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Unused Fleming content - can it be filmed?

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  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,106
    Gerard wrote: »
    For Moonraker, I used the basic idea for a James Bond 007 Role-Playing Game scenario, and made it work for the 80s. In my draft, the villain (which I named John Dragon), built a satellite that, launched with the Ariane rocket, took control of the rocket and sent it directly to Cape Canaveral, thus crippling two space programs for the price of one . It worked. At least for my players.

    Cool. I always wanted to play that RPG. I need to find it online (don't think it is available anymore). And then I'd need to find players.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    edited February 2015 Posts: 7,546
    Villiers53 wrote: »
    RC7 wrote: »
    Villiers53 wrote: »
    At the end of the day, the 'Mona Lisa' is not displayed in pieces or her hair re-styled to look like Kim Kardashian with the thought that it may be more contemporary.

    But the Mona Lisa is a singular, untainted piece of art. The same applies to Fleming's novels. What happens in the cinematic universe has no literal impact on the literary work of Fleming. The same way that an artist re-imagining the Mona Lisa does not physically alter the original.

    Regards a period TV series, I have my reservations. Bond on screen, and in print for that matter, should be contemporary in my eyes. If Fleming had lived in to his eighties and continued writing novels, those latter novels would have been set in the seventies and eighties themselves. Bond is and always has been a contemporary character, not a period character.

    I can see the thrill of a direct adaptation, particularly MR, but I think it would sully everything that continues to give the character longevity. I'll happily just read the novel. At the end of the day, even a vigorously faithful adaptation will not top the work of Fleming, so I'd rather see new ideas with a flavour of Fleming.
    Not surprisingly, I can't agree with this and to assert that cinematic adaptations have no impact on literary Bond can't be correct.
    Anybody with a molucum of taste seeing the Moonraker movie would be unlikely to pick up Fleming's book. Conversely, anybody impressed with the movie would be unlikely to have the intellect to appreciate the novel.
    One is a silk purse, the other is a sow's ear!

    I was impressed with various parts of Moonraker the film, and I really enjoyed Moonraker the novel :D I'd definitely say I'm more sow's ear than silk purse, though :))
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,106
    Just the meals mentioned in the novels could be used for the next six or seven movies, easily. Thinking about meals, a good deal of DAF could still be used as well, including the whole subplot about the sauce béarnaise.
  • gumboltgumbolt Now with in-office photocopier
    Posts: 153
    The background to Grant in the novel FRWL would be great to see on screen. He was insane, liked to kill in moonlight and the KGB would pay him for jobs partly by letting him into local asylums to pick an inmate to tear apart in the moonlight for his own pleasure. I've worked with people like that. But a really scary henchman with a background story would be interesting.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,277
    Ludovico wrote: »
    jobo wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    jobo wrote: »
    Lets be brutally honest here: Another problem with a straight adaptation of Moonraker is that the novel simply does not contain enough material for a modern, two hour epic action film. They can use (more) sequences from the novel or add new elements to the story, but a straight adaptation? I'm sorry...

    And they have milked a lot of MR in the films, ironically not so much in the "direct" adaptation. But anyway you can recognize elements of MR in AVTAK, GE, DAD and more recently SF. You could also argue that there are remnants of it in TND.

    And if rumours are true, more will pop up in Spectre... The chances of making a straight adaptation went over fourty years ago. But there are still many elements they can use of course. Personally I wonder when they will have a go at filming the 'bridge scene'. If it is indeed even filmable...?

    I think the bridge scene could work, but Blofeld is not Drax so I cannot see it in Spectre. The henchmen with bald heads and moustaches to change their identity later could be used as well.

    On a side note, the villain with obscure origins was the model for Drax, but also Le Chiffre and Goldfinger. The first two claimed partial amnesia as well. Not sure how this could be used, but I think it might.

    The bald guys were kind of used in TWINE.

    Now is the perfect time to adapt the YOLT novel. Craig is dark and brooding and, whether we like it or not, they added the over-the-top elements to his Bond in SP. The question room could be a great final confrontation.

    I advocate going for a full MR adaptation, but not until there is a new Bond. It's a young Bond's story, and of course, adapting an entire Fleming novel did wonders for the new Bond in CR.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,106
    They used bald guys a plenty but never shaved heads and moustaches to hide identity.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    All Fleming should be used until there is nothing left. Period.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    suavejmf wrote: »
    All Fleming should be used until there is nothing left. Period.

    Seconded. It is the only way.

  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Gala Brand should be the next Bond girl.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    And the Spangs.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,767
    suavejmf wrote: »
    All Fleming should be used until there is nothing left. Period.
    For me I'd say that there shouldn't be an elimination game played over time with Fleming material.
    ian-fleming-firsts.jpg
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    RichardTheBruce wrote: »
    suavejmf wrote: »
    All Fleming should be used until there is nothing left. Period.
    For me I'd say that there shouldn't be an elimination game played over time with Fleming material.
    ian-fleming-firsts.jpg

    Then they should move on to the continuation Bond novels which remain largely untouched to mix things up a bit.
  • SeanCraigSeanCraig Germany
    Posts: 732
    Elements I would be most keen to see in B25:

    - Bond helps M with the card game against a character betraying the others
    - Gala Brand character
    - Bond trailing Scaramanga (or a character modeled after him)
    - Moonraker elements as the MI5/MI6 Co-Operation, Murder on a remote site of national or international interest
  • Some_Kind_Of_HeroSome_Kind_Of_Hero
    Posts: 6,844
    SeanCraig wrote: »
    Elements I would be most keen to see in B25:

    - Bond helps M with the card game against a character betraying the others
    - Gala Brand character
    - Bond trailing Scaramanga (or a character modeled after him)
    - Moonraker elements as the MI5/MI6 Co-Operation, Murder on a remote site of national or international interest

    So in other words you want Purvis & Wade to write the script... ;)

    Because they've been pushing to integrate Moonraker elements into their scripts since they first began. By their own words, they've tried to include Gala Brand in every script they've written—Casino Royale excluded, perhaps?—and have in fact at times managed to get parts of her character onscreen. (See: the unconsummated relationship between Bond and Camille or their original treatment of Madeleine Swann, which saw Bond leaving her for his job.)

    People sure like to diss the two, despite their having done some terrific work for the series, even up against meddling producers and directors with their at times crazy creative demands.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,277
    Some_Kind_Of_Hero wrote: »
    SeanCraig wrote: »
    Elements I would be most keen to see in B25:

    - Bond helps M with the card game against a character betraying the others
    - Gala Brand character
    - Bond trailing Scaramanga (or a character modeled after him)
    - Moonraker elements as the MI5/MI6 Co-Operation, Murder on a remote site of national or international interest

    So in other words you want Purvis & Wade to write the script... ;)

    Because they've been pushing to integrate Moonraker elements into their scripts since they first began. By their own words, they've tried to include Gala Brand in every script they've written—Casino Royale excluded, perhaps?—and have in fact at times managed to get parts of her character onscreen. (See: the unconsummated relationship between Bond and Camille or their original treatment of Madeleine Swann, which saw Bond leaving her for his job.)

    People sure like to diss the two, despite their having done some terrific work for the series, even up against meddling producers and directors with their at times crazy creative demands.

    Good points there. I am glad in retrospect that they didn't waste Gala Brand on what became Miranda Frost, given how the film turned out. Brand is not Fleming's best-drawn character but her arc is interesting and different. There's something compelling about a woman leaving Bond (and not dying) rather than the other way around. Brand is all about duty.

    I'd like a less piecemeal adaptation of MR. Of course the villain's plot would need to be massively updated. And it may be too soon after SF to have a largely UK-set story. Frankly, after SP I'd rather Bond 25 spend as little time in the UK as possible...
  • GamesBond007GamesBond007 Golden Grotto
    Posts: 66
    Most of the Moonraker novel has been adapted within the films already. Looking back to the Moonraker movie, TWINE, DAD as well as CR, they feature much of that content. The character of Colonel Moon/Gustav Graves is basically the film interpretation of Hugo Drax.

    I think they could still repurpose the plot and characters; general audiences would not even notice such parallels. Personally I'd rather they just continue stripping the novels piecemeal. I enjoy seeing bits and pieces of Fleming's novels making their way into every movie.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    The Spang's and the mud-bath scene should be intergrated as well...seeing CraigBond taking on the mob would be very exciting stuff.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    barryt007 wrote: »
    The Spang's and the mud-bath scene should be intergrated as well...seeing CraigBond taking on the mob would be very exciting stuff.

    Seconded. I was just re-reading the mud bath scene the other day. Realistic noir kind of feel to it.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Definitely,and you can imagine CraigBond in that scene easily...and it takes his Bond finally away from SPECTRE and Quantum.
    In a whole new ,refreshing direction.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    barryt007 wrote: »
    Definitely,and you can imagine CraigBond in that scene easily...and it takes his Bond finally away from SPECTRE and Quantum.
    In a whole new ,refreshing direction.

    Yes, into organised crime and realism. Down that road is a new and this time faithful film version of The Man with the Golden Gun (1965).
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Definitely...TMWTGG has to be filmed properly and faithfully,maybe just brought up to date a little bit.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    barryt007 wrote: »
    Definitely...TMWTGG has to be filmed properly and faithfully,maybe just brought up to date a little bit.

    Yes, I'd be all for that too. A very underrated Bond novel.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    It is...as is DAF ,which actually is my favourite novel,but I know im in the minority .
  • QuantumOrganizationQuantumOrganization We have people everywhere
    Posts: 1,187
    Lots of Diamonds are Forever hasn't been used. Could see a faithful adaption of that as well.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,264
    QuantumOrganization wrote: »
    Lots of Diamonds are Forever hasn't been used. Could see a faithful adaption of that as well.

    Certainly there could be. I'd be all for that too. So much untapped potential. YOLT and MR too.

  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Exactly..there is a lot of very good Fleming material to be used,and it would take CraigBond away from the ongoing storyline,which is getting stale now due to the long gaps between films.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    U r right @barryt007; something big hasta happen to CraigBond at the very beginning, a major catalyst to get the film going, to give the character a purpose (something SP failed at), and give the audience a reason to invest in the story.

    It all starts with Fleming!
  • RoadphillRoadphill United Kingdom
    Posts: 984
    What about Herr Von Hammerstein from For Your Eyes Only. They would have to change the Nazi bit, of course.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Not necessarily..they could tone it down but the Nazi element was used in AVTAK a lot.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,106
    barryt007 wrote: »
    Not necessarily..they could tone it down but the Nazi element was used in AVTAK a lot.

    That was more than 30 years ago.
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