20 replies to this topic

[Trevelyan 006]

We all know all too well that OHMSS was a one and done so-to-speak and that Lazenby's departure was of his own choosing. Yet, what do you think would have been the best route from OHMSS forward (assuming George Lazenby would have been returning to play Bond) for the series to go.

- Would Diamonds Are Forever have been next, or a different title and plot all together?

- Ideally, how many films do you believe would Lazenby have sufficed?

- How would his reprisal have changed the series finatially/popularly?



For me, I believe George could have done upwards of about three Bond movies with discrediting anything and even establishing the series further. To have him in the films even after the death of Tracy would have been very beneficial. The character of Bond and the character's story I think would've stuck much better had Lazenby continued. I do think DAF could have worked with Laz, considering slight plot rewrites, etc. However, if he did in fact stay on for three films, they could have gone with a hunt for Blofeld for the next movie following OHMSS and Bond finally catching up with him and "settling the score" for Lazenby's final outing.

The changes, I believe, would've been nothing but positive. The most profitable time for the series, I don't believe so. However, I think the simple establishing of Lazenby as Bond would have done wonders for the series as a whole (during that time frame and in hindsight).

Edited by Trevelyan 006, 09 October 2012 - 04:26 PM.

[Messervy]

I think that, had Laz stayed onboard, we would have gotten something like CR/QoS: a mean Bond out for revenge on the hunt for Blofeld. As you suggest, it would have lasted for 3 films (OHMSS, a re-written DAF, and possibly another one where he eventually finds "solace" and becomes Bond fully again), allowing for a cooling down of the tone afterwards.

[plankattack]

Revision is a curious business (oooh, I can just imagine Joseph Wiseman uttering that line!!!!) especially in this instance. DAF is the film it is because the series wanted to get away from what many saw as the failure of OHMSS - Benson's Beside Companion, and I think Rubin's book, go into depth about how the producers/Guy Hamilton were looking to reproduce GF, in tone, and therefore success.

Obviously if Laz had been accepted as Bond (and he was the one who ended carrying the can for the perceived "failure" of OHMSS), then logically DAF would have been darker in tone (although, with the DAF we have now, pretty anything could be considered darker in tone!) with the aspect of revenge played up. I'm not sure we would have got much beyond that though. It's only a recent thing that the major franchises delve deeply into the psyche of their hero.

I do suspect that to get a sign of the how the series might have progressed, it's worth looking back at YOLT. Once EON had decided to jettison Fleming once, then it was only to be easier to do so again. It's amazing to think that snippets aside, there was a 37 year gap between filming the novels (OHMSS - CR). So I don't doubt that the producers would have been trying to out-do themselves each time out with spectacle.

Still, if Laz had stayed, then OHMSS would have been remembered as a hit, so maybe the series would have continued trying to transfer the novels to the screen in a more intact form than what eventually occurred.

[Dustin]

I'm not convinced Lazenby staying on would have made a huge difference for subsequent films tonally. Much of DAF's glitzy surface and gay colour abundance started out in OHMSS, the producers merely turned the volume up two notches instead of one. And they did it with their original actor who'd have been up for any kind of serious revenge story they could serve him. Nonetheless, the result was a brief pts that could be read as anything, from an epilogue to OHMSS to an outright dismissal of the previous film and a direct follow-up to YOLT. Why should Lazenby in the role have had an impact on the general direction Eon wanted to go - apart from having the same face that viewers have seen in OHMSS?

I'd argue having Lazenby for longer would have affected mainly the action and stunt scenes, where he could have had more of a presence than Connery or Moore. But the general idea to fit their series into the overall tone of the 70s/80s entertainment cinema would probably have prevailed regardless.

[AMC Hornet]

Revision is a curious business (oooh, I can just imagine Joseph Wiseman uttering that line!!!!). .

What about Julian Glover or Topol?

"In this pizniss is much revisico."

[plankattack]

Revision is a curious business (oooh, I can just imagine Joseph Wiseman uttering that line!!!!). .

What about Julian Glover or Topol?

"In this pizniss is much revisico."

....as a pistachio goes flying

[coco1997]

Whenever this question is posed, I was always direct the inquirer to this fantastic post made by ACE several years ago:

What if George Lazenby had not left the series and OHMSS had been an even bigger hit? DAF would not have been made (at least the way it was - the need to recapture Goldfinger would not have been there). Peter Hunt was eager to direct YOLT and I am suggesting that Hunt, a Fleming fan, may have wanted to have a more literary resolution to Blofeld.(Yeah, I know he said that if GL had continued, the crane movement from the Aston Martin leaving the wedding would have led to a death of Tracy PTS for BOND 7 - but leave me alone, I'm having fun here!). He is therefore going to film the essence of the novel but call it something different and follow up OHMSS quickly, now back to a Bond a year. It is based on unused ideas and locations floating around Eon from around the shooting of OHMSS. I have also preposterously extrapolated the mindset of continuing in the Fleming vein to include using Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice (which is where the title comes from), the short story Risico as well as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (me having fun/being a wisenheimer). It also borrows from the headlines of the time and tries to be more hip and youth orientated but bleaker and more ambiguous according to the perceived prevailing cinematic trends. It is generic and clumsy with the casting and cultural representation of the region. Now either the film is a hit and Lazenby continues with The Man With The Golden Gun or the film gets flak in America and Lazenby bails out leaving the producers with the need to resucitate the series as in life.

THE DRAGON WITHIN
1969 - OHMSS
1970 – THE DRAGON WITHIN

Starring
James Bond : George Lazenby
Major Leopold: Marlon Brando (on his downers and cannot get employment easily at this stage in his career. Beat a similarly desparate but CR ’67 tainted Orson Welles to the part)
Jean Ramadia: Catherine Deneuve (considered for Tracy)
Col Russhon: John Gavin (almost...)
Ng Tram: (unknown beautiful Vietnamese/Chinese model shtumped by George Lazenby during filming)
Felix Leiter: Dennis Hopper
Lei: Bruce Lee (trying to break into movies after his stint on US TV)
Phu: Burt Kwouk
M: Bernard Lee
Q: Desmond Llewelyn
Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell
Sir James Molony: Kenneth More (a good friend of Lee’s and later possible M replacement)
Blofeld: Telly Savalas
Irma Bunt: Hermione Gingold (Ilse Steppat having passed away in 1969 - exactly 1 year before my birth! - thanks to Sir Hillary Bray for this and the casting suggestion)
Directed by Peter Hunt
Screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Francis Ford Coppola (a young American writer/director having trouble getting a gig. FFC meets in Cubby's favoured Italian restaurant, Versuvios, round the corner from the UA building in NY)
Locations: France, London - UK, Cambodia

GUNBARREL:
A be-Trilby'd figure strides into aim and turns, drops to his knee and fires - the legend "Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman present" appearing in B&W contrast to the background to the strains of a Moog-driven John Barry arrangement of the James Bond theme. The gunbarrel opens on the view of a dark seascape tumultuous with a storm front in a concrete rectangle matching the Panavision frame. Pullback to reveal...

EXT. FORTIFIED EMPLACEMENT, THE MAGINOT LINE, FRANCE - PTS
A gun slit in a concrete cavern – rotting and falling apart. A match is lit and we see James Bond, lighting a cigarette. An oriental man, PHU, speaks to Bond in French. “Do you have the troop movements?” 007: “Of course, but I thought the French had pulled out of Vietnam?” The response is an inscrutable smile. Bond hands over a leather document case, clicking something as he goes. Money is handed to Bond and as PHU leaves, the document case flares in the darkness, the magnesium charge going up. Bond leaps upon PHU and they have cat and mouse chase in the warren of tunnels, ending in a tough, tightly edited, hand to hand fight in the confines of the bunker. PHU escapes Bond’s clutches and runs out of the bunker to across open ground. Bond gives chase and we see a close up of a sign in French, but subtitled: DANGER – MINES. Bond gives chase on foot and PHU turns around, firing. Bond returns fire and there is an explosion. CU on Bond and PHU and the sign and they realize on what they are running. On the horizon we see a group of men bending down and shooting at Bond from the cover of a large Citroen DS, just the muzzle flares of their weapons and the zing of bullets and the odd explosion as a mine goes off. PHU jumps in the car just as a bullet of Bond’s hits a mine and the car explodes. Bond sighs, out of breath, the stormy North Atlantic in the background, his face lit orange by the flickering flames…

TITLES: …over which a silhouette of a dragon is imposed as Aretha Franklin belts out a soulful title song music by John Barry, lyrics by Don Black over a Maurice Binder title sequence with nudes and a pearl, oyster shell, and ruby motif. The dragon silhouette returns and fades into a wrought iron coat of arms on a gate opening into...

...QUEEN MARY ROSE GARDEN, REGENT'S PARK, LONDON.
A dishevelled Bond with hippy moustache is walking idly through the rose garden and his buzzer bleeps. Bond saunters to a red telephone box: “007 here. Yes Penny, yes alright”

UNIVERSAL EXPORTS, LONDON.
Bond’s office is a mess. He takes a sip from his hip flask while source music, Blood, Sweat and Tears, is playing then fading, "And now on Radio Caroline..." CU of fingers turning off the transistor radio and pull back to reveal MONEYPENNY. Flustered at his appearance she berates and proceeds to smarten him up…cut to immaculate Bond standing before M in the SIS Chief's office. Bond’s failure to apprehend PHU is just the latest in a long line of recent failures. Does 007 need extended leave of absence? Does he need time to recover from his unfortunate personal events? 007 resolutely refuses. M confines Bond to desk work and recuperation. Bond goes to the underground shooting range and fails dismally in his Walther target practise. Q chastises Bond for having lost his sharp eye: “No point issuing you any field equipment 007. I doubt you’ll be in the field again!”

BLADES, LONDON
M and SIR JAMES MOLONY in the quiet confines of a London club. M confides his concerns about 007. Molony says Bond needs a tough, important assignment to shake him out of his malaise…and then they are joined by Bond, in black tie. The situation is set out. The US is withholding vital intelligence “involving enemy destruction of Great Britain” from the UK due to recent spy scandals. Bond is to go to Cambodia for a diplomatic mission to release vital intelligence. “But sir, I’m a man of action, not a diplomat!” “Not very effective recently. Win back your spurs 007 and we’ll see.”

PHENOM PENH, CAMBODIA
Bond, in white dinner jacket, meets FELIX LEITER disguised as a war photographer who leads Bond to COL RUSSHON at exclusive, ex-French colonial hotel. Russhon orders Bond a vodka martini, shaken not stirred. Col Russhon explains that as the war rages in neighbouring Vietnam, the US government intel has found there is an ex-French army officer operating out of the jungles in Cambodia, selling arms to the VietCong. The source of arms must be discovered and Major Leopold but be terminated. The US cannot do it but a British agent would be useful. “You are to slay the dragon within”. "Yeah, man!" opines Leiter, smoking an odd-looking, roll-up cigarette. Leiter explains he is leaving and getting posted back to Nevada, USA. The US will then release vital intelligence information to the UK. Bond meets his contact, the peacenik daughter of a French soldier, Jean Ramadia and while travelog-ing around the capital and shtumping her, she tells him about LEOPOLD. They are attacked by a cycle fleet of brigands led by lithe LEI in a crowded market place, a bomb goes off in Bond’s hotel room wounding Jean, nearly tipping Bond into despair again. However, Russhon tells Bond he needs to go into deep cover.

CAMBODIAN JUNGLE, CAMBODIA
They go into a jungle village where Bond is introduced to the beautiful Ng Tram. Bond begins a process of cultural assimilation including schtumping Ng. Russhon comes to visit and reveal photographs of the arms dealer connected to Major Leopold. Bond stiffens: BLOFELD and IRMA BUNT! Bond, Ng and a troop from the village trek through the jungle. A one point, a LEOPOLD scout causes an elephant stampede but Bond and Ng survive. Finally they reach LEOPOLD’s base – a massive temple complex. Bond sends Ng away to get airpower to blast the co-ordinates at dawn. Bond then explores the compound and sees a soldier thrown into the alligator-filled river by the temple. He finds an empty operating theatre with strange, skin-like substance. Ducking back, he hears a passing conversation in an Eastern language, subtitled thusly, "Our experiments in augmentation surgery on the Visitor and his frau have gone very well!" Finally Bond meets LEOPOLD face to face where he reveals that PHU worked for him and LEI is his henchman. His private army is providing the VC with state of the art weapons supplied by an external power. “Blofeld!”. Taken aback, LEOPOLD says that the R&D of using the weapons in the theatre of war is invaluable and by providing them to the VC, Blofeld gets what he wants and the war will escalate forcing the US to take nuclear action. LEOPOLD believes the US and the French have been too soft and that they should nuke the VC. That is what they are planning to do. Bond says nuclear war will follow. Bond is led by LEI to a giant bamboo grinder to die. He escapes and finds warren of tunnels built underneath the temple, fighting a guard, mirroring the PTS fight. He proceeds to set charges and track down Blofeld. Dawn arrives and the treetops reveal anti-aircraft gun emplacements which erupt into life as the air power called in by Ng (riding in the skies) pounds the temple and surrounds. Bond is in the bunker which begins to blow up. LEOPOLD and Bond duke it out in collapsing tunnels and LEOPOLD is last seen with trapped in a rock cavern with earth slowly filling up around him. Bond emerges from the warren of tunnels to find a sailing junk puttering off. Bombs still explode as the airstrike continues. Bond jumps on it and out emerges BLOFELD and BUNT. Bond knocks BUNT into the alligator filled water and then fights BLOFELD, strangling him with rope from the decking. A lasting CU on Blofeld’s neck reveals unusual scarring, not from the rope. The country side is blowing up around them due to the airstrike. Suddenly, out jumps LEI and they have a strange fight with their hands and grunts. LEI says, "I see you are an expert in Kung Fu." "Yes, I learnt in Japan". LEI gets the better of Bond and is about to kill 007 when - KER-BLAM - the boat takes a direct hit!
Slow fade to...

Ng Tram's village in the jungle. Ng nursing Bond, still in peasant uniform. Montage of relationship is intercut with montage in London. Moneypenny in tears, M thoughtfully holding his pipe while closing Bond's file, soundtracked by a haunting, prog-rock ballad performed by Blood, Sweat And Tears. We end with following a newspaper from press to stall finishing on a CU of Bond's obituary in newspaper. Throughout this section Bernard Lee as M reads the obit in voiceover.

We end in a village with a quick quick shot revealing Ng is pregnant. Bond working paddy fields and a helicopter lands. Russian. The head of village points to Bond and we then see from Ng’s POV Bond being led to the helicopter and it flying off in the distance…we stay on Ng’s tear-filled eyes.

THE END OF THE DRAGON WITHIN
BUT
JAMES BOND WILL RETURN
IN
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER/THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN

[Walecs]

I wanted to post that according to http://jamesbond.wik...nds_Are_Forever

It was originally proposed for the previous film, OHMSS, to end before it does in its book form. The film would end with Bond and Tracy driving off after their wedding, and then the already-filmed sequence of Bond and Tracy pulling over, only to be shot at by Blofeld and Irma Bunt would provide the pre-title sequence for Diamonds Are Forever. The idea was dropped prior to the theatrical release of OHMSS, possibly because George Lazenby had yet to commit to any more films.

I think that it would have been cool to have a sort of sequentiality between the two movies.

Edited by Walecs, 11 October 2012 - 10:42 AM.

[Pussfeller]

A Brando-Lazenby pairing is delightful to imagine. Brando would have made an excellent "moribund Blofeld".

[Trevelyan 006]

A Brando-Lazenby pairing is delightful to imagine.

That would be a treat for sure!

[Redneck007]

I would have definitely have had Lazenby do Diamonds Are Forever. I would have brought back Peter Hunt as director and Telly Savalas as Blofeld. Savalas in Vegas is gold and I remember him doing those Las Vegas commercials back in the day. Keep Wint and Kidd and Bambi and Thumper the same. Maybe have Tiffany Case as the Bond girl but this Bond is revenge-minded so Plenty O' Toole may not have worked well. I would have been great if Irma Bunt replaced the Burt Saxby character (even though the actress died after filming OHMSS).

[THX-007]

For me an ideal Lazenby run would've been: OHMSS, DAF, Live and Let Die, and the Man with the Golden Gun.
For all four movies the films would have a serious approach rather than the tongue in cheek Guy Hamilton approach. For MWTGG, the film would be a game of cat and mouse between Bond and Scaramanga filled with suspense on who was going to win. Stack the odds against Bond and drive up the point that Bond might not make it out of this one. And no giant laser.
The film would end with a wounded Bond just managing to kill Scaramanga. Bond and Goodnight find Scaramanga's boat and leave the island. Goodnight steers the boat while Bond lays on the deck solemn. He looks over at Goodnight, she smiles, and right before the credits role Bond gives his traditional smirk as the boat sails into the sunset.
The Spy Who Loved Me: Roger Moore's debut. Unlike LALD which introduced his Bond peaking his head out a door, instead we're introduced to Bond in bed, gets the call from HQ, leaves the cabin on skis, bad guys chase him, there's a ski chase (referencing his predecessor's first film) but tops it by jumping off a cliff, free falling and then opening a Union Jack parachute to the audience's delight. A perfect introduction to a new James Bond.

[Redneck007]

I agree! OHMSS, DAF, LALD and TMWTGG would have been a great run for Lazenby.

[Connerybond]

With Lazenby and Hunt, DAF and LALD would have been more memorable.

[Trevelyan 006]

It's just a real pity Lazenby listened to bad advice and rather gave up on the James Bond role. A Lazenby DAF would have been a thing to behold, I'm sure!

I agree entirely and certainly don't envy Lazenby's position. There has to have been days where he certainly kicks himself for going on what his manager/agent had advised.

At least He should have stayed on for DAF, though it is my understanding that originally (or early on), a 7-film deal was suggested. I could only image how involved and deep the character could have been developed further, had he in fact stuck around.

Shame really... I often wonder: what if?

[chris m]

Lazenby could have starred in a more faithful adaptation of one of Fleming's finest books, Moonraker, no stupid space shuttles but perhaps nuke missiles aimed at London and Washington to up the ante...
It's ashame they made the films (Thunderball, YOLT, OHMSS) out of sequence to the books (Thunderball, OHMSS, YOLT) coz I reckon Lazenby brutally strangling Blofeld in rage at his wife's death would have been satisfying - considering that apart from the opening of FYEO Tracy is never mentioned in any other film.
At least Lazenby made the classic Stoner a couple of years later

[ChrissBond007]

I love the Bond movies as they are, but if there's one thing that I would change it's DAF. I've always felt it ended the great SPECTRE era in quite a dissapointing way. Not dark enough, too much comedy. I'm sure had Lazenby returned as Bond, Hunt as the director and Savalas as Blofeld the movie would've been much better. Perhaps the final battle between Bond and Blofeld from the YOLT novel would've fit great into a darker, more revenge-minded DAF with Lazenby and Savalas.

I'm not saying the movie was bad, but as OHMSS' successor they could've done something much better with the film.

It would've been great to see more of Lazenby's Bond.

[Single-O-Seven]

Lazenby could have starred in a more faithful adaptation of one of Fleming's finest books, Moonraker, no stupid space shuttles but perhaps nuke missiles aimed at London and Washington to up the ante...
It's ashame they made the films (Thunderball, YOLT, OHMSS) out of sequence to the books (Thunderball, OHMSS, YOLT) coz I reckon Lazenby brutally strangling Blofeld in rage at his wife's death would have been satisfying - considering that apart from the opening of FYEO Tracy is never mentioned in any other film.
At least Lazenby made the classic Stoner a couple of years later

She's also mentioned in passing in LTK by Felix Leiter: 'He was married once, but that was a long time ago'. A faithful Lazenby Moonraker I would literally go to the moon to see. At least we have a new Lazenby/Dalton type with Daniel Craig. It only took 40 years...

Don't forget that she was mentioned in passing in TSWLM as well.

[Single-O-Seven]

Lazenby could have starred in a more faithful adaptation of one of Fleming's finest books, Moonraker, no stupid space shuttles but perhaps nuke missiles aimed at London and Washington to up the ante...
It's ashame they made the films (Thunderball, YOLT, OHMSS) out of sequence to the books (Thunderball, OHMSS, YOLT) coz I reckon Lazenby brutally strangling Blofeld in rage at his wife's death would have been satisfying - considering that apart from the opening of FYEO Tracy is never mentioned in any other film.
At least Lazenby made the classic Stoner a couple of years later

She's also mentioned in passing in LTK by Felix Leiter: 'He was married once, but that was a long time ago'. A faithful Lazenby Moonraker I would literally go to the moon to see. At least we have a new Lazenby/Dalton type with Daniel Craig. It only took 40 years...

Don't forget that she was mentioned in passing in TSWLM as well.

Ah yes! Momentarily forgot about that one!

I understand GE initially had a veiled reference as well. Trevelyan was to say, "For the dead ONE you failed to protect." As you know, it was upgraded to the plural.

[plankattack]

Never knew that. Interesting. I think that it was Michael France who said that James Bond would doubtful remember Tracy Bond in the Brosnan era - was ity too far in the past by now? This was possibly why any such Tracy Bond references were removed from the GE screenplay - they didn't want to saddle Brosnan with past-Bond references like they had done with Connery/Moore/Dalton? What is your source for these details? The Craig era reboot has neatly decided the issue as of now.

I remember reading somewhere that it may have been MW himself who said that about Tracy-Brozza era. Whoever it was, I always find it an ironic position to take in that 4 years, I've always taken TWINE to refer to OHMSS, from the title itself to Elektra's "have you ever lost someone" conversation in the construction trailer when they first meet.

[George Kaplan]

Okay total fantasy time on this, because I seriously doubt they'd have done it this way...but...

OHMSS is followed up by DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. A lot of it would play the same but Plenty would be dropped from the plot and Bond would have a somewhat more distant relationship with Tiffany. Blofeld would escape.

DAF is followed up by THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, Blofeld hires Scaramanga to kill Bond when Bond messes up another SPECTRE Operation. Scaramanga plays a cat and mouse game with Bond while Bond continues to hunt Blofeld and mess up Spectre operations. Because he can, Scaramanga may help Bond out of a jam or put him into one as he stays one step ahead of him until they have a final confrontation.

TMWTGG is followed up with THE SPY WHO LOVED ME; with no one country having been able to capture Blofeld, several nations (US, UK, USSR, Japan, China) agree to task their best agents to work together to capture Blofeld and end SPECTRE. But after their first operation goes bad, it becomes clear that one or more of the agents is working for Blofeld. Bond finally warms up to another woman, a female agent from one of the other countries while the group tries to complete their mission and reveal the traitors. Movie ends with Bond getting his final confrontation with Blofeld.

I think this probably would have been the natural end for Lazenby; his Bond would have had a more or less full multi-part character arc which ends on a redemptive note and allows a new actor to start over with a more-or-less clean slate to take Bond in whatever direction 1976 would have taken Bond.

I think - regardless of whether they followed my direction or some other - Lazenby returning would have solidified his presence in the series. I think with one film - and one film where the character is undercover for a large portion of it - makes him more of a curiosity in the series (rightly or wrongly) in many peoples minds; a road bump amid the bigger directions in the series represented by Connery and Moore.