Power/Rangers 'Bootleg' Producer Releases Animated James Bond Short

Fresh from rattling feathers all over cyberspace with the ultra-violent unofficial ‘Power/Rangers’ fan film, producer Adi Shankhar has wasted no time unveiling yet another of his ‘bootleg’ shorts, this time on an even more well-known property: James Bond.

'James Bond: In Service of Nothing' is a ten minute animated film directed by pre-vis artist Tyler Gibb. Given its fairly crude unfinished presentation (not to mention a rather feeble vocal impersonation of Sean Connery) it would seem unlikely to make quite so big a stir as 'Power/Rangers,' or Shankhar's earlier 'bootleg' films 'Punisher: Dirty Laundry' or 'Venom: Truth in Journalism.'

- Power/Rangers Bootleg Satirises ‘Dark Reboots’
- Craig Shoots 007 Comic Relief Skit
- First Footage From SPECTRE

Even so, Bond fans may find it interesting, given that - not unlike 1983’s unofficial Bond movie ‘Never Say Never Again’ - it catches up with an older version of the original Sean Connery incarnation of 007, contemplating how the years may have taken their toll.

The short film can be viewed below.

In an accompanying vlog, Shankhar explains he wanted to ask, “what would happen to the guy from ‘Dr No’ or ‘Goldfinger’ in the world today? The need for espionage and the need to spy: sure, that still exists, but a hacker does that. It’s not a guy in a bow tie sipping martinis…

"We give this guy a licence to kill; we give this guy an opportunity to live out his deepest, darkest fantasies, and really to all intents and purposes become a legal serial killer. But at some point that licence is going to get revoked. What happens to that guy?"

The problem here, of course, is that these are all questions that the Bond movies themselves have already confronted. ‘Skyfall’ saw Ben Whishaw take on the mantle of Q as a young computer hacker who wastes no time stressing how much more vital he is to modern espionage than the likes of 007.

Bond’s dark side and personal demons have also been heavily delved into, particularly in the last three films with Daniel Craig; and I daresay some Bond fans will dispute Shankhar’s description of the Craig films as “not really Bond movies, they’re Jason Bourne meets Batman,” and his complaints that “the ‘Ian Flemingyness’ of James Bond has been extracted from the franchise,” given that the Craig films have arguably veered closer to Fleming than any Bond movie since the Connery years.

Even so, as an informal daydream about what might have become of the original James Bond in the modern day, ‘James Bond: In Service of Nothing’ makes for a fairly intriguing and gripping ten minutes, even if it may leave the viewer wondering how much more effective it could have been in a more polished form.

While we wait to see what Adi Shankhar pulls his ‘bootleg’ trick on next, we also await the release of the next official Bond movie ‘SPECTRE,’ which hits UK cinemas on 23 October 2015.

- SPECTRE: 1st Photo Of Dave Bautista
- Bellucci On Being A “Bond Woman”
- Secrets Of SPECTRE’s Stunt Driving

Picture Credit: Adi Shankhar, Sony/MGM-UA