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Madonna gets 51 prosent.
Tina Turner it is.
I think you cant have a career like Madonna has had without any talent.
As a star, yes. As a singer, I'd argue that Madonna is rather limited.
However, Tina is the more talented singer, and seems to have been a much nicer person too (not my own experience ofc, but I've met several people in the industry who had to work with Madonna, and in general they weren't, uhm, overjoyed :p ).
So the heart and the head say Tina, but the legs say Madonna. Is that fair? :))
Tina had better legs too! 😂
😅😅
I was referring to my own legs, which implies I wasn't considering them from an artistic point of view, wouldn't stand a chance against either of them I'm afraid :))
I don't want to sound crass, but i'd say better body. Way better voice, in any case.
Would you rather Bond globe-trot OR Bond stay put?
As I reflect on the series we seem to end up with two type of adventures. One that require Bond globe-trot from country to country to stop the villain, in others Bond heads to one location and pretty much stays there for the entire movie.
On the whole the globe-trotting adventures tend to be the big OTT adventures. It adds to the scale that Bond must take on an international chase after the villain. The quieter adventures tend to be ones that stay in one location for most of the film.
The advantage of the stays put adventures is that they allow the setting to become a character. I think of DN and YOLT as a couple of stand outs. We really feel the setting in both films and it adds a richness to the story.
Globetrotting: MR, DAD, GE, TND, CR, QOS, NTTD
Stays Put: DN, FRWL, TB, YOLT, LTK, SF
This not meant to be an extensive list, just some examples of the films that fit both types of adventures.
You can either talk about the films already made, or choose based on the next adventure.
Which type of Bond adventure do you prefer to watch?
By the way, for GE and CR, I don't feel the globetrotting that much because a large portion of the action is set in one place: Russia for GE and Montenegro for CR. Although that might be a false perception.
And really globetrotter means three, maybe four locations at most, with perhaps another in the PTS. I do like ones like TB where you almost feel like you're there, and a location really ideally needs to be integral to the story. I love Skyfall, but until it gets to the UK I'd say you could swap out the foreign locations (Turkey, China) for anywhere else in the world and nothing would change- there's nothing unique about where they go which determines the sequences have to be set there (maybe with the exception of the Japanese island) and Bond doesn't even interact with anyone local. A city, a train, a beach, a skyscraper, a casino- could be anywhere really. M's inquiry and Bond's home on the other hand, have to be in the UK.
I think something like Octopussy does it well: location 1 in PTS, then after that a bit of UK, then location 2 is India (which gets a decent amount of local colour), then location 3 Germany. Then, yes, a slightly unusual return to location 2!
AVTAK does pretty much the same: PTS in Siberia, then it's France followed by the USA. Two main ones with a PTS works nicely.
That said, having contrast between locations can highlight a uniqueness of a location and keep visuals engaging. However, you do tend to lose depth (as in the ability to show the character of a location), such that each place can feel like a facade. That said some globetrotting films have done a decent job of incorporating local customs/events that really helps to keep those qualities (e.g. QOS, NTTD).
Otherwise I’d say globetrotting. That’s what the films tend to be past the earlier ones (even SF I’d argue is more globetrotting than stay put).
My dream is for a sort of FRWL inspired entry set in a foreign city teeming with various untrustworthy factions and it really makes a character of the place.
Using competing factions, like in FYEO, or FRWL as @SomethingThatAteHim rightly points out, would be very welcome as well.
Actually, count me in on that as well. I don't want Bond to go on a dozen locations, I want a feel of the places he visits.
Okay I was thinking of this, and it seems this gaming Bond is a stand-alone, drawing inspiration from the books and movies. He has a scar, seems to be good with quips and also uses stealth where appropriate. We seem to have the glamour and scope of the movies.
I started to wonder if the novels should look to this game as a way forward. It was attempted with Deaver's attempt at Bond, it would seem that the readers weren't ready or found the thing flawed. Ever since that attempt IFP has had the books take place within the timeline of the Bond Fleming universe.
Would you rather the next novel strike out with a new Bond in modern times OR stick with a period piece Bond adventure?
Deaver's novel came out in 2011 and I can recall the excitement about this best selling author penning a modern day take on our man. Since it's release the reviews were mixed with some praising it's updating the character, while others thought it was a clumsy attempt.
EDIT Thanks to @QBranch for reminding me that Higson's short story in 2023 was set in modern times.
The new Video Game seems to be appealing to hard core Bond fans. I wonder if it's time for a continuation novel to be bold and base itself in the modern world. Update the character for current times. Have a new Mi6 crew, tell new tales and develop a new world. Or are we better served with future adventures sticking with the 50's and 60's time frame? Horowitz left us with an ambiguous ending so the next author could continue from there or insert more adventures within the Fleming timeline.
Which one would be more likely to purchase or read?
I always like to see a modern day Bond adventure, and how he fits in; stays relevant.
The continuation authors also don't have to care about the politics like the films do. Gardner had the Russians and SMERSH as villains in a number of his stories, and so did Horowitz.
Where Deaver went wrong is that he misunderstood the character in some aspects. Bond made a habit of sleeping with married women and Deaver had Bond turn someone down because she had recently broken up. Bond also never really felt the need to justify his decisions (Deaver even writes this saying "explanation was a sign of weakness" or something), but in Deaver's novel when a South African police officer suspects him of killing someone he becomes defensive and on the back foot.
Higson's plot was a bit by-the-numbers and the book was rushed, so I don't think the setting affected that novel negatively.
Save for some remarks about certain races or women drivers (and maybe cigarette smoking, although he can always be an ex-smoker), there is no part of James Bond that really cannot be updated to the 21st century. Even Fleming's MI6 can pretty much be copy-pasted; just create some secret department in the Ministry of Defence that M, Tanner and Moneypenny run and the 00 section is a part of (I wasn't really a fan of Moneypenny running the 00 section in Sherwood's novels).
As long as the character himself remains true to Fleming's depiction, within reason
Which could be a whole topic in itself, where to draw the line when modernising Fleming Bond for the new millenium...
Does he still smoke, or does he vape, or has he given up altogether and now chews toothpicks?
Does he still take bennys?
etc
Agreed. In fact I think it’s much more exciting imaging James Bond in the world today (no author is ever going to fully replicate Fleming/realistically capture the feel of the time period anyway, and I include Horrowitz).
Yeah, as Reflsin said above, Deaver did a good job of updating MI6, but that guy in his book wasn’t Bond. Other continuations have got him much closer: he can exist in the modern day.
But getting the character right has been the biggest challenge to continuation novelists, and the only one that got close, I think, was Horowitz.
Who has gone on record as saying "literary Bond works best in his own timeline". And I tend to agree.
In fact, I started a thread on it in the literary Bond section about this same subject, (it's on the second page if anyone wants to delve deeper, I won't put a link as I don't want to derail this fine topic in any way).
So yea, I like my literary Bond to be as close to Fleming's Bond as possible, which is why I loved the Horowitz books. Once James Bond starts using his phone to google for clues, it takes me away from the print Bond.