26 replies to this topic

[tdalton]

Over the past couple of years, coco1997 and myself have been working on a series of treatments for Bond films that are essentially reimaginations of classic Bond films.  A couple of times I've tried to bring these stories out in the fanfiction section as longer-form prose, but both coco1997 and I agree that these stories work best as film treatments, and we've decided to release these treatments as a series here on CBn.  

 

The premise of these treatments is that they are an offshoot of the Ultimate Bond fanfiction game that terminus ran here a few years ago.  Basically, we've taken the basic plots of several Bond films and their literary counterparts, cast them with modern day actors in the roles, and crafted new stories and situations around them.  The first series (there are two series of treatments) serves as a sequel to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Bond being broken down and on the ropes emotionally.  

 

The first treatment will be released, in its entirety, tomorrow right here on CBn, with others to follow in a timely manner:

 

 

The Death Collector finds James Bond as a broken man in the wake of the murder of his wife, Tracy.  He's tasked with what he believes to be a mundane assignment, the dismantling of a diamond-smuggling operation, as opposed to going after the elusive man known only as "The Death Collector".  When Bond finds that the two cases intertwine, he sets out to prove his worth, both to M and himself, as he works towards disrupting the criminal enterprise.  

 

The story takes Bond all over the globe, including Italy, Australia, South Africa, Las Vegas, and the Pacific islands, and finds Bond meeting up with characters like Tiffany Case and the duo of Bambi and Thumper.  

 

CAST

 

Daniel Craig....................James Bond

Amy Adams.....................Tiffany Case

Sam Rockwell..................Jack Spang

Michael Stuhlbarg............Seraffimo Spang

Katee Sackhoff.................Bambi

Zoe Saldana.....................Thumper

Hilary Swank.....................Irma Bunt

Judi Dench........................M

Anna Friel.........................Jane Moneypenny

Danielle Colby Cushman..Shady Tree

Mickey Rourke..................Shatterhand

Al Pacino...........................Marc Ange Draco

Jeffrey Wright....................Felix Leiter

Ciaran Hinds.....................Man on Beach

 

 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Story by coco1997 & tdalton

Based on the EON Films and Ian Fleming novels You Only Live Twice and Diamonds are Forever

 

Title Song: "I'm So Afraid" by Lindsey Buckingham with Fleetwood Mac

https://www.youtube....tLxsqSic#t=1m5s

[tdalton]

The treatment for "The Death Collector" has been posted in its entirety.

[tdalton]

"Doppelganger", the second treatment in the series and the follow-up to "The Death Collector", will be released early this week.

 

 

Following the events of The Death Collector, James Bond returns to London with a dark secret and facing a changed political landscape.  With the continual employment of Bond seen as, at best, problematic, M sends him on what she considers a suicide mission, to take down the mysterious assassin Scaramanga.  With his new protege, Mary Goodnight, in tow, Bond sets off after the hitman with everything on the line.  Meanwhile, a sinister new organization seeks to establish itself as a major player on the world stage, rising from the ashes of SPECTRE.

 

Cast

 

Daniel Craig.....................James Bond

Yvonne Strahovski...........Mary Goodnight

Rodrigo Santoro..............Scaramanga

Rosario Dawson..............Andrea Anders

Gael Garcia Bernal.........Julio Valdez

Andy Lau........................Lieutenant Fat

Dianna Agron.................Simone Latrelle

Kelly MacDonald.............Raven

Cillian Murphy.................Gettler

Tom Hardy.......................Nathan Harris

Jeffrey Wright..................Felix Leiter

Benedict Cumberbatch....Dr. James Moloney

Anna Friel........................Jane Moneypenny

Ralph Fiennes.................Gareth Mallory

Steve Buscemi.................Mr. Sanguinetti

and Judi Dench................M

 

Story by coco1997 & tdalton

Based on The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming and EON Productions

Title Song by Ellie Goulding

Edited by tdalton, 25 February 2015 - 12:44 AM.

[seawolfnyy]

An enjoyable read, I must say. I remember reading the first part of The Death Collector when it was posted online a few years ago and wondered why the rest never got posted. I enjoyed the combination of the novel and film versions of DAF, especially the inclusion of the mud baths (which of one my favorite sequences from the novels). The Spang brothers were used effectively as well, a shame we'll probably never see them on the screen. That said, Shatterhand was woefully underused. I liked the usage of the Castle of Death and the finale was great, but ultimately unsatisfying as the Spangs were given the brunt of the attention ans Shatterhand is essentially this story's Severine. Also, I was not terribly thrilled with the casting. Katee Sackoff in a Bond movie? Also, Zoe Saldana is far too big an actress to play a henchwoman, although she'd make a terrific Tiffany Case. An unrelated story problem is that in a script treatment you can only include what can be seen on screen. This means thoughts and internal emotions cannot be included u less they can be visualized. A minor gripe, but it is unfortunately immersion breaking and something that should be addressed for future installments. Overall though, it was an enjoyable read and a nice modern day parallel to the Skyfall adaptation that coco and I created. I'm looking forward to the next one.

[tdalton]

Thanks for taking the time to read the treatment and for your feedback.

 

I think I've addressed the immersion issue with Doppelgänger.  Maybe not 100% addressed, but it should read better.  It'll be released either tonight or tomorrow, depending on when I get the OK from coco1997 regarding some changes made to the work during the revision process.

 

Mainly what we were going for with Shatterhand was just to use him as a means for Bond to have a goal to work towards, almost (but not quite) like a McGuffin.  I had toyed with the idea of having Shatterhand in Japan and having Bond have to navigate the Aokigahara forest to get to it, but given the real life nature of that location I thought it might be bordering on disrespectful to Japan and the people who venture into those forests, especially for something as trivial as a piece of fanfiction, so that idea was scrapped pretty early on in the planning process a couple of years back.

[tdalton]

"Doppelgänger" has been posted.

[chrisno1]

nice to finally see these, guys.

well done.

[tdalton]

Thanks.

[tdalton]

[deleted]

[chrisno1]

The Death Collector:

My thoughts.

 

 

 

This interesting piece is essentially a rerun of Diamonds are Forever, but with a twist called CHAOS administered by a man called Shatterhand.

 

I wasn’t entirely convinced that the two storylines work together. The introduction to the movie, set around Tracy’s funeral and Bond seeking Irma Bunt seems to bear no relevance to the story arc at all. That Bond finds the murderess but cannot exact revenge is fortuitous (for her) and frustrating (for us). Bond also makes it to and from Australia in very rapid time. This whole section appears irrelevant other than to fuel the will they / won’t they aspect of his relationship with Tiffany Case. Indeed it was the interplay between these two characters which felt most successful, with both sharing a damaged past preventing them becoming emotionally complete. In a novel, a writer would attach more significance to this. In this screenplay format, I think the authors give it just about enough time to evolve without distracting from the major focus of the action, the diamond smuggling caper.

 

This central section is often exciting, but feels long winded and quite repetitive: all those card games and knocking people out for no discernable reason. It also features several climatic scenes, none of which is the climax: the duel at Spectreville, the battle on Lake Mead, the salt mine fight. Nonetheless the Las Vegas stuff feels very glam and glitzy, despite Bond’s ruthless violent streak, and the weirdness of the Spangs and their henchmen Bambi & Thumper fits well into that strange all-night-time world. The bizarre killings, locations and weapons were fun and visually appealing.

 

However the extended coda reads like an extract from a totally different movie. While the inclusion of an ‘island of death’ and a version of Fleming’s Doctor Shatterhand was an interesting idea, like the intro it felt both underused and out of place. It’s darkly serious, slightly ethereal and ends on a cliffhanger which leaves the story unresolved. I didn’t feel this ending worked at all. In isolation it is a solid piece of action, but the character of Shatterhand is a mystery to the audience; we have no connection with him. In fact we've all but forgotten him while OO7 foils the Spang’s elaborate smuggling operation. There is a fleeting mention of some overseer group called CHAOS, but at the moment this cartel hardly seems relevant.

 

I think there’s a big oversight here. The writers have sidelined what the movie appeared to be about: Bond’s rehabilitation through assassination and / or revenge. That was obvious from his pursuit of Irma Bunt and his drunken soul searching. To promptly cast it aside only to reintroduce it seems convenient only for lateral plot development [I assume the plot line continues into the next movie] and not for the overall impact of this piece.

 

The Death Collector is good, but the title refers to the episodes which bookend the movie, not the main action and I’m afraid that’s a major stumbling block for me.

Edited by chrisno1, 11 March 2015 - 12:28 PM.

[tdalton]

Thanks for taking the time to read and review. 

[tdalton]

Sorry for the delay.  I had an issue with the Word file for this story that necessitated recreating quite a bit of it from memory, which took longer than expected. 

 

The third installment in the series, "Five Minutes to Armageddon: Part 1" will be posted sometime on Monday, March 16.

 

 

Following the events of "Doppelganger", an investigation headed by the PM resulted in the "mutual" parting of ways between MI6 and James Bond.  In his absence, Mary Goodnight (aka Agent 008) has emerged as the new elite agent in M's arsenal.  When CHAOS turns to disgraced US General John Rainer to further its goals, the world is pushed to the brink of World War III.  Goodnight is tasked with finding the truth behind CHAOS and Rainer's plans and to put a stop to them.  Loytalties are tested, however, when James Bond emerges from exile and finds himself squarely in the middle of Rainer's plot.

 

"Five Minutes to Armageddon" is a two-part adventure.  Part 1 will be released shortly and Part 2 will follow in the course of the next week. 

 

CAST

Daniel Craig.........................James Bond

Yvonne Strahovski...............Mary Goodnight

Sylvester Stallone................John Rainer

Jessica Pare........................Vivienne Michel

Michael Shannon.................Horror

Tom Hardy............................Nathan Harris

Steve Buscemi.....................Mr. Sanguinetti

Jim Sturgess........................Alex Sandor

Ben Foster...........................Derek Mallaby

Olivia Wilde.........................Naomi

Ralph Fiennes.....................M

Anna Friel............................Jane Moneypenny

Raza Jaffrey.........................Sanu Hirani

 

Based on the EON film and Ian Fleming novel The Spy Who Loved Me

Also features concepts and characters by Anthony Burgess and Jeffrey Deaver

Story by coco1997 & tdalton

Title song performed by Aspen Vincent

Edited by tdalton, 16 March 2015 - 01:28 AM.

[tdalton]

"Five Minutes to Armageddon: Part 1" has been posted.

[tdalton]

Part 4 of the series, "Five Minutes to Armageddon: Part 2" will make its way to CBn within the next week.  
 

Picking up where Part 1 leaves off, Part 2 sees CHAOS and General John Rainer raising the stakes as the world finds itself in the midst of World War III.  Now back in the fold, Part 2 finds James Bond on the trail of General Rainer as he seeks to unleash a series of new horrors on the West.  He must also stay one step ahead of an old flame, a metal-jawed assassin, and and specters from the past who all want Bond dead.
 
CAST
Daniel Craig.........................James Bond
Yvonne Strahovski...............Mary Goodnight
Sylvester Stallone................General John Rainer
Michael Shannon.................Horror
Alexa Davalos......................Anya Amasova
Steve Buscemi.....................Mr. Sanguinetti
Jim Sturgess........................Alex Sandor
Olivia Wilde..........................Naomi
Ralph Fiennes......................M
Anna Friel............................Jane Moneypenny
Raza Jaffrey........................Sanu Hirani
Ciaran Hinds.......................?
 
Based on the EON film and Ian Fleming novel The Spy Who Loved Me
Also features concepts and characters by Anthony Burgess and Jeffrey Deaver
Story by coco1997 & tdalton
Title song performed by Joss Stone

[chrisno1]

Doppleganger

My Thoughts

 

Doppleganger is an interesting piece of work. Continuing more or less from The Death Collector this is a vivid re-imagining of The Man with the Golden Gun and features several of the high points of that novel while embellishing its narrative with other polished moments of tension.

 

There are two storylines at work here: Bond’s mission to assassinate Scaramanga and some skulduggery involving CHAOS in the Middle East. As before, I was not entirely convinced this format works. The tales do not appear to be intrinsically linked. CHAOS is brought into the action early – during what might be an excessively long pre-credit sequence – and crop up several times in the narrative without ever being the formal enemy. There is a confusing ‘test’ which Bond undertakes for them that takes him and the chief antagonist Paco Scaramanga all the way to Qatar. This sequence seemed highly unnecessary. It was clearly meant to mirror Fleming’s dramatic test for his hero, where Bond shoots a pineapple hat off a stripper’s elaborate outfit, but seems pointless as Bond doesn’t display his prowess – he fails! Why would Scaramanga retain his services if he hesitates in the kill? While the CHAOS angle is obviously here for the long haul, the Middle East scenes feel shoe-horned into the story rather than an intrinsic part of it and I don’t think that helps its telling.

 

What is good, are the precredit sequence and the finale. Both these scenes replicate the best of Fleming’s novel and are strung with suspense and intrigue. They are visually strong and would not look out of place in the regular cinematic world of 007. There is also a neat device employed in the middle of the screenplay where the Head of MI6 chooses to effectively sign Bond’s death warrant. Hinted at earlier on, this shows a ruthless streak unusual in most interpretations of M. The idea she would collude with the enemy hits very hard; keep your friends close and your enemies closer never sounded so true.

 

The screen synopsis is quite long. Several pages are taken up with Bond’s fledgling relationship with Mary Goodnight and I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading stage directions and that what took several minutes to read would pass in seconds on the screen. Overall I wasn’t convinced by their relationship. It seemed too convenient for them to be thrust together by Tanner under the nose of his boss. Surely M should have sent Goodnight to kill 007 and thus earn her Double-O? Her failure would then elicit the call to Paco Scaramanga.

 

I liked the villain. He seemed very real. His homosexuality was a lovely unexpected bonus that was dealt with in a far more mature way that Skyfall’s double entendre fest.

 

A quick note on time. M mentions 006 was killed in Miami, Bond spends a month or so recuperating in the Falklands; then during his briefing we’re told 006 was killed yesterday. While it’s a trivial point (and I’m sure it’s an oversight) this kind of error can be a bit glaring. I’ve made a few myself in Fan Fiction and it makes one feel a bit dumb. A good copy reader would point it out.

 

Overall Doppleganger was a neat, if long, screen synopsis that ticked the right boxes most of the time. If it was occasionally too long winded, this is only in the telling and not in the show, as it were. There were strong characters and some excellently crafted scenes. It bodes well for the next instalment where I rather hope to see more chaos with CHAOS…

 

[tdalton]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Honestly, the idea of having Goodnight sent along with Bond in order to put him down hadn't occurred to me, but it would have made a decent subplot.  I do think, however, that between that specific plot device and wanting CHAOS to be involved in more chaos you'll find something closer to what you're looking for in the next installment.

[chrisno1]

Five Minutes to Armageddon

My Thoughts

 

I’m honestly not sure about this one. Of course part of my objection is likely to be based on the premise that any film which knowingly divides its story into two parts will result in two movies of lesser artistic merit (e.g. Harry Potter, Kill Bill), but there is another concern: James Bond doesn’t seem to feature very much. Five Minutes to Armageddon is the Mary Goodnight show and she’s become rather a nasty piece of work which would be fine if she was the lead character and we could share her thoughts and emotions, but she isn’t and she comes across as vindictive, short-sighted and single minded to the point of crazed obsessiveness. Indeed it's interesting that the author’s choose to cliff hang their movie with Goodnight being menaced by Horror, a man equally obsessed with revenge.

 

Let’s try to put that gripe aside and concentrate on the good stuff. I enjoyed the way Fleming’s original framework for The Spy Who Loved Me has not been discarded. It’s almost a movie within a movie and I wondered if the swiftness of the Dreamy Pines scenes might have been too prudent. Linking the characters of Vivienne Michel, Horror, Rainer and Bond together was very well constructed. It also linked well with the CHAOS story and while I felt those sections seemed over populated it was nice to at last get at the root of this organisation. The head of operations appears to be Sanguinetti and his sort of floating fortress hangout has all the hallmarks of a classic Bondian villain’s bolthole. The idea of this pan-nation organisation trawling the world looking for oil, energy, money, reaping what has been sown like a plague of locusts was very contemporary.

 

I think there would be opportunities in the movie to develop relationships, character, motive and plot. At several points we’re told the cast ‘have a long discussion’ [or similar] and I can only assume this would open out the dialogue into a more reflective, provocative strain than the current examples.

 

Generally I enjoyed the synopsis. It feels quite short, which makes me wonder if some judicious editing might have been more productive than dividing a longer structure into two, but several times the story packs an unexpected punch. I enjoyed the section where Bond discovers the aftermath of Goodnight’s abduction and finds her phone in an air duct. I could visualise it perfectly and an expressive actor playing Bond would be able to emote his thoughts here [Dalton for me…]. I rather wished the outcome of the scene had more significance as it would show Bond doing some old fashioned spying rather than jetting the globe to interrogate a familiar line-up of suspects.

 

By the end of the story however, Bond is side-lined again and we are with Goodnight, whose passion and drive is beginning to look rather psychotic, watching her next kill. This is quite a bleak tale with a cast of angry, bitter people. Nothing good is going come of it for anyone – I can feel it already.

 

Roll on Part Two.

 

 

[tdalton]

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

The decision to break it into two parts came from looking at just how long the original draft was way back when and finding that it would probably benefit the reader to break it up into two.  I can't remember how many pages it was, but it was significantly longer than any of the other treatments, save for perhaps "A Whisper of Hate", which follows "Part 2".  We then ran into the problem of several pages from the second part being lost due to, I guess, a computer glitch or crash, as the only copy of the original treatment that remained after a while only had a 3-page Part 2.  So now, we're trying to rebuild Part 2, which is what is taking so long getting the next one posted.

 

As for Goodnight, I think the aim was to try to show what would happen if someone who was a very capable agent, but maybe didn't possess the necessary compartmentalization skills, was given a licence to kill and put on an equal footing with Bond.  It might have been a good idea, as you said, to maybe make her the star of Part 1 and then re-introduce Bond gradually as things went. 

 

But, as far as Bond being sidelined again by the end, there's a bit of a time-jump to start Part 2.  Not a big one, but enough to put the events of that story squarely within the military conflict rather than on the fringes of its beginning.  When we rejoin the story in "Part 2", Bond won't be sidelined.  He's the star of the piece as things head towards their conclusion.  There might be a few familiar faces that weren't in Part 1 popping up again as the series heads towards its conclusion in "A Whisper of Hate" as well.

[chrisno1]

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

 

As for Goodnight, I think the aim was to try to show what would happen if someone who was a very capable agent, but maybe didn't possess the necessary compartmentalization skills, was given a licence to kill and put on an equal footing with Bond.  It might have been a good idea, as you said, to maybe make her the star of Part 1 and then re-introduce Bond gradually as things went. 

 

 

No problem. I know it doesn't sometimes read like it but I am enjoying your updates. They show how much you can do with a modern take on OO7 and I guess this is what Eon plans with SPECTRE. They already did a fairly good update 10 years back on Casino Royale, so here's hoping, right?

 

Regards Goodnight: I'd never considered that. That's the sort of character analysis which a novel would capture better - rather difficult to display in a screenplay synopsis. It's a very interesting development and now I understand it, the treatment makes more sense. It's worth considering to insert a feeder line somewhere to demonstrate to the reader / viewer your intention.

[tdalton]

If it sounded like I was taking offense to the feedback, my apologies.  No offense has been taken at all.  I really do enjoy and value the feedback.  Receiving feedback, both good and bad, is the only way to go about making one's work better.  

 

I was just trying to provide some insight into what the goals were, both for what was positive about the treatment and for what was negative.  There are obviously, as with everything, places where major improvements can be made, and I've tried to take on board some of the suggestions as we've gone through the editing process each time.  

[tdalton]

It's been a while since this has been updated.  As sometimes happens in the middle of Fanfiction projects, other, more important things in real life come up and take attention away from the project.

 

For those that had been following, I'm happy to say that Part 2 of "Five Minutes to Armageddon" is nearing completion and I do hope to have it posted sometime this week, with early next week as the absolute latest I'd hope to have it up.  

[Major Tallon]

Looking forward to it.

[chrisno1]

looks like I'll have to re-read part one!

[tdalton]

Part 2 should be completed sometime tonight.  I've kind of taken the Marc Forster, bullet-from-a-gun approach to it, so it has a bit more in the way of action set-pieces than what the previous three installments have had.  Like I said, it should be completed tonight and hopefully I'll be able to put it up within a timely manner following its completion.

[tdalton]

Part 2 is complete and will be posted sometime during the day today (Tuesday).  We're also launching a new site to host the stories, which will hopefully be easier to read than the Wordpress site that has held the stories up to this point.

 

 

"Five Minutes to Armageddon: Part 2" is the fourth entry in the "Reimagining the Classics" series.

 

 

Following the events of "Five Minutes to Armageddon", James Bond has found himself pulled back into Her Majesty's Secret Service and right in the middle of the third World War.  Facing enemies coming at him from every side, Bond must expose CHAOS' plot while also trying to keep them from wreaking any more havoc.  Bond takes the fight to the enemy, tracking them down in a true globe trotting adventure that takes Bond to Ukraine, Romania, Siberia, Australia, Russia, and St. Helena.

 

Cast

Daniel Craig.........................James Bond

Yvonne Strahovski...............Mary Goodnight

Sylvester Stallone................Gen. John Rainer

Michael Shannon.................Horror

Steve Buscemi.....................Mr. Sanguinetti

Ben Foster...........................Alex Sandor

Alexa Davalos......................Anya Amasova

Olivia Wilde..........................Naomi

Ralph Fiennes......................M

 

Anna Friel............................Jane Moneypenny

 

Tom Hardy...........................Nathan Harris

Kelly MacDonald..................Raven

Dianna Agron.......................Simone

 

Tony Todd...........................Tee Hee

Ciaran Hinds........................The Voice

 

Story by coco1997 & tdalton

Based on the Ian Fleming novel and EON film of The Spy Who Loved Me.

[chrisno1]

Hurrah !!

Nice website BTW.

[tdalton]

Thanks.

 

I didn't like the way that the original layout looked, so it took a while to find something that was both accommodating of the artwork as well as making the text easier to read from the original version.

 

 

 

Anyway, moving on:

 

"A Whisper of Hate" is the fifth and final treatment in the "Reimagining the Classics" series and will be released sometime this summer right here on CBn.

 

 

 

When mobile phone footage of the murder of a fellow British agent makes its way to MI6, M sends Bond to New Orleans to investigate, thinking it will be a simple final mission for the agent who is nearing the mandatory retirement age for Double-ohs.  Teaming with Felix Leiter, who now calls the Big Easy home, Bond begins to hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice.

 

Complicating matters is civil unrest in New Orleans, which several factions seek to exploit for political gain.  Along the way Bond becomes involved with a local musician with her own political ambitions, entangling him further into a dangerous and surreal plot that could very well result in death.

 

Inspired by Ian Fleming and EON Productions' 'Live and Let Die', "A Whisper of Hate" features Bond embarking on his most difficult and most harrowing assignment yet, pitting him against both new and old enemies who would like nothing more than to take him down.

 

CAST

Daniel Craig....................James Bond

Stana Katic......................Grace Moreau

Idris Elba.........................Mr. Big

Dianna Agron..................Solitaire

Jeffrey Wright..................Felix Leiter

Tony Todd.......................Tee Hee

Paula Patton....................Willow

Julie Benz........................Kristen Leiter

Katharine McPhee...........Ellie Moreau

Hilary Swank....................Irma Bunt

Ernie Hudson...................Senator Alex Roque

Katie Holmes...................Claire Coleman

Damian Lewis..................John Strangways

Yaphet Kotto...................Sterling Montrose

Ralph Fiennes.................M

Ciaran Hinds....................Ernst Stavro Blofeld

 

Story by coco1997 & tdalton

Based on Ian Fleming and EON Productions' Live and Let Die

 

Also "featuring" (if this were actually made into a film) "guest appearances" by U2, Phil Collins, Muse, and more