254 replies to this topic

[Captain Tightpants]

ASIS would not be involved in the PTS. Like MI6 in England, the Australia Secret Intelligence Service has no jurisdiction within Australia. The pre-title sequence would involve Bond working with the Royal Australian Navy and possibly the Special Air Service Regiment. In fact, since the SAS-R is based out of Swanbourne in Western Australia and because the PTS is likely to take palce off the coast of Western Australia, the SAS-R's presence is likely.

Also, I don't think "Jake William" is a particularly Australian name. I'd suggest something like Aidan Dale, Evan Brady, Kyle Lawson or Dean Mackenzie would all be much more Australian.

[terminus]

Jacob Smith, a CSIS agent assigned as the Mi6 Liasion Officer who Bond encounters while in Canada to assist with the mission.
Paul Weber, a german assassin sent to kill Bond in Canada
Jake William, a ASIS agent assigned to help Bond in the PTS

sorry if the names sucks....I dont know what other characters will be used

ASIS would not be involved in the PTS. Like MI6 in England, the Australia Secret Intelligence Service has no jurisdiction within Australia. The pre-title sequence would involve Bond working with the Royal Australian Navy and possibly the Special Air Service Regiment. In fact, since the SAS-R is based out of Swanbourne in Western Australia and because the PTS is likely to take palce off the coast of Western Australia, the SAS-R's presence is likely.

Also, I don't think "Jake William" is a particularly Australian name. I'd suggest something like Aidan Dale, Evan Brady, Kyle Lawson or Dean Mackenzie would all be much more Australian.

Furthermore, people need to stop suggesting names for characters we haven't decided that we need - we've not decided that Bond would be teamed up with CSIS or ASIS operatives, nor that an assassin would be sent to stop him (though is plausible). Suggesting names is fine, but can we restrict it to characters we've already decided that we require - such as the woman Bond encounters on vacation, the murdered MI6 officer and Bond's MI5 partner in Manchester.

And can we get back to discussing the plots? Given that CT has a pretty firm idea of how we can orchestrate the Australian segments, perhaps we could move onto firming up where Bond ends up vacation, how he encounters Tamara (to use the name someone [CT?] suggested for the character) and what they do for the two or so chapters that they are there for before Bond is recalled.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I had an idea of how to start the novel: Perhaps in a series of flashbacks, with Bond thinking back on vacation? It'd be reminicent of GF/OHMSS -- which would surely cement our Bond in the Fleming mold.

Just a thought, and it gets both of those settings right out of the way at the same time; they'd be intercut, certainly, but it might prove useful to contrast the two -- the forced vacation intercut with the reason he's on it.

[terminus]

An excellent suggestion, mrblofeld!

What do others think?

[007jamesbond]

I think it would work so we wouldnt have to waste time on the vacation part..I think the opening chapter should be about the vacation and starts the PTS and the flash forward to the day when Bond is recall. Are we planning to write one or more chapter on the vacation after the flashbacks in the beginning?

[Captain Tightpants]

I think it would work so we wouldnt have to waste time on the vacation part.

But we still need to address what Bond gets up to on vacation. Especially if we're having multiple cuts between past and present.

As for where Bond goes on vacation, I'd like to see him go somewhere exotic, but not somewhere that is immediately obvious as a vacation place. I'm thinking of somewhere like the Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize. Or maybe the Lagoa des Sete Cidades on the island of São Miguel in the Azores. If Bond went to Sete Cidades, there's also this:



The lake is formed by a sheer-sided volcanic crater. There's a dirt road that runs around the rim, about a thousand feet above the water. I reckon it would be great for a car chase, but since Bond is going on holiday, I could also see him taking a leisurely drive along that road.

And here's a few pictures from the archipelago that just scream Bond:















It's perfect. And it's close to England, so when out agent gets himself murdered in the Manchester nightclub, Bond is close at hand to deal with the case.

[terminus]

Definitely a more unorthodox candidate than Hawaii or Mexico!

[Captain Tightpants]

You like it?

Anyway, a possible name for the villain: Bertrand van der Linde. And a very brief bio to match: he's half-Belgian an half-Dutch. 'Van der Linde' is actually his mother's maiden name, which he uses because his father was a well-known Vichy Frenchman who emigrated to Belgium after the Second World War. Publicly, he has distanced himself from his father, but he privately believes in his father's cause and believes that undermining NATO will allow him to create a Vichy-esque state, possibly out of the remains of Yugoslavia.

[terminus]

I'd much rather not name the villain until we have a better picture of who he is a bit further down the line, I'm afraid.

[coco1997]

I really like CT's suggestion for the vacation spot. It isn't cliched as Mexico and Hawaii are, and it looks like it would definitely be dynamic on screen.

[Mr. Blofeld]

That picture of the village reminds me a bit of Portmeirion from The Prisoner; perhaps it would be good...

[terminus]

So we're looking at a location line-up of:


Australia
The Azores
London
Manchester/Southampton
New York
Canada (Montreal/Vancouver/Others)
Possible Other Location

[coco1997]

A very nice looking spread of locations.

[terminus]

I also wondered if anyone had any suggestion for our main girl - Tamara - as to who she could be visually modelled upon, much like we have already designated Fassbender as a visual model for our Bond.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Hmmmm... Romola Garai?

[Captain Tightpants]

I'd much rather not name the villain until we have a better picture of who he is a bit further down the line, I'm afraid.

Well, I was thinking we needed a villain. I kind of based him on Max Mosley:



He could have been one of the best politicians Britain had ever seen - but he is the son of Oswald Mosley, the notorious pro-Nazi sympathiser in the 1930s and 1940s, which spelt an end to his political career. He became president of the FIA instead, and was universally hated by fans of Formula 1 by the end of his presidency. Nobody played the political game like Mosley.

I also injected a little bit of Jean-Marie Balestre, the man Mosley replaced:



He was a Vichy Frenchman who always wore a black coat, and introduced a series of rule changes to Formula 1 in the late 1980s and early 1990s that invariably favoured the French drivers.

Even if we don't have a name for the villain, I think combining Mosley and Balestre - certainly their physical appearances - is exactly the kind of person we need for the villain.

Possible Other Location

I think the final location will largely depend on the plot. However, the plot I suggested has the villain trying to create a new nation, and in order to do that, he would have to destroy one or more old ones. A reunification of Yugoslavia (under a new name) could be a possiblity, so I'd have Sarajevo as the final location:

I also wondered if anyone had any suggestion for our main girl - Tamara - as to who she could be visually modelled upon, much like we have already designated Fassbender as a visual model for our Bond.

I was thinking Portia di Rossi:



Minus the lesbianism, of course.

And yes, this is a picture of her as Lindsay Funke in "Arrested Development". It's no accident I chose this picture - I see Tamara as being very similar to Lindsay, albeit a more-serious version: someone who is bored with the trappings of her life as a socialite (in Lindsay's case, it was her marraige), and her attempts to liven it up only demonstrate how shallow it really is.

[coco1997]

Minus the lesbianism, of course.

[Captain Tightpants]

Heh, I remember a guy on the Other Forum who posted his ideal BOND 22 (this was in the days before QUANTUM OF SOLACE was made). It basically involved Sam Worthington as James Bond driving a Holden V8 Maloo ute around Surfers' Paradise with Jennifer Hawkins as a bisexual Bond girl. He never posted much more than that, but her bisexuality was central to the plot, so there were a lot of lesbian scenes in the film.

What's worse, he wasn't trolling, either.

[Harry Fawkes]

A very enjoyable thread guys and one I love coming to. Keep up the good work!

Harry

[terminus]

Hmmmm... Romola Garai?

Out of Garai and di Rossi, I'd lean towards Garai - if I'm being honest - as di Rossi just seems a bit off for the part, imho.

I'd much rather not name the villain until we have a better picture of who he is a bit further down the line, I'm afraid.

Well, I was thinking we needed a villain. I kind of based him on Max Mosley:

Even if we don't have a name for the villain, I think combining Mosley and Balestre - certainly their physical appearances - is exactly the kind of person we need for the villain.

Well, yes - we DO need a villain, but he wasn't on my agenda quite yet (yes, I do have a loose agenda that's constantly evolving for roughly how this should be orchestrated). Keep your ideas in your pocket and we'll get to them in time - that said, I'm not keen on the idea of creating a new nation using Sarajevo as his base-camp. But that's just my opinion - am sure we can figure out something mutually amicable, something equally Bond and something that works.

A very enjoyable thread guys and one I love coming to. Keep up the good work!

Harry

Glad you're enjoying the thread.


I'm going to gather the points today and post them in one post so we've got a summary of what we're working on to refer back to.

[Captain Tightpants]

Out of Garai and di Rossi, I'd lean towards Garai - if I'm being honest - as di Rossi just seems a bit off for the part, imho.

Oh, I'm not saying you should cast di Rossi in the part - just use her apperance.

[terminus]

Oh, I understand that - What I meant was that di Rossi looks a bit too 'wholesome apple pie', whereas there's something a bit more English Rose and imperfect about Garai's looks that I think suits how I envisage the role more.

[terminus]

Here we go - what we have so far, in addition to some of my own extrapolations.


AUSTRALIA - Captain Tightpants' suggestion for the 'PTS'

MANCHESTER - Oliver Derrick, a low level MI6 operative, frequents a 'gay sauna' during Manchester Pride, this is a time when there is a massive influx of people into the city and locals are outnumbered by visitors. This allows Derrick to be murdered in the nightclub, his body paralysed by toxins and undiscovered by staff for several days.

THE AZORES - Following his injury in the bungled Australian operation, Bond is placed on enforced leave and sent to the Azores. He meets a beautiful woman, Tamara Leitman, and indulges in a brief holiday romance before he recieves orders instructing him to report into London ASAP.

LONDON - M, a politically minded bureacrat in his early forties, is the head of the Double-Oh Branch; Miss Moneypenny is the Chief of Staff of the Double-Oh Branch. M has learned of the death of Derrick and wants Bond to work with Paul Beckwith, an MI5 operative, to track down the killer. Bond wants to know WHY it is that M is putting one of his top operatives on what is tantamount to a homicide investigation, which is explained as thus - Derrick made several enquiries about, and information pertaining to, the codeword TEMPEST, after listening to a recording of a phonecall made by a member of parliament, a personal friend of the prime ministers and an aquaintance of M's himself.

This is a favour calculated to increase M's political standing within the establishment.

MANCHESTER - Bond works with Beckwith, who is revealed to be gay, to follow the trail of the murderer through the city and follow him down to ...

SOUTHAMPTON - and onto a cruiseliner. Bond reencounters Tamara on the liner, the villain of the piece is having Bond shadowed and the brief resurrection of Bond and Tamara's relationship causes the villain to think that Bond and Tamara are working together.

NEW YORK - The liner arrives in New York. Tamara may be kidnapped. Bond follows the trail to ...
MONTREAL- At some point in Montreal, the following Action Scene takes place.
VANCOUVER - Bond and Tamara end up in Vancouver where the plot begins to be revealed, leading to:
OTHER LOCATIONS - The truth behind everything being fully unveiled, and the Tempest being seized.

I don't want things in the latter half of the plot to be fleshed out before earlier stuff - but we can start germinating ideas now.

[coco1997]

Looks great!

[Captain Tightpants]

MANCHESTER - Bond works with Beckwith, who is revealed to be gay, to follow the trail of the murderer through the city and follow him down to ...

I'm still not happy with this. I just don't like the idea of the way the guy investigating a death in a gay sauna just so happens to be gay himself.

[007jamesbond]

Do we plan to use Felix Leiter when Bond is in New York?

[Captain Tightpants]

Derrick made several enquiries about, and information pertaining to, the codeword TEMPEST, after listening to a recording of a phonecall made by a member of parliament, a personal friend of the prime ministers and an aquaintance of M's himself.

Okay, what if TEMPEST is not a superweapon, but a plan of the villain's? The villain would be the member of parliament, who was upset by the riots in London and so decided to contact the infamous Colombian paramilitary and sicarii. The notorious paramilitary believe they car carrying out a social mission, eradicating crime in Colombian cities because they do not believe the government in Bogota is capable of doing it themselves. So they go around killing criminals (and their opponents). Officially, the paramilitary have demobilised; unofficially, they still control half a dozen cities in Colombia. The villain has contacted the sicarii and wants to unleash them on the streets of England to clean up undesirable elements.

Alternatively (and similarly), the villain might want to see Charles Manson's "Helter Skelter" scenario play out. Manson claimed there would be an apocalyptic race war; African-American men would rebel when Caucasian women were no longer sexually available to them. They would attack Caucasion communities in retaliation, nd the Caucasians would fight back. In the end, the African-Americans would prevail, but because Manson believed they were too stupid to be able to effectively govern themselves, he and his Family - who had endured the war in a shelter out in the California desert - would rise up and lead a new era of humanity. TEMPEST could be a variation on "Helter Skelter", starting a racial war between Hispanics and African-Americans, with both sides decimating one another and Caucasians using the conflict to take back control of "their" country.

[coco1997]

Alternatively (and similarly), the villain might want to see Charles Manson's "Helter Skelter" scenario play out. Manson claimed there would be an apocalyptic race war; African-American men would rebel when Caucasian women were no longer sexually available to them. They would attack Caucasion communities in retaliation, nd the Caucasians would fight back. In the end, the African-Americans would prevail, but because Manson believed they were too stupid to be able to effectively govern themselves, he and his Family - who had endured the war in a shelter out in the California desert - would rise up and lead a new era of humanity. TEMPEST could be a variation on "Helter Skelter", starting a racial war between Hispanics and African-Americans, with both sides decimating one another and Caucasians using the conflict to take back control of "their" country.

That would definitely be an interesting direction to take; the story would be tackling two sensitive subjects (homosexuality and race relations) at once.

James Bond, social crusader.

[Captain Tightpants]

Well, I was thinking we could have this insane preacher as the villain. Someone who makes Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church look sensible. They're so upset about the state of affairs that they decide to do something about it, and so start up TEMPEST - a reimaginging of "Helter Skelter" designed to exorcise all of the "undesirable elements" (homosexuals, immigrants, Jews, etc.) from the country by starting up a gang war. They could be based in the UK or the USA; it doesn't matter which. TEMPEST could apply to either. And when the dust settles, he will lead the country back down the path it was "supposed" to follow. He's an ardent believer in something similar to sharia law, where the Qu'ran is interpreted as the laws by which society will be governed (except in the case of TEMPEST, it's the Bible, not the Qu'ran, that is held up as the law). This is a minor point of controversy in Australia at the moment, because there have been a spate of attacks by Muslims that have been "in accordance" with sharia law. There's even one crackpot - I'm sorry, but there is no other word for it - who is demanding that Australia (and all her citizens) be held to account under sharia instead of the existing legal system. The idea here is to pit Bond up against a villain who is completely unhinged and whose plan is so insane that it is absolutely impossible, but in which he nevertheless believes in.

As a possible subplot, we could have two FBI agents (or the UK equivalent) escorting a prisoner back to the scene where he dumped the body after the crime he was incarcerated for. In the process, they find the site is now a massive marijuana plantation, which the villain is using to fund his operations ("This country is so determined to go to hell that I have no problem in helping them get there a little faster.").

[coco1997]

The more I think about it, the more I really like the idea. Having a villain who holds hatred towards anyone outside what he perceives as being "God's people" ties in perfectly with the murdered gay agent in the beginning of the story.