Bond After Fleming
DavidJones
BermondseyPosts: 266MI6 Agent
I'm currently reading Night Probe! by Clive Cussler, in which a thinly-disguised Bond features as a supporting character. Set in 1989 (but written in '81), he is portrayed as a sixty-six year old former MI6 agent, recently returned from the West Indies, and now a gentleman farmer on the Isle of White. He attends M's funeral, where he is reunited with Moneypenny, upon which he is pulled back into espionage.
It's set me thinking of other times in which the character has been resurrected outside the work of Fleming, Gardner, Benson et al.
In film, we have Lazenby's Bond in Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E: 'The Fifteen Years Later Affair'.; Connery's Bond in The Rock (hinted in the film itself, and also the director's intention), and Brosnan's Bond in his SPAR Premium adverts aired in Austria.
In literature, we have the 2014 novel A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin, an alternative history thriller set in 1955 in which Bond is, of course, nameless; he's 'Jimmy' Bond in Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, also appears in Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman.
Can anyone think of any more?
It's set me thinking of other times in which the character has been resurrected outside the work of Fleming, Gardner, Benson et al.
In film, we have Lazenby's Bond in Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E: 'The Fifteen Years Later Affair'.; Connery's Bond in The Rock (hinted in the film itself, and also the director's intention), and Brosnan's Bond in his SPAR Premium adverts aired in Austria.
In literature, we have the 2014 novel A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin, an alternative history thriller set in 1955 in which Bond is, of course, nameless; he's 'Jimmy' Bond in Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, also appears in Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman.
Can anyone think of any more?
Comments
This bizarre 1980s Japanese cigarette commercial starring Roger Moore himself (skip to 1:37)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veZFkkgR5pY
Pierce pitches some Bond-style ideas in a 2016 car advert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTYiU-Xge9o
Daniel Craig advertises Heineken in 2015, this time definitely in character as Bond:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0-AJYlJcF0
"The spectre of defeat..."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OrhVj09gyhA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tHK18m3Tk0c
in a used book stall in Portugal on a family holiday
Loved these and found another one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfGo0pfVYE&list=RDOrhVj09gyhA
There is also Daniel Craig as Bond escorting the Queen to the Olympics.
I'm liking it so far.
I thought I'd get into Cussler books as they're so similar to Bond.
Find it amazing how his stories
Never seem to work as movies.
They always seem to fail ?
Ive not come across this one before. Bond vs. the Nazis? I'll go for that
From what I gather, the reason both Raise the Titanic and Sahara didn't succeed was that they went grossly over-budget.
This is a very interesting article on how Cussler allowed himself too much influence on Sahara:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-dec-08-me-sahara8-story.html
and how the producers wasted money:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070518192636/http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-movie15apr15,0,6005119.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Interesting how he refers derisively to his former protege as a "blunt instrument", which was a common description Fleming gave of Bond, echoed by M in 2006's Casino Royale. Maybe Pierce was taking a swipe at Craig's version?
It's a shame: I did enjoy Sahara a lot and I thought McConaughey made a really good, fun lead in it. I'd have watched more.
I did just read the synopsis for that Night Probe! novel you mentioned though: that's an insane world-changing plot
It sounds like they even make it explicitly clear that it's Bond at the end..? You can't change Bond's name to Brian though!
I think the Fleming publishers are making a mistake by not hiring a good author to write books about James Bond's adventures as a young man during WWII.
I haven't got to the end yet, but certainly his first scene Cussler makes it blindingly obvious. It's stated explicitly that Brian Shaw is a new name, for instance.
And I agree that his new name is a bit too ordinary! (Though perhaps that makes it a good cover).
Yes, certainly; it's something Bond fans have talked about for years- especially when the first Young Bond series finished: it would have been great for Charlie Higson to have carried him on into the war. I think he's possibly the best continuation author. Someone even suggested calling it 'War Bond' which is too delicious not to use
Ah okay: good thing I didn't spoil anything!
Well, it's a bit clumsy how it's done, but Moneypenny says she's since married a man named Graham Huston, which conveniently allows her to be called 'Mrs Huston' by our man, and M is referred to as "the chief" or "the old man", but as he's dead that's far as it goes. Mention is also made of Shaw's wife who was killed and that SMERSH would be glad to see him dead too.
I've just tried to find extracts online, but no joy. On Youtube, however, there's an audio version. It's sound a bit electronic and tinny, but it's clear enough to understand. It starts at the 1:57:15 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWysiPd0AmE
"War Bond" is a great idea! :007)
Heh! Thanks- calling her by her married name is a rather neat dodge! I had a listen though, it is fantastically cheeky as there's no doubt at all!
The only problem is the idea of Bond retiring to the Isle of Wight... Nope!
Perhaps he's spent so much of his life going abroad, living in or near Britain is a novelty for him
Still set in the 1950s, so he might feel
At home there
The hype when it started claimed Origin was meant to fit in between Young Bond and Forever and a Day, as if those three separate projects add up to the official continuity pre-Casino Royale.
Ive received my copy of this now: looking forward to it as it seems to get lots of very positive reviews! Thanks for the tip-off!
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
"Keeping British end up, sir." - RM "This never happened to the other fellow." - JL "I must be dreaming." SC
When IF passed so did his creation. Subsequent novels are motivated by his inheritors desire not to see the enormous cash cow he created die with the author. IMO the post Fleming Bond novels have as much validity as oil paintings by later day Picassos, Van Goghs or Rembrandts. Whatever they create may be good - but will never be authentic.
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
I haven't read it myself, so do tell us what you think of it.