• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

James Bond franchise--the return of SPECTRE and Blofeld?

Greene was definitely never the top man. Top men don't make in-person cash deliveries to murderous warlords, as Greene did in his very first CR scene. Also, Bond explicitly says that his superiors would be coming after him in Bolivia to kill him for his failure. Try again. ;)

That was Mr White at the start of Casino Royale, not Greene. Agreed though, Greene is clearly not the head of Quantum (it may be that Quantum doesn't have a traditional head, no Number 1 or Blofeld) although given he's at the meeting in Austria he does seem to be quite high ranking, and he seems to be leading on the Bolivian project.
 
@Starkers: d'oh! You're right. But I agree that Quantum may not have a single head, and if they do, it definitely wasn't Greene.
 
Another interesting moment in the documentary was the observation that Dr. No came out at about the same time as the tensions over the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the producers were wary of unnecessarily inflaming cultural tensions by showing the Soviets in too harsh a light, which (along with Roger Moore's self-described pacifism) no doubt helps explain why we got organizations with such silly names as "SPecial Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion", and the jaunt to space in Moonraker
Roger Moore couldn't have had any influence on the creation of SPECTRE. That organization first appeared in Ian Fleming's novel Thunderball, published in 1961. Moore's first outing as Bond was in Live and Let Die, released in 1973.

But yeah, it's pretty silly for an international crime and terror organization to have a snappy Madison Avenue acronym (one that works only in English) for a name. Just go with it. :)

As for the space stuff in Moonraker, it was meant to capitalize on the then-recent Star Wars phenomenon.
 
As I recall, Moonraker the book and the movie had almost NOTHING in common except for the names "James Bond" and "Hugo Drax".

When I read the book about 15 years ago, I remember that it reminded me more of GoldenEye the movie, because Drax's Moonraker was kinda like the GoldenEye satellite.

Moonraker was a fun read. I highly recommend it.
 
Fleming's Moonraker novel is actually kind of reminiscent of Steed & Peel Avengers to me- what all the bald and red-mustached German henchmen; that sort of weirdness as a uniformity.
 
Speaking of that - I see the original books have just entered the public domain in Canada and a few other places.
 
Greene was definitely never the top man. Top men don't make in-person cash deliveries to murderous warlords, as Greene did in his very first CR scene. Also, Bond explicitly says that his superiors would be coming after him in Bolivia to kill him for his failure. Try again. ;)

That was Mr White at the start of Casino Royale, not Greene. Agreed though, Greene is clearly not the head of Quantum (it may be that Quantum doesn't have a traditional head, no Number 1 or Blofeld) although given he's at the meeting in Austria he does seem to be quite high ranking, and he seems to be leading on the Bolivian project.
Greene was definitely not the head of Quantum. He was in a high position but more of a spokesperson for them than the main man.
 
They've done some filming near a snowy mountaintop resort that kind of looks like a modern Piz Gloria (Spectre's lair in OHMSS). Not sure if that means we'll get a semi-remake of that novel/film (The original adaptation is pretty close to the novel, except Bond's escape and the revelation of Blofeld's plan is somewhat different and Tracy has a much larger role in the film than in the book). I think it at least means we'll get a ski chase, sort of a Bond cliche' (Moore had three such chases!).

As for SPECTRE it's neither in the Dr.No or From Russia With Love novels but it's in the films due to Fleming's suggestions. In the novels the order of the stories is actually flipped-In the novels Bond actually does get stabbed and poisoned, and Dr.No is M giving him sort of a lighter assignment after his recovery which turns out to be much more. There's actually a hint of this in the Dr.No film during M's briefing, where Bond spent six months in hospital.
 
Another interesting moment in the documentary was the observation that Dr. No came out at about the same time as the tensions over the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the producers were wary of unnecessarily inflaming cultural tensions by showing the Soviets in too harsh a light, which (along with Roger Moore's self-described pacifism) no doubt helps explain why we got organizations with such silly names as "SPecial Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion", and the jaunt to space in Moonraker
Roger Moore couldn't have had any influence on the creation of SPECTRE. That organization first appeared in Ian Fleming's novel Thunderball, published in 1961. Moore's first outing as Bond was in Live and Let Die, released in 1973.

My memory is that SPECTRE was created for the movies (tough to tell with the timeline, the movie Dr. No came out a year after the Thunderball novel, but there could have been some development overlap). Certainly, the use of SPECTRE was much greater in film, particularly in From Russia With Love, replacing SMERSH.
 
Actually, SPECTRE was created for a James Bond television show that that never materialized. Fleming then took the story and concepts he developed with McClory for the TV show's pilot (Including Blofeld and SPECTRE), and used them for the novel "Thunderball". Hence, McClory's dispute with Fleming.

This is why "Never Say Never Again" was just a re-make of "Thunderball". That was all he was awarded rights to.

ETA: Google research indicates that it wasn't an aborted TV show, but rather an early aborted attempt to bring Bond to the big screen after all. The end result is the same. My memory fails me in my old age. Apologies.
 
Last edited:
McClory is a bug. Unfortunately Fleming made two mistakes with Thunderball: He had too much to drink that night and didn't put McClory's name somewhere on the inside cover page. Had he done so--even if it was in tiny print squeezed along the binding--Kev would have never had leg to stand on.
 
First look at Dave Bautista at the link.

"When I came over to meet Sam [Mendes], I only asked two questions," says the erstwhile Galaxy Guardian. "I asked him if Mr. Hinx was a badass. He said, 'Yes, he's a badass.' I said, 'Well, is Mr. Hinx intelligent?' He said, 'Very.' That's what I like about Mr. Hinx. He's very well-dressed and very well-mannered. I'm not just here to fight people. He has a sense of humour. He definitely knows what a metaphor is."
 
GTgunAH.jpg



Another set video


[YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ez7ZYceOs[/YT]



lHHMKW6l.jpg

jBVWa8rl.jpg

m8robDtl.jpg

6XJXA2dl.jpg





First set video


[YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYKB75aIHWE[/YT]



V1PbHiR.gif



:techman:
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top