007 author Raymond Benson talks Bond and Splinter Cell

29-Dec-2005 • Literary

Official James Bond continuation author Raymond Benson, who stepped down from 007 duties in 2003, took on another franchise - Splinter Cell. Benson talked to The Fairer Sects website about how is James Bond work crosses over in to Sam Fisher.

It is safe to say that your work with the 007 series has helped you in writing for Splinter Cell. But, what did you do to prepare specifically for this series?

I got the gig because Tom Clancy's publisher is the same firm that published my Bond novels in America. I went to Los Angeles and talked with Clancy's agent and legal people, threw around ideas, and I got the job. It also helped that I was once a heavy game player; in fact, I was a computer game designer for nearly ten years... but since the mid-90s I had left the game industry behind me. It was a learning curve to look at the Splinter Cell game and try to play it! (The first one had been out a while, the second one wasn't out yet.) I struggled with it for a few days to get the hang of the Splinter Cell universe, Sam's character, and what the thing was all about. I also saw a video of a complete walk-thru of the entire game, like a movie. In addition, Ubisoft provided me with their "bible" that was written when they created the game. This contained character sketches of the principles, info on Sam's tools and gadgets, and other useful information. They also provided me with the storylines for the upcoming two games so I wouldn't do the same thing. After that, it was just a question of sitting down and coming up with a scenario that would fit in with the SC universe.

How would you compare/contrast Sam Fisher to James Bond?

Many of these kinds of super-spies are similar on the surface but that's where it ends. Bond is British, of course, and Fisher is definitely American. Bond is more of a womanizer, whereas Fisher is purposefully celibate. Fisher really tries to remain anonymous in his personal life. Bond does too, but you'd never know it from the way he's portrayed in the films (he always orders the same drink, drives flashy cars, hits on gorgeous women...!). So, really, Fisher and Bond are not really alike in character traits. Where they are similar is the way in which they approach their jobs.

What's with the "David Michaels" pseudonym?

That was the publishers' doing. In case I don't write any more books after the first two, they can bring in another writer but still retain the "David Michaels" authorship. I think they may have experienced a drop in readership with some of the other Clancy spin-off series when authors were changed, so they're experimenting with a pseudonym. I don't know how it got out so quickly that David Michaels was me, but it did.