Jackson Gillis dies, long-time TV writer who dabbled in spy adventures

Jackson Gillis, a television writer from the 1950s to the 1990s, died Aug. 19, just two days shy of his 94th birthday. His many, many credits included episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, The Wild, Wild West and Mission: Impossible.

Those weren’t his most significant credits. Those would probably be the George Reeves Adventures of Superman show and Columbo. But after reading the Bruce Weber-written obituary in The New York Times, we felt it should be noted here.

You can watch one Gillis-scripted episode of I Spy by CLICKING HERE. Below, is a clip from The Galtea Affair, from the third season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., originally written as a typical Napoleon Solo-Illya Kuryakin adventure but Girl’s Mark Slate subbed for Solo for most of the episode:

Gillis’s final TV credit was a 1994 remake of one of his Adventures of Superman scripts where the Man of Steel gets amnesia after stopping a giant asteroid from hitting earth. Here’s a clip from another Gillis-scripted Superman story, a scene that got deleted when the show went into syndication:

NPR on “Project X”

Jeffrey Deaver in London

Today’s update of the National Public Radio website has a little nugget of a piece of the upcoming “Project X” James Bond novel by Jeffrey Deaver.

(As an immediate side note, the article asks the question

The more we read about this summer’s so-so blockbusters and outright bombs, the more we think … wouldn’t it be nice to have a James Bond movie right about now?

Just imagine how a Bond movie would absolutely rule this summer’s mediocre box office!)

We’re not sure there’s anything in it that’s really stop-the-presses new for fans of the literary 007, but Glenn McDonald’s article Where’s James Bond When You Need Him? On Next Summer’s Bookshelves serves nicely to keep interest up.

(It also gives us the opportunity to say that the next issue of Her Majesty’s Secret Servant will be featuring a much more in-depth interview with the new James Bond author!) Watch this space…

BBC says MI5 suspected 007 screenwriter of being a Communist agent

Wolf Mankowitz has only one official 007 screenwriting credit but his influence extends beyond that. Anyway, the writer was monitored by the U.K.’s MI5, which suspected Mankowitz of being a Commnist agent, the BBC reported this week, citing newly released government records.

You can read the full story BY CLICKING HERE. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Born in London’s East End, Mr Mankowitz attended the University of Cambridge where he joined the university’s Socialist Society and met his wife Ann, a Communist Party member.

MI5 first became interested in Mr Mankowitz in 1944, when the couple were living in Newcastle.

Mankowitz is one of the credited screewriters of producer Charles K. Feldman’s 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale. But a few years earlier, he introduced Harry Saltzman, who held an option on Ian Fleming’s 007 novels that was running out, with Albert R. Broccoli. That fateful meeting resulted in the 1961 formation of Eon Productions, the company that produces the official Bond film series.

Mankowitz worked on the new company’s first project, Dr. No, along with Richard Maibaum but, according to the documentary Inside Dr. No, pulled out, fearing the project would be a disaster.

Also, according to film historian Adrian Turner’s 1998 book on Goldfinger, Mankowitz sold Saltzman an idea that was incorporated in to that 1964 film. Turner quotes Mankowitz as saying he came up with the idea of having a Mafia chief put into the trunk of a car that would be run a car crushing machine. The price: 500 British pounds.

Also, here’s a shoutout to Jeremy Duns, author of the spy novel Free Country, from whom we learned of the BBC story on Mankowitz.

11 U.N.C.L.E. facts for fans of Mad Men

Thanks to a clip shown on the most recent episode, fans of AMC’s Mad Men series have either discovered or re-discovered The Man From U.N.C.L.E. So here are 11 U.N.C.L.E. facts for fans of the show. Why 11? Check out reason No. 1:

1. Napoleon Solo, the title character of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. wore badge 11 while at U.N.C.L.E. headquarters. Fellow agent Illya Kuryakin’s badge number was 2 and Alexander Waverly, Number One of Section One, apparently first among equals of U.N.C.L.E.’s five regional headquarters, wore the No. 1 badge.

2. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was involved with U.N.C.L.E. for a short time. He contributed the character names Napoleon Solo and April Dancer. Under pressure from 007 producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, he bailed out of the project and signed away any rights for one British pound.

3. U.N.C.L.E. has no “created by” credit but Sam Rolfe received a “developed by” credit. He wrote the pilot script and produced the first season of Man (including The Hong Kong Shilling Affiar, the episode shown on the Aug. 22 episode of Mad Men).

4. While Rolfe created Illya Kuryakin, Number Two of Section Two (Operations and Enforcement, where Solo was Number One of Section Two), the character was refined, and perhaps even defined, by writer Alan Caillou (1914-2006), who wrote seven Man episodes including the first with significant Illya time (The Quadripartite Affair), the first Illya-centric episode (The Bow-Wow Affair) and two episodes where he also appeared as an actor (The Terbuf Affair and The Tigers Are Coming Affair) He bailed out during the second season, a loss for the series.

5. Man was threatened with cancellation in its first season. It initially aired on NBC Tuesday nights and couldn’t overcome Red Skelton’s variety show on CBS. Midway through the first season, it got moved to Monday nights (which incuded the episode seen on Mad Men) and ratings improved. It also helped that Goldfinger, which had its U.S. premier in the U.S. in December 1964, boosted the market for spy-related entertainment.

6. NBC was keen for a spinoff featuring an U.N.C.L.E. woman agent even if Man stars Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were hostile to it. Thus, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. was born, running just one season, 1966-67.

7. Man’s best season for ratings was its second campaign, the 1965-66 season, when it aired at 10 p.m. Fridays on NBC>

8. NBC twice pre-empted Man to show specials (The Incredible World of James Bond and Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond) promoting the James Bond movies Thunderball and You Only Live Twice. That’s ironic, because Broccoli and Saltzman had previously sued to try to prevent Man from ever going on the air, claiming that the dashing Napoleon Solo would be mistaken for the gangster Mr. Solo, who got killed by Oddjob in the film version of Goldfinger.

9. The papers of Man executive producer Norman Felton (b. 1913) and veteran Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum (1909-1991) are both stored at the University of Iowa.

10. Man, a little more than three years after its debut, was canceled, with its last episode appearing in January 1968. The very next week, on Jan. 22, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in debuted featuring Leo G. Carroll, in character as U.N.C.L.E. boss Mr. Waverly.

11. There have been various attempts at an U.N.C.L.E. revival: a 1977 project featuring a Sam Rolfe script that was never filmed; an early 1980s project intended as a feature film in which Bond production designer Ken Adam was interested in doing the sets; and a 2005 (or so) project where the producer involved was found by a jury of being guilty of fraud.

The only revival project to actually be produced, to date, was a 1983 television movie called The Return of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair, which aired on CBS but didn’t result in a new series. The cast included George Lazenby, the one-time 007, as “JB,” a British spy who comes to the aid of Napoleon Solo in Las Vegas.

To look at various other ties between U.N.C.L.E. and 007, just CLICK HERE, in which you’ll see a photograph of a famous actor who just celebrated his 80th birthday and another Scotsman who was seen on the Mad Men episode.

To see many, many stills from The Hong Shilling Affair episode shonw on Mad Men, you can CLICK HERE.

Happy 80th birthday, Sean Connery

As we type this, it’s Aug. 25 in Scotland, the land of Sean Connery’s birth. So here’s happy 80th birthday, Sir Sean, the first film James Bond.

Connery, of course, helped make 007 a phenomenon. There was that simple, yet powerful, introduction:

There were a number of memorable moments:

Of course, there were some critics:

But seriously, Terence Young, the first 007 film director, once said the three reasons the Bond films succeeded were, “Sean Connery, Sean Connery and Sean Connery.”

That may overlook Young’s own contributions (coaching diamond in the rough Connery about clothing and the right foods), Ken Adam’s sets (his sets make the modestly budgeted Dr. No look expensive) and John Barry’s music. But it was Connery that drew movie goers to theaters to see the film adapations of Ian Fleming’s novels. Fleming himself, initially not liking the casting, grew to appreciate Connery.

Connery had a fabulous film career that extended far beyond James Bond. Still, 007 remains the role that defines that career. And it’s Connery that first made Bond a film hero. Whether it be in action:

Or wooing the opposite sex:

WSJ profiles Ian Fleming Foundation’s Doug Redenius

The Wall Street Journal, in its Personal Journal section, ran a profile of Doug Redenius, the Ian Fleming Foundation vice president who supervises that group’s efforts to acquire and revamp vehicles that have appeared in James Bond movies.

The story by Mark Yost has this passage:

The 54-year old has been a postal worker for more than 30 years and married to the same woman for almost as long. But through luck and determination this humble, middle-class Bond enthusiast from Illinois, who has been a fan of the films and of Agent 007 since the age of 8, has managed to amass the largest collection of James Bond cars in the world. You could call him Q’s archivist.

Unfortunately, for much of the year, this impressive 33-item collection is sitting in a barn in a cornfield here, about 10 miles from St. Ann, Ill., where Mr. Redenius grew up. But he is hoping to change that. He has partnered with the city of Momence, one of many dying river towns in the Midwest. Together, Mr. Redenius and Momence are hoping to raise enough money to build the Museum of Bond Vehicles and Espionage. At the bare minimum, they’ll renovate an abandoned used-car dealership, hoping to draw about 20,000 visitors a year. If they can find a rich benefactor, they’d like to build a $1.5 million, 14,000-square-foot exhibit space, designed by the hip Chicago architecture firm Gensler.

You can read all of Yost’s story BY CLICKING HERE. That link also includes a slideshow of some of the vehicles stored at Momence, Illinois. If you’re looking for a copy of the print edition, the story is in the D section (page D5 of the edition we saw).

Also, from the HMSS archives, you read about Redenius’ personal collection (which is separate from the foundation vehicles) BY CLICKING HERE.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. meets Mad Men

The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the 1964-68 spy series, had a one-evening revival — as a 1960s cultural reference on the acclaimed cable-television series Mad Men. Here’s how Vanity Fair’s James Walcott described the reference:

What was even more harshly cruel about the Sally’s shaming was that she was only responding naturally to the sight and plight of The Man of U.N.C.L.E.’s Illya Kuryakin. All the little girls loved Illya Kuryakin with his blonde bangs and black turtlenecks, and the older girls too. That’s how it was then–for a season or two, in adolescent hearts across America, Illya was the Fifth Beatle.]

To read all of Walcott’s post on Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men blog, just JUST CLICK HERE.

The U.N.C.L.E. scene is from the first-season episode The Hong Kong Shilling Affair, in which agent Kuryakin is tied up along with Glenn Corbett as the episode’s “innocent.” There might have been a shot of Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo also, but it’s hard to tell; by that point, Mad Men’s camera is away from the television set. For more details and a review of the U.N.C.L.E. episode, just CLICK RIGHT HERE.

An U.N.C.L.E. friend pointed out the Walcott blog. We’re going to watch the entire Mad Men episode now.

2006: film professionals describe Sean Connery’s impact as 007

Sean Connery turns 80 this week. There’s a lot that could be said — and is said everyday on James Bond fan message boards — about how the Scottish actor created the film 007. Four years ago, when the American Film Institute gave Sir Sean its lifetime achievement award, film professionals summed it all up pretty well.

Director Steven Spielberg provided an overview specifically about Connery’s impact as Bond:

Mike Myers provided the perspective of those who’ve made a pretty good living doing parodies of Sir Sean:

While Pierce Brosnan could speak from the standpoint of a 007 successor:

David Arnold still optimistic about Bond 23

David Arnold, the composer for James Bond movies since 1997, told the BBC on Aug. 13 he’s still optimistic about Bond 23.

“It won’t be next year,” he said of the next entry in the 007 film series. He said in an interview that Bond 23 would come in 2012 if studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s financial situation gets sorted out. “It’s freed up the next year for me,” he said. “There will be a good eight or nine movies for me between Quantum of Solace and the next one.” He described that period as “a little bit of a breather” for him to pursue other projects. If Arnold is correct, four years will separate Quantum and Bond 23.

But he also made clear to the BBC he’s still jazzed about Bond. “There’s still as much energy and enthusiasm and love for it,” the composer told the BBC.

To listen to the interview, you can CLICK RIGHT HERE. The interview with Arnold begins roughly around the 1:05 mark and comments about Bond 23 begin around the 1:14 mark.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times, in its Company Town blog, reported Aug. 18 that progress is being made where Spyglass Entertainment will take over management of MGM. The article starts thusly:

A plan by Spyglass Entertainment to take over management of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has taken a major step forward and is now being considered by all of the struggling studio’s lenders.

Spyglass chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum first began discussions with a handful of MGM’s top debt owners several months ago.

But this week Spyglass and the MGM leading debtors subcommittee hammered out all the details of a mutually agreeable plan, according to two people familiar with the situation.

If that scenario comes to pass, Arnold’s projection of a 2012 release for Bond 23 may come to pass. To read the entire article, just CLICK HERE.

007 Fidelity Index: how close are the films to the books? Part III

We conclude our comparison of James Bond films to the Ian Fleming originals. We’ve gotten a mixed reaction. While some like the analysis, there’s also a worry that these entries reinforce fan like/dislike of particular actors.

These postings, for the most part, aren’t intended as movie reviews (though we admit to taking a shot to the second half of Die Another Day in a previous installment). And they’re not intended to praise or criticize any particular actor. Anway, here’s our final category, films that are virtually entirely creations of the filmmakers with next to nothing of Fleming’s novels or short stories:

MADE UP OF WHOLE CLOTH

The Spy Who Loved Me: The official story, told time and again, is that the deal Eon Productions made with Fleming is that only the title of the author’s novel could be used. That’s understandable. Bond doesn’t appear until two-thirds of the way through and the story is told from the perspective of a young woman who has had her share of troubles in life.

The movie Spy, from all accounts, was the first time Eon retained the services of a tag team of writers, including future director John Landis, author Anthony Burgess and DC Comics writer Cary Bates. The final script was credited to Christopher Wood, director Lewis Gilbert’s choice, and 007 veteran Richard Maibaum. It’s a virtual remake of You Only Live Twice (also directed by Gilbert). In a documentary on the film’s DVD, we’re told that superthug Jaws was inspired by Horror, a thug in the novel who wore braces. The film ended up being a bit hit and re-established 007 as a popular movie figure at a time many critics wondered if he was washed up.

A View To a Kill: The movie is viewed by some fans as yet another remake of Goldfinger. But the Richard Maibaum-Michael G. Wilson script seems to channel John Gardner’s continuation novels as much as Fleming, including a scene set as the Ascot horse-racing track, also featured in Gardner’s License Renewed novel. That’s somewhat amusing given how Wilson has badmouthed Gardner’s novels, including at a 1995 fan convention in New York City. Then again, you can’t copyright locations, and as a result, you don’t have to pay royalties and rights fees.

GoldenEye: Bond returned to movie screens in 1995, six years after his previous film adventure. Once more, Eon brought in multiple writers. Three got some form of credit: Michael France, Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein. One, Kevin Wade, didn’t, though he managed to have a CIA operative (played by Joe Don Baker) named after himself. The film also launched the seven-year tenure of Pierce Brosnan as Bond.

Tomorrow Never Dies: If it worked once (bringing in several writers), it can work again, or at least that seemed to be Eon’s approach to Pierce Brosnan’s second 007 outing. Novelist Donald E. Westlake was among those employed at least at one point. Westlake’s involvement might have gone unnoticed except the author told an Indiana audience that he would be writing the film. That was news to Bruce Feirstein, standing next to Michael G. Wilson, when Wilson was asked about Westlake’s comments during a 1995 fan convention in New York City.

The film ended up with a “Written by Bruce Feirstein” credit but that was misleading. Other writers were brought in after Feirstein submitted a draft. Feirstein was summoned to finish things up as the film faced tight, frantice deadlines to ensure a Christmas 1997 release.

The World Is Not Enough: by 1998-1999, Eon’s approach to film writing was well established: bring in enough writers and you can develop a workable story. This time, it began with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, with Dana Stevens (wife of director Michael Apted) playing midwife and Bruce Feirstein finishing things up. All but Stevens would get a credit.

Quantum of Solace: The most recent 007 movie follows a familiar pattern. The Purvis and Wade duo worked on the project at one point. Paul Haggis did the heavy lifting as the project faced a Writers Guild deadline for a strike. Another screenwriter, Joshua Zetumer, was brought in for final polishes. Haggis got top billing in the eventual writing credit followed by Purvis and Wade, with no mention of Zetumer. The film was a big hit, though some fans wondered if the movie was too heavily influenced by the Jason Bourne movies. There were few critques suggesting the film had too many Ian Fleming influences.