James Bond is one of the all-time great movie characters: he's suave, he's tough,
and he's got a fashion sense to die for. But what's the real story behind the scenes
of Britain's most iconic film franchise? This is the untold truth of James Bond.
Before there were the James Bond movies, there were the James Bond novels.
Written by Ian Fleming, the 14 Bond books were a kind of fantasy version of Fleming's
real-life experiences as a member of British Naval Intelligence. The author was a total unknown when
Casino Royale was set to be published, but he was determined to make his book a hit, and routinely
sent out signed copies of his book to as many newspaper and magazine editors as he could.
Despite his efforts, however, the book still wasn't selling well — especially in America.
But everything changed when Fleming came across the perfect opportunity to get his name out there.
After the Suez Crisis, the British Prime Minister Anthony Eden's health had begun to deteriorate,
and he soon found himself in need of a place to relax. Always one to take an opportunity,
Fleming eagerly offered the politician access to Goldeneye, his secluded home in Jamaica.
The author was thrilled by the visit, hoping Eden's stay at Goldeneye would boost the sales
of his book. And believe it or not, the crazy publicity stunt actually worked,
thrusting Fleming into the public eye and making his stories famous around the world.
Growing up in New York, Albert "Cubby" Broccoli worked on his uncle's farm, which primarily grew
the family's signature vegetable, broccoli. But young Cubby didn't want to spend his
entire life working in the dirt, so he took his chances and moved to Hollywood in the 1930s.
After slowly working his way up the industry, Broccoli ended up co-producing the first feature
film adaptation of Ian Fleming's James Bond spy novels. During his search for the titular hero,
Broccoli heard an actor named Sean Connery might be a good choice for the role,
so he went to see the Scotsman in Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
Broccoli was impressed with Connery's work on the movie, but wondered if the
actor had the raw sex appeal needed for Bond — so he showed his his wife the film, too.
She, of course, made it clear that Connery was more than capable in this department.
Though the movie's studio, United Artists, threw around a number of names for the role,
Broccoli fought for Connery and won — and so began one of the longest running film series in history.
"I admire your luck, Mr…" "Bond. James Bond."
Though Sean Connery is typically known as the first proper Bond, two other actors actually
played the role before him. In 1954, CBS paid Fleming $1,000 for the rights to
Casino Royale and turned the novel into a one-hour TV special for the series Climax!
For the first glimpse of Bond in the flesh, they cast Barry Nelson,
an actor who has starred in a ton of TV shows in his time. But you'll probably recognize him best
as Stuart Ullman, the guy who hires Jack Nicholson to take care of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.
After the TV version, a South African radio station produced an adaptation of Moonraker,
featuring the vocal talents of Bob Holness. If you're American, that name might not mean much,
but if you're from the UK, you'd know him as the host of various game shows,
particularly of the long running, Trivial Pursuit-like show Blockbusters. Luckily,
the idea of game show hosts playing James Bond doesn't seem to have become a tradition.
So, there's been an Irish Bond. There's been a Scottish Bond. There was even an Australian Bond,
albeit briefly. But to this day, an American has never donned the tuxedo for a feature film…
although one came incredibly close. After filming For Your Eyes Only,
Roger Moore was ready to turn in his license to kill,
and James Brolin was one of the top choices to replace the British star for Octopussy.
Despite his American accent, Brolin perfected his British-isms so well that he was even tentatively
offered the role for a short amount of time. Unfortunately for Brolin, Roger Moore decided
to come back to the franchise after all, killing any dreams of an American Bond. Maybe one day.
Having opened in 1935, Pinewood Studios has been with Bond since the very beginning.
But during their 60 years of filming there, the franchise's cast and crew have endured
their fair share of disasters. In 1984, the stage on which most of the Bond films were shot
tragically burned to the ground. It took a full year to rebuild, and it was eventually
renamed as the "Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage," in honor of the legendary producer.
Unfortunately, the 007 Stage burned down again in 2006. At the time, the 007 Stage was actually
being used for a Bond movie, and the blaze ended up destroying the fake Venice used in
Casino Royale. Luckily, the filmmakers had just finished shooting, no one was hurt, and there
weren't any dangerous pyrotechnics or flammable objects around to make things worse. Even so,
it took around 90 minutes to get the fire under control. By 2007, the 007 Stage was open again,
newly enlarged, and now it's one of the biggest sound stages in Europe.
James Bond has always pulled out the stops when it comes to theme songs.
Among the legendary artists who have written for the franchise are Shirley Bassey,
Paul McCartney, Madonna, Gladys Knight, Carly Simon, Tom Jones, and… Ace of Base?
Yes, indeed, the 90s Swedish pop group Ace of Base was actually hired to write a Bond theme — for
Pierce Brosnan's Bond debut, GoldenEye. Sadly, the head honchos at Arista Records, the label
that represented the band, thought GoldenEye was going to be a flop, and they didn't want their
primo band associated with failure. So Arista pulled Ace of Base from the project, and the
James Bond folks went with Tina Turner instead. However, the Swedish band did rename their track
"The Juvenile," and if you're interested, you can still hear the 007 song that could've been.
A number of other famous artists have written Bond themes over the years, too, only to fall at the
final hurdle. Blondie were locked-in to pen the title track to For Your Eyes Only for a while,
Johnny Cash wrote his own version of Thunderball, and Pulp almost did the theme for Tomorrow Never
Dies. Even Radiohead almost got in on the Bond action, writing a title track for Spectre that,
sadly, was rejected by producers — because it was, in their opinion, too dark for the movie.
After Sean Connery left the franchise, the producers were adamant that they should find
the perfect replacement for him. But nobody could have guessed it would be
George Lazenby , the Australian car mechanic who fell into male modeling. According to Lazenby,
he had never acted in his life, but when he got the info about auditions during a threesome,
the man decided he would work as hard as he could to win the producers over.
Over the next four months, they made him jump through a number of hoops,
including a screen test with a wrestler who Lazenby accidentally knocked out.
Then, in a genuinely shocking move, the producers sent him a sex worker to make sure he wasn't gay.
"This never happened to the other fella."
Given that he allegedly ended up sleeping with almost every girl on set, however,
it seems like Lazenby passed that particularly disturbing test.
In fact, Lazenby actually did well with his first Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service,
and was even offered a $1 million contract to star in six more movies… but his agent at the
time told him to turn it down. According to his agent, the Bond age was over,
and people were more into gritty films, like Easy Rider. So Lazenby left Bond behind — and
was eternally blackballed for being a nobody that turned down the biggest franchise around.
Roger Moore was a man of many talents. Not only did he play 007,
but he has also written about the iconic spy, too. In his book, Bond on Bond,
Moore gives ample insight into the world of Ian Fleming's character. And while Moore provides
all sorts of interesting behind-the-scenes details, he drops one informational nugget
that's particularly surprising. Though the franchise has flourished for years,
Moore says that, during his time playing Bond, he got by largely without the help of a script.
Back in Moore's day, before shooting began, the basic plot was laid out and the action set
pieces were in place — but all that snappy dialogue was constantly changing,
from the first read to the final shooting dates.
Often, while on set with director Lewis Gilbert, Moore would have his lines memorized and ready
to go — when Gilbert would suddenly decide they could do better, and basically flush the script
down the toilet. And while Moore admits that this was probably frustrating for the screenwriters,
he also suggests that the paychecks were big enough to make up for it.
Timothy Dalton was one of the top choices to replace Sean Connery in 1969,
but Dalton himself felt he was too young for the role. Luckily,
the producers didn't forget his name, and by the time Roger Moore decided to leave the series,
they had swung back around to Dalton. Since it'd been almost 20 years since
the first request, Dalton finally felt he was old enough to take on the role.
The Welsh actor played a much less comedic version of 007 in The Living Daylights and
Licence to Kill, and he was all set to do a third — but a legal dispute put the film on
hold and released Dalton from his contractual obligations. When the studio was ready to start
up the franchise again, Dalton had decided he only wanted to return one last time — but,
after such a long wait between movies, the producers wanted a Bond who would
stick around for a while. So Dalton passed the torch to the next fella.
While Pierce Brosnan first donned the James Bond suit for GoldenEye, he was actually meant to
show up a little bit earlier. The Irish actor was first offered the role for The Living Daylights,
but he couldn't get out of his TV contract for Remington Steele. Fortunately, the producers came
back around to Brosnan when he was conflict-free. But while he brought a new energy to the
franchise, Brosnan never felt happy with his performance as Bond. As the man himself put it:
"I felt I was caught in a time warp between Roger [Moore] and Sean [Connery]. [...] The
violence was never real, the brute force of the man was never palpable.
It was quite tame, and the characterization didn't have a follow-through of reality, it was surface.
But then that might have had to do with my own insecurities in playing him as well."
As the latest actor to play James Bond, Daniel Craig has plenty of mixed feelings
about the iconic role. He takes the films seriously and loves the work, of course,
but also once called the role "a drag" and has occasionally insisted he wants
nothing less than to never play the role again. More recently, however,
he has walked back those comments, calling his gig as the super spy the best job in the world.
So what's up the mixed emotions? Well, maybe Craig feels so conflicted because
Bond is his complete opposite. As the actor once told TimeOut:
"I was aware of what was needed to be Bond, but it still goes against
everything I believe in. You've met me a couple of times, I'm not very cool."
But Bond has to be cool, he goes on to say, and that often feels awkward for him.
Though you'd never guess that Daniel Craig thinks he's kind of a dork, it's easy to
understand the pressure of playing the smoothest character in film history. Still, if the popular
reception to his Bond is anything to go by, Craig really doesn't have anything to worry about.
[https://youtu.be/xsNIGJdxws8?t=114 1:54 to 1:58 - The name's Bond. James Bond."]
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