The James Bond Films 1963-1989: Interviews with the Actors, Writers and Producers by Lee Goldberg

Author:Lee Goldberg [Goldberg, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cutting Edge
Published: 2022-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983) LORENZO SEMPLE JR. INTERVIEW

* * *

“The name is Bond. James Bond.”

When Sean Connery says his first line in Never Say Never Again, he’ll be doing more than garnering thunderous applause. He’ll be declaring war.

Connery can be seen as a sheep who strayed only to return as the wolf preying on the flock. After playing Bond in six Albert R. Broccoli produced adventures, Connery is returning this summer to do box office battle with Broccoli’s 13th Bond film, Octopussy. starring Roger Moore as Bond. Both films open this summer.

Industry insiders predict that that Never Say Never Again will do better business in the U.S. than Octopussy, which is expected to capture the lion’s share of the 007 audience abroad. The biggest winners will be the Bond fans themselves, who will be getting a double dose of 007.

Moore is playing Bond for the sixth time in Octopussy, which begins as a plot to steal the priceless Faberge Egg and soon develops into a monstrous scheme of world-endangering proportions. Once again Bond is sur-rounded by the usual bevy of women, headed by Maud Adams in the title role, and is outfitted with such dandy gadgets as an acid squirting pen.

John Glen directs from a script written by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson, which is based on a treatment by George MacDonald Fraser from the Ian Fleming short story, “Property of a Lady” (included in the book Octopussy). Robert Brown replaced Bernard Lee as “M,” while Louis Jourdan steps in as the villain Kamal Khan.

Maibaum, who like other Octopussy personnel, is bound to secrecy as far as the plot is concerned, said the film follows in the footsteps of For Your Eyes Only and will downplay gadjetry and camp in favor of “incredible action sequences.”

Never Say Never Again, meanwhile, is basically a remake of Thunderball, the highest grossing of the Connery Bond films, and stars Edward Fox as “M,” Bernie Casey as 007’s CIA friend Felix Leiter, Barbara Carrera as the seductive Fatima Blush, Kim Bassinger as Domino, and Klaus Maria Brandauer as Blofeld’s stooge Largo. Blofeld hasn’t been cast yet and Q and Miss Moneypenny are not part of the film.

Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) is the director. Stephen Grimes, who worked with Peter Yakes on Krull, is the production designer and Les Dilly, who won Oscars for his work on Raiders of the Lost Arc and Star Wars is the supervising art director.

“The fact that Connery is doing this film is the sole reason it’s getting made,” said Lorenzo Semple Jr., who wrote the screenplay. “Connery has an unusual amount of control because it depends on him. He is very much in charge of this production.”

The production is the end result of a decade-long legal battle between Broccoli and Kevin McClory, who produced Thunderball for Broccoli from a treatment he wrote with Bond creator Ian Fleming and writer Jack Whittingham.

McClory sold the licensing rights for ten years to Fleming, who turned the material into a book and sold it to Broccoli and United Artists.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.