007?

As I've mentioned before, I'm a big James Bond fan, and since the reboot of the franchise with Casino Royale, I've even started visiting some of the message boards. The latest buzz is that the upcoming Bond film (November, 2008) will be called 007. It's just a rumor at this point, but it makes a lot of sense in the context of the reboot. Casino Royale was all about Bond earning his license to kill and the next film will be about Bond becoming Bond, i.e. 007.

It some respects, it's a bold and controversial choice, much like the casting of Daniel Craig in the role, and I have to say, I love where the series seems to be headed. And that includes hiring Mark Forster (The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction) as the director. In an interview, he sited the exotic locales as one of the reasons he thinks Bond was so popular back in the 60s. But nowadays lots of people travel and so the setting is not quite the draw it once was. According to Forster, the most interesting place for Bond to go now is deep inside himself.

I agree, and I find that to be the case with the characters I create, especially my villains. I want to know what makes them tick. I want to know specific incidences in their childhood that made them become who and what they are today. Very little of their background may end up in the book, but that's not the point. I need to know. Because the most interesting--and often scariest--place for a writer to go is deep inside his character's head.

Becoming Bond

It's been a year since the fabulous Casino Royale premiered at Leicester Square in London with the queen in attendance, and I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the crap poor Daniel Craig had to put up with after signing on to become the sixth James Bond.

Bond fans claimed he was too blonde, too short, too frail to be a convincing 007 (see photo). Not handsome enough, not suave enough, not James Bond enough (again, see photo). And God knows, he'd never be able to pull off wearing a tux (see video below).

Then came the rumors from the set--he'd gotten two teeth knocked out the first day of filming and he couldn't handle the Aston Martin's stick shift (both rumors totally bogus). A website run by disgruntled Pierce Brosnan fans called for a boycott of Casino Royale and all future Bond films staring Craig (and that boycott worked, too, because the movie only earned a measly $600 million worldwide, the highest grossing Bond film of all time).

Critics predicted Craig would be a miserable failure in the role and he'd end up being a one-picture Bond, just like George Lazenby (note: according to the Daily Mail, Daniel Craig recently signed a record-breaking, $60 million deal to play James Bond for four more films--I should be such a miserable failure!).

The rest, as they say, is history.

Clive Owen: International Man of Mystery

Clive Owen is The International--not to be confused with Christopher Walken’s The Continental on SNL (lol).

For anyone who still wishes Clive had been signed to play James Bond (for the record, I’m not one of them. I couldn’t be happier with the current 007), this action-thriller could be for you.

An obsessive Interpol agent leads an investigation into an all powerful banking institution in an attempt to expose connections to weapons sales, corruption, and murder. As he comes up against resistance from his own law enforcement agency, his obsession for the case deepens. Naomi Watts will play a Manhattan assistant district attorney who partners with the agent to take down the bank. (Sources: IGN, Coming Soon, Cinematical, Cinema Blend)

Sounds like it could be right up my alley.

Watch this to see how Clive feels:

Blond Bond Here to Stay (and I couldn't be happier)

Ha! How appropriate that I posted that interview with Daniel Craig this morning. Just in from MI6: According to trade paper The Hollywood Reporter, James Bond star Daniel Craig has extended his contract to play 007 for four new films following his record-breaking debut in "Casino Royale" (2006).

This news, if true, makes me very happy as Craig's performance in Casino Royale brought me back to the Bond franchise, which I'd all but given up on. Give a clicky for my take on that film.

Check him out here with Catherine Tate in a Comic Relief spot:

MI6

I've discovered a cool new site for James Bond fans called MI6, which contains all the information you could ever hope to find on our favorite secret agent, including up-to-the-minute news on the movies, the actors, the literary James Bond, reviews, photos, fan art, speculation about the next bond girl and--my favorite part--a production diary for the upcoming (as yet untitled) feature film in 2008 starring Daniel Craig.

I'm currently reading Casino Royale, which was published in 1953. If you're only familiar with James Bond through the movies, I highly recommend that you become acquainted with Ian Fleming's 007.

Spy Thrillers

Have you noticed that the spy genre seems to be back stronger than ever? So much so that there's an all out message board war going on between James Bond and Jason Bourne fans. The kerfuffle was triggered by a comment Matt Damon made in an interview promoting his upcoming movie, The Bourne Ultimatum.

"Bond is an imperialist and he's a misogynist. He kills people and laughs and sips martinis and wisecracks about it. Bourne is this paranoid guy. He's on the run. He's not the government. The government is after him. He's a serial monogamist who's in love with his dead girlfriend and can't stop thinking about her. He's the opposite of James Bond."

Uh, 'scuse me, Matt, but have you seen Casino Royale?

But lest I sound as if I have as much time on my hand as these fanboys, I'll get to the point. I'm loving spy thrillers again after pretty much ignoring the genre for the past fifteen years or so. 24 has a lot to do with it. So does the aforementioned Casino Royale.

Back in the late seventies, I read nothing but science fiction and fantasy...by the truckload. I'm not kidding, I went through at least one book a day and sometimes read around the clock in order to finish a particularly engrossing story (back in those days, I really did have a lot of time on my hands...too bad there wasn't an Internet).

Then came The Bourne Identity in 1980 and bam! Suddenly I was knee-deep into spy thrillers. I'd read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold back in high school and, of course, some Ian Fleming along the way. And I loved all those sixties spy movies. I even had dreams of growing up and joining the CIA.

But it was Robert Ludlum who really made me a diehard fan of the genre. Once I read Bourne, I started tearing through Ludlum's back catalog like a madwoman, and though I loved most of them, The Bourne Identity (along with the equally superb The Aquitaine Progression) remained the measure by which I judged all spy tales.

During the nineties, I became interested in psychological suspense and the spy genre fizzled for me. I completely missed out on the whole Tom Clancy thing, although I've seen all the Jack Ryan movies and enjoyed them. But I bet you Tom Clancy fans feel the same way I do about the Bourne movies...that is so not Jason Bourne up there on the big screen.

So now that I'm digging spy thrillers again, I want more. What have I missed out on? Got a book or movie you'd recommend? I'd love to hear about it.

Oh, and what is the deal with the initials J.B.? James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Baur. A coincidence? I think not.