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Will we ever see the Bond Continuation novels as films?
I remember reading a quote from the producers that they where not interested in adapting non Fleming material at the moment, but this was many years ago. Now most of Fleming has been used, not quite exhausted as a source but do you think we will ever see the continuation novels adapted? I feel that some of them are just as good as Fleming and would make really good films.
What do you guys think?
What do you guys think?
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Comments
Cheaper to concoct original stories.
Was their not a court before 2006`s casino royale when the courts said everything bond was eons preventing Kevin Mclory to develop more stories? Or are the book rights something else?
Or how about the Goodyear Airship climax of Role Of Honour and the Zorin Industries Airship/Golden Golden Gate Bridge climax of A View To A Kill. Again, not 100% the same, but given how Role Of Honour was published in 1984 and A View To A Kill was released in 1985...
This stance does make Eon look kinda cheap though. Then again, I have no idea what rights-payoffs to the continuation authors would cost.
From EON's perspective, I guess the continuation titles are kinda niche, and thus not worth paying for, when they can just as easily dream up their own stories, and cherry-pick , as @MajorDSmythe points out, bits that they like from the post-Fleming novels, without crossing into rights territory.
Also I would love to see Colonal Sun made into a film. Perhaps it would make a good first film for the next Bond actor?
To be honest, I doubt Barbara Broccoli has ever read a Bond novel.
But not officially. I think there is enough material from the original novels for a few movies, if only as a starting point or to add Fleming flavour.
One can appreciate why the filmmakers took the decision to depart from the original novels to some extent even if one doesn't appreciate the final results.
OHMSS is about as close as you're going to get, I think. And that was easily the most cinematic of all the novels.
I don't really buy that as the explanation. Eon would be able to pick up the rights to the continuation novels for a song. Possibly for nothing at all. The film rights to those novels have zero market value as they are not, and will never be, available on the market.
The fact is there's no real reason to adapt them. The stories have been neither critical nor commercial hits and aside from a few hardcore fans (who will pay to see the movies anyway) no-one knows they exist.
"Ah, the legendary Perdogg wit. Or at least half of it."
The rights to the continuation novels are yes, essentially worthless on the open market, because they would be in conflict with Eon's rights to "Bond," however if Eon as the Bond rights-holder did wish to base a movie on a continuation novel, the original author would have to be compensated, and the author or his estate would exercise their maximum financial leverage, whatever that might be, considering that Eon Bond-films do have proven track records as big money-makers. The author would want his cut.
From Eon's pov, it's not worth the financial hassle unless the story was so compelling that they felt a need to film it and make a financial deal.
This scenario is only going to happen though, if one of the continuation novels becomes such a smash best-seller, that the novel screams film me and make lots of money.
Otherwise the Bond brand itself is enough to project big profits.
==Then again,never say never. Maybe someday, someone running Eon will get a hankering to do something with Gardner's work, for example, make the deal with his estate and off we go.
I say this because I think Bond will outlive us all. Anything could happen way down the road.
Agree with all that Timmer as it makes perfect sense, especially what Cubby said. I wonder what deal the continuation authors made with IFP regarding film rights? I imagine Faulks and Denver might have retained the film rights to their novels but what about Gardner? I'd imagine that IFP almost certainly hold the rights to Benson's.
Author's usually receive 2-3% of the film's budget as a fee but it varies on a film by film basis.
This is interesting but did Faulkes and Deaver actually negotiate the right's away ahead of time, or would they still be entitled to a cut, if the books were ever filmed?
We may learn a bit about the process, as later this year, EON will purchase the rights to Solo too. Hopefully someone asks Boyd how it works.
Agreed. Ironically, the Gardner novels are almost more suited to Bond films.
Personally, I'd love to see the 'Young Bond' and 'Moneypenny Diaries' books brought to the screen and I think it would be very much in Eon's interest to either pursue this themselves or allow another production company to do it. The knock on effect for the adult movies would be significant.
'Young Bond' would pull new users into the franchise - the power of early adopters has been well demonstrated by 'Harry Potter' - and 'Moneypenny Diaries' would be a great vehicle for reaching women and men (everybody I've given those books to loves them).
I think it's beholdent on EON to remember that the golden age of Bond came about when there was complete synergy between the film and literary offerings.