What if there was a Rival Bond film series?

[krazijoe]

I always thought Jack Ryan was supposed to be something akin to Bond while not being 1:1 exactly. Multple actors in the role, and most of the titles sure sound Bond-like.

Ryan was a CIA Analyst that got pulled into some hairy situations not a spy/operative. Looking back, I don't see many people like Bond. Some of the espionage shows etc but in the movies? He's not an assassin he's part of a group, though we really don't see the other 00X people.

[ChrisIII]

Some of the movie plots do occasionally revolve around Bond finishing the job of 00 who was failed or was killed (Mostly in the Roger Moore films). Then of course there's Goldeneye where the former 00 is the villain.

The Living Daylights of course had the twist of a 00 being killed to send Bond toward the wrong target, but Bond figured out something wasn't right about the whole thing.

There's also sort of a running gag in several films of M threatening to replace Bond on the mission with 008 when he feels Bond might be emotionally compromised by the mission (Goldfinger's murder of Jill Masterson, for example).

[Jim Kelly]

Jethro Bodine could have had his own series as a double naught spy.

Fred Flintstone was THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE (1966).

[ChrisIII]

Brosnan's 2014 thriller November Man seemed to be marketed heavily as a pseudo-Bond, even with a former Bond girl. Craig was actually cast as Peter Devereux before Brosnan, but had to drop out (probably to film SPECTRE) .

Reportedly they even considered Connery at one point-it's kind of a role I could've seen Connery take in the 1990s....

Brosnan played off being the "almost" Bond (as he was originally cast in TLD until the Remington Steele stuff) in the late 80s in some ads.




Lazenby likewise used a sort of pseudo-Bond persona in some of his later starring roles and advertising.

[Scott Taylor]

And my absolute favorite of the James Bond takeoff television shows, admittedly my favorite because it probably deviated away from that premise more than any of them, "The Wild Wild West" (CBS/ 1965-69), which was conceived of as "An American James Bond in the Old West".

Absolutely. The TV show did a great job incorporating gadgetry as well, making it very Bond-like. But its timing was horrible. America was getting away from the cowboy series like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, but also society was in flames due to all the protests and the war happening and the finger was getting pointed at violence on TV as part of the problem.

But I loved the gadgets and espionage elements. Its a show that does a great job with the intrigue. But it seems like society is done with Wild West stuff as anything but a subject of mockery.

[Powerboy]

Absolutely. The TV show did a great job incorporating gadgetry as well, making it very Bond-like. But its timing was horrible. America was getting away from the cowboy series like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, but also society was in flames due to all the protests and the war happening and the finger was getting pointed at violence on TV as part of the problem.

But I loved the gadgets and espionage elements. Its a show that does a great job with the intrigue. But it seems like society is done with Wild West stuff as anything but a subject of mockery.

Well, except for stuff like "News of the World" and other very selective westerns. But, true, the 1960s was the era when interest was moving away from the past, especially the Old West, and often towards a fictional future. I think the WWW incorporated enough sci fi/ fantasy that it stood out from the standard western. But the anti-violence stuff killed it- pun intended.

Ironically, by the 1990s, a friend of mine who had never seen the show watched a rerun with me and his comment was, "What violence? Sure, there were a couple of big fights but no blood and nobody got killed. In the shootout, a guy did get killed but there was no blood, no glorification of it. He just fell down and he was dead."

I think what ended the whole no violence thing was the cable shows. The networks saw they were *ahem* shooting themselves in the foot by restricting the violence. Then computer games came out and took make-believe violence to a whole new level.

[ChrisIII]

Curiously, Roger Moore was generally against the violence in the Bond films, including his own (Such as when Bond kicks a car off a cliff in "For Your Eyes Only" or when Zorin kills his own men in "View to A Kill"); he generally preferred when the bad guys were defeated in a 'silly' way, like by gadgets in Live and Let Die or Moonraker, or at least in a less bloody fashion (Khan, Tee-Hee, Zorin etc.)

Think Jaws was also one of the few major henchmen to actually survive both his films, and even get a romance subplot in the process as well (In Moonraker). Although it's possible Whisper and of course Baron Samedi survived Live and Let Die as well.


Of course the one henchmen we never see Bond kill off had one of the worst offenses-Irma Bunt in OHMSS had the gun that killed Tracy in OHMSS, even if Blofeld gave the order.

It's possible she's killed between the films but nothing is ever confirmed. She isn't even directly killed in the novels either; in fact she kills Bond's son in a later non-Fleming tale (In the novels he does have a kid with Kissy while he is amnesiac).

[Mister Mets]

So would it be two seperate takes on Bond? Like how we have Elementary, BBC Sherlock and Guy Ritchies's Sherlock films at the same time?

With Amazon buying MGM, I could easily imagine a Bond TV series parallel to a James Bond streaming series.

In this case, it wouldn't be rivals and they could coordinate to have different takes.

[Nate Grey]

Ryan was a CIA Analyst that got pulled into some hairy situations not a spy/operative. Looking back, I don't see many people like Bond. Some of the espionage shows etc but in the movies? He's not an assassin he's part of a group, though we really don't see the other 00X people.

Like I said it's not 1:1 but its the closest we have to a rival series given its longevity (films and show) and the things it does have in common (lofty titles+multiple actors as Ryan). A spy/assassin series identical to Bond would be too on the nose. But even still Bond winds up in hairy situations too, usually cause a mission doesn't go well (he was even tricked into a mission in one of them), its just, correct, CIA analyst=/=spy and assassin, yes.

Unless this thread is asking for a literal, in-all-but-name copycat Bond series, which would be a clone and subject to plagiarism charges I imagine? If so, I feel like there's been plenty of one-offs that usually never made it to a second movie out there, those are pretty numerous. Maybe xXx? Kingsmen?

[K7P5V]

Absolutely. The TV show did a great job incorporating gadgetry as well, making it very Bond-like. But its timing was horrible. America was getting away from the cowboy series like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, but also society was in flames due to all the protests and the war happening and the finger was getting pointed at violence on TV as part of the problem.

But I loved the gadgets and espionage elements. Its a show that does a great job with the intrigue. But it seems like society is done with Wild West stuff as anything but a subject of mockery.

I know, right?! Along with having one of the best theme songs ever (XD)

[achilles]

Ryan was a CIA Analyst that got pulled into some hairy situations not a spy/operative. Looking back, I don't see many people like Bond. Some of the espionage shows etc but in the movies? He's not an assassin he's part of a group, though we really don't see the other 00X people.

I did like many of the Jack Ryan movies, starting with Red October. Good in their own way, a bit more grounded than a Bond movie I should think.

[achilles]

I know, right?! Along with having one of the best theme songs ever (XD)

That whole opening sequence they did was among the best ever. Just a really fun show, even today. Robert Conrad, (Jim West), died in 2020 IIRC.

[kingaliencracker]

Maybe it's because I'm not understanding the nature of this thread, but I'm very surprised no one has mentioned Jason Bourne yet.

[ChrisIII]

Think I was kind of going for what if McClory's Bond plans had somehow succeeded and there were two competing Bond franchises, not necessarily a rival spy franchise but Bond itself, which did briefly happen in 1983 with NSNA and Octopussy releasing the same year and possibly could've happened again had the rights issues not been sorted out.

Kind of got derailed a bit, partly my fault though.

[krazijoe]

Maybe it's because I'm not understanding the nature of this thread, but I'm very surprised no one has mentioned Jason Bourne yet.

Because He is an assassin and that is pretty much it.