Thanks to imabookworm13 for the review! Check out her YouTube channel!

“Fans will be relieved to hear that it features exotic locations (part of the story is also set in London) and much-loved characters such as M, Miss Moneypenny and Bond’s friend Felix Leiter.“

This is great news for fans of James Bond’s brother from Langley because a present-day Felix Leiter has been absent from the James Bond novels since 2000′s Doubleshot by Raymond Benson, however, Leiter was last seen in Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care (2008), a period piece set in 1967.

Since Deaver will be rebooting the literary franchise and updating James Bond’s backstory, it is expected that Felix Leiter will get the same treatment therefore ‘Project X’ could potentially feature an un-maimed Leiter for the first time since Ian Fleming’s Live and Let Die (1954).

Stay tuned to FelixLeiter.com for all the latest news on Felix Leiter’s role in ‘Project X’. Thanks to ‘zencat’ for the tip.

–

Related Article:

The X-File: Your Field Guide to ‘Project X’

Welcome to The X-File, the first and only compilation of every known ‘Project X’ detail to date. This article contains only information reported by respectable sources and contains absolutely no fan speculation. It will be updated periodically as new information becomes available.

Project X

Plan: ‘Project X‘ by Jeffery Deaver is the first entry in a brand new, rebooted James Bond book series penned by various authors.¹ Deaver is under contract for one novel but has stated that he may pen another once his schedule opens up in 2013.²

Publication Date: Approximately May 28, 2011 (Ian Fleming’s birthday)³

UK Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton³

US Publisher: Simon & Schuster³

Other Countries: “The first foreign language deal is with the Dutch publisher, Unieboek, and offers are coming in from Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Korea. I’m aiming for deals in at least 30 countries before the end of this year.”⁴

Official Website • @007ProjectX on Twitter • JefferyDeaver.com

Research

Research: Deaver currently has between 3,000 and 4,000 pages of research.²

Outline: As of June 18, 2010, Deaver’s outline was approximately 180 pages long (30-40 pages longer than the typical outline for his other novels).²

Title

Working Title: Project X³

Fleming Influence: Deaver wants a title that not only works with the novel but also one that captures the essence of Ian Fleming.⁵

Final Title: There are currently 45 possible titles for the final product and it will be the person, place and/or thing that Bond is investigating. All of Deaver’s titles are his own; none of them have ever been written by someone else although he doesn’t always get his first choice.⁵

Plot

Year: Mid-2011⁶

Time Span: The story will take place over a period of 4 or 5 days.² According to People, Deaver is “the master of ticking-bomb suspense” hence the story’s short duration.⁷

Locations: The story will feature 3 or 4 exotic locales⁷, all of which Deaver has visited.¹

Deaver Trademarks: “It will have a lot of twists and turns and misdirections, and several big surprise endings.”⁶

James Bond

Age: 29 or 30 years old; although Deaver told CBn Forums member “godwulf” that his Bond will have been born in 1982, thus making him 28 or 29 in mid-2011.²

Military Experience: Afghanistan (Operation Herrick)² and Iraq⁶

Smoking Habit: James Bond will no longer smoke cigarettes.¹

May: Bond’s Scottish housekeeper will be replaced with an Indian or Pakistani maidservant.¹

Secret Intelligence Service

M: The head of the SIS will return to being a man after being a woman (Barbara Mawdsley) during Raymond Benson’s tenure.¹ It is still unclear whether he will be Fleming’s Admiral Sir Miles Messervy or an entirely new character.

Miss Moneypenny: M’s personal secretary will be in her mid-30s.¹

Mary Goodnight: Bond’s personal secretary will be 21 years old.¹

00 Section: It will be a shadowy assassination division of the Secret Intelligence Service that disavows its agents if they are compromised during an assignment.¹

New Threat: 007 will be fighting post-9/11 terrorism.¹

Central Intelligence Agency

Felix Leiter: James Bond’s brother from Langley will be making an appearance.⁹

Fan Interaction

Fan Input: Deaver, in connection with Ian Fleming Publications, will be soliciting input from fans via the Internet. Details regarding how this will be accomplished are still unknown.⁸

Official Website: JamesBondProjectX.com

Twitter: @007ProjectX

Latest News

08/09/2010: Felix Leiter to return in ‘Project X’

06/12/2010: “There is some Project X news brewing, but for the moment, we are sworn to secrecy…” (Book Bond)

Videos

Courtesy of JamesBondProjectX.com (May 28, 2010)

Courtesy of Dr. Shatterhand’s Botanical Garden (June 3, 2010)

Discuss ‘Project X’ on the CommanderBond.net Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum in the world.

I was perusing Iconfactory today and stumbled upon a set of desktop icons based on Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels! These were custom-made by a guy named Dave Brasgalla in November 1997 and despite being over a decade old, I don’t think many Bond fans are aware of them.

They’re free to download and are Mac and PC compatible. Unfortunately, they don’t look very good on my MacBook Pro. The problem is that the images are too pixelated and don’t mesh with the sharp graphics on a modern computer. They may look better on a PC but I don’t know. My second problem with these is that the icon for Felix Leiter has him wearing glasses. C’mon, Dave!

It would really be cool if someone took this idea and updated it so that Bond fans could have a modern set of James Bond-related desktop icons.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ICONS

Here’s a complete list of the icons that come in the set:

MI6

• James Bond
• M
• Miss Moneypenny
• Q

• Felix Leiter
• René Mathis
• Quarrel
• Tiger Tanaka

On November 19, 2007, Amazon.com launched a revolutionary wireless reading device called Amazon Kindle. With its state of the art electronic-paper display, simplicity (no computer, no cables and no syncing) and free wireless connectivity (Sprint EVDO network), it immediately became the best e-book reader on the United States market. It sold out in five and a half hours and remained out of stock until late April 2008.

On May 28, 2008, Amazon released the Kindle edition of Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care. On June 3, all fourteen of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels were released as Kindle editions. A week or so later, all the Fleming e-books were pulled from the site inexplicably.

I called an Amazon.com customer service representative to inquire about them and was told that either the publisher (Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.) pushed the release date back or that the e-books were formatted incorrectly.

Yesterday (over two months after they were pulled) Amazon put all fourteen novels back into the steadily growing Kindle Store, giving Kindle owners access to fifteen James Bond novels ($9.99 each). Hopefully IFP releases Kindle editions of the Bond novels by Amis, Gardner and Benson in the near future but unfortunately they probably won’t since there is currently no plans of even re-releasing them in traditional book format. The Young Bond novels, however, have a better chance of being released as a Kindle edition so stay tuned to FelixLeiter.com and The Young Bond Dossier.

The cover art for Devil May Care is the same as the US hardback edition, however, the cover art for the Fleming Kindle editions are all variations of the same brand new cover featuring a Bondesque Ian Fleming with a tuxedo, overcoat and briefcase. The covers also contain a new Ian Fleming logo. It’s ‘Ian FLEMING’ with his body forming the ‘I’ in Fleming:

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE AMAZON KINDLE

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE IAN FLEMING KINDLE EDITIONS

CLICK HERE TO BUY ‘DEVIL MAY CARE’ (KINDLE EDITION)

Not convinced you need an Amazon Kindle? Read the review I wrote for it in June (Yes, I own one):

Righty007′s Amazon Kindle Review

Pros: I’ve played around with it for a few days and I absolutely love it! The E-Ink technology is beautiful and looks just like a printed page. I’ve never been an avid reader but I’ve found myself reading much more with my Kindle. It’s lightweight, easy to use and much better than a traditional book. It uses Amazon Whispernet, which uses the Sprint EVDO network and is how books, newspapers and blogs are sent to your Kindle. This free service is awesome and allows you to use an “experimental” Internet browser to surf the net and check your e-mail. Buying new Kindle editions is easy and fast.

It comes with a built in dictionary in case you come across a word you don’t know and allows you to highlight sentences as well as write notes about what you’re reading. You can also download MP3s to listen to while you read and you can adjust the text size to one of six sizes. That’s a great feature for older readers or readers with poor eyesight.

Cons: The cover that comes with the Kindle is crap and doesn’t hold the Kindle in properly. That’s why I purchased a $50+ genuine leather case for it from BuyMedge.com. The next and previous page buttons on the sides are easy to accidently push, which gets annoying sometimes when you’re not ready to change pages. Using the “experimental” browser is time consuming because of the lack of a mouse or stylus. Instead, you have to use a scrolling thing on the side of it. Go to Amazon.com to view pictures of its features/design.

There’s no doubt that Kindle 2.0 will be much better but I’ve heard it might take a few years because Color E-Ink is still being developed. However, I still recommend the Kindle to all readers (and now all fans of the James Bond novels). Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader with a fantastic free wireless Internet service. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s the best e-book reader on the market but don’t buy it if you want a multipurpose gadget that does everything. That’s what your laptop, iPhone and/or PDA is for!

It’s currently $359 and only available in the United States right now. For more information on the Kindle’s features, visit Amazon.com.

 
Discuss this literary Leiter news in this thread on the FelixLeiter.com Forums, the only place dedicated to the discussion of Felix Leiter on the Internet.

Related Articles:

Fleming’s Felix: The CIA Man as Originally Envisioned

The Raymond Benson FLc Interview

A Fleming Enthusiast’s Review of ‘Devil May Care’

Fleming’s Felix Leiter is Back!

Jack Wade: Fleming’s Felix in Disguise? 

If James Bond were to have any personal friends, one would think they would be either his fellow Double O agents or Bill Tanner, M’s Chief of Staff (Bond’s best friend in the Service according to Ian Fleming). However, Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 had one unlikely friend-a man that was not only an American, but also a bona fide Texan. This man shared more adventures with Bond than any other character in the Fleming canon and grew to be the closest personal friend Bond would come to have during his career in Her Majesty’s Secret Service. This man’s name is Leiter. Felix Leiter.

Felix Leiter appeared in six of the fourteen novels and short story collections written by Ian Fleming (In chronological order, these were Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and The Man with the Golden Gun). In Fleming’s original novel, Casino Royale, Fleming tells us that Leiter had served in the United States Marine Corps before being recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with whom he was employed when he met James Bond. Throughout their adventures, Felix aided Bond both as a CIA agent and, for a time, as a detective for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Much to their mutual lament, Bond never got the opportunity to visit Felix’s home in Texas (or see his “oil well”) and Felix never visited Bond’s Chelsea flat in London. However, the two men shared a camaraderie that transcended their common occupation and their distant homes. Long before Felix’s final appearance in The Man with the Golden Gun, the two men had already achieved a level of friendship that could certainly be viewed as brotherhood, and that dynamic continued throughout their careers together all the way through the end of the Fleming canon (It should be noted that Leiter also appeared in various continuation novels after Fleming’s death but this article is exclusively concerned with Fleming’s work).

Over the course of the James Bond films produced by Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Felix Leiter has taken on many physical forms-Tall, short, brown hair, black hair, grey hair-he has even gone from being Caucasian to African American. Many James Bond fans have grown to have an affinity for the cinematic Felix, and even favor certain actors and physical types that have been seen throughout the series. Only two of these actors have played Felix more than once, and the rest of the time Felix never had the same face twice. This writer assumes the reason for this was so that the viewer would be as surprised to see Leiter as Bond was, by not knowing what he would look like beforehand. This was not the producers’ original intent; however, it is possible that it simply became the standard mode of operation for them. Ian Fleming’s Felix Leiter was quite different from his celluloid counterparts in the popular film franchise. None of the actors who have portrayed him on film have truly played him as he was originally written (although some of the actors have given stellar performances). The main detail abandoned in the films is that the literary Bond and Leiter shared a much more brotherly and sentimental relationship than was often portrayed onscreen.

In contrast to the various shapes and sizes in which Felix was eventually seen onscreen, Ian Fleming gave Felix Leiter a very distinct, unequivocal physical description in Casino Royale:

“Felix Leiter was about thirty-five. He was tall with a thin bony frame and his lightweight, tan-coloured suit hung loosely from his shoulders like the clothes of Frank Sinatra. His movements and speech were slow, but one had the feeling that there was plenty of speed and strength in him, and that he would be a tough and cruel fighter. As he sat hunched over the table, he seemed to have some of the jackknife quality of a falcon. There was this impression also in his face, in the sharpness of his chin and cheekbones and the wide wry mouth. His grey eyes had a feline slant which was increased by his habit of screwing them up against the smoke of the Chesterfields which he tapped out of the pack in a chain. The permanent wrinkles which this habit had etched at the corners gave the impression that he smiled more with his eyes than with his mouth. A mop of straw-coloured hair lent his face a boyish look which closer examination contradicted.”

         Casino Royale, Chapter Seven

In this story, Felix Leiter made his debut as Bond’s CIA contact in Royale-les-Eaux, France, on loan from his regular posting in Fontainebleau. Bond first met Leiter when he noticed across the baccarat table that an American had been paying particular attention to Bond’s winning streak and had been giving him subtle visual hints that he wanted to have a conversation. Upon meeting, the two spies instantly took to each other, and Bond bought Leiter a drink. After they discussed business, Leiter joined René Mathis and Vesper Lynd as Bond’s official back-up for the mission.

During Bond’s baccarat game with Le Chiffre, he was cleaned out with no hope of buying back in until he received an envelope full of money, containing a note, which read:

“Marshall Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the U.S.A.”

Leiter backed Bond’s re-entry into the game, enabling Bond to eventually beat Le Chiffre and win all of the money. Afterward, Leiter felt responsible for Bond’s welfare and insisted upon walking with him to his hotel room, fearing Le Chiffre might attempt to assassinate Bond. They then parted ways.

In Fleming’s second novel, Live and Let Die, Leiter teamed up with Bond once more as they sought to track down and destroy the gold smuggling operation financed by SMERSH and led by black Russian agent “Mister Big.” It is in this novel that we begin to see Leiter’s friendship with Bond blossom. Bond and Leiter reunited in New York City and went about visiting bars and restaurants in Harlem while working their way to Mister Big’s own establishment. After being watched and finally caught by Mister Big and his thugs, Bond was interrogated by the big man himself. Meanwhile, Leiter was taunted and bruised up by some of the thugs until he managed to spark up a conversation about jazz music with one of the men and was later secretly allowed to go free. Leiter was dumped at Bellvue Hospital and met up with Bond again in St. Petersburg, Florida.

While in St. Petersburg, Bond and Leiter set out to visit the Ourobouros Worm & Bait warehouse, Mister Big’s front company and his main port in the United States. After a tense encounter with the warehouse’s proprietor (an operative of Mr. Big’s called “The Robber”), they learned that Solitaire had been kidnapped right out of Bond’s hotel room. An angry, scared Bond drowned his sorrows in spirits and passed out while Leiter went back to the warehouse during the wee hours.

When Bond finally woke, he was disturbed by a phone call apparently from the local hospital, saying that Leiter had been left there with a “Dr. Roberts” and was in critical condition. Bond raced to the hospital, only to find that there was no such physician, and that no man by the name of Felix Leiter had been admitted there.

Bond realized he’d been had and raced back to the hotel. To his horror, a nearly-dead body was lying in wet rags and cloths on his bed, with a note sticking out of the place where the mouth should have been, saying:

“He disagreed with something that ate him.

                                    (P.S. We have plenty more jokes as funny as this.)”

Hearing that it had to have been a shark that maimed Felix, Bond returned to the warehouse that night and engaged the Robber in a gun battle and fist fight. Eventually the Robber fell through a secret trap door, grabbing the edge just in time. Bond looked beneath him and saw the black ocean waters, along with what was sure to be the large shark. Bond saw in his mind what must have happened-The Robber would have tricked Felix into standing over the same trap door and would have flipped the switch. Bond lashed out in a fit of rage and kicked the Robber in the face, twice, and he fell to a justly horrific death.

The last thing Bond had heard about Felix is that he was still unconscious, and that his right arm and left leg were gone. Fortunately, Bond successfully avenged Felix and killed Mister Big, thus destroying his gold smuggling operation.

After a departure from Fleming’s Moonraker, Felix made his return in Diamonds Are Forever. While investigating a diamond smuggling ring in the United States, Bond was surprised on the street by his old friend in New York City who had been tailing him. Not having seen each other since Felix’s near-death in Florida, the two were elated to see each other again. It is in this story that we get the sense that these two men have become like brothers, always taunting and teasing each other. In this novel, Fleming updated the reading audience on Felix’s new appearance:

“Sure,” said Leiter. He slipped his steel hook into the right-hand pocket of his coat and took Bond’s arm with his left hand. They moved out onto the street, and Bond noticed that Leiter walked with a decided limp…His limp was more noticeable as he held onto the [stair]banisters…The right arm had gone, and the left leg, and there were imperceptible scars below the hairline above the right eye that suggested a good deal of grafting, but otherwise Leiter looked in reasonable shape. The steady eyes were undefeated, the shock of straw-coloured hair had no hint of grey in it and there was none of the bitterness of a cripple around the mouth. But in their short walk there had been a hint of reticence in Leiter’s manner, and Bond felt this had something to do with him, Bond, and perhaps with Leiter’s present activities. Certainly not, he thought as he walked across the room to join his friend, with Leiter’s injuries.

  Diamonds Are Forever, Chapter Eight

By this time, Felix had also left the employ of the CIA and was now employed by Pinkerton’s Detective Agency:

“With my gun hand gone they could only offer me desk work. Very nice about it, and paid me off handsomely when I said I wanted an open-air job. Then Pinkertons made me a good offer. You know, ‘The Eye That Never Sleeps’ people. So now I’m just a ‘door-basher’-private detective, ‘put-on-some-clothes-and-open-up’ routine. But it’s fun. They’re a nice crowd to work for, and someday I’ll be able to retire with a pension and a presentation gold watch that goes green in the summer. As a matter of fact I’m in charge of their Race Gang squad-doping, crooked running, nightguards at the stables, that sort of thing. Good job, and it takes you all over the country.”

        Diamonds Are Forever, Chapter Eight

Leiter and Bond chose not to team as closely on this outing, as their respective agencies were not collaborating on the case. However, Felix was able to get Bond a reliable Pinkerton’s contact in Las Vegas, and personally helped when he could. He drove Bond to Saratoga in his pride and joy-his “Studillac”-a Studebaker with a Cadillac engine. Leiter frequently liked to make playful jabs at the British, whether by simply calling Bond a “limey” or by engaging Bond’s competitive nature by threatening that his Studillac could outperform Bond’s prized Bentley. Felix always felt the need to defend the American motoring reputation to Europeans like Bond.

After rescuing Bond from the clutches of the Spangled Mob outside Las Vegas, Leiter bid Bond a fond farewell near the end of Diamonds Are Forever. As Bond felt a lump in his throat seeing Felix limping back to his car and driving off, Tiffany Case remarked to him-

“You’ve got yourself a good friend there.”

(To which Bond replied)

“Yes–Felix is all of that.”

         Diamonds Are Forever, Chapter Twenty-One

Leiter only made a brief appearance near the end of Goldfinger, where he was delivered a note that Bond had written as a last ditch attempt to thwart Auric Goldfinger’s plan to rob Fort Knox. When Goldfinger and his men had seemingly incapacitated the military guard around Fort Knox and Bond thought it was all finally over, a maroon signal went off and the soldiers sprung to life. Bond heard a familiar voice cry “Santiago!” (St. James-the battle cry of Cortez) and turned to see Leiter in his Marine Captain uniform carrying a bazooka and leading a unit of men in the ambush. With the Marines, Leiter and Bond crushed Goldfinger’s great robbery plan and spent a short amount of time relaxing and speeding in the Studillac along the highway on Bond’s way to Washington, D.C. There, they parted ways once again.

Felix returned again in full form in Thunderball. While Bond waited on his assigned CIA contact in Nassau, Felix caught Bond completely by surprise and explained that he had been “drafted” back into the CIA to work with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to find the two missing NATO nuclear bombs stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Working with Bond much more closely again, Felix accompanied Bond onto a yacht owned by Emilio Largo-a suspicious man whom they believed to be involved in the theft of the bombs. Felix brought with him a now-famous gadget: a camera with a Geiger counter hidden inside, which is connected to a wristwatch whose sweep hand shows the radiation count.

Finding nothing but still suspecting Largo, Leiter and Bond searched all over the sea surrounding Nassau for the aircraft from which the bombs were stolen. With little time to spare before S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’s ransom was due, they found the aircraft sitting on the bottom of a grotto and brought the U.S. Navy on board in the form of a submarine and underwater commandos. Leiter aided the Navy in chasing down Largo’s yacht while Bond fought Largo and his men underwater. With S.P.E.C.T.R.E. crushed, the bombs were finally retrieved.

Felix made his final appearance in Fleming’s final novel, The Man With The Golden Gun. While still working for Pinkerton’s, Felix was once again drafted into the CIA specifically to work with his old friend James in Jamaica to eliminate Cuban hitman Francisco “Pistols” Scaramanga. Scaramanga was organizing a deadly union of the American mob, the Sicilian Mafia, and the KGB. While Bond posed undercover as Scaramanga’s bodyguard under the name of Mark Hazard, Leiter posed under the name of “Mr. Travis” as a temporary accountant at the hotel run by Scaramanga. His objective was to collect and record evidence of Scaramanga’s connection to the KGB. Leiter was assisted by another CIA agent named Nick Nicholson, an electronics and wiretapping expert.

Eventually, Bond discovered that Scaramanga and his KGB handler, Mr. Hendriks, knew that he was a spy. Fortunately, Leiter had maintained his cover and aided his friend in making sure that he would be forewarned and, thus, forearmed. Scaramanga planned to kill Bond in full view of the group of criminals by exposing Bond and killing him during an excursion to hunt game. While on his train, Scaramanga used a dummy tied to the tracks (by Leiter earlier, under Scaramanga’s pressure) to trick Bond into thinking it was his girlfriend, and forced Bond’s hand. A gunfight ensued in which Bond killed Hendriks and severely wounded Scaramanga, but he was still outnumbered and outgunned. Just as he was nearly done for, Felix popped up behind Scaramanga (having ridden aboard the train in secret) and ambushed the other thugs, telling Bond to jump. Bond and Leiter jumped, as did Scaramanga, and the train went up in a fireball thanks to explosives that Leiter had planted ahead on a bridge.

Bond and Leiter were badly wounded, Bond even more so after his final confrontation with Scaramanga in the mangrove swamps. The two spies were hospitalized, though Leiter visited Bond often and was with him as he recovered from his near-fatal gunshot wound. Both were honored by the Jamaican police, after which they parted ways as Leiter prepared to go back to America. Bond and Leiter curiously never shook hands, but still knew each other well and knew that, while they had difficulty expressing their brotherly affection, they were two sides of the same coin and would always be so.

While the relationship between James Bond and Felix Leiter has never been fully fleshed out in the film series, fans of Fleming know that there is much more to Felix than Bond’s American sidekick who simply makes Bond look great by comparison. Fleming’s Felix is a beloved character that has endured with the novels themselves; a charming, professional, deadly American spy and detective who has suffered, prevailed and lived to be considered James Bond’s closest friend and ally for many years and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Discuss Fleming’s Felix: The CIA Man as Originally Envisioned in this thread on the FelixLeiter.com Forums, the only place dedicated to the discussion of Felix Leiter on the Internet.

Related Articles:

A Fleming Enthusiast’s Review of ‘Devil May Care’

Fleming’s Felix Leiter is Back!

CommanderBond.net’s Felix Leiter

Jack Wade: Fleming’s Felix in Disguise?

Obscure Item: Custom Felix Leiter Figure

Becoming the fourth official James Bond novelist was not Raymond’s first foray into the world of James Bond. In 1984, he published a non-fiction book called The James Bond Bedside Companion, which extensively discussed the James Bond novels and films. In 1985, he was the designer and writer of the computer game adaptations of Goldfinger and A View to a Kill. A year later, he wrote the role-playing game, You Only Live Twice II – Back of Beyond, and an unproduced stage play adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino Royale.

Since his departure from the James Bond literary series, Raymond has published four successful original novels, two novels in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series, and Metal Gear Solid, the first novelization based on the hit video game series of the same name.

In 2004, CommanderBond.net launched a fantastic four part series of in-depth interviews with Raymond Benson about James Bond. Now Raymond talks to Bond fans about his take on the literary and cinematic versions of our second favorite Fleming character, Felix Leiter. As you probably know, he brought the literary Leiter back in 1998′s The Facts of Death and 2000′s Doubleshot.

Welcome to…

The Raymond Benson FLc Interview

Chris Wright: You were born in Midland, Texas. Since Felix Leiter is a fellow Texan, do you have a greater affinity for him than you do for other Fleming characters?

Raymond Benson: Perhaps. I don’t think I set out as a Bond fan because of the Leiter/Texas connection! Actually, it probably wasn’t until later, when I was an adult and re-read the Fleming novels (for the third or fourth time) that I picked up on the fact that Leiter was a Texan. This was prior to my writing of The James Bond Bedside Companion. Once I realized that, I began to pay more attention to how Fleming actually wrote the character in terms of the way he spoke and stuff.

CW: Was it your idea to reintroduce Leiter in The Facts of Death or did Ian Fleming Publications (IFP) want you to bring him back?

RB: That was my idea. I’ve said in previous interviews that there’s nothing wrong with bringing back characters from the Bond universe. I don’t know why some of the hardcore fans complain about it. It’s done all the time in other franchises—comic book superheros, Star Trek, Star Wars, you name it. It’s all part of the universe that ties back to Fleming.

CW: Did you have any of the actors in mind when writing Leiter or did you go strictly off Fleming?

RB: At the time I was writing the books, I would cast Dennis Quaid as Leiter. He’d be perfect. He’s a Texan and he’s smart. He would have made a good foil for Pierce Brosnan’s Bond. But I tried to write Leiter as Fleming’s Leiter. I probably emphasized a bit more of the Texan in him. There were some things Fleming missed. Leiter isn’t a stereotypical “good ol’ boy” from Texas, but there has to be a little bit of that in him. It comes with the territory!

CW: You put Leiter in an electric wheelchair. Tell us about that.

RB: When you think about what happened to Leiter in the Fleming books, we’re talking about a guy who lost a leg (and an arm) back when medical technology wasn’t so great with prosthetics. Granted, my books were updated to the present, and all the characters are not the age they should have been in the late ’90s had we been following a strict timeline. But still, it just made sense to me that Leiter’s leg(s) would have deteriorated in strength. He can still walk, but he does depend on a wheelchair at times. Glidrose liked the idea, too.

CW: In The Facts of Death you gave Leiter a girlfriend named Manuela Montemayor. Did you ever consider using Della Churchill from 1989′s Licence to Kill instead?

RB: The character of Della is owned by EON, not Ian Fleming Publications. In other words, if a character is created by the films, it can’t be used in an original Bond novel.

CW: Was making Manuela Hispanic a comment on the changing demographics in Texas?

RB: Changing? It was always that way!

CW: Is there any particular reason you chose West Lake Hills, an upscale suburb of Austin, as Leiter’s place of residence?

RB: Because it’s a lovely area and I believe it’s where Leiter and Manuela would want to live. It’s far enough from the hustle and bustle of crowded Austin, yet still has an urban feel. It’s close to the lake and the hills.

CW: You gave Leiter a dalmatian named Esmerelda. Where did that idea come from? Do you own a dog?

RB: I love dogs. At the time I wrote the book, I didn’t have one. Got one in the year 2000, but unfortunately he developed cancer when he was seven and passed away a year and a half ago. Having a dog in that area of Austin just made sense.

CW: John Gardner created Cedar Leiter, Felix’s daughter, for For Special Services. Did you ever consider bringing her back as a CIA contact in any of your Bond novels?

RB: No. My directive from IFP (they were called Glidrose when I began working for them) was that I could use or ignore anything from the other continuation authors, as long as I was faithful to anything Fleming wrote. I wasn’t against Cedar—I quite like For Special Services—but I didn’t see a reason to bring her back. I can’t remember if Bond asks about her. Maybe I had it in and Glidrose cut it. I really can’t remember and haven’t looked at the book in a while.

CW: Who is your favorite actor to portray Leiter onscreen?

RB: Rik Van Nutter. He looks like how I envision Leiter. And he seemed to have some of the good ol’ boy quality but with intelligence and savvy. In my opinion, every other instance of Leiter in the films is a miscast.

CW: What did you think of Jeffrey Wright’s portrayal of the character in 2006′s Casino Royale?

RB: He’s fine. Wright is a great actor. He plays the part that’s written for him. But Felix Leiter is not an African American. But if that’s what EON wants to do, then that’s what they’ll do. M was never a woman, either. I’m not saying I don’t like Judi Dench—she’s absolutely brilliant. I guess it’s a matter of how faithful one wants the Bond films to be to the novels.

CW: I recently purchased an Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com’s revolutionary wireless reading device. As an author, what do you think of this device and would you ever consider getting one?

RB: Back in the year 2000, I was commissioned by a company that wanted to publish electronic books. I wrote a serial novel called Evil Hours that was published in parts on their website (and as a full length e-book). They published other books, too—classics, new books, whatever… and the company tanked. (Evil Hours was eventually published in print in 2004). It’s taking a long time for the publishing industry, i.e., the publishers of “real” books, to come around and recognize that e-books might indeed be a wave of the future. Personally, I think it’s too early to tell. No serious writer I know would want to exclusively publish an e-book without having it as a printed book, too.

CW: You released A Hard Day’s Death and Metal Gear Solid this year. What’s next for you?

RB: An anthology of some of my Bond stuff, entitled The Union Trilogy, will come out in October. It will also contain the unpublished (in English) full length version of the short story “Blast from the Past.” I suppose if this omnibus does well, a second volume may come out the following year. The sequel to A Hard Day’s Death is already written and will be published in spring 2009—it’s called Dark Side of the Morgue. We’re talking about the possibility of doing Metal Gear Solid 2 – Sons of Liberty. I suppose just watch my website RaymondBenson.com for news!

CW: Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions!

RB: You’re welcome!

THE FLc INTERVIEW WILL RETURN…

Discuss this interview in this thread on the FelixLeiter.com Forums, the only place dedicated to the discussion of Felix Leiter on the Internet.

Unfortunately, Daniel Craig’s 007 probably won’t light up in Quantum of Solace but it looks like Felix Leiter will! Take a look at the smoke coming from the bar counter in this screenshot that I extracted from the teaser trailer:

It’s unclear whether we’ll actually see Leiter (and/or Bond) puff on a cigarette in this scene or if we’ll just see smoke coming from an ash tray. Either way, I’m just happy for some implied smoking especially from Jeffrey Wright’s Felix Leiter, my personal favorite interpretation of the character!

Ian Fleming’s Commander James Bond and Captain Felix Leiter both smoked cigarettes. Bond preferred a blend of Balkan and Turkish tobacco made for him by Morlands of Grosvenor Street and Leiter preferred cigarettes made by the American company, Chesterfield.

Discuss this Quantum of Solace news in this thread on the FelixLeiter.com Forums, the only place dedicated to the discussion of Felix Leiter on the Internet.

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‘Quantum of Solace’ Teaser Trailer Online!

New Footage of “Bar Scene” Online

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Activision’s ‘Quantum of Solace’ Site Launched

Wright in Austria for ‘Quantum of Solace’?

Leiter in Haiti with Gregg Beam?

Leiter’s Role in ‘Quantum of Solace’ Minimized

‘Quantum of Solace’ UK Release Pulled to October 31, 2008

Brand New ‘Quantum of Solace’ Footage featuring Leiter

Jeffrey Wright to Return as Felix Leiter in ‘Quantum of Solace’

As a veteran fan of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, I was enthralled to hear that Sebastian Faulks would be attempting to bring not only the literary Bond, but Fleming’s Bond back to life in Devil May Care, which was written and released to mark the centennial anniversary of Fleming’s birth. Fans had been promised the return of several memorable characters, including the SIS staff, René Mathis, and this site’s favorite, Felix Leiter. We’d also been promised a classic villain in the Fleming style, a luscious leading lady as only Fleming could conceive, and a lush travelogue full of suspense and excitement. The story would be taking place shortly after Fleming’s The Man with the Golden Gun in 1967. All was as it should be.

So, how was it?

While it is a good book overall, I’m afraid it isn’t the messianic continuation novel that many fans had built it up in their minds to be. Faulks (who has been given many well-deserved accolades for his work thus far) managed to reproduce Fleming’s writing style and tone quite well; however, the story feels like little more than a pastiche of former Fleming adventures. The plot centers on Dr. Julius (No?) Gorner and his plans to wreak havoc on Britain’s citizens by addicting as many as possible to heroin, thus discrediting England in the world community and plunging their culture into ruin. I liked the idea of the villain taking revenge on Britain for wronging him; I liked it better, though, when Hugo Drax did it in Moonraker. I also liked the tension-wracked tennis match in which Bond took on a cheating Gorner; I liked it better when it was the bridge match with Drax or the golf game with Goldfinger. Also, the ally in Tehran, Darius, was a rather obvious homage to Darko Kerim in almost every single way.

And the girl-she was an interesting character, with a name that played on the flower from which opium is derived (the Poppy); Again, a choice made with a good intention of giving tribute, but which came off as a lack of originality. What was original, though, was the full revelation of her role in the story. Well done.

One flaw that many Fleming fans have noted is that Faulks seemed to feel the need to hit all items on the “Fleming checklist”; that is, he had Bond in nearly every familiar situation previously introduced in the earlier novels (like placing hairs across doorways and taking hot/ice cold showers, or recalling situations in specific former adventures) as if to scream “It’s the same Bond! Honest!” Frankly, I believe he needed not been so heavy handed in his approach. Fleming fans will detect even more situations, characters, and places that obviously echo the original counterparts in the Fleming adventures.

Now, the question all Felix Leiter fans have been wondering…How was Felix handled?

While the characterization was done respectfully and brought back warm memories of Fleming’s lanky Texan, the details regarding Leiter’s maiming in Live and Let Die were completely wrong (I assume Faulks felt the need to recall these details for the benefit of readers who had never read Fleming). First, he said it was a hammerhead that maimed him. Fleming never alluded to the possibility of it having been a hammerhead, and even suggested that it might be a much more deadly species (EON Productions’ Licence To Kill conjectures a Great White shark). Second, Faulks says that it was the right arm and leg. With all due respect to Mr. Faulks, this is simply bad research. Fleming clearly stated in Diamonds Are Forever that it was the right arm and left leg. Third, Faulks gives the location as having been Miami. This isn’t even close. It had been in St. Petersburg, which is nowhere near Miami by any estimation. I was shocked to see such obvious discrepancies here, especially because this was intended to be the definitive continuation novel, set specifically in Fleming’s universe and told through his own voice.

While I was disappointed with this misstep, I was satisfied overall with Felix’s role in the story and his relationship with Bond. Much like the end of The Man with the Golden Gun, the reader gets the sense that these men are like brothers. I am thankful that Faulks chose to include him in the story.

All in all, Devil May Care left me feeling mostly satisfied. While I do wish he had chosen not to pay as much homage to Fleming’s characters and plots, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found it to be the most satisfying continuation Bond novel I’ve read yet. Most readers will not have as many gripes about the lack of original details as the hardcore Fleming readers, and even the veteran literary fans will get swept up in the action whether they have reservations about the details or not. I would recommend to all fans to go ahead and purchase this one. And my advice to you readers out there-like Fleming’s stories, Devil May Care is best to read while either traveling or in the comfort of one’s own bed.

00Twelve’s Rating: ***1/2

Righty007′s Rating: ****

Today is the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth and to mark the occasion, Ian Fleming Publications published a brand new James Bond novel called Devil May Care. It’s written by Sebastian Faulks and takes place in 1967, where Fleming left off. Felix Leiter makes an appearance in the novel which is very exciting because he’s been absent in the Bond novels since Raymond Benson’s Doubleshot in 2000.

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Discuss Devil May Care in this thread on the FelixLeiter.com Forums, the only place dedicated to the discussion of Felix Leiter on the Internet.