Ian Fleming and the Curse of James Bond, directed by Adam Low, a new feature documentary exploring the life, imagination and enduring legacy of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, will premiere at GoldenEye, Fleming’s former Jamaican home, during the 80th anniversary year of the villa’s construction.

The documentary explores Fleming beyond the legend of 007, considering the contradictions, pressures and fascinations that shaped both the man and the charged literary world he created, according to a press release by Gross Media, which executive produced the project.

Presented at GoldenEye by Gross Media, the premiere weekend – November 19 to November 22, 2026 – brings together biography, place and mythology in a setting deeply connected to the Bond story.

“GoldenEye’s enduring legacy as a center of Jamaican art and creativity is rare and compelling,” said Gross Media founder David M Gross. “So much new has originated here and radiated outward — through music, painting, literature and the performing arts. Our film invites a new generation to come to Oracabessa, St Mary, to understand that legacy and be inspired by it.”

Built in a uniquely Jamaican architectural style, the iconic villa features whitewashed walls, wooden louvers and has no glass windowpanes.

Upon returning from espionage duties during World War II, Fleming built the villa in 1946 on Jamaica’s famed North Coast. GoldenEye became the creative sanctuary where he wrote each of the 12 James Bond nov els and the stories that introduced one of the most recognizable characters in modern popular culture.

Eight decades later, the property remains a living landmark: part legendary literary site, part cultural myth and an enduring symbol of Jamaica’s oversized place in the Bond story and the wider cultural world.

“Fleming built GoldenEye as a place where he could write, and every James Bond novel was written here. Eighty years later, it remains the spiritual birthplace of Bond. To screen a film that looks so closely at Fleming himself, during GoldenEye’s 80th year, is very special,” said Chris Blackwell, Founder, and Marika Kessler, CEO, Island Outpost.

Adam Low, the film’s director, said he was “determined to put Jamaica at the centre of the story” with the project.

“Even the Bond books not set there are infused with the island’s atmosphere, landscape and history. By including Jamaican voices — from Fleming’s longtime gardener Ramsay Dacosta to novelist Marlon James as well as Minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange whose relative Aunt Violet was Fleming’s house manager — the film shows how deeply Jamaica shaped Fleming’s imagination and the world of Bond,” Low said.

“As Minister Grange says in the film, ‘Jamaica is the star of the Bond films,’ and the documentary makes a compelling case that without Jamaica, there would be no James Bond,” said Low, underlining the Jamaican connection.

The perspective of the film deepens the premiere’s connection to GoldenEye by positioning Jamaica not simply as Fleming’s retreat, but as a defining creative force behind Bond’s settings, sensibility and mythology.

“By weaving together Jamaican voices, landscapes and history, the documentary underscores the island’s central place in both Fleming’s imagination and the continuing cultural life of 007,” said film editor Joanna Crickmay.

According to the release, the film’s opening sequence features a moving benediction in the Rastafari tradition by author, journalist and cultural liaison Barbara Blake-Hannah, while driving the vibrant streets through Oracabessa, St Mary, en route to GoldenEye with Desmond Dekker & The Aces’ legendary rocksteady and reggae track “007 (Shanty Town)” on play.

The premiere film weekend will bring guests from around the world to the place where Fleming’s daily writing ritual helped launch the Bond phenomenon, the release stated, adding that the programme includes a screening at PlayScape, a cocktail party at the GoldenEye villa with a Jamaican jazz band, a classic Jamaican BBQ on Button Beach with members of the film’s crew and Ian Fleming-themed morning breakfasts: scrambled eggs, toast, guava jelly, local fruits and Blue Mountain coffee.

Together, the events offer guests a rare opportunity to experience the film in the setting most closely associated with Fleming’s creative life, according to the press release.