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yes that's what I mean. In any case, I could not care less about the continuations. Instead of adapting from Fleming, or at least getting the inspiration from his work, we would have a copy of a copy.
In my not so humble opinion, any self respecting fan knows that the young, metro sexual Jimmy Bond of Carte Blanche has gone down with real Bond aficionados like a pork chop in a synagogue. To say that that abomination was a complete turkey devoid of any redeeming features is probably the understatement of the decade.
In reality, there are only three adult continuation novels worthy of adapting for the big screen: 'Colonel Son,' 'Licence Renewed' and 'Role of Honour'. Anybody suggesting anything from messrs Faulkes, Deaver, Boyd or even worse, Benson, should be flayed to within an inch of their lives with an elephant's foreskin (a new Bond torture)!
Of course, the best Bond franchise adaptations would come from the fabulous Moneypenny Diaries or Higson's incredible Young Bond series.
Here's discussion page for it: (which includes the full plot for the High Time to Kill adaptation)
http://mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/7120/update-doubleshot-film-adaptation-plus-high-time-to-kill#Item_12
@GalaSilva, stop wasting your considerable talents on this bilge and start work on 'Colonel Son' immediately!
@Ludovico, believe you me, there is nothing 'fanfic' about 'Colonel Sun', 'The Moneypenny Diaries' or Higson's 'Young Bond' series. They are all significant contributions in their own right.
I agree that a few Gardner novels might hold up; perhaps License Renewed (great title) and For Special Services perhaps.
EON owns the film rights to the character of James Bond and ancillary support characters, such as M, Moneypenny, Bill Tanner etc. It does not own the film rights to the original characters in the inheritance novels. To acquire these and the rights to use the story in film would cost a lot of money, and that's before the script to make the book in question into a film had even been written.
Why would EON spend a lot of money to acquire film rights to inheritance novels, when they can skip the middleman and have screenwriters (such as John Logan, Paul Haggis, P&W etc.) come up with original ideas of their own? This way, EON have more control over the finished product because they don't have to include the author (or estate) of the original novel in the loop.
In my opinion, the two best inheritance novels are Trigger Mortis and Colonel Sun. Both of these books are set in circumstances (the Cold War and the Korean War aftermath) that are not really relevant to today, so would need updating, such as Casino Royale was. Kingsley Amis a.k.a. Robert Markham is now in no position to complain if EON brings his story into the present day, but I daresay Anthony Horowitz may object, all of which causes major headaches.
It's much easier for Eon to make up their own stories.
I do agree CS and TM would make excellent films, although I am getting a little tired of Korean villains. Probably my biggest complaint with TM. After the novels GF, CS, and the film DAD, Koreans seem a little overused as villains.
Point taken about the use of Koreans as villains, although Colonel Sun Liang-tan is of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and is not Korean. A Chinese villain would not go down well with the Chinese audience now either, natch.
Even though it will probably never happen there are some that would work well: Colonel Sun, some of Gardners (especially Licence Renewed, Icebreaker, Nobody Lives Forever, Brokenclaw, Death is Forever...) and Bensons Union-trilogy.
Indeed, I can't fault that logic at all. :)
I don't see anything wrong with the post-Fleming novel. I read For Special Service right now and I really like the storyline in it. Would I like to see that being adapted into a future bond films? By all mean, I would love that to happen.
@Ludovico's immune to the whole Continuation. I've tried to get him interested...
There is however a difference between using direct Fleming material to try to emulate him in the movies, inspire yourself of him and his work... And using a copy. Which means you would be making the copy of a copy. There is a saying in French, freely translated it is: "it is better to say to prayers to God rather than his saints". It means go to see the ultimate authority, not the subordinate. It works as well when you work on a character that first existed in another medium.
Source: Ian Fleming publication article: KINGSLEY AMIS’S COLONEL SUN INSPIRES A SCENE IN SPECTRE
You know that torture scene in Spectre where Blofeld was giving Bond a hell of a pain? Yes, that was lifted from Colonel Sun.
Also I found a interesting article that talk about the Bond films uses of Post-Fleming Bond novels as inspiration or plot point:
Déjá vu, Mr. Bond: The surprising similarities between the continuation novels and the James Bond films
I'll quote from the article and please tell me it's correct:
Now either these are coincidental or we may see future Bond films taking title name from Post-Fleming Bond novels, I wouldn't be surprised if that ever happen in the future.
More than the scenario it actually lifts whole chunks of dialogue from Amis. I remember being in the cinema watching it thinking 'this is all very colonel sun'. But Bond and torture sequences go hand in hand I guess (even Horowitz did it in Trigger Mortis).
I'm with you there.
CS is not very far away from being canon for me. I would also extend that courtesy to Pearson's biography - another contemporary who knew Fleming.
Gardner I couldn't really class as canon but he's better than almost all the others.
Benson - no way
Faulkes - don't take the piss
Deaver - not a chance
Boyd - nowhere near
Horowitz - the closest since Amis and Pearson I suppose based on claims of 'original material by Ian Fleming'; although I found the book pretty underwhelming.
High Time To Kill
DoubleShot
Never Dream of Dying (my favorite Benson Bond novel)
The first four Gardners I'd love to see done as films, as well as WIN LOSE OR DIE and BROKENCLAW. I actually really like several of the Gardner titles: ICEBREAKER, FOR SPECIAL SERVICES, ROLE OF HONOR- all sound more Bondian to me than, say, SOLO.
Well it's not always coincidential, it can go both way too. I'll quote this from the same article:
That's a great article by John Cox (zencat). It started out life on the CBn Main Page in 2001 and it has been updated since then. I wasn't aware that a blimp was used in one of the Bond comic strips first, but it does seem a fairly obvious idea anyway.
Although the person that wrote the comparison did a great job listing them, he did forget to mention what @Gerard mentioned:
But I'm still waiting for the next or future Bond films to use the title from any of the post-Fleming continuation novel.
I agree with this assessment of 'Carte Blanche' and frankly I think the only adult continuation novels that would make good movies are 'Colonel Sun' and 'Trigger Mortis'.
The 'Moneypenny Diaries' and 'Young Bond' would be great projects for the likes of HBO.
I suppose that the chances of any of this coming to pass are thin. Now that eon are generating original material - poor as it is - they probably avoid having to pay IFP any royalties.
But if the average moviegoer doesn't care, why not apeal to the Bond fans who actually would care. Of course the Bond film fans wouldn't care either (would they even notice if it said "based on a story by John Gardner" in the titles?). Although the Bond literature fans are few and far between it would be an extremely nice gesture from EON to acknowledge us and show us that they really do care about the original source, whether it's unused Fleming material or a continuation story.
They have opened the door ajar with the snippets from Colonel Sun in Spectre, which made me totally over-thrilled when I first heard it! I was purely extatic and for the first time since Casino Royale I got a geek-out moment in the cinema :) I just hope they don't close the door again, but continue into that glorious hall of Bond literature that is available and untouched.