41 replies to this topic

[Syndicate]

Are still anything or parts from any Fleming Bond novels that are still unuse that could use in Bond 23. Even IF it is old, it could be updated to fit today.

[The Shark]

Garden of death.

[OmarB]

Lots, it's just a matter of writing a scrip that uses these elements well rather than just throwing them up on screen. Garden Of Death would be awesome. The giant squid would be cool too, the Hilderbrandt rarity would be cool (especially the ending!), From a View To a Kill would make a great PTS if filmed well and done entirely without.

[Royal Dalton]

Loads of stuff.

[dinovelvet]

Garden of death.

And pretty much all of the rest of YOLT, too. The Magic 44 subplot could easily be reinvented as something more relevant and modern.

Also there's a lot from DAF - the Saratoga scenes, Bond in 'Spectreville' but that's a bit weird.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Magic 44 still sort of works; just look at the whole WikiLeaks brouhaha, last year -- not to mention that the head of that site is an Aussie.

(Nudge, nudge, Dikko Henderson, nudge, nudge... )

[coco1997]

Magic 44 still sort of works; just look at the whole WikiLeaks brouhaha, last year -- not to mention that the head of that site is an Aussie.

(Nudge, nudge, Dikko Henderson, nudge, nudge... )

Sounds like a good basis for the Ultimate Bond YOLT remake.

[00Twelve]

Loads of stuff.

Ditto.

The plot of laundering treasure gold from the Caribbean for financing enemy operations is ripe for the times. Gold's over $1400/oz now if I'm right.

[Quantumofsolace007]

Loads of stuff.

Ditto.

The plot of laundering treasure gold from the Caribbean for financing enemy operations is ripe for the times. Gold's over $1400/oz now if I'm right.

And i could see Quantum doing it

[DR76]

Why not simply adapt a John Gardner or Raymond Benson novel? Why continue these snatch and grab tactics from Fleming's novels? This is ridiculous.

[Syndicate]

What should be use as Quantum happening, and what should be used on a one time villian or group.

[Virgosy]

Garden of death.

And pretty much all of the rest of YOLT, too.

Could not agree more.

[Iroquois]

Garden of death.

And pretty much all of the rest of YOLT, too.

Could not agree more.

Indeed, though I feel that if they're going to adapt YOLT, timing is everything. We need to give Bond time to develop into a seasoned, world weary character (and perhaps adapt the Tracy storyline again) in order for such an adaptation to have the impact it deserves. Rarely has any form of fiction haunted me as much as YOLT did when I first read it.

[Virgosy]

Indeed, though I feel that if they're going to adapt YOLT, timing is everything. We need to give Bond time to develop into a seasoned, world weary character (and perhaps adapt the Tracy storyline again) in order for such an adaptation to have the impact it deserves. Rarely has any form of fiction haunted me as much as YOLT did when I first read it.

Exactly. I'm reading and also discovering Fleming's books actually, I've almost finished TMWTGG, and I think YOLT is his best book. Wonderfully written and very interesting plot. But, who want you as Bond to play in a kind of DAF part 2 or YOLT strong adaptation... Craig ? And for Blofeld ?

[Matt_13]

Definitely Garden of Death. If it's going to be used, I think it needs to be done with Craig in the role. Imagine if we get Deakins to shoot that thing...

[FLEMINGFAN]

As much as I like the Garden Of Death from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, I wonder how much of that can be conveyed visually. The whole scene, as written by Ian Fleming, is mainly senses and perception. That would be very hard to 'film' and it certainly would be a very, very short scene. It reads better than it lives.
I thought the opening of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN would, cinematically, make for a nice prologue, though. The audience would not know that 007 is brainwashed until the attempt to kill 'M' and the rest of the film could be about who did it to him.

[jaguar007]

Why not simply adapt a John Gardner or Raymond Benson novel? Why continue these snatch and grab tactics from Fleming's novels? This is ridiculous.

Because EON does not want to have to pay royalties to the Gardner Estate or Benson. I think MGW has also stated that he did not find much that filmable in Gardner's books.

[Sebastian Tombs]

Not sure about the gold-coin plot; gold coins from a pirate treasure would actually be far more valuable being sold as what they are, gold coins from a pirate treasure. And that only calls attention to the seller and raises curiosity about where they were found. Gold is valuable but melting them down represents a major loss in profits and simply doesn't make sense. A 1933 US $20 double-eagle gold coin sold for $7.5 million at auction in '02; a coin of sufficient age and scarcity, and with the right provenance, is worth far, far, far more than its weight in gold! And someone showing up with a ton of them on hand rouses a ton of curiosity, from the journalist to the tax man.

It's possible that you could have a story about Quantum laundering gold in the form of faked pirate coins, being sold off by a puppet in auction houses, but to fake them to the extent of fooling dealers and collectors who have tons of experience in spotting fakes would be a huge investment of time and equipment and simply not worth the bother.

I was never fond of LALD's gold coin plot and don't think it could work today. It was probably a wobbly plot to begin with.

Edited by Sebastian Tombs, 08 March 2011 - 11:10 PM.

[TheREAL008]

Moonraker the novel. That could definitely updated for a modern age plot.

LALD and YOLT are good examples also.

And dare I say - Maybe bringing elements of TSWLM Where Vivianne is either a rival spy or possibly an operative from Quantum that Bond turns.

[Sebastian Tombs]

As much as I like the Garden Of Death from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, I wonder how much of that can be conveyed visually. The whole scene, as written by Ian Fleming, is mainly senses and perception. That would be very hard to 'film' and it certainly would be a very, very short scene. It reads better than it lives.
I thought the opening of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN would, cinematically, make for a nice prologue, though. The audience would not know that 007 is brainwashed until the attempt to kill 'M' and the rest of the film could be about who did it to him.

I agree. The garden of death is a cool-as-anything concept, but would be a beast to actually make come alive on screen. Unless you want to tart it up with deadly traps or having vicious animals prowling it. (Thought: I once read a novel where the hero was trapped in a garden maze with several panthers prowling it; he was deposited in the center and had to find his way out. Cheesy, but a variation on that could work for Bond.)

The opening scene of TMWTGG could be used as you describe, but probably not for a long time. Same with the proposed using of YOLT...having Bond depressed and demoralized after a devastating loss is something to think about much further down the road, like another twenty years or so. We're still establishing Bond after one devastating loss, let's not have him love and lose every couple of movies.

[stamper]

They should have used it instead of QOS. It's dead now.

[Bucky]

I just had a thought. Maybe they do not have to reintroduce Tracy in order to use the Garden of Death, and perhaps the beginning of The Man with the Golden Gun could be used along with that. They could have the film start with Bond brainwashed and as part of his "recovery" they send him on a hopeless mission to Japan where he ends up coming across the garden of death and Shatterhand who happens to be the man behind his brainwashing.

It might sound silly but it could possibly work so they do not have to retread familiar territory.

[00Twelve]

Not sure about the gold-coin plot; gold coins from a pirate treasure would actually be far more valuable being sold as what they are, gold coins from a pirate treasure. And that only calls attention to the seller and raises curiosity about where they were found. Gold is valuable but melting them down represents a major loss in profits and simply doesn't make sense. A 1933 US $20 double-eagle gold coin sold for $7.5 million at auction in '02; a coin of sufficient age and scarcity, and with the right provenance, is worth far, far, far more than its weight in gold! And someone showing up with a ton of them on hand rouses a ton of curiosity, from the journalist to the tax man.

It's possible that you could have a story about Quantum laundering gold in the form of faked pirate coins, being sold off by a puppet in auction houses, but to fake them to the extent of fooling dealers and collectors who have tons of experience in spotting fakes would be a huge investment of time and equipment and simply not worth the bother.

I was never fond of LALD's gold coin plot and don't think it could work today. It was probably a wobbly plot to begin with.

The coins were being imported en masse but being spread very widely throughout the network, being sold as what they were (I was just making the point about gold $/oz because so many folks are investing in it, so it's topically relevant), and the cash was what was financing SMERSH operations. No faking the treasure, and no appearance of suspicious activity because they were being sold in so many different shops, maybe only one or two coins at a time. It would be fishy to see a whole trove dumped out onto the gold shops of just Manhattan, but there were people in the book selling to shops all over the Eastern seaboard. The only wobbly part would be the size of the network of baddies, and Quantum, for instance, has already hinted that they've "got people everywhere."

[Sebastian Tombs]

Not sure about the gold-coin plot; gold coins from a pirate treasure would actually be far more valuable being sold as what they are, gold coins from a pirate treasure. And that only calls attention to the seller and raises curiosity about where they were found. Gold is valuable but melting them down represents a major loss in profits and simply doesn't make sense. A 1933 US $20 double-eagle gold coin sold for $7.5 million at auction in '02; a coin of sufficient age and scarcity, and with the right provenance, is worth far, far, far more than its weight in gold! And someone showing up with a ton of them on hand rouses a ton of curiosity, from the journalist to the tax man.

It's possible that you could have a story about Quantum laundering gold in the form of faked pirate coins, being sold off by a puppet in auction houses, but to fake them to the extent of fooling dealers and collectors who have tons of experience in spotting fakes would be a huge investment of time and equipment and simply not worth the bother.

I was never fond of LALD's gold coin plot and don't think it could work today. It was probably a wobbly plot to begin with.

The coins were being imported en masse but being spread very widely throughout the network, being sold as what they were (I was just making the point about gold $/oz because so many folks are investing in it, so it's topically relevant), and the cash was what was financing SMERSH operations. No faking the treasure, and no appearance of suspicious activity because they were being sold in so many different shops, maybe only one or two coins at a time. It would be fishy to see a whole trove dumped out onto the gold shops of just Manhattan, but there were people in the book selling to shops all over the Eastern seaboard. The only wobbly part would be the size of the network of baddies, and Quantum, for instance, has already hinted that they've "got people everywhere."

The bad part is that it's also a very unreliable way of getting a decent return on that; that's the big reason why collectibles are such a lousy investment; unless they have intrinsic worth, they're only as valuable as what someone is willing to pay for them. And getting top dollar for a collection can be a horrendously slow process, especially if you weed it out to various sources. (My father has a small coin collection, and knows some bigger numismatists, that's how I picked up this info.) And you have to be careful of flooding the market and driving down the cost of what you have.

And from what I've heard, the gold-investing frenzy is starting to die down (maybe) because folks were worried about an economic collapse, and people are finally waking up and realizing that if the economy does indeed collapse utterly, gold will be useless. You can't eat gold!

I think it's too small-potatoes, really, to be the main plot of a Bond film. Maybe as a throwaway sideline for a villain, as a way of "servicing the fanboys" and using an unused Fleming bit, just for the sake of doing it, without really impacting the overall plot. Especially when Quantum definitely has other schemes up its sleeve that have more going for them that could net billions, and simply illegally dealing in rare coins hardly seems Quantum's style.

[Syndicate]

I just had a thought. Maybe they do not have to reintroduce Tracy in order to use the Garden of Death, and perhaps the beginning of The Man with the Golden Gun could be used along with that. They could have the film start with Bond brainwashed and as part of his "recovery" they send him on a hopeless mission to Japan where he ends up coming across the garden of death and Shatterhand who happens to be the man behind his brainwashing.

It might sound silly but it could possibly work so they do not have to retread familiar territory.

Sounds like that could work for Bond 23 or Bond 24, and the name Shatterhand could be one of the many fake names of the head of Quantum or the second in charge of Quantum.

Edited by Syndicate, 12 March 2011 - 01:30 AM.

[00Twelve]

Not sure about the gold-coin plot; gold coins from a pirate treasure would actually be far more valuable being sold as what they are, gold coins from a pirate treasure. And that only calls attention to the seller and raises curiosity about where they were found. Gold is valuable but melting them down represents a major loss in profits and simply doesn't make sense. A 1933 US $20 double-eagle gold coin sold for $7.5 million at auction in '02; a coin of sufficient age and scarcity, and with the right provenance, is worth far, far, far more than its weight in gold! And someone showing up with a ton of them on hand rouses a ton of curiosity, from the journalist to the tax man.

It's possible that you could have a story about Quantum laundering gold in the form of faked pirate coins, being sold off by a puppet in auction houses, but to fake them to the extent of fooling dealers and collectors who have tons of experience in spotting fakes would be a huge investment of time and equipment and simply not worth the bother.

I was never fond of LALD's gold coin plot and don't think it could work today. It was probably a wobbly plot to begin with.

The coins were being imported en masse but being spread very widely throughout the network, being sold as what they were (I was just making the point about gold $/oz because so many folks are investing in it, so it's topically relevant), and the cash was what was financing SMERSH operations. No faking the treasure, and no appearance of suspicious activity because they were being sold in so many different shops, maybe only one or two coins at a time. It would be fishy to see a whole trove dumped out onto the gold shops of just Manhattan, but there were people in the book selling to shops all over the Eastern seaboard. The only wobbly part would be the size of the network of baddies, and Quantum, for instance, has already hinted that they've "got people everywhere."

The bad part is that it's also a very unreliable way of getting a decent return on that; that's the big reason why collectibles are such a lousy investment; unless they have intrinsic worth, they're only as valuable as what someone is willing to pay for them. And getting top dollar for a collection can be a horrendously slow process, especially if you weed it out to various sources. (My father has a small coin collection, and knows some bigger numismatists, that's how I picked up this info.) And you have to be careful of flooding the market and driving down the cost of what you have.

And from what I've heard, the gold-investing frenzy is starting to die down (maybe) because folks were worried about an economic collapse, and people are finally waking up and realizing that if the economy does indeed collapse utterly, gold will be useless. You can't eat gold!

I think it's too small-potatoes, really, to be the main plot of a Bond film. Maybe as a throwaway sideline for a villain, as a way of "servicing the fanboys" and using an unused Fleming bit, just for the sake of doing it, without really impacting the overall plot. Especially when Quantum definitely has other schemes up its sleeve that have more going for them that could net billions, and simply illegally dealing in rare coins hardly seems Quantum's style.

You certainly make a fine point; I hope you're right about the gold market, honestly, because it's getting to where you can't buy the stuff. I wouldn't care if the idea were just the jumping off point in the first third or half of a future film. I am a raving LALD fanboy dying to be serviced. (Um.)

[Sebastian Tombs]

I am a raving LALD fanboy dying to be serviced. (Um.)

I actually just heard the term "servicing the fanboys" the other day, in reference to comic books and graphic novels that find it necessary to fit in every single stinkin' villain and supporting character that Superman or Green Lantern or Batman has ever dealt with, to the point that it can come across as forced and clumsy. (There was an aborted animated series called "Gotham High" that was supposed to be about Bruce Wayne's teen years...but it also made the mistake of cramming every villain and supporting character in it as well, to the point that it was simply lame. Plus the notion of superwealthy Bruce Wayne going to a public school was a little odd.) I think it can be applied to Bond fandom; there are folks who want more than anything else to see every little scrap of Fleming used, no matter how questionable, simply because they're such fans of Fleming. It's not necessarily bad, really; bits here and there can work if handled deftly. But an overwhelming insistence on incorporating every drop that can be squeezed from Fleming can also get in the way of creativity. Just a thought.

[TheREAL008]

What if in conjunction to Morgan's treasure, Quantum has access to other looted treasure from other vessels like Blackbeard and/or possibly Francis Drake? They could possibly have access to forgotten Nazi gold as well.

And also possibly another market for them: Diamonds. Don't say it's been done to death but the diamond busniess is still a money earning facility. Quantum could have their hands in illicit diamond buying?

[Sebastian Tombs]

I think they need to sit down and make a few decisions about Quantum's goals and techniques. The plot of QOS would set some groundwork for them gaining monetary wealth and political power by controlling resources and commodities. They could do a story of them trying to seize control of some valuable resource, such a diamond mine or something. Or they could throw in something about them seeking to control some increasingly scarce resource; I just read recently about how things that we overlook or take for granted, like helium, phosphorus, medical isotopes, and even things like tequila and chocolate, are growing increasingly rare, and are still in demand. (Dang...the price of phosphorus jumped 700% between 2007 and 2008, and only continues to rise; China is hoarding it and the best remaining reserves are in Russia and Africa. Hmmm.)

[Byron]

What if in conjunction to Morgan's treasure, Quantum has access to other looted treasure from other vessels like Blackbeard and/or possibly Francis Drake? They could possibly have access to forgotten Nazi gold as well.

And also possibly another market for them: Diamonds. Don't say it's been done to death but the diamond busniess is still a money earning facility. Quantum could have their hands in illicit diamond buying?

Some good ideas from 008 and 0012.

I've mentioned before about updating the gold plot to illegal antiquities trading. For example following the collapse of Iraq, Afghanistan and now possibly Libya and other regimes, ancient treasures have been looted and exported to rich collectors through middle men (Quantum).

I think they need to sit down and make a few decisions about Quantum's goals and techniques. The plot of QOS would set some groundwork for them gaining monetary wealth and political power by controlling resources and commodities. They could do a story of them trying to seize control of some valuable resource, such a diamond mine or something. Or they could throw in something about them seeking to control some increasingly scarce resource; I just read recently about how things that we overlook or take for granted, like helium, phosphorus, medical isotopes, and even things like tequila and chocolate, are growing increasingly rare, and are still in demand. (Dang...the price of phosphorus jumped 700% between 2007 and 2008, and only continues to rise; China is hoarding it and the best remaining reserves are in Russia and Africa. Hmmm.)

With control of resources just done with QOS, i don't think this will happen again anytime soon.