Octopussy Maud Adams 1983 Never Say Never Again Sean Connery 1983

1983 offered up 2 James Bond films, with Roger Moore in Octopussy and Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again – we revisit the boxing of the 007s.

With the latest announced filibuster, the gap between the release of Spectre and the next Daniel Craig-starring Bond movie No Time To Die has extended to v-and-a-half years and counting. It's a far weep from the erstwhile days, when EON Productions cranked out 007 adventures every two years, or 1983, when there were ii James Bond films released within 4 months of each other.

This unusual occurrence arose from the long-running dispute over Ian Fleming's ninth Bond novel, Thunderball. The book was adjusted from a script called Longitude 78 West, a potential Bond picture show that Fleming in one case worked on with collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham, without the permission of its co-creators. In the plagiarism case that followed, Fleming and McClory both claimed to take created the criminal organisation SPECTRE, and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

When the case came to court, McClory was awarded the worldwide screen rights to Thunderball, while EON kept the separate Bail motion picture rights and Fleming retained copyright on the novel. This enabled McClory to make a rival James Bond movie if he wished, so EON producers Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman licensed his rights for a catamenia of ten years, assuasive the studio to use Blofeld and SPECTRE in sequels produced during that time. Released in 1965, the film accommodation became the highest-grossing Bond pic at that signal, a championship it kept until 2012's Skyfall.

A decade later on, the Bond franchise was still going strong with Roger Moore as 007, and McClory began trying to remake Thunderball at some other company, with Connery in the lead once more. Saltzman had moved on, but Broccoli and EON closely guarded the Bond brand, torpedoing a project called Warhead (co-scripted by Len Deighton and Connery himself) past claiming information technology infringed on elements of the film series outside of Thunderball.

This ongoing rivalry is the but reason we tin think of why 1981's For Your Eyes Only would beginning with a total non-sequitur, in which a grapheme strongly implied to exist Blofeld (in the same status of anonymity equally his non-appearance in From Russia With Love) is unceremoniously dropped downwardly a chimney past Bail before the opening titles start.

Eventually, McClory licensed his rights to producer Jack Schwartzman, who set up a remake called Never Say Never Again at Warner Bros, in the same year as EON was making its 13th Bond film, Octopussy. The tabloids touted it as a 'battle of the Bonds', although the Bonds themselves, long-fourth dimension friends Connery and Moore, seemed quite good-humoured near the competing films.

Even discounting the production rivalries, both films have interesting stories backside them, simply it has to be said that neither is counted among the very best of all the Bond films to date.

To paraphrase Harry Hill – I don't similar Octopussy, and I don't like Never Say Never Over again, but which is amend? In that location's but 1 way to notice out…

Octopussy

"Nobody Does HIM Better"

Octopussy lives in infamy for a number of reasons, not least that it's the Bond film so good, Homer Simpson saw it twice. At this point in the franchise, Roger Moore planned to retire from the role of 007. Afterward his fifth film For Your Eyes Merely, the producers began the search for a new Bond, testing actors such every bit Timothy Dalton, Michael Billington, and James Brolin.

Brolin would take been the series' first American lead and was reportedly working with stunt teams and set to relocate to the UK, but Broccoli was still hoping to persuade Moore back for another go around. Moore reportedly pressed his advantages – the doubtfulness of Bail distributors United Artists merging with MGM and the looming return of Connery in a rival picture show – in pay negotiations, but eventually signed on for his 6th outing in July 1982.

At the time, Moore joked in an interview with NBC that he'd been asked to star in Never Say Never Again every bit well. "Of course it gave me a certain amount of leverage… I said to Sean, 'Which one do you want to do?' He didn't desire to practise the one with Cubby, so I'm here. And he's at that place."

During pre-production, Flashman author George MacDonald Fraser penned the original script for this i in 1981 and hitting upon the thought of making this the first Bail film gear up in India. His script was later reworked past series regulars Michael G Wilson and Richard Maibaum. Behind the camera, editor and second-unit managing director John Glen had graduated to the director's chair with For Your Optics Only and was asked back for Octopussy and the next three Bond films as well.

Also returning was Maud Adams, who had previously appeared in The Man With The Gold Gun and screen-tested with Brolin and the other potential replacements for Moore. She plays the championship office of Octopussy, a jewel smuggler who unwittingly helps exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) and zealous Soviet General Orlov (Steven Berkoff) with a scheme to force nuclear disarmament in western Europe.

Following For Your Eyes Only'due south attempted back-to-basics seriousness, Octopussy was supposed to follow the same tack, but it feels a return to course that yet lands a long way from the peak of the Moore era's comic sensibilities. For instance, the gripping conclusion involves Bond disguising himself as a clown and trying to defuse a nuclear flop while minor children express mirth at him, and and so there's that Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan yell over 007 swinging on a vine.

The super-charged tuk-tuk chase through a decorated marketplace is a highlight for both one-act and action, but the meandering story and 130-minute running time makes this 1 of the weaker outings of the era. As The Living Daylights demonstrated a few years after, a new Bond would have brought a change in tone, merely as it is, information technology's difficult to imagine Brolin getting on well with this material.

Meanwhile, the producers were dandy to emphasise what Octopussy had over the rival production in terms of iconography. For his part, returning composer John Barry reportedly emphasised the serial' classic theme vocal in his score, because Never Say Never Again couldn't. On the bailiwick of music though, this one is a low as Bond theme songs become, despite what its title suggests. All-Time High non only immortalises Rita Coolidge equally the stuff of Pointless answers, but also has arguably been usurped from its Bond connection past Mark Wahlberg's excruciatingly heartfelt encompass of the song in 2012'south Ted.

Produced on a budget of $27.5 million, Octopussy hit cinemas on 6th June 1983. It was warmly received by contemporary critics and went on to accept $187.5m at the worldwide box role. Both Bail films had been targeting a summer release appointment, but Octopussy was the one that came out on time…

Never Say Never Again

"Do you really imagine that I could lose a woman to an underpaid British agent?"

Diverse legal challenges from EON had seen off any potential for a McClory-produced Bail film to deviate from the source fabric. Connery and Deighton's script had adapted the plot into a techno-thriller involving mechanical sharks and an assault on Wall Street, (in that society) which the plaintiff suggested would be an unauthorised James Bond sequel, rather than a Thunderball remake.

While Connery had initially been approached past McClory to plow his paw to screenwriting, serving equally a sort of consultant on how to mix upward the Bond formula enough to avert EON'due south ire, the process went well enough that the star was attached to play Bail for the 7th time likewise. This is what led his wife Micheline to suggest the motion-picture show's official title, for which she's credited at the finish.

For Connery, the project gave him more of the stake he felt he deserved in the Bail films the commencement fourth dimension around. He duly scooped a $3m bacon (forth with an undisclosed percentage of the box-office gross) for the film, and it is, for better or worse, his film in a mode that no other Bond actor can claim of whatever of the other, more than producer-led EON escapades.

In one case Schwartzman came aboard, he cleared the legal issue by dropping the existing scripts and turning to Lorenzo Semple Jr, renowned for his screenplays 3 Days Of The Condor and The Parallax View but best loved for his piece of work on the 1960s Batman serial and 1980'southward Flash Gordon, to write a more than faithful accommodation. The full general feeling was that the film should be a comedic thriller somewhere in the center of Semple Jr'due south range.

Instead of rewriting the story of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again updates it. Acknowledging Connery's age, the moving picture starts with Bond relegated to education work past a new One thousand (Edward Flim-flam) who has little patience with the 00 section. Notwithstanding, Bail happens upon an extortion plot involving two stolen nuclear warheads and is thrust back into activity chasing downwards SPECTRE'southward Maximilian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and his mistress Domino (Kim Basinger).

Filming began in September 1982, with Irvin Kershner at the helm subsequently directing The Empire Strikes Back for LucasFilm. Semple Jr departed the project after creative disagreements with Kershner, leaving the film with several script bug that needed to exist solved on the fly. Connery after hired British sitcom legends Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais to rewrite the script extensively, both during and subsequently shooting.

Where EON was a well-oiled auto, using its tried-and-tested Bail formula to create ambitious action picture palace spectacle on a biennial basis, Never Say Never Once more ran into budget bug and quickly fell behind schedule. While all parties acknowledged that it was better for the picture show to avoid directly competition with Octopussy, there were still various behind-the-scenes battles.

With greater creative control, Connery won a few of those battles, including his choice of composer, Michel Legrand and the casting of Brandauer, who'southward legitimately excellent as Largo. Meanwhile, in a victory over EON, Barbara Carrera reportedly turned down the title role of Octopussy considering she had already accustomed the part of SPECTRE amanuensis Fatima Blush. (She's great too.)

Yet, he didn't have a fun time of it on the moving-picture show, falling out with Kershner and Schwartzman on gear up and later losing a dispute with the Writers' Club Of America nearly getting non-members Clement and La Frenais billed for their all-encompassing work on the script. What's more, Connery had his wrist cleaved by martial arts instructor Steven Seagal (yes, that one!) while training for the moving-picture show.

Despite Schwartzman'southward aptitude in tackling the legal side of things, he was untested on a film of this scale and the production ran into several problems. One notable mistake came when a major underwater sequence had to exist reshot after Kershner realised that Connery'due south stunt double had inexplicably been bandage based on the star's appearance in Thunderball, every bit opposed to his stature 20 years later.

Watching it back, it should be no surprise that Never Say Never Once again is the result of a slightly troubled product. Information technology doesn't take anything like the backbone of Robin And Marian, another Connery outing, in portraying an older version of its hero. It plays very much like an American take on James Bail, with British influences tugging things dorsum beyond the pond through additions similar Rowan Atkinson as British envoy Nigel Small-Fawcett.

On the plus side, Brandauer's volatile plow every bit Largo would comfortably rank in most lists of the best Bond villain performances, if only the motion-picture show itself was counted. Underseen due to its omission from the boxset canon, the film is legally insufficient of the rest of the franchise's most famous trappings, (Lani Hall's tepid theme song plays out over an opening activity scene rather than the traditional silhouettes of naked ladies) simply there's precious little else to mark it out as memorable in its own right.

Product was finally completed on the film after Octopussy had already hit cinemas and it didn't get released until seventh Oct 1983 in the United States, where its opening weekend gross outstripped the Moore motion-picture show. EON got its ain back for the UK release date on 15th December, by officially announcing the next instalment A View To A Kill and sucking up some of the film's publicity.

It did get better reviews at the time, but it's impossible not to find the Connery nostalgia creeping in, with Time Out'south review gushing: "the existent clincher is the fact that Bond is in one case more played by a man with the right stuff."

As with many nostalgic things, information technology seems plausible that people didn't actually want Sean Connery to play Bond over again as much as they wanted to be 10 years erstwhile over again.

Who won?

It's tempting to say at that place are no winners this time on Takeshi'southward Castle. One flick is trying a little besides hard to exist funny, the other tries a little likewise hard to be serious, and neither seems willing to take that the lead is advancing in years or look any closer at their serial patterns of leching over younger women and murdering randomers. Information technology's galling in hindsight, when you consider that the newer films take been calling Daniel Craig'south Bail a dinosaur since his third outing.

Stacking them upward confronting each other, Never Say Never Once more received warmer reviews, but it toll more to make and ultimately fabricated less than Octopussy at the box office, despite a strong opening weekend. Fifty-fifty then, the EON picture had the benefit of the summer holidays, with matinee screenings and all, and the weight of the brand behind it.

For his part, McClory thought there was more than to be washed with the story afterward Never Say Never Again, and in the 1990s, he mooted a new Thunderball-inspired Bond project titled Warhead 2000, with an eye on casting Timothy Dalton or Liam Neeson as Bond. Even with EON embroiled in legal disputes elsewhere, this idea never came to fruition.

MGM afterwards caused the rights to Never Say Never Once more as function of the deal that got it the screen rights to Casino Royale, which EON duly adapted in 2006. That aforementioned year, McClory passed abroad at the age of lxxx, and in 2013, his estate sold all screen rights back to EON, which enabled it to use SPECTRE, in Spectre. That means the screen rights are all in ane place for at present, but looking back on the battle of the Bonds, we wonder what clashes the hereafter may hold.

Fleming'southward books will enter the public domain effectually the world in the adjacent 10 to 15 years and it's been speculated for a while that EON may exist looking to sell its stake later on No Fourth dimension To Die. Will James Bond enter the aforementioned canon of British characters as Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood, where multiple producers tin can work on dissimilar takes at the aforementioned time? In the not-too-distant future, could nosotros take a immature Bond and an one-time Bond in the same style as Enola Holmes and Mr Holmes be alongside the more traditional take?

For now, we'll leave you with Brolin's screen test, which was released as part of the special features on the Ultimate Edition home release of Octopussy, and allow you lot wonder how different things might have been if not for the battle of the Bonds…

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Source: https://www.filmstories.co.uk/features/octopussy-never-say-never-again-and-1983s-battle-of-the-bonds/