In 1963, British writer Peter O\u2019Donnell created Modesty Blaise<\/em>, a comic strip featuring the titular action heroine (best known as the female equivalent to James Bond), illustrated over the years by such artists as Jim Holdaway and Enrique Badia Romero. Eventually, this crime boss-turned-secret agent would headline novels, short-story collections, and even a campy 1966 movie adaptation with Michelangelo Antonioni muse Monica Vitti as Blaise. (O\u2019Donnell abhorred the kitschy retelling so much, he bought back the rights to Blaise and the rest of his characters.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re a diehard Quentin Tarantino fan, you probably know how much Modesty Blaise<\/em> means to the man. In Pulp Fiction<\/em>, John Travolta\u2019s hitman Vincent Vega often takes the debut 1965 novel to the bathroom. And in Jami Bernard\u2019s 1995 biography Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies<\/em>, Bernard reported that Tarantino got in trouble in the first grade when he told his teacher that his mother\u2019s name was, in fact, Modesty Blaise. (It\u2019s not, BTW.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, during the \u201890s, Miramax optioned the rights to the Modesty Blaise character, just in case their golden boy Tarantino wanted to direct a movie adaptation. (Tarantino once claimed he had an adaptation of the fourth novel, A Taste for Death<\/em>, all cooked up in his head.) Of course, Tarantino never got around to it, opting to make his own Modesty Blaise story with the Kill Bill<\/em> movies. (Americans trying to get a Blaise project off the ground isn\u2019t new; in 1982, ABC produced an Americanized pilot<\/a> that didn\u2019t get picked up.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back then, it seemed like Modesty-mania was just around the corner. Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez and Bill<\/em> star Uma Thurman were all rumored to be interested in taking on the role. La Femme Nikita<\/em> creator Luc Besson was supposed to direct an adaptation<\/a> starring Species<\/em> siren Natasha Henstridge. Of course, that didn\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Harvey and them eventually made a straight-to-video Modesty Blaise flick just to retain the rights. (\u201cModesty Blaise\u201d eventually became a term the Weinstein bros used in explaining how they held on to IP they bought, like the eternally-trapped-in-development-hell Fletch prequel Fletch Won<\/em><\/a>.) Along with attaching his name as a \u201cpresenter,\u201d Tarantino also brought in longtime buddy Scott Spiegel (who directed such straight-to-video sequels as From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money<\/em> and Hostel: Part III<\/em>) to direct. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Titled My Name is Modesty<\/em>, the 77-minute movie is not based on any of the books. Screenwriting couple Lee and Janet Scott Bachler (Batman Forever, Pompeii<\/em>) were hired to write an origin story that dives into Blaise\u2019s early years with her mentor Lob, a storyline that interested Weinstein. The Bachlers pored over the books and wrote a script for a big-budget production. However, with the rights about to expire and Weinstein ready to go to Romania and shoot a low-budget quickie, the Batchlers wrote a scaled-back script, with most of the film taking place in one location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That location is a casino, where croupier Blaise (British actress Alexandra Staden) and her employees are being held hostage by a gang of machine gun-wielding criminals, led by Miklos (a pre-Game of Thrones<\/em> Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a vengeful, Eurotrashy thug who killed Blaise\u2019s boss and wants all the money in the casino\u2019s safe. Miklos forces Blaise to call a co-worker (Raymond Cruz, aka Tuco from Breaking Bad<\/em>) who already left the casino to come back and open the safe. The rest of the movie is Blaise and Miklos killing time by playing a game of roulette, with Blaise playing to let hostages go and Miklos playing to get the truth out of his beguiling creature. This is where we get mawkish flashback scenes of a young, orphaned Blaise being educated by Lob on everything from reading to tai chi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As expected, since this is a straight-to-video feature, not a lot of fucks were given during filming. Corners are cut in a blatant fashion \u2014 even the war footage in the flashbacks is actually stock footage from the 1977 Richard Attenborough film A Bridge Too Far<\/em>. It feels more like a TV pilot than anything remotely cinematic. (I could easily see a TV version of this playing alongside that small-screen, Le Femme Nikita<\/em> adaptation that ran on the USA Network during the \u201890s.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a movie that\u2019s supposed to introduce us to a beloved badass, Modesty<\/em> is more about Modesty being a cagey-yet-resourceful beauty. I got so used to seeing Staden just standing around, being wily and defiant, her climactic fight scene with Coster-Waldau is almost jolting. The pair do muster up an intriguing, watchable chemistry, making you wish the material they\u2019re stuck with was as game as they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Modesty<\/em> hit video stores in 2004 with little fanfare and damn-near-nonexistent reviews. The only one I could find from that time is a flaw-forgiving rave from Variety<\/em><\/a>. \u201cFor a vidpic filmed in 18 days by a helmer hired scarcely a week before the start of principal photography,\u201d the review begins, \u201cMy Name Is Modesty<\/em> isn\u2019t half-bad.\u201d Modesty<\/em> does seem to have some proud fans out there. In an interview with Scott Batchler<\/a> on his blog The Trainwreck\u2019d Society, blogger Ron Trembath called it \u201cabsolutely incredible.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, we may never get another chance to see Modesty Blaise on any screen. According to a 2020 Twitter post<\/a> from author (and O\u2019Donnell friend) Neil Gaiman, O\u2019Donnell was so displeased with how the Weinsteins handled his creation, when he passed away in 2010, O\u2019Donnell included a clause in his will stating that no one will ever be allowed to do another Modesty Blaise adaptation. Even though Modesty Blaise is a fictional character, Peter O\u2019Donnell literally went to his grave making sure that Harvey Weinstein never laid a hand on her again.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “My Name is Modesty: A Modesty Blaise Adventure” is available to rent or buy<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/modesty2-1024x576.jpg\")
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