Bond writer turns to video games for latest 007 title: Everything or Nothing
TORONTO (CP) – Pierce Brosnan is back as James Bond. So are Judi Dench as M and John Cleese as Q.
Willem Dafoe takes a turn as a Russian villain, Richard Kiel returns as Jaws and supermodel Heidi Klum and actress Shannon Elizabeth are the latest Bond girls.
Throw in a theme song by Mya and exotic locations like a secret facility in Egypt, mountain fortress in Peru, the French Quarter in New Orleans and Red Square in Moscow and you have the latest James Bond – video game.
“It’s like a movie where you’re James Bond,” Kiel says enthusiastically.
Such is the world of gaming these days. And Electronic Arts seems to have spared no expense for James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, out Tuesday for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameBoy Advance.
The game’s script was written by Bruce Feirstein, whose Bond movie-writing credits include The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies and GoldenEye.
“I was completely amazed by the cast that EA assembled. It was as good as anything we’ve done on a Bond movie,” Feirstein said in a telephone interview.
“I think what this game shows is the kind of convergence that goes on. Whereas this has become such a big, important entertainment medium, we’re now able to attract that kind of talent.
“I mean, Judi Dench in an electronic game?”
The game’s cast of actors and musician-composers have won or been nominated for Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and Grammys.
Everything or Nothing even starts like a Bond movie – although it is a stand-alone title with no links to future films – as the gamer is thrown into a ticklish situation before the plot kicks in.
It was Feirstein’s first foray into the world of gaming, but the American says it wasn’t that much different from writing for any other medium.
“It’s like a newspaper article, you hope the first paragraph will be interesting enough that people want to read the second,” he said. “When you do a video game or an electronic game, you hope the first level of play will keep you interested to do the second.
“Writing is writing. It’s all about what happens next.”
And there’s plenty to write about when it comes to Bond, although Electronic Arts designers presented Feirstein with the basic framework for a story.
There are restrictions, however. Like Star Wars devotees, Bond fans can be fanatical.
There was someone on hand to oversee game production “from the Bond point of view.”
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“There are things you do and don’t do,” said Feirstein.
“Everyone thinks they know Bond but it’s really once you get inside it that you realize all the little rules.”
“The rules for a Bond movie are that you can have everything that someone can do with an unlimited amount of money,” he continued. “What that means is you can hollow out a volcano and fill it with big-breasted women.
“What that means is that you cannot time-travel, you cannot morph yourself into something else. The last movie (Die Another Day) came very very very close to skirting that rule with the invisible car.
“The Bond movies deal five minutes into the future.”
Everything or Nothing has Bond in a new third-person perspective, as opposed to the first-person view of the last game 007: Nightfire. The new game also offers a two-player co-op mode and four-player multiplayer mode, and there is online play in the PlayStation version.
Graphics are superb and gamers should enjoy rapelling down buildings with a weapon in hand or breaking the speed limit in an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, Porsche Cayenne Turbo SUV or Triumph Daytona 600 motorcycle.
In addition to the now-routine goofy Bond plot, the game also features more than 20 weapons and gadgets.
Feirstein’s many writing credits include a regular column for the New York Observer and he is also a contributing editor for Vanity Fair. But his Bond credentials often grab attention first.
“You can’t imagine the impact that Bond has had on worldwide culture. I defy anyone to go a week in any newspaper without finding at least some reference to something that is Bond-like . . . It’s amazing to me how it permeates culture everywhere.”
“There were almost riots when Pierce would go to various cities,” he added.
Bond movies produce plenty of other anecdotes on location.
Feirstein, who is in his late 40s and remembers watching Bond movies in the theatre with his dad, recalls being in a producer’s hotel suite in Bangkok, which covered the entire top floor.
The hotel overlooked the Chiang Mai river and as Feirstein and others went over the script in the boardroom, two black helicopters rocketed up the river one firing at the other.
“Off in the distance, we saw something blow up and a small cloud rise. I don’t even blink, I turn to the producer and say ‘Are those ours?’ ‘Yes, those are ours.”‘
Then there was the time making GoldenEye when the producers bought up a consignment of Russian tanks and MIG aircraft and put them on a film lot north of London. A couple of days later, the studio got a visit from the Home Office and MI5. A satellite had noticed the weaponry and the officials were wondering what the hardware was needed for.
Notes: Since 1962, there have been 20 Bond movies. EA has done a half-dozen video games: Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, 007 Racing, 007: Agent Under Fire, 007 Nightfire and now 007:Everything or Nothing.
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