Hello David!
Thank you for your multifaceted post! 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkpw
Quite right Petros.
In addition, Ian Fleming, a keen diver, is shown to wear a Sub in many photographs. We all know that it was a marketing decision for the Bond franchise to switch to Omega.
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Yes, spot-on indeed!
Ian Fleming has a wonderful and extremely interesting background, and his
involvement with the Naval Intelligence during WWII has left an amazing
legacy (both on its very - historical - own, and in his books)!
Fleming's involvement in (or actually his masterminding) the plan to use
Aleister Crowley in order to lure Rudolf Hess to England (and later possibly
even the plan that led to Hess' capture) is truly amazing!
(For that matter, the book "The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry
Maxwell Knight" by Anthony Masters is quite a read!!!)
The switch to Omega was indeed a marketing-related move... Much
like Seiko placed its watches on Roger Moore's wrist in some of his Bond-films
in the 70s...
(Funny enough, one "marketing-item" has had a far more solid placing within
the earliest films... the Persol sunglasses! Sean Connery is wearing 2 different
Persol models in his early 4 Bond films, and they are especially prominent in
1965's "Thunderball"! It may be though, that - as with Cubby Broccoli's own
Sub they used - it was simply the make of sunglasses Sean Connery used in
"real life", so they were simply ported over...)
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkpw
Yes, Craig is an excellent actor, although I have only watched his Bond once, I thought he captured the idea of the character from the books well. The point remains, Bond was not blond.
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Point taken!!! 
Bond was not blond, that is correct!
But if we take it literally, then... well how much of Ian Fleming's Bond made it
into the films...?
Especially the later ones...
EON productions has taken considerable liberties, even in some of the best
scripts written by Richard Maibaum!!
So, what I mean to say is that within all these liberties, the fact that they
chose a blond actor has not been that important to me... Especially since
Daniel Craig (with the help of quite a good screenplay) was able to capture
the essence (or at least parts of it) of Ian Flemings famous character
extremely well - as you have also pointed out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkpw
Petros may I finally offer you the written version from Goldfinger of your tag line. It is if anything more desperate and evil;
"Mr Bond, all my life I have been in love. I have been in love with gold. I love its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness. I love the texture of gold, that soft sliminess that I have learnt to gauge so accurately by touch that I can estimate the fineness of a bar to within one carat. And I love the warm tang it exudes when I melt it down into a true golden syrup. But, above all, Mr Bond, I love the power that gold alone gives to its owner - the magic of controlling energy, extracting labour, fulfilling one's every wish and whim and, when need be, purchasing bodies, minds, even souls. Yes, Mr Bond, I have worked all my life for gold and, in return, gold has worked for me and for those enterprises that I have espoused."
Yours
David
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Thanks a lot, David!
It is indeed a very strong piece of monologue writing! Perfect example to
show the quality of Ian Fleming as a writer!
I just thought that the shorter film-version of it would fit better as a simple
signature...
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Oh, and while we are at it... I'd also like to point out an extremely interesting
book about the genesis of the Silver Screen Bond. "The Battle For Bond" is a
book that raised quite some controversy when it was first published, and in
the end the book was pulled from circulation! It is bound to be re-released
soon (with some pages omitted), but nothing is certain yet.
Written by Robert Sellers it chronicles the collaboration between Ian Fleming
and a certain Mr. Kevin McClory, that eventually lead to the very first
screenplay ever written for (never filmed) Bond film (before EON's "Dr.No).
After the McClory & EON co-produced "Thunderball" the legal battles (with
McClory claiming that he had a major role in the creation of the film's Bond
character) raged for decades and still resonate today as show biz's most
interesting case!!!
Controversy or not, if you can get your hands on this book is worth it all the
way!! Really! If inclined, you can check out some in-depth information about
it here:
007 Magazine: Battle For Bond
Oh wow... I've been talking & talking again...
& with best regards
Petros