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Bond's Hollywood hit


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#1 zencat

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 04:22 PM

Always surprised that Bond hasn't ever really had a proper Los Angeles/Hollywood adventure. So it was nice to read in The Man From Barbarossa that Bond did indeed travel to Los Angeles ("several years before" TMFB which is set firmly in 1991) to assassinate a double agent. The man was stalking an ex-girlfriend and Bond killed him by running his car off the road in the Hollywood Hills. The LAPD considered it an accident. (Not sure where in the Hollywood Hills you could run a car off the road without it crashing into a house, but there you go.)

After, Bond arranges a dinner with the boyfriend of the harassed girl, a news cameraman named Tony Adamus (a name that shows up again in Gardner). From Adamus Bond learns all about being a cameraman -- info he uses in TMFB.

Before this, the only mention of Bond in LA I can recall is when Bond, Felix, and Tiffany Case meet up in the (Polo) Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel in Diamonds Are Forever.

#2 Bryce (003)

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 04:56 PM

As we are planning our own LA adventure for a visiting Brit, I'm sure this will fuel even more ideas. ;)

Yes, LA and most of southern California hasn't been used. Gardner traveled to locales and thought about them as Bond.

We know Bond has been to Disney parks in Florida and Europe. Hell, what would Bond think of Universal Studios?

There's certainly more to LA than just the tourist locales. All the basin has much to offer.

Somewhere I've got a list of locations and ideas for Bond like stuff to do here.

Looking at today's date, I just remembered that it was *gulp* 23 years ago this week that I came back down for my second year of college. My first stop was the DMV to trade in my Washington state driver's license and plates. I've been here ever since and if I didn't like it, I'd have moved on by now.

#3 Pierce - Daniel

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 05:44 PM

Bond works best in a European setting i find.

Edited by Pierce - Daniel, 10 August 2010 - 05:45 PM.


#4 volante

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 05:55 PM

Naw; Bond need to be in mortal danger. (beat him up; let him shine)
I thought The Lake Como scene brilliant.

I still want to cheer, when he getsthe MP5 and shoot the Alfa off the road

#5 zencat

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 05:59 PM

Bond works best in a European setting i find.

True, Bond is more at home in a European setting, but that doesn't mean I want to see him in Europe every time out. I like seeing him break out to the East or the US, especially in the books. And the locations are as compelling as the author makes them. For me James Bond is as much about travel as espionage. In fact, the travel is what I most look forward to in Bond, book and film.

#6 The Shark

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 06:18 PM

I agree here. Bond exploring the intrigue, corruption, hedonism, and grotesques of tinsel-town, would be a very interesting and Bondian move after the Euro-overdose of CR and QOS.

Bond meets MULHOLAND DRIVE. I'd pay to see that.

#7 Harmsway

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 06:27 PM

A Bond film that utilized Hollywood as a setting would be interesting. I appreciated Benson's attempt to include Cannes in NEVER DREAM OF DYING. Given the size and prominence of the film industry, it's honestly surprising that Bond hadn't bumped into it in a serious way before that novel.

#8 zencat

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 06:37 PM

I'm ambivalent about a film Bond LA adventure because, for whatever reasons, the films don't seem to do a very good job with Bond in the U.S. and I'm not sure this current creative team could pull one off. The danger with LA/Hollywood is falling into the familiar superficial cliches. But I'm not saying I wouldn't be excited about them filming in my hood. :)

Books are where an LA Bond story could really shine, IMO. There is a long love/hate relationship between the literary world and LA -- and the inherent ironies and contradictions of this city, which Bond would certainly recognize, might come out in a book as they never would in a film. My dream would be for a Young Bond adventure set in LA, because that would be in the '30s. So many fascinating and dangerous elements swirling around at that time. And not necessarily the obvious stuff (although the obvious stuff is good too). But I dream. :)

#9 Loomis

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 06:50 PM

I appreciated Benson's attempt to include Cannes in NEVER DREAM OF DYING.


Yeah. It's hard to hate any novel in which James Bond saves the lives of David Lynch and the Coen Brothers (mentioned by name in NEVER DREAM OF DYING, or at least Lynch is - not 100% on the Coens, but if memory serves they're also in there).

But I don't really want to see 007 in Hollywood, at least not in an Eon film. It'd seem, I dunno, a bit cutesy to have (arguably) the greatest movie character of all time chasing villains around - wait for it - a movie set! (The irony! :rolleyes: ) Like, say, the rainy streets of Manchester, it's somewhere Bond should never go.

#10 zencat

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 06:55 PM

But I don't really want to see 007 in Hollywood, at least not in an Eon film. It'd seem, I dunno, a bit cutesy to have (arguably) the greatest movie character of all time chasing villains around - wait for it - a movie set! (The irony! :rolleyes: )

Yes, that is one of the cliches I warned about. So you don't do that. There are plenty of other locations in Los Angeles where you can stage action other than a movie set. Although I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Bond on one of the historic studio lots.

#11 Harmsway

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 07:02 PM

The danger with LA/Hollywood is falling into the familiar superficial cliches.

A fair concern.

#12 Loomis

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 07:09 PM

There are plenty of other locations in Los Angeles where you can stage action other than a movie set.


Sure, but L.A. has been and is used to death by a bajillion other films of all genres, so I don't see any particular point in Bond going there. That said, there's apparently a nifty-looking posh Japanese restaurant on a hill somewhere that I think Bryce once mentioned on these boards, and I do like your idea of Young Bond in Polanski's CHINATOWN.

#13 zencat

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 07:18 PM

Yes, you bring Young Bond to LA in the '30s and you really have something, something that I think the core young readership would really love. Talk about a fantasy world of glamour and danger side by side. I could make your head swim with ideas that don't even include the movie biz. There was some wild stuff out here in the 30s. And here's your creepy critter for the cover: Rattlesnakes!

Bryce was probably talking about Yamashiro. That is one of those wild places. A real-life Bond lair back in the day.

#14 Harmsway

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 07:23 PM

Bryce was probably talking about Yamashiro. That is one of those wild places. A real-life Bond lair back in the day.

Neato.

#15 Double-Oh Agent

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Posted 12 August 2010 - 08:04 AM

Don't forget James Bond also had a (brief) adventure at the Playboy Mansion in Raymond Benson's Midsummer Night's Doom, which I believe is located, if not in L.A., than is in the L.A. area.

#16 zencat

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Posted 12 August 2010 - 05:16 PM

Oh, yes, of course. I forgot about that. :)

#17 Simon

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Posted 12 August 2010 - 10:11 PM

I agree with the chap above that says Bond works best in a European setting.

That said, if Bond Had to go to LA, then I would prefer a Michael Mann-ish approach to the locales, and not the Benson approach.

But I would still prefer the history and the culture variety of Europe and not the manufactured glitz which might be more conventionally expected of LA.

#18 Righty007

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Posted 13 August 2010 - 04:22 AM

That said, if Bond Had to go to LA, then I would prefer a Michael Mann-ish approach to the locales, and not the Benson approach.

I wish we could go one full day without a jab at Benson being posted in the CBn Forums. :P

#19 dlb007

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Posted 13 August 2010 - 05:13 PM

Is it possible to go a day without hating on Mr. Benson? Back on topic, I don't particularly care for Bond's adventures in the USA. Part of the appeal of a Bond novel is him venturing to exotic locales. Does anyone really want to see Bond in Milwaukee? Miami, New York, and D.C., are the only places I think he should go. With LA I cannot see a reason for him needing to go there; the whole movie set setting was handled (POORLY, I might add, MR. BENSON) in Never Dream of Dying. Anyway, my two cents at least.