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To mark the 50th Anniversary of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and with filming now complete on James Bond’s 23rd official outing in Skyfall due for release later this year, I have been tasked with taking a retrospective look at the films that turned author Ian Fleming’s creation into one of the most recognised and iconic characters in film history.

Following Roger Moore’s departure from the lead role after starring in the previous seven films, the fifteenth James Bond film, The Living Daylights, was seized upon as an opportunity to reboot the series with not only a new Bond but a new approach to the franchise that had become rather formulaic over the past 25 years. Taking the title from one of Fleming’s short stories, writers Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson took the character back to his roots making a conscious...

To mark the 50th Anniversary of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and with filming complete on James Bond’s 23rd official outing in Skyfall due for release later this year, I have been tasked with taking a retrospective look at the films that turned author Ian Fleming’s creation into one of the most recognised and iconic characters in film history.

Having created James Bond in 1953, Ian Fleming went on to write a total of 14 books featuring the character before his death in 1964. The Eon produced series of films had been using the novels for inspiration since Dr. No in 1962 but as the series approached its fourteenth film, it was running out of original Fleming novels to adapt. Much like previous Bond film Octopussy, the latest film from Albert R. Broccoli’s Eon Productions, A View To A Kill, took its title from one of...

To mark the 50th Anniversary of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and with filming almost complete on James Bond’s 23rd official outing in Skyfall due for release later this year, I have been tasked with taking a retrospective look at the films that turned author Ian Fleming’s creation into one of the most recognised and iconic characters in film history.

For Octopussy, the thirteenth official James Bond film, 1983 proved to be rather unlucky. After a lengthy court battle with the co-writer of Thunderball, Kevin McClory, Albert R. Broccoli’s Eon Productions had lost the right to use Bond’s nemesis Blofeld and his organisation Spectre in any of their films. McClory had been trying since 1974 to get his own rival Bond film made but due to a lack of financial backing and legal action from United Artists and the Fleming Trustees his project...