I’m just about finished Revolution. Miller is a pro at crafting sympathetic villains. Alfred and Knox have been my favourite characters in this so far. I think their personalities are captured well and elaborated upon effectively.
As a fan it’s fun to see the overarching themes of the films under the surface, such as Max faking ancestry, and then helping Penguin with his in Returns. Or the Fourth of July event mirroring the parade in B89.
Like Ressurection I think it’s a good Batman story but I have trouble imagining it as a real deal Burton movie. Though as a book it’s fine and well worth a read. Much better than the B89 comic continuations.
Goldeneye by John Gardener. It was a quick easy read. You can tell Gardener was too sick or too tired of Bond at this point. Some interesting differences from the movie. I think that Benson’s TND was better in more ways than one. I do consider Brosnan’s novelizations in canon with the original floating timeline.
In the US it is already available - and I can only recommend these memories Roger Deakins compiled working on all the films he was cinematographer. The SKYFALL chapter is also very illuminating.
It almost did…twice. Raise the Titanic released in 1980 and was meant to be the start of a franchise. However, the reception was so poor and Clive Cussler was so disgusted with it, he refused any other offers for adaptations of his books for years….until 2003 when he agreed to a deal to make Sahara into a film that would also jump start a franchise. Essentially, history repeated itself, Sahara was terrible, and Cussler took the production company to court, killing any hopes for a franchise. I doubt we’ll ever see another Dirk Pitt book filmed.
That said, the Dirk Pitt series does have a very interesting connection to the James Bond series. Night Probe! features a character that is heavily implied to be an aged James Bond.
Yes, neither Dirk Pitt adaptation was able to successfully hit the mark. Part of the problem was miscasting of Pitt, both times. At least Sahara understood the foundational concept, but couldn’t figure out how to make all the necessary elements properly gel. Outside of Pitt, Sahara’s other character casting was actually pretty good, but some of the most entertaining and engaging plot points from the book were inexplicably removed when streamlining the vehicle for feature film. Wasted opportunity.
I used to think the Magnum P.I. characters may have been partially inspired by the Pitt setup. It’s a different genre, of course, and the Giordino character is split into Rick/TC/Higgins, while Sandecker turns into the ever absent Robin Masters. But with such a cast and a bigger budget a tv adaptation of Dirk Pitt could have taken off around the early 80s.
Danilo Donati is working on both FELLINI CASANOVA and SALO. He meets Nicholas, a 22-year old Brit on the run from a tragedy in London. Danilo takes Nicholas in, as both lover and assistant.
From this premise Laing spins a tale of gay love, sex, and 1970s Italian cinema and politics. Fellini, Pasolini, and Sutherland appear alongside Donati, and the novel gives a great sense of what it must have been like to work on those films, and the political/cultural zeitgeist swirling around them.
The book is also beautifully written in short chapters utilizing the continuous present tense, giving the story a sense of immediacy and urgency that carries the reader along.
Recommended for fans of gay fiction, 1970s cinema, Italian cinema, and film aesthetics.
I started reading Cussler in the 80s as an alternative to Bond, seeking a rival that could keep my rabid globe-trotting adventure interest fed. And for awhile, Cussler was able to meet the demand especially in the late 80s and through the 90s. Back then (early to mid-90s) I considered Bruce Campbell to be an ideal choice for Pitt. This would have been right around the time that he landed The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. I thought he had the right mix of believable action chops along with clear self-deprecating comedic timing, which is an aspect of the Dirk Pitt character that seems to get a little lost in both film adaptations. I also thought George Clooney might have been able to pull it off around that same time. But alas, nothing came to fruition for many more years, and even then… well, that horse has been beaten already.
Speaking of Nicolas Cage, for my money his National Treasure movies were both closer to feeling like Dirk Pitt adventures than either official adaptation ever came close to being.
My Life as a Mankiewicz by Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Crane (2012). Unique, I think that Tom Mankiewicz was more like James Bond than certain people realize. Simply replace the vodka martini, shaken not stirred, with a big bottle of Jack Daniels. He also slept with just about any woman that he could. He lived an interesting life, on and off screen. His dad, Joseph Mankiewicz accepted nothing but perfection from his children, particularly Tom. He had a hard life growing up, his mother was bipolar and committed suicide when he was a teenager. There was also a family death that may have influenced the NYC car crash in LALD.
As for the interesting Bond behind the scenes facts, there really isn’t he says that we don’t already know. I give him credit for leaving and not taking the easy route of just writing Bond for most of his career. He had a few opinions on other Bonds (not his) in his book. He didn’t view Lazenby as much. He wished that Dalton would have done more than two. For Brosnan, he said he simply played Bond. He stated that this wasn’t a good or bad thing. As for Craig, he apparently got tailed by Barbara Broccoli on a highway. They pulled over. He simply said he loved CR, and Craig had a bright future. He didn’t like QOS, and that was the last Bond movie he got to see. She thanked him for his help on the series.
More interesting was some of his Superman stories. He said that Marlon Brando was fun, and was proud of the movie. Another interesting story of his was the top choices for General Zod. Albert Finney was the first choice, Christopher Plummer was the second, and Christopher Lee was the third. He (and I) were happy that Terence Stamp got the part in the end. He also said that Richard Donner is arguably one of the few directors who got fired for directing a successful movie. He said he and Donner got along partly because he was a drunk and Donner was a stoner. There are more fun Hollywood stories from him, but I’ll let you read to find out.
In his final reflection as he was dying, he predicted his fears for the future of cinema. And sadly a lot of them have come true. Fair payback for Quentin Tarantino for all of his bashing lately: TM said that QT never made a movie about a fair human being, other Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. I to a degree can agree with his QT criticisms. I think he would be happy to know that Steven Spielberg is directing decent movies. He was arguably blacklisted in his later years, which is why he slowed down. I won’t spoil anything, as he was like his writing: truly witty, and as flawed as it could be, he was a generally entertaining writer, on screen and in his book.
Started reading The Last Train to Memphis. Man, this is a great book. I’m fascinated by the truth behind myth, the grounding people have from childhood and how they evolve.
It’s like I’m not reading about the iconic legend Elvis Presley, I’m reading about a shy guy of humble beginnings who happens to be called Elvis. I’m making notes of things along the way to mentally keep track of it all, and every page is being read with purpose.
I listened to the audiobook novelization of Batman 89 on a long car trip. Narrated by Batman 66 and TAS villain alumni Roddy McDowall. It has the same plot points of the movie, just some scenes expanded, shortened or cut out entirely. Still highly recommended for reading or listening.
I also actually read a psychical copy of Wayne of Gotham. It was ok, a mystery that was hard to follow. Some extended cameos by classic Batman villains, but I wish that they had more of a bigger part in the final story. A modest recommendation, if you want a more mysterious Batman, you might like this book.
