Wolf of West Cork – the screenwriter who brought Bond to the big screen
On a bend in the road at Ahakista in West Cork, between the Arundel pub and the Graham Norton front doors, stands an old stone house. It was in such an environment that the man who started the James Bond franchise, Wolf Mankowitz, lived and died.
As the world awaits the long-delayed release of the new Bond film, No time to die, Mankowitz’s connection to the multi-The billion dollar franchise has faded into everything but the memories of a few moviegoers and the eerie whisper in this part of the county that the colorful Londoner who settled among them was once a KGB agent.
Early attempts to bring 007 to the big screen failed for a variety of reasons until Mankowitz hosted a lunch in New York City and introduced producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli to fellow Canadian Harry Saltzman., who had the opportunity to shoot Ian Fleming’s book Bond, Doctor No, in a movie.