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Lets revisit 1977 and the classic that is TSWLM. Lots of choices were made here as the producers were only allowed to use the title and not anything from the novel. There were many brought in to the script process. Lets examine the choice they made with one of those scripts.
It has been reported that in one version of the script Jaws met his maker at the end of the movie. I believe a furnace room brings him to his death. But he clearly dies in the script. Broccoli decided to go with a script where Jaws lives to fight another day and returns in MR.
What if Jaws was killed off in TSWLM. What would this do to the character within this film. How would this change had impacted MR as their henchman would need to change. Would you assume Mr. Chang would be the henchman of Jaws? Or do you think the producers would create another henchman to battle Bond?
In terms of the impact in TSWLM do you think audiences would be bummed his character died? Or would it had made for a more serious portrayal of a memorable baddie?
What say you Mi6? What if Jaws had met his maker at the end of TSWLM?
What may have been a cool alternate scenario was to have Jaws show up on the Liparus, maybe to block Bond from planting the bomb on the control room with it ticking.
I don't think Chang would've ever been an appropriate main henchman, so they'd have had to come up with something else instead of Jaws.
In conclusion, I offer a question I don't know I've ever seen asked: Did Universal Studios, author Peter Benchley or anyone connected with the 1975 blockbuster Jaws object or attempt to sue over the name Jaws for the Bond character?
That would be futile. Jaws is a common word.
To me sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. I thought MR was too much and would have preferred to see him in one film. Although I don't think Chang has written would be a good henchman for Drax.
Maybe because it was the '70s everybody was more mellow. I can see it more happening today.
Imagine how the PTS free fall, skydiving sequence would have looked with him. 😏
Or him in the clown suit in Rio.
I can also even recall us (as schoolchildren back then) discussing whether he was called Jaws or not. You must bear in mind that, back then, we had no internet or dvds to watch films again, and most of us only watched a film once in the cinema. So there was often a bit of dispute at school as to what had actually happened in a film and what was misremembered, with no easy way to check. We didn’t really know back then if he was called Jaws or not. Some people were saying “he can’t be called Jaws, that’s a name from another film, they wouldn’t allow it.”
It was a much less litigious world back then...and maybe "Jaws" was okay as a parody?
By the time we get to Zorin, the lawyers have taken over.
I would have liked Jaws left behind in TSWLM, even if he survived.
All the menace was completely sucked out of him in MR, and it became a joke, not a funny one at that. I know he is iconic, and rightfully so, but that is more to do with his first appearance than anything else.
Lets play, what if! What if Blofeld and SPECTRE had returned in TSWLM. Would have made the film better or worse? Who would you cast as Blofeld in this film? How fun would it be to see Roger's Bond battling SPECTRE.
What say you Mi6...what if Blofeld and SPECTRE had returned for the TSWLM?
Pros: as you stated it would be fun to see Moore's Bond battling SPECTRE. Also if it still included Anya's reference to Tracy and Bond finally executing Blofeld it would've brought some much needed closure to the events of OHMSS.
Cons: If Blofeld and SPECTRE had been the villains in TSWLM it would've made the 1977 Bond film even more of a clone of YOLT than it already is as this video so aptly illustrates:
Yes please. With a different title mind.
The shark pool thing would've been like a repeat of the piranha pool, for example. Given I find Stromberg the weakest villain in the series and Blofeld is Blofeld, I would've preferred that I guess.
I haven't seen a Blofeld script @BT3366 but knowing the members of this forum someone will chime in with an informed opinion. I agree with your assessment of Stromberg. He doesn't really do much after killing the professors and the secretary. Not much colour to him so to speak. Maybe they merely planted Stromberg in for Blofeld? Cause Blofeld by this time would have been a more established villain.
Who would the producers cast as Blofeld? We would have had tough Blofeld, effeminate Blofeld and puny Blofeld. LOL!
According to Steven Jay Rubin's book The James Bond Films, Stromberg had been called Stavros in an earlier script before they had to remove all SPECTRE references. Would Stavros have been revealed to actually be Ernst Stavros Blofeld I'm not sure about.
I figure Jurgens would've been cast as TSWLM's main villain regardless if he had been called Blofeld, Stavros or Stromberg. I've also read that James Mason was considered for the role which would've been interesting since he played Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea 23 years earlier.
What I'm most curious about is how the various Blofeld drafts dealt with the unfinished personal business between Bond and Blofeld. This might have been side-stepped in the version where Blofeld is kicked out by the new-Guard Spectre crew, and it might have been dodged in the "Stavros" version. I'm suprised no one has written a book on all the various scripts and treatments of TSWLM, considering all the notable writers who worked on it: Maibaum, Stirling Silliphant, John Landis, Ronald Hardy, Anthony Burgess, Derek Marlowe, Gerry Anderson, and Tom Mankiewicz!
Stromberg the weakest villain in the series??? Ha ha ha. He’s a great villain. All the weakest villains exist in the Brosnan era (bar Alec Trevellyn).
To answer the topic question - had the script remained relatively the same, I think it would have worked just fine. The plot is basically You Only Live Twice anyways, so it fits right in with the cinematic Blofeld.
+1
He’s a strong Bond villain.
I hadn't thought of the line Anya giving to Bond in Kalba's club. It would have more poignancy then it does. I think having the villain to be named Stravos and then revealing him to be Blofeld smacks a little bit like DAF with Willard Whyte.
I think the appearance of Blofeld in Spy would have increased the enjoyment of the film for me and made Roger's films feel closer to the Connery/Lazenby portrayal which I don't think is a bad thing.
The producers when casting the movie had an interesting casting choice as the character of Kincaid seemed to be written for a certain Scotsman in mind. Yes it was rumoured that Sean Connery was thought of when the film was written. The producers cast Albert Finney, another legend, in the role. It went on to be his last on film. But lets have some fun and speculate on Sir Sean Connery playing the role of Kincaid.
What if the producers had cast Connery as Kincaid? Would it be too "cute" to cast him? Would his presence enhance or detract from the film? What say you Mi6, what if Sean Connery had played Kincaid in SF?
Going with Finney was a smart move, great performance and makes that moment of the film even more memorable.