London, Oct 3 (IANS/EFE) The adventures of Her Majesty's Secret Agent 007 will continue into the 21st century through the pen of writer Anthony Horowitz, who has been authorised to write a new James Bond thriller known as "Project One."
Ian Fleming Publications announced Thursday that the forthcoming novel about the British spy will be entirely the product of Horowitz's mind.
"Project One" is inspired by a script written by Bond creator Fleming, "Murder on Wheels", for a proposed television series that never came to fruition.
The events take place at Germany's Nürburgring motor sports complex, where Bond attempts to thwart a Russian plot to murder legendary British driver Stirling Moss and make it look like an accident.
In the book, which is scheduled to be released in September 2015, characters like MI6 chief M and his secretary, Miss Moneypenny, who is not so secretly in love with Bond, also appear.
"It's no secret that Ian Fleming's extraordinary character has had a profound influence on my life," Horowitz said in comments posted on the Fleming Publications website.
Known in Britain for his work on the TV series "Midsomer Murders", Horowitz said writing the new book reminded him of working on contemporary Sherlock Holmes sequels in 2011 and 2014.
"It's a huge challenge but having original, unpublished material by Fleming has been an inspiration. This is a book I had to write." he said. "When the estate approached me to write a new James Bond novel, how could I possibly refuse?"
"In the 1950s, Ian Fleming wrote several episode treatments for a James Bond television series. But they never went into production," the author's grand-niece, Jessie Grimond said.
"However, there are a few plot outlines which he never used and which, till now, have never been published, or aired. Given that Anthony is as brilliant a screenwriter as he is a novelist, we thought it would be exciting to see what he would do with one of them," Grimond said.
Horowitz is known for his adventure novels, especially his series about the exploits of young spy Alex Rider, which have sold 19 million copies.
He is following the path of writers like Sebastian Faulks, Jeffrey Deaver and William Boyd, whose pens excelled in keeping Bond alive, in addition to Charlie Higson, who wrote a series of tales about Bond's student years, set in the 1930s.
--IANS/EFE
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