There won’t be a novelization of Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film, the BOOK BOND WEB SITE REPORTED, citing Ian Fleming Publications.
Raymond Benson, most recent 007 novelization author
There was no statement on the Ian Fleming Publications Web site as of 3 p.m. Eastern Time on March 18. On the Book Bond site, webmaster John Cox said he didn’t press for the reasons why there won’t be a novelization.
One possibility (our own speculation): director Sam Mendes has had a penchant for secrecy for all matters Skyfall, even to the point of denying in early 2010 he was in talks to direct the film even after his own publicist had confirmed such talks were, in fact, underway. A novelization is typically available before a film’s release and is the ultimate spoiler. One exception: Max Allan Collins, in his novelization for Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy movie, awkwardly told the reader Tracy was surprised who the mystery was without revealing the identity.
IFP controls the literary Bond. Novelizations were published for the four Pierce Brosnan films: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. John Gardner did the GoldenEye novelization in 1995 and Raymond Benson the others, beginning in 1997. In 2002, Benson’s final Bond continuation novel had been published but he was the logical choice to do Die Another Day’s novelization published in the fall of that year.
With 2006’s Casino Royale, IFP re-issued Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel of the same name, and with 2008’s Quantum of Solace, IFP put out two Fleming short stories, including Quantum of Solace, which had nothing to do with the film.
Going further back, Christopher Wood penned novelizations for The Spy Who Loved Me (“James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me”) and Moonraker (“James Bond and Moonraker”) in 1977 and 1979 respectively. Gardner also wrote the novelization for 1989’s Licence to Kill.
IFP has no “regular” Bond continuation novel author. Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver were hired to do one-offs (Devil May Care for Faulks where he was “writing as Ian Fleming” and Carte Blanche for Deaver). Interestingly, based on spoilers that have leaked out, Skyfall has a plot element similar to Carte Blanche. (We referenced that spoiler in a March 17 post, so we won’t mention it here).
Filed under: James Bond Books, James Bond Films | Tagged: Bond 23, Christopher Wood, Die Another Day, Goldeneye, Ian Fleming, Ian Fleming Publications, James Bond Books, James Bond Films, John Gardner, Max Allan Collins, Moonraker, No Skyfall novelization, Raymond Benson, Sam Mendes, Skyfall, Skyfall spoilers, The Book Bond Web site, The Spy Who Loved Me, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies |
The Spy Command 
Thanks for the shout out guys. I don’t expect we will see anything on the IFP site about this. Corinne just told me because I asked.
No worries, John. We just revised the post to note that, in many ways, a novelization is the ultimate spoiler. Max Allan Collins, in his novelization for 1990’s Dick Tracy, tried to avoid it, but it came out awkward.
One more reason might be that Q and mainly Moneypenny – two cinematic elements – have way too much importance in ‘Skyfall’. And it would be quite awkward to introduce them in this literature era. Otherwise a transformed story with different characters wouldn’t be much of a novelization, but a story based on ‘Skyfall’.
Interesting point, Roland. Although I don’t think it’s necessary that a novelization tie into the literary Bond universe. It can just be the movie world. I expect most readers of novelizations are not readers of the books anyway. And those of us who are understand that Bond exists in more than one universe.