28 replies to this topic

[Donovan Mayne-Nicholls]

One thing is to eagerly await a continuation novel to shorten the gap between films. One thing is to pay 20 quid for it but does anybody here honestly feel Deaver's book is so outstanding it will make Eon break their oath not to adapt any other authors and cough out the extra cash for the rights when they can get an original screenplay cheaper (especially considering certain not so subtle thematic similarities with QoS, Greene Planet: GreenWay, etc)?

[zencat]

Moved this post from Quick News here, Donovan.

And I take it you're reacting to this:
http://www.thebookbo...lanche-has.html

[Dustin]

Not sure but I believe Eon already does have the rights to any of the continuations. It's just that the film approach and the book approach are two vastly different things by now, for better or worse. I suspect they might pick up a book with a really gripping and spectacularly marvellous storyline, but such books are sparse. And not just in Bond-verse

[doublenoughtspy]

My understanding is that Eon automatically owns the film rights to, or has first refusal for, all Bond continuation novels.

No outside company could come in and snap up film rights to Carte Blanche any more than I could try to option the latest Star Wars novel and turn that into a film.

My only guess is that since Deaver is a well known author, whose previous work has not only been optioned but filmed (The Bone Collector, 1999), Eon is hedging their bet and actually exercising the option.

This could just be more marketing hype, ala Spielberg and Young Bond, and DMC having Eon interest.

I would not go Banco on CB being filmed.

[Leo R.]

Eon will only film CB if it's commercially interesting, i.e. only if the book sells very, very well and becomes well-known to the general public.
It is my strong belief that if the Gardner, Benson or Faulks novels would have sold as well as Fleming's work did, Eon 'd have filmed them already, regardless of quality.

[Skudor]

Marketing hype - mention Bond film connection, get more publicity, sell more books.

[ACE]

I would not go Banco on CB being filmed.

[Captain Tightpants]

I certinaly hope not. CARTE BLANCHE might have been a semi-decent story at times, but it's not film material. Not without major re-writes.

[jaguar007]

it won't happen

[Righty007]

it won't happen

You're right. Deaver is no different than Amis, Gardner, Benson and Faulks.

[TheREAL008]

It's only a book, and a book it shall remain.

[marktmurphy]

The only recent new Bond books unique and strong enough to stand a chance of being dramatised are the Young Bonds.

Carte Blanche is fun but there's nothing there an Eon writer couldn't compete with.

[Dustin]

I have to say just measured against other thrillers, ordinary thrillers, Carte Blanche is still fairly average, nothing to write home about really. Its sole distinctive feature is its use of a character named James Bond, its sole quality its attempt to reinvent this character with varying degrees of inspiration, muse and success. Without that I doubt we'd read a lot about it, or that most of us would even have picked it up.

[Jump James]

Hydt would make a good villain. Not to over the top with a bizarre fetish.

[Loomis]

does anybody here honestly feel Deaver's book is so outstanding it will make Eon break their oath not to adapt any other authors and cough out the extra cash for the rights when they can get an original screenplay cheaper (especially considering certain not so subtle thematic similarities with QoS, Greene Planet: GreenWay, etc)?

No.

I have to say just measured against other thrillers, ordinary thrillers, Carte Blanche is still fairly average, nothing to write home about really.

Indeed, and therein lies the disappointment. I understood that Deaver was a master of the thriller genre - surely one doesn't get to his level of success unless one knows what one's doing? Unless one does indeed craft fiendishly gripping plots with sensational twists and turns? Well, apparently not. On the evidence of CARTE BLANCHE, Deaver is mediocre at best.

[Dustin]

does anybody here honestly feel Deaver's book is so outstanding it will make Eon break their oath not to adapt any other authors and cough out the extra cash for the rights when they can get an original screenplay cheaper (especially considering certain not so subtle thematic similarities with QoS, Greene Planet: GreenWay, etc)?

No.

I have to say just measured against other thrillers, ordinary thrillers, Carte Blanche is still fairly average, nothing to write home about really.

Indeed, and therein lies the disappointment. I understood that Deaver was a master of the thriller genre - surely one doesn't get to his level of success unless one knows what one's doing? Unless one does indeed craft fiendishly gripping plots with sensational twists and turns? Well, apparently not. On the evidence of CARTE BLANCHE, Deaver is mediocre at best.

Well, one suspects Deaver can extend his wings much more freely with his own characters and within his own subgenre. An awful lot of today's success in the game would depend on such things as the 'soap' factor of recurring characters and their development over a given stretch of books and time. Deaver's Rhyme series of course profits from the obvious, him and Sachs becoming an item, but there is also a longer theme involved, namely a depressed and suicidal man chained to his crushed body who plans his own private exit from this hell but gradually finds his way back into his own life. One doesn't need to like this kind of character arch to see why it has a certain appeal to readers and it's actually no so far from our own hero's experience if we take a closer look.

Where I think the attempt missed the mark is in just making the whole affair really engaging and captivating. It zips along without any main highlights, a long flat plane of low-current electricity where a spot or two of high-voltage suspense would have been needed. Was there ever real danger for Bond? Or for some other character we cared about? Not that I noticed. The setting of various rubbish dumps would have allowed for the odd horrible scene with rats, always bound to make a book better if used the right way and I fondly remember one of Benson's here. No such thing. The fetish of the villain - we assume sexual intercourse with the earthly remains of the departed, but it's only alluded, never really admitted as such - would have allowed for the mention of his fiancee's most revolting horror, the SMELL or, even worse, him bringing SOUVENIRS to their shared bed. No such thing.

Overall it seems several occasions for making the book an outstanding entry have been missed, perhaps out of a feeling of uncertainty whether they fit into a Bond novel. Here more boldness and courage would have been desirable.

[Jump James]

Good point. Can't say I recall any real danger for Bond, even during the zillion gun fights. Or the early blowing up of the hospital. No real edge of your pants stuff for some strange reason. Bond kills in cold blood, but no wait, he didn't. Opportunity missed. All the Bond knew earlier stuff didn't work.

[marktmurphy]

I've still not finished it, but apart from the escape from the ruin at the beginning, I can't really think of any other action-y bits.

[Dustin]

I've still not finished it, but apart from the escape from the ruin at the beginning, I can't really think of any other action-y bits.

Oh, please don't get this wrong, I am happy with less action and feel this is at least something to thank Deaver/Carte Blanche for. What I'm missing is some scene where Bond is truly threatened, where his life and others are at stake and he has to fight an octopus, strangle a psychopathic killer or (one of my favourites) do an Ozzy and bite off a rat's head to escape. Likewise there is an abundance of female characters and the faked execution would have been more efficient if it had been Bheka or Hydt's fiancee, ideally after they had intercourse with Bond, and, once Bond turns on Hydt (because he just cannot bring himself to kill either woman, not even for the sake of this mission) Bond finds out about the blanks while Hydt or his henchman (I forget his name, sorry) shoot her in the head anyway. What I missed was something to keep me interested in the fate of these people. I knew of course the outcome, so that couldn't be a surprise. All the more some other stimulus or attraction would have been welcome.

[Zorin Industries]

Eon Productions will not be making CARTE BLANCHE. Just saying...

[Jim]

Could take the title and come up with sumfink different, I suppose. Not as if that's an alien concept for them.

[Dustin]

Well, just going by the feel of it the title is about a third of Carte Blanche. If they just take that it would qualify as a faithful adaption.

[marktmurphy]

I've still not finished it, but apart from the escape from the ruin at the beginning, I can't really think of any other action-y bits.

Oh, please don't get this wrong, I am happy with less action and feel this is at least something to thank Deaver/Carte Blanche for. What I'm missing is some scene where Bond is truly threatened, where his life and others are at stake and he has to fight an octopus, strangle a psychopathic killer or (one of my favourites) do an Ozzy and bite off a rat's head to escape.

No, I agree- there are few of those type of set piece scenes, and I think that's a bit of a shame.

Could take the title and come up with sumfink different, I suppose. Not as if that's an alien concept for them.

Yep, it's a good title I think. Beats Quantum of Solace, anyway. I think Devil May Care might be a better title (although somehow more period) but if they took it I wouldn't be upset.

[dlb007]

No. However, it might be getting to the point where they need to start using the continuation novels as films. I'd love to see Colonel Sun or some of the Gardner novels adapted.

[MkB]

FYI, today on BresciaOggi.it (local information website for a small town in Northern Italy), there's an article about B23 summarizing all the intel about the film - there's nothing that we haven't already discussed on the forums, but the journalist showed a wicked sense of humour when mentioning the possibility that B23 could be an adaptation of CARTE BLANCHE:

"From Lake Garda in the previous film, the production could go to South Africa, where Mendes has been spotted location scouting. His presence in Cape Town gives credit to the hypothesis that Bond 23 will be drawn from the Carte Blanche novel by Jeffery Deaver, in which 007 is a 32 year old Afghanistan veteran, and is opposed to a waste management tycoon. A good reason for coming back to Italy to film."
Source: http://www.bresciaog...sta_un_mistero/

This cracked me up... For the record, Southern Italy has been experiencing huge waste management issues for many years, due to maffia interferences. Those problems are particularly visible in Naples - see the latest episode here, for example: http://www.bbc.co.uk...europe-13904216

[Captain Tightpants]

Re-reading the book, I think there are only two elements that would work on film: the sequence in Serbia, and the suggestion of recycling human bodies as the villain's main plot.

[chrisno1]

Carte Blanche offers nothing new to Eon. Like all the previous continuation novels it effectively rehashes everything we've already seen in film or print, Bond or otherwise.
They probably like the title better than some of Gardner's and Benson's dreadful efforts, mind.

[Captain Tightpants]

I've still not finished it, but apart from the escape from the ruin at the beginning, I can't really think of any other action-y bits.

CARTE BLANCHE's problem is not a lack of action. It's a lack of plot. Especially the way Hydt's motivations suddenly change at the end of the book (not that he was a particularly great villain to begin with), and the revelation that he's not actually the villain at all and somebody else suddenly is.

[Sylvia Trench]

let's face it, the book was a huge disappointment. where was the glamour, and the sex and violence? It was dull, dull, dull. Made the Faulks book look positively scintillating.