That’s how the Bond franchise rolls these days.
I’d actually laugh out loud if Amazon announced that the next film will feature a different leading character.
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Amazon has only a couple of years left before the copyright on Bond runs out. I don’t really think it would be wise to cut that precious time short in advance. But…
…I suspect they will try to establish a cast of their own original characters beside Bond. Possibly for use in spinoffs or to have some popular names/faces to distinguish their particular version of Bond from contenders. I’d be very surprised if they didn’t lay the necessary groundwork for such a move during BOND 26/Bond 2.0.
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Amazon has a large legal department and the deepest pockets of any company on the planet, so I would expect them to tie up in court any filmmakers that would try to launch their own 007 films.
From what I’ve read on the matter, anybody trying to do so would have to keep their interpretation strictly in line with the book version of Bond. Any venturing out into anything that could be perceived as being “movie Bond” will have Amazon’s lawyers sprinting for the nearest courthouse.
I welcome that, as I’d love to see something more along these lines, but for anyone that wants to give it a go, it’s going to be a very difficult and costly task to pull off. And they’re going to be more likely much less popular since I’ve been told time and time again that people go to these films for Q and Moneypenny, two characters, as the public knows them, who are largely products of the EON cinematic Bond.
More like “EON Bond” than movie Bond in general. We’ve had that topic back in March already with that Winnie the Pooh slasher angle.
Of course Amazon’s lawyers (or rather their case law AI that’s now churning out the vast majority of legal text submitted to the courts) will argue any adaptation of these works newly in the public sphere would have to slavishly follow the books. Only catch is, that’s demonstrably not the case in practically every other adaptation of a classic work in the public sphere, from Dickens to Dumas to Dostoevsky. Literary characters often enjoy more freedom from their origins on the page once they’re in the public sphere.
I have no doubt Amazon will argue otherwise - or try to arrive at the desired result by means of ‘political landscape management’ since that’s now an option - but I doubt they will succeed to completely forestall any and all rival adaptations from 2035 onwards under the rule of law; that’s simply not feasible, even for such a pseudo-omnipotent entity as Amazon.
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I think these two paragraphs are the most important in terms of how this might move forward:
While Bond’s boss M is also a staple of the books, it is debatable whether any would-be 007 copycat creation could show Q as a gadget supremo. And any depiction of Bond’s arguably most famous adversary in the film franchise, Blofeld, would have to see the super-villain appear with hair – and without signature white cat – as he was originally presented in the novels. [1]
Given that nobody seems to think that a James Bond movie can be made without Q and Moneypenny, making such drastic changes to the Q character (i.e. having to name him Major Boothroyd as opposed to Q) and not having the scenes featuring various gadget-related gags could prove too much for audiences.
“Companies will need to be cautious in how they go about exploiting Bond,” says Froud. “The James Bond films are so well known and embedded in popular psyche it would be difficult to separate this knowledge from any new works that creative companies might wish to develop based on the content of the books alone. Any mistakes could attract copyright infringement claims from the owners of the films.”[2]
This is probably the most important. Any new filmmakers attempting to launch their own version of Bond will have to channel their inner Winston Zeddemore while facing the choice of the form of the Destructor (“my mind is totally blank”) and leave anything and everything they know about Bond from the films at the door and simply adapt the Bond of the novels to their film project. Unless they’re backed by an entity with pockets that are comparably as deep to those of Amazon, Amazon stands a decent chance of emerging victorious, even if they’re only able to run out the clock on a lawsuit.
I’m all for someone attempting to make this kind of Bond film, by the way. I would embrace any serious attempt at this (i.e. not a Blood and Honey situation, although I’d watch that out of curiosity), as it would represent perhaps the first serious opportunity we would have to see a Bond film that isn’t beholden to arbritrary things that really don’t have much, if anything, to do with the character of James Bond himself.
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Since 1962 Bond has become part of a human subconscious cultural blueprint, a collection of images and ideas recognised almost universally around the globe. A set of clichés so ubiquitous they are even recognised as aimed at ‘James Bond’ when they are wilfully distorted to misrepresent Bond, as in Alan Moore’s Black Dossier or the Austin Powers caricatures.
Today, it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t seen - or at least heard of - James Bond; it would have to be one of the rare jungle tribes avoiding all contact with modern civilisation. It’s fair to say Bond has evolved into a cinematic understanding of the hero that’s only loosely connected to the character’s written sources (especially when we think of the wide variety of these sources, the tonal gap between the texts). Whoever undertakes the venture to adapt these works anew will not just have to battle lawyers but also that bigger pop culture iconography, no doubt about it.
Could it work? I’m fairly certain it will be tried, probably with Moonraker as a first project that promises fantastic visual thrills and action - even if the hero doesn’t get the girl in the end. With modern imagery and effects even the locations of a London then almost a century ago would be little problem. Not authentic, not the real thing, but they needn’t be.
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Goodbye to Vlad the Dad
I’ll keep this brief
Kim Sherwood
Jul 19 
Dear Reader,
You’ve not heard from me for a little while. As you know, I lost my beloved mother-in-law before Christmas, and in February my trailblazing grandmother died. I last wrote to you in Spring, hoping for better waters ahead. But after a short period with cancer, my father, Craig Sherwood, died on the 16th of June, the day after Father’s Day.
Craig loved history and we always called him Vlad the Dad. At his funeral this week, I discovered this nickname began as Vlad the Impala, gifted to him by colleagues on tour with Depeche Mode in the ‘80s. Craig was a production manager for rock’n’roll bands and major concerts like Nelson Mandela’s Birthday in the Park, the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and the Queen’s Jubilee(s). If you’ve read the Thanks & Acknowledgements in my Bond novels, you’ll see Craig mentioned as my global tour guide. He’d travelled literally anywhere there’s a stage and provided me with insights and stories into all my locations for the Double O Series. There are many lines in the books that are his, from describing the smell of a hotel in Kazakhstan to the sensation of standing on the Great Wall of China.
We shared a love of literature, travel, history, films and music. We made each other laugh. At times there was distance between us, but we always found our way back to each other. At his funeral, I read ‘The Farewell’ from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. The poem begins, ‘Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you. It was but yesterday we met in a dream.’ Here we are at the beginning of that dream.
After hearing about my recent losses, a former student got in touch and told me about the Portuguese word ‘saudade’, meaning the act of missing someone. She told me that in life we collect many saudades, like drops in a cup. Sometimes, the cup overflows. That’s how I feel right now. She told me we can’t pour the cup out, only learn to create more space for the saudade inside.
I wanted to let you know, because I really appreciate all your support and messages. I’ll write again soon, I hope from calmer waters.
From Kim, With Love x
I wish her the best. She’s going through a tough time now. We should try and comfort her.
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Very sorry to hear about this series of painful losses. Not sure how much in the way of comfort we can provide though.
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Drum roll please…
… and the title of Double O Book 3 is…
Aug 01, 2025
Dear Reader,
One of the most daunting and exciting aspects of writing James Bond is choosing a title. Ian Fleming was a master at titles. The lyrical phrases: From Russia With Love, You Only Live Twice, Live and Let Die … The mysterious one word titles, where it’s all vibes and who cares if you don’t know what it means: Thunderball, Goldfinger, Octopussy… Bond titles are a genre of their own, iconic, cultural shorthands that you know even if you’ve never read or watched Bond. No pressure then.
The title of Book 3 was elusive for a long time. It changed and changed. Then, on literally the last day of writing, I realized it was right there. A motif throughout the book. My all-time favourite Fleming image, threaded across the trilogy. A metaphor for our hero’s state of mind in this final installment.
If you’re a long-term reader of Bond, you’ll recognize the line. It’s from the first Bond book I devoured, aged twelve, From Russia With Love :
‘In the centre of Bond was a hurricane room, the kind of citadel found in old-fashioned houses in the tropics. These rooms are small, strongly built cells in the heart of the house, in the middle of the ground floor and sometimes dug down into its foundations. To this cell the owner and his family retire if the storm threatens to destroy the house, and they stay there until the danger is past. Bond went to his hurricane room only when the situation was beyond his control and no other possible action could be taken.’
Fleming takes us into the mind of 007 and what is left of him when all the cars, gadgets and guns are gone. And that’s where we find him now…
James Bond returns in Hurricane Room , and the Double O agents make their last stand.
Pre-orders are a massive part of a book’s success, so if you’re excited for this one pre-order now, shout about it, tell your friends, ask your local bookshop, let’s go!
The return of 007
Agent 003, Joanna Harwood, has finally found James Bond after nearly two years of searching. All she has to do is get him out of Russia and convince him he can trust her again.
A mission for revenge
But Bond trusts no one. And he wants revenge on Mora, the monstrous figure at the head of Rattenfänger – a terrorist organisation with links to the past.
The final showdown
MI6’s Double O section is in pieces. Moneypenny is captured. 000 has switched sides. And all of Rattenfänger’s plans for hijacking the cyber-intelligence of the West are finally about to be realised.
The remaining Double Os must work together – and figure out which of them are still loyal…
I can’t wait to share this one with you! It was the hardest to write but it’s become my favourite of the trilogy.
As ever, founding members of girl with the golden pen will receive signed early proofs – arriving in the summer – and signed first edition hardbacks. Upgrade now if you’d like to get your hands on an early copy of Hurricane Room !
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If you’re hankering for more Bond and crime content now, paid subscribers can read on below for a round-up of my latest radio appearances and upcoming events, all in one handy spot. Plus an update on my latest forays into screen writing!
Thanks so much for being on this journey with me. It means the world (…is not enough).
From Kim, With Love x
I am excited, she has earned her status as a great Bond alumni!
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Great news, glad she’s finally getting it out there. Any word on a signed edition? I can’t seem to find anything just yet.
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It’s still a bit early for a signed edition announcement. Maybe by the new year.
An interesting viewpoint from Kim Sherwood on Steven Knight. So much for my prediction that she could become a Bond screenwriter for the foreseeable future.
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