13. Roger Moore Doesnt Get His Feet Wet
By the time of
For Your Eyes Only, commentators were beginning to notice Roger Moores age. 53 at the time of filming, Moore was considerably older than the Bond of Ian Flemings books and certain adjustments had to be made. When skating ingénue Bibi (Lynn Holly-Johnson) turns up in Bonds bed, its required that he paternally turn down her invitation since shes 30 years his junior. (In fact, Carole Bouquet playing the main Bond girl Melina Havelock is slightly younger still, but she doesnt actually get to go to bed with Bond either until they go skinny-dipping together as the end titles roll.) As with
Thunderball before it, a lot of the movie takes place underwater, and Eons team of stunt divers and camera operators were on hand to capture the action, both in the tank at Pinewood Studios and in an underwater set in the Bahamas. But Roger Moore and Carole Bouquet never made it in the water. The reasons for this are unclear. Some sources claim Carole Bouquet had some mysterious illness which prevented her from being safely submerged. Others say she simply couldnt swim. Ive also heard it suggested that the insurance company wouldnt allow the 53-year-old male star to spend days underwater in scuba gear. Regardless, all of the close-ups of the lead actors, supposedly exploring the depths, were faked on a dry sound-stage with a combination of filters, fans and slow-motion photography.
14. Minister of Defence Is A Job For Life
Sadly, Bernard Lee who had played M in every movie from
Dr No to
Moonraker was too ill to reprise the role for a twelfth time in
For Your Eyes Only and so a pair of characters Bill Tanner, played by James Villiers and Minister of Defence Frederick Gray, played by Geoffrey Keen are deployed to handle Bonds briefing. Various other Bill Tanners pop up later (hes a minor character in several of the Fleming novels) but although he was keen to be promoted to the post of M, Villers did not appear again. Following Bernard Lees death, the role was recast with Robert Brown who had previously played Admiral Hargreaves in
The Spy Who Loved Me, leading some fans to conclude that this was the same character, now promoted. Geoffrey Keen on the other hand, had already played Frederick Gray in the two previous films,
The Spy Who Loved Me and
Moonraker, and was now embraced into the Bond family, appearing as the Minister of Defence in this and three subsequent films. Given that
The Spy Who Loved Me was released in 1977 and
The Living Daylights in 1987, that means he lasted over ten years in office, surviving three general elections, two prime ministers and a change of ruling party!
15. Working On The James Bond Films Is Also A Job For Life
The Bond Family is a well-documented phenomenon, literally as well as figuratively. It is Cubby Broccolis daughter and step-son who currently control the franchise, but Bond contributors in front of and behind the camera are very apt to get rehired. Three people are credited on every single official James Bond movie: Cubby Broccoli, Ian Fleming and Monty Norman who composed the famous James Bond theme although John Barrys arrangement contributed enormously to its success and its easy to see which composer the producers preferred as Barry was rehired for 11 subsequent movies and Normans services were never called-on again. But while Norman only worked on one movie and Fleming never actually worked on any, Broccoli was producer, or co-producer of the first 17 movies, taking a back-seat for
GoldenEye and sadly passing away during production of
Tomorrow Never Dies. Other names which crop up again and again in the Bond credits include writer Richard Maibaum who contributed to 13 different scripts, designer Peter Lamont who worked on 12 different movies, redoubtable Lois Maxwell who played Miss Moneypenny for an unbroken run of 14 movies and Maurice Binder who designed the titles for 14 also. But its Desmond Llewelyn as Q who can really challenge Broccoli himself, matching his total of 17 movies in which he played the gadget-master head of Q Branch. He appears in every movie from
From Russia With Love to
The World Is Not Enough, opposite five out of six of the Bond actors.
16. James Brolin is Not James Bond. Nor is Sam Neil. Nor is Mel Gibson. Nor is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhkUWMJoccQ Roger Moores initial contract was for three movies, covering
Live and Let Die,
The Man With The Golden Gun and
The Spy Who Loved Me. Especially following the enormous success of
Spy, Moore realised that by signing another multi-film contract, he was giving up a significant bargaining chip, and so he only ever signed for one movie at a time, insisting that the producers renegotiate anew every couple of years. Probably for that reason, in between movies, producer Broccoli made sure that there was a steady stream of able and rugged young actors who passed through the gates of Eon Productions and United Artists, eager to try out for the role. James Brolins screen-test can be seen on the
Octopussy DVD and Sam Neill can be seen on
The Living Daylights. Michael Billington (Sergei in
Spy) tried out after
Moonraker and so did Lewis Collins (
Who Dares Wins). Many other actors have been linked with the role at various times also including Mel Gibson (
Lethal Weapon), Michael Jayston (Doctor Whos The Valeyard), Ian Ogilvy (Moores successor as
The Saint) and even Patrick Mower (Rodney Blackstock in
Emmerdale). If some of these seem bizarre, then consider that approaching them may simply have been an effort to persuade reliable, bankable, popular Roger back for one more go. Of course, that approach eventually created its own problems Moore was 58 when his last Bond film
A View To A Kill was released.
17. Pierce Brosnan is not James Bond
With Moore having finally departed following his defeat of Max Zorin, the hunt was on for a new Bond and one actor was already in the cross-hairs. Pierce Brosnan had visited the set of
For Your Eyes Only when his first wife (Cassandra Harris) was playing a modest part opposite Moore. Seeing the handsome and strapping Irishman, Broccoli commented that he might have already found Moores eventual successor. In the years that followed, Brosnan found fame on American television with the sprightly caper series
Remmington Steele on NBC. After four years, the series had reached the end of its run and Brosnan was tremendously excited to be offered the role of James Bond for
The Living Daylights. Despite having officially cancelled the series, on paper NBC had 60 days to pick up the option on
Remmington Steele and aware of the new buzz around their star, thanks to 007, they eventually recommissioned the series on day 60. Brosnan was devastated, even more so given that the new series of
Steele was actually six one-off TV movies instead of a full order of 22 episodes. He ruefully concluded that he would never be James Bond.
18. Americans Do Know What Revoked Means
Timothy Daltons second (and final) Bond film was shot under the title Licence Revoked and draft designs for publicity material can be seen with this name. But a change was made at the last minute to the more familiar but less pertinent
Licence to Kill and many in the UK crowed and mocked when it was revealed that this was because Americans surveyed for the titles appeal had no idea what the word revoked meant. As pleasing as the image is of a monumentally stupid American hick, struggling with basic vocabulary especially to urbane British movie-goers who secretly think they share James Bonds savoir-faire the story isnt really true. What is true is that in America, the phrase licence revoked is almost exclusively associated with losing a drivers licence and producers felt that James Bond called to account by the California Department of Motor Vehicles wasnt quite in keeping with the image they were trying to promote.
19. "Goldeneye" is Ian Flemings House
Although only the first four, plus
On Her Majestys Secret Service, and at a push
Casino Royale, are in any way adaptations of books by Ian Fleming, almost all the Bond films take their titles from works by Bond's literary creator. The book For Your Eyes Only is a collection of short stories, which includes From A View To A Kill, and Quantum of Solace. Octopussy and The Living Daylights, likewise are Fleming short stories and Licence To Kill was the phrase coined by Fleming to justify Bonds government-sanctioned murders. Finally, The World Is Not Enough is identified as the Bond family motto in the book and film
On Her Majestys Secret Service. Only
Tomorrow Never Dies,
Die Another Day and
Skyfall have no connection to Ian Fleming at all, leaving
GoldenEye as the odd one out. Goldeneye (without the capital E) is not anything which Ian Fleming wrote, but it is the estate in Oracabessa, Jamaica, in which he wrote many of the novels. His next-door neighbour was Noel Coward and the next inhabitant of the estate was Bob Marley.
20. Halle Berry Is The Only Oscar-winning Bond Girl (depending on how you count)
Especially when Roger Moores salary was climbing (see 14), producers tended not to spend production money on star names to play his leading ladies. Villains were quite often recognisable box office names Christopher Lee, Julian Glover, Louis Jordan were all familiar faces and Christopher Walken had won an Oscar for
The Deer Hunter. In the 90s and 2000s, both chief villain and lead female tended to be more well-known. Teri Hatcher and Jonathan Pryce shared the screen in
Tomorrow Never Dies and so did Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle and Denise Richards in
The World Is Not Enough. But in
Die Another Day, the Bond team scored a tremendous coup, signing Halle Berry to play NSA agent Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson. After she was cast, but before the film was released, Berry won Best Actress at the 74th Academy Awards. Whether or not she is the only Oscar-winning Bond girl crucially depends on who you count as a Bond girl which in turn depends on what you count as a Bond film. Obviously, Judi Dench doesnt count, but if you include
Never Say Never Again, then Kim Basinger is clearly the leading female performer and she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in
LA Confidential in 1997.
21. Pierce Brosnan Was Fired Because of 9/11
In the new cinema documentary
Everything or Nothing, Barbara Broccoli and Pierce Brosnan have talked for the first time about the reasons why Brosnans contract was not renewed after
Die Another Day. Although some aspects of the film the reliance on CGI, the invisible car and the lacklustre villain failed to find favour with Bond fans, the movie was an enormous box office success, as were all of Brosnans outings. At 49, Brosnan probably didnt have too many more Bond films in him, but the failings of his last movie had nothing whatever to do with the actors age. Many were surprised when he was not invited to return (Quentin Tarantino had repeatedly expressed a desire to shoot an adaptation of
Casino Royale starring Brosnan as 007), and legal problems put the franchise on hold for four years. In the documentary, Barbara Broccoli reveals that the horrific sight of the devastation of New York on 11 September 2001 jarred with the breezy violence they were so lucratively depicting in the Bond movies. They knew a complete rethink was required and even though they had no idea what new direction the series was going to take, they did know that they couldnt continue with Brosnan in the leading role. These decisions are almost never made publicly, for perfectly good reasons, but Brosnan is arguably the only James Bond actor to have been fired rather than leave the series of his own accord. His four movies collectively grossed around $1.5bn at the box office an astonishing number which pretty much any film series would envy (the four
Bourne movies, by comparison, grossed around $1.2bn).
22. Casino Royale Is The Longest Bond Movie
Whereas Brosnan had long been seen as Bond-in-waiting (see 15), Daniel Craigs casting as Bond was met with outrage. Campaigns, websites and lobby groups were set up to protest the choice. And yet his first Bond movie
Casino Royale is now seen as one of the very best in the entire run (it has a 94% rating at Rotten Tomatoes). For the first time, the series is rebooted, entirely abandoning the previous continuity (not that that had ever been a big concern) and the film depicts a James Bond who has only just earned the title 007. Despite being based on a relatively slender novel (its 213 pages account for roughly the middle third of the film), Daniel Craigs debut clocks in at a weighty 144 minutes, making it the longest Bond movie so far (even including the upcoming
Skyfall). Its successor,
Quantum of Solace,
immediately picked up the opposite end of the spectrum, running a trim 106 minutes, making it the shortest film in the series.