Thursday 29 June 2017

Find Your Fate and the GoldenEye connection

There's a fascinating article by Philip Poggiali in issue 36 of MI6 Confidential about the series of James Bond-themed 'Find Your Fate' books, which were published in 1985 to coincide with the release of A View to a Kill. In the books, the reader assumes the role of James Bond and chooses options along various narrative threads to save the world from the dastardly plans of an evil genius.

As I was reading the article, I was struck by a coincidence between one of the books and GoldenEye, released in 1995. I tweeted about it back in October last year, but I thought I'd post about it here as well.

In Programmed for Danger, by Jean M Favors, the reader once again becomes James Bond to search for the Z-Disc, a revolutionary energy device that's been stolen from Zorin's base in the French Riviera.


The cover, drawn by Cliff Spohn, of Programmed for Danger by Jean M Favors
The cover of the book, by Cliff Spohn, gives a hint of the adventures within, with scenes of the southern French landscape, the circuitry of the Z-Disc, and depictions of Roger Moore's Bond that appear to be based on images from earlier films; the image of the beshirted Bond could come from the scene in Mr Big's poppy field in Live and Let Die

In the best Bond tradition, there's a car chase: a speeding Aston Martin and a Ferrari in hot pursuit is shown in the corner of the cover image. If this seems a familiar, it's because a speeding Aston Martin and a Ferrari in hot pursuit also feature in GoldenEye. The vehicle models are different – the Aston on the front cover seems to be the V8 Vantage that Bond would drive two years later in The Living Daylights – but the scene is otherwise closely replicated in the 1995 film. We can even find a scene in the film with the cars at almost the same relative position as shown on the cover. What's more, the car chases in both the book (as far as I can tell) and the film are set in the French Riviera.

 
Spot the difference: Programmed for Danger and GoldenEye
Coincidence or somehow prescient? It's pure coincidence, of course, but it's fun to think that the production team, when drafting GoldenEye, were flicking through the 'Find Your Fate' books for inspiration!

To read more about the 'Find Your Fate' series, see issue 36 of MI6 Confidential, which is available to buy here.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Edward, thanks for the kind words about the Find Your Fate article. I had a lot of fun writing it!

    I should ask Cliff where he got the image of the Aston Martin and Ferrari on that book cover, although I suspect he wouldn't remember (it has been 32 years). The Ferrari reminds me of the TV show Magnum P.I., which was hot at that time and may have been Cliff's visual reference.

    In any case, great catch!

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    1. Hi Philip. Thanks for getting in touch. I confess I didn't know very much about the Find Your Fate books until I saw your article. A very informative and enjoyable read.

      Glad you liked my post. That's a good point Magnum PI. You're right - the Ferrari was quite prominent in that show, and it was very popular. Could well have been Cliff's reference. If you do learn any more from Cliff, I'd be very interested to hear about it.

      All the best,
      Edward

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