What Bond reference book are you reading?

MaxCasino

Dragonpol wrote: »

BT3366 wrote: »

MaxCasino wrote: »

The James Bond Films 1962-1989: Interviews with the Actors, Writers and Producers by Lee Goldberg.

An interesting, quick read. Sir Roger Moore, charming as always. Based on his interview, I think Peter Hunt didn't want to come back when Moore was Bond. Simply, because he didn't view Moore as Bond, even after working with him. That's a shame, as they would have been an interesting pair. I think Tom Mankiewicz was interesting, but he seemed to view Bond as a unique individual. Not in the way that Fleming wrote him. Props to Timothy Dalton, as he was truly trying to do something different. John Glen was fun to read as well. I'm thankful that Michael G. Wilson is seemingly open about talking about the Bond process. That will be missed when he's gone.

The only bad interview in it was the Richard Maibaum interview. He was disgustedly so full of himself, while criticizing others. While egos are always in the media business, he was as much of a hothead like Lazenby. Dear Richard "The Dick" Maibaum in the afterlife: You were NEVER the only one who could write Bond successfully. I'm still conceived that EON wouldn't let him direct a Bond movie because he would be more of a dictator than a director. He also criticized actors, for either changing his words, or not saying them the way he wanted. However, Goldberg said that he and Maibaum (rightfully so) got in trouble with EON for that particular interview. So, while I am thankful for Maibaum's scripts, I can't respect him as a team player. He was honestly lucky that he didn't get fired for that interview. I'm sure that if he was offered NSNA he would have taken it.

So overall, I do recommend it. A great blast from the past.

Thanks for this review. I didn't even know this was out there as there are countless small press Bond books out there, but I recognized Lee Goldberg's name. I think he may have been a contributor to Starlog, a great source for Bond interviews back in the pre-internet days.

Yes, thanks from me too, @MaxCasino. I didn't know this was out so I've ordered a copy. This covers my favourite era of James Bond films to be honest (1962-1989) not that I don't appreciate much of what came after too. These earlier films just had a more classic feel to them I think.

You're welcome. As I've said before, @BT3366 and @Dragonpol I'm always happy to help fellow fans (in all my interests) out. I just hope that my Richard Maibaum rant won't put some people off. Just some of my opinions. But, I still enjoyed reading his insights, actually.