August 15, 2009

TARANTINO DIGS DEIGHTON

TARANTINO DIGS DEIGHTON
From the Commander Bond Network: It’s public knowledge that Quentin Tarantino has been interested in the James Bond film series for quite some time, despite not yet having the opportunity to direct one the films. Now, the Kill Bill director is considering creating his own spy series that would likely rival 007’s own big screen adventures.

The Guardian reports that Tarantino is particularly interested in a spy trilogy penned by Len Deighton: Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match. The books center on the cold war-era adventures of Bernard Samson, a jaded, middle-aged intelligence officer working for the fictional Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1980s.

"One of the things I enjoy musing about doing is the trilogy of Len Deighton books, Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match," Tarantino explained. "The story takes place in the Cold War and follows a spy named Bernard Sampson. What is attractive is the really great characters and the wonderful casting. I love England. It would be a wonderful life experience to have an excuse to work here for six or nine months," he added.

I note that Granada Television produced the trilogy in 1988 with Ian Holm. No talk of Tarantino picking up the Harry Palmer stories, which may be a blessing as they are so well-loved as Michael Caine classics at this point. Stay tuned.

2 comments:

  1. The 1988 mini-series was pretty faithful to the books, and ran over thirteen episodes of one hour each. Even though I think QT's just saying stuff without having much commitment behind it, if he IS serious about filming the series, he'd have to cut out an awful lot of stuff that's integral to the plot I would imagine.

    The 1988 series is actually pretty good (though it's never been released commercially, due to a block on the rights by Deighton, it is available rarely on DVD) and captures the feel of the books well. Also (as shown in the picture above), it's cool that the character of Dicky Cruyer is played by the same actor - Michael Culver - who some years earlier played Captain Needa in Star Wars!

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  2. Great to hear more about the 1988 series- thanks! I hope episodes make it to DVD at some point.

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