pops head round door, wants to make a Bond film

Hi there all,

I've had an urge to make a film for a year or so now, and I've finally written some kind of script. Over the last couple of years I've passed my bike test, built a hovercraft and started restoring a Unimog (a big off roader). About a year ago a friend suggested I had most of the elements of a good Bond film.

After beating the idea around for a while, I have a plot, some (private) locations, casting and I have a film making friend on board. However, I very much want it to be my film, I know what I want it to look like.

Currently I'm working it out scene by scene (locations, logistics, necessary dialogue, some story boarding), aiming for 30-40 minutes.

Essentially I want it to look like what it is, an enthusiastic amateur film. What I hope will mark it out is the extensive use of toys (between us, we have a lot of cool stuff, none of it expensive and flash but esoteric and interestng). We want to blow things up and have chases. We have many a climber and biker on board, all mates with a passion for nonsense. I am convinced we can do it, at very minimal cost.

Anyway, to my question, and the reason I've made you read sooo much drivel; How Bondish can it be? I have chosen bond because I know it so well and because it is such a simple, recognisable theme that we can work round.

But just say it works and is good, that I can co-direct and co-produce with my filmmaking friend, that he's as good as I think he is, and we don't kill anyone in the process. I can't show it anywhere. Don't get me wrong, this is an adventure and a record of a period of our lives - but you never know.

I envisaged calling the lead (ahem, me) Bond, having the "proper" music recorded by talented friends and nicking a few motifs (silhouetted women dancing, casinos, gold, etc) - but the offices of the good broccoli empire would surely have me if I showed it.

How far can one go????

thanks for your time,

jim

I'd steer well clear of doing a fan film if you want this to be shown to a wider audience without litigation. You can make the genre recognisable, ie "True Lies" is not a Bond film but it does share some common elements.

IIRC, Gone In Sixty Seconds (1974) was made by a bunch of mates with toys -- so, indeed, you never know.

I don't know what the rules are in the UK, so this might not help at all, but these are the basic's I follow here in the US-

1. Use of Music is a no...no.. For example if you are recording the actual bond theme- Don't!!!- They will light you up for that...unless you have premission!

2.You can look exactly like bond- but you can't use a licened name or trademark without premission, So you can't use the Name "James Bond"-But you can make refrenece to it...


3. No use of actual footage from the Bond films
with out permission..

We have a commercial that runs here, Where a Guy is dressed like bond- But his name is James Pawn... But if you want detailed specific's
I'd check with your local film commish or contact some who practice's entertainment Law.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 05, 2005 04:07 PM: Message edited by: Spunkey1pestic ]</font>

Here's how it works in the UK.

If you make a fan-film, for example, James Bond - Tomorrow Never Sucks, you can ONLY distribute it FREE of charge via the web or via video or DVD. Any profit made and you'll be liable to be sued by the copyright holders.

I'm not entirely sure about the companies behind Bond, but I know when I was working on a Tremors fan-film, who's franchise is owned by Universal - I was being kept a close eye on! The project fell through which is probably a good thing.

As for where your project can be shown, well, nowhere really. If you put it on TV, bond's copyright holders can sue you. If you enter it into festivals there's a similar chance again.

The best way to avoid all this? Give your main character a different name, even if its James Fond, or Pond. Even though thats a computer game.. And change the theme tune by perhaps one note. There.

But take XXX for example (with Mr Vin Unleaded), cheesy and bondy - but not Bond. Why don't you do something similar?

Instead of making a "Bond" movie why don't you make an "action" movie like or inspired by the Bond films.

It's risky business making fan films. Especially ones where there's likely to be future productions. I mean, you could get away with a "The Swarm" fan film but something like a Spiderman fan film, Bond or anything that could last a while yet and have new movies made - I would be veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery careful [img]smile.gif[/img]

The end note is this. If it is souly for yourselves, that you're certain it won't get into the wrong hands or it is originally designed SIMPLY for your OWN showreel - you have every right to make it. But once you try and "get it out there", you'll run into big fuck-ups.

Unless of course it's shot on an 8MM camcorder and looks like shit, then they'll just laugh at you [img]wink.gif[/img]

And just so you know, I have good action DOP experience and I've done a fair bit of stunt training so if you need me; [email protected]

regards
m0d

Quote:

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Originally posted by m0d:
I was working on a Tremors fan-film... The project fell through which is probably a good thing.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">NOOOOOOOOO!!!

I was really looking forward to seeing that...

There is no such thing as a copyright on a name or a title anywhere in the world. You are perfectly entitled to call your lead character James Bond and bill your film as "James Bond in ..." if you make a distinction between your "Bond" film and the original one.


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True story, ask a solicitor.

Thanks all, much to think about. There are those ideas that come and go, and those that stick. Interesting that "fan film" is a genre in its own right. But Bond just feels right, partly because if anyone is going to crash my hovercraft or drive the unimog through a barn door, well it's going to be me! Because I have read all the books and seen the films many times, I have found it quite easy to weave a recognisable plot around all the toys and facilities I have dreamt of using.

A couple of mates weren't too into being in my film and decided they were going to remake "the fast and the furious" as "the slow and the slightly peeved". I'm not as sure about that one.

If I can do all the thinking and planning by summer, then it should be a goer for July.

shpeak to you shoon

thanks

jim "oh, chames"

Quote:

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There is no such thing as a copyright on a name or a title anywhere in the world. You are perfectly entitled to call your lead character James Bond and bill your film as "James Bond in ..." if you make a distinction between your "Bond" film and the original one.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That is very ambiguous. Exactly what do you mean?

I think that if you made a film with James Bond in the title about a spy you can expect to get sued.

I was going to cite the example of when MGM sued New line over the use of the name "Goldmember" (which was a parody of the 1964 bond film Goldfinger). I did a google search, just so I could get the minor details of this right when citing that example. The following is a quote from a press release by MGM relating to this litigation:

"MGM/UA and Danjaq have a zero-tolerance policy towards anyone who tries to trade in on the James Bond franchise without authorization".

In my experience multi national corporations are viciously ultra protective of their copyrights. (A fine example of this is Microsoft?s recent threat to sue the shit out of a 17-year-old boy named mike row for registering the domain mikerowsoft.com)

Bottom line: If you want to have some fun with friends and have no intention of showing your film in any kind of public arena, go right ahead. Otherwise it is a very bad idea.

Indiana Jones is a trademarked name. It does happen.

Off topic a little, but U-A - yep, saddity sad sad but my crew walked out on me for "legal" reasons that THEY got themselves into. We have a trailer, well, finished apart from the FX scenes which I had to mock-up using crap models. Some okay footage. Might put the trailer up in the future.

Here's a clip tho.
http://screen7.adventuredevelopers.com/trem_test.wmv (550kb wmv)

The problem here is that it is very ambiguous. Companies sue for copyright infringement all the time. The MGM/UA case is a good example. They can't stand to see anyone making money from the perception of their product. But it is legal. Most of these challenges fail in the courts, even when it's obvious that someone was ripping off or taking the piss out of a well established franchise. It's just part of the game, most film companies will be sued or will frivoulously sue someone in their time. The James Bond name and 007 logo are trademarked. That means that you can not associate your product with that specific name in that theme. It does not mean that MGM et al can sue you if you were born James Bond. If you put a character in your film called James Bond, that is fine. If you put on the poster that "James Bond Goes Shopping", that is fine. If you put "James Bond 007 On Her Majesties Secret Service", you will get litigated to the moon and back. It's a fine line, have fun with it.


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Mr. JB would like to write more but as his legal representatitve I have advised him not to.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 06, 2005 04:42 AM: Message edited by: jb. ]</font>