What if there was a Rival Bond film series?

[signalman112]

James Coburn in the two "FLINT" movies are a fun time.

Flint.jpg

[Malvolio]

FOX Movie Channel just ran both Flint movies back to back yesterday.

[Sandy Hausler]

It's possible, but I'm not sure it would work on the big screen as both sides would be worried about brand confusion. However, it seems like a good idea for streaming, particularly if they made it a book-faithful series of period pieces, like Timothy Hutton did with Nero Wolf Mysteries.

A while back on another Bond-related thread, I suggested a TV show called Universal Exports, involving the 00 Section, which would take place during the Cold War. It would not be centered on James Bond; he would one of the three (?) agents with the 00 designation. It would also rely less on the gadgets that is the trademark of modern Bond films, and more one the ingenuity of the agents. The people who commented on the idea seemed to like it, but I have no real belief that it would be a success. It seems that we have the same dream.

[DrNewGod]

A while back on another Bond-related thread, I suggested a TV show called Universal Exports, involving the 00 Section, which would take place during the Cold War. It would not be centered on James Bond; he would one of the three (?) agents with the 00 designation. It would also rely less on the gadgets that is the trademark of modern Bond films, and more one the ingenuity of the agents. The people who commented on the idea seemed to like it, but I have no real belief that it would be a success. It seems that we have the same dream.

I'd watch that til the streaming service tripled my rates! It would be particularly good if some members of the cast changed every series/season or two. Drive home the point that this 00 stuff is dangerous.

One thing that any Bond franchise is going to struggle with, particularly one set in modern times, even more than misogyny is the base assumption that British Intelligence are the Good Guys. Yeah, enforcers like Bond are inherently dubious, but in the source material and most of the films to-date, there's a sense that Universal Exports does the dirty work in serving a greater good. It's hard to sell that now. Even in a period piece you'd probably have to touch on the masters' motives being impure, but in a period piece you could probably better get away with the idea that Her Majesty's Government pursues objectives that were a better alternative to what SMERSH's masters were after.

[ChrisIII]

In the Craig films in Quantum of Solace and SPECTRE there were several members that had easily infiltrated the intelligence community and British government (Vesper, C, Guy Haines, Mitchell, probably the foreign secretary) and also the weapon in No Time To Die is an MI6 creation, so there's a bit of that.