When pragmatic adaptations go off the rails.

[Samuel , Director]

I ran into this article. It's about a possible spy fiction film being made by the dynamic duo which gave us The Winter Soldier superhero espionage drama. It seems they've decided to make a drastic change with the source material.

Now, I know that when making an adaptation of a book to film, changes will and must be made. (not to mention 98% of the time, authors have no power whatsoever regarding creative control). And there have been many success stories. The Original Bourne Trilogy, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and The Day Of The Jackal. However, I find this bit of executive meddling is pushing it. A lot.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/...

[Samuel , Director]

Personally, I don't think the step they've taken is really necessary. If Hollywood wants female actors in more leading action roles, rather than butcher the source material, they should either
A) develop something original or
B) Look at existing material with strong female characters that are just waiting for the feature films that they deserve.





Proving that spy fiction can be just as good in comic book form, Greg Rucka's Queen and Country franchise stars the lovely and lethal Tara Chace, SIS officer/killer. This actually has a film plan that is in development hell. And what's more, Charlize Theron pretty much resembles Chace physically. No need to gender flip a character who was male in the source material. Instead give her something that would be tailor made for her, like a film adaptation of this.






Rotten Gods. Part geopolitical epic, part dystopian novel with an environmentalist message, it chronicles the titanic clash of titans between intelligence officer Marika Hartmann and the most dangerous Islamic terrorist group imaginable.
This is the sort of material that would be fit for a Chris Nolan epic. Lead role? Yvonne Strahovski. She's done action tv shows and a film would be the next step.











Written by former Security Services director general Stella Rimington, the Liz Carlyle series is about the real world nature of modern counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism. More slow paced. Gives room for a bit more psychological drama. Nicola Walker from the spooks tv series would be perfect for it.

[Samuel , Director]

Christoph Waltz, asked whether there should be a female Bond, brilliantly took the wind out of the interviewers sails.
To paraphrase what Herr Waltz said,

"If you did that, the character would not be James Bond, it would be instead someone completely different. Jamie Bond, Jean Bond, but not James Bond."

[Jack]

Exactly. James is James. Mitch is Mitch and Jack is Jack. I always thought an author should bring his own girl to the dance, not try to steal someone else's.