 |
| |
Exclusive: MI6 reveals the James Bond books fans
can look forward to reading in 2012 as the film series
celebrates its 50th anniversary...
|
|
2012 Books Preview
12th July 2011
As the James Bond movie series celebrates its 50th anniversary
next year, there will be a number of books released to reflect
on the half-century of EON Production's run of 23 official films
(by October 2012). Alongside the silver screen incarnation, there
may also be interesting developments ahead with the literary
estate.
First off, the official
movie book publisher Dorling Kindersley will be churning out a trio of titles to satisfy
the casual fan.
'The Bond Chronicle' will be a film-by-film history of the series
and will also include Bond
23 as it is scheduled for the shelves
in November 2012. Just in time for Christmas, too. 'Fifty Years
of Bond Film Posters' will celebrate the marketing of the movies
and will hopefully be an improvement on the uninspired
'James Bond Movie Posters' by Tony Nourmand released back in
2002. Rounding out DK's releases for 2012 will be 'Bond on Set',
a photography-centric account of the making of Bond 23.
No doubt more exciting for dedicated Bond fans
will be the release of an enormous luxury coffee-table book designed
by Taschen, who are
best
known for the books on art, architecture, design and philosophy.
The large-format landscape book 'XL James Bond' will run for
an amazing 500 pages. Editor Paul Duncan has scoured half-a-million
images and 100 filing cabinets of production information to gather
the
most interesting previously unpublished material from the 007
movies. 'XL James Bond' will be released in November 2012.
Back in the literary James Bond world, the previously
announced John
Gardner reprints will see paperback
releases in
the UK beginning on February 4th with 'Licence Renewed', running
through to 'Win, Lose or Die' in November. The remainder will
be released in 2013. Over in the USA, the paperback series
starts in October 2012. A trade paperback edition
of the
new
continuation
novel 'Carte Blanche'
by Jeffery Deaver is expected on 17th April 2012.
But it may
not be as smooth sailing for the Ian Fleming catalogue next year.
The existing print licence with Penguin for
the Ian
Fleming novels will expire in 2012, and
if an extension is not agreed, or the rights switch to another
publisher,
it
may mean no new reprints as the world succumbs to Bond Fever
later next year. The sticking point is digital
rights, which
are not included in the current agreement, and has allowed
Ian Fleming Publications to issue e-books independently. It is
unlikely that any publisher would take the Bond contract without
the (now) extremely lucrative electronic rights. According
to reports last year, the Bond licence is worth £3m a year
to IFP, but the backlist only sells approximately 100,000 paper
copies
a year in the UK and USA combined, making it an expensive prospect
for any publisher.
