Writer Bruce Feirstein talks about his work on the new James Bond game

18-Feb-2004 • Gaming

The script for the latest Bond game, "Everything or Nothing", was written by Bruce Feirstein, whose Bond movie-writing credits include The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies and GoldenEye. He spoke to CJAD Online about his role and what it was like to write for a game for the first time.

"I was completely amazed by the cast that EA assembled. It was as good as anything we`ve done on a Bond movie," Feirstein said in a telephone interview.

"I think what this game shows is the kind of convergence that goes on. Whereas this has become such a big, important entertainment medium, we`re now able to attract that kind of talent.

"I mean, Judi Dench in an electronic game?"

It was Feirstein`s first foray into the world of gaming, but the American says it wasn`t that much different from writing for any other medium.

"It`s like a newspaper article, you hope the first paragraph will be interesting enough that people want to read the second," he said. "When you do a video game or an electronic game, you hope the first level of play will keep you interested to do the second.

"Writing is writing. It`s all about what happens next."

"Everyone thinks they know Bond but it`s really once you get inside it that you realize all the little rules."

"The rules for a Bond movie are that you can have everything that someone can do with an unlimited amount of money," he continued. "What that means is you can hollow out a volcano and fill it with big-breasted women.

"What that means is that you cannot time-travel, you cannot morph yourself into something else. The last movie (Die Another Day) came very very very close to skirting that rule with the invisible car.

"The Bond movies deal five minutes into the future."

"You can`t imagine the impact that Bond has had on worldwide culture. I defy anyone to go a week in any newspaper without finding at least some reference to something that is Bond-like . . . It`s amazing to me how it permeates culture everywhere."

"There were almost riots when Pierce would go to various cities," he added.