Script bible for James Bond Jr.

Logo for the James Bond Jr. cartoon series, circa early 1990s

One of the more interesting parts of the James Bond film series is the James Bond Jr. cartoon series that debuted in the early 1990s.

The cartoon was co-developed by Michael G. Wilson. The show was an attempt to interest young viewers in Bond amid a 1989-1995 hiatus in the movie series.

James Bond Jr., more than three decades after his debut in a syndicated cartoon show, generates a lot of mixed comments from hard-core Bond fans.

Thanks to Bond collector Gary J. Firuta, I received a copy of the “bible” for writers of the cartoon show. Some highlights:

Our series follows the exploits and adventures of James Bond’s teenage nephew; JAMES BOND, JR. (NOTE: For clarity, hereafter, the elder James Bond will be referred to simply as “007.”)

More details:

With the security risk posed by the nature of his uncle’s work, James is enrolled in WARFIELD ACADEMY, a special, high security boarding school on the Southeast coast of Britain.

Warfield was the name of a production company set up by Albert R. Broccoli after his partnership with Irving Allen broke up. It was through Warfield (rather than Eon Productions) that Broccoli produced Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The 1968 children’s film included a combination of veterans from James Bond movies and from the 1964 film made by Walt Disney, Mary Poppins

The James Bond Jr. bible runs more than 200 pages. It describes supporting characters such as Tracy Milbanks (“the attractive daughter of Warfield’s no-nonense headmaster”); Gordon “Gordo” Leiter, “the son of 007’s best friend, CIA agent, FELIX LEITER”; and Phoebe Farragut, “the chunky bespectacled daughter of a fabulously wealthy industrialist/ambassador.”

The bible also describes how each episode of the cartoon series should mirror Bond films. It also describes how the series will have a mix of established Bond villains (Goldfinger, Oddjob, Dr. No) as well as new creations.

Bond questions: The Wrap edition

Image for the official James Bond feed on Twitter

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions granted an interview to the entertainment news website The Wrap. The half-siblings proclaimed they’re not interested in Bond film spinoffs. However, some questions appear not to have been asked.

Naturally, the blog has questions.

You say you’re not interested in spinoffs. But what about the James Bond Jr. cartoon show or that attempted Jinx spinoff movie?

Apparently, that was a different era. James Bond Jr. was made during Eon’s 1989-1995 hiatus from making James Bond films. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer eventually pulled the plug on the Jinx movie.

What about all those non-Bond movies you’ve worked on?

You mean Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017) ? Which had a global box office of $4 million? Or Nancy, which had a worldwide box office of $92,000. Or, The Rhythm Section with a global box office just shy of $6 million.

Yes, that’s what I mean.

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool and Nancy were small, dramatic films. The Rhythm Section was an espionage-themed film that sought a larger audience and, for whatever reason, didn’t achieve it. It happens that way sometimes.

What is the bottom line?

Eon’s record outside of the Bond film series is rather mixed. Compared to Nancy, Call Me Bwana (1963), the Bob Hope comedy Eon made between Dr. No and From Russia With Love, is a blockbuster. (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, based on an Ian Fleming’s children story and produced by Albert R. Broccoli, was not made under the Eon banner.)

Clearly, Eon wants to do other things besides Bond films. But Bond still is its major asset. Eon’s leadership needs to evaluate its future. We’ll see how that goes.

About that ‘James Bond knockoff’ thing

A James Bond Jr. character with a pencil communicator that looks a lot like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. pen communicator

A James Bond friend of mine misses much spy entertainment as examples of “James Bond knockoffs.”

OK. But the James Bond film franchise has, more than once, borrowed from others. A few examples:

From Russia With Love: Ian Fleming’s fifth novel didn’t include a sequence where Bond dodges a helicopter. This was something the filmmakers added to the movie to add visual excitement. Clearly, it’s an “homage” to North by Northwest where a crop-duster plane goes after Cary Grant.

More broadly, the Bond series owes a lot to North by Northwest. NxNW has a delicate balance of drama and humor. Director Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter Ernest Lehman practically provide a blueprint for the Bond series that Eon Productions would go on to make.

Live And Let Die: The eighth Eon Bond film is based on Fleming’s second novel. But its popularity also owes much to the early 1970s “blaxplotation” craze. Essentially director Guy Hamilton and screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz drop Bond into the middle of a blaxplotation movie. Mankiewicz wanted to cast Diana Ross as Solitaire but Eon wouldn’t go that far.

The Man With The Golden Gun: The ninth Eon Bond film sought to take advantage of the popularity of 1970s kung fu movies. You’d see stories (ahead of the film’s release) about how Roger Moore was training furiously to credibly do martial arts.

Moonraker: In 1966, there was an Italian-based spy movie called Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die. It shares Brazilian locations with 1979’s Moonraker. Heck, you could easily argue the 1966 movie makes better use of Brazil, including Rio’s massive Jesus statue. Also, there are sequences of the 1966 movie that would practically be repeated in Moonraker.

In addition to all that, in Moonraker, we hear a key tune from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Licence to Kill: Bond has a gun with attachments (site, extended barrel, extended magazine, rifle stock) that looks an awfully lot like the U.N.C.L.E. special. In Licence to Kill, the base gun looks like a camera but all the attachments look like the attachments of the U.N.C.L.E. Special.

James Bond Jr.: Many fans disavow this early 1990s cartoon series. But it was officially sanctioned by Eon and Michael G. Wilson shares a “developed by” credit. In episode 9, “The Eiffel Missile,” a character has a pencil communicator that appears copied from U.N.C.L.E.’s pen communicator that debuted in the second season of that series.

New book examines never-made Dalton 007 films

A question asked by James Bond fans is what would have happened if Timothy Dalton made more than two 007 films.

A new book, The Lost Adventures of James Bond, may provide answers. A press release for the book says that author Mark Edlitz “uncovers different scenarios for Timothy Dalton’s abandoned third and fourth Bond movies.”

Edlitz previously wrote the book The Many Lives of James Bond.

In 1990, a treatment for Bond 17 was written by Michael G. Wilson and Alfonse Ruggeriro that took a bigger, more science fiction take compared with Dalton’s Licence to Kill movie. The treatment included robots, including a robot that could pass for a woman.

The treatment was turned into a script by other writers and this gets examined in the new book.

A third Dalton movie ultimately was derailed when Danjaq, the parent company of Eon Productions, got into a legal fight with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Bond would not return to theater screens until 1995’s GoldenEye, with Pierce Brosnan as Bond.

The Edlitz book also looks at other Bond-related events, including the James Bond Jr. animated series and a “lost” performance by Sean Connery as Bond.

For information about ordering, CLICK HERE.