Producer Michael G. Wilson talks about unexplored Fleming writings

21-Nov-2008 • Skyfall

There could be at least one original 007 story by Ian Fleming waiting to be discovered, but movie producer Michael G. Wilson is in no hurry to find it - reports The Star.

With the release of Quantum of Solace, a title lifted from a Fleming short story, the Bond well has just about run dry. Every 007 novel known to have been penned by series creator Fleming, who died in 1964, has now been used for a movie.

So have most of the short stories by Fleming. But tantalizing rumours persist that unpublished Bond tales by the author are tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Wilson has heard the same rumours, but said he hasn't chased them down.

"We've heard there were," he said. "We could look and see. Somebody told me they had a copy of something he wrote, but I don't know. An unfinished manuscript? I'm not sure what it is. I don't even know if it's a Bond story as such."

That leaves the short stories The Hildebrand Rarity, Risico, The Property of a Lady and 007 in New York as the only official remaining Fleming originals. Elements of the first three have already been plundered for previous Bond films, while 007 in New York is a comic jotting that includes Bond's recipe for scrambled eggs.

It seems only the shipboard intrigue of The Hildebrand Rarity bears future reworking, but Wilson is unsure whether a film by that title could fly.

"I don't know, The Hildebrand Rarity? What do you think?" Wilson said, chuckling. "If we can get away with Quantum of Solace, we can get away with anything."