Actress Ursula Andress, forever tied to Bond as the first Bond girl Honey Ryder in Dr. No, has recently been in the news as a victim of a staggering $20 million embezzlement scheme. Fortunately for her, the funds have thankfully been recovered, but I’m sure it’s been a harrowing sequence of events. It’s a bizarre and unsettling case that feels almost too outlandish to be real, yet it highlights how calculated financial crimes can hit high-profile targets.
Oddly enough and no offense to Ursula Andress, it also feels like a ready-made plotline. For Bond 26, a scaled-back, more grounded story might be exactly what the next era of James Bond needs. A newly minted 007 unraveling a sophisticated embezzlement conspiracy tied to a powerful political figure, for example, would offer great intrigue and believable stakes.
A greenhorn MI6 agent probably doesn’t have the reputation to take on a “save the world” mission just yet, but I think seeing 007’s confidence and legend grow with a smaller victory to start is a more compelling path.
