45 replies to this topic

[Loomis]

I see it working best as a faithful period adaptation with someone like Clive Owen as 007 (not that MGM/Eon would ever give us such a film). I guess it could be updated, though, without too many changes (all the fuss over Communism would have to go). Opinions?

[Bryce (003)]

Hey Loomis -

I strongly concur with you. I have thought for years that CS would be a great film. I nearly did it myself as a student project at one point.

Great action, and it doesn't read too different from Fleming (or at least as I imagine he would have written it).

From the action at Quarterdeck to Bond and Ariadene (sp?) running through the ruins in the moonlight, to Litkas and his mastery of the Brit. #4 rifle and the Colonel himself it's a great ride and more in the classic thriller mold than a Bond fantasy.

C'mon Eon - You still have some good original material here.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Bryce (003)

Great action, and it doesn't read too different from Fleming (or at least as I imagine he would have written it).

From the action at Quarterdeck to Bond and Ariadene (sp?) running through the ruins in the moonlight, to Litkas and his mastery of the Brit. #4 rifle and the Colonel himself it's a great ride and more in the classic thriller mold than a Bond fantasy.

C'mon Eon - You still have some good original material here.

Tell it, Bryce! It's an absolutely superb novel (the best of the whole bunch, IMO, along with "You Only Live Twice"). It has everything!

If they filmed it, they could do it either as a period piece (and the sex, violence and action scenes are still bang up to date and would certainly not cause viewers to snooze), or update it.

And updating it wouldn't be too difficult, or too destructive to Amis' original. You could still have Sun attacking a conference on a Greek island (maybe with some newfangled laser weapon), and Ariadne could still be an agent, albeit not a Communist one. Niko's vendetta against a Nazi butcher would have to go, but Niko could stay (and Von Richter could just be some Stamper-style German thug). Sure, M was kidnapped in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, but it was for only a few minutes of screentime, and didn't set the plot in motion like it does in CS.

It would be the perfect LIVING DAYLIGHTS-esque "back-to-basics" Bond movie. You could add some scenes (and action scenes) with 007 in China, searching for info on Sun (and bedding some Chinese beauty), and basically tart it up a bit, but I reckon Amis' book contains more than enough rock-solid foundations for the best Bond script since FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

Come on, MGM/Eon, GIVE US COLONEL SUN!!!!!!!!

[Bryce (003)]

Right on Loomis! Right on!

Now, who to cast????

Kevin Spacey as Sun? Done up oriental around the eyes maybe....

Hmmm...

[Loomis]

How about John Lone as Sun?

As for Ariadne, I have a good mental image of her face (and body), but not one of an actress who could play her. Monica Bellucci? Too sexy, maybe (if that makes any sense). Perhaps the French actress Anne Parillaud? Hmmm.... no, she's 43 and no longer looks like she did in NIKITA. Sofia Milos might do.

[Bryce (003)]

Ooooo....Monica, but done over as a tabacco-blonde for the role....

*Bryce wipes drool off chin and contemplates a cold shower*

John Lone is another good one. Jean Reno as Niko? If he could do a greek accent?

Let's keep going here.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Bryce (003)

Jean Reno as Niko? If he could do a greek accent?

Reno would be a great choice.

On another thread, Your Bond Sequels (http://forums.comman...&threadid=10732), I tried to imagine what COLONEL SUN might have been like if it had been released in 1991, starring Dalton:

COLONEL SUN (1991)
Directed by John Frankenheimer.

Produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Written by Michael G. Wilson and Bruce Fierstein. Director of Photography: Jost Vacano. Music by Basil Poledouris. Production Designer: Peter Lamont. Editor: Stuart Baird.

Starring:
Timothy Dalton as James Bond
Anne Parillaud as Ariadne Alexandrou
John Lone as Colonel Sun Liangtan
Joan Chen as Jenny Li
J

[Bryce (003)]

*Bryce manages to slap himself out of it*

MY GOD MAN!!!!!

That's BLOODY perfect!

You've clearly thought this out beyond anything I could imagine.....

:eek:

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Bryce (003)

You've clearly thought this out beyond anything I could imagine.....

:eek:

Yep, I sure am one hardcore "Colonel Sun" fan!

[Bryce (003)]

*Bryce throws a salute*

Cheers!

[License To Kill]

Originally posted by Loomis


Tell it, Bryce! It's an absolutely superb novel (the best of the whole bunch, IMO, along with "You Only Live Twice"). It has everything!

If they filmed it, they could do it either as a period piece (and the sex, violence and action scenes are still bang up to date and would certainly not cause viewers to snooze), or update it.

And updating it wouldn't be too difficult, or too destructive to Amis' original. You could still have Sun attacking a conference on a Greek island (maybe with some newfangled laser weapon), and Ariadne could still be an agent, albeit not a Communist one. Niko's vendetta against a Nazi butcher would have to go, but Niko could stay (and Von Richter could just be some Stamper-style German thug). Sure, M was kidnapped in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, but it was for only a few minutes of screentime, and didn't set the plot in motion like it does in CS.  

It would be the perfect LIVING DAYLIGHTS-esque "back-to-basics" Bond movie. You could add some scenes (and action scenes) with 007 in China, searching for info on Sun (and bedding some Chinese beauty), and basically tart it up a bit, but I reckon Amis' book contains more than enough rock-solid foundations for the best Bond script since FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

Come on, MGM/Eon, GIVE US COLONEL SUN!!!!!!!!

Amen, Amen! Preach the word brother!

BTW: Where can I pick up a copy of Colonel Sun? Anybody know?

[PrinceKamalKhan]

[quote]Originally posted by Loomis


Reno would be a great choice.  

On another thread, Your Bond Sequels (http://forums.comman...&threadid=10732), I tried to imagine what COLONEL SUN might have been like if it had been released in 1991, starring Dalton:

[b]COLONEL SUN (1991)
Directed by John Frankenheimer.

Produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Written by Michael G. Wilson and Bruce Fierstein. Director of Photography: Jost Vacano. Music by Basil Poledouris. Production Designer: Peter Lamont. Editor: Stuart Baird.  

Starring:
Timothy Dalton as James Bond
Anne Parillaud as Ariadne Alexandrou
John Lone as Colonel Sun Liangtan
Joan Chen as Jenny Li
J

[Bryce (003)]

Now - How to do it today?

Again though Loomis - Fantastic!

We all seem in agreement on Monica and Reno.

Other thoughts? From anyone?

[Loomis]

Originally posted by PrinceKamalKhan

Fantastic, Loomis! I want to see this movie you thought up! Only thing I would differ with you on is having Monica Bellucci play Ariadne and John Barry score it. Nonetheless, a very well conceived "alternate universe" Bond film effort. Even Lupe Lamora Lupez's cameo sounds clever.  

Thanks, PrinceKamalKhan. I'd prefer a John Barry score, too, but I thought of Poledouris since Barry's involvement with the Bond series had ended by 1991 (or so I believe - I'm not sure whether he was offered GOLDENEYE).

As for Monica (as Bryce puts it) "done over as a tabacco-blonde for the role....", that would certainly be a sight to behold, but I do wonder whether she'd be slightly too sexy for the Ariadne role. I think she'd be a terrific Bond girl, but a "bad" one along the lines of Fiona Volpe or Xenia. Sure, Ariadne's tough - as stated above, she calls another woman a "bitch" and knocks her out cold - but I still see her as more a Domino or Natalya type. Not quite as voluptuous or splendidly built as Monica, but more petite and demure - pretty rather than beautiful.

[Bryce (003)]

Valid points Loomis -

But given Monica's er...um..attributes and full set of curves, I always envisioned Ariadne as full figured yet toned greek girl with dark features and hair bleached somewhat from the sun.

*Bryce goes to grab copy of CS*

I've got some other thoughts, let me check some details.

Carry on.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Bryce (003)

But given Monica's er...um..attributes and full set of curves, I always envisioned Ariadne as full figured yet toned greek girl with dark features and hair bleached somewhat from the sun.

Fair enough, 003. I have to admit, I know absolutely nothing about Greek girls, since I have yet to encounter one - seriously, I don't think I've ever met a Greek woman in my life. As you know, London's very cosmopolitan, and I've been lucky enough to get to know women from France, China, Korea, Italy, Japan, Israel, India, Germany.... but not, for some reason, from Greece. It would be interesting to attend night school, perhaps.

[Bryce (003)]

Your in for a treat when you do.

Don't forget to bring the "book with the pictures";)

[ChandlerBing]

Well, this might justs surprise the **** out of many of you, but I would have paid to see this movie back in 1991. Continuity is something that needs to be done more often in Bond. It would have been--and should have been done--with Goldeneye, but they freaked out over Dalton's leaving and didn't want to make any overt references like they refused to do with OHMSS. A good follow-up would have been in order. Tie up loose ends. Maybe someone here can write a fan fic about Bond's return to duty after LTK.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing

Well, this might justs surprise the **** out of many of you, but I would have paid to see this movie back in 1991.  

A pleasant surprise, Chandler:), but don't get me wrong: I fully appreciate why you and others dislike LICENCE TO KILL. I hated it myself for a long time, and it's really not an easy film to like - one has to approach it with a degree of sympathy, but the rewards are there (at least, I and others on this board such as Bondpurist and Jaelle think they're there; others such as Jim, MBE and yourself think they're not). And while I don't share your tastes, I can but acknowledge that they are completely valid. It's a shame that Dalton didn't get the chance to make a third Bond film and "atone" for LTK in many people's eyes.

[ChandlerBing]

What always has surprised and amused me when I am on these boards, is that there are plenty of people who dislike/hate Pierce Brosnan, Halle Barry, TWINE a helluva lot worse than I dislike Dalton and his two Bond movies, but I catch a lot of **** for views. Maybe I'm just more eloquent in my verbiage, who knows? I do go back and re-watch the Daltons every so often to see if my tastes have changed. I actually like LTK a lot more than I do TLD, which I really don't like at all. I actually watched LTK all the way through, and watched TLD in pieces over several days.
There are people who carp about how bad of an actor Pierce Brosnan is and how wrong he is for Bond. I meet those people halfway by saying Timothy Dalton is a fine actor, but had the wrong personality and temperament to be Bond.
Back on topic, Colonel Sun is a fine story, but I have not read it in years. It's rather hard to come by, I understand. I last read it back in 1986 when I special ordered it from the city library. Yep, a 4th grader reading Bond. Used to do book reports on them. Thank God, no one brought in the school psychologists on this one!

[Loomis]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing

What always has surprised and amused me when I am on these boards, is that there are plenty of people who dislike/hate Pierce Brosnan, Halle Barry, TWINE a helluva lot worse than I dislike Dalton and his two Bond movies, but I catch a lot of **** for views.  Maybe I'm just more eloquent in my verbiage, who knows?  I do go back and re-watch the Daltons every so often to see if my tastes have changed.  I actually like LTK a lot more than I do TLD, which I really don't like at all.  I actually watched LTK all the way through, and watched TLD in pieces over several days.  
There are people who carp about how bad of an actor Pierce Brosnan is and how wrong he is for Bond.  I meet those people halfway by saying Timothy Dalton is a fine actor, but had the wrong personality and temperament to be Bond.  

Well, let's bury the hatchet, eh? We seem to have rubbed each other up the wrong way quite a bit lately, so let's just let bygones by bygones. We've had our little disagreements and flame wars, but it's all in fun and never personal. I like your posts a lot (some more than others, obviously:D). I'll try and watch my Brosnan-bashing (to be fair, I've often gone way over the top in my attacks on him) - I'm sure Jim will keep fighting the good fight, though!

Originally posted by ChandlerBing

Back on topic, Colonel Sun is a fine story, but I have not read it in years.  It's rather hard to come by, I understand.  I last read it back in 1986 when I special ordered it from the city library.  Yep, a 4th grader reading Bond.  Used to do book reports on them.  Thank God, no one brought in the school psychologists on this one!  

It's my favourite Bond novel (with "You Only Live Twice" in second place). Great writing, gripping narrative, spellbinding use of location, and very violent and sexy to boot - it has everything.:cool:

[Willowhugger]

I want to say that I've always loved Loomis' Colonel Sun treatment, I think that it could certainly use some polish though.

* There's no reason to have James Bond know to go to Greece first. He can find out that he needs to go to Greece in China. At the very least, his superiors could be steering Bond in the wrong direction so it doesn't feel like such a waste.

* Lupe is a bit of an odd choice and I'd have preferred the girl from the Living Daylights.

Otherwise, I think it was quite well done.

I wish someone had the poster they made for that treatment.

[Willowhugger]

A modernized version of Colonel Sun isn't likely to get filmed. However, you could definitely do something with Daniel Craig's James' Bond I think. Were I to do a movie script treatment for Colonel Sun, here's my particular take on the matter.

Bond 23: Colonel Sun

We open by stealing one of my favorite unused bits from Fleming in that James Bond opens up the story by getting kidnapped. Basically, a fairly elaborate action sequence where Bond is stalked by a number of enemies who proceed to eventually overwhelm him after a daring rooftop fight over London with machine guns, and Bond basically proving himself just as awesome as the Parkeur chase in Casino Royale. He's finally put down by Von Richter.

The opening of the titles is a "Villain You Suck" Song based on Colonel Sun with the kind of rhythmatic feel to Goldfinger. Beautiful Asian women and a theme on Colonel Sun's mirrored sunglasses play a role and other Colonel Sun book cover homages.

The movie then returns to three months afterwards, as James Bond has apparently escaped his captives and is run through vigorous security checks before he's allowed a face to face meeting with M. He then proceeds to basically inform them that he was held captive by Quantum and they eventually convinced him of the righteousness of their cause. After a few minutes of struggling with himself, he then forces away his gun hand and he goes unconscious.

M then rushes Bond to neurological scanning as she talks about how that Quantum has been making efforts to target their key operatives and leadership personnel. They inject them full of drugs and work them over so they eventually no longer know right from left. Everyone eventually breaks under their torture and Bond is the first one to survive the interrogation by this mysterious Colonel Sun.

Bond and she have a heart to heart in his hospital room as he thinks he's going to be spending the rest of his life behind bars for what he almost did. M points out she was in no real danger because she had some bulletproof glass ready to rise between them. She just wanted to test him. She says she's willing to continue let him working on the Quantum case but he's given the task of finding and eliminating this Colonel Sun.

M, herself, is then kidnapped in the middle of the hospital by the Serbian terrorist Von Richter and his men while Bond, in a hospital gown pretty much has a brutal Jason Bourne vs. Treadstone operative style fight with them in the rather absurd climate but being in recovery is unable to do much to stop her from being captured.

Bill Tanner, the acting head of MI6, then summons Bond to a golf course to tell him that since M is gone then he's permanently being relieved of duty and having his clearance voided. She's also being written off. Bond basically informs Bill that he's not going soft and that she gave him orders to go after Colonel Sun.

We cut to meeting Quantum's operative in Colonel Sun as he confronts M. Colonel Sun is congenial, pleasant, and a thoroughly cold blooded figure. He keeps a number of beautiful women hostage that assist in his brainwashing processes. He basically informs her that she'll give up all of her information about MI6 before long and he's fairly certain he can have her betray her own mother in the end.

Bond then heads back to Bolivia where he meets with Camille and Felix Leiter. Camille and he share a passionate romantic interlude as she talks about her new job aiding Bolivia in recovery. Felix basically agrees to assist Bond in recovering M. He points out that they don't have much on Colonel Sun either. Bond produces the Greek hooker list of the novel that he pocketed from one of the dead men and Felix narrows down the location to Greece.

Bond then bids adieu to Camille who talks with him a bit about what his future is and whether they're still chasing ghosts. Bond shakes his head and says that he's finished with the past and needs to look to the future now. He then heads off to Greece where he's met by a bumbling, ridiculous, geeky looking fellow played by Simon Pegg at the airport. He introduces himself as the Quartermaster for MI6.

Bond and he hit it off but Quartermaster basically was tipped off by Felix and their division has decided to help Bond against Bill Tanner's orders. Simon Pegg basically gives Bond a couple of very plausible gadgets (like a watch with a knife and a collapsable gun) before telling him that a Greek Mob Boss might have ties to Quantum and Bond should pursue his leads there.

Bond gets in a chase with Colonel Sun's men through the Greek streets in his decidedly normal car. Eventually, killing them all. In an homage to Doctor No, the one that Bond successfully captures prefers suicide to capture. Colonel Sun then communciates with Bond via cellphone on the dead man and basically informs him that he survived his process before but Colonel Sun has lured him back here so he can finish the job brainwashing him.

Bond gets in touch with Ariande, seduces her, and finds out that she's actually working for the Chinese secret service. Against the Greek portrayal, she's actually half-Chinese in this particular work. They're interested in locating Colonel Sun and that he's not actually a Colonel at all but a disgruntled and insane member of the Chinese army's lower ranks with an interest in chemistry and torture.

After some tense encounters with the Chinese Secret Service, Bond eventually makes his way to Colonel Sun's tower and is promptly captured by the insane sadist. Richter is consistently just better than Bond and kicks his posterior. The intense torture follows as Bond managed to befriend the women long enough to be rescued. He, of course, uses Q's tools to escape and finally manages to dispatch Richter in one of the most intense fights of the series.

Unfortunately, this time, M is not going to live through the movie and she dies in this movie after Bond finally comes across her. She's endured terrible torture and hasn't broken but she's not going to live much longer. Bond then descends on Colonel Sun who tries to talk his way out of it as he feels evil and ashamed only to end up having James kill him with his bare hands.

The ending of the movie has Bill turning authority over to the new Admiral who will be replacing M and saying he utterly failed to reign Bond in. James doesn't really respond, though it's clear he doesn't blame him.

Bond ends the movie placing follows on M's grave.

[David_M]

As I heard it, the "Markham" psuedonym was to be adopted by a succession of Fleming stand-ins, Amis being the first. Not sure why it never panned out.

[zencat]

Having recently re-read CS, I now feel the book is VASTLY overrated. Movie potential is weak, I'd say. Really, all it offers is a location (Greece - been there) and M's kidnapping (done that). Torture scene wasn't even as grisly as I remembered.

[Loomis]

Just finished reading the book yesterday. First time ever reading it. I can't say Loomis didn't warn me.

Erm, you can, because I've certainly never warned you about COLONEL SUN. I think it's by far the best of all the continuation novels, chiefly because Amis had at least a couple of literary bones in his body. As for the torture scene, it had me on the edge of my seat. To my mind, COLONEL SUN is the DEVIL MAY CARE of its day, but done right.

COLONEL SUN has brutality, a hefty dose of that good old Fleming snobbery and political incorrectness, sexy women, a bizarre and sadistic villain, decent use of locations and a dark, mean Bond we can more or less believe in.

This was, in fact, the book that got me into the literary Bond after many years of being purely a fan of the films. Sadly, I found that only the Flemings gave me the same thrill. I wish I enjoyed the other continuation novelists, but I don't (and I've certainly tried). For me, the literary 007 is more or less just Fleming and Amis.

[Quantumofsolace007]

A modernized version of Colonel Sun isn't likely to get filmed. However, you could definitely do something with Daniel Craig's James' Bond I think. Were I to do a movie script treatment for Colonel Sun, here's my particular take on the matter.

Bond 23: Colonel Sun

We open by stealing one of my favorite unused bits from Fleming in that James Bond opens up the story by getting kidnapped. Basically, a fairly elaborate action sequence where Bond is stalked by a number of enemies who proceed to eventually overwhelm him after a daring rooftop fight over London with machine guns, and Bond basically proving himself just as awesome as the Parkeur chase in Casino Royale. He's finally put down by Von Richter.

The opening of the titles is a "Villain You Suck" Song based on Colonel Sun with the kind of rhythmatic feel to Goldfinger. Beautiful Asian women and a theme on Colonel Sun's mirrored sunglasses play a role and other Colonel Sun book cover homages.

The movie then returns to three months afterwards, as James Bond has apparently escaped his captives and is run through vigorous security checks before he's allowed a face to face meeting with M. He then proceeds to basically inform them that he was held captive by Quantum and they eventually convinced him of the righteousness of their cause. After a few minutes of struggling with himself, he then forces away his gun hand and he goes unconscious.

M then rushes Bond to neurological scanning as she talks about how that Quantum has been making efforts to target their key operatives and leadership personnel. They inject them full of drugs and work them over so they eventually no longer know right from left. Everyone eventually breaks under their torture and Bond is the first one to survive the interrogation by this mysterious Colonel Sun.

Bond and she have a heart to heart in his hospital room as he thinks he's going to be spending the rest of his life behind bars for what he almost did. M points out she was in no real danger because she had some bulletproof glass ready to rise between them. She just wanted to test him. She says she's willing to continue let him working on the Quantum case but he's given the task of finding and eliminating this Colonel Sun.

M, herself, is then kidnapped in the middle of the hospital by the Serbian terrorist Von Richter and his men while Bond, in a hospital gown pretty much has a brutal Jason Bourne vs. Treadstone operative style fight with them in the rather absurd climate but being in recovery is unable to do much to stop her from being captured.

Bill Tanner, the acting head of MI6, then summons Bond to a golf course to tell him that since M is gone then he's permanently being relieved of duty and having his clearance voided. She's also being written off. Bond basically informs Bill that he's not going soft and that she gave him orders to go after Colonel Sun.

We cut to meeting Quantum's operative in Colonel Sun as he confronts M. Colonel Sun is congenial, pleasant, and a thoroughly cold blooded figure. He keeps a number of beautiful women hostage that assist in his brainwashing processes. He basically informs her that she'll give up all of her information about MI6 before long and he's fairly certain he can have her betray her own mother in the end.

Bond then heads back to Bolivia where he meets with Camille and Felix Leiter. Camille and he share a passionate romantic interlude as she talks about her new job aiding Bolivia in recovery. Felix basically agrees to assist Bond in recovering M. He points out that they don't have much on Colonel Sun either. Bond produces the Greek hooker list of the novel that he pocketed from one of the dead men and Felix narrows down the location to Greece.

Bond then bids adieu to Camille who talks with him a bit about what his future is and whether they're still chasing ghosts. Bond shakes his head and says that he's finished with the past and needs to look to the future now. He then heads off to Greece where he's met by a bumbling, ridiculous, geeky looking fellow played by Simon Pegg at the airport. He introduces himself as the Quartermaster for MI6.

Bond and he hit it off but Quartermaster basically was tipped off by Felix and their division has decided to help Bond against Bill Tanner's orders. Simon Pegg basically gives Bond a couple of very plausible gadgets (like a watch with a knife and a collapsable gun) before telling him that a Greek Mob Boss might have ties to Quantum and Bond should pursue his leads there.

Bond gets in a chase with Colonel Sun's men through the Greek streets in his decidedly normal car. Eventually, killing them all. In an homage to Doctor No, the one that Bond successfully captures prefers suicide to capture. Colonel Sun then communciates with Bond via cellphone on the dead man and basically informs him that he survived his process before but Colonel Sun has lured him back here so he can finish the job brainwashing him.

Bond gets in touch with Ariande, seduces her, and finds out that she's actually working for the Chinese secret service. Against the Greek portrayal, she's actually half-Chinese in this particular work. They're interested in locating Colonel Sun and that he's not actually a Colonel at all but a disgruntled and insane member of the Chinese army's lower ranks with an interest in chemistry and torture.

After some tense encounters with the Chinese Secret Service, Bond eventually makes his way to Colonel Sun's tower and is promptly captured by the insane sadist. Richter is consistently just better than Bond and kicks his posterior. The intense torture follows as Bond managed to befriend the women long enough to be rescued. He, of course, uses Q's tools to escape and finally manages to dispatch Richter in one of the most intense fights of the series.

Unfortunately, this time, M is not going to live through the movie and she dies in this movie after Bond finally comes across her. She's endured terrible torture and hasn't broken but she's not going to live much longer. Bond then descends on Colonel Sun who tries to talk his way out of it as he feels evil and ashamed only to end up having James kill him with his bare hands.

The ending of the movie has Bill turning authority over to the new Admiral who will be replacing M and saying he utterly failed to reign Bond in. James doesn't really respond, though it's clear he doesn't blame him.

Bond ends the movie placing follows on M's grave.

WOW

oddly enough I did the same exact plot idea for bond 23 (in 2007) except a few minor differences the biggest being M lives but retires. M Dieing however would be quite shocking. I do think for Colonel sun i think Daniel Dae Kim (lost and Hawaii 5 0) would make the perfect candidate.

as for the new M David Suchet(tv's Hercule Poirot) would be perfect as the New M

my one gripe though is I don't see apart from bond sleeping with Camille any purpose the character servers. In fact the chasing after ghosts would be much more interesting if Ariande read his file and asks him about Vesper (does he still love her or think about her has he truly forgiven her does he miss her) because perhaps she has a similar experience or because she feels revenge is dishonorable.

[Loomis]

What's so special about Bond in this novel? I don't get it.

Well, you've got me there. There is indeed nothing "special" about Bond in the novel. He isn't a schoolboy at Eton, or a kleptomaniac cross-dresser, or the world's youngest octogenerian at the Hong Kong Handover, or a codename, or a 28-year-old who's just joined MI6 in 2011. For that and other spins on the character, look elsewhere. In COLONEL SUN, he's just Fleming's Bond (more or less), in Fleming's timeline, a reactionary and somewhat unpleasant fellow. But he is, I believe, something pretty close to The Real Thing™ - you won't get a more Flemingian Bond outside Fleming.

Amis isn't trying to reinvent the wheel. This is a continuation novel that, well, just continues the series. Is it a great novel? No? Is it "important"? Nope, not really. What it is, though, is as good a stab at the soul and spirit of the Fleming novels as we're ever likely to get.

Did you enjoy the Flemings, BTW, or did they also strike you as dull?

[sharpshooter]

Having recently re-read CS, I now feel the book is VASTLY overrated. Movie potential is weak, I'd say. Really, all it offers is a location (Greece - been there) and M's kidnapping (done that). Torture scene wasn't even as grisly as I remembered.

I disagree. I think a thriller like this would work especially well for a Craig film. Instead of jumping around, I think Bond 23 should stay in one location for a longer period of time. In Colonel Sun, Greece itself feels like a character. The title villain is more in the vein of the bizarre - something the Craig era needs IMO. The torture scene would give Casino Royale a run for its money. The kidnapping of M, although done, can tie into the whole "is M a traitor?" scenario, and potentially end with her death by films end. And we could give Craig gadgets, but like in the novel, Bond doesn't find any real use for them, and relies mostly on his own training.

[Bryce (003)]

Nicely stated. Much in the same vein as Loomis and I have rambled on about. In seeing this thread pop up again, I went back to my own notes. Yes - I have many pages on what could make CS work in a modern setting. Replace M's snatch and grab with Tanner. He's the CoS and is more privy to countless materials available to MI6 and their operations.

M has the final word and has - at least in the novels - far more limited access and greater security (unlike the films - although I did sort of appreciate the notion of a "mole" within the ranks in QoS) - but Tanner would be a fountain of information and/or leverage.

I also like the "single locale" angle. It could work.

I concur that Bond 23 should be a "stand alone" Bond adventure. Sure, a hint of Quantum, but the next baddie should just be out for his - or her's - personal gain. Much like Goldfinger was in the film. Who's to say "Colonel Sun" has to be a man? Might add a nice twist.

Damn if it can't work. Mind you, I'm not saying it should or is a must be sort of thing, but there are some bloody great elements as mentioned above.

Hmmm....

Yeah, Bond and Tanner finish their golf game (I'd love to see Bond swinging his irons again) and then Tanner getting grabbed and have Bond witness it. He, of course, gives pursuit, but only to be captured and then, being Bond, escapes but only later to fall victim to whatever means and then embark on the assignment to recover/rescue Tanner with M calling the shots on the operation.

Yeah, it's only a dream, but it could really work. Well, I'd like to think so anyway.