Absolutely agree about Connery and "From Russia With Love"! "Russia" also was far and away the best novel. Lotte Lenya was every bit as good as Robert Shaw. Aces!

I liked all of the first four (Dr. No, Russia, Goldfinger, Thunderball), after which they started getting overrought. Goldfinger left us with an indelible line. I picture the proverbial Little Green Man from Mars landing on Earth. The first Earthling he encounters says to him, "Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?" And without hesitating, the Little Green Man replies, "No, Mr. Bond--I expect you to DIE!"

Am I crazy or would have Pacino played a good Bond (in his earlier days)? I know Bond's supposed to be English, but fuggedaboutit, this time he's Italian. Any thoughts?

Nah, I just don't see him as Bond.

On the other hand, consider Pacino as Bond:
"I don't fee I have to wipe out all the Commies, M. Just SMERSH."
"We're both part of the same hypocrisy, Blofeld. But never think it involves Miss Moneypenny."

Pacino as Bond? Watch The Recruit. :p No, really, part of Bond that is irreplaceable is him being English. Take that out and hmm...

You are crazy!!!! :p
I couldn't resist, sorry....

Has anybody ever read any of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels? I've done a little research and it looks like he wrote 14 of them:

1. Casino Royale
2. Live and Let Die
3. Moonraker
4. Diamonds Are Forever
5. From Russia with Love
6. Dr. No
7. Goldfinger
8. For Your Eyes Only
9. Thunderball
10. The Spy Who Loved Me
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12. You Only Live Twice
13. The Man with the Golden Gun
14. Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Worth the read or no? Are the movies close to the Bond in the books or not really?

The novels are grittier,more graphic; Bond's tougher in them, and more chauvinistic. Turnbull will be able to elobrate further, since he's read a fair few, and considers, FWIW, From Russia with Love to be the best.

The novels are possibly even more campy, trashy, name it what you want, than the films.
Bond is indeed more politically incorrect in the novels.

There's been a lot of movies made claiming to be "James Bond" films, but the last time I saw a James Bond movie, Sean Connery was in it...

Risico Rumors

January 3, 2007 - British tabloid reports recently suggested that the next James Bond movie would be Risico, which is also the title of a tale in Ian Fleming's book of short stories For Your Eyes Only.

The problem with Risico is that its basic plot and characters were already used for the 1981 film version of For Your Eyes Only. In Fleming's Risico, 007 is sent to Italy to investigate a heroin ring and crosses paths with the likes of Colombo and Kristatos, both of whom were featured in the Roger Moore movie. The idea of remaking a previous Bond film doesn't seem likely, but as producer Barbara Broccoli told ComingSoon.net last year, "We don't plan to do that, but to coin a phrase, 'never say never'."

DarkHorizons.com, however, reports that all this talk about Risico may be premature or flat out wrong. "The Risico talk is (expletive), none of the story details exist right now — period," claims a longtime source for the site.

The source continued, "[Screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade] have thrown around the idea of using some plot threads from the old books that weren't used in the movies before, but Risico isn't one of them because it's been done. Fact is if they use anything from it at all, it'll be name only." A Bond film that only uses Fleming's title, but not his story? Perish the thought!

Having just read Fleming's short story, I noted a few interesting elements in Risico that appeared in the film version of Casino Royale but not the novel. Most of Risico takes place in Venice, which is the villains' base; Venice was also the setting for the last act of the big-screen Royale. In Royale, Vesper Lynd and the mysterious villains seemed to know their way around the backstreets of the city, suggesting that perhaps they had met or operated there in the past.

There are also a group of villainous Albanian smugglers in Risico. Curiously, the film version of Casino Royale strongly suggests that bad guy Le Chiffre is Albanian (the book was far more vague). Are all of these mere coincidences? Probably. But fanboys wouldn't be fanboys if they didn't speculate on such things!

The only hard fact about the next Bond movie is that it will further explore some of the plot elements — and 007's character development — established in Casino Royale.

Whatever it will be about, Bond 22 is slated for a November 7, 2008 release date.

Source: IGN

Are they going to cast Peter Falk?

Until the Brocoli clan die off, Bond will ever always be played by a British actor, or an actor from the British Commonwealth(note that George "One Shot" Lazenby was an Aussie).

To be honest, I prefer this but whatever.

You know, I've been reading up on the original LIVE & LET DIE novel(which as Irishman pointed out, is the 2nd Bond book), and as it is, the basic template would work perfectly with the universe style of Bond that CASINO ROYALE gave us.

Oh sure, it would be a "remake" of the previous movie, but screw it.

I'd love them to revisit some of the now-dated Bond films, with an added nastiness present in the novels but lost completely by the time Moore came along.

The Man with the Golden Gun could be wonderful.

I couldn't agree more Capo. A story like that one, with today's hollywood technology, coupled with sticking closer to the book's version of Bond, could turn out to be a really good movie.

I'd also like to see them re-do Live and Let Die.



Don Cardi

Bond Sequel Not Risico

January 29, 2007 - With James Bond proving to be more popular than he has been in years thanks to Casino Royale, the inevitable sequel to that film is already being hotly anticipated. Now, word has come from two of the writers of the film that contrary to previous reports, the follow-up film will not be based on the Ian Fleming short story Risico.

"That's not the case," Robert Wade and Neal Purvis tell The Trades, before adding that the current plan is to start shooting the tightly guarded screenplay (for what is at the moment only known as Bond 22) at the beginning of 2008.

The scripters also say that there's currently no plan to reintroduce fan favorite characters like gadget-maker Q and ever-faithful secretary Moneypenny, both of whom were dropped for Casino Royale.

"Some people think they should be there, and some people know that they shouldn't be there," Wade says. "With the way Casino Royale ends, you know there's still unfinished business for Bond. He may say, 'The name's Bond, James Bond,' but there's still a lot of stuff churning up inside him. So, if you're going to explore that, and we've got this great actor to do that with, what you don't want to do is suddenly clamp it down with all these familiar elements that keep your focus off him. He's the great asset."

The character of Q in particular is problematic for the writers.

"Q presents more problems [than Moneypenny]," Purvis adds. "People have all got gadgets now. Other films have lots of gadgets as well… The idea of Q coming back, for the moment, it's just not a high priority."

Sorry, John Cleese fans!

One character who will reportedly be back is Casino Royale's Rene Mathis, played by Giancarlo Giannini. The Italian actor told the magazine Il Giornale that he has signed on for Bond 22. Mathis was thought to be a double agent at the end of Royale but the actor claims Mathis will turn out to have been a good guy after all. "His double agent status will be used by Bond to reach to top of the organisation Le Chiffre worked for," according to MI6.co.uk.

Source: Filmforce

The last James Bond movie that I saw had Sean Connery in it . . .

Have you heard the excellent Hard Rock version of the James Bond Theme by Neil Norman and His Cosmic Orchestra ? ?

I have the live version, and IT ROCKS ! !