17 replies to this topic

[Triton]

Now that Ian Fleming Publications has announced that Raymond Benson has decided to move on to non-James Bond related projects, I was wondering who you would choose as the new author of the James Bond continuation novels.

[Qwerty]

I really don't have clue. I'm wondering if they'll choose a renowned author or if they'll pick a unknown one. I'm not sure which would be a better choice....

[Lancaster]

I was wondering what will happened when Bond 21 comes out. I assume they will have a book of the film (most films do these days). Will they choose Raymond Benson to write it or just choose any old writer.

[Tanger]

A while ago I recommended Steve Perry. I recently read a Tom Clancy book that he'd written and was very impressed with it. He writes in a similar style to Benson but could still have that Fleming style.

[DLibrasnow]

Hmmmm....good question....how about ---**drum roll** -- me!!

[Loomis]

Recommendations for a James Bond continuation author? Take the money and run, and don't get too attached to any book titles you might think up.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Loomis
Recommendations for a James Bond continuation author? Take the money and run, and don't get too attached to any book titles you might think up.

Good idea...because you know Ian Fleming Publications will make you change it!!

[clinkeroo]

Originally posted by Lancaster
I was wondering what will happened when Bond 21 comes out. I assume they will have a book of the film (most films do these days). Will they choose Raymond Benson to write it or just choose any old writer.

I know it's just a pipe dream, but it seems that Christopher Wood is still kicking around somewhere out there, and yes, I know that he only had a hand in the novelizations where he'd written at least a portion of the screenplay, but it sure would be nice to see him give in another try.

If he could bring a Fleming flare to the nonsense (albeit, entertaining nonsense) that was Moonraker then he might even be able to make something out of one of P&W's machine gun toting pieces of nonsense.

[JackChase007]

If he was younger, lesser known, and didn't have his own beloved creation, I'd say pass the torch to.......well, what's the point in saying it? You all know who I'm going to suggest anyway...lol.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Lancaster
I was wondering what will happened when Bond 21 comes out. I assume they will have a book of the film (most films do these days). Will they choose Raymond Benson to write it or just choose any old writer.

Maybe they will go back to what they used to do and NOT have any novelizations.... From 1980 until 1988 there were no novelizations of the James Bond movies.

I remember when John Gardner wrote "License to Kill" how unusual it was for the Bond movie to have a novel.

[Triton]

I often wonder if the sales of most screenplay novelizations make up for the costs of paying the author, royalties, and printing and distribution expenses. In the past these books were a way to relive the movie experience for the year or more it took for the film to come out on video tape. Does it really make much sense now that most films come out on DVD and video tape six months after their release in theaters.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Triton

I often wonder if the sales of most screenplay novelizations make up for the costs of paying the author, royalties, and printing and distribution expenses.  

Aren't novelizations basically "loss leaders" to promote the films concerned? In other words, just part of the great marketing machine - not really any different to posters and trailers - and not intended to make a profit? Big studios can afford the loss, which I guess is why you never see novelizations of "small" or independent films.

Even in this internet age, I'm sometimes alerted to a film's existence by seeing the novelization on a bookshop shelf.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Loomis


Aren't novelizations basically "loss leaders" to promote the films concerned? In other words, just part of the great marketing machine - not really any different to posters and trailers - and not intended to make a profit? Big studios can afford the loss, which I guess is why you never see novelizations of "small" or independent films.

Even in this internet age, I'm sometimes alerted to a film's existence by seeing the novelization on a bookshop shelf.

I have to agree....I think the height of the novelization market was the early 1980s when nearly every movie had a novelization and it certainly seemed as if they were written to promote the movie!

[Turn]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow


I have to agree....I think the height of the novelization market was the early 1980s when nearly every movie had a novelization and it certainly seemed as if they were written to promote the movie!

Along those lines, I was amazed the other day somebody bothered to write a novelization of The Rock's new movie The Rundown. I didn't know people who go to that type of picture actually read.

DLibrasnow, I like the idea of novelizing some of the Bond films. Back when I was a kid I often found it frustrating reading Fleming novels because I wasn't mature enough to appreciate them yet, and the Wood novelizations were more palatable.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Turn

Along those lines, I was amazed the other day somebody bothered to write a novelization of The Rock's new movie The Rundown. I didn't know people who go to that type of picture actually read.

Believe it or not, I used to own a copy of the ROCKY IV novelization. Yes, there was actually a novelization for ROCKY IV, and it gets better: guess who wrote it? None other than Sylvester Stallone!

I mean, how rare is that? A star writing the novelization for one of his movies! Did Bruce Willis write the DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE novelization? No. Did Keanu Reeves write the novelization for THE MATRIX? Nope. Were they able to persuade Pierce Brosnan to write the novelization for DIE ANOTHER DAY? No.

But Sly actually bothered to write the ROCKY IV novelization! Now that's dedication! What a guy!

[Triton]

Originally posted by Turn
DLibrasnow, I like the idea of novelizing some of the Bond films. Back when I was a kid I often found it frustrating reading Fleming novels because I wasn't mature enough to appreciate them yet, and the Wood novelizations were more palatable.

I think that is probably one of the biggest problems for the continuation novels. Are most readers expecting the cinema character, the jet setting lifestyle, and the outlandish or preposterous villain plots of the films? Are they disappointed when they find a depressed, chain smoking, alcoholic who has very dated values and ideas that would be considered sexist, racist, and anti-homosexual? The character even has very dated ideas about wild animals, such as wanting to kill a manta ray because it looks so evil.

One of my complaints about, or difficulties with, Raymond Benson's James Bond character is that he didn't quite entirely know how to update the character and make him contemporary. (Although I must note that I did enjoy all of Raymond Benson's books.) I found Benson's Bond character to be very bland, even though Benson probably knows more about the tastes, attitudes, and personal habits of the James Bond literary character more than anyone else. His book, The James Bond Bedside Companion, is a testament to that. It also seems like he didn't want to try and emulate the "Fleming Sweep" after he criticized John Gardner for his attempts to emulate Fleming. (Others may strongly disagree with my opinion.)

Therefore, part of me wants to have the continuation novels to be period pieces set in the 1950s so that all of James Bond's dated attitudes can stay in tact and he is true to Ian Fleming's literary creation. They would be much more palatable if readers could go that's what people thought in the 1950s and now we have more enlightened or tolerant values today.

Any author who wants to resume the James Bond novels and wants to make the character contemporary or the story set in the present day is going to have a really tough time writing the novels. If the character is too close to the cinema persona, then they might as well have Eon's 007 logo and Pierce's image on the cover. It's such a balancing act isn't it? Some will call the character a sexist pig while others will say he is emasculated.

[Triton]

Originally posted by Loomis


Believe it or not, I used to own a copy of the ROCKY IV novelization. Yes, there was actually a novelization for ROCKY IV, and it gets better: guess who wrote it? None other than Sylvester Stallone!

I mean, how rare is that? A star writing the novelization for one of his movies! Did Bruce Willis write the DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE novelization? No. Did Keanu Reeves write the novelization for THE MATRIX? Nope. Were they able to persuade Pierce Brosnan to write the novelization for DIE ANOTHER DAY? No.

But Sly actually bothered to write the ROCKY IV novelization! Now that's dedication! What a guy!

I always wonder though if these novels are actually ghostwritten by someone else. For example, did Gene Roddenberry really write the novelization for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or was it Alan Dean Foster. The same goes for Star Wars, did George Lucas really write it or was it Alan Dean Foster again. Did William Shatner really write all those TekWar novels?

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Triton

I always wonder though if these novels are actually ghostwritten by someone else.

Well, that's a good point. I have no way of knowing whether Sly really did, as it says on the cover, write the ROCKY IV novelization. If he did write it, I wonder how he found the time between writing the screenplay, directing, starring in and promoting that movie.

I've just done a search on Amazon, and Stallone apparently also wrote the novelizations of PARADISE ALLEY and ROCKY II, as well as "Sylvester Stallone's Official Rocky Scrapbook" and the "Official Movie Book" for ROCKY III.

These are definitely novelizations, and not published screenplays (the ROCKY II cover can be found at: http://www.trashfict...o.uk/rocky.html). So it seems that Sly wrote the novelizations of ROCKYs II and IV, while others were brought in to write the novelizations of I and III. I'm not sure whether there was a ROCKY V novelization, though. (Isn't this absolutely fascinating information?)