good bye, ms & MR bond…

Apr 18

Dear Eon,

(for the attention of Ms Barbara Broccoli),

Was so saddened to hear the news that Barbara and Michael will be stepping down from creative control re the James Bond series.

I am now 53.

Heritage from Nigeria so, in the 1970s, was fixated watching James Bond there (by video).

Migrated (LEGALLY) to England in the 1980s and gorged on 007 here.

Some of us EVEN believed we were Bond (although I played a wicked "Mr Big" in my spare time).

Was transfixed by all the transitions, from Moore to Dalton, to Brosnan, to Craig.

And how the series moved with the times:

Mid 70s - it became more gritty like the Easy Riders and Raging Bulls pirates (New Hollywood)....
Late 70's, it embraced the space age (alongside Star Wars/Close Encounters)...
1980s - it encapsulated the pop-feel joie de vivre spirit of the era...UNTIL
The Late 80's - when Dalton singularly took it back to its Fleming roots.....
Mid 90s - with Cold War over, Brosnan and Dench expressed a BRAVE NEW WORLD which manifested the chaos of former USSR and the possibilities of a new Liberal Order....( a liberal order....ironically.... which may be ending right now before our very eyes)....
In the Noughties, and with the birth of new technologies, Bond too experimented with different gizmos (not least the INVISIBLE CAR on icy waters in frigid Scandinavia)....UNTIL
Craig came EXPLODING onto our screens...away from his "FRIENDS IN THE NORTH" and on leave from "MUNICH"....
Side glancing at his cousin with the same initials JB (Jason Bourne) Bond took it to ANOTHER LEVEL with Martin Campbell's Casino Royale (probably my favorite Bond film of all time....certainly, the one I was most emotionally invested in....)
And then..... there was SKYFALL - going full circle and bringing the story back home...!
NO Time To Die - provided the perfect bookend.
The Man with the Licence to Kill,
The Dude Who only Lives Twice,
but like a Cool Cat..... actually has Nine Lives.
Surely, surely.... this was No Time To die??
And yet....And yet..... And yet....

BOND has played such a HUGE part in my filmed, cultural and general pop quiz entertainment life experience,

that although this feels like a gentle passing.....

I'm sure HIS SOUL will live on

through different avatars,

in perpetuity.....

throughout eternity.

Thank you to your dad and Harry Saltzman.

To Directors from Terence Young to Cary Fukunaga.

To The unheralded (by the public) 2nd Unit Teams.

To All your Other Staff including the amazing casting division.

To everyone basically connected with this EXTRAORDINARY PROJECT.

That has SO ENRICHED ALL our lives... for 60 plus years....

Merci, Gracias, Obrigado, Spasibo, Ese Pupo.

A well-deserved Martini is due.....S-N-S, of course...!!

Warmest regards,

Leke Adebayo

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