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Yes, this is what happened.
Back in the '80s there was a much greater divide between film and TV (a kind of snobbery against TV as an inferior medium), so you can see why Cubby felt this way.
Didn't really keep up Steele as it wore on with school and sports and things, but recall a few people talking up Brosnan as a Moore replacement. The Steele character does admittedly give a Simon Templar/Lord Brett Sinclair vibe. The next year when the Battle of the Bonds was going on, Us Magazine did its poll of who should be the next Bond with names like Tom Selleck in there alongside several English actors and even Lazenby thrown in. Brosnan won overwhelmingly.
The Steele series is kind of fun. But they were very much of their time, far from series we know today with ongoing storylines. I know they had an arch enemy in some later seasons and Steele's dad shows up and such. They tried to jazz up the last season when it was renewed at the last minute by going on location and making it more exotic.
There were 5 seasons and I have the first and fourth/fifth on DVD but have never watched them. Maybe with all this downtime I should.
1987 to 1989 - *sigh*
Never realised it at the time, but that was a glorious period to be a Fleming Bond fan. You had a whole team either wanting to go back to the books, or were capable of cleverly adapting the books - from Glen the director, to Cubby the producer, to Maibaum the scriptwriter who expertly knew how to do this, to the actor himself playing the lead, Dalton.
The entire creative team were driven by a desire to give Bond a harder edge, while also wanting to return to the Fleming books (and not crappy P&W Fleming retcon, or Fleming re-imagined).
Happy days. If only we could go back to that time now. I'd argue that outside of the early 60's, that was the next best era.
Very much so. 100% agreed.
You wish you had a team currently making the films who want to give Bond a hard edge...? Erm...?
I should be "thankful"? For what? I detest "Skyfall". I don't care if every other human being on this earth loved it. I loathed it. And I will complain about it for as long as I watch James Bond movies.
+1
Did you purposely ignore the second part of my sentence you quoted...? Erm...?
Thanks MP. I'm fairly sure mtm knew that too, in his heart of hearts... ;)
Well that made less sense: they’ve done the Fleming books. I don’t hugely want Thunderball for a third time! :D
If it’s the leftovers... you can watch your dream movie of Bond being told about Phillip and Rhoda having a bad relationship at a dinner party, but I’ll watch the one with machine guns in the headlights of an Aston Martin, thanks!
:D
We might never find a new Maibaum, but there has to be someone more talented and accomplished than those two out there...
Now even I agree that would be dull. ;)
Give me properly adapted DAF, MR, TSWLM, YOLT and TMWTGG over pretty much anything `original' done by P&W any day of the week.
Yes, please! :)
The garden of death is still a creepy concept that could work as a villain's sideline project while working on his master plan. Kind of a Dr. Kevorkian thing, maybe. Save the samurai gear, though.
Rosamund s character in DAD was first called Gala Brand.
I am all for Fleming worshipping and all that, but do you seriously think any of those novels would fit the requirements of what is expected of a 21st century action film? :-?? :-/
Only for the present. As we know with the franchise, it goes through phases. I'm sure we will see another resurgent for Fleming adapted material in the future. Who would have thought we would get CR after DAD - 2 complete polar opposites.
But this is actually normal over the course of Bond history, and vice versa too -
TB>YOLT
YOLT>OHMSS
OHMSS>DAF
MR>FYEO
AVTAK>TLD
DAD>CR
SF>SP
This shows drastic change from one film to another, whether its back-to-basics to outlandish, or outlandish to back-to-basics.
Its why part of me hopes that if NTTD goes too far in the direction of OTT DAD crap, the chances are there will be a strong backlash, and will force EON to rethink their strategy again for the next one (particularly with a new actor too).
Anything after OHMSS would fall under that bracket, imo, to varying degrees of success.
Starting with Live and Let Die and Moonraker.
Not at all. I'm talking about FYEO, OP, TLD, LTK and CR.
None of these examples was `Fleming re-imagined'. They were accurately taking an entire short story, scene, or in the case of CR an entire novel, and adapting it to a modern day script. Obviously certain aspects get tweaked for updating, but events, characters, motivations, etc. stay exactly the same.
Apart from CR, this hasn't been done since 1989.
Thank you for some sanity on here.
CR proved beyond doubt Fleming can be adapted to modern day. And bizarrely that was the very first book from 1952, long before Fleming finally got the workings and template of a Bond formula traditionally defined, which would come later.
TBH, if we want solid interpretations of Fleming's novels, we have to move Bond back to the 50s and early 60s. As good as CR is, there are still some plot elements that did not translate well to the 21st century.
Reading Dynamite's new editions of CR and LALD, I can say: if EON wanted to go back to that period, and faithfully adapt each of the Fleming novels, I would be cool with that. If Mad Men, WW, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood proved anything, it's that such period pieces can still look and be cool. I think EON could do very, very well with a retro Bond with the next actor. But that's just me. Many on here vehemently disagree, as is their right. :D
I would obviously be cool with that too.
But I strongly disagree about CR, and it looks like the majority of critics and fans would too, seeing as that film is hailed by many as Craig's best Bond outing (despite all the clamour for SF and its BO records).
Likewise, TLD is another film highly thought of by fans and critics alike. Even FYEO is highly regarded by many, as is LTK.
Sorry, I thought I recalled you being dismissive of CR but I must have gotten you mixed up with someone else.
That being said, I'd argue that some of those adaptations are so minimal in the grand scheme of the films that there's no reason why something Fleming-esque couldn't also suffice if written well. There is only so much material there, and adapting "bits" here and there doesn't guarantee a good film.
Which pretty much bring us to the crux of the issue - we just need new and better writers.
Same here. I'd be quite happy to see the books adapted in series form, too - running concurrent to the films. Best of both worlds.
Yes I agree. Nicking the odd scenes or story won't work unless the entire script is any good. LTK nicks a couple of scenes from LALD, and loosely borrows from TMWTGG, but the entire films feels like it could have been written by Fleming.
TLD takes the short story from Fleming, but then builds on it for an entire film. Again you are right. Not that much to go on initially, but Maibaum was excellent at getting into Fleming's head, and not just adapting, but expanding his material too.
Now we are definitely on the same page in agreement - new and better writers.
:-bd