I think I need to make a special mention of this so as to not upset anyone that has sent me an email recently. My email program has, at least on 1 occasion to my knowledge (probably more), marked the email from the Contact Page as spam and thus deleted it prior to me reading it. It hasn’t always done this, but nevertheless I’ve fixed the glitch by changing a couple of my email settings and setting up a filter. It shouldn’t do this again. So if you’ve sent an email to me recently, you may want to send it again. My apologies to anyone this may have effected.

Also as far as site updates go, there are a few minor issues I’m having with my code for some browsers that I hope to have fixed relatively soon. One issue is that the post date overlaps with the article text if you’re using Safari (at least this is a problem with Safari for Windows – I assume it’s the same for Mac). Turns out about 5-10% of the people that come here use Safari so.. I’m thinking I should probably fix it. :) On a related note, Safari for Windows is not so hot IMO. Get Firefox.

Last week Paul Haggis and Marc Forster met up and discussed a little something called Bond 22. First off, it sounds to me that Haggis may have been offered the gig to direct the movie or at least considered it.

“There are certain things you can write and there are certain things you can direct. I just felt that it takes a big commitment to direct a Bond film. It’s a 120 day shoot. It’s a two year commitment basically to do it. If you do that on top of writing, it’s almost a three year commitment. So I just didn’t want to dedicate that much time. It’s going to take me six months to get the script into shape as it is. I think I’ll do that and then I’ll go off into the next project.” – Haggis

Kinda sorta. Haggis also said that he wouldn’t call Bond 22 a direct sequel stating that it’ll stand on its own. I think we all figured this, but there are those that thought this would be a sort of Return of the Jedi to Empire Strikes Back. Not the case apparently. Haggis also said that he didn’t come up with the rundown from Casino Royale and that that was actually Martin Campbell, but he added the stairwell fight.

Anyway, read the New York Post’s writeup.

Casino Royale has sold an estimated 3.6 million copies on DVD in the past 6 months, having been out for only 5. The top 6 went to Happy Feet (sigh), Night At The Museum, The Departed, Open Season, Charlotte’s Web, and The Pursuit of Happiness though Nielsen VideoScan claims Bond is #4 following Happy Feet, The Departed, and Night At The Museum. This doesn’t take into account Royale’s Blu-ray sales which we know to be good – most likely the #1 Blu-ray seller as well as HD overall, though I know Batman Begins and The Departed is also up there. Anyway, speaking of which, Sony released a press release today saying how much Blu-ray is kicking ass in Europe.

“Our European Blu-ray sales increased more than 1,000 percent since the launch of the PS3 in March 2007, due to strong sales in the UK, France, Germany and Spain. This is extremely positive news not only for SPHE but for the European high-definition market as a whole, as it underscores the increasing consumer demand for high-definition content and the power of the PS3.”

So guess who is #1 for Blu-ray in the UK, France, Germany, and Spain? You know the name. It’s #1 in Europe, period. Of course it helps if 500K of them are given away for signing up for the PlayStation Network (PS3). That being said, the PS3 is not really flying off the shelves, but as I hear it, a price drop is imminent.

Last month the shortlist was announced for the Crime Writers’ Association’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award which is sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications. On July 5 the judging panel awarded the Steel Dagger to Gillian Flynn for Sharp Objects. Flynn receives £2000 and also a steel dagger, which is based on the weapon used by Special Forces during World War II. Flynn also won the CWA New Blood Dagger for this novel, an award for debut authors. The New Blood Dagger also nets her another £1000.

For the shortlist and a list of names who made up the judging panel, see this post.

Last month Mitch Silver released his first novel In Secret Service featuring Ian Fleming in a very prominent role. (You can read my review here) Another book this year also features Ian Fleming as well as Major David Niven who played James Bond in the unofficial 1967 spoof Casino Royale. The Double Agents, authored by veteran W.E.B. Griffin and his son William E. Butterworth IV, is the sixth book in Griffin’s Men at War series. The book was released on June 26. See Amazon.

(Read more…)

I always said this site would focus on the literary world of James Bond, but when the news comes to a crawl it kind of gets boring and I don’t really feel like covering books in depth all the time even though that went over okay. I’ve tried covering other spies, mainly Bourne – I only went for it because I love video games though. I may continue to do this, I may not. We’ll see. The following is news that I didn’t bother to cover because my buddies (see right panel) did in far more detail or because it was just too minor to mention or I just didn’t :). It’s also good to have some sort of bi-monthly wrap up for the people that aren’t die hard fans but still want to know what’s been going on.

• The Battle for Bond: The Genesis of Cinema’s Greatest Hero by Robert Sellers was released in the UK on June 18. A U.S. release is pending according to the publisher Tomahawk Media, but this won’t be till September. Trust me when I say this is a landmark book for all the 007 film fans that are interested in the legal battles between EON Productions, Ian Fleming, and Kevin McClory. It goes into great detail about all this including information on a screenplay drafted in the late 70s by Sean Connery, McClory, and Len Deighton. Speaking of which Deighton has already come out in praise of the book calling it an “exciting, gripping but in the end, melancholy story”. Deighton doesn’t write much anymore so this is pretty momentous.
• Marc Forster was announced as the director of Bond 22. In an interview with a Swiss newspaper he implied that Bond 22 may take place in the Alps. Notably Bond hasn’t been to the Alps since 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Off the top of my head anyway. We’ve certainly seen enough snow recently, but maybe Bond will do some rock climbing like in For Your Eyes Only or High Time to Kill. The fact that Bond’s parents were killed in a rock climbing accident may add a certain dramatic appeal.
• Final artwork for Hurricane Gold was displayed at Amazon.co.uk (see image) and the number of pages was revealed to be 368 making it the shortest Young Bond novel to date though still longer than anything by Fleming, Amis, Gardner, and Benson. Isn’t it odd that the books aimed at a younger audience have more pages than the books aimed at the older audience? Not to imply that adults don’t or can’t enjoy the Young Bond novels. I certainly do anyway.
• Over at CBn Silhouette Man strikes again by writing an article on the disbanding of the 00-section first mentioned in Fleming’s Goldfinger.

A new video game featuring Jason Bourne is being developed by High Moon Studios (formerly Sammy Studios). The Bourne Conspiracy follows their first game, Darkwatch, since the studio was renamed in 2005, after which they were acquired by Vivendi Universal. The game is said to be based on both Ludlum’s novel The Bourne Identity as well as the film adaptation starring Matt Damon, but also containing a new story that was approved by the Ludlum estate. According to the developer it will be a third-person espionage action game focusing on gunplay and close combat. It’s currently being developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Earlier this month the second Bourne novel written by Eric Van Lustbader was released, The Bourne Betrayal, and in August the third and supposed final film starring Matt Damon, The Bourne Ultimatum, will be released in theaters.

In case you guys get bored waiting for the next James Bond video game. Treyarch is still busy with that. Probably won’t get new information on it till 2008, unfortunately, but I hope to be proved wrong. E3 is coming July 11 through the 13 followed by E For All starting October 18. If we hear anything this year it’d probably be then, but I’m rather doubtful. The game Treyarch is working on is said to be an adaptation of Bond 22, though I’ve always suspected that because of the long period of time between when Activision first acquired the rights to the release of Bond 22 that there may be a second game already in the works. But that’s just speculation.

Following up my previous post, “Zero Plus One“, I said I had The Facts of Death about 50% covered. I decided to go ahead and finish it up. Like my coverage of Zero Minus Ten, you can find information on the continuity with other novels, a plot synopsis, trivia, and a breakdown of practically every character in the book.

The Facts of Death

As always if you see a mistake let me know. Comments are open and feedback of any variety is always welcome.

This will probably the last of these for quite awhile I would think. My list of books to read just keeps expanding and expanding. We’ll see.

Just a reminder tomorrow, June 22 at 8pm (ET), Encore presents “True Bond” an original special on Ian Fleming’s supposed inspiration for James Bond. This will be followed by a 52-hour “Bond-A-Thon” featuring all the films between Dr. No and Licence to Kill as well as Never Say Never Again.

I don’t have Encore so I can’t see it, but given the description I’ll go ahead and just caution everyone to take what you see with a grain of salt. If you want to find out who (if anyone) inspired Ian Fleming for James Bond, it’s best to read Andrew Lycett’s “Ian Fleming” or John Pearson’s “The Life of Ian Fleming“. In my opinion anyway…

Still, hopefully it’ll be informative. If you miss the special, they’ll be replaying it at 10am on June 23 and at 12:45pm on June 24 (all times ET). For Encore’s press release, keep on reading, and if you happen to catch it leave me a comment telling me what you thought. (Read more…)

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Marc Forster signed to direct the upcoming Bond 22 starring Daniel Craig. Filming should start early next year (or perhaps late this year) with a November 7, 2008 release.