What would it be like to share your name with legendary movie spy James Bond?
That’s the question Australian director Matthew Bauer is determined to answer in THE OTHER FELLOW, the untold story of the real James Bond[s], streaming this December.
Says first-time director Bauer, “When I was finishing my thesis at NYU Film School, somewhere from the aether appeared the enticing question, “What would it be like to have the name James Bond?” That simple thought has taken me on a figurative and literal journey across the world over a number of years, and has uncovered a myriad fascinating, wholly divergent stories. It now feels like the perfect time and place to return down under, to my own part of the world, to premiere THE OTHER FELLOW. In the sixtieth anniversary year of the James Bond film series and as questions rage about the gender, race, and identity of the next movie 007, suddenly THE OTHER FELLOW holds great, fascinating resonance.”
THE OTHER FELLOW is co-written by Matthew Bauer and Rene van Pannevis and produced by Michelle Brøndum for Mission Brief and Jante Films.
Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the 007 series, THE OTHER FELLOW premieres on SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand December 10 in Australia.
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
- ‘Goldeneye’, Jamaica.
When British author Ian Fleming creates the character of 007, he needs to christen him with a “really flat, quiet name”. Perusing one of his favourite books BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES Fleming steals the name of a Philadelphia ornithologist by the name of James Bond…
- Seventy years later.
In SWEDEN we meet GUNNAR SCHÄFER. A superfan of all things 007 with his own James Bond Museum, there is more to his persona than simply fandom. The son of an escaped Nazi who vanished mysteriously after World War Two, GUNNAR now sees James Bond as a replacement father figure and immerses his life in all things 007.
In NEW YORK CITY theatre director JAMES BOND has made countless media appearances as his famous namesake and finds the name a reoccurring hindrance. As a gay man, JAMES has apparently very little in common with Commander Bond and the alternative version of himself ad agencies, concierges and casting directors always wish to exploit.
South Bend, INDIANA. JAMES BOND JR.’s life has been marred by several disbelieving police officers and the weight such a name lends a black man in Indiana. THE OTHER FELLOW finds him in Indiana State Prison where he is awaiting trial for murder. In the same town a white man also called JAMES BOND is about to be caught up in a confusing media frenzy and mistaken identity.
Somewhere in ENGLAND an unnamed mother chronicles a tough past with an abusive ex-husband. A bold identity change creates new challenges in the face of 007, and soon dramatically contradicts the other James Bonds across the world and their sometimes-shared experiences.
And in PHILADELPHIA – amid the 1960s Bond mania – ornithologist JAMES BOND and his loyal wife MARY travel to Jamaica to finally confront IAN FLEMING about an identity theft that is changing the lives of all James Bonds across the globe, including theirs.
Via Vancouver, Toronto, London, Denver, Guyana, Europe, the US and Baghdad, THE OTHER FELLOW paints a rich picture of the worldwide digital and cultural footprint of cinema’s most famous spy. And what being in that looming shadow actually means for people when it creates an identity crisis like no other.
