Dear EON Productions
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SydneyPosts: 371MI6 Agent
Dear Barbara and Michael,
I am writing in the hope that EON staff monitor this web site. I have recently completed a James Bond screenplay that has been assessed by a UK literary agent. He has described it as "brilliant" and "great stuff". He is however reluctant to approach you due to your policy of not accepting unsolicited material. I know that EON is currently looking for the next Bond script. I am more than happy to sign a waiver that would protect EON from any legal action by me in the event that you have already come up with any of the ideas in my script. I have written the script out of love for the genre and would be the happiest man alive if you would consent to read it. I would also be willing to give you the script free of charge provided that I was credited as the writer if it was developed.
I can be contacted by email at steson@bigblue.net.au. If you email me I will gladly pass on my address and/or phone number to you. I am currently living in Australia but will be travelling to the UK later this year.
I can pass on the details of the agent who has assessed the script if you are interested in looking at it.
I wish you luck in the development of the next Bond film.
Yours sincerely,
Steven Mason
I am writing in the hope that EON staff monitor this web site. I have recently completed a James Bond screenplay that has been assessed by a UK literary agent. He has described it as "brilliant" and "great stuff". He is however reluctant to approach you due to your policy of not accepting unsolicited material. I know that EON is currently looking for the next Bond script. I am more than happy to sign a waiver that would protect EON from any legal action by me in the event that you have already come up with any of the ideas in my script. I have written the script out of love for the genre and would be the happiest man alive if you would consent to read it. I would also be willing to give you the script free of charge provided that I was credited as the writer if it was developed.
I can be contacted by email at steson@bigblue.net.au. If you email me I will gladly pass on my address and/or phone number to you. I am currently living in Australia but will be travelling to the UK later this year.
I can pass on the details of the agent who has assessed the script if you are interested in looking at it.
I wish you luck in the development of the next Bond film.
Yours sincerely,
Steven Mason
Comments
Scriptwork on Bond 21, however, has been underway for about two months (prior to Dana's passing). It's genesis might (MIGHT) be traced back as early as early 2002 in the aftermath of Die Another Day's success with the idea of the 're-occuring villian' theme (given M. Madsen's re-occuring Falco character).
Anyway...good luck.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I have to tell you that this type of letter is sent out by struggling writers every hour of the day and they are never, ever taken up. These promises mark you as an amateur and I'm afraid no production company is going to entrust an amateur with their reputations or their multi-million dollar franchise, regardless of how much you love the genre.
My own department receives scripts by writers from all over the world, with promises of signing away their work for free and wanting nothing more than a credit and a "foot in the door", but I'm afraid that's not how things work in this industry. If it did, then the Writers' Guilds would certainly have a few things to say about it!
If you want my advice, you should concentrate on writing your own, original screenplay with your own, original characters and use those as your 'calling card' to Eon or other prodcos. Trust me when I say that industry professionals - British ones, anyway - would much rather see how you handle your own stories and characters rather than theirs. It's your own individuality and 'voice' that will get you a foot in the door, nothing else.
Best of luck.
By the way, Atticus, a very nice, diplomatic reply on your part. Would that all industry insiders were so encouraging!
I should add, Steven, that e-mailing unsolicited submissions is never a good idea, either. Stick to the post and include an SAE.
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/fanfiction/godsassassin.php
I have completed my first original screenplay, "Master of Dragons" which has been assessed as excellent by an agent, and am in the middle of number three, "The Devil Is Us" (working title).
Thanks again for the great feedback.
I'm only asking for two (technically three) things for "Casino Royale" the first is that you try harder to bring Pierce Brosnan back for a fifth turn as 007, if Pierce Brosnan is not back, then Clive Owen is the only person I support for the role. Also, it's time for a new sound, fire David Arnold ASAP and bring Michael Giacchino ("The Incredibles") in to compose the score.
I would like to ask that the members of AJB007 write the script for Casino Royale
Sincerely,
Concerned
"Dear Barbara Broccoli...you are cordially invited to my home. May I press you to cucumber sandwich?"
All kidding aside. There are great ideas and suggestions abounding on AJB (as well as some not so great ones, I'm sure). I would hope that because this is a "fan" site, that they don't look down they're noses at us, and if they did see some strong ideas for Bond (actors, stories, etc.) they would have the decency to acknowledge AJB...although I see how that could create a monster.
It certainly does -and I'm still trying!
He can act faster than he can think and his top priority is himself. I know being morally unreproachable is an impossibility to most, but those of us that shoot for that goal live a much more challenging, fulfilling life. It makes life, and a movie, a lot more interesting when you have to sacrifice yourself before an innocent.
I'm withdrawing my offer to post my script. I don't believe EON is very interested in the script. The James Bond name and the star sell the movie, anyone can write a script like Casino Royale or they can make it up as they go along. It seemed to be mostly based on the James Bond video games with a little Raiders of the Lost Ark and some other movies thrown in.
I decided it wouldn't be prudent to publish a work containing actual activities, anyway. My method of escaping from the Khmer Rouge would be used to escape from prison, my method of infiltrating KGB headquarters would be used to rob banks.
My script had James Bond turning over the reigns to an American son. It's a gently humorous, action packed story with the supreme sacrifice and sin for an ending. I may take the advice of a previous poster and use it for 3 novels about a character called Spitz, who is or appears dominated by his evil side until the end
,or a television series about a secret agent for the Vatican who's sidekick is a boy with Down's Syndrome. That's right, if you want to make James Bond more real the first thing you should take out is the beautiful women. The people that help you out there aren't the spoiled ones.
I may do nothing. I don't have any reason to write other than boredom, or to replace the role model the world just lost. I wish the world realized that if some people hadn't had characaters like James Bond, James`West, the original Batman and Sherriff Andy Taylor as role models you'd all be seriously ****ed.
I'm sorry my reply has taken a personal turn. I know movies aren't produced for me. I've always felt a kinship with the James Bond character and now the actor portraying the role even looks like me. It's disappointing to know that this is the type of character the world will be looking up to even if they're just looking up to a screen.
Well, attache, please pick up the novel "Casino Royale" by Ian Fleming. There are additions to the novel, which are James Bond MOVIE additions (like 007 chasing the bomb maker... well, almost everything until the casino scenes), but the remainder of the film is pretty much Fleming. Yes, Fleming made it up as he went along (The Fleming Sweep)... wrote his first draft completely without looking back, embellished it the same way and then neatened it up.
In all fairness and honesty (not a personal attack) it sounds like you are a product of the Bond films, like most of the public. Maybe even venturing to say the later Bond films, because Casino Royale felt like the early Sean Connery Bonds to me (and including OHMSS with Lazenby in there too).
The Bond video games? Try Die Another Day and GoldenEye and TWINE... video games mimic the movies and unfortunately vice versa nowadays... not just 007.
As a hobbiest writer, I also find it easier to write using original characters... you are not bound to someone else's vision...
my 2 cents
It's as if someone put Bill Clinton in a dress, stood him over an air vent and said this is the new Marilyn Monroe. It doesn't matter what the reason is for changing the character, I'm never going to want to look up that skirt.
Thank God!
:007)
HAHA!
I'll second that!!
I'll DEFINTELY give you that one!
I'm sorry, Attache, that you consider CR's James Bond immoral (for what? fighting terrorism?) I don't find him especially wicked, but I think most people would agree that Bond is supposed to be a little "naughty." That was always a big part of the characters charm.
I can only add my voice to the chorus: Thanks God CR changed that. Because I'd rather see Bill Clinton in a dress than working for MM -- the Moral Majority.
What kind of dress? ;o)
The problem with Dalton (who had the best, fastest scripts) and Brosnan was they were too serious. They didn't have the Bond smirk. Connery and Lazenby did, but Moore took it further. I have no idea if the new actor does, I'll have to wait until he gets a chance to play Bond to see.
James Bond would have realized the suspect was going to run the minute he saw his associate cover his ear and positioned himself in a secluded spot along the suspects escape route. When the suspect got to him he would have broken his spine in the proper place so the suspect could not move, but still talk. NOTE* In View to a Kill when Bond chased a suspect through the streets the suspect was unknown, not the same circumstance.
Sounds to me like you are doing just that. The faults you are picking out are things that never even crossed my mind when I watched the film, and no one else I have spoke to have mentioned those faults either - mainly because they weren't obvious enough.
I have to agree with attache in the sense that the Embassy scene is really hard to swallow. Storming an embassy is tantamount to war... Sure, seeing Bond "buck the rules" may be cool, but after that, I had a hard time getting back into the swing of the film. It would have worked better if the newspapers had said something like "unknown assailant crashes embassy" but the fact that the writers clearly fingered MI6 left no wiggle room for plausibility. Both Bond and M would most likely have been on the streets, and the British PM would be making some very apologetic speeches.
Or of course, he or she might have denied knowing anything about it. But of course governments and intelligence agencies would never do that in real life or deny embarrassing newspaper stories -- especially when they screw up big-time.
Darenhat, isn't your standard of realism a little rigorous for a Bond film? Where does it come from? It certainly didn't develop from watching the 20 previous films. As a Bond fan, you've certainly suspended disbelief on far more outlandish goings-on than the embassy scene, or anything else in CR. Why so fussy now? Granted, Eon said CR would be a more serious film, but they did promise a James Bond film, not a documentary.
For me it is more of a 'character' standard. I can accept Bond to do some pretty outrageous things, and even suspend my disbelief on several occasions. For instance, in CR I can believe (as ludicrous as the concept really is) that 'the Good Guys' need to defeat 'The Bad Guys' by playing a game of high-stakes poker. Nonsense, if you think about it, but it doesn't bother me. Just like it doesn't bother me to see Bond go into space, or Bond basejump off of an icewall.
The embassy matter for me is more of 'what would Bond do' kind of thing. Bond is, for all intents and purposes, a civil servant, albeit one with a very special attribute: a licence to kill. But his primary duty is the 'protection of Britain' and to be Her Majesty's servant. In that case, what Bond does, his actions would always be typified by the "For England!' mentality. For instance, Bond has a licence to kill, but that doesn't mean he uses it one his way to the office because some poor bloke cut him off while driving. He uses it with the express purpose that it is in some way a task to further the protection of England. Deciding to burst into an embassy, guns ablazing, is the antithesis of what Bond is in my mind. The action would have too many far-reaching consequences, not just for him, or M, or MI6, but for England as a whole.