While the 15th Bond film hasn’t quite got the fascinating and troubled production history as George Lazenby’s one and only adventure, Helfenstein’s book once again highlights the challenges in finding a new James Bond and where to take the franchise with that new actor. The book goes into a huge amount of detail about the change in direction the series took in the late 1980’s, most notably the decision for a more serious approach compared to the lighter touch of Roger Moore’s material in the 70’s and early 80’s.
Whilst a lot of this is attributed to Dalton stepping into the role, it does seem clear from the early drafts of the scripts and production notes that they were looking to set a more serious tone even before Dalton was on board.
Of particular note to Bond fans is the plot outline of the suggested idea to feature a younger Bond on his first mission – nearly two decades before Casino Royale rebooted the franchise. The proposed story features Bond in his mid-20’s partnering up with an older agent called Burton Trevor who teaches Bond all about martinis, girls and guns. After completing his first mission Bond is called in to see his new boss M who tells him “007, your next assignment will be to investigate a man in Jamaica… Dr No.”
The idea was eventually scrapped by Cubby Broccoli who felt the audience weren’t interested in seeing a younger Bond learning his skills and earning his 00 status.
The younger Bond plot also featured other connections with Daniel Craig’s incarnation of 007. Bond travels to his family home in Scotland (not named Skyfall though) and teams up with an old man (in this case his grandfather, rather than Albert Finney’s Kincade) to discuss Bond’s future and the relevance of the old fashioned values.
There is also an action sequence involving Bond under attack from planes while flying a DC3 aeroplane that ended up in Craig’s Quantum of Solace. The scene ended with Bond sabotaging the DC3 as the Bond girl Betje Bedwell (groan…) exclaimed “You lunatic, the world was ours!” – to which Bond replies “The World is Not Enough”.
The book also goes into extensive detail about Pierce Brosnan being originally hired as Bond in 1986 (there’s even some photos of his announcement to the press at Pinewood Studios) before his TV contract with Remington Steele caused a number of problems that made it impossible for him to take the part. Dalton, who originally couldn’t do the role due to other film commitments, then became available and a deal was done.
Other mooted Bonds were the French actors Christopher Lambert (who’d just worked with Connery on Highlander) and Lambert Wilson (The Matrix Reloaded) as well as TV actor Lewis Collins from The Professionals (who apparently stuffed up the audition by being too arrogant; ironically the reason Lazenby bluffed his way into the role back in 1969!)
The book is a must read for any fans of the Bond films with plenty of interesting and amusing behind the scenes photos as well as the rough outline for Dalton’s unmade third film, due to be set in China (which was announced at Cannes in May 1990 for release in 1991).
There is an overwhelming amount of detail on almost every aspect of The Living Daylights’ production, including the weird marketing ideas (an endorsement from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace has a speech bubble of Superman proclaiming “Go on James, knock the living daylights out of them!”), odd script choices (Bond is rescued by a gorilla in one draft) and the numerous disagreements composer John Barry and the band a-ha were involved in when writing the theme song.
Not quite as well researched and essential for Bond fans as Helfenstein’s superb The Making of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it’s still a worthy edition for fans of Dalton and the Bond series (even with the hefty £35 price tag).
Published on 5 October 2012 by Spies Publishing.
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