A collection of 119 James Bond items, including original screenplays, film scripts, costume designs, storyboards, and more, will be offered for US$450,000 at an upcoming book fair in California.
London-based Peter Harrington Rare Books is bringing the collection to the California International Antiquarian Book Fair, which will take place from Feb. 10-12 in Los Angeles.
The rare book dealer says the collection is “the most extensive collection of James Bond items ever assembled.” It was offered by Martin Schøyen, a Norwegian businessman who started collecting books in 1955. The sale coincides with the 70th anniversary of the publication of Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel by Ian Fleming.
“The real beauty of this collection is that it allows you to trace how the Bond films evolved from the germ of an idea—whether this was one of Fleming’s original Bond novels or a one-page film treatment—to their final visualization on the big screen,” Pom Harrington, owner of the book dealer, said in a statement.
First draft script of Dr. No.
Peter Harrington Rare Books
Headlining the collection is the earliest draft screenplay for Dr. No (1962) by Wolf Mankowitz and Richard Maibaum, which introduced Bond, also known as agent 007, to the big screen. Based on Fleming’s novel published in 1958, the script includes the entire original scene with the British agent Strangways’ secretary Mary Trueblood, kidnapped by the three beggars after her boss’s assassination, and driven to a ruined Spanish fortress where she has a chilling encounter with Dr. No. This section was permanently cut following this draft.
Another highlight is a screenplay for the unrealized film project Warhead under the
provisional title James Bond of the Secret Service, based on the Thunderball (1965) film treatment by Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, and Jack Whittingham. This copy was formerly owned by John Griswold, a noted historian of James Bond and its creator, Ian Fleming.
Also included in the collection is the production-used shoot script for the 1989 film Licence to Kill. This script is owned and annotated by Mexican stunt coordinator Gerardo Albarrán (credited in the film as Gerard Moreno), who has worked on major blockbuster productions such as Romeo & Juliet (1996), Titanic (1997), and Collateral Damage (2002). This was his sole James Bond project, which included a minor acting role.
The collection will be sold as a whole, Peter Harrington said.
This year will mark the 55th edition of California International Antiquarian Book Fair. In addition to the items for sale, this year’s fair also includes some special collection exhibitions, including an exhibition of books and materials from Helen Brown, the inventor of “California Cuisine”; the Ned Guymon collection of mystery and detective fiction at Occidental College, focusing on its Sherlock Holmes holdings; and an exhibition dedicated to 170 years of literature about Ukulele, a musical instrument that originated in Portugal and popularized in Hawaii.
Credit: marketwatch.com