What's wrong with Hollywood -

Got on a kick in the last month where I’m reading the original James Bond novels.  It started when I was watching Moonraker and decided that I needed to see how close it was to the original book.  It wasn’t even close enough for government work folks.  Which got me to thinking why does Hollyweird do that?  They buy a property that has sold well and has a solid fan base, then throw out everything that made the property popular in order to tell their own story.  I get throwing out characters that have one or two lines – writing is overall a lot cheaper when it comes to hiring characters for your story, but gutting the structure and then wondering why it collapses without making your money back is something I don’t get.

Having said that, let’s look at how the novels and the movies compare, shall we?  I’ll try to avoid spoilers on sixty year old novels and fifty year old movies.  Oh, the hell I will.  I’m also going to talk about the books in order of publication, not in movie order.

Casino Royale – First Bond Book, and it first got a treatment for TV in 1954 for CBS’s Climax! series.  Given the time of the adaption, they did what they could with the material – there is a lot missing, but in 1954 you couldn’t show someone getting their testicles smashed with a rug beater on TV.  Hell, you can’t show that on TV sixty years later. 
Woody Allen did a pastiche of the novel and the movies in the 1960’s – but there were already better Bond Pastiche’s out there – Matt Helm and the Flint movies come to mind.
The reboot of the Bond Movies with Daniel Craig is probably the closest to the book but there are still some changes that Hollywood made in order to do something.  What, I don’t know.

Live and Let Die – First Roger Moore Bond film.  First descent into what has been called Bondian High Camp.  Some major changes to the storyline – Heroin smuggling rather than gold.  Lack of the Soviet anti spy group SMERSH as villians.  Moved the major center of the movie from NYC to New Orleans.  Decided lack of Felix Leiter getting attacked by a shark and losing an arm and a leg.  Addition of redneck sheriff to appeal to ‘Muricans.

Moonraker – Movie centers around plot by Hugo Drax to wipe out humanity and repopulate the world with his select few.  Book centers around plot by Nazi holdout Hugo Drax and fellow members of Werewolf to destroy London as revenge for Germany’s defeat in WWII.  Method of destruction?  Atomic warhead on a missile.  I’d have much rather seen the story from the book than the overly complicated plot in the movie.

Diamonds are Forever – Movie revolves around a plot by SPECTRE to use stolen diamonds to seize control of Willard White’s space company to build a laser to shoot down space hardware.  Last of the Sean Connery Bond films until they remade Thunderball as Never Say Never Again.  The book revolves around a SMERSH plot to fund activities in the US and abroad using stolen diamonds.  The book also features the return of Leiter with his prosthetic arm and leg, driving a Studillac – a part Studebaker, part Cadillac automobile. 

From Russia with Love – The movie revolves around a plot by SPECTRE to assassinate James Bond in a public, embarrassing manner, so as to sow discontent and fear in the western spy agencies.  The book revolves around a plot by SMERSH to assassinate James Bond in a public, embarrassing manner in order to sow discontent and fear in the western spy agencies.  WAIT A MINUTE THEY ACTUALLY FOLLOWED THE BOOK IN THIS ONE?  Yup, they did.

That’s the first five.  Next week I’ll go over the next five or so.