Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
In this Discussion
Spectre in Octopussy?
I was reading a review of Octopussy when I came across the following:
Does anyone have more information on this? It sounds like a pretty neat scenario.
McClory’s continuing legal claims to the character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and the SPECTRE organisation scuppered Broccoli’s early plans for the plot of Octopussy. The eponymous character was originally conceived as a villain using research into the death of Tracy Bond to manipulate Bond into joining her vendetta against SPECTRE.
Does anyone have more information on this? It sounds like a pretty neat scenario.
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Like ThomasCrown76, I also wondered if Fraser was responsible for the early plot. However, the Making of OHMSS complicates the issue by pointing out that the Goldfinger's-brother gimmick was something Richard Maibaum had toyed with since 1964.
In any case, we now have confirmation of Spectre's involvement in the genesis of Octopussy. There really needs to be a book about all the unused Bond scripts. How fascinating that would be...
On that topic, I'm also curious if the references to Bond's history in TSWLM come directly from Wood or if Maibaum was always trying to do that kind of thing but was hamstrung by either McClory or Broccoli.
It's such a shame that we didn't get the "true" TSWLM... I think it would have been satisfactory for Moore to close off that story, and if you simply transplant the brutal killing of Stromberg to Blofeld it's very satisfying... moreso than using him as a wrecking ball or dropping him down a chimney-stack.
From what I've read, very little of Fraser's script was used for Octopussy. Broccoli apparently decided to chuck it and have Maibaum and Wilson start from scratch.
I'd go with Maibaum as the author of the OHMSS reference in TSWLM. He was heavily invested in OHMSS, worked closely with Hunt, and his early drafts of DAF play up the revenge angle (and include Irma Bundt, though the death of the actress who played her removed any chance of her appearing). He even wrote a memo to the producers telling them that if they went with Blofeld, audiences would expect them to follow up on the revenge plot.
The more I read about the production histories of the Bond films, the more I regret I feel about Maibaum's work being put aside in favor of Mankiewicz and Wood's.
Oh, they definitely exist! Maibaum's papers are held by the University of Iowa, and there are over 15 boxes of scripts, notes, and other papers dealing with James Bond. Someone really needs to go through that treasure trove.
The James Bond Dossier has also posted a very candid interview with Maibaum. In another interview, Maibaum states his feelings on OHMSS:
Sounds terrific! I will await your article, and in the meantime please accept my thanks in advance.
I'll have to save up to buy that Taschen book. I hear it's the size of a baby blue whale...
You could try posting this topic on AJB007 forums as you might get some more responses there too. :)
Having read Wood's novels - the real ones, not those Confessions books - I'd say that it matches how people talk in Wood's books. There's a surprising amount of pathos in Wood's fiction.