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The only reason I would want a Wai Lin film is if it were from the 90s starring Michele Yeoh because she’s an awesome action star worth of her own Bond universe film.
Off a hooker's chest I presume.
Fair enough, I didn't mean to misrepresent your argument.
But it does beg the question that if they were only placeholders, then exactly which characters would the spin offs involve?
And yes, Michelle Yeoh is a fantastic actress I absolutely agree. Not sure Wai Lin is that good a character though.
Nah, just film Colonel Sun instead and forget about spin-offs. The good Colonel did it better first time around and all with easily attainable household items too. No fancy hi-tech brain drilling machines (as seen in Spectre) required.
The comic book industry is not exactly a marginal one either. And in any case, they have a lot of source material to work on.
Like DiCaprio in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Really depends on the pitch.
She’s pretty basic but so has Bond in most films, it’s always been the leading actor that carried these films more than the “character”. Besides, it’s an opportunity to further develop that character.
Where else would you find a writer? It's where I get all my best ideas.
But Bond has a history to back him up, and even then, I'd argue that all actors needed to be backed by some texture and depths at some point or another. It didn't always work, but they have to give the actor something to work on. And in any case, Bond is a brand. That's not the case for Way Lin, Jinx, Leiter, etc.
This is only true because they’ve never had their own series of films yet. Nothing is ever a brand until it branches out and becomes its own thing, successfully. The character of Frasier Crane wasn’t a brand himself until his spin-off show took off after the end of CHEERS, and the writers were forced to create that on their own without source material beyond what was presented in the original show (which wasn’t very substantial).
Let me ask you: What do YOU think would constitute a successful spin-off from Bond? We’re only speaking hypothetically, so please just play along with this. No matter how adamant you are against the idea of any spin-off, can you at least try to imagine the best case scenario for a spin-off?
I don't think that's a fair question unless you first explain why you are so set on the idea of a spin off. What are you not getting from Bond that you want a spin off so badly?
To attempt an answer at your question, however, for me the best possible spin off would be one that does something completely different than the main series. So, there is nothing whatsoever to gain from expanding these supporting characters into their own franchises that can't be gotten from either the main Bond series, or films like Salt, Haywire, Mission Impossible, etc. So maybe a Moneypenny spin off that deal with the politics of Mi6 (not in the field)? That might be a new angle that spins off from the main series, not that I want to see it because I just don't care about Moneypenny or anyone else outside of their relationship to 007.
And saying 'but if it was done well' or 'you don't know if you don't care because they haven't made it yet', isn't good enough either because that could be said about anything at all. I have never seen a crossover with Bond and Jurassic Park and I don't care how well it is done I don't want to see it.
I’m actually not interested in a spin-off, but I’m not against it either. I’ve only ever been speaking hypothetically. I don’t even want Bond to go back to the every other year production style of the Cubby years.
Why does playing devil’s advocate for a spin-off suggest that I’m not getting something I want from Bond?
Funnily, there was an actual comic book with Bond and dinosaurs. ;)
Anyway, the spin off ideas sound dreadful to me. If, for no other reason that they will be a distraction from the main Bond series - which at the moment is all but dead anyway.
"Funnily, there was an actual comic book with Bond and dinosaurs." Funny is not the word I would use in this situation!!!!!
What the hell was that comic book?
I’d like to read that, but it seems to be out of print.
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/comics/st.php3
Thank you for that.
I suppose there is nothing wrong with spunking these daft ideas out in comic books. Would be a bit too far for the films imo.
Anyway @MakeshiftPython, why do you want a James Bond/Jurassic Park crossover so much?
I wish we got that instead of JURASSIC WORLD.
Haha.
I could think of two things that could maybe, perhaps, hypothetically work as sort of spinoffs, but even then they'd be one off and I wouldn't bet much on them being successful:
1)A faithful adaptation of TSWLM with Vivienne Michel as the main character and Bond has a cameo. The source material is there, it is in the Bondverse but it's a different perspective. And it's both original and Fleming. But Fleming himself disowned it and audiences could easily find it confusing and disappointing because it's so out of genre.
2)A Blofeld prequel where we see him creating Spectre. I used to think about a fanfic, based on the old continuity, where you'd see his background and Largo's, see him recruiting Dr No, get his scar, etc. But now they have a lot of good stuff from SP they haven't used (les Spectres de pierre, etc.) which could make for a solid movie with a villain protagonist. And I'd have this as a one off, not a series with Blofeld as the main character. I'm still very skeptical on how it could work or be popular. As much as I love Blofeld as a villain, seeing his history might destroy his aura of mystery and banalise him. And a lot of what we could see in this prequel/origin story could just easily be featured in one way or another in a Bond movie.
Have you read the Daily Express comic strip version of TSWLM? It's the only adaptation of Fleming's version I know of and tries something slightly similar to what you're proposing, in crafting a more typically "Bondian" version of the story, with more action and typical elements.
To be honest, if the book was truly to be adapted I'd want a faithful version, horrible ex-boyfriends and all, but such a version would be commercially dead in the water. It would never be greenlit, except maybe as a quirky indie project a hundred years from now when the copyright has expired.
So when those in this thread say that Bond’s world can’t ever successfully be expanded, I think of this quote from Picard.
I can’t tell you HOW and WHAT needs to be done to make a successful spin-off of Bond. I’m not a writer. I speculate about things, but I don’t know what NEEDS to be done. I just know it isn’t impossible.
Saying it CAN be done with a great writer without qualifying HOW is a bit of a cheat. Pretty much anything CAN be done, but it doesn't mean it should be, or that it would work.
The supporting characters of Bond are so slight, and so defined by their relationship to Bond, that any spin offs would need to create and invent character traits and narrative scenarios completely from scratch - which defeats the purpose of a true spin off. Yes, you could do a Leiter series, but what would it bring? Yes, you could create a whole new series of Mi6 agent films, but why? What would they do that Bond doesn't? And so on.
In, say a Truman-Lodge spin-off, would we still get the opening gunbarrel?
And wouldn't it be frustrating if the opening gunbarrel starring Truman-Lodge turned out pitch perfect in each film, unlike the Craig era in which the GB is screwed up in some way most of the time?
Actually I 'm probably the only fan who would flock to see a Truman-Lodge spin off regardless of the gunbarrel's placement.
Never mind, then
Carry on............
He dies spectacularly in each entry. :)