36 replies to this topic

[DamnCoffee]

Not film remakes, good gracious, no. I love the direction Bond is going in lately, Skyfall has been coined as the best Bond Fleming never wrote. Bonds psyche is a key part of the entire process of Craigs' Bond, and dare I say, will continue to be a necessity of the character, after Craig has hung up his PPK. Honestly though, would anyone actually be dead against faithful novel adaptations? There's SO much from the books that never made it to the screen. The more I think about it, the more I wouldn't mind modern remakes of Bonds past adventures. For example, completely reinvent the Bond villains from the novels, keep the names. Yes, even Goldfinger, Largo, Blofeld etc, and bring them into the modern age, but change the film titles. For example...

 

The Undertakers Wind (remake of the LALD Novel) 

Shatterhand (remake of YOLT novel)

 

etc etc

 

It's no secret that over the past 50 years, the producers have stuck very loosely to source material. Bar a few exceptions (Majesty's, Casino Royale etc) It would be lovely to see some lovely close Fleming book adaptations in the future. This is a new Bond, for a new age. The first 40 years of James Bond, was fun, outlandish and on rare occasion, serious. Since Casino Royale rebooted the series, there's really nothing to stop the producers actually digging back into the past and bringing a modern take on Ian Flemings masterpieces. Obviously, the plots would have to be reworked into a modern setting (Although, if they decide to bring Bond back into the 50's with Fassbender and Nolan, I wouldn't have a problem with it), but there's no denying that bringing Flemings Bond to the screen faithfully, would be a dream come true. 

[L4YRCAKE]

 I completely agree with this.  Keeping the names of the majority of the villains while changing the names of the films as you suggested would be potentially a stroke of genius.  Particularly I think YOLT needs to be faithfully brought to the big screen.  Blofeld and even SPECTRE feel like a must to me, although I wouldn't be surprised if they kept the name of Quantum.  Then again the ending of QoS did have kind of a vague feeling of just who Greene really was working for and whether Quantum really was his business and not necessarily the top of the chain.  

 

I think the real trick though, is pulling off bringing back some of the most iconic villains.  There's painful amounts of material from the books that's been unused and it's just a real tragedy, and I'd love to see a reincarnation of Dr. No, but resurrecting Goldfinger for a modern era seems just... daunting.  Passing references to these characters before they show up in later films would be really exciting, especially if they did kind of a global map with pinpoints of where Dr. No is located, Mr. Big, Goldfinger, Largo, etc., all at the same time but with the knowledge that the big fish that connects all the dots is the real prize, with Bond ultimately in pursuit of that goal of bringing down the head of SPECTRE.  Modern interpretations of Scaramanga and Red Grant would be incredible too.  Reintroducing Q, Moneypenny, and Ralph Fiennes as a modern Bernard Lee type would seem to harken that this could even potentially be the trend in some form or another.  

[007jamesbond]

Elements of live and lie die, moonraker, you only live twice, and The man with the golden globe could be remake and merge into one or two film..........not directly a remake but the main concept is used......like the moonraker could finally have the blade card scene. 

[seawolfnyy]

YOLT, Moonraker and to a lesser extent Diamonds Are Forever, are the 3 Fleming novels that really don't have much in the way of an adaptation (obviously I'm not counting TSWLM). Moonraker could very easily be adapted to today's world without going into the realm of ridiculous (I'm looking at you Lee Tamahori). Gala Brand still needs to make her big screen debut and the Spang brothers should make it into a film at some point. The Castle of Death is a must and would be an excellent finale for the Craig era. I also wouldn't mind seeing a brainwashed Bond attempt to execute M at some point. That actually could've happened in Skyfall I think....

[thecasinoroyale]

 

I'd be happy for this - there will be a time when EON will start to run dry for a period with their stories, and so going to Fleming is never a bad thing, either for a plot, a character or whatever. After all, he IS the Daddy of James Bond so we can't really say no to taking anything from the novels as this is where he came from, and I feel the movie character is more like Fleming's literature creation than we've seen for many years.

[Walecs]

I said this so many times, and I'll never be bothered to repeat it: I really want next Bond movies to be faithful adaptions of the remaining novels.

There's plenty of source material to work on: the whole Live & Let Die movie (including Felix, now that we've got a new one, bitten by the sharks); the blades cards scene from Moonraker, From A View To A Kill and A Hildebrand Rarity short stories, the whole You Only Live Twice, something from Diamonds Are Forever and from The Man With The Golden Gun.
As I said before, I also would like to see the final chapters of The Spy Who Loved Me adapted as, I dunno, half an hour of the movie. Just the Bond part, I mean.

 

Anyway, if I had to choose just one of them, that would be YOLT. I loved the novel so much, and I felt very disappointed watching the movie. I wonder though if that makes necessary to show Bond getting married again, or simply show the second half of the novel (including Bond's amnesia).

 

As someone suggested, Bond 24 could be about Craig finding out Quantum's real head, Blofeld or whoever, then in Bond 25 he looks for him, and the end of Bond 25 would be also You Only Live Twice ending. Then the movie ends (keeping Blofeld alive in case EON wanted to reuse it again, but I could see him die at the end of Bond25), with Bond losing his memory, until Bond 26 which opens with the new Bond actor who comes back to MI6 after the amnesia.

[Vauxhall]

I've always been in favour of the idea of a faithful adaptation of the You Only Live Twice novel, but I'm pretty sure that won't be happening any time soon. I imagine John Logan will be working on original stories for his screenplays, but it's still good to know that there are some Fleming elements left in the cupboard.

[Baccarat]

Some interesting ideas here, but personally I have no interest in remakes. The bulk of the Bond "source material" has been utilized - for better or worse depending on the particular script. I enjoy the Fleming books as much as anyone, but I just don't see any merit in poring over them in the hope that a great film still lurks within. I think SF is the perfect example of how an original script can lead to a stunning Bond film. 

Edited by Baccarat, 05 February 2013 - 11:09 PM.

[tdalton]

I'm on the fence.  The franchise doesn't have a particularly good history when it comes to reusing (and in some cases, almost flat-out remaking previous Bond films) ideas and plot devices from earlier films, so I'm not sure that there's any reason to expect them to do better with that in the future.  I wouldn't mind seeing YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE done at some point, but I think we're at lest several films away from that being possible from a narrative standpoint.

[QOS4EVER]

I'm on the fence.  The franchise doesn't have a particularly good history when it comes to reusing (and in some cases, almost flat-out remaking previous Bond films) ideas and plot devices from earlier films, so I'm not sure that there's any reason to expect them to do better with that in the future.  I wouldn't mind seeing YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE done at some point, but I think we're at lest several films away from that being possible from a narrative standpoint.

+1

[Grard Bond]

I agree, YOLT is probably with Moonraker the only Bondmovie which I can imagine it's interesting enough for a remake, because both movies are so different from the novels, you can almost make a completely different movie out of it. And the fact remains: those novels are very, very well written and you can realy turn it in a splendid movie.

 

I can't see any reason to remake Dr. No, FRWL, Goldfinger, Thunderball, OHMSS, that are already terrific interpertations of those Fleming books. So why remake them?

 

The books of DAF and Golden Gun are -in my opion- not good enough to make interesting movies from, unless you're going to re-write them, well they already did this...

Spy they can't and aren't allowed to use.

LALD:they already used the most interesting bits for the movie and other Bond movies....

[SecretAgentFan]

IMO, using actual characters from previous films/novels would be very jarring. It only worked for the core personage because it was more or less a re-casting or re-establishing ("M", "Moneypenny", "Q").

 

But to have Bond go against Goldfinger or Mr. Big again... 

 

Very difficult. 

 

I guess it would only have worked if they had begun to do it right after CASINO ROYALE, following the order of Fleming´s books, thereby really establishing the new time line. 

 

Then again, I believe there is a reason why the films did not / could not follow the books too faithfully since the films would not have worked so well for a mass audience. And if they had tried to do faithful remakes now they would have fallen into the same trap, adding new stuff, losing scenes and so on.

 

So, I would hope for the next films to use those moments from the books that have not been adapted yet and stay true to the books´ spirit when making up new plotlines. Just as they did it before.

 

I still wouldn´t mind, though, if Craig´s tenure will end with a loose remake of OHMSS. It would bring closure to Craig´s Bond falling in love with Vesper, losing her and his faith in love, then falling in love again at the end - only losing it again.

 

Craig´s successor would be able to start fresh then as a Bond who could mourn Tracy but go on as the womanizer we know.

Edited by SecretAgentFan, 06 February 2013 - 04:19 PM.

[tdalton]

As much as I'd like to see it, EON will never adapt YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.  They might throw the Garden of Death into a film, but they'll take it completely out of context when/if they ever get around to it. 

 

Adapting YOLT would be at least a 4 year commitment for EON, as they'd have to set it up with introducing Tracy and certain plot points from OHMSS in order for it to work, and I can't see EON doing that for two films that would ultimately be seen as remakes by the fan community.  Also, any adaptation of YOLT would certainly take the form of the CR adaptation, which would be to load it up with action, probably to the point that the film would sacrifice certain points of character development for the sake of more action.

[thecasinoroyale]

I'm going to appear daft now tdalton, but I've never joined the dots when people say some Bond films are disguised remakes of earlier ones - can you give an example as I never have thought about this but it's an interesting note!

[SecretAgentFan]

Well, LTK is using big chunks of the LALD-novel, for example.

[tdalton]

I'm going to appear daft now tdalton, but I've never joined the dots when people say some Bond films are disguised remakes of earlier ones - can you give an example as I never have thought about this but it's an interesting note!

 

YOLT and TSWLM both use the main plot of the villain capturing vessels from opposing nations (US and Soviet spacecraft in YOLT; British and Soviet submarines in TSWLM) in order to try start the next big war.  Even the methods for capturing the vessels are similar, with the spacecraft being "swallowed" by a larger spacecraft and the submarines are being "swallowed" by a much larger ship.

 

TND uses a similar concept as YOLT and TSWLM, in that the villain is trying to actively trick two world superpowers into starting WWIII, but it doesn't involve the actual capture of any vessels.

[coco1997]

AVTAK is also a similarly disguised remake of GF, thecasinoroyale.

[Iceskater101]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

No remakes of anything that has already been done. I am so against this idea you have no idea. I mean it's already been done! It wouldn't be creative to remake things that already happened it's weird to me. I look at all the films as adventures that Bond has undertaken. Remaking a specific villain that already got killed off is completely absurd to me. I think they need to create a new villain or a villain in the books that hasn't been done before and then have that villain appear in multiple movies. I think that's a good idea.

[007jamesbond]

Unforunately moonraker has been done three times.......Diamond are forever, GoldenEye and Die another Day........no chance that a faithful adaption will be done at all.......Live and Let die has been done in LTK only certain elements of YOLT and TMWTGG has not been done yet......

 

I blame the producer to turn classic books into parody movie..........sad that moonranker and Live and Let die was far far away from the novel beside the villain name and title.........what a waste.........WHY WHY WHY did they stopped faithful adaption 

[tdalton]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

No remakes of anything that has already been done. I am so against this idea you have no idea. I mean it's already been done! It wouldn't be creative to remake things that already happened it's weird to me. I look at all the films as adventures that Bond has undertaken. Remaking a specific villain that already got killed off is completely absurd to me. I think they need to create a new villain or a villain in the books that hasn't been done before and then have that villain appear in multiple movies. I think that's a good idea.

 

Agreed for the most part.  I think the only way that I'd really support EON doing a remake would be for them to remake OHMSS in order to faithfully adapt YOLT.  Even then, though, I shudder to think what they'd do to both of those novels were we to ever seem them adapted again for the big screen.

[AgenttiNollaNollaSeitsemän]

Remakes? No thank you. Adapting whatever Fleming bits there are into new stories? Yes please, if it's done well.

[L4YRCAKE]

Nice to see so much mention of YOLT.  I want my Garden Of Death, it's way way way overdue!!!  

 

A truly 'faithful adaptation' of the novels would ultimately have to be set in the time period in which they were written, which I think would work better as an HBO miniseries with Michael Fassbender or whatever (although I don't get everyone's fascination with him as Bond, great actor et al., but...??)  where they stick together, say, four of Fleming's books and put them in order, and keep things as realistic as possible.  

 

On the other hand I have a hard time imagining, right or wrong, the producers not thinking that on the big screen a bunch of, say, dial phones and no Ipads etc. would alienate certain key demographics, so the idea of period Bonds for a broad audience seems just too far fetched to ever come about.  I can definitely see them taking the model of Casino Royale and taking a very simple story, retaining the core ideas, and embroidering it with modern technology and scope, just like CR, and not trying to remake the old films, although not thinking visually of Gert Frobe as Goldfinger is a stretch.  Rebuilding the stories from the ground up, it'd be great, plus like DamnCoffee said, change the title and nobody gets confused that there's any movie recycling going on.  

 

And I thought CR did an incredible job at keeping the core human emotions and truth at its center while dressing it up with action and set pieces, it never once lost the human story at the heart of the thing.   Everybody wins with more movies like that one.

[Thevan7F]

@Damncoffe, I be careful. I seen in another James Bond web, Mi6. When somebody did a post similar to this all had oppose to the remake of James Bond movies. I agree with them. Remember Thunderball remake The 1983 Never Say Never Again which rival Octopussy. Sean Connery was the star of them both while Roger Moore was current Bond at that time. Well only 1 condition leave it Remake to Eon Productions from now on it their gig. Even the any James Bond novels which never was used by John Gardner or Ray Benson who wrote in the past. Put this way left James Bond films of all kinds to Eon. Don't forget the Parent Trap reboot was done by Disney Production who also did the original with Haley Mills. I take it you wouldn't want the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was another Ian Fleming novel to be remade do you. I'll agree because Dick Van Dyke (Diagnose murder) done so well I would know who play great as him?

                  

[Jim]

@Damncoffe, I be careful. I seen in another James Bond web, Mi6. When somebody did a post similar to this all had oppose to the remake of James Bond movies. I agree with them. Remember Thunderball remake The 1983 Never Say Never Again which rival Octopussy. Sean Connery was the star of them both while Roger Moore was current Bond at that time. Well only 1 condition leave it Remake to Eon Productions from now on it their gig. Even the any James Bond novels which never was used by John Gardner or Ray Benson who wrote in the past. Put this way left James Bond films of all kinds to Eon. Don't forget the Parent Trap reboot was done by Disney Production who also did the original with Haley Mills. I take it you wouldn't want the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was another Ian Fleming novel to be remade do you. I'll agree because Dick Van Dyke (Diagnose murder) done so well I would know who play great as him?

                  

Well, obviously.

[plankattack]

@Damncoffe, I be careful. I seen in another James Bond web, Mi6. When somebody did a post similar to this all had oppose to the remake of James Bond movies. I agree with them. Remember Thunderball remake The 1983 Never Say Never Again which rival Octopussy. Sean Connery was the star of them both while Roger Moore was current Bond at that time. Well only 1 condition leave it Remake to Eon Productions from now on it their gig. Even the any James Bond novels which never was used by John Gardner or Ray Benson who wrote in the past. Put this way left James Bond films of all kinds to Eon. Don't forget the Parent Trap reboot was done by Disney Production who also did the original with Haley Mills. I take it you wouldn't want the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was another Ian Fleming novel to be remade do you. I'll agree because Dick Van Dyke (Diagnose murder) done so well I would know who play great as him?

                  

Well, obviously.

Quite.

 

In the words of the great Tony Hancock in The Radio Donor "Not, it is are not raining here also.".....

[DamnCoffee]

@Damncoffe, I be careful. I seen in another James Bond web, Mi6. When somebody did a post similar to this all had oppose to the remake of James Bond movies. I agree with them. Remember Thunderball remake The 1983 Never Say Never Again which rival Octopussy. Sean Connery was the star of them both while Roger Moore was current Bond at that time. Well only 1 condition leave it Remake to Eon Productions from now on it their gig. Even the any James Bond novels which never was used by John Gardner or Ray Benson who wrote in the past. Put this way left James Bond films of all kinds to Eon. Don't forget the Parent Trap reboot was done by Disney Production who also did the original with Haley Mills. I take it you wouldn't want the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was another Ian Fleming novel to be remade do you. I'll agree because Dick Van Dyke (Diagnose murder) done so well I would know who play great as him?

                  

 

....

[PPK_19]

@Damncoffe, I be careful. I seen in another James Bond web, Mi6. When somebody did a post similar to this all had oppose to the remake of James Bond movies. I agree with them. Remember Thunderball remake The 1983 Never Say Never Again which rival Octopussy. Sean Connery was the star of them both while Roger Moore was current Bond at that time. Well only 1 condition leave it Remake to Eon Productions from now on it their gig. Even the any James Bond novels which never was used by John Gardner or Ray Benson who wrote in the past. Put this way left James Bond films of all kinds to Eon. Don't forget the Parent Trap reboot was done by Disney Production who also did the original with Haley Mills. I take it you wouldn't want the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was another Ian Fleming novel to be remade do you. I'll agree because Dick Van Dyke (Diagnose murder) done so well I would know who play great as him?

                  

 

Who is, your floor?

[S K Y F A L L]

Define faithful adaption. Is it a period piece, narrated so we can understand what characters or thinking etc. I guess I would be against it, what would be the point of it now. I wouldn't mind if the next time we have to wait 4 years for another Bond film if they did a tv mini series of all the novels. But who would play Bond? I can't imagine the producers doing anything unless it makes millions a billion of dollars.

[Vauxhall]

Ian Fleming wrote THE PARENT TRAP?!

[Double-0-Seven]

Remakes? No thank you. Adapting whatever Fleming bits there are into new stories? Yes please, if it's done well.

 

That's my philosophy on it. Re-adapt, not remake.

 

I never want to see another Bond film released with the same title as one previous, but I'm all for redoing the novels faithfully and/or simply using as many unused elements as makes sense.