Lifted from the headlines - Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies

I've been thinking a lot recently about Elliot Carver as the villain of the piece in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). It's interesting to note that the plot was inspired by media moguls like William Randolph Hearst, Robert Maxwell (same suicide cover off yacht used by M to explain Carver's death) and Rupert Murdoch (of phone-hacking 2011 scandal fame). It is a fact that Hearst did say to his journalists "You provide the pictures, I'll provide the war". He is credited with partly instigating the 1898 Spanish-American War through his media empire as the world's foremost media mogul at the time. Benson's novelisation has lots of juicy detail on Carver's background and on Lord Roverman, his father who was also a media mogul.

What are our thoughts on the role of the real-world presentation of media moguls in Tomorrow Never Dies, on how the plot of the film is literally lifted out of the newspaper headlines and News 24 culture of the late 1990s? Is it a satire or grimly close to reality - Fox News, Sky News right-wing commentary etc., The Sun, The Times etc. Political worldview through The Sun - famous politcal headlines like 'Up Yours, Delors', 'It was The Sun wot won it' (John Major's shock election win in 1992 after backing from The Sun) and 'Brown's Lost It' (2009) - meaning The Sun's support of New Labour).

Is starting a war for increased TV/satelllite/radio/newspapers and magazines really credible or does it smack of a parody/satire/a step too far. I remember reading in an early magazine piece on Tomorrow Never Dies that Carver had seen how the ratings of his media empire had vastly increased during the 1991 Gulf War (this probably comes from Benson's novelisation) and he associated war/conflict with increased audience/ratings. Even Bond questions the sense of starting a war between Britain and China (presumably World War III) for ratings - shades of Karl Stromberg in TSWLM creating his own underwater world - merely (as he puts it) accelerating the process of the decadence and decline of civilisation and of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in YOLT - both of which are massive influences on this film, mind.

So, what are your thoughts on Elliot Carver, Tomorrow Never Dies and media moguls in the world of James Bond. I think it works well, but it could easily have been preposterous if it had went the other way.

See this interesting 1998 article by Fraser Engerman over on HMSS for more details:

http://www.hmss.com/films/carver/

It seems that the bugging/phone-hacking/celebrity privacy scandal of Summer 2011 has added a new topicality to this (almost) 15 year old film. As a final note, I think that Tomorrow Never Lies would have been a much better title, but it was apparently missread by a staff member in a fax at EON and was never fixed...shame.

Also, I have read on the site that Harmsway was originally meant to have been the villain's name and the handover of Hong Kong back to Red China was originally meant to have been the plot - any further details on this - books or articles where one can find out more on this? This is all new to me. Would love to know more about the fascinating early draft of Tomorrow Never Dies if any members here would care to throw their hats into the ring.