

Joss Skatto: Move the top part of your body, hips upwards, that's the way. This arm's going to be straight. That's the stance you're going to be doing and go!

Joss Skatto: A bit more aggressive on this one. Very nice.

Anderson Cooper: I don't feel like James Bond yet.

Joss Skatto: You will do. About 15 minutes.

Anderson Cooper: Oh yeah, that's all it takes? Fifteen minutes?

Joss Skatto: No. (laughs)

Anderson Cooper: That is the part of the fantasy, I think, the appeal of this character is that people want to be-- guys want to be him.

Daniel Craig: But I want to see sides to him. I want to see a kind of-- I want to see a fallibility about the character. Because, you know, he's an assassin. He kills people.

Daniel Craig has breathed new life into the series. His two films to date have earned record highs for the franchise.

As for his newest adventure, "Skyfall" - known in production as Bond 23 - it's not even out yet and there's already talk of Bond 24. But Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, the guardians of the franchise, aren't giving up any of its secrets.

Anderson Cooper: Where does Bond go from here? I mean he's sort of done it all.

Michael Wilson: That statement could have been made 20 years ago and been just as valid as it is today.

Anderson Cooper: How much longer do you think you can keep on going?

Barbara Broccoli: As long as audiences want to come see the movies, we'll make them.