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[Genrewriter]

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In May of last year, I graduated from Chapman University in Orange, CA with a BA in Film. In order to keep my screenwriting skills sharp, I occasionally like to adapt Jamed Bond novels into screenplays or write alternate scripts for films I felt needed some work. Obviously, I cannot post the screenplays but I can describe the differences and changes I have made.

First up is the one complete script I have done. When I first read The Facts of Death by Raymond Benson, I was struck by how cinematic the book was in terms of feel and scope. When I adapted it, I kept the story very close to what was written but with some major changes.

For the first installment, I will take us through the first act of the screenplay. All characters mentioned are from the novel by Raymond Benson.

Copyrights to the literary character of James Bond and all other related characters are held by Ian Fleming's Glidrose Productions and Putnam Publishing. The following is a piece of fan fiction done for entertainment purposes and the output of creative energy. No money is to be charged for the distribution of this work or the media it is distributed on.

Section 1: Pretitle Sequence-I started the script with a sequence I initially wrote for another screenplay. We open in the Swiss Alps where a military base has been secretly installed by General Georgiou who has come to check up on the base commander. We find that he has been tracked there by Bond who has taken the uniform of a Greek soldier. Bond is found and brought before the general but he escapes by blowing up the remote camera he has hidden in a ventilation shaft.

He pursues the escaping Georgiou who sends several of his own men after him on skis as well as the base commander's men. Bond eludes the men and ducks into a cave where he radios for air transport. The cave is surrounded but Bond escapes on a spoecial snowmobile designed by Q. A chase ensues which ends when Bond ditches the snowmobile and blows up a few of Georgiou's men with it. He is pursued by one more snowmobile, driven by a guard he smacked around earlier. Bond loses his skis and leaps onto the snowmobile where the two men fight as they ehad for a cliif. Bond is knocked back but he hangs ointo a piece of rope. He comes to his feet and ends up doing the same routine as in LTK but with snow-skiing instead of water-siing without skis.

Bond is saved when the helicopter appears. He leaps in and the snowmobile goes over the cliff. Bond watches Georgiou making his escape.

The next scene represents my first major change. Major Panos Sambrakos figures into the novel briefly in the latter half but I felt that his first scene was the best and also would serves as a good intro for some of the primary villains. The scene plays out essentially the same as before but with some changes. When Panos gets to the hangar, Vassilis and Nikos are waiting for him, loading a Pershing missile onto a truck. In the novel, Vassilis and Nikos are two relatively minor henchmen. Here though, Vassilis is the chief henchman and far more grotesque. The dfialogue is more or less from the book and Vassilis shoots Sambrakos twice in the chest when he protests Georgiou's orders. For the sake of simplicity, I placed Anavatos, the villain's lair, near the base.

Next comes the first M scene. Bond is assigned to investigate the Number Killer. The crime scenes are essentially the same as in the novel and I kept the Greece/Turkey conflict a running theme throughout the screenplay. Bond goes with the inspection team, as in the novel and meets Niki in Classic Bond fashion. Rather than having the entire team together, Bond is introduced to Niki, wearing a Haz-Mat suit and removing the top piece to reveal herself. Unlike the novel, I made Nik,i somewhat cold towards Bond. She brushes his flirtations and briefs him on the latest murder.

From there, I take the two to Cyprus where they rget cleaned up at Niki's base. The scene plays out more or less the same action-wise with Bond almost getting killed by a bomb in the bathroom. He sees the Number Killer and gives chase, heading into a helicopter as it takes off. He finds Nikos and the two fight briefly. The Number killer and Nikos manage to knock Bond out of the chopper as it hovers over the water. When Bond is pulled into the boat, the dialogue is basically the same and we see Niki softening a little bit.

We get another scene in London where Bond suspects Georgiou of the attacks and is placed on hold by M. She also asks him to keep an eye on Alfred Hutchinson that night. Bond and Moneypenny flirt afterwards and we get the Q scene. I gave Bond some different gadgets. The car remains the same but in addition, he gets a set of three credit cards. A silver one can be used as a lock-pick; A clear one is fitted with C-4 which can be detonated using Bond's watch which also has a high-tensile wire built into it for quick escapes. The scene is topped off with a joke about the gold card Bond is supplied with. Q mentions that Bond should feel free to charge any damages to it as it's the company card.

The scene with Hutchinson is altered slightly. He still enters with M but the scene focuses more on Bond and is compressed so Sir Alfred's death is witnessed in some part by Bond. Another big change is that I pout most of the Bond/Moneypenny flirting in this scene. They even dance together a bit when M enters. Bond is somewhat tired in this scene, a nod to the novels as he never likes being between jobs. Bond arranges to meet with M and Hutchinson later that night and also spies Manville Duncan and Hera.

I make a BIG change with Hera, sdhe initally introduces herself as Irene Volopolous. I did this because it has already been established for Bond and the audience that Greek mythology plays a role in the murders. Having Hera use her real name would be too much of a giveaway. They talk a bit and Hera leaves after checking her watch. Bond tells Tanner to keep an eye on her as she is seen shaking Sir Alfred's hand.

Bond and Tanner talk a bit more as Sir Alfred heads upstairs. A scream is heard and Bond and Tanner rush upstairs, only to find Sir Alfred in his office, dead with M looking on in shock. Bond notices Sir Altfred's hand is blleeding and pries it open. He finds a pin with the number 4 on it.

The next swcene is outside as hoispital as Tanner relays the cause of death to Bond. A synthetic form of Sarin that was used in the other three attacks. M appears, shaken and distraught. She straightens up iimediately upon seeing Bond and assigns him to find the source of the synthetic Sarin, The Suppliers. I had Bond and M speak alone for this last part and there is a nice reference to Fleming's For Your Eyes Only short story when M orders Bond to essentially wipe out whomever was responsible for Sir Alfred's death. She puts him on Charles Hutchinson's trail and sends him to Texas.

Well, that's Act 1. More to come later.

[Genrewriter]

Before we begin, I should mention two things. One, this script is basically a training exercise and was done mostly with the intention of making the story work for the cinema. Two, I forgot to mention that in the Q scene, Bond is assigned an Aston Martin rather than a Jaguar. The features on the car remain the same.

Now, let the sport commence!

Act II Part 1

The biggest change I made is in the Texas portion of the script. It is somewhat abbreviated and altered for a smoother flow. Bond arrives in Dallas and is met by Manuela Montemayor. I added in a small scene where Bond tests her loyalty by driving his rental car as fast as possible. She directs him to a ghouse where we are reintroduced to Felix Leiter. Unlike the novel, Felix doesn't use a wheelchair, although he still has the injuries from License to Kill. Bond and Leiter talk and the dfialogue basically matches the novel with the exception of a joke that they won't be having fish for dinner.

In the script, I consolidated the Jack Herman character and just used the name as an alias for Vassilis. The rest of the dialogue remains the same with Bond being directed to Reprocare and Ashley Anderson. The Suppliers are mentioned only as a connection to Charles as well as their theft5 of chemical weapons. This was done simply because I needed something to get Bond into Texas and the shortening of the Texas scenes makes the Suppliers slightly less impolrtant to the story. I cut out the dinner scene and flirting with Anderson simply because I wanted to have the story move at a brisker pace.

Bond goes to ReproCare and meets with Anderson. There is a little silent game of human chess as Anderson tries to get Bond to face a camera and Bond subtly tries to avoid it. Bond als0o noticers technicians loading tubes into crates. Anderson asks Bond to come in the next day and Bond departs. He heads to Charles's house in the mountains and observbes Hutchinson being knocked around by Vassilis and Nikos. Outside, there is a truck with another henchman. After Charles is taken out of the house, Bond sneaks into the back office with his silver credit card. He finds some files on the computer when Anderson and Vassilis enter. The scene plays out essentially as it does in the novel except that Anderson sets the house on fire qwith a molotov cocktail as she leaves. Bond finds a file on BioLinks and saves it onto a disk as the house begins to burn. Outside, Anderson sees Bond in the office and sends the misc. henchm,an after him. As Bond gets the file, the henchman attacks and a fight ensues as Vassilis and Anderson drive off. The henchman gets the better of Bond in the living room and takes the disc, leaving in a second truck. Bond follows and leaps onto the back as the truck winds down the road. Bond manages to get the disc back and cause the truck to crash into a tree.

Bond goes back to ReproCare later that night and follows some workers into a storage warehouse behind the building. He finds pictures of Charles and Sir Alfred, along with a photo of Konstantine Romanos. He also finds lockers filled with the tubes he saw earlier, containing a clear fliud. Anderson corners him and the scene plays out much like the novel with the only switch being that Anderson has wired the place to explode, she also shoots herself in the head. Bond manages to escape just before the entire complex goes up in a huge explosion. Back at Felix's, Bond learns that three more attacks have occurred and heads back to London.

On Anavatos that night, the Decada meets. I made a slight change, we don't see Hera at the table but are led to suspect she is the Number Killer, represented by the same figure in black.

In London, M briefs Bond on the latest attacks and reports that there is a connection with Georgiou, a sattellite photo taken at one of the attack sites before the attack occurred. Bond reports that the Suppliers have vanished without a trace but there is a connection with BioLinks, which is centered in Athens.

In Athens, Bond meerts up with Niki, his contact. They have lunch together and Niki tells Bond about the Decada and Romanos. The dialogue is basically the same with only some minor changes, mainly Niki being uncertain about thew Georgiou connection until Bond convinces her the bomb in the bathroom was meant for her and who better to gain access than a member of her own military. Niki gives Boind background on Vassilis and Konstantine and Bond reveals what he knows about BioLinks. Rmoanois's backstory is unchanged from the novel. They head for Cape Sounion.

They get to BioLinmks which als0o doubles as a center for Romanos's classes. They talk with one of the employees and are gioven a tour. Bond slips away as Niki distracts the man and we get a classic Bond snooping scene as he finds a hidden office in a library. He finds another storage locker with the same tubes, as well as a picture of Romanos with Sir Alfred. Bond has a nice moment as he looks at the picture, making the connection between the two men and probably wondering how he's going to tell M. Later, Bond and Niki make plans to go to Romanos's casino.

In their hotel, Bond tells Niki to keep an eye on things for him while yhe gopes to the casino. He stops to look at the photo which Niki asks him about. After giving a little information about the connection, Bond's demeanor hardens and he leaves, repeating his request for Niki to keep an eye on things. He also asks her to call Loindon and have M get Felix and Manuela down to Greece as backup. I did this simply because I like both characters and it works for the story to have them around.

[Genrewriter]

Act II Part 2

Bond takes a cable car up to the casino where he finds Konstrantine Romanos. A tense game of baccarat is played and Bond repeatedly pulls Romanos's chain, much like the Bond/Largo scene in Thunderball. Bond wins and Romanos offers to buy him a vcelebratory drink. Like the novel, thew dialogue shows just how truly insane Romanos is. Bond infuriates Romanos with a reference to thew attacks which causes the man to leave. Hera appears, still poasing as irene and she hooks up with Bond. The ensuing love scene is a bit more drawn out with the dialogue serving to lull the audience into a false sense of security. Bond is drugged by Hera after she reveals to him that she is a vegetarian, like the other Decada members. Niki reports to M and learns wh9o Hera really is.

Another major change from the novel is the cave scene. In the novel, Bond and Vassilis had a fight which ended in the henchman's death. Since I wanted to keep him around a while longer, I simply had him and Nikos beat on Bond until 007 comes bacvk and beats the hell out of both men. He gets out and goes to hisd car, getting in touch with Niki. He tells her what he knows so far and orders her to contact Felix and keep an eye on his car. He follows Hera on foot into a small village where she ambushes him in a church.

Bond comes to on Konstantine's yacht and we see Georgiou and Vassilis onboard. Bond is brought to Romanos and the scene plays out just like on the novel with much of the same dialogue. Romanos plans to create a unified Cyprus by causing a war between Greece and Turkey. He leaves Bond alone with Hera and flies off in a helicopter. Hera gleefully tortures Bond, carving his hand with a knife. As she does, Felix, Manuela and Niki appear in a chopper. Bond gets loose and knocks Hera away. He dives overboard and Georgiou and Vassilis fire down into the water at him. Two divers head after him and they fight underwater, trying to get Bond to the surface. As they dio, Niki providres cover for Boind, shooting at tyhe boat. Bond swims under the body of one of the divers and climbs into the helicopter. On the yacht, Georgiou tells Vassilis he has men waiting on the land.

Later, Bond and Niki go through the docks where she has parked the Aston Martin. As they get to it, they see the yaqcht bearing down on them. Thius is a huge change as I moved the car chase to this part instyead of right after the ReproCare sequence. The car and yacht have a showdown with the Aston Martin winning handily. Vassilis and Hera escape as the ship is blown apart. Bond and Niki are then chased by four trucks along a road heading to a mountain. The general is in the lead truck. Bond and Niki climb out of the car and take over two trucks. Bond has the car on auto-pilot and he blows up another truck with a well placed rocket. He gets back in and picks up Niki as the other trucks bear downh on them. Theyt destroy two of them as they get to a winding road but Georgiou is relentless in his pursuit. Finally, Bond is able to kill the general by tricking him with the holographic projectors in the headlights of the car.

BNack at the hotel, Bond and Niki recuperate. We learn that Niki is half Greek and half Turkish, a bit I just thoiught would be interesting and give the character a bit more depth. They end up having sex but are interrupted by Felix and Manuela. We learn that several canisters of synthetic Sarin have been stolen. Bond reports to M and learns that the Greek and Turkish PMs are meeting to work out the tensions. Bond intuits that the next attack will take place there and the final one will be against England for interference. M reports that Manville Duncan will repleace Sir Alfred as the British representative and Bond hasd to protect him. Bond assigns Felix, Niki and Manuela to provide aerial suevaillance.

Well, I might post Act II later on tonight. Stay tuned.

[Genrewriter]

Okay, so i'm a little late with the conclusion. Act III is pretty faithful to the novel in the first half but I punched up the ending a tad.

Act III:

Act III takes us right into the action as Niki and co. survey the conference in a helicopter while Bond escorts Duncan to a private room. Niki finds out about anavatos and relays the information to Bond. Bond quickly finds out that Duncan is a traitor through a quick checking-in session with Felix and the action starts up right away as Duncan and Vassilis head for the Ambassadors. After a brief scuffle with Vassilis in the stairwell, Bond kills Duncan as Hera sets up a rocket launcher on a rooftop with Nikos. She heads for the ground level, making her way towards Bond's location. Niki sees this after destroying one of the launchers and a running gunfight/chase ensues as Hera pursues Bond out of the building and into the helicopter. After taking off, Bond and Niki see Hera on the roof, preparing a grappling hook setup. I took a little bit from Spider-Man here and had Bond grab Hera as she leaps off the roof and swings to another building. (Yeah, over the top but still...)

Bopnd chases Hera up the side of the building where she gets ready to fire off another launcher as Vassilis waits in a helicopter of his own. Niki shows up in the nick of time and blasts the launcher to smithereens, allowing Bond to escape in his helicopter. Later at night, Bond and Niki infiltrate Anavatos and make their way to where Romanos is. The scene plays oput pretty much as it does in the novel with Bond being forced to solve an impossible math problem and Hera turning on Romanos. One little thing I changed was having Niki taken by Hera and Nikos told to stay behind to give Bond a bit of a challenge. Hera also plans to destroy Cypris with a Sarin gas attack just for kicks. There is a rather large deviation from the novel at this point as Bond fights Nikos until Manuela shows up, shooting him dead. She and Bond solve the puzzle and stop the rocket from launching, I added a little bit more action by having them climb up the rocket and shooting up towards Felix (courtesy of Bond's watch) in a waiting helicopter as the place self-destructs (a little addition by Hera).

From here the novel is pretty much thrown to the wind as Bond pursues Hera's escape vehicle (now a large plane) and leaps down onto the wing while it's still in mid-flight. Vassilis comes out after him and a ferocious duel ensues, at first on the wing and then inside the plane. They end up hanging by a rope outside of the plane which Bond cuts part of to send Vassilis screaming to his death as he goes into one of the engines. Bond climbs back in only to be met by Hera who holds a pistol. Bond disarms her with the silver credit card and Niki fights with Hera for a bit. Hera gets free and starts shooting at Bond and Niki as the plane begins to tear itself apart after a bullet goes through the window.

And yes, I had just seen Die Another Day when I wrote this part.

Anyhow, Niki ends up falling out of the plane and after Hera is suycked out through a hole in the floor, Bond leaps out of the plane and freefalls with a parachute towards Niki, reaching her in time as the plane crashes. M recieves word that Bond is alive and the last scene is on Felix's helicopter as Bond and Niki kiss.

Well, that's that. Heck, it only took me a year ands a half to get this freaking thing posted. I enjoyed it, stay tuned for word on Global Winter, the original fan script I'm working on.