50 replies to this topic

[Byron]

Hi,

I do not remember the full story but this giant hanging (or poster) advertising Timothy Dalton in 17th James Bond film, seems to be the only piece of promotional material ever produced for Dalton's proposed third film. Enjoy what should have been...........

It was hanging at the Carlton hotel, which i believe is in Cannes, France, during the film festival there. The year was either
92 or 93. Apparently the hanging was destroyed when Dalton
walked away from the part.It would make some collectors item!!

Also most of you know about the proposed third Dalton film "Property of a lady" or "Robots in Japan", is anyone aware of any promo or concept art ever produced for this film? Or any other material
relating to a third Dalton film between 1990 and 1994?

[IrishCrown]

What would have been the tagline for this one?

Watch Dalton ruin whatever he couldn't do the first 2 times!

Timothy Dalton and Whoopi Goldberg...a match Made In America. Oh, that was the one with Ted Dansen, sorry.

[PaulZ108]

That could have been awesome. It's a pity he couldn't get a couple more films in before GoldenEye.

[Dalton]

I agree totally. I think a 3rd film would have quietened all of the people who criticised LTK.
After all the film was released at the totally wrong time, against too much stiff competition.
I think Tim would have produced a kick-*** cannon of films had he continued.

[mrmoon]

Originally posted by Dalton
I think Tim would have produced a kick-*** cannon of films had he continued.

I agree.

[Dr. Tynan]

Dalton should definitely have done a third one and a third, fourth, etc....right up to seven movies.

I can't believe the rather dense mistake I made, when writing this post. Sorry, not to notice it earlier.

"Dalton should definitely have done a third one and a third"

[Tanger]

I read extracts from this 3rd Dalton film script and I must say that it was very impressive. It would have made a good film and it had some brilliant ideas in.
Such as Bond escaping from his Aston Martin as it goes over a cliff, by using the ejector seat. That would have been great. Apparantly though it would have featured a parachute built into the chair and him being pulled out of it would have been too similar to TLD pre-titles.

What they should do is find this script in their archives, touch it up a bit and make it as a Brosnan film. I'd definitely love to see that!

[Dalton]

Originally posted by Tanger
I read extracts from this 3rd Dalton film script and I must say that it was very impressive. It would have made a good film and it had some brilliant ideas in.

Apart from the ejector seat scene, what other good parts were in it?

[Blue Eyes]

Oh my God, I never knew that they got that far into production! I know they had a treatment (in fact several) but an advert in Cannes. Now that's something I'd love to see a full scale picture of! I wonder if Kevin still has one.

Where did you pic up that pic Byron?

[Tanger]

Originally posted by Dalton

Apart from the ejector seat scene, what other good parts were in it?

Mainly an mazing plot involving robots. Disney were going to supply them. I remember reading a large quantity of the scrip online ages ago but I can't find it now.
Does anyone know where on the net it is?

[zencat]

I have a few pics of this Canne advert at home... I'll scan them when I get hom next week and post them here. I believe this advert showed a "Summer '91" (or maybe it was '93?) release date.

As far as I know the title "The Property of a Lady", is just a Bond urban myth. I don't think they ever had even a working title.

[Blue Eyes]

Yeah we discussed the title some time back. We couldn't find anywhere official where it was mentioned, bar Bond-fan sites.

[Tanger]

Was there indeed a scipt written though?
I know that a few treatments were written so what I read might have just been a fan-mix of these.

[Donovan]

Here's another angle of the advertisement. What the ad says: "Timothy Dalton returns as 007 in the 17th James Bond film. Coming Summer '91." Under Dalton's image is "The most successful series in motion pictures continues."

This image is scanned from the spring 1990 issue of "007" magazine, published by the British fan club.

This was a weird period for Bond fans. It is obvious from this ad that the Bond film was on track for the usual bi-annual summer release. But then a bunch of behind-the-scenes maneuvers occured. The August 8, 1990 issue of Weekly Variety had a front page story about the restructuring (for lack of a better term) of Eon Productions. The article stated that Danjaq was for sale, including the film rights to James Bond and Ian Fleming's novels. Control of Eon Productions was turned over to Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. John Glen and Richard Maibaum were "jettisoned" from Bond 17. Ted Kotcheff (First Blood) was mentioned as a potential new Bond director. Alfonse Ruggiero (Miami Vice) had already re-written a Michael Wilson script. This apparently was not useable and the producers were looking for a brand new script to be written by John Byrum or Willard and Gloria Huyck (I.J. and Temple of Doom). Timothy Dalton was very much a part of this creative process and was involved with discussions of putting together a new team of filmmakers to produce a new movie. "Licence To Kill" had a budget of over $30 million. Expectaions at the time were that Bond 17 would cost about the same as LTK. Michael Wilson concedes in the article that they'll probably miss the usual summer release and that the film will premiere in the fall of 1991. Even though Danjaq was for sale, it was not planned to hinder the production of the film. Any sale of Danjaq would not have retained Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, according to Wilson. Saul Cooper, Albert Broccoli's spokesman, is quoted as saying that part of the strategy for Bond 17 is to tweak the tone to suit Dalton better. "He will definately be in the next one and the ones after that," he says. The article was written by Charles Fleming. The image below was on the front page. It is drawn by Nancy Ohanian.



For some fairly thorough details of the progress of the lawsuit, click the link below.

http://www.007foreve...d_goldeneye.htm

Then there was no news, just rumors. These rumors included Whoopi Goldberg playing a villain in a Bond film called "Portrait of a Lady". On May 13, 1993, Daily Variety reported that Michael France (Cliffhanger) was hired for at least $400,000 to write a new script. The litigation had ended. Bond was staying at MGM/UA. The budget was to be around $40 million. The director would be "A-list"-- a top professional with a proven track-record. France's script made Trevelyan more of an elder mentor to Bond, who becomes evil and disillusions Bond. The pre-credits had Bond driving the Aston Martin DB7 atop a speeding train in England. This script also had the giant saws (as later seen in "TWINE") chasing him in the DB7. I think everyone knows the rest, so I'll end this very large post here.

By the way, as I understand it, Michael France's father suggested to him the title of "GoldenEye".

-Joe

[rafterman]

man, I love reading about stuff from this period, it's just too cool...

[PaulZ108]

Originally posted by rafterman
man, I love reading about stuff from this period, it's just too cool...

I've got a similar fascination. The idea that a Bond film got so close to production but was never made is incredibly interesting.


Still...if Whoopi Goldberg was considered a villain, then maybe it didn't get made for a reason. But that was probably just a stupid rumor.


(I hope)

[Blue Eyes]

Gosh I just read that 007Forever article, what a bloody mess. I really can't believe that Cubby tried to sell DANJAQ though. What was he thinking with that move?

[Donovan]

Gosh I just read that 007Forever article, what a bloody mess. I really can't believe that Cubby tried to sell DANJAQ though. What was he thinking with that move?

I have a guess: either he was really ready to sell out and make a LOT of money, or he wanted to see what it was worth in the industry. Either way, I remember reading the Variety article when it hit the news stands and basically thinking the same thing...that and "oh no."

-Joe

[Blofeld's Cat]

Originally posted by PaulZ108
Still...if Whoopi Goldberg was considered a villain, then maybe it didn't get made for a reason.  But that was probably just a stupid rumor.


(I hope)

Weren't Whoopi and Tim an "item" at the time? Maybe that's where the link was made.

[Donovan]

FYI: when I wrote my first reply in this thread I used the two Variety articles, among a couple other articles, as sources. Since then I found an issue of the Ian Fleming Foundation's "Goldeneye" magazine, issue 4 (pink cover) and it has a lot of details about the whole situation. Two things the "Goldeneye" magazine reminded me of: first, that Dalton's contract with Eon officially expired in 1993. This was timed for what should have been his fourth Bond film. Second, Michael France's script was dated January 1994, months before Dalton decided to leave. He had the script on the set while he was filming "Scarlett". It was from this location that he announced his departure.

-Joe

[Byron]

Donovan you have stabbed my heart with an icy dagger.
To think that Dalton had a copy of the Goldeneye script on the set
of Scarlett, when he made his decision not to continue
made it even more painful.

I have heard him speak of not wanting to be typecast
and wanting to move on to other projects, but really
after a gap of 5 years and with only Goldeneye to do
i doubt very much he would have been typecast any more
than he already was. And it only would have been a few
months out of his schedule

And it would have been a perfect way to leave the series with a bang and not a whimper and give his loyal fans a happy ending to the whole sorry ordeal.

In the end he let us all down in a way. Personally i hope the whole
Bond series wraps up after Brosnan. I see no stand out talented actors taking over and the movies are all heading down the
blockbuster/action road with very little plot and suspense.

As for the alleged script that was never made, i have never heard
official sources (Wilson, Brocolli et al) speak a word about it.
However it has been vandalised and parts used in TND and TWINE.

[JimmyBond]

I wouldnt say Dalton let us down. I'm sure he (like a lot of people at the time) really felt that Bond would never be back again. Yes, I'm aware their was a script, but how many times has a script been written, and then thats it? Plus I'm sure Tim just got tired of waiting, I mean it had been at least 4 years since he made LTK, he didnt want to wait longer.

[Double-Oh-Zero]

Wow, this is very fascinating. Now I can understand why it took 6 years for Bond to come back. It would be interesting to see how the Bond series had turned out if this film was given the green light. What's even more interesting are the scenes with the DB7. I asked about a DB7 being featured in the films in a thread a long time ago, and now I know that they were at least considering it. Excellent stuff, Byron and Donovan.

[Loomis]

Fascinating stuff. It almost seems as though there was a "lost" James Bond film (albeit one that was never filmed).
One day someone will write an article (or book?) detailing the full story of why the Bond series was put on hold for six years. It'll make amazing reading, since I'm sure there's plenty of behind-the-scenes intrigue still to be unearthed!

[zencat]

Originally posted by Donovan
This was a weird period for Bond fans....The August 8, 1990 issue of Weekly Variety had a front page story about the restructuring (for lack of a better term) of Eon Productions. The article stated that Danjaq was for sale, including the film rights to James Bond and Ian Fleming's novels.[/B]

I remember this article well (and I still have the clipping). It was a stunner. I was on my own life-altering post-collage walkabout... I had just finished reading the new Bond book, Brokenclaw... I think I picked up this Variety in a Toronto underground station... I remember thinking that was that, the end of Bond.

Great post, Donovan.

[IrishCrown]

At that point, I was thinking, "Thank you, MGM. Thank you, Dalton. You have done what SPECTRE and SMERSH couldn't do. You killed Bond, you bastards!"

[Bondpurist]

Dalton saved Bond if anything

[IrishCrown]

Bondpurist, what would you have thought of that rumored Bond about the robots and the possibility of Whoopi Goldberg as the Bond girl/villainess, whatever? Just wondering.

[Bondpurist]

It sounds dreadful - a perfect script for Dalton would be a gritty, realistic, Flemingian thriller, not this twaddle with robots - robots in a Bond film? A Dalton Bond film? No way Jose!

[IrishCrown]

Well, that was what the folks at Danjaq were thinking of doing.