The Most Lucrative Motion Picture Franchise In History- James Bond
You don’t have to look far to see the most thriving English language movie franchise in times past. It is the James Bond 007 films. James Bond is a fictional person brought to life by the English novelist Ian Fleming back in 1953. James Bond was the main character in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have also been 22 movies to date starting with “Dr. No” back in 1962.
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, passed away back in 1964 but the heroic person of James Bond lives on in novels by up to five other authors, such as Robert Markham, the pen name for Kingsley Amis, John Pearson, Raymond Benson, John Gardner and Sebastian Faulks. Christopher Woods novelized two screenplays and various other authors’ authored unofficial versions of James Bond.
There have been 22 movies to date and a 23rd is promised at this point in the James Bond franchise. The first film was from the time 1962, “Dr. No” and on October 31, 2008 the most recent came out, which was “Quantum of Solace”.
A range of actors have portrayed Bond. Sean Connery was the initial James Bond in the movies. He played James Bond in 6 diverse films, beginning with “Dr. No” in 1962. In 1963, it was followed by “From Russia with Love”, “Goldfinger” in 1964, “Thunderball” from 1965, “You Only Live Twice” in 1967 and from 1971, “Diamonds are Forever”.
In 1969, Sean Connery took a rest from being James Bond for the film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. George Lazenby played James Bond in that film. He was the only player of all of the James Bond stars to simply work in one movie.
After that Roger Moore became Bond. In 1973 for “Live and Let Die”, 1974 in “The Man with the Golden Gun” and 1977, “The Spy who Loved Me”, in 1979 it was “Moonraker” and 1981 brought “For Your Eyes Only”, “Octopussy” in 1983 and the last movie starring Roger Moore was “A View to a Kill” in 1985.
Timothy Dalton was next for “The Living Daylights” in 1987 and “License to Kill” in 1989. After just two films with Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan took over the chief role in “Goldeneye” in 1995. We enjoyed 3 further films with Pierce Brosnan, “Tomorrow Never Dies” in 1997, “The World Is Not Enough” in 1999 and “Die Another Day” in 2002.
The single fair-haired artist to ever portray Bond is the current star of the franchise. Daniel Craig was Bond in 2006 for “Casino Royale” and 2008 for “Quantum of Solace”. Another Bond movie is now happening, set for an undetermined occasion and only referred to now as “James Bond 23″. Daniel Craig is set to star in the lead part.
