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What Bond reference book are you reading?

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  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,922
    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.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,922
    No Time to Die: The Making of the Film by Mark Salisbury. A lot of interesting details that I didn't know. The one thing that I will spoil is that Blofeld's death was generally written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. We sometimes joke about Cubby, Harry, Michael and Barbara co-directing the Bond movies. On NTTD, more than one person says Daniel Craig basically co-directed at times. In particular, Blofeld's death. Overall, a quick read with lots of fun information.
  • RevelatorRevelator
    edited February 25 Posts: 2,953
    I recently wrote a review of Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence by Ian Kinane. The book is is an academic study concerning Fleming's ambivalence about British Imperialism and Jamaica. The review, "Colonialism, Race, Jamaica, and 007", can be read at Artistic Licence Renewed.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,922
    Keeping 007 Alive by Mark Edlitz. This is a phenomenal piece of Bond behind the scenes. Any fan should have this, even if they are not into the continuation novels. Edlitz gives the authors a chance to explain themselves and their "trials" between IFP and the plotting and writing of their novel(s). It actually doesn't get as repetitive as you might think. IFP rules have changed overtime. Read it to better understand the passage of time, in rules.

    As for the authors themselves, here are my personal favorite reflections. Props to John Gardner (or his son Simon speaking for him), for just wanting to keep going. He made a goal, and kept to it. Raymond Benson is the only author to write his books with the movies in mind. IFP demanded it. Sebastian Faulks and Charlie Higson come off as a bit egotistical, Faulks basically says he was surprised to be asked to do it (he turned it down at first). Thankfully, he said yes, as he wanted to try something different. Jeffery Deaver said that he wrote a Jeffery Deaver novel with James Bond in it. Kim Sherwood said that her trilogy would have been announced earlier but like most other media things, COVID killed it. IFP said that during the John Gardner-Raymond Benson years, they generally just wanted the books to keep coming out. From Sebastian Faulks to Anthony Horowitz (at least) they wanted them to be a special event every couple of years. IFP wanted to keep a familiar writing voice for a while. Thankfully, Horowitz wanted to stick around. Now, IFP really is continuing and pushing spinoff novels. There may be more of them (unannounced) being worked on right now! Those are just a few details as a whole.

    Overall, I can't recommend this book enough. Mark Edlitz and the author show us how tough it can be to write an iconic character like James Bond. I also recommend his other books, as seen on his website.

    http://www.markedlitz.com/
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