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If the script for AVTAK is criticized, I'm sure Richard Maibaum would blame someone else.
LOL.
I remember reading a Maibaum interview about AVTAK at some point where he basically said, "Yeah, we overdid it with Zorin" (referring, I think, to the Nazi angle).
Well , GE was ThunderEye or GoldenEyes are forever.
GE a hybrid of TB and DAF? I've noticed that too.
TB/GE: Criminal organization(SPECTRE/Janus) uses its femme fatale(Volpe, Onatopp) to seduce and murder an allied officer and replace him with a double in order to steal a nuclear weapon to use against a Western city(Miami/London).
DAF/GE: The villain(Blofeld/006) appears to die in the PTS. Bond's investigation leads him to a meeting with the mysterious mastermind(Willard Whyte/Janus behind the events in the film. The mysterious figure turns out to be the aforementioned "dead" villain. The villain plans to use a satellite's laser to assault a Western capital(Washington, DC/London).
Ironically that’s probably one of the better ideas in AVTAK.
GE is DAF done right. But yeah I also saw the parallels with TB, especially the double.
Regarding the what if question, I have no doubt that the script would have been tailored for a new Bond. What always struck me with AVTAK is how comedic it is: even the action scenes are often frustratingly light hearted. It made sense to have them like that with an ageing Roger Moore, but I'd expect them to be more dynamic and suspenseful with a new and younger Bond actor. I think a youthful Brosnan would have made Zorin more menacing in comparison.
Taking place after Bond meets with Bray there was an elaborate action sequence that involved bugging of Bray's office, a rooftop chase of Bond and the SPECTRE agent. The sequence climaxed in the underground of London on the mail tube line.
No video was saved, however you can see the reconstructed sequence here:
My question is what if this sequence had stayed in the film? Do you think it would have worked better than the truncated version we got in the film? Or was the right decision made to cut out the entire sequence?
What if OHMSS had kept the London rooftop chase in the film?
Personally, I don't think it would have added anything. It even takes away a sense of the covert nature of Bond's mission and somewhat undermines the build up to meeting Blofeld. It just seems like an unnecessary action beat for the sake of it.
It would have been cool to have had such a snapshot of late 60s London in a Bond film. I certainly don't think it would have ruined the film but think it would have been considered one of the weaker elements of it. Honestly, I think we're better off with SF's foot chase through the tube for this sort of sequence.
How did they manage to lose the actual film of this sequence? Always thought Eon were pretty meticulous when it came to archiving material...
There's Bond racing against time to chase Phidian before he could report to SPECTRE, and Phidian seemed like an interesting character too, because he's a SPECTRE agent and him having a chase with another agent working on the different side of the spectrum (MI6) would've been interesting to see.
And it would've improved the film more in terms of action.
Although, I'm also okay of it not being there if considering the film's already long runtime (2 Hrs), so, I think it would just add up to the film's pacing.
Have they actually said that they have lost it? There's just lots of deleted stuff they've never released. Did they get around to shooting the train stuff...?
It would be lots of fun to see, I love a foot chase, but I'm not sure the film needed it. It feels like another side mission like the Gumbold thing, and might have been one too many.
Once the home theatre craze happened studios started to realize the value of the deleted scenes.
Indeed, actually there are many deleted scenes that I'm not sure if some footages retained:
https://screenrant.com/james-bond-best-deleted-scenes-better-left-out/
https://screenrant.com/007-best-unused-ideas-james-bond-movies/#elephant-chase-the-man-with-the-golden-gun
There's some pictures in there, I'm not sure in the second article.
I think the first deleted scene that ever survived from the early days was the one in Diamonds Are Forever.
Well, the first half doesn't have a lot of action sequences. That's why they made the TV cut.
The TB one of the tour of the Disco Volante, yes. Not sure if there is official word about the OHMSS one, they apparently didn't shoot the tube stuff.
Might have been too hard to do technically at that time. Not impossible, mind you, but expensive and not worth the trouble. The sequence brings nothing to the film so I'm glad it was taken out.
There might have also been a story problem. If Phidian was a Blofeld spy and was killed or incarcerated and then if he did not report into Blofeld then Blofeld could have been become suspicious of Bray. It's a can of worms that did not need to be opened for the audience to question.
But what if he didn't. What if Timothy Dalton screen tested and was offered the role of James Bond in 1969? What impact would it have had on the movie and the series as a whole? Would the need for Connery to return be eliminated? Would Moore not be cast as Bond?
What if Timothy Dalton had been James Bond in OHMSS in 1969?
Here is what Timothy looked like in 1970, was he too young?
I think that photo was from Wuthering Heights, and in that, I found Tim too "stagey", his emotions on his sleeve and he stomped about like he was on the boards.
So, although he looked fantastic, I just don't think his talent was yet mature enough to play agent 007 (especially right after the very cool, laid back killer in Sean Connery)
Ultimately though, I suspect OHMSS would still have had an underwhelming reception. Neither Lazenby nor Dalton were stars at the time, Dalton was rather young, and Connery had been too big in the role. A change in direction for the next one would have been needed.
I’m not too sure what would have happened from here. Dalton’s strength as Bond was never humour (which may well be his own personal take on the character as an older actor, as he’s actually a pretty solid comedic actor when he wants to be) so perhaps he wouldn’t have wanted to star in a more lighthearted DAF. That said he was far less arrogant than Lazenby, and seemed a committed actor. He could well have played the role ‘straight’ in such a film, albeit less memorably or tongue in cheek as Moore or Connery. I doubt he would have been swayed by an agent or the idea of the series dying. He may well have done another, and I think we would have gotten a version of DAF (maybe not quite as camp or even memorable as the film we got, but in a similar mould - perhaps closer to TMWTGG or LALD, but certainly nothing as dark as LTK).
I don’t know if he’d read the novels at that time/would have consciously channeled Fleming as much as he did as an actor in his 40s… perhaps that would have had an impact on the writing if he had.
Not sure how long he would have played Bond. I think the general course corrections that the series actually went through would have been more or less the same (ie. Going from the more low key/ comedic but cynical DAF, LALD and TMWTGG to the more big budget, family friendly TSWLM). I don’t think this era of Bond would have played to his strengths. Dalton may well have called it quits after two or been pushed out and we’d have gotten Moore anyway… I really don’t know. I think his reputation as Bond would have gone through a similar later appraisal regardless though, with him having his fans.
Timothy would have elevated OHMSS significantly, despite his youthfulness
I would even go as far as thinking that it would have been even more likely to see a second Lazenby Bond instalment after OHMSS than a second Dalton one. Taking into account OHMSS filming conditions (56 days of shooting in Switzerland) and Dalton's young age, I doubt he would have wanted to continue. I read he was still uncomfortable with all the marketing part of the Bond films in the 80s, so I can only imagine it would have been worse in '69, especially when their was a need to sell this new face and to really have him be at the heart of the marketing campaign.
With Dalton playing Bond in '69 and leaving the role after OHMSS, I guess the future of the series would have been more or less the same on the short term: Connery returns for DAF, then Moore stars in LALD. The real change would come in 1986 with the casting of a new actor in the lead role for TLD. Sam Neill, Antony Hamilton, it could have been anyone.