Not having seen our favorite super spy grace cinemas since late 2015, moviegoers such as myself couldn’t help but become excited upon hearing last week’s news stating that the next entry in the enduring James Bond franchise has been slated for November of 2019. With that, it’s only expected that plot details emerge in due time.
Naturally, it didn’t go unnoticed when reports surfaced yesterday stating that said film is set to be based on Raymond Benson’s novel Never Dream of Dying, and that the studio supposedly thought it would serve as a fine followup to Spectre. And seeing as how Benson has built quite the reputation for himself in the spy genre having written not only Bond novels, but also ones pertaining to Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell (the latter was done under the pen name of “David Michaels,” one shared by several authors who worked on the series falling under the Tom Clancy umbrella), an adaptation of his work would probably go over well with diehard fans.
Well, as it turns out, Benson never even spoke with the publication responsible for originally publishing the story, The Mirror, as he confessed the following in a Facebook post:
“Some of you may have seen an article published by U.K.’s The Mirror yesterday that claims that the next Bond movie will be based on my novel Never Dream of Dying. I know nothing of this, but as I have not spoken with any Mirror journalists at all, I can only assume that the article is a piece of fabrication. It would, of course, be wonderful if it were true.”
Taking that into account, it may be best to entirely disregard everything from that report. But if the producers were to go in this route, it would be something to take note of. After all, most James Bond films tend to be based on either the works of Ian Fleming himself or are original screenplays, so a Never Dream of Dying flick would come as somewhat of a surprise.