5 replies to this topic

[JLaidlaw]

There's been a lot of talk lately about Bond 22 or 23 being adapted straight from Fleming, so it's time for a new game. You have to create your own film treatment for a movie which uses unadapted elements from Fleming's work. The only rule is that you can not use any Fleming elements which have so far been used, such as the names Hugo Drax and Milton Krest, or more or less the entire plot of Risico. Your title should also be Fleming based, like Shatterhand or The World is Not Enough (or Risico). Adapt the story as loosely as you like, and use as many texts as you like. My personal preference is the For Your Eyes Only model, where For Your Eyes Only, Risico, Live and Let Die and Goldfinger are all used, with a brand new overarching story, but you can take it where you like.

Here's some ideas for material to adapt. I confess to not having finished all fourteen books, and I have not yet seen Octopussy, so some of this may be slightly erroneous:

Novels
Moonraker
Live and Let Die: The Pirate Treasure
You Only Live Twice: Dr Shatterhand's Garden of Death and More
The Spy Who Loved Me: Yes, in this universe you are allowed to use it
The Man With The Golden Gun: The Jungle Fight, Scaramanga's Character. Apart from that not really plot elements, more wasted potential in both the book and the film
Diamonds Are Forever: The Spang Brothers, and wasted potential?

Short Stories
From A View To A Kill
Quantum of Solace
007 in New York
The Hildebrand Rarity: The Indian Ocean location; the wife killing her husband
The Property of a Lady: The spy pay-off; The double agent who is fed false information
Octopussy: The forced suicide; the war criminal

Fleming's Unused Notebooks:
My Enemy's Enemy, Bond having to kill a fellow agent, etc.
Fleming's Other Works:
The Diamond Smugglers, Thrilling Cities & State of Excitement

[RazorBlade]

Let's see, I'll go with My Enemy's Diamond Smuggler's Thrilling State of Excitment.

Sorry, just had to do that, don't know why. Or I do and am too deeply disturbed about it to, you know, talk about it here.

But this is a pretty cool idea. Too bad it isn't part of a contest (hey EON wink, wink, nudge, nudge) but give me some time and see what I come up with.

[JLaidlaw]

Alright, I have to admit I didn't realise how difficult this was going to be when I first posted the idea. I was hoping to submit a full treatment, but instead, here's my general approach. It is very very rough

TITLE: Risico
FLEMING STORIES USED: Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, The Man With The Golden Gun

PLOT SUMMARY:
James Bond meets his equal and opposite, North America's foremost Assassin, Enrico Risico.

ROUGH PLAN:
Pre titles sequence unrelated. The title sequence is a Bond character chasing another figure across continents. Much like Casino Royale, the first third of the film focuses on an essentially unrelated storyline, Bond on a basic mission, or series of missions. This is contrasted by Risico, on his own series of missions, and the film flicks back between one and the other. Risico is hired in Florida by an organised crime leader who wishes to own a certain amount of land, presumably in order for smuggling purposes. The first kill takes him to Jamaica, where he meets a version of Dexter Smythe. He impersonates a member of British Intelligence who knows something about Smythe's past, forcing Smythe to convulse in fear. Risico leaves the man to his own devices, and he commits suicide. In another scene he mercilessly murders a family (The Loackhaves) and cleans up after himself. Bond meanwhile is in Paris, on his 'Just Another Kill' mission. Before the traditional action sequences, he takes surveillance photos of his victim.
In M's Office, M is looking over reports of the death of the Loackhaves, and crying, it is made clear she knew them personally. Tanner knocks on the door as she wipes away the tears. He delivers one of Bond's photos to M. Distracted, she then sees Risico, sitting at a table looking at Bond's victim. There follows a scene with Bond arriving back in Britain, and being called to M's Office.

Bond: It was a successful mission
M: Yes I know Bond. However, it's time for you to be working on something else. What do you know of this man?
Bond: Nothing
M: His name is Enrico Risico. He is the foremost assassin in Northern America, known for his ability to kill without leaving a trace of his being there. He's good. He can charge anything between one million and five hundred million for his services. He mainly targetted organised crime leaders, though occassionally takes simpler targets for a pittance. He kills, he enjoys it, but because he's useful, the CIA have kept their distance, and so have we, until now.
Bond: What's changed?
M: (Evasive) So far Risico has been confined to the USA and the Carribean. Your photo proves Risico is in Europe.
Bond: No. That's not it.
M: (Evades again)
Bond: There's something else. Something personal.
M: (Explains the situation with the Loackhaves) They were killed simply because they refused to sell their land. The CIA had the opportunitty to stop this man. He deserves to be executed.
Bond: He's not going to be executed. But he does deserve to be killed.
Bond sets out on his mission to kill Risico. He takes a team to Africa, to a made up state (It's always made-up states when films are made in Africa) where Risico has been asked by the corrupt government to kill an opposing presidential candidate, Camaan Nour and make it look like an outside job. Bond and his team are to protect Nour

Nour: I have had assassination threats for years. Why should the British government care about me now?
Bond: We don't. We just care about the assassin
Nour insists on making a speech, and Bond tries to stop him, but is persuaded it may bring Risico out into the open. He makes the speech on an outside stage, and the crowd are checked for guns and knives. During the speech everything goes fine, but afterwards, after Nour shakes hands with the crowd he feels a sting in his leg. He collapses, a type of poison has been used on him. Bond on realising this, sees Risico, and chases him, but on finally getting to the open grassland finds he has disappeared. Bond is bitten by a venemous snake, starts hallucinating, collapses. He reawakens days later in a city hospital. Where it goes from there... Well, I don't really know, but I'm sure other people can think of some way to carry it on. It could have an amazing meeting between Risico and Bond, in which he explains that they are the same.

I won't need to tell Fleming Fans that the assassin is straight from The Man With The Golden Gun, including the African chase scene and snakebite, taken from the Jungle Chase scene. M's Friends dying is taken from For Your Eyes Only. The Forced Suicide is taken from Octopussy. The names Enrico, and Risico are taken from Risico.I had originally planned to include a segment in which a man named Masters asked Risico to shoot his wife after she had had three affairs. The scene was to have ended with Risico dismissing the man after convincing him that he was going to kill him.

There are two problems with all of this. The first is that I clearly don't know anything about Africa, and it's rather disgraceful. The second is I can't help feeling that if Risico is the foremost assassin in the world, then his sort of services wouldn't be required in most of these situations. It is rough, but could work with refining.

*EDIT, Forgot to put in the sentence that the Loackhaves were M's friends.

Edited by JLaidlaw, 02 April 2007 - 03:07 PM.

[sharpshooter]

Well done, alot of time went into it.
I would very much like to see Craig's Bond seated in M's office,
not here apartment this time lol) being briefed.

[HildebrandRarity]

Interesting ideas but it needs a bigger plot than merely 007 killing because of M's request of a personal nature.

It could be the tip of the tentacle which leads to something wider.

[JLaidlaw]

Thanks for your comments, but now that I look back I can see huge holes in it a mile off (And this isn't false modesty... I'm a very arrogant person). I assumed when I first posted the topic I'd be able to post a plot outline the next day, but life got in the way and I couldn't think about it until yesterday. I rushed it, but my intention was to encourage others to put their possible adaptations of Fleming books up, so please, if you do want to post them, I'd love to see them.

I'll redraft my own and repost it within the week, trying to follow Hildebrand's ideas for something much bigger coming into the end; although I have to say, as long as it's got enough material into it, it shouldn't be a problem that Bond's against one man on a semi-personal mission. I'll redraft and we'll see where we get too.

By the way, how disgraceful and perverted is my idea of Africa, corrupt governments etc. I'll move it to Eastern Europe for the redraft... much more politically correct.