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Yes, NTTD used ideas from one of the TSWLM scripts!
Did it? I hadn't heard about that, what was from TSWLM script?
I hope they don't wait that long though!
Perhaps the Anthony Burgess draft where Bond was blown up towards the end?
Perhaps but I think it was more the Richard Maibaum script with the SPECTRE leadership all being killed off at the start and the organisation taken over by members of the Baader-Meinhof gang and assorted political terrorists. Cubby mothballed it because it was too political but they eventually used the idea in a modified form in NTTD with Safin killing off the SPECTRE leadership via the Heracles nanobots.
That's what I was thinking.
Probably this one, although I do think as @007HallY said that the Bond being blown to pieces in the Burgess script might also have been in the producers' mind. Except he didn't die in the middle of the film.
On a side note, I want to read that script. Haven't been to the Anthony Burgess Foundation in ten years, I'm sure a copy of the script is there somewhere.
Yes, I think it was more of a satire or parody than a serious attempt at writing a Bond script that was going to be acceptable to Cubby Broccoli. I wrote a little about the script here:
https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/anthony-burgess-on-spy-who-loved-me.html?m=1
Skin condition, a rash or something. Cured by acupuncture.
I don't recall acupuncture being used as that sort of euphemism, but okay.
No, literally acupuncture. Burgess had Bond discover acupuncture (in the PTS I think) and cure the Bond girl's rash with it.
You're a Tricky Dickie. ;)
Ah, wasn't aware of that one. Makes sense. Very interesting.
I'd like to read it too. Just from the details I can understand how it would seem like Burgess was 'taking the piss'. He did after all seem to have an admiration for the Fleming novels and as @Dragonpol 's blog post pointed out he knew where the film version differed (and, let's be honest, probably wasn't 100% a fan of them).
Still, it's interesting reading about it now. Stuff like forcing world leaders/political figures to do embarrassing things under threat of terrorism reminds me of the first episode of Black Mirror. The central idea of implanting innocent people with bombs in a health clinic has shades of OHMSS to it and probably could be a semi-decent Bond plot. Bond dying in the middle is a bit strange though, as is the acupuncture stuff. Whether it was an outright piss take or a more subtle attempt at trying to get to grips with the rather tongue in cheek and over the top film series is an interesting question.
Burgess thought the movies had gone downhill since.... GF, if I'm not mistaken. I don't think it was only taking the piss. He said he felt compelled to write it and I think he was kind of pushing the logic of what the Bond movies had become... but instead of making sci-fi, he turned it into an absurd tale of political fiction with a heavy dose of apocalypse. Maybe not completely unlike what we got with NTTD.
I think there's something to that. As bizarre as it sounds the stuff he came up with I'd argue was only a couple of steps away what the Bond series was actually doing at that point in terms of outlandishness. Hell, look at the stuff that's been proposed in early treatments for various Bond films and a lot of his ideas don't seem too out there.
I'm sure elements of it could be recycled. Again, the main idea of a health clinic implanting innocent people with bombs and an organisation coercing world leaders or important individuals using this threat could be adapted. Perhaps them forcing the President to strip naked on TV is a bit out of place in a Bond film, but I'm sure something less comedic could be employed.
It just struck me that similar elements have appeared in other franchises, such as Nolan's Batman movies.
Typical like From Russia With Love, where a sex was filmed or taped to be a scandal to blackmail a highly important person.
Send a woman to a diplomat, seduce him and when they have sex, someone would take a video of it, and will threaten that said diplomat, that if he didn't give their demands, they will release the sex video on the public as a scandal.
It's happened already in Octopussy, yes, with jewelry smuggling, that Fabergè egg, it could worked well, if handled properly, because it's such a sensitive concept, if not executed properly, it may become convoluted.
I'd liked to see Bond being involved in something like racing against time with villains to break an important code (it could evoke a war, control some government agencies or it could be for hacking, or maybe for worldwide theft?).
Maybe have someone that can read the codes and the villain wants to get that person so Bond needs to protect that key person from being get by the villains, that key person could be a Bond Girl as well, maybe something similar to Kara Milovy or Natalya Simonova, someone that's possible to have a special skills in breaking codes that the villains need, but Bond needs to get to her first before the villains could take her.
Has anyone of you here knew 'Kryptos'? A statue made of codes in the CIA?
the whole movie is how they stop the villain, and theres plenty to make bond meet the girl, talk, find the new car, drive the car, stop the bad guy and get the girl in a good way.
Why to help them, unless there's a personal motivation for Bond, the reason why that happened in the early drafts was because Octopussy used Tracy's death to convince Bond to help them.
In addition to the "The enemy of the enemy is my friend", such story could also take inspiration from Dynamite Entertainment's "Agent of SPECTRE" with Bond using one side against the other in hope of destroying both, or even from Gardner's Role of Honour with Bond pretending he defected to infiltrate his enemies' organisation.
Bond here would be closest to a realistic spy as it can get, he's also wearing a Trench coat and hat (a la spy like George Smiley style) here for the majority of the film.
The next Bond film have Bond assigned to a diplomatic mission, but it went wrong and endangered himself.
Now the MI6 told him to escape and hide abroad with changing his identity for him not to get tracked by the bad guys, (in short, the MI6 told Bond to leave the country he's currently in, and went to a different country and ordered him to live as a different person, change his name and surname, as well as his age, and maybe make himself a widower) for him not to get tracked by the enemies, all of these details were told by 001 (whom M sent to warn Bond), they've met at a dark alley where no one could hear or see the conversation, it's deemed confidential.
Bond at first was confused and reluctant, but 001 warned him ("If you don't follow the instruction given to you, you could be killed, and would compromise this mission!"), 001 also told him ("Commander, you have one week to prepare all of your documents in order to escape from this country, you can go wherever you want to go, just please keep yourself as much as possible!")
Bond agreed to do this, 001 gave him his passport complete with his fake identity, a pocket money and all of his clothes in a baggage, 001 told him ("your pocket money will help you find a temporary house for you to stay in, Commander, you can only get out of that country if this mission is over and the (bad guys) were now arrested, but until they're around, you need to hide for a while").
001 also warned him ("don't tell them your real identity, don't trust anyone, Commander, just wait for our instructions, it would be in letters, will be sent via Post Office not by a call for us to avoid being tracked").
While the MI6 would send another 00 to finish the mission, Bond stayed comfortably in the foreign country he chose to stay, with him regularly visiting the Post Office to receive those instructions from the MI6, as well the updates regarding the mission.
As he met a woman, and build a relationship with her while still trying to keep his real identity, but this woman that he'd met was curious about him visiting the Post Office and bringing letters to home, in curiosity, the woman (Bond Girl of this film), opened those letters and find out that he's an MI6 agent (but the woman didn't know this as she had no idea about MI6), all of what she knew was she read the word "MI6", but no idea about it.
What makes the situation worse, is Bond couldn't resists of not getting into trouble, when he had a bar brawl against a citizen that insulted him (it's a long fight sequence), he had escaped and the Police searched him (because unfortunately the guy that he'd fought recognized him).
Now the news came to his girlfriend, who's furiously asking about those letters that he's receiving from the post office, but Bond told her to shut her mouth, the girl suddenly thinks he's a criminal.
The girl ran away from Bond, but then encountered the Police, the girl told the Police about Bond's whereabouts, and mentioned that he's from the MI6 (as that's what she had read in the letters).
The girl was then brought to the foreign intelligence, and the foreign intelligence recognized him and he's arrested for counterintelligence and prisoned abroad, refused to speak all of what he know, he's prisoned, taken a mugshot and is also setting him up for an execution, this is where Bond was put into Mata Hari situation, but thankfully, another MI6 spy rescued him, and when they went back to Britain that's where Bond was again, ordered to be arrested by the MI6 for disobedience, but the MI6 decided to keep Bond in a house arrest.
But those bad guys shoots Bond's house, of course Bond couldn't get out of his house, as he's prisoned into it, if not, the Electronic tagging (or the electronic monitoring device) will alarm the Police.
Bond needs to protect himself to avoid those, with the news came to MI6, M decided to free Bond, but 005 (the other 00 agent sent to cover Bond in the mission) called Bond to help him finish the mission, because 005 knows that it's Bond who knows the mission better than anyone.
That's where the action starts.
It's not specific, but the main idea was there.
Thanks, I think it's really interesting, to put Bond in such a situation like that, and it did happened to real life spies back then.
It's interesting for them to explore more of Bond's spy side. 😊