Shiffman@WHITE.SWW.Symbolics.COM (05/20/85)
From: Hank Shiffman <Shiffman@WHITE.SWW.Symbolics.COM>
From: mtgzz!leeper@topaz.arpa (m.r.leeper)
Date: 12 May 85 02:15:21 GMT
...Also,
occasionally the film maker wants to make a faithful adaptation but
does not have the rights to the story. Sound far-fetched? They are
adapting the film but don't have the rights to do the story? Ian
Fleming sold only a few of his novels to the films but he sold all
of the titles. That is why the James Bond films soured after
THUNDERBALL.
Not exactly. Fleming sold both titles and stories to Albert Broccoli.
The only case where he sold the title but not the story was for The Spy
Who Loved Me. Fleming was somewhat embarrassed about this book, for
which I can hardly blame him. On Her Majesty's Secret Service followed
the book to the letter (with the exception of being out of sequence - it
should have preceded You Only Live Twice instead of following it). The
rest of the films ignored the books because the producer felt that it
was SF hardware, lots of women, exotic locations and car/boat/plane/...
chases which made money.
Of course, there were some pretty good reasons NOT to use the stories as
Fleming wrote them. Moonraker the book was pretty dated by the time the
film (perhaps the series' worst) was made. And For Your Eyes Only,
Octopussy and From A View To A Kill were all too short to be used as the
basis for films, although the film of Octopussy DID use the short
stories Octopussy and The Property Of A Lady to pretty good effect.
Anyway, now that the producers have run out of Fleming's titles (the
only ones left are from a couple of short stories, and somehow I don't
think we'll see a 007 film called The Hildebrand Rarity), they have the
rights to make up their own titles as well as the story lines.leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (05/23/85)
>From: Hank Shiffman <Shiffman@WHITE.SWW.Symbolics.COM> > > From: mtgzz!leeper@topaz.arpa (m.r.leeper) > Date: 12 May 85 02:15:21 GMT > > Also, occasionally the film maker wants to make a > faithful adaptation but does not have the rights to the > story. Sound far-fetched? They are adapting the film > but don't have the rights to do the story? Ian Fleming > sold only a few of his novels to the films but he sold > all of the titles. That is why the James Bond films > soured after THUNDERBALL. > >Not exactly. Fleming sold both titles and stories to Albert >Broccoli. The rest of the films ignored the books because >the producer felt that it was SF hardware, lots of women, >exotic locations and car/boat/plane/... chases which made >money. > My "facts" are based on hearsay and reading Variety. I don't remember the source of my information. I (gulp!) bow to your better knowledge, if it is better. Where did you hear it? Mark Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper
wjr@x.UUCP (Bill Richard) (05/25/85)
[] > >From: Hank Shiffman <Shiffman@WHITE.SWW.Symbolics.COM> > > > > From: mtgzz!leeper@topaz.arpa (m.r.leeper) > > Ian Fleming > > sold only a few of his novels to the films but he sold > > all of the titles. > > > >Not exactly. Fleming sold both titles and stories to Albert > >Broccoli. > > My "facts" are based on hearsay and reading Variety. I don't remember > the source of my information. I (gulp!) bow to your better knowledge, > if it is better. Where did you hear it? > > Mark Leeper > ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper I can't speak for Mr. Shiffman but I recall reading a magazine article many years ago, right after Goldfinger became a big hit, which mentioned that Broccoli and his then partner Saltzman(sp?) had bought the film rights to all of Fleming's books except one, _Casino_Royale_, which Fleming had already sold to someone else. I'm afraid I don't remember which magazine, but it was one of the major glossies of the time (Time, Newsweek, Life, ... ?). Also in support of the idea that Broccoli & Co. bought the story rights is the fact that the films have more in common with the books than just the titles. The films usually have the same characters, the same locales, and you even find tattered remanants of the original plot line. -- ---- William J. Richard @ Charles River Data Systems 983 Concord St. Framingham, MA 01701 Tel: (617) 626-1112 uucp: ...!decvax!frog!wjr
Shiffman@WHITE.SWW.Symbolics.COM (05/28/85)
From: Hank Shiffman <Shiffman@WHITE.SWW.Symbolics.COM>
From: mtgzz!leeper@topaz.arpa (m.r.leeper)
Date: 23 May 85 03:39:10 GMT
>Not exactly. Fleming sold both titles and stories to Albert
>Broccoli. The rest of the films ignored the books because the
>producer felt that it was SF hardware, lots of women, exotic
>locations and car/boat/plane/... chases which made money.
My "facts" are based on hearsay and reading Variety. I don't
remember the source of my information. I (gulp!) bow to your better
knowledge, if it is better. Where did you hear it?
007 James Bond: A Report by O.F. Snelling
The James Bond Dossier by Kingsley Amis (from before he wrote Colonel Sun)
James Bond In The Cinema by John Brosnan
Also a fair number of newspaper articles over the years and a couple of
television interviews with Broccoli.