The Man From U.N.C.L.E. finally arrives on DVD on November 27th in a huge complete series briefcase. Airing on NBC from 1964 to 1968 there were 105 U.N.C.L.E. episodes. Some of the early development of the show was done by Ian Fleming who famously came up with the main character’s name, Napoleon Solo which derives from Goldfinger. Some of Fleming’s handwritten notes on the show which includes plots and characters will be included in the DVD’s bonus features. Among numerous other bonus features, the DVD set will include new commentary by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum.

In its third week of release Hurricane Gold fell out of the top 3 on thebookseller’s list of Top Children’s Books in the UK. It launched at #2 and held that position for its second week, but was unable to hold on or improve for its third week. Over at Waterstone’s where the book was launched, Hurricane Gold has fallen to #8.

Apparently the new #1 book, dethroning Harry Potter and The Dealthy Hallows is Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, which was released last year. In somewhat related news, a survey in the UK of people 16 to 34 was taken to find out who the most popular children’s author is, and, well, it wasn’t J.K. Rowling like you would suspect at this point in time. Turns out it’s Roald Dahl (screenwriter for You Only Live Twice). He’s followed on the list by C.S. Lewis and then Rowling.

I’ve been rather absent the past few days. I did some work behind the scenes on the site, but other than that, I haven’t really been updating. Not that there’s been a ton of news. I’ve been mostly wasting my time playing the beta for Team Fortress 2. So awesome….

So yeah.. Bond rumblings:

• Paul Haggis is still making news by talking Bond 22 while out doing some marketing for his latest film, In the Valley of Elah. Now he’s up to page 45, which may not even be half way. In comparison to Casino Royale, which was 112 pages, Bond hasn’t even arrived at the casino yet. When asked if there would be gadgets in the film, he merely said “I might”. I don’t mind realistic gadgets, but keep them realistic or better yet.. plausible.
• Apparently the Bond girl will be from South America according to FilmJerk.com which reports on a casting notice released by the producers.
• The Sun is reporting that Daniel Craig is back in training so that he can kick ass on the slopes. A ski sequence is expected in the film, possibly in the Alps, based on comments made by Marc Forster.
• The Daily Express talked to the folks at Brioni who are saying that Craig will be more casual in Bond 22, thus no tux. Not sure how much stock you can put into it. I don’t think Bond needs to be seen in a tux in every film, but as CBn points out Craig himself said Bond wouldn’t appear in a dinner jacket in Casino Royale, which was enormously wrong.

Hurricane Gold failed to grab the top spot in the England as the #1 Children’s book for the second week of its release. But it’s not as bad as it sounds because holding on to the top spot is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which is still selling like hot cakes. Both Blood Fever and Double or Die premiered as #2 (as Hurricane Gold did) on the list and rose to the top spot in their second week, however, both of them did not have a Potter novel to contend with. Maybe by week 3? I mean seriously, who hasn’t read the final Harry Potter novel yet?

In other Young Bond news:

• Double O Section reviewed Hurricane Gold.
• The Young Bond Dossier got a peek at the new Double or Die Collector’s Edition.

Oh yeah, and I’m not even going to bother covering the Young Bond movie rumor. It’s rubbish. It’s gotta be. When you think “Young British Star” how many names do you come up with? Exactly. Also, Bond is thirteen/fourteen in these books. It doesn’t work.

In the upcoming James Bond adventure, Devil May Care, James Bond will be driving a “battleship grey” Bentley once again according to a new report by the Telegraph. Additionally it was said that Bond will have a driver at his disposal given how much of the adventure takes place abroad. James Rosenstein, Bentley’s global director of external affairs, said: “It is wonderful that somebody has decided to go back to the roots of the original book, to Ian Fleming’s own tastes and to James Bond’s passion for the cars.” He also speculated that Bond may be driving the 1967 T-series Bentley, though IMO it’s most likely going to be a carryover from Fleming – thus the Bentley Mark II Continental with the Arnott supercharger last mentioned in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Of course if Bond has a driver, then.. it could be just about anything. Who knows. If this is a new Bentley, it will be Bond’s fourth (not counting John Gardner’s 1985 addition, the Bently Mulsanne Turbo)

Sebastian Faulks discussed the upcoming centenary novel, Devil May Care with the Chronicle Journal. Notably he stated that Devil May Care will feature “a Cold War setting, exotic locales and Bond girls whom he says are “more than a match” for the suave secret agent.” As we already know, part of the book will take place in Paris. Thanks to CBn for the tip.

In other news, Devil May Care has been listed for pre-order on Amazon. So, go ahead and pre-order if you want. I mean this is great and all, but with about 8 months or so to go, I’m not too eager to pre-order at the moment especially when Amazon’s price is the list price and the date listed is May 20, 2008 (when was the last time you bought something on Amazon for the list price?). Both of those will probably change at some point. I would think, though neither will probably mess up the pre-order. It’s just.. I don’t know… 8 months. I don’t usually pre-order till I see a cover up on the site. That’s just me.

With the recent release of The Battle for Bond in the United States, Robert Sellers, the author, sat down with CBn to discuss the book. As I’ve been saying, it’s pretty much a must-read for all Bond fans as it delves into the heart of the Thunderball court cases involving Fleming, Kevin McClory, MGM, Sony, the Broccolis, etc etc etc.

Check out the interview here.

Yesterday, September 11th, the Death Wing anthology of James Bond comic strips was released in U.S. stores. It features three stories written by Jim Lawrence with art by Yaroslav Horak. The three stores, Death Wing, Sea Dragon, and When the Wizard Awakes were originally published in newspapers between 1977 and 1978.

These specific three mark a turn in the comic strip series as they were the first to be published after The Daily Express discontinued the series in 1977. “The Living Daylights”, which was first published in 1962, was the first and only strip up to this point not to be originally published by The Daily Express. Instead it was first published by The Sunday Times which resulted in the aborted Thunderball comic strip. These three stories were published originally by The Sunday Express, the Sunday edition of The Daily Express.

As always Amazon.com has the book in stock, currently, for $13.57.

Pretty clever title, huh? No. Anyway… the Young Bond Dossier reports that Hurricane Gold sold 6056 copies in only a half week of sales making it the #2 book for the week on the Children’s bestseller list and #48 overall. At Waterstones where the All-Gold Party took place it was the #1 seller for the week for Children and #7 overall. In comparison to the other Young Bond novels, Blood Fever and Double or Die premiered on the Children’s bestseller list (not specifically Waterstones) at #2 and both took #1 by the second week. Blood Fever, however, managed to keep hold of the #1 spot for eleven weeks, something I’m fairly sure Double or Die didn’t come close to doing. If I recall correctly, it was dethroned by High School Musical.

Devil May Care author Sebastian Faulks spoke to Word Magazine recently and stated it remains to be seen if the producers will pick up his book for a film adaptation. He then went on to say that the producers have a three-film contract with Daniel Craig and that they are currently making the second one with a “prequel-cum-sequel element, because they want to bring back the Eva Green character.” Not the first time Eva Green has mentioned as returning for Bond 22. Interesting that it comes from Faulks though. Maybe he’s just stating what he’s heard – as we all have heard. Or maybe he knows. Remember the Wire yesterday – maybe it was Faulks? Maybe not.