In Print
Ian Fleming fans want James Bond museum
Denver Business Journal - by L. Wayne Hicks
For most, Ian Fleming is just another name in the credits of the latest James Bond movie.
But for others, Fleming -- the British novelist who created Bond -- is worthy of far greater recognition.
Those at the Ian Fleming Foundation hope to honor Fleming with a museum devoted to his life and work and to his fictional creation. Fleming died in 1964 at 56, after writing 14 Bond novels.
"He was a very powerful writer," said John Cork, a founder of the foundation and editor of its magazine, Goldeneye.
A nonprofit organization, the Hollywood-based Ian Fleming Foundation was founded in 1992 as a way to preserve and archive materials related to the Bond books and movies. The foundation's first purchase was, of all things, the submarine used in the 1981 movie "For Your Eyes Only."
The submarine and other movie props one day will be put on display in the Fleming museum. Plans for the museum are in the very early stages, with money to raise and details to work out -- including whether the museum should be in England or America. The foundation, which has about 1,200 subscribers, operates a Web site at http://www.ianfleming.org; the site includes an online store of James Bond items.
Cork said he and the foundation's co-founders "all grew up as tremendous fans of James Bond. There was something about the character that really resonated with us." Cork, 38, said the first movie he ever saw in a theater was "From Russia With Love," in 1963.
Although the foundation's name bears the name of Ian Fleming, Cork admits it's the movies and not the books that's driving interest in James Bond.
"I think it's fair to say the films are the engine of this," he said. "What you have now is you have a legacy, a history. People go to a James Bond film and they know what they're going to see. It's a fun movie to go see."
In creating Bond, Fleming drew partly from his own life. After trying his hand at journalism and banking, Fleming served in Naval Intelligence during World War II. It wasn't until Fleming was in his early '40s, and about to be married for the first time, that he tried writing a novel to keep his mind off his impending nuptials. That novel was "Casino Royale," published in 1953. Fleming's fans included John F. Kennedy, who listed "From Russia With Love" as among his 10 favorite books.
As written, Fleming's Bond is rather humorless, and the books are snapshots of the period in which they were written, the 1950s and early 1960s. The movies have updated the stories, and feature a Bond as quick with a quip as he is on the draw.
So far, 21 movies have featured Bond's exploits, starting with "Dr. No" in 1962. The latest is the just-out "The World is Not Enough," with Pierce Brosnan as the fifth actor to portray the British spy.
Bond has appeared in 37 books. The owners of the Bond copyright have selected various authors to write new novels. The fourth Bond author -- and the first American -- is Raymond Benson, a native Texan who now lives outside Chicago. He's just seen the publication of the novelization of "The World is Not Enough" and is ready for his latest original novel, "Doubleshot," to be published next June.
Stepping into the role of Bond writer was a daunting task for Benson, who previously wrote video games, but he's succeeded at the task. A recent poll of Bond fans found Benson the overwhelming favorite of the Bond writers since Fleming, voting him the best at carrying on Fleming's work. Benson said he's pleased at the recognition.
Benson, who sits on the board of the Ian Fleming Foundation, attracted the attention of the copyright holders with his 1984 book, "The James Bond Bedside Companion." They tapped him as the next Bond writer, and in 1997 Benson produced the original novel "Zero Minus Ten" and the novelization of the movie "Tomorrow Never Dies."
Benson, 44, has been a Bond fan since he was 9 and first saw the 1964 movie "Goldfinger." Now he's responsible for crafting Bond's adventures. The hardest part, he said, is coming up with a villain for Bond to fight.
"So much has already been done," said Benson, who's written five Bond books. "I try to find hot spots in the world that Britain would be concerned with, and then find villains that are appropriate."
Taking on the role of Bond writer does have its perks, Benson has found. Those exotic locales Bond is always jetting off to? Benson gets there first.
"I try to go to all the locations in my books," he said. "I like to experience the ambiance, the food, the people, the hotels -- everything that appears in the stories."
L. Wayne Hicks can be reached at (303) 837-3524.
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