Ian Fleming Tagged Articles at Cinematical

At this point, the most dangerous threat James Bond faces does not shoot from the barrel of a gun or glimmer from the lens of a laser but instead springs from the tightly-coiled engine of the audience's expectations. Any new Bond film has to not only compete with the films that have come before but also the other high-end entries in the action genre; any political or moral ideas in the film have to compete with the political and moral landscape of the world we live in. Quantum of Solace, the 22nd Bond film, is Daniel Craig's second outing as James Bond, and the blunt, brutal and brisk Casino Royale set the bar very high; if Casino Royale marked a return to greatness for the Bond franchise, Quantum of Solace represents a return to adequacy.

Directed by Mark Forster, Quantum of Solace has the basic bones of a Bond film -- globe-trotting settings, cars and chases, hair's-breadth escapes, nefarious plots. It does not, fortunately, have much of the fat that the worst Bond films have larded onto the series -- there's a minimum of high-tech gadgetry, no skiing sequences, no invisible cars, no henchmen with metal teeth. While Casino Royale brought Judi Dench's gruff spymaster M back to the series from the Brosnan era, it also brought Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion back to the franchise; in the new Bond era, cars crash and buildings break with thundering, shuddering force as Daniel Craig's Bond smashes, crashes and grunts his way through a hard, painful world. In the film's opening car chase, on the winding coastal roads of Italy, there are a number of moments where the crunch and thud of the action catches you up in a two-fisted grip of exhilaration and terror. Part of that's the stunt work, but a big part of it is Craig's Bond -- who you believe as being capable of executing a perfect shift-and-skid turn while firing an automatic weapon out of what used to be his car window with shards of glass lacerating his face.

After the historic election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, naturally everyone's mind turned to the next logical step: Does this mean a black man could play James Bond, too?

At least that's where current Bond Daniel Craig's mind went. At a Rome press conference for Quantum of Solace, which opens in the U.S. on Friday, Craig said, "After Barack Obama's victory I think we might have reached the moment for a [black]* 007. I think the role could easily be played by a black actor, because the character created by Ian Fleming in the '50s has undergone a great deal of evolution and continues to be updated."

He also joked that the idea of a black 007 might have Fleming spinning in his grave. Fleming was considered by many to be racist -- just Google the words Ian Fleming racist to find plenty of people making that assertion -- and the U.K. Telegraph observes that his Bond novels "were laced with the racial prejudices of his era."

Surely there's nothing specific about the Bond character that couldn't just as easily apply to a black actor. There have been a few black Bond Girls romanced by white Bonds. Race doesn't generally play a part in the stories, at least not in the last several films. Then again, some people freaked out when Daniel Craig was cast solely because he was blond (if you can imagine the heresy). Would a complete makeover totally ruin it for the purists? What do you think? And if they did go with a black 007, who should play him?

*The word he actually used was "coloured," which apparently isn't quite as offensive and outdated in Europe as it is in America, as none of the news outlets covering the press conference expressed surprise over Craig's usage of it. He obviously didn't mean it with racist intent, anyway, so let's not dwell on it, mmkay?

Pictured: Ian Fleming in his study with a copy of For Your Eyes Only (April 1960). (Photo by Evening Standard / Getty Images)

Last month, Cinematical was lucky enough to join a few other select outlets on a trip to London for something called The James Bond Experience. One of the cooler activities we took part in (aside from driving an Aston Martin at 150mph and chatting with both Daniel Craig and Marc Forster) was our field trip to the Imperial War Museum London where, to celebrate Ian Fleming's 100th birthday, they're currently housing an exhibit dedicated to the man called For Your Eyes Only.

If you're a James Bond fan or an Ian Fleming fan or both, then I seriously recommend boarding a plane to London in order to check out this exhibit because you'll see so much -- some of which is on display for the very first time. I'm talking a slew of original manuscripts (from Casino Royale to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), props from some of your favorite James Bond films, personal letters, photographs, notes -- essentially Fleming's entire life right there before your eyes.

While there's no photography allowed inside the exhibit, Cinematical managed to snag a bunch of photos showing only a fraction of what's on display across the pond. So, instead of writing a thousand words describing what I saw, I present these two packed galleries full of images from the Imperial War Museum and the For Your Eyes Only exhibit. Show, don't tell ... right?





For a little more info on the exhibit (which runs through March 1, 2009), head after the jump. Quantum of Solace hits theaters on November 14.

Would you like that shaken or stirred, Leo? Writing in Los Angeles Times, Jay A. Fernandez reports that Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way company recently came on board to produce a biopic about Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, based on an original script by Damian Stevenson. Fernandez speculates that DiCaprio might play Fleming: "During the writers' strike, DiCaprio showed interest in Fleming and his world, but he's looking to take the script in a different direction with a new writer."

Leo has produced other films in which he did not appear (The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Gardener of Eden) and already has a very full plate of upcoming projects. Still, it's fun to speculate because Fleming was such a fascinating character.
According to Wikipedia, Fleming was a journalist first, including time in Moscow in 1933, then a stockbroker, before working in Naval Intelligence for Britain during World War II. He personally directed an intelligence-gathering unit that employed "lock-picking, safe-cracking, forms of unarmed combat, and other techniques and skills." He published his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1953. Stevenson's script started on the eve of Fleming's wedding in 1952 before flashing back to his years as a journalist, playboy and spy planner.

Fleming sounds like it could be a good, thrilling drama. What do you think? Could Leo pull off the part? If not, who would you like to see as Ian Fleming?

My favorite news story of the week comes courtesy of The Times, which reports on an Ian Fleming/James Bond-themed exhibition at the British Imperial War Museum. Apparently, when Fleming was an intelligence officer in the Royal Navy -- in 1940, 13 years before Bond began -- he concocted a harebrained scheme to seize the decryption code used by the German navy to send messages.

He proposed to take a captured German plane, fill it with German-speaking Brits, crash it into the English Channel, wait for a German rescue boat to come by, board it, sabotage it, and run off with the loot. (Or, in Fleming's brilliantly terse formulation: "Crash plane in the Channel after making S.O.S. to rescue service. Once aboard rescue boat, shoot German crew, dump overboard, bring rescue boat back to English port.") Even better, he was able to put together a team and await the opportunity to put his plan into action -- but one never came up, and higher-ups started to worry about the crew being killed in the crash or drowning.

We're back! James Bond touches land, air and sea in this episode as we talk about our favorite Bond cars, the Spy-Fi Archives exhibit coming to the Queen Mary, and the re-opening of the 007 Stage in London. We also talk to a special guest in this episode, screenwriter and Young Bond Dossier expert John Cox -- who takes us into the literary world of the Young James Bond novels, which are very popular right now.

Some links and highlights from this episode:

• The 007 Stage reopens: visit their revamped website and check things out.
• The James Bond Car collection: subscribe and have Bond replica cars sent to you.
• Spy-Fi Archives at the Queen Mary: on exhibit April 7th through September 2007.
• John's amazing Young Bond Dossier site: check out the links to the Young Bond "apache" gadget, and the new Centenary Bond novel coming out next year.

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There have been countless debates about which James Bond is best, and as we saw from Kevin's post last November, the fans are all in disagreement. But those who side with Sean Connery can now celebrate a scientifically conclusive victory over the others, since a computer has apparently proved that the first Bond was the true Bond. Two U.K. psychologists -- one based in Scotland and one based in England, in case you think there's regional bias -- produced a composite image using a prototyping technique on a computer, and of all the Bond actors the image most resembles Connery.

The funny thing is, according to their procedure, the psychologists' proof is incorrect. Maybe they should have stressed that Connery is the closest thing to a real Bond ever portrayed in an official 007 film, because the real movie Bond would have to be David Niven, who plays the character in the parodic adaptation Casino Royale (the 1967 one). See, the composite image was made by feeding the computer pictures of other actors who Bond author Ian Fleming had said in 1961 had a facial structure similar to what he imagined for the character. Those actors were Stewart Granger, Richard Burton, Patrick McGoohan, James Mason, Rex Harrison, Cary Grant and, yes, David Niven. Considering the fact that McGoohan is still alive, there is still time for a tie, but I'll go ahead and crown Niven with the honor despite what a computer tells me. Either way, though, one important thing the composite seemed to indicate is that Daniel Craig is the furthest of all from being the true Bond.

If you are a die hard fan of everything Bond, it would probably thrill you to walk in the footsteps of Ian Fleming and frolic in the surf footsteps where Roger Moore hopped over those crocodiles. USA Today reports that Ian Fleming's famous Jamaican retreat, Goldeneye, where he dreamed up his lady-killing secret agent, will now become something much more impersonal...the Bond aficionado's ultimate vacation destination. Fleming owned the retreat in St. Mary Parish, Jamaica in the mid-forties and the area is rife with Bond history; both Live and Let Die and Dr. No were filmed nearby. One of the stranger factoids about the retreat was that another former owner was reggae legend Bob Marley, who sold the property to current owner Chris Blackwell.

Hotelier Jason Henzell is involved in the project and said that Blackwell was looking to "develop a new niche in Jamaica called residential tourism, where people buy land, visit and ultimately promote the island." The spot is also home to plenty of Bond memorabilia from Fleming's personal items and the various film productions. The renovation is set to begin in June, but there was no word on cost for the entire project. I would think that a total revamp on 100-acre property isn't going to come cheaply. For the truly devoted though, no price tag could keep them away. Oh well -- so much for Fleming's untouched paradise.

Her hands were lifeless in his. "My darling," he said. "Won't you tell me? Do you know, that first morning I was coming back to ask you to marry me. Can't we go back to the beginning again? What is this dreadful nightmare that is killing us?" At first she said nothing, then a tear slowly rolled down her cheek. "You mean you would have married me?" Bond nodded. "Oh my God,' she said. -- Ian Fleming's Casino Royale

There are two serious love stories in the James Bond canon, nine books apart. The first, Casino Royale, is the inaugural Bond story. Thanks in part to an ill-conceived and boring parody film in 1967, Casino went 55 years before a serious effort was mounted to film it. The other, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is story number ten, and pairs Bond with a brash young heiress and scion of a pan-European crime syndicate named Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo. Both stories have down endings, and fans of the film series often feel a sense of robbery with regards to the second, since Albert Broccoli waited until after Connery left to make a faithful adaptation of a superior Bond story. George Lazenby, despite being adored by some contrarian critics, was fairly assessed at the time as a failure. He was reportedly a terror to work with and his interpretation is so different from Connery's that the film almost stands outside the series. And now that Fleming's stories will no longer be used for forthcoming films, there's seemingly no chance for a re-do of On Her Majesty's.

That means the current film version of Casino Royale may have to stand as one of the only serious attempts to transmute Ian Fleming's idea of 'Bond drama' to the big screen. Not that it's a PBS piece or anything. The film is neatly cut in two, with one half faithfully adapting a present-day version of Fleming's novel (only 213 pages) and the other half devoted to big, wordless action set-pieces. You can't really expect anything more tame than that, with so much money at stake, I guess. But the interesting thing to note is that the drama in Casino Royale actually works, despite its sparsity. The origin of Bond's asshole-persona is resurrected as an epic origin tale of romantic treason, with the supremely gorgeous and worldly Vesper Lynd eating the young, naive spy for breakfast. The book ends on an abrupt quote, resurrected word-for-word in the film, that almost suggests (to me, anyway) that Bond may have been set up with Vesper as a final stage of his training. A necessary freezing process.

I might have gone with Red Stripe, myself, or maybe even an English brewery, but Heineken, which is based in Amsterdam, is the chosen beer sponsor for the new Bond pic, Casino Royale. Wait, let's back track a second. You're probably wondering why there would even be a beer sponsor when James Bond famously drinks martinis, shaken not stirred. Well, in Ian Fleming's original novel, he drinks beer. Yes, he also drinks martinis, but in the novel he orders one by saying, "A dry martini. One. In a deep champagne goblet." He goes on to tell the bartender how to make it, including the shaking part, but otherwise the catch phrase didn't arrive until the later novel Diamonds are Forever.

Anyway, back to the subject of beer, which is definitely a subject I prefer. Aside from Heineken merely having a promotional partnership with the film (I have no idea if this means Bond drinks Heinies on screen), the brewery has been given access to the Casino Royale set, where Oscar-winner Stephen Gaghan has directed a beer commercial starring Bond-girl Eva Green.

Unfortunately, Heineken will not be remaking James Bond's 007 Special Blend (oh JoBlo, you had me so confused!), which was a mix of beer and malt liquor put out by The National Brewing Company between 1965 and 1966 without any licensing authorization.