Spectre feels like the end for the Daniel Craig James Bond era. The star is signed for a fifth film and was a producer of the latest 007 adventure who recruited director Sam Mendes to return.
After 24 films and more than 50 years, creators still find inspiration in the Ian Fleming novels. EON Productions went back to the first Fleming novel for Craig’s first film. Casino Royale was followed by Quantum of Solace then Mendes explored Bond’s youth in Scotland in Skyfall. In Spectre, Oberhauser (a father figure in Bond’s life mentioned briefly in a short story) was part of the story that saw the return of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and Blofeld to films.
Is there anything left from the Ian Fleming novels that can be used for future films? Here are 7 Ian Fleming story elements for future 007 movies:
Risico. This short story from the For Your Eyes Only collection. This story about 007 investigating drug smuggling in Italy. Villains Kristatos, Columbo and the smuggling were part of the film For Your Eyes Only. Is Risico a risky Bond movie title?
The Property of a Lady. This short story was referenced in the Octopussy film. Bond exposed a double agent was being paid via rigged auctions of Faberge art at the famous Sotheby’s. What do you think of this as a movie title?
Gala Brand. I still love this name for a Bond girl. She was an agent of Special Branch working undercover for the villain in Moonraker. In this third novel, Sir Hugo Drax was going to launch a Soviet supplied rocket at London instead of poisoning the Earth from a space station in the film in which the Bond girl was Dr. Holly Goodhead…because she was smart.
Vivienne “Viv” Michel. The star of The Spy Who Loved Me novel. This sexually explicit Bond tale was told from the woman’s point of view as Bond arrives in the final third of the book to save her from mobsters.
Guntram Shatterhand. In the novel You Only Live Twice followed the murder of his Bond’s wife Tracy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. A distraught 007 was sent to Japan to kill a doctor who had set up a “Garden of Death” attracting people who wanted to commit suicide and causing a politically embarrassing situation for the government. The Doctor was actually a retired Blofeld. Bond’s mission of revenge led to him becoming amnesiac and the world believing him dead.
Von Hammerstein. The villain of For Your Eyes Only working for Cuban counterintelligence who kills the Havelocks, friends of M. Bond and the couple’s bow and arrow shooting daughter go on a mission of revenge against the spymaster.
Bond Targets M. In The Man With the Golden Gun novel, Bond returns from the dead. Brainwashed by the KGB, Bond attempts to assassinate M. After failing and being deprogrammed by MI6, Bond proves he’s still got it by going after the infamous titular assassin.
That’s 7 for a future 007. Should the franchise keep going with Craig & Mendes or is time to stop, refresh and renew the license to thrill after a hiatus?
By Editor