BOND SCRIPTS

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  • ChriskarrChriskarr Spain
    Posts: 46
    MI6Agent wrote: »
    Here is Michael France's "Bond 17" first draft. FYI, this is a LATER draft than the one we all know. Not sure why the GoldenEye title is rescinded here. I apologize for the file size, it's a scan of my own.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fck8jHJggaicIWsPF2unsn9YMlKTirzv/view?usp=sharing

    Excellent job! Thanks for share it.
  • edited July 2020 Posts: 847
    MI6Agent wrote: »
    Here is Michael France's "Bond 17" first draft. FYI, this is a LATER draft than the one we all know. Not sure why the GoldenEye title is rescinded here. I apologize for the file size, it's a scan of my own.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fck8jHJggaicIWsPF2unsn9YMlKTirzv/view?usp=sharing

    Yep, a thousand thanks.
  • Posts: 2,887
    Sotheby's is having a gigantic auction titled "James Bond: A Collection of Books and Manuscripts, The Property of a Gentleman." Most of the collection consists of first edition Bond novels inscribed by Fleming, but among the items is a one of Richard Maibaum's 1976 screenplays for The Spy Who Love Me.

    Here is the listing. Sotheby's writes: "This version of the script has a new villain, Klement Kronk, kill Blofeld and (with the help of Jaws) take over SPECTRE for his own fiendish purposes. Sadly, this portion of the story was changed before production commenced in the summer of 1976 in order to avoid the film getting dragged into an ongoing copyright dispute over the use of SPECTRE. This copy of the screenplay belonged to Ernie Archer, assistant art director for this and other Bond films."

    Alas, only two pages are shown from this tantalizing script. One corresponds the pre-credits, the other to the Lotus chase:

    l20424-blmj7-4.jpg
  • Now that looks interesting...
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    Agent_One wrote: »
    Denbigh wrote: »
    Didn't this draft also have Dexter Smythe be a member of SPECTRE??

    That's the first time I hear something so specific about this draft. It would still be something rather strange since, from what the Taschen book tells us, SPECTRE would have been in a war against Octopussy and her group, unless Smythe is not Octopussy's father in this version, or a former member of SPECTRE. Unless all this is a confusion born from the 2015 movie.
    I've definitely seen an extract on these forums that describes Smythe as Blofeld’s "General".

    Edit: found it.
    Blofeld returns as the primary antagonist, locked in a war with a group of bullion smugglers who carry out low level espionage work, and are led by Octopussy. Blofeld plans to remove M from control of MI6 and replace him with his mole Villiers, M's chief of staff, which would allow him to manipulate the West's secret services. M is assassinated, thus leading to Moneypenny's being fired and replaced, and Bond is framed as a double agent. On the run and eager to clear his name, Bond works with Octopussy and Kamal Khan, an old school friend of Bond's working with the Afghan resistance, to defeat Blofeld and his army chief, Smythe.

    Gosh, that sounds amazing.
  • Agent_Zero_OneAgent_Zero_One Ireland
    Posts: 554
    mtm wrote: »
    Agent_One wrote: »
    Denbigh wrote: »
    Didn't this draft also have Dexter Smythe be a member of SPECTRE??

    That's the first time I hear something so specific about this draft. It would still be something rather strange since, from what the Taschen book tells us, SPECTRE would have been in a war against Octopussy and her group, unless Smythe is not Octopussy's father in this version, or a former member of SPECTRE. Unless all this is a confusion born from the 2015 movie.
    I've definitely seen an extract on these forums that describes Smythe as Blofeld’s "General".

    Edit: found it.
    Blofeld returns as the primary antagonist, locked in a war with a group of bullion smugglers who carry out low level espionage work, and are led by Octopussy. Blofeld plans to remove M from control of MI6 and replace him with his mole Villiers, M's chief of staff, which would allow him to manipulate the West's secret services. M is assassinated, thus leading to Moneypenny's being fired and replaced, and Bond is framed as a double agent. On the run and eager to clear his name, Bond works with Octopussy and Kamal Khan, an old school friend of Bond's working with the Afghan resistance, to defeat Blofeld and his army chief, Smythe.

    Gosh, that sounds amazing.
    It certainly could've been one hell of a finale for the Moore era. Bernard Lee's M killed, Lois Maxwell's Moneypenny fired, Bond properly on the run for the first time in the series. In 1983, this would've been completely uncharted territory.
  • Revelator wrote: »
    Here is the listing. Sotheby's writes: "This version of the script has a new villain, Klement Kronk, kill Blofeld and (with the help of Jaws) take over SPECTRE for his own fiendish purposes. Sadly, this portion of the story was changed before production commenced in the summer of 1976 in order to avoid the film getting dragged into an ongoing copyright dispute over the use of SPECTRE. This copy of the screenplay belonged to Ernie Archer, assistant art director for this and other Bond films."

    Alas, only two pages are shown from this tantalizing script. One corresponds the pre-credits, the other to the Lotus chase.

    One of the most fascinating things is that the storyline doesn't seem to be that different from the movie that ultimately got made. Based on Maibaum's statements, however, there was no tanker in his draft (although the idea was taken from one of his scripts for DAF by Christopher Wood), but still, the rest of the story seemed already in place. As I never liked the character of Stromberg too much, I would love to know more about this Klement Kronk.
  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    edited October 2020 Posts: 5,834
    Revelator wrote: »
    Here is the listing. Sotheby's writes: "This version of the script has a new villain, Klement Kronk, kill Blofeld and (with the help of Jaws) take over SPECTRE for his own fiendish purposes. Sadly, this portion of the story was changed before production commenced in the summer of 1976 in order to avoid the film getting dragged into an ongoing copyright dispute over the use of SPECTRE. This copy of the screenplay belonged to Ernie Archer, assistant art director for this and other Bond films."

    Alas, only two pages are shown from this tantalizing script. One corresponds the pre-credits, the other to the Lotus chase.
    I would love to know more about this Klement Kronk.
    Same, I love the concept of this villain taking over SPECTRE for his own fiendish purposes, although the name Kronk will always make me think of this guy...

    mdDqFSh.gif
  • edited October 2020 Posts: 2,887
    One of the most fascinating things is that the storyline doesn't seem to be that different from the movie that ultimately got made. Based on Maibaum's statements, however, there was no tanker in his draft

    That's correct. In his Starlog interview Maibaum said “I never had Stromberg—or whomever the hell it was in that movie—or that interminable thing which went on in the tanker.”

    The article also states that one of his TSWLM screenplays "opened with a group of terrorists, comprised of everyone from the Red Brigade to the Weathermen," breaking into SPECTRE's ultra-modern headquarters. “They level the place, kick Blofeld out, and take over. They’re a bunch of young idealists. In the end, Bond comes in and asks, ‘All right, you’re going to blow up the world. What do you want? ‘ They reply ‘We don’t want anything. We just want to start over—the world is lousy. We want to wipe it away and begin again. So, there’s no way we can be bribed.’"

    According to Maibaum, “Rightly or wrongly, Cubby thought it was too political. So many young people in the world support those people that we would have scrambled sympathies in the picture. Cubby is a very astute man. He knows…”

    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace." However, the producers kept the character alive and “made a schlemiel out of him in Moonraker.”
  • Revelator wrote: »
    The article also states that one of his TSWLM screenplays "opened with a group of terrorists, comprised of everyone from the Red Brigade to the Weathermen," breaking into SPECTRE's ultra-modern headquarters. “They level the place, kick Blofeld out, and take over. They’re a bunch of young idealists. In the end, Bond comes in and asks, ‘All right, you’re going to blow up the world. What do you want? ‘ They reply ‘We don’t want anything. We just want to start over—the world is lousy. We want to wipe it away and begin again. So, there’s no way we can be bribed.’"
    Thus, I suppose the narrative structure would have been as follows: the draft would have started with the hijacking of the submarine, then would have been followed by the break-in into the headquarters of SPECTRE. That would have been quite impressive and captivating! I wonder if the rest of the actual PTS with the ski chase is also from the Maibaum's draft or if it is an add of Wood.

    It certainly could've been one hell of a finale for the Moore era. Bernard Lee's M killed, Lois Maxwell's Moneypenny fired, Bond properly on the run for the first time in the series. In 1983, this would've been completely uncharted territory.
    That would certainly have been something, and maybe that would have set the stage for Dalton that would not have come across in this context as a breakup for the audience. I would be curious to know who wrote this treatment since it seems that George MacDonald Fraser, usually presented as the first screenwriter on the project, wrote a much more raving draft, with most notably a cameo appearance of Goldfinger outside the American airbase in Germany.
  • Revelator wrote: »
    One of the most fascinating things is that the storyline doesn't seem to be that different from the movie that ultimately got made. Based on Maibaum's statements, however, there was no tanker in his draft

    That's correct. In his Starlog interview Maibaum said “I never had Stromberg—or whomever the hell it was in that movie—or that interminable thing which went on in the tanker.”

    The article also states that one of his TSWLM screenplays "opened with a group of terrorists, comprised of everyone from the Red Brigade to the Weathermen," breaking into SPECTRE's ultra-modern headquarters. “They level the place, kick Blofeld out, and take over. They’re a bunch of young idealists. In the end, Bond comes in and asks, ‘All right, you’re going to blow up the world. What do you want? ‘ They reply ‘We don’t want anything. We just want to start over—the world is lousy. We want to wipe it away and begin again. So, there’s no way we can be bribed.’"

    According to Maibaum, “Rightly or wrongly, Cubby thought it was too political. So many young people in the world support those people that we would have scrambled sympathies in the picture. Cubby is a very astute man. He knows…”

    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace." However, the producers kept the character alive and “made a schlemiel out of him in Moonraker.”

    Feels like to some degree this has been resurrected in NTTD with Safin's lot - Blofeld to Bond 'Your enemy is my enemy'
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited October 2020 Posts: 14,861
    Revelator wrote: »
    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace."

    That sounds fun: you can imagine how Bond might've looked inside and only his teeth would be left! :)
  • MalloryMallory Do mosquitoes have friends?
    Posts: 2,036
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace."

    That sounds fun: you can imagine how Bond might've looked inside and only his teeth would be left! :)

    Sounds like the idea was reused, as a solar furnace featured in a few early drafts of “Spectre”.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    Mallory wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace."

    That sounds fun: you can imagine how Bond might've looked inside and only his teeth would be left! :)

    Sounds like the idea was reused, as a solar furnace featured in a few early drafts of “Spectre”.

    Don't tell me Hinx's thumbnails were in the ashes! :D
  • DenbighDenbigh UK
    Posts: 5,834
    The script I'd be most eager to get my hands on is john Logan's script for Bond 24.
  • MalloryMallory Do mosquitoes have friends?
    Posts: 2,036
    mtm wrote: »
    Mallory wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace."

    That sounds fun: you can imagine how Bond might've looked inside and only his teeth would be left! :)

    Sounds like the idea was reused, as a solar furnace featured in a few early drafts of “Spectre”.

    Don't tell me Hinx's thumbnails were in the ashes! :D

    Ha ha!

    No from memory Q and Bond were kidnapped in Austria and taken to Blofeld’s Moroccan lair, and tortured in a solar furnace. Blofeld was watching Bond’s elevated vitals on a tablet due to the smart blood in him. Sounded like a pretty cool idea and makes better use of the smart blood.
  • Mallory wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Mallory wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace."

    That sounds fun: you can imagine how Bond might've looked inside and only his teeth would be left! :)

    Sounds like the idea was reused, as a solar furnace featured in a few early drafts of “Spectre”.

    Don't tell me Hinx's thumbnails were in the ashes! :D

    Ha ha!

    No from memory Q and Bond were kidnapped in Austria and taken to Blofeld’s Moroccan lair, and tortured in a solar furnace. Blofeld was watching Bond’s elevated vitals on a tablet due to the smart blood in him. Sounded like a pretty cool idea and makes better use of the smart blood.

    Is that from one of the leaked drafts or no?
  • MalloryMallory Do mosquitoes have friends?
    Posts: 2,036
    MI6Agent wrote: »
    Mallory wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Mallory wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Revelator wrote: »
    Maibaum confirmed that Jaws was in his draft and in the end "met his death in a furnace."

    That sounds fun: you can imagine how Bond might've looked inside and only his teeth would be left! :)

    Sounds like the idea was reused, as a solar furnace featured in a few early drafts of “Spectre”.

    Don't tell me Hinx's thumbnails were in the ashes! :D

    Ha ha!

    No from memory Q and Bond were kidnapped in Austria and taken to Blofeld’s Moroccan lair, and tortured in a solar furnace. Blofeld was watching Bond’s elevated vitals on a tablet due to the smart blood in him. Sounded like a pretty cool idea and makes better use of the smart blood.

    Is that from one of the leaked drafts or no?

    I think it is from one of the October 2014 drafts.
  • Awesome. Also, do we know whether the M dies/Moneypenny gets fired script was Maibaum's or MacDonald's? Is there a source on that?
  • edited October 2020 Posts: 2,887
    The Taschen Bond book is the source for that. A nine-page undated treatment contained the storyline involving Blofeld, M's assassination, and Moneypenny's firing.

    Afterward Maibaum and Wilson delivered a 62 page treatment on September 3, 1981 that retained Blofeld but moved much of the action to Tokyo. Kamal Khan was entirely absent.

    This might be the treatment Charlie Helfenstein refers to in The Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, when he mentions a scene of Octopussy's girls raiding a Spectre factory that prints counterfeit money. In this version Octopussy was an Asian woman who ran a nightclub in Tokyo.

    A further treatment by Maibaum and Wilson, dated September 30, "has a Cold War slant, dealing with a nuclear threat, adding a Netherlands-set pre-title sequence, dispensing with Blofeld, and making Octopussy more villainous."

    Only after all of these was George MacDonald Fraser hired. After he came on board, the script team plugged on, and by December 15 1981 the revised storyline involved 009's murder in Berlin, the Fabrege egg auction in London, Bond playing backgammon with Kamal Khan, Soviet skullduggery, Octopussy's floating palace, and a climax with a nuclear threat.
  • Posts: 2,887
    George MacDonald Fraser, usually presented as the first screenwriter on the project, wrote a much more raving draft, with most notably a cameo appearance of Goldfinger outside the American airbase in Germany.

    Wow! I haven't heard that before. Do you recall the source? I'm eager to read more about this. Helfenstein mentions that some drafts of Octopussy involved Goldfinger's diamond-obsessed brother Monsieur Diamont.

  • Revelator wrote: »
    Wow! I haven't heard that before. Do you recall the source? I'm eager to read more about this.
    It was in Some Kind of Hero:
    MacDonald Fraser’s early ideas included a pre-title sequence set during the Isle of Man’s TT motorcycle race with a ‘duel-to-the-death sidecar race between Bond and a heavy’ as well as ‘007 trapped in a cage with an angry gorilla.
    [...]
    Although the dialogue was completely rewritten, Fraser’s structure and key action sequences were streamlined. Notable elements that were dropped included a super-charged tuk-tuk supplied by Q with a bulletproof shield and other concealed weaponry. Bond was to drive a green Bentley which is destroyed during a fight with a gorilla. Kamal Kahn was altered from ‘a striking figure in his wine-coloured turban and forked beard,’ to the ‘westernised’ character played by Louis Jordan. Miss Moneypenny was absent, replaced by a Miss Smallbone, and Goldfinger was to make a cameo appearance outside the American airbase in Germany. Fraser attempted to provide a backstory as to how Octopussy had earned her name, October Debussy – she was born in October and her mother liked Debussy.

    To be honest, these Octopussy treatments featuring SPECTRE may now be the single thing from the series that I would most like to read or learn about, even more than the initial plans for DAF. But, since you mention The Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is there anything in this book about Diamonds... starring Lazenby ?
  • edited October 2020 Posts: 2,887
    Thanks very much. I own and have read Some Kind of Hero but had totally forgotten about that passage!

    There is indeed some tantalizing material about the early versions of DAF in The Making of OHMSS, and when I get home from work tonight I will try to summarize it.
  • I still have yet to find France's second (and presumably final) draft of GoldenEye. But I know for sure it exists.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    Revelator wrote: »
    The Taschen Bond book is the source for that. A nine-page undated treatment contained the storyline involving Blofeld, M's assassination, and Moneypenny's firing.

    That sounds good, might have to grab that book.
  • Posts: 2,887
    I'm a little late, but here's a summary of the early plans for DAF, as described in The Making of OHMSS...

    On Sept. 8, 1969 (while OHMSS was in post-production) Richard Maibaum began 13 weeks of script work on Diamonds Are Forever.

    His first treatment began with a despondent Bond at home, still mourning Tracy's loss, with a framed picture of her by his bed. Bond receives a call from Marc Ange Draco and excitedly rushes out of his flat.

    In a London post office a shadowy figure is seen removing a package. Bond follows the man and a chase begins in the mail railway system. Bond dodges gunfire and protects himself with sacks of mail. The shadowy man loses balance, falls onto the roadway and is electrocuted. His fedora falls off, revealing that the man is...Irma Bunt! And inside her package are...diamonds.

    A later treatment begins with Bond in mourning in a small cottage, accompanied by a dog. As "We Have All the Time in the World" plays, Bond goes for a motorcycle ride with the dog running alongside. He hears a plane overhead and looks up to see a parachutist. She lands and the dog goes to greet her (despite Bond telling it to stay). Bond introduces himself. Her name is Tiffany Case.

    A Land Rover speeds toward them. Bond assumes it's there to pick up Tiffany, until the Rover attempts to run him over. Two tries later the Rover sideswipes Bond. The driver gets out a pistol, which Bond karate chops into his own hands. Bond fires at the retreating vehicle; it crashes and fatally ejects the driver. Bond approaches and sees the driver is none other than Irma Bunt...with a package of diamonds. Cue the credits.

    Unfortunately no further information on what happens next is given. That will have to wait until someone studies Maibaum's papers at the University of Iowa.

    Ilse Steppat's death on Dec. 22, 1969 meant that Irma Bunt could no longer appear. In a memo addressed to Broccoli and Saltzman and dated Feb. 10, 1970, Maibaum wrote "I'd like for us to make some joint decisions...Do we use Blofeld as our mastermind again? If so, we can't avoid emphasizing the revenge aspect. The audience expects Bond to settle his account with him for murdering Tracy." Maibaum also wrote that since Bond and Tiffany had experienced great personal tragedies they could help each other recover.

    At this point everyone involved still planned on introducing a new Bond. My own conjecture is that after Connery returned the producers decided there was little point in emphasizing the revenge aspect from a non-Connery film with a one-off Bond they wanted to forget.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    Interesting stuff! Thanks for that.

    I think pinning it on re-introducing Bunt is a bit of a bad idea though- would audiences really remember who she was? Most people nowadays think she's Rosa Klebb! :)
  • Posts: 2,887
    It would have been a risk, especially since the series had never made a true sequel before (and never did until QoS).

    I would have preferred Irma to stay alive until the climax, as in Fleming's YOLT.
  • Agent_Zero_OneAgent_Zero_One Ireland
    edited October 2020 Posts: 554
    mtm wrote: »
    Interesting stuff! Thanks for that.

    I think pinning it on re-introducing Bunt is a bit of a bad idea though- would audiences really remember who she was? Most people nowadays think she's Rosa Klebb! :)
    Bunt would've been a notable supporting character in the very previous film, released two years before, and in the treatments where she featured (those we know of, anyway) she dies at the start of the film. I'm sure the audience would've been fine.

    Although, I too would've preferred for her to stick around until the movie's climax.
  • Revelator wrote: »
    His first treatment began with a despondent Bond at home, still mourning Tracy's loss, with a framed picture of her by his bed. Bond receives a call from Marc Ange Draco and excitedly rushes out of his flat.

    In a London post office a shadowy figure is seen removing a package. Bond follows the man and a chase begins in the mail railway system. Bond dodges gunfire and protects himself with sacks of mail. The shadowy man loses balance, falls onto the roadway and is electrocuted. His fedora falls off, revealing that the man is...Irma Bunt! And inside her package are...diamonds.

    I quite like this beginning, much more than the other suggested with Tiffany Case parachuted or the actual PTS with the Blofeld clones. Especially since it is easy from such an introduction to stay close to Fleming's novel, which I imagine was Hunt's wish if he had stayed at the helm, where it would have been more complicated with the other treatment. I hope that one day we can learn more about these treatments!

    Nevertheless, thank you very much for these descriptions!
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