2. Ian Fleming Wanted Him to Direct a James Bond Film
It's been recently discovered that Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels, sent a telegram to a mutual friend of his and Hitchcock's, novelist Eric Ambler, asking whether Hitchcock would be interested in directing a James Bond film. In the telegram, sent in 1959, Fleming wrote: "Have written Bond movie treatment featuring Mafia stolen atomic bomber blackmail of England culminating Nassau with extensive underwater dramatics...Producer Kevin McClory. Would Hitchcock be interested in directing this first Bond film in association with Xanadu? Plentiful finance available." Bond fans will recognize this plot description as belonging to
Thunderball. After the screenplay fell through, Fleming wrote a novel based on the treatment. In 1962, the first Bond film,
Dr. No, starring Sean Connery, was released.
Thunderball would eventually become the fourth film in the franchise, being released in 1965. It's also of note that Hitchcock was friends with Bond film producer Albert R. Broccoli, and a sequence in the second Bond film, 1963's
From Russia With Love, where Bond is chased a helicoptor, took inspiration from a sequence in Hitchcock's 1959 film,
North By Northwest, where Cary Grant is chased by a crop duster plane. It's a big "what if" to what an Alfred Hitchcock James Bond film would've looked like. His sensibilities definitely could've fit with
From Russia With Love's more suspense laden tone, back before the series became very outlandish. Luckily, that film holds up well even with Hitchcock's touch.