Sunday, March 18, 2012

OFFICIAL: NO 'SKYFALL' NOVELIZATION (DANG IT)


Well, I have a disappointing "exclusive" today. Ian Fleming Publications has confirmed for me that there will NOT be a novelization of Skyfall, the new James Bond film currently in production. This will be the first time a non-Fleming titled Bond film has not been novelized. The last novelization was Die Another Day by Raymond Benson in 2002.

I didn't press for the reasons why, but tradition has long been that the reigning continuation author does the novelizations, and at the moment there is no reigning continuation author. IFP is now contracting authors one book at a time, as we've seen with Sebastian Faulks (Devil May Care) and Jeffery Deaver (Carte Blanche).

So it looks like we will be experiencing Skyfall on the screen and not the page. But I'm sure it will still be good. ;)

Thanks to the always awesome Corinne Turner for giving me the scoop.

25 comments:

  1. Too bad, I would have loved a novelization. The last ones by Bensons were better than their movies, but hopefully Skyfall won't need a novelization.

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  2. Too bad. I was hoping they might get Benson to do it again.

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  3. John Gardner and Raymond Benson did a great job of fitting their novelizations in with both the film and book continuity (with some things that need to be overlooked, but I suppose it is possible Bond knew two Milton Krests). The problem with a SkyFall novelization is that it would be difficult to reconcile the rebooted Bond with the rest of the series--Even Jeffery Deaver's rebooted Bond book series does not gel with what EON started with 2006's Casino Royale. A straight novelization, without any of the touches added to fit it all in, would be possible, but not as much fun. I guess it is not to be!

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  4. The storyline is rubbish so who cares. Flop city on Skyfall.

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  5. Rubbish? Why not wait until you see the final product? ....or is this Peter Morgan?

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  6. I'm a bit disappointed about this. It's frustrating that IFP still haven't hired another author, unless they have but he/she can't start writing until further on down the line. I suspect they haven't though. I'd love to hear about a new adult Bond book. A novelisation would have tied us over until the next Bond yarn.

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  7. Who really needs a novel when you have a stand alone Bond film completely seperate from any book ? Why must all the films be novelized anyway?

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    1. Because they're fun to read and collect. And they've been part of the Bond tradition.

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  8. I'm sorry, this news story doesn't quite make sense to me, i would appreciate clarification-

    "This will be the first time a non-Fleming titled Bond film has not been novelized. The last novelization was Die Another Day by Raymond Benson in 2002."

    the first line of that suggest Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace were novelized, but the second sentence suggests they were not.. which was is it?

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    1. NON-Fleming titled. CR and QOS are Fleming titles. The were not novelized. The last non-Fleming titled Bond film was DAD.

      And don't confuse novelizations with tie-ins. Novelizations are wholly original. Tie-ins are the Fleming books with movie covers.

      Hope this helps clarify.

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  9. I think they've been making an effort of late to show BookBond as something completely seperate from FilmBond. I know QOS got a tie-in of sorts, but I don't remember seeing one with Craig on the cover (one was with Fahey art, and the modern classics one with a woman smoking).

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  10. This just really stinks. Is this EON's way of keeping what's still secret about the plot a secret, or is it IFP just being lazy? Or somewhere in the middle?

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    1. I don't think it has anything to do with secrecy. People keep talking about that, but I really don't think that's a factor. And IFP is certainly not "lazy."

      It just might be simple business decision. Novelizations nowadays might not be worth the time and expense. Or, like Luke says, a novelization might not fit into their vision of the lit Bond at the moment.

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  11. Not really suprising for all the various reasons - the plot secrecy, the fact novelizations have probably ahd their day, IPF employing the continuation authors on a gig-by-gig basis. Would have been more shocked if one HAD been produced; how do you set a rebooted DC-Bond in lit form in the world of Deaver's rebooted, metrosexual Bond, or do you make it a modern day sequel to Fleming's Bond (and therefore canon)???

    Best left alone for many, many reasons, then.

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    1. You have a point, David. But 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. Of course we're starting to stack up quite a few universes, aren't we?

      Ah, heck, I just wanted another book for the shelf. :)

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    2. Fair points, John, a SKYFALL novel without ties could exist, but in the case of all the previous novelizations, they have all tried fit themselves in the "standard" literary continuity. That isn't so easy any more. I think even to IPF chucking out a "stand-alone" paperback by an unrecognised writer just doesn't seem right. Me? I don't want another book on the shelf unless it makes sense in the lit. universe - which is where we differ!

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    3. I think you're right, and probably right in line with IFPs thinking on this. If we think about it, the new IFP was still formulating its master plan when the last novelization was done. And that might have been a holdover from the Glidrose days. Not doing anymore novelizations might have been decided long ago as part of the new master plan. As you say, it might have been a bigger surprise if they announced they were doing a Skyfall novelization.

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    4. Who knows, if SKYFALL is huge IFP my come round to putting something out... Weren't we a little surprised when LTK was novelized back in '89 after a 10 year break? And even more so when, after the initial cheap paperback, the hardback Armchair Detective Library editions appeared out of the blue?

      Unlikely for SKYFALL, sure. But more probable than the idea of a mas-market paperback with the launch of the film? I'd say so.

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    5. Yeah, that crossed my mind as well. Maybe...

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  12. very disappointed! As you said, another Bond novel for the shelf was all I wanted.

    I just hope we get another new novel, or an official continuation author soon!

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  13. Novelizations have been a dying breed for a long time. With films being available on DVD/Blu-ray and download sometimes within weeks, the idea of "refreshing the memory" has gone by the wayside, and the idea of novelizations being able to expand a story in a way the film can't due to budget or effects limitations has long gone as well. Indeed, novelizations were dying even when Benson wrote Die Another Day.

    I suppose it makes sense. There was no novelization of Quantum of Solace either, and they could have novelized Casino Royale too. With that new Boyd book rebooting things (again...) maybe they just don't want competing novels. The thing to remember about Benson and Gardner is their novelizations were considered part of their own line of books. Until IFP decides to stick with a single author for a while, novelizations just won't make much sense.

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  14. I'm really disappointed that you never write the story of James Bond in Skyfall on the paperback. When will you do that?
    Randal H. Upton

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