In the 2002 movie xXx, Vin Diesel is playing the title character, some type of superspy infiltrating a Russian mob or something. He’s at a party hosted by the bad guys, and another spy who was either meant to be the actual James Bond or a James Bond ‘type’ shows up in a tuxedo, sticking out like a sore thumb in the ‘modern’ party crowd, and is immediately killed. The implication was clear-- James Bond is yesterday’s spy; xXx is the spy for the 21st century.
I bet the very first parody would be the Flint movies starring James Coburn back in the 60’s
Well, Boysie Oakes was created by Gardner as the sort-of “anti-Bond”. Despite being Licensed to Kill, oakes is the opposite of Bond in so many ways.
Which made it interesting that they hired Gardner to carry one the Bond novels with License Renewed in 1981, and continued on for a total of sixteen (one a year). I think he’s written more James Bond novels than anyone else, Ian Fleming included.
Nitpick, but that’s not quite right. The “James Bond” spy is killed in the prologue, before “xXx” is recruited. It’s his failure to navigate the culture of the new wave of super-villains that provides the impetus for recruiting a new wave of super-spies, such as xXx.
Nevermind Never Again
Sorry.
Yeah, I was going by memory of a so-so movie from 2002, but that’s right, the James Bond guy was killed right away. Sounds like I did have the basic premise correct, that it was meant to be a symbolic transition from the old-school Bond type to xXx, the cool new, ‘extreme’ type of spy.
Too bad the OP mandates only theatrical films. A lot of kids’ animated TV, as well as Lancelot Link to overlook.
Perhaps the OP is contemplating starting another thread on that…unless someone ninjas him, of course? 
Yes, absolutely. Since it was an American intelligence operation, I don’t Tuxedo Guy was supposed to be James Bond specifically, but he was definitely a James Bond pastiche. His character’s death was both in-universe proof that James Bond-style super-spies were out of date for contemporary (2002) intelligence operations, and a meta-commentary that James Bond movies were out of date for contemporary movie audiences.
(As to that last, xXx got one sequel with a different lead that seemed to be only vaguely related to the first movie and was a box office bomb, then a direct sequel 15 years later which ignored the second movie, and played a lot more like Vin Diesel’s far more successful Fast & Furious franchise than the original xXx. In that same time frame, we got Pierce Bronsnan’s last James Bond movie, then four more sequels with Daniel Craig, all box office successes, and a fifth in COVID limbo. Although I think it’s reasonable to see the Daniel Craig series as adapting James Bond to a xXx world, so maybe Tuxedo Guy shouldn’t have been killed, merely wounded, rehabbed, got plastic surgery, and come back with a new face and a new attitude…)
The Carry On movie mentioned above beat Flint by a couple of years.
Just like Goldfinger, et al, the xXx franchise found out that Bond was harder to kill than they thought.
Not totally ignored-The character from the second movie shows up at the end to help save the day.
The Poppy is Also a Flower (1966) was an all-star, anti-drug TV movie sponsored by Xerox, introduced by Her Serene Highness Grace (Kelly) and featuring a number of Bond connections. The story - attempts to track (irradiated) heroin to bust the network supplying it - was written by Ian Fleming (he died before he could write the script); the film was directed by Terence Young – he helmed 3 of the first 5 Bond films – and it co-starred Harold “Oddjob” Sakata. Irish-born Stephen Boyd played an American narcotics agent working for the U.N. who is very Bond-like. Befitting a more real-world approach than the Bond films, Boyd ends up getting the shit beaten out of him before being murdered about 5-10 minutes into the film.
Trevor Howard played another such agent. It appeared to me he was trying ape Ian Fleming in look (e.g., dapper clothes, long cigarette holder), possibly in manner as well. Echoes of the Bond films are strewn about (e.g., international locations, 2 hand-to-hand train fights, lots of babeage, etc.) perhaps qualifying it as a (semi-)pastiche. Despite its terrible reputation, I recall it being pretty entertaining.
What’s Up, Tiger Lily? featuring the Bondian Phil Moscowitz (“Lovable Rogue, Amiable Zany”)
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if William Buckley named his spy character, Blackford Oakes, as an homage to Gardner’s character?