James Bond is back in...in...

Okay, our last story was obviously an April Fools joke; and even though it looks like this is another, this oddity is on the level. The current artwork on Amazon.ca for the U.S. mass market paperback edition of Devil May Care now shows the cover without a title!



While the cover appears to have lost its title, it did pick up the 007 circle logo. Perhaps the addition of this logo is why the publishers sent Amazon revised art. But they forgot something, didn't they? Well, their mistake is our gain, as this is kind of cool to see.

Devil May Care will be released as a mass market and trade paperback on May 19.

Meet "Q'ute"

The fine James Bond fansite Dr. Shatterhand's Botanical Gardens has scored a major scoop! It's appears the next James Bond film, codenamed Bond 23, will reboot the charcater of Q as "Q'ute", the female gadget master from the John Gardner James Bond novels.

The website reports that supergirl actress Laura Vandervoort has been offered the role of Dr. Ann Reilly (aka "Q'ute"). MGM publicity manager, Walter Stern says, "She will be one of the new additions to the already rebooted Bond series and sexual tension and innuendos will abound."

"Q'ute" first appeared in the bestselling 1981 James Bond novel License Renewed by John Gardner. She became a standard recurring character in the 14 novels that followed. Considering the success of Judi Dench's M, movie audiences are sure to embrace a female Q!

Happy April 1st.

The 'Devil' down under

Sebastian Faulks bestselling James Bond novel, Devil May Care, will be released in paperback in Australia on June 29, 2009.

The cover art, as revealed on Penguin's Australian website (left), is slightly different from the UK paperback.

Charlie Higson's fifth Young Bond novel, By Royal Command, will also see its paperback release in Australia on the 29th.

Gold Book will have a new home this summer

The Young Bond Dossier reports that the solid gold version of Charlie Higson’s Hurricane Gold, currently on display at the Imperial War Museum in London, will have a new home for the summer. From 31st July to 6th August the gold book will form part of the activities of ‘SAS Seven Stories’ in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Seven Stories is the first museum in the UK wholly dedicated to the art of British children’s books. ‘SAS Seven Stories’ will celebrate adventures and espionage in children’s books with fantastic ‘Become Bond’ building trails and special events with authors Joshua Mowll and Justin Richards from Friday 31st July – Thursday 6th August.

More details to come.

Daniel Craig on filming 'Devil May Care'

Promoting the upcoming DVD release of Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig spoke with the Herald Sun about how Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care might be translated to the screen.

Says Craig, "Have you seen that terrific series Mad Men? It’s great and I look at that guy (Jon Hamm) and he’s got such a great look. If you were doing the film of Sebastian Faulks’ Bond book (Devil May Care) that look would be perfect. If you were doing a one off film I would say that’s the way you would go."

So does this mean we might we see Daniel Craig's 007 in the true world of Fleming's Bond? Unfortunately, no. After suggesting this very appealing idea, he gets back on message and shoots it down.

"But that’s not where we are. The intention was always to make more than one of these so we have to move it forward because in two years time when hopefully we’ll do another one, we’ll still be pushing it forward. If we’d have gone for some cute idea of what it was in the past, some kind of retro thing, it just wouldn’t move it on."

Frankly, I don't think Craig's heart in in this second statement. I think he'd love to prowl through Fleming's world as 007. Craig is correct in pointing out Mad Men as a way to make period seem fresh and new. But Eon appears to be dead set against ever moving James Bond back into his glory says (as IFP has done, with tremendous success, in the books).

But it took filmmakers over 30 years to finally send Sherlock Holmes back to the Victorian era. Holmes was presented as a contemporary figure in film well into the 1930s (battling gangsters and wielding high tech gadgets). It wasn't until The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) that Holmes was finally done in period, and it's not a coincidence that this was the first hit Holmes film that laid the templet for all that followed.

I do hope at some point in the future we will see a period James Bond film, even if it's just a one off.