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I don't mind the bomb theft bit in NSNA, as I remember it's pretty brief, especially compared to TB which goes on forever. And as you say, Bond doesn't disappear offscreen.
One thing AVTAK should have lifted from NSNA (aside from stealing Largo to become Max Zorin!) is that NSNA sort of gives our quite-old Bond an ending: it seems like he's perhaps retiring at the end of it without saying that explicitly. I tend to think it wouldn't have harmed AVTAK or TLD to have done something similar at the end for Roger.
To be honest, the stealing of the bombs is a surprisingly dull part of the story. It’s all very routine and inevitable. It was even in Fleming’s novel. It’s just mercifully tighter and better integrated in NSNA.
You're right though, GE is a more interesting story, despite really just being a variation of the same thing. Evil baddie team steal some military weaponry.
I'd love to know how faithful to Thunderball they had to be with NSNA. Could you have done the plot of GE and said it's a loose TB remake? Just call the satellites Thunderball, makes as much sense (more, probably), hold the world to ransom. If Broccoli had the brass balls to put 'Ian Fleming's Moonraker' on the posters to that film then you'd think McClory could've gone wild with it, really.
Seriously, "Ian Fleming's MR" is better placed on a couple other Eon films. They keep trying. No doubt they will try again.
Yeah, I'm really not sure what the extent was to what they could or couldn't use, especially when it intersected with EON. I find it surprising they got away with using the white cat for example.
Yeah but it's pretty on the nose and it definitely comes from EON's films. It's kinda weird NSNA even felt the need to use it. It tries so hard to do something different with Q, M and even Blofeld (although von Sydow is exceptionally unexceptional in the part, and perhaps to a large extent using the cat was meant to associate his character more directly with Blofeld. Lazy but makes sense).
EDIT: Apparently McClory argued that since it was a part of the film Blofeld it was part of his creation. But I've got no more information on it. Still quite surprised he got away with that one.
https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/Blofeld's_cat#Blofeld's_cat_and_the_Thunderball_controversy
Cor, that sounds pretty questionable logic to me! :)
Good bit of trivia there I hadn't thought of though: NTTD is the first time Blofeld has appeared sans cat.
Title: A World Without Wants.
CAST
1. Martin Mcreadie as James Bond.
2. Ciaran Hinds as Blofeld.
3. Wagner Moura as his second-in-command.
5. Alia Bhatt as the main Bond girl.
6. Adrianne Palicki as a femme fatale.
7. Lucy Griffiths as Moneypenny.
8. Robert Amarayo as Q.
9. Gwendoline Christie as a Henchwoman.
10. Thandiwe Newton as M.
11. Bad guys.
12. Others.
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Title Song and Score: Goldfrapp
Other crew members.
I know! Not sure what case the lawyers put forward to make that one work. But McClory seemingly felt strongly about including the cat.
I need to give the book The Battle for Bond a read as I've heard that goes through a lot of this. The entire thing seems like a mess though, and from what I know about McClory's later life/everything about the later case it actually comes off as kinda sad (not that any other party involved including Fleming are angels in all this).
Never thought about that with NTTD, but true.
Yeah I keep meaning to have a look at that.
Including Brosnan! When he missed out on Bond in '86 he contacted McClory and tried to get his own rival Bond series started; after all the chat of 'the Bond family' I'm kind of amazed Broccoli gave him the time of day after that but I guess it's all just down to money in the end.
Heh! Nice. Sometimes I like to imagine how another TB remake could have been.
I reckon Sean could have done one instead of The Rock in the mid-nineties; with Bond (like his Rock character) having been imprisoned in HMS Shrublands for the last 25 years, alongside a suspicious inmate named Count Lippe, but when the new M realises he needs the knowledge of the only man to ever defeat SPECTRE, he drags the ex-007 out of prison...
As I understand it, EON saw this as a chance to get one of the novels they didn't have rights to under the EON banner. Kevin was smart to approach them at the time he did. After GF the follow up was going to be huge.
Overall I like TB better. However I do think NSNA has some merits and doesn't deserve all the kicks it takes. Sure it's not as slick at TB, and it's score is lacking, but there are some merits.
One of the best exchanges.
Fatima "I'm sorry for making you all wet."
Bond "But my martini is still dry."
I also think this bit is up there as one of the coolest little Bond moves :)
Exactly! Very stylish and Bondian move. I think if NSNA was official, and had the Gunbarrel sequence, Title sequence and a John Barry score, the film would have been widely accepted, for what it is.
Agreed. Even with dopey 4th wall breaking wink at the end.
Exactly. That wink! Wink that came back in Skyfall...but this time to Mallory.
DaF was produced in an awkward time period that bridged the 60's and 70's, and it shows ,in tone and fashion choices.
Compare Connery in DaF and 7 years later in A Bridge Too Far. Age was not what had caught up with Sean when he returned the first time to Bond
How he looks in the film absolutely make it fair speculation; I'm not stating it as a fact. Also, decades later he showed that he could show up in peak form if he care to.
That was a better end than Roger's, even if Connery's Bond melded with Roger's Bond in the end.
Let us not forget that he was brought in very last minute. Cubby and Harry had already signed John Gavin to the role before David Picker from UA stepped in. I doubt he had any time to get into shape or do much in the way of preparing. Also I believe I heard in an interview that Connery chose the hairpiece because he wanted to show Bond ageing.
DAF was a change of pace for Connery and he clearly enjoyed the script. I think he plays it the right way and his performance is not terrible by any stretch.
They hired him at the last minute, that could be a possible explanation.
Anyway, I think it's the eyebrows that really make him look different.
He looked fine IMO. Best toupee since GF and he looked darker, like a shark.
Yes, he was overweight but still looked strong.
Yeah, I know when Michael Gambon was approached about playing Bond he told producers he probably wasn’t a good fit as he was overweight and balding… of course you can guess the reply (apparently a trick they used with Connery was to put an ice pack on his stomach before love scenes).
Probably not fair on Connery though. He was a big guy and even in DAF I don’t think he comes off as too heavy. I think it’s more the fact that he aged and we’re comparing his physique to 10 years prior. I’m sure a lot of 41 year olds would love to have Connery’s body in that film. He wasn’t even the heaviest Bond to appear onscreen (that’s Brosnan in DAD who was around 95 kilos, which for him was probably overweight but isn’t something immediately obvious in the film unless you’re looking).
If anything I think Connery looks worse in NSNA despite him being slimmer (his toupee isn’t as good or at least has this odd shorter styling to it, even compared with the DAF 70s sideburns. Looks a touch too grey even for an older Bond, but then again I suppose that’s consciously what they were going for).