One of the great recurring James Bond tropes is to make it look as though 007 has actually been killed before the film’s title credits. You Only Live Twice, From Russia with Love and Skyfall all begin with Bond in a position where his demise seems inevitable. Of course, he always turns up alive. (Quite what the rest of the film would consist of if he didn’t is anyone’s guess: perhaps Moneypenny dealing with probate or M arranging one of those ghastly direct cremations.) Now, however, we may have reached a danger from which even Bond cannot wriggle out.
Amazon, the company responsible for one of the biggest flops in TV adaptation history, the Middle-earth prequel series The Rings of Power, has paid more than $1 billion to take ‘creative control’ of the Bond franchise. This is a bit like the White Star Line sending a telegram to the bottom of the Atlantic to ask Captain Smith if he’d like a second crack at the old ocean-liner gig. Still, this needn’t be the end of the Bond we have known and loved. If Amazon can learn from its mistakes, and really try to understand what fans long for, our man may yet live to die another day.
The first and most important lesson: don’t hire people who fundamentally hate the source material. This is essential to all decent adaptations. Peter Jackson’s passion for Tolkien’s world and lore shines through in every scene of the Lord of the Rings films. Recent Bond adaptors have shown no such affection. Cary Fukunaga, the director of Daniel Craig’s execrable final outing, No Time to Die, described Sean Connery’s 007 as ‘basically a rapist’.
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