6. You Only Live Twice Was Written By Childrens Author Roald Dahl
The first four movies are fairly straight adaptations of the Fleming novels they share a name with, but the producers struggled to wring anything cinematic out of the book
You Only Live Twice in which an amnesiac James Bond becomes a peaceful Japanese fisherman having set out on a mission of revenge to kill Blofeld, who murdered his wife Tracey in the previous volume. Richard Maibaum, who had worked on the previous four films was unavailable, and so Roald Dahl who knew Fleming well was offered the job. Dahl created a brand-new story from scratch, retaining just a few character names and the Japanese setting from Flemings book. A short time later, he wrote the screen adaptation of Ian Flemings childrens book
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and these remain his only produced screenplays (with the exception of
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory which was largely rewritten behind his back). This approach became the norm with the exception of the next film,
On Her Majestys Secret Service, which is such a faithful adaptation of the book that Blofeld fails to recognise Bond, even though in the movie series they have already been face-to-face.