B5Erik

Smersh is long since dead and gone. So replace Smersh with a rebuilt SPECTRE. All other main plot points in the book can pretty much remain the same (with some updating). You flesh out the scenes that would work better on screen than in the book, and scale down the stuff that is better on the page.

Beating LeChiffre and exposing his employer leads Bond to one little detail - Blofeld is alive.

Hello - revenge is sweet. Bond goes after Blofeld, and plans on taking out SPECTRE once and for all. Bond could find out along the way that SPECTRE has been supplying various terrorist groups with weapons and training. They've been laying low, raising capital to rebuild their once crushed organization. Blofeld was seriously hurt at the end of Diamonds Are Forever, and he didn't want to tangle with Bond again until he had the resources to make sure he could handle Bond and anyone else who came along.

This sets up a climactic battle at the new HQ of SPECTRE - not a ridiculous CGI infested battle, but more of a Tomorrow Never Dies shootout - only with a little more style/flair. It could also definitively close the book on Blofeld while still leaving the door open for SPECTRE to return again in the future ("under new management" ).

This could really work - and, lets face it, Casino Royale is too good of a Fleming Bond story to leave it to the crappy spoof with David Niven. EON has the rights to Casino Royale AND to SPECTRE.

Brosnan would love it, the fans would love it - and think of the promotional opportunity MGM would have, "The new Bond film - based on the original Bond novel!"

Just have John McTiernan direct and you've got a great film - AND a hit - on your hands.

I'd love to see Patrick Stewart as Blofeld.

The Antipodean

Casino Royale is overdue for a serious remake, that's for sure. I do wonder if the rights are tied up somehow because you'd think it would have been done sometime in the last 30 years....

B5Erik

EON now has the rights to both Casino Royale and SPECTRE (since Kevin McClory lost his final appeal in court).

Now's the time to do it (the way I detailed above....)

NitroJMS

EON and MGM won't touch anything that has to do with SPECTRE or Blodfeld since Kevin McClory (who co-wrote Thunderball) claims partial ownership over those properties.

And in For Your Eyes Only:


Read this for more on the McClory/EON battle:
http://www.universalexports.net/00Sony.html

SeanValen

Blofeld seems a past chapter in Bond that has been used as jokes in Aston Powers movies, I see nothing wrong with the job the current films are doing, Bond must move with the times, but a Casino Royale modernised and updated to todays style, sort of like Oceans 11 remake, would be cool, but it's not neccessary, I think they've set up things in Bond 20 for Bond 21 already, like Michael Madsen's character, new ideas for modern times is the ticket, but Casino Royale I wouldn't mind either, but there's no rush to do it, perhaps it could work better for introducing a new Bond in 2007- 007 etc

Scot1458

Won't happen. There has been many legal fights with the co-author of Thunderball (hence NEVER SAY NEVER) and in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY when Bond drops Bloefield, in the chimney, he was stating to that co-author, F$#% off.

Blofield, SPECTRE, or SMERSH will never happen.

B5Erik

Scot - McClory lost. EON has the rights - uncontested. McClory used up his appeals - he took it as far as he could go. He no longer holds the movie rights to Thunderball or the characters in that movie.

Blofeld was never properly dispatched, and this would be a nice way to handle that. It gives Bond some great motivation to complete the mission - which would be to dismantle SPECTRE once their re-emergence was known.

You could still do the movie pretty close to the book, just replacing SMERSH with SPECTRE, and nowadays SPECTRE could be one of the forces aiding terrorist groups (in exchange for some healthy payments).

With or without Blofeld it works, but with Blofeld it could tie up loose ends. (And that bit at the beginning of For Your Eyes Only was just a joke - literally. It was just meant to be fun and funny. It would be easy to say that wasn't Blofeld, and that Blofeld had survived at the end of Diamonds Are Forever.

Scot1458

B5ERIK

If what you say is correct, than they should bring back either Spectre or Blofield, or Smersh. Bond needs an enemy who makes more than one appearnce. Think about it, out of the 6 Connery films, 5 had SPECTRE in it.

They need to bring some continuity to the series.

Krug

I think they avoided gunfights in DAD because they realised they can get pretty boring quickly.
As for Smersh and Spectre, it's one element I'm not sure will work. Too 'comic-bookish'.

Scot1458

I don't know. With the Extreme Islamic terrorist groups killing people all over the world, something like a SMERSH might be real contermpoary.

littlefuzzy

Personally, I liked the original Casino Royale...

BizRodian

Which is hard, since Bond would be like 72 if we really followed continuity...

Hobgoblin

I would love to see the Vivienne Michel/Horror/Sluggsy story from "The spy who loved me" novel incorporated into a future Bond Movie.
IMHO Horror and Sluggsy are some of the best Bond villains in the novels.

Scot1458

Not DC Comics type of continutity, but something like the early bonds where 4 or 5 films would fit together.

Almost like Godzilla.

djmont

The problem with having one of those Master Villains like Blofeld is that everyone in the audience would be giggling, thinking about Dr. Evil.

B5Erik

I don't think so. Not if the part is written right, and not if the right actor (like a Patrick Stewart) is playing the part.

Now if he put his pinky to his mouth, then the crowd drops dead with laughter... But that wouldn't happen.

Seriously, as long as he's not dressed in that grey outfit, and if he's written as an ominous figure, then no-one will associate him with Dr Evil.

They definitely can't use the cat, though.....

Scot1458

yeah, I would agree with that.

ipkevin

I think perhaps the time has passed for giving supposedly fearsome organizations names like SMERSH.

Wes Ray

I would say now that EON has full rights to SPECTRE once again, that we can safely expect to see them used within the next one or two films. They couldn't just own it and not do anything with it. It'd be a great plug for a new Bond film. "The return of SPECTRE!" Not for a title, but it'd make a great marketing point.

Also, anyone else wonder if Casino Royale's recent appearance on DVD is just a coincidence or if perhaps MGM is testing the waters for a possible remake? Could be either, I suppose. I'd love to see a serious Casino Royale movie. Probably not for Brosnan's last movie though (assuming it will be his last movie).

I'm all for the return of SPECTRE though. I'd love to see some of the OHMSS backstory of why Bond needs an absolute final revenge against Blofeld (the ending of OHMSS) fleshed out once again.

Rascal

Well, you said once again. What was wrong with Moonraker? Looked pretty final to me.

Scot1458

You mean FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

Trouble is, that went from DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER to MOONRAKER without a mention of Blofield.

Rascal

Doh! There's plenty of bad guys in the world. MI6 is not just to go after Blofeld.

B5Erik

That wasn't really Blofeld in FYEO. That was just a joke. Pretty funny, too...

And since they haven't had the REAL Blofeld in a movie in 30 years, I think that it wouldn't be overkill to bring him back - and to give real closure to that issue.

B5Erik

Al Qaeda, Hamas, SPECTRE - what's the difference? All are dangerous, all are a threat to world peace and political stability - only one of them is fictional.

In my story idea SPECTRE is supplying arms and training to terrorist groups (a very profitable enterprise for them), and also for rogue third world countries. Their goal always was political chaos and instablity - they made huge profits off of OTHER people's conflicts. This new story idea fits in perfectly with what they did before, only now they are keeping a lower profile.