The loveable spy
Bond at 50

As the world’s favourite secret agent gets set for another film next year, Swati Rai gives a run-up to the charming spy, who has been winning hearts for five decades

(This is how his creator Ian Fleming describes his most famous character in From Russia with Love.)

After Quantum of Solace, Danielle Craig will star in the next Bond flick

Little did Ian Fleming know when he created James Bond or 007, the iconic status his character would come to gain. Fleming created Bond in 1953. The spy has also been the hero in the longest running and most financially viable English language film franchise to date. From Fleming’s first book Casino Royale, James Bond took a ‘quantum’ leap into the movies and has lasted for more than five decades. After the release of the first Bond movie, this rogue but loveable spy’s fan base has kept swelling all over the world, always eager to see the next edition of 007.

Fifty years since his creation, this charming spy, with a licence to kill, will be back again to shake and stir us in November 2012. Producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, in collaboration with the MGM, announced that film will go into production in late 2011 and will hit theatres on November 9, 2012. Work on the movie was suspended due to the financial woes of MGM Studios in April 2011.

The latest untitled offering from the Bond camp is being referred to with the moniker Bond 23, comes after a four year hiatus since the 2008 blockbuster Quantum of Solace. This gap between Bond flicks is shorter than the six-year break the suave secret agent took in the 1990s between License to Kill (1989) and Pierce Brosnan’s debut in MI6 in Golden Eye (1995).

Bond 23 marks 50 years of cinematic representation of Ian Fleming’s suave spy. The latest movie is being directed by Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of The American Beauty. Daniel Craig will return as the Martini-swilling agent, and, of course, Dame Judy Dench as the no-nonsense M.

What makes the golden jubilee of 007’s silver screen journey even more special is that it will be partly shot in India. This makes it the second movie to be shot in India after Octopussy in 1983.

Bond has lasted the test of time. His adventures are exhilarating in which the world of death and evil combines with the universe of luxury and beautiful women. His appeal still goes strong. Bond’s debonair looks and action-packed style makes us believe that the world of Aston Martins and dry martinis may be distant but not utterly unimaginable. So the Bond saga keeps going strong. His movies are still a part of a boy or even girl’s fantasy and give the viewer an old-fashioned slice of adventure.

The character of Bond has also got its fair share of criticism on account of being flashy and unreal. The fact that it is more about guns, gadgets and girls than about spying and intelligence has also brought it under the critics’ scanner. The iconic status of the spy has been challenged because of his being more style than substance and the fact that the movies run on a particular genre and past appeal. The theme music of these movies, Bond’s one liners and swanky cars and locations are the real stars and the plot and the story are but a part of the whole Bond legacy.

Love him or hate him, but you certainly can’t ignore him. The truth is that Bond is a super successful screen spy, who keeps the cash register ringing. It’s a brand name that has jumped from Fleming’s imagination and occupied massive mind space.

So put on your tux and rev up your adrenalin quotient to welcome the world’s most loved secret agent, as he comes to charm and warm us next year.