Ian Fleming is one of those names that not everyone remembers at first hearing. Some will think that it is related to the world of medicine or science, but the truth is that his legacy remains alive today and the star character of his novels has made a name for himself throughout the world. world. James Bond is more than the protagonist of a series of publications from the 50s and 60s.
We remember this British writer and his special agent in the 58th anniversary of his death.
Javier Sierra – Ian Fleming, Agent 007’s alter ego – Listen now
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1. Special agent or ornithologist?
Ian Fleming’s idea is that his hero’s name should sound “as mundane as possible” and that it could sound conventional, worthy of a spy seeking to be anonymous. While writing his first novel, Fleming had at his house a Jamaicaon the farm Goldeneyea copy of Birds of the west indieswritten by none other than ornithologist James Bond.
The name seemed perfect to him, although anyone can locate it today, and he debuted in 1953 and in the play Casino Royale. Interestingly, on the big screen, Pierce Brosnan appears before Halle Berry in Die another day (2002) as an ornithologist who has ended up in Cuba “because of the birds.”
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2. Cousin stuff
For the film adaptation of Dr. NoFleming had a single actor in mind, Christopher Lee (known at the time for his role in dracula and Fleming’s cousin), but the filmmakers had already settled on Joseph Wiseman.
Lee wouldn’t run out of a role in the Bond movie saga. Fleming finally got his relative to play Scaramangathe villain of The man with the golden gun, movie starring Roger Moore and cataloged as the one with the fewest 007 murders of all the adaptations, just one death. Lee stated that she approached her role as “the dark side of Bond”.
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3. The first Bond
Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore… surely many people have their own Bond and for some 007 is synonymous with Sean Connery, but the truth is that the Scottish actor was not the first to bring the character to life. He was Bob Holness who voiced the spy in a 1956 radio version.
Already for cinema technically he was the specialist Bob Simmons who appears first on the big screen, is the actor who plays Bond in the opening sequence of Dr. No and Connery didn’t show up at gunpoint until Thunderball, the fourth installment. Iconic sequence that was always placed at the beginning until Quantum of solace. The producers wanted to show a younger and inexperienced James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, and placed it at the end of the film. It was not until he reached maturity in the third installment of this saga and that is why in Spectrethe fourth film, when the shot reappeared at the beginning.
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4. Out of canon
the premiere of No time to die It is scheduled for October 2021 and with it there will be 25 adaptations of the 007 franchise, but there are two films starring James Bond outside of this great collection.
The first dates from 1967 and, although it was called Casino Royaleis not considered canonical because it is a parody of Sean Connery’s interpretations and with David Niven starring Bond. Connery would return to the role in the second installment not produced by Eon. It was an independent producer who was in charge of Never say never again and who managed to premiere it in 1983 with a 53-year-old 007.
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5. Tomorrow never… lie or die?
Pierce Bosnan’s second work in the franchise was released under the title: Tomorrow never diesa meaningless label and the result of chance.
The plot of this film revolves around the dubious journalistic rigor of the newspaper The Tomorrow and the idea was to use his name for the film. Producers and director did not agree between die (go dead) o lie (lie) for the title of the film and finally they opted for the second, but the chain of events was joined by an assistant, a fax dictated by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a typographical error that resulted in the title of the film as we know it today.
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6. M, a not so hidden identity
What would Bond do without M and M without his 007 agent?
The mysterious high official has been hiding behind an initial for years and has even recently changed sex, but his name has been shouted for years. Already in his novels, Fleming makes it clear that M is actually Admiral Sir Miles Messervy and in the movies it seemed to coincide until the arrival of Judi Dench to the paper. By this time Fleming had already died and was Raymond Benson the one in charge of the official novel The facts of death and where it was revealed that the character played by Dench was called Barbara Mawdsley.
The British actress was the third to give life to M and with the transfer of powers to the actor Ralph Fiennes the character had to be renamed. After the initial, Fiennes hid Gareth Mallory.
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7. A true Nazi on screen
James Bond has faced dozens of threats, but without a doubt one of the most remembered villains is Goldfingerantagonist of the 1964 film. A character embodied by the German actor Gert Fröbe and that he admitted to having belonged to the Nazi party during the government of Adolf Hitler.
His statement outraged more than one and, as a consequence, the premiere of Goldfinger was banned from theaters in Israel. The veto was lifted when it came to light that Fröbe saved two Jewish children during his stay in the party. The testimony of Mario Blumenauwho stated at the Israeli embassy that the actor saved him from his mother.
As if this were not enough, the problems with this film started from its shooting when it was seen that the German did not know how to speak English, not as his agent had sold him, and the participation of the British actor was necessary Michael Collinswho dubbed Fröbe’s voice in a studio.
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