Halfway through November is a film I am really looking forward to. I've been looking forward to it more than any other film I have seen. A couple of years ago I read the good news that the next James Bond film was going to be Casino Royale and now I'm waiting with excitement to see what it's going to be like.

Casino Royale was the first James Bond novel that Ian Fleming wrote. There have been twenty Bond films so far, but why was this not one of them? The answer is that the rights to make a film out of it belonged to another company. CBS television made a version of it in the fifties and there was a comedy version in the sixties. Although EON films had the rights to all the others, they had to wait a long time before they could buy the first one. Now they have it, they can finally make it into a film.

I am a bigger fan of the books than the films. The books are much darker than the films (Bond doesn't make silly jokes all the time in the novels) and don't have as many gadgets and stunts either. They are more realistic. Some of the films (such as On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Doctor No) are very close to the stories in the novels. Others (such as Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me) are nothing like them. The rumour in the studio is that Casino Royale will be faithful to the novel so there are a handful of things I am hoping to find in the film.

Firstly, does James Bond order a Martini cocktail in the film? In the book he gives the original recipe to a waiter. How much detail will he give to the bar staff in the cinema version? We already know Vesper appears, but what will her dress look like? The book tells us something about it and I'd like to see if the costume designer was given the same instructions. There should be an exciting scene with a cane. What sort of cane? Well, you've got about a week to read the book and find out. What happens after the line 'I can already feel the ice flows melting'? And what will the last line of the film be? I won't give the game away, but I'm hoping it's the same as the film.

If it works, and Ian Fleming's Bond is a success, then this may be the start of a more exciting series of films. The only trouble is, there are no more original Fleming novels to adapt now.

Glossary

finally nareszcie

silly głupi

a gadget przyrząd

a stunt wyczyn kaskaderski

a rumour pogłoska

a handful garstka

a cane laska

Speaking of gadgets, how many everyday kinds can you find here?

R T K S F W I M O D R R H Y V

G P C L H H B Z A E D B R S B

Y J W J Q O L H K N G S E Q G

C I R P F T E C Y H B W G Q Q

R E N E P R A H S L I C N E P

L P K O N R D I O E Z E U T P

N C M F C N R D E R Z E L O H

O W L T Z P I R P F N G P W R

E C U P V V D P S E Z D K P A

F N H Q U N W Q S Q R O N O E

H M S G X B R K M D Q F I B W

S U L U C P K Y Q Y A Q S O A

R G S T X H O Q E U G L G Q A

K T I N O P E N E R T L A T S

C H Z D P C Y L D C A A H S H

KEY

tin opener

pencil sharpener

nutcracker

shoehorn

sink plunger

salad spinner

In the books Bond works for Universal Exports. In the more recent films he works for MI6. MI stands for Ministry of Intelligence. This is an acronym. Can you work out what these acronyms stand for?

PTO (written at the bottom of a piece of paper)

DUI (a crime that is common around Christmas and summertime)

TBA (when the price of something is not ready)

PS (when you have forgotten to include something in a letter before signing it)

AWOL (running away from the army)

LP (what some of us listened to music on when we were younger)

KEY

Please Turn Over

Driving Under the Influence (i.e. driving while drunk)

To Be Announced

PostScript

Absent Without Official Leave