 |
| Roger Moore vs. Sean Connery |
35th Anniversary: A Look Back At The Battle of the Bonds
May 16, 2018
By Ryan Porzl
For more than 55 years, the James Bond series has been around and been one of the biggest movie series in history. Through it all, the movies were largely done by Eon Productions and distributed by United Artists & MGM with very few exceptions. One of the those exceptions was in 1967 when a spoof of Casino Royale came out during Eon's You Only Live Twice. The second was far more interesting when in 1983 Eon's Octopussy featuring arguably the most popular actor to portray 007 went head to head against Never Say Never Again, a movie that was a remake of the previous Eon film Thunderball while starring the actor who returned to the role after a dozen years that he helped make famous. Even more so, it was a battle over two decades in the making that originally began between a producer against Bond creator Ian Fleming that continued with Eon. How did this happen and how did we get there? To celebrate the 35th Anniversary of what became known as "The Battle of the Bonds", we'll take a look at the beginning of Bond to the controversy over Thunderball to the events that led to the 1983 battle to the aftermath.
I don't own any pictures. Credit to EON Productions or whomever owns them.
The Beginning (1953-1957)
James Bond officially began on April 13, 1953 when the first Bond novel Casino Royale was released. Bond was created by Ian Fleming, a British author and former Navy Intelligence Officer. Fleming originally planned on writing a spy novel back in the 1940s and eventually began writing it on February 17, 1952 to distract him from his upcoming marriage. The book didn't impress many at first with a former girlfriend telling Fleming not to publish it or at least do it under a pseudonym while his friend and future editor wasn't high on it but thought it did have promise and sent a copy to Jonathan Cape publishing house but they weren't impressed. Fortunately, Fleming's older brother, Peter, wrote books for the publishing house and recommended it and they agreed. Upon it's release, the book became a hit to the point where it sold 5,000 copies in one month and went through three printing runs though sales in America weren't as good.
Even early on, Fleming saw potential in his creation transitioning from book to screen. In early 1954, the American television network CBS paid Fleming $1,000 ($9,113 in 2017) to adapt Casino Royale for television as the network was launching a new hour long anthology series called Climax!. The episode based on Casino Royale aired as the third episode of Climax! on October 21, 1954 and because it came out long before the movie series, it was far different than most would expect in retrospect as Bond was played by American actor Barry Nelson making it the only time an American actor portrayed Bond. The episode also featured Bond working as a "Combined Intelligence" agent and was an American with the nickname "Jimmy". Seeing potential in Bond, CBS told Fleming to come up with ideas for episodes of a potential Bond series. Fleming would come up with some outlines for stories before CBS changed their mind and decided not to go ahead with it. Fleming would later use the stories for a series of short stories for his 1960 Bond novel For Your Eyes Only.
Despite this setback, Fleming continued churning out Bond novels on a yearly basis releasing Live & Let Die in 1954, Moonraker in 1955, Diamonds Are Forever in 1956, & From Russia, With Love in 1957. Along with his Bond novels, Fleming also wrote The Diamond Smugglers in 1957, a nonfiction book where he covered The International Diamond Security Exchange which was formed to combat the smuggling of diamonds in Africa. By 1957, Fleming's Bond novels began to get mixed reviews as they continued to receive positive reviews for the most part but some began attacking them for their violence and "sado-masochism".
Enter Kevin McClory (1958-1960)
By 1958, Fleming becoming interested in adapting Bond to the silver screen. With that in mind, his friend Ivar Bryce recommended him to Kevin McClory. McClory was an Irish producer who originally got his break as an assistant to director John Huston for his films The African Queen and Moulin Rouge while serving as an assistant director for Huston's 1956 adaptation of Moby Dick. He later became the associate producer and second unit director for the 1956 film version of Around the World in 80 Days. McClory, himself would travel around the world when he took part in an expedition where he led 25 men to drive around the world which he completed in 104 days. During this time, he filmed a documentary on the expedition called One Road as well as ads for the Ford Motor Company who were his sponsor. Around this time, McClory befriended Bryce and his wife Josephine Hartford Bryce who was the sister of Huntington Hartford and heiress to the A&P Supermarket fortune. McClory would write, produce, and direct his film The Boy and The Bridge in 1957 with the Bryces helping to fiance it.
The three would get together with Fleming and Bryce's good friend Ernest Cuneo to form Xanadu Productions which was named after Bryce's home in the Bahamas but never actually became a company. By May 1959, the four met at Bryce's Essex home and then at McClory's home in London as they came up with a story outline. By this point, McClory didn't feel Fleming's novels could be adapted and they agreed on a new & original story. During this time, ideas included an airplane full of celebrites and the character Fatima Blush who eventually became a villain in Never Say Never Again. McClory also wanted underwater included as he loved the underwater world. Ten outlines, scripts, and story treatments were done over the next few months with titles such as James Bond of the Secret Service, Longitude 78 West & SPECTRE being considered. Reportedly, Cuneo (who Fleming later credited for coming up with half the plot for Goldfinger) wrote the first treatment with ideas remaining when Fleming wrote Thunderball. As was the case with Fleming's novels, the main villains of the film were planned to be the Russians, likely to be SMERSH who served as the main antagonists to Bond in Fleming's novels and then considered the Italian Mafia before it was changed to a organization named SPECTRE. SPECTRE (short for SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, & Extortion) were a worldwide criminal organization with no allegiance to a country or ideology but focused on worldwide domination & headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld with members including people from the criminal underworld as well as the Gestapo, SMERSH, and the Italian Mafia. Fleming would write a second treatment which included main villain Largo, who became Blofeld's second-in-command and the theft of a nuclear device.
Fleming was mostly high on working with McClory due to The Boy and The Bridge as it later became the official British entry at the 1959 Venice Film Festival. In July 1959, things hit a snag when The Boy and The Bridge was released in theaters doing poorly critically & financially. Because of this, Fleming became sour on McClory and began to have doubts about him. By October 1959, things seem to get worse as Fleming was no longer spending as much time on the project. During this time, McClory brought in a British playwright & screenwriter named Jack Whittingham to help write. A month later, Fleming traveled the world on behalf of The Sunday Times and while in New York, he visited Bryce & McClory who told him Whittingham completed an outline that was ready to shoot. By December, Fleming met with McClory & Whittingham with the two eventually giving Fleming a script called Longitude 78 West which Fleming liked but changed the title to Thunderball. Unfortunately, other problems came about as the project had a hard time finding funding due to the failure of The Boy and The Bridge while Xandau Productions fell apart & Cuneo reportedly sold the right to the Thunderball drafts to Bryce for a dollar. By early 1960, McClory visited Fleming at his Jamaican estate Goldeneye where Fleming told him that he planned to present the screenplay to MCA and recommend McClory as a producer but told McClory if MCA didn't want the screenplay due to McClory's involvement that McClory should either sell himself to MCA or back out of the deal or fight it in court. Ultimately, nothing came of this and shortly after, the project fell apart and was dead in the water. As all this was happening, Fleming continued releasing more James Bond novels with Dr. No in 1958, Goldfinger in 1959, & For Your Eyes Only in 1960.
Thunderball, McClory Lawsuit, & Bond finally makes it to the Big Screen (1961-1963)
In early 1960, the film project fell through but Fleming saw potential in the screenplay and not wanting to waste it, he adapted the screenplay into his ninth book Thunderball. Upon finishing it, there was one huge issue: Fleming failed to acknowledge either McClory or Whittingham and the novel gave him sole credit. Before it's March 27, 1961 release, McClory got an advanced copy and after reading it, he & Whittingham sued Fleming for plagiarism and tried to block the novel's release. On March 24, 1961, The High Courts heard McClory & Whittingham's claim but allowed the novel to be released regardless of the lawsuit. Eventually Whittingham pulled out of the lawsuit due to financial difficulties and sold his share to McClory while siding with him as a principal witness. Things got worse for Fleming when during the second court case in April 1961, he suffered a heart attack while having a regular weekly meeting with The Sunday Times. Sadly, Fleming's heart attack was not a surprise as the author had an atrocious lifestyle of heavy drinking, traveling around the world, and was a chain smoker who smoked 70 cigarettes a day at one point. Fleming's health was poor for a long time as he originally attended a health clinic back in 1955 which ironically inspired Bond's trip to one in Thunderball though it didn't help Fleming the same way it helped his creation. Despite the setbacks, things did pick up for Fleming in many ways. First was that his James Bond books saw an big increase in sales during this time with one of the big reasons for this being that From Russia, With Love appeared on a list of then United States President John F. Kennedy's top ten favorite books in Life magazine. In the meantime, Fleming made a deal to sell the movie rights to his past and future Bond novels to a Canadian theater and film producer named Harry Saltzman. Saltzman had wanted to adapt Bond to screen after reading Goldfinger. At that same time, American film producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli made an effort to get the rights only to find Saltzman already obtained them. Broccoli met with Saltzman through a mutual friend in screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz and the two decided to partner up to produce the films. They would form Eon (Everything or Nothing) Productions to produce the films and the holding or parent company Danjaq S.A. (now Danjaq, LLC) which was a portmanteau of their wives names Dana Broccoli & Jacqueline Saltzman.
Afterwards, Broccoli & Saltzman eventually met and struck a deal with United Artists to finance and distribute the films with the two getting a $1 million budget for the first film. The search was then on for who would play James Bond. Reportedly, Broccoli & Saltzman wanted Cary Grant for the role but Grant would only commit to one film and they wanted an actor who could commit to a series. Fleming wanted Academy Award nominee Richard Todd but he couldn't accept due to scheduling conflicts. Fleming then recommended Academy Award winner David Niven but Broccoli shot it down as he considered the 51 year old Niven to be too old. Eventually, they settled on an unknown 31 year old Scottish actor named Sean Connery though Fleming reportedly wasn't high on him at the time. Broccoli & Saltzman would have one issue which was they wanted to make Thunderball into the first James Bond movie but due to the ongoing issues with McClory, they were unable to do it and instead settled on Dr. No to be the first Bond movie. 1962 would be a busy year for Bond as Fleming released his tenth book The Spy Who Loved Me on April 16th while Dr. No would premiere in theaters on October 5th. The Spy Who Loved Me proved to be a disappointment with reviews largely negative and Fleming would also not be happy with the final outcome. In fact, Fleming would even tell Saltzman & Broccoli not to adapt the plot when they would eventually make a movie on The Spy Who Loved Me. However, Dr. No would be a huge hit grossing $59.5 in the box office launching James Bond to the movies at long last. Reviews would also be positive both in 1962 and in retrospect while Connery won over Fleming with his performance.
1963 would be another huge year both good and bad for Bond. On April 1st, Fleming released his eleventh book On Her Majesty's Secret Service which proved successful and was a great bounce back for Fleming as the book has been considered the best Bond novel from him. Not wasting any time, Eon & United Artists immediately began work on the second Bond film with Eon being given a $2 Million budget which would be twice what Dr. No got. Eon chose From Russia With Love as the second film due to it being one of then President John F. Kennedy's favorite books. Kennedy would even get a private White House viewing of it on November 20th, two days before his assassination. The film would premiere on October 10th and proved to be another hit as it grossed $78 million. Unfortunately, as things were looking up for both Fleming & Eon, the lawsuit with McClory would take a big turn. On November 19th, McClory's lawsuit went to the Chancery Division of High Courts. Fleming had never fully recovered from his 1961 heart attack and fearing his health was too fragile for a lengthy trial, Ivar Bryce pleaded with Fleming to settle out of court. Fleming would agree and less than two weeks later, the two sides settled out of court. Fleming agreed to pay McClory 35,000 pounds for damages and 52,000 pounds for court costs. McClory got the screenplay, story treatment, and film rights while Fleming continued to maintain the novel rights. McClory would also get the rights to the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, his white persian cat, SPECTRE, & the storyline involving the theft of atomic bombs. Meanwhile, all future novel releases and film adaptations had to have the credit "Based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, & Ian Fleming" specifically in that order. Regardless of the outcome and perhaps because Fleming settled so soon, controversy still continues to this very day as to who came up with what specifically in regards to SPECTRE and Blofeld. Long time Bond author Raymond Benson has claimed that McClory came up wth SPECTRE while Fleming biographers Andrew Lycett & John Cork have claimed Fleming came up with SPECTRE with Lycett claiming it was Fleming who thought Bond should face SPECTRE instead of the Italian Mafia while Cork has presented a memo to McClory & Whittingham where Fleming called for the change to SPECTRE. Cork has also brought up Fleming's fascinating to the word "Spectre" having named a town near Las Vegas "Spektorville" in Diamonds Are Forever and the Russian Decoder being called Spektor in From Russia, With Love.
The Death of Ian Fleming, Bond Films Take Off, & Thunderball (1964-1965)
1964 proved to be one of triumph and tragedy as well as one of the biggest years in the history of James Bond. Fleming would release his twelfth book You Only Live Twice on March 26th and sold well though it got mixed reviews. The book notably saw Fleming adapting elements from the James Bond movies as he gave Bond the same sense of humor he became known for in the films and he was won over by Connery's performance so much that he added Scottish ancestry to Bond. Unfortunately, You Only Live Twice would be the last Bond book released in Fleming's life as he suffered a second heart attack and passed away on August 12, 1964 at the age of 56. Fleming's death prevented him from seeing his creation finally explode on screen as Eon released their third film Goldfinger on September 17th. The film was a huge success grossing $125 million on a $3 million budget and recouped it's budget in only two weeks. Goldfinger success would result in launching the Bond series to the moon and in a way, help popularize the spy genre which began to enjoy incredible popularity as the James Bond series along with the Harry Palmer film series and television shows such as The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, Mission: Impossible, and I Spy helped make the 60s the golden age of the genre.
Unfortunately, Broccoli & Saltzman couldn't celebrate for too long because around this time, McClory began making it his intention to do his Thunderball film and even talked to legendary actor Richard Burton to play Bond while it was being said Orson Welles would play Blofeld and future Gandhi director Richard Attenborough would direct. The two didn't want to have to deal with a competing Bond and wanted to try to get all the Bond films under their umbrella. Meanwhile, McClory rightfully realized Eon were the Bond movie makers and also realized his best chances at success would be a deal with them. With all that, Eon and McClory eventually struck a deal to partner up and release Thunderball as the fourth James Bond film. The deal also saw McClory become producer while Saltzman & Broccoli would step back as executive producers. McClory would also be unable to make another version for ten years. The move paid off as Thunderball was another success upon it's release on December 21, 1965 grossing $141.2 million dollars off a $9 million budget while continuing to strengthen the James Bond craze. For Broccoli & Saltzman, it also appeared like they dodged a bullet and were done with the problem of McClory. Little did they know, they only delayed the inevitable.
Thunderball aftermath, The Bond Series continues, and Bond role changes (1966-1974)-
By 1966, the Bond series was on fire and everybody wanted a piece of the pie. During this time, many international studios began releasing Bond spoofs with one including an Italian spoof film called O.K. Connery which starred Connery's brother Neil Connery as well as then current and former Bond actors. 1983 wouldn't be the first year in which an Eon film went head to head with a movie based off a Fleming novel. A spoof version of Casino Royale came out in April 1967 featuring an all star cast of David Niven (ironically playing an older Bond years after Fleming recommended him for Dr. No), Orsen Welles, Peter Sellers, Deborah Kerr, original Bond Girl Ursula Andress, & Woody Allen as well as a chaotic production. Eon would then release You Only Live Twice that June and proved to be yet another major hit grossing $111 million but another major problem occurred and another seed of the Battle of the Bonds would be sowed. After five films as James Bond, Connery had enough. He was frustrated over the filming and promoting of Bond films prevented him from doing more movies and he also feared typecasting while getting upset at being recognized on the street as James Bond. Connery also felt he deserved more money off merchandise that was released. Connery reportedly did offer to continue as Bond but only on the condition of being made a partner and co-producer with Saltzman & Broccoli but they refused. Because of all these situations, Connery's relationship with Saltzman & Broccoli, which was good for years, soured badly to the point where he wasn't on speaking terms with them and many Bond fans believe it led to Connery's weakest outing as Bond coming off unmotivated and looked like he rather be anywhere else. By August 1967, Connery's departure was announced and the search was on for the next Bond. Many interesting names were considered including Adam West and future Bonds Roger Moore & Timothy Dalton but they all fell through for one reason or another. Eventually, Saltzman & Broccoli settled on Australian model George Lazenby which was a bold move as Lazenby had very little acting experience having only done commercials for Big Fry chocolates.
Lazenby ended up a one and done Bond only doing 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service which saw a big drop but grossed $87 million easily making it a hit. Ultimately, Lazenby left Bond before the film premiered and turned down a 7 picture deal at the request of his agent who told him Bond would flame out by the 1970s. With Lazenby gone, Eon signed American actor John Gavin but United Artists head David Picker was not happy and insisted that Connery be brought back at any cost. Picker would basically give Saltzman & Broccoli a blank check to get Connery back in the fold. Ultimately, Connery would agree to return but he wouldn't come cheap ultimately getting $1.25 million ($10 million dollars in 2017) which was the biggest paycheck for an actor at the time while also receiving 12.5% of the gross and United Artists agreeing to back two projects of his choice. Connery's sixth film Diamonds Are Forever brought Bond back to the $100 million mark grossing $116 million following it's December 14, 1971 release. Like Lazenby, Connery's return proved one and done as he appeared to finally be done playing the character even turning down an astronomical salary of $5.5 million for Live and Let Die and seemingly closed the door on James Bond when he would even go as far as to vow never to play Bond ever again.
With Connery gone again, the search was on to find the next James Bond. Eventually, the producers settled on Roger Moore. Moore was best known as a television star in England having originally starred in Ivanhoe from 1958-1959 and then gained even more fame as Simon Templar on The Saint from 1962-1969 which became his second most famous role. At the time of casting, Moore was coming off the TV show The Persuaders! where he was the highest paid television actor in the world receiving 1 million pounds for a single series (season). Moore was also no stranger to Eon as he was rumored to have been considered to be the original Bond back in Dr. No though Moore has claimed he was never offered the role. He was also in the running in 1968 after Connery first left and when plans for the sixth Bond film was to be The Man With The Golden Gun but plans fell through as Broccoli & Saltzman wanted to film in Cambodia which was impossible at the time due to unrest in Southeast Asia at the time and Moore signed on for one more series (or season) of The Saint. Moore's first outing was Live and Let Die which was released on June 27, 1973 and proved to be a massive hit grossing $161.8 million on only a $7 million budget making it by far the most successful Bond film at the time. It appeared as though Bond would be fine in the 70s and without Connery but the series hit a huge snag with Moore's second movie The Man With The Golden Gun which was released on December 19, 1974. Though the film was profitable, it only grossed $97.6 million on a $7 million budget which saw a $63 million drop and it became the fourth lowest grossing Bond film. With all that plus mixed reviews, this was arguably the first time when many began wondering about the future of Bond.
The Return of McClory & The Events Leading to the Battle of the Bonds (1975-1982)
In 1975, things were looking bad for the James Bond film series. The Man With The Golden Gun was disappointing at the box office, many considered it the lowest point of the canon at that point, and things were also falling apart behind the scenes. Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman had many issues and problems during this time mostly financial due to getting a $40,000,000 loan from the United Bank of Switzerland which he defaulted on at one point and also had a failed run controlling Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation. Even worse, Saltzman's wife Jacqueline was diagnosed with terminal cancer. With all that, Saltzman eventually sold his 50% share in Danjaq to United Artist for 20 million pounds and left while making Broccoli in charge of everything James Bond.
With Saltzman out, work began on the next Bond film but more problems came about. First was Broccoli chose The Spy Who Loved Me as the next film. While most of the Bond films didn't completely adapt from the novels they're based off of, Spy had to be completely rewritten since Fleming wasn't happy with the finish book and previously asked not to adapt the story to film. They also encountered director problems as Broccoli hoped for Guy Hamilton to return for a fifth outing but he backed out hoping to direct the first Superman (which went to Richard Donner) before eventually hiring You Only Live Twice director Lewis Gilbert. As all this was happening, another problem came about. By 1976, McClory's agreement he signed back in Thunderball that prevented him from remaking the film for ten years expired and he would waste no time. McClory would bring in writer Len Deighton and, much to Eon's chagrin, Sean Connery to work on the script while using the working title Warhead. Deighton was a writer and created the Harry Palmer series which eventually became movies with most of them starring Connery's close friend and fellow legendary actor Michael Caine. To no surprise, Connery later admitted he never thought he would eventually return to the Bond role while working on the script. Shortly after this, Eon filed legal action claiming McClory was going beyond copyright restrictions which confined McClory to only being able to make a film version of the Thunderball novel and McClory's plans hit a roadblock. As this was going on, McClory would also affect The Spy Who Loved Me as original plans had Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE return but McClory filed an injunction due to owning Blofeld and SPECTRE which forced Eon to create a new villain in Karl Stromberg while production was further delayed.
Eventually, Eon came back in a big way with Moore's third film The Spy Who Loved Me on July 7, 1977 which proved to be a huge critical and commercial hit grossing a then record $185.4 million while establishing Roger Moore in the role of James Bond for a new generation. Despite Moore only signing on for three films, he returned for 1979's Moonraker and 1981's For Your Eyes Only with each being huge hits as Moonraker would be the first Bond to crack the $200 million mark and become the highest grossing Bond film of all time until 1995's Goldeneye. For Your Eyes Only also saw the feud between Eon & McClory make it's way to screen when the beginning of the film featured familiar bald villain with a white cat in a wheelchair who takes control of Bond's helicopter only for Bond to regain control, scoop him up, and dump him into an industrial chimney stack. While the character was never named and uncredited, it was clearly supposed to be Blofeld and it was largely created mostly as a way to tell McClory they didn't need the Blofeld character and could still make great films without him. For Your Eyes Only also appeared to be Moore's final outing as Bond. Moore turned 54 in 1981 and nearly didn't return for it. Moore was also starting to worry about staying in the series as he didn't want to come off too old.
As all this was going on, McClory's project continued now with the working title James Bond of the Secret Service. McClory brought in businessman and producer Jack Schwartzman to produce the film while licensing his Thunderball rights to him. Schwartzman was a businessman and producer who was married to Godfather & Rocky actress Talia Shire which made him the brother-in-law to legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. Schwartzman previously served as an entertainment lawyer with one of his clients being Academy Award winning director and editor Hal Ashby while having been an executive for Lorimar Films and was an executive producer for the 1979 movie Being There which was one of Peter Sellers' last movies. Schwartzman was able to get through many of the legal hurdles which helped the movie go forward. He would then bring in screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. who gained fame writing for the 1960s Batman show and movies such as The Parallax View & Three Days of the Condor to help with the screenplay. Connery was not happy with the screenplay and asked Tom Mankiewicz to do re-writes. Mankiewicz has a long history with Bond having written Diamonds Are Forever, Live & Let Die, & The Man With The Golden Gun while having done uncredited writing on The Spy Who Loved Me & Moonraker. Because of this, Mankiewicz turned down Connery's request due to loyalty to Eon Productions and Broccoli. Connery then brought in British writing team of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais who were best known for their Britcoms and later collaboration with Tracey Ullman while also later doing uncredited rewrites for Connery's 1996 film The Rock. However, they weren't credited due to the Writer's Guild of America. Throughout the process, the script went through the legal team after all revisions had happen to prevent any legal problems with Eon. Meanwhile, the legal issues continued during this period with not only Eon Productions but Ian Fleming Trustees but by 1982, McClory & Schwartzman won out and the film was allowed to be made.
Going into 1982, Eon began making plans for their thirteenth Bond film Octopussy which they intended for a 1983 release and much to their chagrin, McClory & Schwartzman's film would also begin filming while also coming out in 1983. Going into it, both films had one thing in common and that was who would play James Bond in their respective films. Originally, Eon signed Roger Moore for three films in 1972 and after fulfilling it with The Spy Who Loved Me, they did one film deals and that along with Moore hinting he was done, Eon had to fill the vacancy. Future James Bond Timothy Dalton was on the short list as he had been since the late 60s while British actor Michael Billington & James Brolin both screen tested with Billington being a favorite of Eon as he screen tested more for Bond than anyone in history. As for McClory & Schwartzman, they considered former Bond George Lazenby and it's pretty obvious why. Both wanted a former Bond in the role but their options were short given there were only three at the time while Connery had said he'd never play the character again while Moore was close with Broccoli & Eon so it looked like Lazenby would be the most likely to accept the part. However, this all changed when Connery expressed interest in returning. While it seemed unheard of for Connery to return, when you dig deeper you can likely see why he would come back. After leaving James Bond ten years ago, Connery's career wasn't going the way he had planned and had only enjoyed mixed success. If you remember, when Connery returned for Diamonds Are Forever, United Artists agreed to back two of his projects. Unfortunately, Connery stumbled right out of the gate as the deal was a failure with his 1972 film The Offense being both a critical and commercial failure & that along with Connery hoping to do a movie on MacBeth while Roman Polansky was doing one resulted in United Artists backing out of the deal. Connery then did 1974's Zardoz only because he was struggling to find work and a good example was his paycheck as he only got $200,000 which was a far cry from the $1.25 million salary for Diamonds Are Forever just three years earlier. After this, Connery had several successes from 1974-1979 including Murder on the Orient Express, The Wind & The Lion, The Man Who Would Be King, Robin & Marion, A Bridge Too Far, and The First Great Train Robbery. Unfortunately, even they had issues as a lot of them were ensemble films rather than just him as the star and even the most successful weren't drawing anywhere near what he was drawing with his James Bond films as A Bridge Too Far was his most successful but that only grossed $50 million while his last four James Bond films each grossed $100 million. By 1979, Connery's career declined badly as he appeared in a number of failures or disappointments including 1979's Meteor, 1979's Cuba, 1981's Outland (which barely made it's budget), 1982's Five Days One Summer, and 1982's Wrong Is Right. During this time, Connery's only success was 1981's Time Bandits though he did get a Saturn Award for Best Actor nomination for Outland. Safe to say by the summer of 1982, Connery was in desperate need of a hit to keep his career going and he rightfully knew that returning to the role he made world famous would guarantee a hit regardless of the film being an "unofficial" James Bond film. Schwartzman approached Connery to return and a deal was struck which saw Connery return while he would receive $3 million ($7 million in 2017 dollars), a cut of the profits, and casting & script approval. To no surprise, the announcement of Connery's return was huge for the movie and got it lots of publicity. Upon the announcement, Eon cancelled auditions for the Bond role and contacted Moore about returning as Broccoli rightfully felt he needed an established Bond actor to combat Connery's return and Moore accepted. The last legal hurdle came with the title as Eon successfully convinced a judge that "James Bond of the Secret Service" sounded too similar to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Eventually, Connery's wife Micheline suggested "Never Say Never Again" due to Connery previously vowing he would never play Bond again. With Connery & Moore now back, both films got a lot of attention and it was here when the media coined this situation as "The Battle of the Bonds". It was also interesting to see which film would win out in the end. On the one hand, Eon were the Bond movie makers while Moore was very popular as Bond and was considered Bond for that generation. On the other hand, Never Say Never Again saw the return of the original James Bond himself, Sean Connery for the first time in twelve years. Heading into 1983, there were even plans to release both films simultaneously but this never happened as Octopussy came out in June while Never Says Never Again came out in October. Never Say Never Again was challenged one last time by Fleming's Trustees in the Spring of 1983 but it was thrown out.
The Battle of the Bonds (1983)
Octopussy (1983)
Eon & Roger Moore's film was Octopussy. The film began with 009 dressed as a clown escaping a circus while carrying a fake Faberge Egg but suffers fatal injuries courtesy of twin knife throwing performers Mischka & Grischka while eventually dying at the British Ambassador's home. Bond is sent to investigate which sends him to an auction where a real Faberge Egg is being auctioned and where he meets an exiled Afghan prince named Kamal Khan. Bond goes to India to investigate where he finds out Khan is working with a renegade Soviet general named General Orlov who wants to increase The Soviet Union's control on Western Europe. After escaping Khan's palace, Bond goes to an island which is run by Khan's associate Octopussy who is a businesswoman, smuggler, and runs a circus. While there, Bond finds out she is the daughter of a man he was assigned to arrest for treason but allowed to commit suicide instead of going to trial which she is thankful for. After going to East Germany, Bond finds out about Orlov's scheme which is planting a bomb in Octopussy's circus train instead of Soviet treasures he was stealing from the Kremlin and giving to Khan. The bomb would go off while Octopussy's circus was performing at a United States Air Force base in West Germany, killing everyone but making it look like it was one of the bombs on the base being triggered accidentally which would lead to Europe demanding disarmament which would then allow The Soviet Union to invade Western Europe without fear of retaliation. Bond then races against the clock to disarm the bomb during which time Orlov is killed after being mistaken for defector while he tries to stop Bond. Bond is then able to convince Octopussy she was being set up by Khan which results in her helping Bond to disarm the bomb in time. Octopussy then heads to Khan's palace with her troops with the hope of killing him but is captured by Khan and his henchmen Gobinda. Bond then heads out and tries to stop Khan's escape via airplane. Bond disables one of the wings, fights Gobinda while the plane is in flight and knocks him off. Bond then rescues Octopussy and the two escape after the plane reaches the ground while Khan is killed after the plane crashes after falling off a cliff.
Maud Adams played the title character and Bond girl for the film who is a businesswoman, smuggler, and circus owner who worked as a smuggler for Kamal Khan. Octopussy was the second Bond film for Adams who played Francisico Scaramanga's mistress Andrea Anders nine years earlier in The Man With The Golden Gun. French actor Louis Jourdan played Kamal Khan, an exiled Afghan prince who works with General Orlov and who supplies Octopussy's services with the two planting a bomb which is set to detonate as a US Air Force base. Steven Berkoff played General Orlov, a renegade Soviet general who advocates invading the West and when turned down, plots with Khan to detonate a bomb on a US Air Force base in a way to make it look accidental which would result in disarmament and allow The Soviet Union to invade. Indian actor Kabir Bedi played Gobinda, Khan's bodyguard while twins David & Anthony Meyer played knife throwing henchmen Mischka & Grischka. Former tennis player turned actor Vijay Amritraj played Vijay, Bond's contact in India. Walter Gotell reprised his role as General Gogol for the fourth film in a role who is against Orlov's invasion proposal in fear of nuclear war. Robert Brown made his debut as M replacing original M Bernard Lee who passed away in January 1981 during work on For Your Eyes Only and the character was not recast in that film out of respect for Lee. Brown previously appeared as Admiral Hargreaves in The Spy Who Loved Me. Lois Maxwell returned for a thirteenth time as Miss Moneypenny while Desmond Llewelyn returned for an eleventh time as Q.
The film featured many usual names in the James Bond universe return behind the scenes. Albert R. Broccoli served as producer. Longtime Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum returned for the tenth time as screenwriter while current co-producer and Broccoli's stepson Michael G. Wilson co-wrote the screenplay for the second time in a row while serving as executive producer for the third time in a row. John Glen returned for the second time in a row as director. Maurice Binder returned for the eleventh time as the title designer. John Barry returned for the ninth time as composer after sitting out of For Your Eyes Only (tenth Bond film if you count him arranging the James Bond theme for 1962's Dr. No). The song was "All Time High" which was sung by Rita Coolidge while Barry wrote the music and legendary lyricist Tim Rice wrote the lyrics. Rice is best known for his work with Andrew Lloyd Webber writing lyrics for Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar as well as with Disney for Aladdin and The Lion King. The song is the second time a Bond movie's main theme didn't have the same title as the movie it appeared in with the first being The Spy Who Loved Me with the theme in that movie being "Nobody Does It Better" though Octopussy was the first film where the title doesn't appear anywhere in the song. This is the last time this would happen until 2006's Casino Royale as the main theme for that film was "You Know My Name".
Octopussy was the first Eon Bond film released by current distributor MGM who purchased United Artists in 1981 shortly after the release of For Your Eyes Only and both studios would distribute Bond films to this day.
Octopussy was released on June 6, 1983 and was another big success grossing $187.5 million but did receive mixed reviews as some appreciated the movie but the constant criticism was geared at the villains and being too comedic with Bond dressed as a clown, in a gorilla suit, and doing the Tarzan yell while swinging on vines. Moore's appearance was also somewhat a problem as he was 55 going on 56 and was beginning to show his age. However, Maud Adams' performance earned Saturn Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress while critics did like the filming locations in India as well as the stunts. Octopussy was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
Never Say Never Again (1983)
Connery's return to 007 was Never Say Never Again. The film sees Connery as an older James Bond who along with 00 section are now deactivated by the current M and is sent to a health clinic to get in better shape. As this is happening, SPECTRE plots the theft of two atomic bombs and the plot is headed by top SPECTRE agent Maximillion Largo. Largo's mistress Domino Petachi is the sister of an Air Force pilot Jack Petachi who becomes a SPECTRE agent after SPECTRE addicts him to heroin. They then have Petachi get surgery on his right eye to match that of the President of the United States which would allow Petachi to get past the iris recognition security so he could have dummy warheads replaced with real nuclear ones which SPECTRE successfully steal and then have agent Fatima Blush murder him to cover their tracks. Blofeld them announces the theft and holds the world at ransom, giving the world leaders seven days to agree on giving SPECTRE 25% of their annual oil purchases or they will use the bombs on two cities. With that, M reinstates the 00 section including Bond. Bond heads to the Bahamas where he first encounters Largo and Domino & eventually follows them to Nice, France where he meets them as well as his CIA contact and friend Felix Leiter. During a party, Bond beats Largo in a game and reveals to Domino that Largo had her brother killed. Bond gets captured while looking for the bombs on Largo's yacht The Flying Saucer and is held in North Africa while Largo tries to sell Domino to arabs but they eventually escape though not before Largo tells Bond one of the bombs is in Washington DC. Bond and Domino get to an American submarine and find out Largo is hiding below a desert oasis in the Ethiopian Coast. Bond and Leiter infiltrate the hide out with Bond chasing after Largo who escapes with the bomb. The two fight with Largo getting trapped allowing Bond a chance to deactivate the bomb. As he attempts to, Largo grabs a harpoon gun but Domino shoot him with her own before he can fire at Bond which allows Bond to deactivate the bomb and Domino avenges her brother's death.
Klaus Maria Brandauer played Maxmillion Largo, the main villain of the film who is behind the scheme to hold the world hostage on behalf of SPECTRE. Barbara Carrera played Fatima Blush was Largo's top henchwoman who is first assigned to watch over Jack Petachi and kill him after SPECTRE get the bombs & then eventually is sent to hunt Bond. Kim Basinger played Domino Petachi, Largo's mistress and the Bond girl of the film who eventually joins Bond after finding out Largo had her brother murdered. Max Von Sydow played Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. Original Chuck Cunningham Gavin O'Herlihy played Captain Jack Petachi, Domino's brother who works for SPECTRE after being introduced to heroin and who helps SPECTRE steal the bombs. Former football player turned actor Bernie Casey played Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA contact and good friend. Edward Fox played M, Alec McGowen played Q (who also had the nickname "Algernon" or Algy"), and Pamela Salem (who appeared in Connery's The First Great Train Robbery) played Miss Moneypenny. Future Mr. Bean Rowan Atkinson played Nigel Small-Fawcett who was the foreign representative in the Bahamas.
McClory and Schwartzman served as co-presenters while Schwartzman served as producer. Lorenzo Semple Jr. wrote the screenplay while Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais did uncredited rewrites. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back & future Robocop 2 director Irvin Kershner directed. Academy Award winning composer Michel Legrand composed the music while also writing the music to the theme while songwriting couple Alan & Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyrics. The theme song was sung by American singer Lani Hall. The film was distributed by Warner Bros.
Never Say Never Again was interesting in many ways. One being that it was a remake of Thunderball which meant a similar story but there were changes made compared to the 1965 film. Largo's first name was changed from "Emilio" to "Maxmillion". The top henchwoman was changed from "Fiona Volpe" to "Fatima Blush". Domino's last name was changed from "Derval" to "Petachi" while her brother's name was changed from "Francois" to "Jack". Blofeld's face wasn't seen in Thunderball but was seen in Never Say Never Again. Domino's brother went from being murdered by an imposter who helped SPECTRE hijack the bombs in Thunderball to getting retinal surgery so his eye matched the President of the United States' eye which would allow him to pass the iris recognition security to get the bombs. Largo's yacht went from "The Disco Volante" in Thunderball to "The Flying Saucer" in Never Say Never Again (Disco Volante is Italian for Flying Saucer).
Unlike other Bonds, Bond is portrayed as older and more towards the end of his career which is to accommodate Connery who was 52 during filming and 53 by the time the film was released in October 1983. Bond's older age is brought up several times including Bond mentioning the current M has had little use for the 00s and hadn't been active, someone telling Bond they don't make cars like his anymore, and Q Branch having a limited budget. Bernie Casey was the first black actor to play Felix Leiter who Connery suggested since the Felix Leiter character isn't very memorable and by hiring a black actor may make him more memorable. Casey would be the only black actor to play Felix Leiter until Jeffery Wright played Leiter in 2006's Casino Royale & 2008's Quantum of Solace. Due to his deal, Connery had say in the casting and recommended Klaus Maria Brandauer & Max Von Sydow while Kirchner casted Barbara Carrera and Connery's wife Micheline recommended Kim Basinger to her husband. Because Never Say Never Again was not from Eon, it doesn't have the traditional gunbarrel opening or the James Bond theme as both were trademarked by Eon Productions. The opening instead featured a screen of "007" logos getting closer to the screen until disappearing. There was also no opening credits but the credits appearing on screening during Bond's training mission. The Flying Saucer was actually the Kingdom 5KR, a yacht that was then owned by Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and called "Nabila". It would later be owned by Donald Trump who named it "the Trump Princess". The Yacht also inspired the Queen song "Khashoggi's Ship" for their 1989 album "The Miracle".
The film had a tough production while going through a number of problems. Connery was forced to take on many of the production duties along with assistant director David Tomblin while Kirchner was not high on Schwartzman saying he was a good businessman but didn't have the experience to be a producer. Schwartzman was also forced to fund the film after production ran out of money and would later admit he underestimated how much it would cost. Connery & Schwartzman also had a falling out and wouldn't speak to each other much with Connery getting frustrated during production and called it a "bloody Mickey Mouse operation". Speaking of Connery, his wrist was broken while training with the fight choreographer of the film who was a then unknown Steven Seagal. Interestingly enough, Connery later said while on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that he didn't even know his wrist was broken until more than a decade later. Originally, McClory & Schwartzman wanted Peter R. Hunt to direct. Hunt previously directed the 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service, was a secondary director in You Only Live Twice, and edited the first four Bond films. Despite not having worked for Eon since 1969, Hunt turned it down out of loyalty. John Barry was also approached to compose but he also turned it down out of loyalty for Eon and instead would compose Octopussy after having sat out on For Your Eyes Only. With Barry out, Schwartzman & Kirchner wanted Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan & 48 hrs. composer James Horner to compose but Connery shot it down and Michel Legrand was hired. Bonnie Tyler was asked to sing the theme but she turned it down as she didn't like the song and Lani Hall was then brought in.
Never Say Never Again was released on October 7, 1983 and was also a big success grossing $160 million. Reviews were also very positive with many praising the action and dialogue along with Connery & Brandauer's performances. The biggest criticism from the film was Legrand's score. Barbara Carrera was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Like Octopussy, Never Say Never Again was also nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
Outcome
In the end, both were very successful but Eon proved they were the Bond movie makers as Octopussy won out grossing $187.5 million to Never Say Never Again which grossed $160 million. This was actually considered an upset as many thought Never Say Never Again would draw more due to Connery's involvement. However, Never Say Never Again did get some victories as it got better reviews from critics and had a better opening weekend as it grossed $9.72 million ($24 million in 2017) while Octopussy grossed $8.9 million ($22 million in 2017). Never Say Never Again also had the largest opening weekend for a Bond film at that time.
Aftermath (1984-2018)
In February 1984, McClory announced a sequel to Never Say Never Again called S.P.E.C.T.R.E. but nothing came of it and he disappeared once again. Eon continued releasing Bond films throughout the 80s with Moore doing a final film in 1985's A View To A Kill. After Moore retired, Eon hired Timothy Dalton after a long search with Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, & Sam Neill on the short list. Dalton only ended up doing two films in 1987's The Living Daylights & 1989's Licence To Kill with both being successful but Licence To Kill saw a big drop and was a disappointment in America due to poor promotion largely due to a last minute name change from Licence Revoked and heavy competition during the summer. Because of Licence to Kill's performance, people again began to question the future of the series with even Dalton going on record saying he thought Licence To Kill would be the last one and Broccoli even began to question his leadership while considering putting Eon up for sale. As if that wasn't bad enough, McClory would emerge again in 1989 claiming he was going to do another Thunderball film called "Atomic Warfare" and was reportedly in talks with Pierce Brosnan to play Bond but the project fizzled out.
By the early 90s, the Bond series went dormant after Eon sued MGM/UA due to them leasing the Bond library at a lower than market value without consulting Eon which also cancelled a third Dalton film set for a 1991 release. By 1993, the lawsuit ended and work began to resume the series but was delayed further due to the decision to write a new script which took longer than expected and eventually needed polishing during which time Dalton quit the role and Pierce Brosnan was hired. The series returned with Goldeneye in 1995 which proved to be a massive hit grossing $350 million. During work on Goldeneye, Eon also went a changing of the guard as Broccoli handed it over to daughter Barbara & stepson Michael G. Wilson before passing away on June 27, 1996 at 87. Shortly after this, McClory came back again and announced another Thunderball remake called Warhead 2000 A.D. while the film would be made by Sony. McClory would also say Connery would play a villain and either Dalton or Liam Neeson would play Bond. MGM and Eon would take Sony to court to prevent the film from being made. By 1999, Sony & McClory would file a counter-suit claiming McClory was the co-author of the cinematic James Bond and thus deserved royalties of every Bond film. To no surprise, Sony and McClory's suit was quickly thrown out since McClory took so long to make the claim. Eventually, MGM and Sony settled out of court with Sony agreeing to pay MGM for damages and not go ahead with the film while MGM would pay $10 million for the film rights to Casino Royale and the rights to the 1967 film. This would be the last of Kevin McClory. As all this was going on, Brosnan would do three more films in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, 1999's The World Is Not Enough, and 2002's Die Another Day before stepping down in 2004. Daniel Craig was then cast in 2005 and has done four films in 2006's Casino Royale, 2008's Quantum of Solace, 2012's Skyfall, & 2015's Spectre with a fifth film set for 2019.
On November 20, 2006, Kevin McClory passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 82. His death occurred only four days after the British release of Casino Royale. Despite McClory's death, our story wouldn't end there. On November 15, 2013, nearly 50 years to the day when Ian Fleming & Kevin McClory's legal battle went to the High Courts, Eon's parent company Danjaq, LLC & MGM announced they purchased all of McClory's rights and interest from his estate (which allowed the return of Spectre & Blofeld in 2015's Spectre). Following this, MGM, Danjaq, & the Kevin McClory estate issued a joint statement that they had brought to an "amicable conclusion the legal and business disputes that have arisen periodically for over 50 years". With the purchase and the statement, the book was finally closed on the Kevin McClory saga once and for all.
 |
| Bond Author & Creator Ian Fleming |
The Beginning (1953-1957)
James Bond officially began on April 13, 1953 when the first Bond novel Casino Royale was released. Bond was created by Ian Fleming, a British author and former Navy Intelligence Officer. Fleming originally planned on writing a spy novel back in the 1940s and eventually began writing it on February 17, 1952 to distract him from his upcoming marriage. The book didn't impress many at first with a former girlfriend telling Fleming not to publish it or at least do it under a pseudonym while his friend and future editor wasn't high on it but thought it did have promise and sent a copy to Jonathan Cape publishing house but they weren't impressed. Fortunately, Fleming's older brother, Peter, wrote books for the publishing house and recommended it and they agreed. Upon it's release, the book became a hit to the point where it sold 5,000 copies in one month and went through three printing runs though sales in America weren't as good.
Even early on, Fleming saw potential in his creation transitioning from book to screen. In early 1954, the American television network CBS paid Fleming $1,000 ($9,113 in 2017) to adapt Casino Royale for television as the network was launching a new hour long anthology series called Climax!. The episode based on Casino Royale aired as the third episode of Climax! on October 21, 1954 and because it came out long before the movie series, it was far different than most would expect in retrospect as Bond was played by American actor Barry Nelson making it the only time an American actor portrayed Bond. The episode also featured Bond working as a "Combined Intelligence" agent and was an American with the nickname "Jimmy". Seeing potential in Bond, CBS told Fleming to come up with ideas for episodes of a potential Bond series. Fleming would come up with some outlines for stories before CBS changed their mind and decided not to go ahead with it. Fleming would later use the stories for a series of short stories for his 1960 Bond novel For Your Eyes Only.
Despite this setback, Fleming continued churning out Bond novels on a yearly basis releasing Live & Let Die in 1954, Moonraker in 1955, Diamonds Are Forever in 1956, & From Russia, With Love in 1957. Along with his Bond novels, Fleming also wrote The Diamond Smugglers in 1957, a nonfiction book where he covered The International Diamond Security Exchange which was formed to combat the smuggling of diamonds in Africa. By 1957, Fleming's Bond novels began to get mixed reviews as they continued to receive positive reviews for the most part but some began attacking them for their violence and "sado-masochism".
 |
| Kevin McClory |
Enter Kevin McClory (1958-1960)
By 1958, Fleming becoming interested in adapting Bond to the silver screen. With that in mind, his friend Ivar Bryce recommended him to Kevin McClory. McClory was an Irish producer who originally got his break as an assistant to director John Huston for his films The African Queen and Moulin Rouge while serving as an assistant director for Huston's 1956 adaptation of Moby Dick. He later became the associate producer and second unit director for the 1956 film version of Around the World in 80 Days. McClory, himself would travel around the world when he took part in an expedition where he led 25 men to drive around the world which he completed in 104 days. During this time, he filmed a documentary on the expedition called One Road as well as ads for the Ford Motor Company who were his sponsor. Around this time, McClory befriended Bryce and his wife Josephine Hartford Bryce who was the sister of Huntington Hartford and heiress to the A&P Supermarket fortune. McClory would write, produce, and direct his film The Boy and The Bridge in 1957 with the Bryces helping to fiance it.
The three would get together with Fleming and Bryce's good friend Ernest Cuneo to form Xanadu Productions which was named after Bryce's home in the Bahamas but never actually became a company. By May 1959, the four met at Bryce's Essex home and then at McClory's home in London as they came up with a story outline. By this point, McClory didn't feel Fleming's novels could be adapted and they agreed on a new & original story. During this time, ideas included an airplane full of celebrites and the character Fatima Blush who eventually became a villain in Never Say Never Again. McClory also wanted underwater included as he loved the underwater world. Ten outlines, scripts, and story treatments were done over the next few months with titles such as James Bond of the Secret Service, Longitude 78 West & SPECTRE being considered. Reportedly, Cuneo (who Fleming later credited for coming up with half the plot for Goldfinger) wrote the first treatment with ideas remaining when Fleming wrote Thunderball. As was the case with Fleming's novels, the main villains of the film were planned to be the Russians, likely to be SMERSH who served as the main antagonists to Bond in Fleming's novels and then considered the Italian Mafia before it was changed to a organization named SPECTRE. SPECTRE (short for SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, & Extortion) were a worldwide criminal organization with no allegiance to a country or ideology but focused on worldwide domination & headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld with members including people from the criminal underworld as well as the Gestapo, SMERSH, and the Italian Mafia. Fleming would write a second treatment which included main villain Largo, who became Blofeld's second-in-command and the theft of a nuclear device.
Fleming was mostly high on working with McClory due to The Boy and The Bridge as it later became the official British entry at the 1959 Venice Film Festival. In July 1959, things hit a snag when The Boy and The Bridge was released in theaters doing poorly critically & financially. Because of this, Fleming became sour on McClory and began to have doubts about him. By October 1959, things seem to get worse as Fleming was no longer spending as much time on the project. During this time, McClory brought in a British playwright & screenwriter named Jack Whittingham to help write. A month later, Fleming traveled the world on behalf of The Sunday Times and while in New York, he visited Bryce & McClory who told him Whittingham completed an outline that was ready to shoot. By December, Fleming met with McClory & Whittingham with the two eventually giving Fleming a script called Longitude 78 West which Fleming liked but changed the title to Thunderball. Unfortunately, other problems came about as the project had a hard time finding funding due to the failure of The Boy and The Bridge while Xandau Productions fell apart & Cuneo reportedly sold the right to the Thunderball drafts to Bryce for a dollar. By early 1960, McClory visited Fleming at his Jamaican estate Goldeneye where Fleming told him that he planned to present the screenplay to MCA and recommend McClory as a producer but told McClory if MCA didn't want the screenplay due to McClory's involvement that McClory should either sell himself to MCA or back out of the deal or fight it in court. Ultimately, nothing came of this and shortly after, the project fell apart and was dead in the water. As all this was happening, Fleming continued releasing more James Bond novels with Dr. No in 1958, Goldfinger in 1959, & For Your Eyes Only in 1960.
 |
| Thunderball, the book that started a fifty year legal battle |
Thunderball, McClory Lawsuit, & Bond finally makes it to the Big Screen (1961-1963)
In early 1960, the film project fell through but Fleming saw potential in the screenplay and not wanting to waste it, he adapted the screenplay into his ninth book Thunderball. Upon finishing it, there was one huge issue: Fleming failed to acknowledge either McClory or Whittingham and the novel gave him sole credit. Before it's March 27, 1961 release, McClory got an advanced copy and after reading it, he & Whittingham sued Fleming for plagiarism and tried to block the novel's release. On March 24, 1961, The High Courts heard McClory & Whittingham's claim but allowed the novel to be released regardless of the lawsuit. Eventually Whittingham pulled out of the lawsuit due to financial difficulties and sold his share to McClory while siding with him as a principal witness. Things got worse for Fleming when during the second court case in April 1961, he suffered a heart attack while having a regular weekly meeting with The Sunday Times. Sadly, Fleming's heart attack was not a surprise as the author had an atrocious lifestyle of heavy drinking, traveling around the world, and was a chain smoker who smoked 70 cigarettes a day at one point. Fleming's health was poor for a long time as he originally attended a health clinic back in 1955 which ironically inspired Bond's trip to one in Thunderball though it didn't help Fleming the same way it helped his creation. Despite the setbacks, things did pick up for Fleming in many ways. First was that his James Bond books saw an big increase in sales during this time with one of the big reasons for this being that From Russia, With Love appeared on a list of then United States President John F. Kennedy's top ten favorite books in Life magazine. In the meantime, Fleming made a deal to sell the movie rights to his past and future Bond novels to a Canadian theater and film producer named Harry Saltzman. Saltzman had wanted to adapt Bond to screen after reading Goldfinger. At that same time, American film producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli made an effort to get the rights only to find Saltzman already obtained them. Broccoli met with Saltzman through a mutual friend in screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz and the two decided to partner up to produce the films. They would form Eon (Everything or Nothing) Productions to produce the films and the holding or parent company Danjaq S.A. (now Danjaq, LLC) which was a portmanteau of their wives names Dana Broccoli & Jacqueline Saltzman.
Afterwards, Broccoli & Saltzman eventually met and struck a deal with United Artists to finance and distribute the films with the two getting a $1 million budget for the first film. The search was then on for who would play James Bond. Reportedly, Broccoli & Saltzman wanted Cary Grant for the role but Grant would only commit to one film and they wanted an actor who could commit to a series. Fleming wanted Academy Award nominee Richard Todd but he couldn't accept due to scheduling conflicts. Fleming then recommended Academy Award winner David Niven but Broccoli shot it down as he considered the 51 year old Niven to be too old. Eventually, they settled on an unknown 31 year old Scottish actor named Sean Connery though Fleming reportedly wasn't high on him at the time. Broccoli & Saltzman would have one issue which was they wanted to make Thunderball into the first James Bond movie but due to the ongoing issues with McClory, they were unable to do it and instead settled on Dr. No to be the first Bond movie. 1962 would be a busy year for Bond as Fleming released his tenth book The Spy Who Loved Me on April 16th while Dr. No would premiere in theaters on October 5th. The Spy Who Loved Me proved to be a disappointment with reviews largely negative and Fleming would also not be happy with the final outcome. In fact, Fleming would even tell Saltzman & Broccoli not to adapt the plot when they would eventually make a movie on The Spy Who Loved Me. However, Dr. No would be a huge hit grossing $59.5 in the box office launching James Bond to the movies at long last. Reviews would also be positive both in 1962 and in retrospect while Connery won over Fleming with his performance.
1963 would be another huge year both good and bad for Bond. On April 1st, Fleming released his eleventh book On Her Majesty's Secret Service which proved successful and was a great bounce back for Fleming as the book has been considered the best Bond novel from him. Not wasting any time, Eon & United Artists immediately began work on the second Bond film with Eon being given a $2 Million budget which would be twice what Dr. No got. Eon chose From Russia With Love as the second film due to it being one of then President John F. Kennedy's favorite books. Kennedy would even get a private White House viewing of it on November 20th, two days before his assassination. The film would premiere on October 10th and proved to be another hit as it grossed $78 million. Unfortunately, as things were looking up for both Fleming & Eon, the lawsuit with McClory would take a big turn. On November 19th, McClory's lawsuit went to the Chancery Division of High Courts. Fleming had never fully recovered from his 1961 heart attack and fearing his health was too fragile for a lengthy trial, Ivar Bryce pleaded with Fleming to settle out of court. Fleming would agree and less than two weeks later, the two sides settled out of court. Fleming agreed to pay McClory 35,000 pounds for damages and 52,000 pounds for court costs. McClory got the screenplay, story treatment, and film rights while Fleming continued to maintain the novel rights. McClory would also get the rights to the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, his white persian cat, SPECTRE, & the storyline involving the theft of atomic bombs. Meanwhile, all future novel releases and film adaptations had to have the credit "Based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, & Ian Fleming" specifically in that order. Regardless of the outcome and perhaps because Fleming settled so soon, controversy still continues to this very day as to who came up with what specifically in regards to SPECTRE and Blofeld. Long time Bond author Raymond Benson has claimed that McClory came up wth SPECTRE while Fleming biographers Andrew Lycett & John Cork have claimed Fleming came up with SPECTRE with Lycett claiming it was Fleming who thought Bond should face SPECTRE instead of the Italian Mafia while Cork has presented a memo to McClory & Whittingham where Fleming called for the change to SPECTRE. Cork has also brought up Fleming's fascinating to the word "Spectre" having named a town near Las Vegas "Spektorville" in Diamonds Are Forever and the Russian Decoder being called Spektor in From Russia, With Love.
The Death of Ian Fleming, Bond Films Take Off, & Thunderball (1964-1965)
1964 proved to be one of triumph and tragedy as well as one of the biggest years in the history of James Bond. Fleming would release his twelfth book You Only Live Twice on March 26th and sold well though it got mixed reviews. The book notably saw Fleming adapting elements from the James Bond movies as he gave Bond the same sense of humor he became known for in the films and he was won over by Connery's performance so much that he added Scottish ancestry to Bond. Unfortunately, You Only Live Twice would be the last Bond book released in Fleming's life as he suffered a second heart attack and passed away on August 12, 1964 at the age of 56. Fleming's death prevented him from seeing his creation finally explode on screen as Eon released their third film Goldfinger on September 17th. The film was a huge success grossing $125 million on a $3 million budget and recouped it's budget in only two weeks. Goldfinger success would result in launching the Bond series to the moon and in a way, help popularize the spy genre which began to enjoy incredible popularity as the James Bond series along with the Harry Palmer film series and television shows such as The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, Mission: Impossible, and I Spy helped make the 60s the golden age of the genre.
Unfortunately, Broccoli & Saltzman couldn't celebrate for too long because around this time, McClory began making it his intention to do his Thunderball film and even talked to legendary actor Richard Burton to play Bond while it was being said Orson Welles would play Blofeld and future Gandhi director Richard Attenborough would direct. The two didn't want to have to deal with a competing Bond and wanted to try to get all the Bond films under their umbrella. Meanwhile, McClory rightfully realized Eon were the Bond movie makers and also realized his best chances at success would be a deal with them. With all that, Eon and McClory eventually struck a deal to partner up and release Thunderball as the fourth James Bond film. The deal also saw McClory become producer while Saltzman & Broccoli would step back as executive producers. McClory would also be unable to make another version for ten years. The move paid off as Thunderball was another success upon it's release on December 21, 1965 grossing $141.2 million dollars off a $9 million budget while continuing to strengthen the James Bond craze. For Broccoli & Saltzman, it also appeared like they dodged a bullet and were done with the problem of McClory. Little did they know, they only delayed the inevitable.
Thunderball aftermath, The Bond Series continues, and Bond role changes (1966-1974)-
By 1966, the Bond series was on fire and everybody wanted a piece of the pie. During this time, many international studios began releasing Bond spoofs with one including an Italian spoof film called O.K. Connery which starred Connery's brother Neil Connery as well as then current and former Bond actors. 1983 wouldn't be the first year in which an Eon film went head to head with a movie based off a Fleming novel. A spoof version of Casino Royale came out in April 1967 featuring an all star cast of David Niven (ironically playing an older Bond years after Fleming recommended him for Dr. No), Orsen Welles, Peter Sellers, Deborah Kerr, original Bond Girl Ursula Andress, & Woody Allen as well as a chaotic production. Eon would then release You Only Live Twice that June and proved to be yet another major hit grossing $111 million but another major problem occurred and another seed of the Battle of the Bonds would be sowed. After five films as James Bond, Connery had enough. He was frustrated over the filming and promoting of Bond films prevented him from doing more movies and he also feared typecasting while getting upset at being recognized on the street as James Bond. Connery also felt he deserved more money off merchandise that was released. Connery reportedly did offer to continue as Bond but only on the condition of being made a partner and co-producer with Saltzman & Broccoli but they refused. Because of all these situations, Connery's relationship with Saltzman & Broccoli, which was good for years, soured badly to the point where he wasn't on speaking terms with them and many Bond fans believe it led to Connery's weakest outing as Bond coming off unmotivated and looked like he rather be anywhere else. By August 1967, Connery's departure was announced and the search was on for the next Bond. Many interesting names were considered including Adam West and future Bonds Roger Moore & Timothy Dalton but they all fell through for one reason or another. Eventually, Saltzman & Broccoli settled on Australian model George Lazenby which was a bold move as Lazenby had very little acting experience having only done commercials for Big Fry chocolates.
Lazenby ended up a one and done Bond only doing 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service which saw a big drop but grossed $87 million easily making it a hit. Ultimately, Lazenby left Bond before the film premiered and turned down a 7 picture deal at the request of his agent who told him Bond would flame out by the 1970s. With Lazenby gone, Eon signed American actor John Gavin but United Artists head David Picker was not happy and insisted that Connery be brought back at any cost. Picker would basically give Saltzman & Broccoli a blank check to get Connery back in the fold. Ultimately, Connery would agree to return but he wouldn't come cheap ultimately getting $1.25 million ($10 million dollars in 2017) which was the biggest paycheck for an actor at the time while also receiving 12.5% of the gross and United Artists agreeing to back two projects of his choice. Connery's sixth film Diamonds Are Forever brought Bond back to the $100 million mark grossing $116 million following it's December 14, 1971 release. Like Lazenby, Connery's return proved one and done as he appeared to finally be done playing the character even turning down an astronomical salary of $5.5 million for Live and Let Die and seemingly closed the door on James Bond when he would even go as far as to vow never to play Bond ever again.
With Connery gone again, the search was on to find the next James Bond. Eventually, the producers settled on Roger Moore. Moore was best known as a television star in England having originally starred in Ivanhoe from 1958-1959 and then gained even more fame as Simon Templar on The Saint from 1962-1969 which became his second most famous role. At the time of casting, Moore was coming off the TV show The Persuaders! where he was the highest paid television actor in the world receiving 1 million pounds for a single series (season). Moore was also no stranger to Eon as he was rumored to have been considered to be the original Bond back in Dr. No though Moore has claimed he was never offered the role. He was also in the running in 1968 after Connery first left and when plans for the sixth Bond film was to be The Man With The Golden Gun but plans fell through as Broccoli & Saltzman wanted to film in Cambodia which was impossible at the time due to unrest in Southeast Asia at the time and Moore signed on for one more series (or season) of The Saint. Moore's first outing was Live and Let Die which was released on June 27, 1973 and proved to be a massive hit grossing $161.8 million on only a $7 million budget making it by far the most successful Bond film at the time. It appeared as though Bond would be fine in the 70s and without Connery but the series hit a huge snag with Moore's second movie The Man With The Golden Gun which was released on December 19, 1974. Though the film was profitable, it only grossed $97.6 million on a $7 million budget which saw a $63 million drop and it became the fourth lowest grossing Bond film. With all that plus mixed reviews, this was arguably the first time when many began wondering about the future of Bond.
The Return of McClory & The Events Leading to the Battle of the Bonds (1975-1982)
In 1975, things were looking bad for the James Bond film series. The Man With The Golden Gun was disappointing at the box office, many considered it the lowest point of the canon at that point, and things were also falling apart behind the scenes. Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman had many issues and problems during this time mostly financial due to getting a $40,000,000 loan from the United Bank of Switzerland which he defaulted on at one point and also had a failed run controlling Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation. Even worse, Saltzman's wife Jacqueline was diagnosed with terminal cancer. With all that, Saltzman eventually sold his 50% share in Danjaq to United Artist for 20 million pounds and left while making Broccoli in charge of everything James Bond.
With Saltzman out, work began on the next Bond film but more problems came about. First was Broccoli chose The Spy Who Loved Me as the next film. While most of the Bond films didn't completely adapt from the novels they're based off of, Spy had to be completely rewritten since Fleming wasn't happy with the finish book and previously asked not to adapt the story to film. They also encountered director problems as Broccoli hoped for Guy Hamilton to return for a fifth outing but he backed out hoping to direct the first Superman (which went to Richard Donner) before eventually hiring You Only Live Twice director Lewis Gilbert. As all this was happening, another problem came about. By 1976, McClory's agreement he signed back in Thunderball that prevented him from remaking the film for ten years expired and he would waste no time. McClory would bring in writer Len Deighton and, much to Eon's chagrin, Sean Connery to work on the script while using the working title Warhead. Deighton was a writer and created the Harry Palmer series which eventually became movies with most of them starring Connery's close friend and fellow legendary actor Michael Caine. To no surprise, Connery later admitted he never thought he would eventually return to the Bond role while working on the script. Shortly after this, Eon filed legal action claiming McClory was going beyond copyright restrictions which confined McClory to only being able to make a film version of the Thunderball novel and McClory's plans hit a roadblock. As this was going on, McClory would also affect The Spy Who Loved Me as original plans had Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE return but McClory filed an injunction due to owning Blofeld and SPECTRE which forced Eon to create a new villain in Karl Stromberg while production was further delayed.
Eventually, Eon came back in a big way with Moore's third film The Spy Who Loved Me on July 7, 1977 which proved to be a huge critical and commercial hit grossing a then record $185.4 million while establishing Roger Moore in the role of James Bond for a new generation. Despite Moore only signing on for three films, he returned for 1979's Moonraker and 1981's For Your Eyes Only with each being huge hits as Moonraker would be the first Bond to crack the $200 million mark and become the highest grossing Bond film of all time until 1995's Goldeneye. For Your Eyes Only also saw the feud between Eon & McClory make it's way to screen when the beginning of the film featured familiar bald villain with a white cat in a wheelchair who takes control of Bond's helicopter only for Bond to regain control, scoop him up, and dump him into an industrial chimney stack. While the character was never named and uncredited, it was clearly supposed to be Blofeld and it was largely created mostly as a way to tell McClory they didn't need the Blofeld character and could still make great films without him. For Your Eyes Only also appeared to be Moore's final outing as Bond. Moore turned 54 in 1981 and nearly didn't return for it. Moore was also starting to worry about staying in the series as he didn't want to come off too old.
As all this was going on, McClory's project continued now with the working title James Bond of the Secret Service. McClory brought in businessman and producer Jack Schwartzman to produce the film while licensing his Thunderball rights to him. Schwartzman was a businessman and producer who was married to Godfather & Rocky actress Talia Shire which made him the brother-in-law to legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. Schwartzman previously served as an entertainment lawyer with one of his clients being Academy Award winning director and editor Hal Ashby while having been an executive for Lorimar Films and was an executive producer for the 1979 movie Being There which was one of Peter Sellers' last movies. Schwartzman was able to get through many of the legal hurdles which helped the movie go forward. He would then bring in screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. who gained fame writing for the 1960s Batman show and movies such as The Parallax View & Three Days of the Condor to help with the screenplay. Connery was not happy with the screenplay and asked Tom Mankiewicz to do re-writes. Mankiewicz has a long history with Bond having written Diamonds Are Forever, Live & Let Die, & The Man With The Golden Gun while having done uncredited writing on The Spy Who Loved Me & Moonraker. Because of this, Mankiewicz turned down Connery's request due to loyalty to Eon Productions and Broccoli. Connery then brought in British writing team of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais who were best known for their Britcoms and later collaboration with Tracey Ullman while also later doing uncredited rewrites for Connery's 1996 film The Rock. However, they weren't credited due to the Writer's Guild of America. Throughout the process, the script went through the legal team after all revisions had happen to prevent any legal problems with Eon. Meanwhile, the legal issues continued during this period with not only Eon Productions but Ian Fleming Trustees but by 1982, McClory & Schwartzman won out and the film was allowed to be made.
Going into 1982, Eon began making plans for their thirteenth Bond film Octopussy which they intended for a 1983 release and much to their chagrin, McClory & Schwartzman's film would also begin filming while also coming out in 1983. Going into it, both films had one thing in common and that was who would play James Bond in their respective films. Originally, Eon signed Roger Moore for three films in 1972 and after fulfilling it with The Spy Who Loved Me, they did one film deals and that along with Moore hinting he was done, Eon had to fill the vacancy. Future James Bond Timothy Dalton was on the short list as he had been since the late 60s while British actor Michael Billington & James Brolin both screen tested with Billington being a favorite of Eon as he screen tested more for Bond than anyone in history. As for McClory & Schwartzman, they considered former Bond George Lazenby and it's pretty obvious why. Both wanted a former Bond in the role but their options were short given there were only three at the time while Connery had said he'd never play the character again while Moore was close with Broccoli & Eon so it looked like Lazenby would be the most likely to accept the part. However, this all changed when Connery expressed interest in returning. While it seemed unheard of for Connery to return, when you dig deeper you can likely see why he would come back. After leaving James Bond ten years ago, Connery's career wasn't going the way he had planned and had only enjoyed mixed success. If you remember, when Connery returned for Diamonds Are Forever, United Artists agreed to back two of his projects. Unfortunately, Connery stumbled right out of the gate as the deal was a failure with his 1972 film The Offense being both a critical and commercial failure & that along with Connery hoping to do a movie on MacBeth while Roman Polansky was doing one resulted in United Artists backing out of the deal. Connery then did 1974's Zardoz only because he was struggling to find work and a good example was his paycheck as he only got $200,000 which was a far cry from the $1.25 million salary for Diamonds Are Forever just three years earlier. After this, Connery had several successes from 1974-1979 including Murder on the Orient Express, The Wind & The Lion, The Man Who Would Be King, Robin & Marion, A Bridge Too Far, and The First Great Train Robbery. Unfortunately, even they had issues as a lot of them were ensemble films rather than just him as the star and even the most successful weren't drawing anywhere near what he was drawing with his James Bond films as A Bridge Too Far was his most successful but that only grossed $50 million while his last four James Bond films each grossed $100 million. By 1979, Connery's career declined badly as he appeared in a number of failures or disappointments including 1979's Meteor, 1979's Cuba, 1981's Outland (which barely made it's budget), 1982's Five Days One Summer, and 1982's Wrong Is Right. During this time, Connery's only success was 1981's Time Bandits though he did get a Saturn Award for Best Actor nomination for Outland. Safe to say by the summer of 1982, Connery was in desperate need of a hit to keep his career going and he rightfully knew that returning to the role he made world famous would guarantee a hit regardless of the film being an "unofficial" James Bond film. Schwartzman approached Connery to return and a deal was struck which saw Connery return while he would receive $3 million ($7 million in 2017 dollars), a cut of the profits, and casting & script approval. To no surprise, the announcement of Connery's return was huge for the movie and got it lots of publicity. Upon the announcement, Eon cancelled auditions for the Bond role and contacted Moore about returning as Broccoli rightfully felt he needed an established Bond actor to combat Connery's return and Moore accepted. The last legal hurdle came with the title as Eon successfully convinced a judge that "James Bond of the Secret Service" sounded too similar to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Eventually, Connery's wife Micheline suggested "Never Say Never Again" due to Connery previously vowing he would never play Bond again. With Connery & Moore now back, both films got a lot of attention and it was here when the media coined this situation as "The Battle of the Bonds". It was also interesting to see which film would win out in the end. On the one hand, Eon were the Bond movie makers while Moore was very popular as Bond and was considered Bond for that generation. On the other hand, Never Say Never Again saw the return of the original James Bond himself, Sean Connery for the first time in twelve years. Heading into 1983, there were even plans to release both films simultaneously but this never happened as Octopussy came out in June while Never Says Never Again came out in October. Never Say Never Again was challenged one last time by Fleming's Trustees in the Spring of 1983 but it was thrown out.
The Battle of the Bonds (1983)
 |
| Octopussy Poster |
Octopussy (1983)
Eon & Roger Moore's film was Octopussy. The film began with 009 dressed as a clown escaping a circus while carrying a fake Faberge Egg but suffers fatal injuries courtesy of twin knife throwing performers Mischka & Grischka while eventually dying at the British Ambassador's home. Bond is sent to investigate which sends him to an auction where a real Faberge Egg is being auctioned and where he meets an exiled Afghan prince named Kamal Khan. Bond goes to India to investigate where he finds out Khan is working with a renegade Soviet general named General Orlov who wants to increase The Soviet Union's control on Western Europe. After escaping Khan's palace, Bond goes to an island which is run by Khan's associate Octopussy who is a businesswoman, smuggler, and runs a circus. While there, Bond finds out she is the daughter of a man he was assigned to arrest for treason but allowed to commit suicide instead of going to trial which she is thankful for. After going to East Germany, Bond finds out about Orlov's scheme which is planting a bomb in Octopussy's circus train instead of Soviet treasures he was stealing from the Kremlin and giving to Khan. The bomb would go off while Octopussy's circus was performing at a United States Air Force base in West Germany, killing everyone but making it look like it was one of the bombs on the base being triggered accidentally which would lead to Europe demanding disarmament which would then allow The Soviet Union to invade Western Europe without fear of retaliation. Bond then races against the clock to disarm the bomb during which time Orlov is killed after being mistaken for defector while he tries to stop Bond. Bond is then able to convince Octopussy she was being set up by Khan which results in her helping Bond to disarm the bomb in time. Octopussy then heads to Khan's palace with her troops with the hope of killing him but is captured by Khan and his henchmen Gobinda. Bond then heads out and tries to stop Khan's escape via airplane. Bond disables one of the wings, fights Gobinda while the plane is in flight and knocks him off. Bond then rescues Octopussy and the two escape after the plane reaches the ground while Khan is killed after the plane crashes after falling off a cliff.
Maud Adams played the title character and Bond girl for the film who is a businesswoman, smuggler, and circus owner who worked as a smuggler for Kamal Khan. Octopussy was the second Bond film for Adams who played Francisico Scaramanga's mistress Andrea Anders nine years earlier in The Man With The Golden Gun. French actor Louis Jourdan played Kamal Khan, an exiled Afghan prince who works with General Orlov and who supplies Octopussy's services with the two planting a bomb which is set to detonate as a US Air Force base. Steven Berkoff played General Orlov, a renegade Soviet general who advocates invading the West and when turned down, plots with Khan to detonate a bomb on a US Air Force base in a way to make it look accidental which would result in disarmament and allow The Soviet Union to invade. Indian actor Kabir Bedi played Gobinda, Khan's bodyguard while twins David & Anthony Meyer played knife throwing henchmen Mischka & Grischka. Former tennis player turned actor Vijay Amritraj played Vijay, Bond's contact in India. Walter Gotell reprised his role as General Gogol for the fourth film in a role who is against Orlov's invasion proposal in fear of nuclear war. Robert Brown made his debut as M replacing original M Bernard Lee who passed away in January 1981 during work on For Your Eyes Only and the character was not recast in that film out of respect for Lee. Brown previously appeared as Admiral Hargreaves in The Spy Who Loved Me. Lois Maxwell returned for a thirteenth time as Miss Moneypenny while Desmond Llewelyn returned for an eleventh time as Q.
The film featured many usual names in the James Bond universe return behind the scenes. Albert R. Broccoli served as producer. Longtime Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum returned for the tenth time as screenwriter while current co-producer and Broccoli's stepson Michael G. Wilson co-wrote the screenplay for the second time in a row while serving as executive producer for the third time in a row. John Glen returned for the second time in a row as director. Maurice Binder returned for the eleventh time as the title designer. John Barry returned for the ninth time as composer after sitting out of For Your Eyes Only (tenth Bond film if you count him arranging the James Bond theme for 1962's Dr. No). The song was "All Time High" which was sung by Rita Coolidge while Barry wrote the music and legendary lyricist Tim Rice wrote the lyrics. Rice is best known for his work with Andrew Lloyd Webber writing lyrics for Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar as well as with Disney for Aladdin and The Lion King. The song is the second time a Bond movie's main theme didn't have the same title as the movie it appeared in with the first being The Spy Who Loved Me with the theme in that movie being "Nobody Does It Better" though Octopussy was the first film where the title doesn't appear anywhere in the song. This is the last time this would happen until 2006's Casino Royale as the main theme for that film was "You Know My Name".
Octopussy was the first Eon Bond film released by current distributor MGM who purchased United Artists in 1981 shortly after the release of For Your Eyes Only and both studios would distribute Bond films to this day.
Octopussy was released on June 6, 1983 and was another big success grossing $187.5 million but did receive mixed reviews as some appreciated the movie but the constant criticism was geared at the villains and being too comedic with Bond dressed as a clown, in a gorilla suit, and doing the Tarzan yell while swinging on vines. Moore's appearance was also somewhat a problem as he was 55 going on 56 and was beginning to show his age. However, Maud Adams' performance earned Saturn Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress while critics did like the filming locations in India as well as the stunts. Octopussy was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
 |
| Never Say Never Again Poster |
Never Say Never Again (1983)
Connery's return to 007 was Never Say Never Again. The film sees Connery as an older James Bond who along with 00 section are now deactivated by the current M and is sent to a health clinic to get in better shape. As this is happening, SPECTRE plots the theft of two atomic bombs and the plot is headed by top SPECTRE agent Maximillion Largo. Largo's mistress Domino Petachi is the sister of an Air Force pilot Jack Petachi who becomes a SPECTRE agent after SPECTRE addicts him to heroin. They then have Petachi get surgery on his right eye to match that of the President of the United States which would allow Petachi to get past the iris recognition security so he could have dummy warheads replaced with real nuclear ones which SPECTRE successfully steal and then have agent Fatima Blush murder him to cover their tracks. Blofeld them announces the theft and holds the world at ransom, giving the world leaders seven days to agree on giving SPECTRE 25% of their annual oil purchases or they will use the bombs on two cities. With that, M reinstates the 00 section including Bond. Bond heads to the Bahamas where he first encounters Largo and Domino & eventually follows them to Nice, France where he meets them as well as his CIA contact and friend Felix Leiter. During a party, Bond beats Largo in a game and reveals to Domino that Largo had her brother killed. Bond gets captured while looking for the bombs on Largo's yacht The Flying Saucer and is held in North Africa while Largo tries to sell Domino to arabs but they eventually escape though not before Largo tells Bond one of the bombs is in Washington DC. Bond and Domino get to an American submarine and find out Largo is hiding below a desert oasis in the Ethiopian Coast. Bond and Leiter infiltrate the hide out with Bond chasing after Largo who escapes with the bomb. The two fight with Largo getting trapped allowing Bond a chance to deactivate the bomb. As he attempts to, Largo grabs a harpoon gun but Domino shoot him with her own before he can fire at Bond which allows Bond to deactivate the bomb and Domino avenges her brother's death.
Klaus Maria Brandauer played Maxmillion Largo, the main villain of the film who is behind the scheme to hold the world hostage on behalf of SPECTRE. Barbara Carrera played Fatima Blush was Largo's top henchwoman who is first assigned to watch over Jack Petachi and kill him after SPECTRE get the bombs & then eventually is sent to hunt Bond. Kim Basinger played Domino Petachi, Largo's mistress and the Bond girl of the film who eventually joins Bond after finding out Largo had her brother murdered. Max Von Sydow played Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. Original Chuck Cunningham Gavin O'Herlihy played Captain Jack Petachi, Domino's brother who works for SPECTRE after being introduced to heroin and who helps SPECTRE steal the bombs. Former football player turned actor Bernie Casey played Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA contact and good friend. Edward Fox played M, Alec McGowen played Q (who also had the nickname "Algernon" or Algy"), and Pamela Salem (who appeared in Connery's The First Great Train Robbery) played Miss Moneypenny. Future Mr. Bean Rowan Atkinson played Nigel Small-Fawcett who was the foreign representative in the Bahamas.
McClory and Schwartzman served as co-presenters while Schwartzman served as producer. Lorenzo Semple Jr. wrote the screenplay while Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais did uncredited rewrites. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back & future Robocop 2 director Irvin Kershner directed. Academy Award winning composer Michel Legrand composed the music while also writing the music to the theme while songwriting couple Alan & Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyrics. The theme song was sung by American singer Lani Hall. The film was distributed by Warner Bros.
Never Say Never Again was interesting in many ways. One being that it was a remake of Thunderball which meant a similar story but there were changes made compared to the 1965 film. Largo's first name was changed from "Emilio" to "Maxmillion". The top henchwoman was changed from "Fiona Volpe" to "Fatima Blush". Domino's last name was changed from "Derval" to "Petachi" while her brother's name was changed from "Francois" to "Jack". Blofeld's face wasn't seen in Thunderball but was seen in Never Say Never Again. Domino's brother went from being murdered by an imposter who helped SPECTRE hijack the bombs in Thunderball to getting retinal surgery so his eye matched the President of the United States' eye which would allow him to pass the iris recognition security to get the bombs. Largo's yacht went from "The Disco Volante" in Thunderball to "The Flying Saucer" in Never Say Never Again (Disco Volante is Italian for Flying Saucer).
Unlike other Bonds, Bond is portrayed as older and more towards the end of his career which is to accommodate Connery who was 52 during filming and 53 by the time the film was released in October 1983. Bond's older age is brought up several times including Bond mentioning the current M has had little use for the 00s and hadn't been active, someone telling Bond they don't make cars like his anymore, and Q Branch having a limited budget. Bernie Casey was the first black actor to play Felix Leiter who Connery suggested since the Felix Leiter character isn't very memorable and by hiring a black actor may make him more memorable. Casey would be the only black actor to play Felix Leiter until Jeffery Wright played Leiter in 2006's Casino Royale & 2008's Quantum of Solace. Due to his deal, Connery had say in the casting and recommended Klaus Maria Brandauer & Max Von Sydow while Kirchner casted Barbara Carrera and Connery's wife Micheline recommended Kim Basinger to her husband. Because Never Say Never Again was not from Eon, it doesn't have the traditional gunbarrel opening or the James Bond theme as both were trademarked by Eon Productions. The opening instead featured a screen of "007" logos getting closer to the screen until disappearing. There was also no opening credits but the credits appearing on screening during Bond's training mission. The Flying Saucer was actually the Kingdom 5KR, a yacht that was then owned by Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and called "Nabila". It would later be owned by Donald Trump who named it "the Trump Princess". The Yacht also inspired the Queen song "Khashoggi's Ship" for their 1989 album "The Miracle".
The film had a tough production while going through a number of problems. Connery was forced to take on many of the production duties along with assistant director David Tomblin while Kirchner was not high on Schwartzman saying he was a good businessman but didn't have the experience to be a producer. Schwartzman was also forced to fund the film after production ran out of money and would later admit he underestimated how much it would cost. Connery & Schwartzman also had a falling out and wouldn't speak to each other much with Connery getting frustrated during production and called it a "bloody Mickey Mouse operation". Speaking of Connery, his wrist was broken while training with the fight choreographer of the film who was a then unknown Steven Seagal. Interestingly enough, Connery later said while on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that he didn't even know his wrist was broken until more than a decade later. Originally, McClory & Schwartzman wanted Peter R. Hunt to direct. Hunt previously directed the 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service, was a secondary director in You Only Live Twice, and edited the first four Bond films. Despite not having worked for Eon since 1969, Hunt turned it down out of loyalty. John Barry was also approached to compose but he also turned it down out of loyalty for Eon and instead would compose Octopussy after having sat out on For Your Eyes Only. With Barry out, Schwartzman & Kirchner wanted Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan & 48 hrs. composer James Horner to compose but Connery shot it down and Michel Legrand was hired. Bonnie Tyler was asked to sing the theme but she turned it down as she didn't like the song and Lani Hall was then brought in.
Never Say Never Again was released on October 7, 1983 and was also a big success grossing $160 million. Reviews were also very positive with many praising the action and dialogue along with Connery & Brandauer's performances. The biggest criticism from the film was Legrand's score. Barbara Carrera was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Like Octopussy, Never Say Never Again was also nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
Outcome
In the end, both were very successful but Eon proved they were the Bond movie makers as Octopussy won out grossing $187.5 million to Never Say Never Again which grossed $160 million. This was actually considered an upset as many thought Never Say Never Again would draw more due to Connery's involvement. However, Never Say Never Again did get some victories as it got better reviews from critics and had a better opening weekend as it grossed $9.72 million ($24 million in 2017) while Octopussy grossed $8.9 million ($22 million in 2017). Never Say Never Again also had the largest opening weekend for a Bond film at that time.
Aftermath (1984-2018)
In February 1984, McClory announced a sequel to Never Say Never Again called S.P.E.C.T.R.E. but nothing came of it and he disappeared once again. Eon continued releasing Bond films throughout the 80s with Moore doing a final film in 1985's A View To A Kill. After Moore retired, Eon hired Timothy Dalton after a long search with Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, & Sam Neill on the short list. Dalton only ended up doing two films in 1987's The Living Daylights & 1989's Licence To Kill with both being successful but Licence To Kill saw a big drop and was a disappointment in America due to poor promotion largely due to a last minute name change from Licence Revoked and heavy competition during the summer. Because of Licence to Kill's performance, people again began to question the future of the series with even Dalton going on record saying he thought Licence To Kill would be the last one and Broccoli even began to question his leadership while considering putting Eon up for sale. As if that wasn't bad enough, McClory would emerge again in 1989 claiming he was going to do another Thunderball film called "Atomic Warfare" and was reportedly in talks with Pierce Brosnan to play Bond but the project fizzled out.
By the early 90s, the Bond series went dormant after Eon sued MGM/UA due to them leasing the Bond library at a lower than market value without consulting Eon which also cancelled a third Dalton film set for a 1991 release. By 1993, the lawsuit ended and work began to resume the series but was delayed further due to the decision to write a new script which took longer than expected and eventually needed polishing during which time Dalton quit the role and Pierce Brosnan was hired. The series returned with Goldeneye in 1995 which proved to be a massive hit grossing $350 million. During work on Goldeneye, Eon also went a changing of the guard as Broccoli handed it over to daughter Barbara & stepson Michael G. Wilson before passing away on June 27, 1996 at 87. Shortly after this, McClory came back again and announced another Thunderball remake called Warhead 2000 A.D. while the film would be made by Sony. McClory would also say Connery would play a villain and either Dalton or Liam Neeson would play Bond. MGM and Eon would take Sony to court to prevent the film from being made. By 1999, Sony & McClory would file a counter-suit claiming McClory was the co-author of the cinematic James Bond and thus deserved royalties of every Bond film. To no surprise, Sony and McClory's suit was quickly thrown out since McClory took so long to make the claim. Eventually, MGM and Sony settled out of court with Sony agreeing to pay MGM for damages and not go ahead with the film while MGM would pay $10 million for the film rights to Casino Royale and the rights to the 1967 film. This would be the last of Kevin McClory. As all this was going on, Brosnan would do three more films in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, 1999's The World Is Not Enough, and 2002's Die Another Day before stepping down in 2004. Daniel Craig was then cast in 2005 and has done four films in 2006's Casino Royale, 2008's Quantum of Solace, 2012's Skyfall, & 2015's Spectre with a fifth film set for 2019.
On November 20, 2006, Kevin McClory passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 82. His death occurred only four days after the British release of Casino Royale. Despite McClory's death, our story wouldn't end there. On November 15, 2013, nearly 50 years to the day when Ian Fleming & Kevin McClory's legal battle went to the High Courts, Eon's parent company Danjaq, LLC & MGM announced they purchased all of McClory's rights and interest from his estate (which allowed the return of Spectre & Blofeld in 2015's Spectre). Following this, MGM, Danjaq, & the Kevin McClory estate issued a joint statement that they had brought to an "amicable conclusion the legal and business disputes that have arisen periodically for over 50 years". With the purchase and the statement, the book was finally closed on the Kevin McClory saga once and for all.
No comments:
Post a Comment