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Comments
She had the balls to fire Brosnan after his films made a lot of money for her. So she wasn't enamored with all her stars.
And she ran the Bonds for almost the same amount of time (both her and Wilson worked on them much longer- he's been a producer on them since 1984, 41 years ago, far longer than Cubby ever did it), and still retired while she's got plenty of life in her.
Look, they came up with their ultimate version of Bond, it was a huge global mega hit, and funnily enough when they hit 64 and 82 years old respectively, they didn't fancy starting from day one again yet another 15 year cycle of making blockbuster movies and thought they'd enjoy their millions -or billions, even. So sue them.
I didn't say there was anything wrong with what they did. I was just pointing out the difference between Cubby and Babs. It was obvious Cubby was only focused on Bond while Babs wanted to do Bond and other projects.
If in that position, I suspect Cubby would have done the same thing or would have gotten a much worse deal.
Cubby was happy to churn out the same stuff forever and was averse to being too creative with it, rejecting the idea of a younger Bond starting out, which later became such a massive hit for them with CR. He had a vision for Bond in 62, and then more or less stuck to that for 27 years (not 30+) with some gentle meanders in tone along the way; I'm not sure he had more than one, and didn't really have time between instalments for much creation of vision.
I love those films, they're all great. And the producers have been incredibly strong the whole way through. Maybe they'd make mistakes like not taking care of relationships well enough and holing the boat along the way (Connery, Saltzman) or hiring the wrong directors (Apted, Forster- both very good and interesting but for my money not suited to it) but all four of the main producers have done great jobs and made great movies.
Maybe I should have used my words more carefully. This is just my personal opinion but I felt that Babs run as Bond producer could have had more films under her belt. I always felt that Brosnan should have gotten a 5th film and that Craig should have had another Bond movie before NTTD.
I do want to know if Craig had finished up after Spectre. Would Babs have cast another Bond and go on another run with a new actor? or would she have sold sooner?
I would suggest one read Dick Van Dyke's memoir where he recounts the situation of filming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. During the shoot Dick needed to return to the USA for a family emergency. He asked Cubby if he would be allowed to leave without being docked pay. Cubby said not a problem. However later Dick learned he was docked for leaving the set for this emergency.
Cubby wasn't the kind teddy bear that has been portrayed. Connery gets lots of arrows for standing up and advocating for himself. Truth is anyone who amounts to anyone in a business is likely a bit ruthless and very much focused less on the art but the money one derives from it.
No, why would you think that?
-Get after them, we can't afford to lose that list!
-Yes, mum!
It’s, “Yes ma’am.”
Not mum.
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
ma'am
/mam,mɑːm/
noun
noun: ma'am; noun: maam
DATED•NORTH AMERICAN ENGLISH
a term of respectful or polite address used for a woman.
"excuse me, ma'am"
BRITISH ENGLISH
a term of address for female royalty.
BRITISH ENGLISH
a term of address for a female officer in the police or armed forces who is senior to the speaker.
Skyfall script:
M
You both know what’s at stake here
...We cannot afford to lose that list.
BOND (V.O.)
Yes, ma’am.
I always understood it was a lookalike, like Angelo in TB.
I dont know about continuation novels, but I think in Goldfinger, Bond has a DB Mark III.
I suppose he was quite handsome and debonair looking, and apparently, Fleming was told that he looked like him.
I guess he was just someone most people would've recognised at the time.
But still, it does seem like a bit of a random choice. Cinema wasn't exactly running short of suave leading men at the time of Bond's creation. It seems a little strange Fleming would choose a country and western star.
Maybe because that's who he imagined Bond looked like? If the character came out of true inspiration and creativity, then Fleming himself never truly "picked", at least not consciously.
I don't think people "decide" what their creations look like, something just feels right.
Personally, I think what matters about Bond's description are things like the cruel mouth, the eyes, the scar, and the general demeanour. Really, that's what makes the character stand out. At any rate it's tricky for modern readers to have an image of Carmichael, and everyone will have a slightly different vision of Bond anyway.
This is Cotton:
That's him in the 30s; maybe Fleming wanted a more up-to-date reference. Apparently Cotton was a high-living type of guy and Fleming supposedly modelled Bond on him to some extent (although I think there's a few 'real life James Bond' candidates).
But y'know: I think if you said that last one was an image of Bond playing Goldfinger, it'd be quite easy to believe.
Who knows? Maybe Fleming got compared to Carmichael at some point and he decided to put it in. I never got the sense it was a very definitive description of the character, and in modern terms it's a bit like saying Bond looks faintly like, I don't know, a young Daniel Day Lewis or something. I also think his vision of the character changed from CR to MR anyway. I certainly can't picture someone like Cotton when reading the books.