160 replies to this topic

[Loomis]

I've read a number of comments about Connery disassociating himself from the Bond series. Is this actually the case, or just fanboy overreaction to his failure to do such things as record commentaries for the Bond DVDs?

If it is indeed the case that Connery distances himself from Bond, why all the bad blood? I know that Connery was unhappy around the time of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, feeling that his Bond contract was restrictive and so on.... but didn't everyone kiss and make up around the time of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER? What happened? Did Connery and Cubby Broccoli have an almighty falling-out in the early 70s, or something like that?

[DLibrasnow]

There is bad blood between Connery and EON.

In fact there was a court case in which Connery sued Cubby Broccoli claiming that EON had screw*ed him out of royalties. I am not sure what the conclusion of the court case was, but Connery has made no secret of his dislike for EON...

[ChandlerBing]

Connery tried to become an equal partner with Broccoli and Saltzman back in the 1960s. Even Terence Young tried to convince them to let Sean in on the money being made. Terence Young himself was not let into the game, either. Did Connery have a right to be upset? You bet he did. He was in the biggest game in town back then, and people like Dean Martin and the other imitators were making more money than he was with better contracts. Connery didn't hate Bond. He hated the process behind making them. They always went over schedule and over everything, it seemed. It was also not until May 1971 when Connery had his first breakthrough hit with The Anderson Tapes, playing ironically enough a thief masterminding a heist. When I say ironic, I am thinking of Brosnan and his 1st big breakout non-Bond where he played a thief masterminding a heist. You might know the film. The Thomas Crown Affair.

[Jaelle]

I recently finished reading Cubby's autobiography and there are some very nasty quotes from Sean about Cubby he'd given to the press, one quote in particular that really stuck out as incredibly angry and offensive. By the end of Cubby's life, Sean had mended fences with him. I don't have the book with my right now, otherwise I'd cite some of these quotes. I will as soon as I get it.

[ChandlerBing]

Well, if Sean mended fences with the man, where the hell was he at the funeral? His absence was kinda noticable. Then again, where the hell was Lazenby?

[Loomis]

Thanks for the explanations, everyone.

From what I've heard and read elsewhere, Connery is a keen starter of lawsuits and a somewhat unpleasant person. Not that I'm taking sides.

Re: the funeral, did all the Bond actors apart from Connery and Lazenby turn up, Chandler?

[Turn]

Originally posted by Loomis
Re: the funeral, did all the Bond actors apart from Connery and Lazenby turn up, Chandler?

Yeah, all but those two did. There are pictures floating around out there of Moore, Dalton and Brosnan together at the event. Since Broccoli helped blackball Lazenby, it isn't a surprise he didn't show. And Connery may have been on a film and unable to attend, so it may not be fair to label him as unfeeling because he wasn't there.

[Ry]

I don't know if this helps with this thread, but I have met a few people that have worked with Connery in his later years (i.e. films in the 90s and later) and they have nothing but wonderful things to say about him. He is a great protector of the people he works with. One person said he was truly a kind man. He does demand that things go correctly and that he is not screwed out of money. You also can look at it from the stand-point that he was extremely poor as a child and young man so his demand for a fair share is legitimate.

[Tarl_Cabot]

Sean didn't go to Q's (desmond L)funeral or DAD 40th anniversary premeire.The other guys were there.

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing
Well, if Sean mended fences with the man, where the hell was he at the funeral?  His absence was kinda noticable.  Then again, where the hell was Lazenby?

The book explains that Sean mended fences with Cubby by phone when Cubby was in his hospital bed. From the description of Sean's calls, he sounded genuinely saddened. The book also explains that Roger, Pierce and Tim all visited Cubby in his last days, and the most frequent visitor of all the Bond actors was Tim. He was one of the pallbearers at the funeral.

[ChandlerBing]

I think the Brocollis were tremendously --and still are--enamoured with Dalton. I think it had a lot to do with how Dalton got the part of Bond and for how he left it. The producers liked him, the studio did not. I don't believe Dalton was fired, per se. I think he left of his own good will before they could, though. It was all a matter of diplomacy. If they would have fired him, I don't think the Brocollis would have been very happy and might have tried to take Mr. Bond elsewhere. Sony, perhaps? HA! Probably not.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing

I think the Brocollis were tremendously --and still are--enamoured with Dalton.  I think it had a lot to do with how Dalton got the part of Bond and for how he left it.  The producers liked him, the studio did not.  I don't believe Dalton was fired, per se.  I think he left of his own good will before they could, though.  

I greatly admire Dalton for never washing his dirty linen in public regarding the behind-the-scenes conflicts that occurred after LICENCE TO KILL. He kept his dignity.

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing
I think the Brocollis were tremendously --and still are--enamoured with Dalton.  I think it had a lot to do with how Dalton got the part of Bond and for how he left it.  The producers liked him, the studio did not.  I don't believe Dalton was fired, per se.  I think he left of his own good will before they could, though.  It was all a matter of diplomacy.  If they would have fired him, I don't think the Brocollis would have been very happy and might have tried to take Mr. Bond elsewhere.  Sony, perhaps?  HA!  Probably not.

Well, certainly *one* of the Broccolis was enamoured with Dalton in a special way. Barbara dated him after all. And one of the writers of a 1992 book on Bond whose title I can't recall at the moment has told me that whenever he's spoken with Barbara to this day, it's clear she thinks very highly of him.

Anyway, yes, apparently Dalton and the family became rather close and still are to this day. Michael Wilson in a recent interview describes how he sees Tim regularly socially, and always defends him when asked about his films' lack of success. That closeness didn't extend to Glen, tho. Glen and Dalton weren't on speaking terms for awhile (tho that was more to do with Tim's attitude than poor John).

And I agree entirely with your comments re the studio and the producers. It was MGM/UA who wanted him out, not the Broccolis. Tim bowed out when he saw the writing on the wall, tho I have always believed him when he said he had mixed feelings about continuing with Bond. He had agreed to do the third film once the lawsuits were over, and I think that was because part of him wanted to do it but also part of him felt loyalty to the Broccolis. Years later when he said he "felt free" once he saw the poster of Brosnan in GE on a billboard in LA, I believed him. I've heard him say this on a radio interview and on TV interview---and he says it with such a sense of obvious relief and happiness. It was like the decision had been made for him. But I also think part of him was upset that he was not allowed to do a third film. He's said he had to deal with some "territorial" feelings when he left Bond--having been the Bond of record for 8 years--and he did after all do a lot of initial consultation work on the script that eventually became GE.

I think one of the most revealing things that I saw about Tim was the various interviews he did to promote Scarlett (he had the GE script with him on that set, and made the announcement that he had left the Bond series from that set). It's the only time that Tim seems obviously cantankerous, confused about what he's doing, obnoxious, at times openly disparaging the work he's doing at the moment (he got into a huge controversey with the press over things he said about Scarlett the character, using obscenities to refer to her), at other times genuinely praising it, etc. I've never seen him act that way publicly to the press before or since.

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by Loomis
I greatly admire Dalton for never washing his dirty linen in public regarding the behind-the-scenes conflicts that occurred after LICENCE TO KILL. He kept his dignity.

People keep hoping that one day he'll talk but he'll keep to his grave. It's the same story with his love life -- when the press kept tried to get the real story on his various liaisons, he kept rigidly mum. (You see his obvious irritation on the TLD documentary when the press asks him about his personal life). There's a quote from Tim in which he says he refuses to talk about the famous women he's dated because some of them are now married and have children and they'd be hurt to read any such comments. The only thing we know about the Vanessa-Tim relationship is from the press, quotes from people who know them personally, and from Vanessa's autobiography. Nothing at all from Tim --except a few complimentary comments here and there about her acting.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Jaelle

People keep hoping that one day he'll talk but he'll keep to his grave.  It's the same story with his love life -- when the press kept tried to get the real story on his various liaisons, he kept rigidly mum.  (You see his obvious irritation on the TLD documentary when the press asks him about his personal life).  There's a quote from Tim in which he says he refuses to talk about the famous women he's dated because some of them are now married and have children and they'd be hurt to read any such comments.  The only thing we know about the Vanessa-Tim relationship is from the press, quotes from people who know them personally, and from Vanessa's autobiography.  Nothing at all from Tim --except a few complimentary comments here and there about her acting.

See, this is a big reason why I have a lot of time for Dalton and his portrayal of Bond. Admittedly, whether or not an artist is a pleasant person ought to be irrelevant to one's appreciation of his or her art (for example, Leni Riefenstahl is a genius [I nearly wrote "was"], and Fleming wasn't Cuddles the Clown, by all accounts), but Dalton comes across like a gentleman of the old school, and I like that. At the same time, I'm most unimpressed with some of the unprofessional comments that have come from Brosnan's mouth (for instance, his dismissal of Lazenby, and his complaints that the Bond producers don't take risks).

[Jim]

It would appear to be true that Sean Connery is James Bond did disassociate himself from the series for financial reasons as well as typecasting. From what I understand, the animosity was for financial reasons, not personal.

NB for those pointing out he didn't attend the Broccoli funeral - did any of the Bonds, or are folk thinking of the memorial service which PB, TD and RM turned up to? I thought the funeral was a private matter. Although I did hear something about Timothy Dalton being a pallbearer; but that might be rumour only.

Connery's continued desire not to associate himself with it - well, that's justifiable on an artistic basis. Why the hell would he want to have anything to do with the series, given the state it's in? OK, so his recent films haven't been very good - but were he ever tempted to "return to the fold", watching ten minutes of the feeble Die Another Day should set him straight again. The series doesn't deserve him any more.

[iceberg]

Sean Connery was the best Bond, and if he dissassociating himself from the series, maybe it's because he's moved on. He will always be the one true Bond, but there's no sense in living in the past.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Loomis

Leni Riefenstahl is a genius [I nearly wrote "was"]

And I've just found that I would have been correct in writing "was" - Leni Riefenstahl died last night.

From http://edition.cnn.c...tahl/index.html:

BERLIN, Germany -- Photographer and filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, best known for the Nazi propaganda films "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia," has died at the age of 101.

Riefenstahl, who suffered cancer, died in her sleep at her home south of Munich on Monday night, her companion Horst Kettner told the online service for the German personality magazine Bunte.

"Her heart simply stopped," The Associated Press quoted Kettner as saying.

Riefenstah celebrated her 100th birthday last year amid renewed criticism of her work for the Third Reich.

Cologne-based organization Rom had accused her of using 120 Gypsies from concentration camps as extras in her film "Lowlands" between 1940 and 1942. It said she then failed to prevent them from being returned to the Nazi camp system, where many died.

The group also accused Riefenstahl of Holocaust denial, a crime in Germany, for dismissing the allegations as nonsense in an interview printed in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper in April 2002.

The filmmaker later issued a statement saying her remarks on their survival had been a misunderstanding and that she regretted the Nazi persecution of Gypsies. She also defended her work by saying she was only filming what was happening in Germany at the time.

She gained wide acclaim for "Triumph of the Will," a documentary on the 1934 Nuremberg rally, and "Olympia," a filmed record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Riefenstahl always denied political involvement with the Nazi party or any romantic link with German dictator Adolf Hitler who selected the dancer-turned-actress to be Nazi Germany's official filmmaker. But he gave her vast resources to make movies that idealized and glorified Nazism.

Although she admitted "Triumph of the Will" was used to promote Nazi ideals, she said that was not her intention. "One can use it for propaganda, but ... it is no propaganda film. There is not one single anti-Semitic word in my film," she told The Associated Press.

"In 1934 people were crazy and there was great enthusiasm for Hitler. We had to try and find that with our camera," she told CNN in a 1994 interview.

Her biographer, Rainer Rother, said the filmmaker's view was simplistic though. "I think she might not have been an anti-Semitic woman, but she still was aware of what was going on."

Brian Winston, a media scholar at the University of Westminster, agreed. "Riefenstahl represents a big lie and she's been lying for 50 years. She was extremely close to the regime and her only defense is that she wasn't a party member," he told CNN.

Riefenstahl was acquitted twice by allied "denazification courts" after the war ended in 1945 but was jailed by French occupation authorities for helping the Nazi propaganda machine. Blacklisted as a filmmaker, she turned to still photography, although her work was boycotted by West German magazines.

She was ostracized in Germany after World War II and spent an active later life protesting against condemnation of her Nazi links. In recent years she earned a partial rehabilitation and many newspapers gave extensive coverage to her 100th birthday.

She rebuilt her reputation with photographs of Nuba tribesmen in southern Sudan and at the age of 72 took up diving, the subject of her last film released in 2001, "Underwater Impressions," a celebration of marine life mainly in the Indian Ocean.



There's also an interesting article and Talkback on Riefenstahl at AICN: http://www.aint-it-c...ay.cgi?id=16042

[Jaelle]

Ok, here are some quotes from Broccoli's autobiography (which has commentary throughout by his collaborator, Donald Zec):

From the intro (written by Zec):

"The records show that Sean's triumphant reign as 007 was tainted by bitter allegations, mostly about money. Serious allegations were made in print and subsequently withdrawn. (Cubby had persistently argued that it was the distributors, United Artists, to whom Sean, rightly or wrongly, should have directed his complaints.) The actor's sense of grievance lingered on, though when Cubby died Sean was among the first to telephone Dana Broccoli offering his sympathies. That goodwill was not long-lasting. In an interview he gave to the Sunday Telegraph Magazine, returning to the theme of alleged 'short-changing' by the producers, he is quoted as saying 'that's why I was always fighting with them [Broccoli and Saltzman]. Unfortunately they're both dead now, or fortunately, it depends on your point of view.' Crude perhaps, even by this actor's forthright standards."

Apparently, Sean started trying to distance himself from Bond as early as Thunderball, but especially with YOLT. Cubby says that throughout filming Sean's dedication to his work on YOLT was unquestionable but that Sean's agents had begun badgering him about how "Bond is harming Sean; Sean wants to be free to do this or some other thing; he doesn't want to be known as 'Mr. Bond' but as 'Mr. Connery.'" To the press at this time, he was saying that YOLT was absolutely going to be his last Bond film. Other Sean quotes in the press during the release of YOLT: "One should be paid what one is worth!" To which Cubby says: "I wouldn't argue with that." Sean: "Money gives you freedom and power...I want to use that power I now have, as a producer." He also said: "What I'm really tired of is a lot of fat-slob producers living off the backs of lean actors." Cubby: "That outburst, from an actor I admired and respected, was a little light on good nature and short on truth. For a 'lean actor,' he was doing pretty well as his bank manager or agent would have confirmed."

Cubby: "Exit Sean Connery. Tired of the Bond image, he threw off what he saw as a strait-jacket and strode out in search of a new identity. Sean's parting shot to a columnist was: 'It's finished. I don't want to know. Bond has been good to me, but I'd done my bit. I'm out!' If that was the way he felt, so be it. An actor is a free agent. Sean had no contractual obligation to us, and in any event I never fight to retain a reluctant performer. There was some brief media hysteria predicting that Connery's abdication would force the 007 empire into oblivion. It didn't happen, because of one fundamental truth: James Bond 007 is the real star. It is always one notch bigger than the actor who plays him."

Cubby throughout his biography repeats how hurt he was by Sean's allegations that he and Saltzman were *personally* trying to screw him over financially. To Cubby, he, Dana and Saltzman had fought for Sean to play Bond in DN. The studio suits in NY told them that Sean was unacceptable and ordered them to find someone else to play Bond but Cubby, Dana and Saltzman all remained firm on their decision that Sean was the actor they wanted. Cubby explains how before DN, Sean had been working hard for years to make a success of his career and failing, going nowhere, how Sean was groomed and given polish for DN, and given enormous success because of Bond. Cubby mentions how Sean was anxious to work with Hitchcock, so Cubby picked up the phone and contacted Lew Wasserman to talk to Hitchcock about doing a film with Sean. To Cubby's mind, he worked hard to make Sean a major success and give him what he wanted.

Later in the book Zec explains the merchandising dispute between Sean and the producers. According to Zec, Sean claimed that he had rights to merchandising royalties of *any* Bond merchandise in perpetuity, whether or not his physical image was used. Whereas Cubby and EON's understanding of the contract was that Sean had rights to royalties accruing from merchandising relating to only his films, his name and *his* physical image as Bond -- not any other actor's or any non-Connery Bond films. In the early 90s, Cubby demanded several newspaper retractions because of reports that quoted Sean saying that he (Cubby) and EON had (to Cubby's reading of the allegations) "stolen" money from Sean.

Of course, this is all from Cubby's POV. I personally take no position about Connery's allegations or conduct (tho I was a bit taken aback by some of those quotes). There's a lot more stuff in the book about all this, but I've cited far too much already.

[Red Grant]

Originally posted by Tarl_Cabot
Sean didn't go to Q's (desmond L)funeral or DAD 40th anniversary premeire.The other guys were there.

But he did take the trouble to attend Terence Young's...which sort of shows you where his allegiances lie. This also backs up an earlier thread of just how important Young was to the series in the early days.

[ChandlerBing]

Terence Young made the Bonds work. He was so much of what James Bond was about. Style, elegance, sophistication...

[Jaelle]

Re Cubby on his deathbed and funeral:

"Roger Moore drove by to embrace the man who had propelled him to international rating. If there were ever hard feelings about being replaced by Timothy Dalton, that was ancient history now. Lush homes in California and Europe, and skiing in Gstaad, work wonders on a bruised ego. Cubby was touched by these visits. Timothy Dalton, now living in some splendour in the area, was a constant caller. ... He had now handed his Beretta .25 to Pierce Brosnan. But he remained close friends with Cubby. When the casting of Brosnan was announced, Dalton sent his replacement and the company this message: 'Very best wishes and great good luck with the new James Bond. Yours, with love, Timothy.'"

Upon Cubby's death:

"An avalanche of messages, flowers, telegrams and phone calls deluged the Broccolis' home in Beverly Hills. Sean Connery phoned from Europe. ... Sean said with evident sincerity how sorry he was to hear of Cubby's death. Roger Moore phoned from Copenhagen, where he was filming. He was deeply upset. His affection for Cubby and the Broccolis persisted long after he was discreetly pensioned off from Bond. Any residual hard feelings had long faded in the afterglow of his personal success. Timothy Dalton, whose friendship with the Broccolis was also strengthened despite his mutually agreed exit as 007, was one of the first callers at the house. He was in constant attendance on the whole family. He has worked for producers the world over. 'But none like Cubby,' he says simply. 'He was a friend and a noble gentleman.' A few days later he joined members of the Broccoli family as a pallbearer."

Oh and on another topic I had been discussing, Tim *did* once give a famous quote about his relationship with Vanessa that was first reported in PEOPLE mag in 1986 at the time of the announcement of his being the new Bond. It's accompanied by a photo of Tim and Vanessa wearing their medieval garb from The Taming of the Shrew, with Tim holding her over his shoulder, wearing a beard and big smile. A lot of us Dalton fans remember this quote because it's funny and a rare moment when Tim says anything personal about himself. When asked about how he deals with Vanessa's politics, he said: "One word about Trotsky out of that beautiful mouth and I'm out the door."

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Jim

Connery's continued desire not to associate himself with it - well, that's justifiable on an artistic basis. Why the hell would he want to have anything to do with the series, given the state it's in? OK, so his recent films haven't been very good  - but were he ever tempted to "return to the fold", watching ten minutes of the feeble Die Another Day should set him straight again. The series doesn't deserve him any more.  

Hmmm.... DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, anyone? (Okay, to be fair, he did that one for charidee, supposedly.) Ours is not to strike attitudes, ours is but to do or not do - that ought to be an actor's motto.

My feeling is that, if Connery has indeed turned his back on Bond, it's because he's the only Bond actor to have had a thriving post-Bond career in the big league. Someone like Moore is probably only too happy to put on the tux and front ITV Royal Premiere shows and Bond documentaries, because, well, he's not exactly in demand for other things (excepting cameos in films like THE SAINT and SPICE WORLD).

Similarly, Lazenby (who has essentially lived off Bond since ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) goes to fan conventions and what have you, since, unlike Connery, he's not busy dealing with multimillion dollar film offers.

Originally posted by Jaelle

Cubby says that throughout filming Sean's dedication to his work on YOLT was unquestionable but that Sean's agents had begun badgering him about how "Bond is harming Sean; Sean wants to be free to do this or some other thing; he doesn't want to be known as 'Mr. Bond' but as 'Mr. Connery.'" To the press at this time, he was saying that YOLT was absolutely going to be his last Bond film. Other Sean quotes in the press during the release of YOLT: "One should be paid what one is worth!" To which Cubby says: "I wouldn't argue with that." Sean: "Money gives you freedom and power...I want to use that power I now have, as a producer." He also said: "What I'm really tired of is a lot of fat-slob producers living off the backs of lean actors." Cubby: "That outburst, from an actor I admired and respected, was a little light on good nature and short on truth. For a 'lean actor,' he was doing pretty well as his bank manager or agent would have confirmed."

Oh dear, the old "I want to have my cake and eat it" moaning of the petulant thesp. "I'm not a movie star, I'm an artist!" Well, no one was stopping Connery from chucking it all in and doing regional theatre or whatever it was he had a burning desire to do. Let's not forget that:

Originally posted by Jaelle

To Cubby, he, Dana and Saltzman had fought for Sean to play Bond in DN. The studio suits in NY told them that Sean was unacceptable and ordered them to find someone else to play Bond but Cubby, Dana and Saltzman all remained firm on their decision that Sean was the actor they wanted. Cubby explains how before DN, Sean had been working hard for years to make a success of his career and failing, going nowhere, how Sean was groomed and given polish for DN, and given enormous success because of Bond. Cubby mentions how Sean was anxious to work with Hitchcock, so Cubby picked up the phone and contacted Lew Wasserman to talk to Hitchcock about doing a film with Sean. To Cubby's mind, he worked hard to make Sean a major success and give him what he wanted.

I wonder how Brosnan will speak of Bond in years to come. Will he carp and criticise? Will he issue putdowns of Babs and Michael for not giving him sufficient creative input/control, not hiring the directors he wanted (Ang Lee, John McTiernan), and so on? Will he complain that his Bond contract was restrictive and prevented him from inflicting more films like GREY OWL and EVELYN on the world? Or will he be the perfect gentleman?

[Triton]

Sean Connery was never very smart in his dealings with the press.
I imagine that he thought he was being forthright and honest, but he would often say offensive or hurtful things in his press interviews. Its also very clear that he has a rather inflated opinion of himself.

He was, and probably still is, angry with Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, Eon Productions, United Artists, and the press. He is still pretty much convinced that he was robbed of what was owed him.

It seems like his agreement to join forces with Kevin McClory was meant as a big scr*w you message to Broccoli, Eon, and MGM/UA. I understand that he worked on the undeveloped Warhead script with Len Deighton. When that fell through due to legal problems, he agreed to do Never Say Never Again in 1983. The press at the time wrote many articles about the Battle of the Bonds. I think that the whole project was meant to let the wind out of Octopussy's sails and hurt MGM/UAs box office.

[Triton]

Also don't forget the copyright infringment lawsuit he filed in 1976 with Kevin McClory against Danjaq SA and United Artists that stated that the script of The Spy Who Loved Me infringed on ideas that McClory owned from the orginal Thunderball script written with Jack Wittingham and Ian Fleming. One of the remedies they sought was to prevent the theatrical release of The Spy Who Love Me because they were preparing a screenplay with Len Deighton for a new James Bond project at first titled James Bond of the Secret Service and then Warhead.

Early drafts of The Spy Who Loved Me script featured SPECTRE and their plan was to hijack to nuclear submarines and then blackmail the major super powers. The chief protagonist was supposed to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Because of fear from a lawsuit by Kevin McClory, the script was re-written to remove all mention of SPECTRE and the villain was changed from Ernst Stavro Blofeld to shipping tycoon Karl Stromberg. My understanding was that the law suit was eventually filed after the script had been re-written and production was underway.

I also have to point out that Sean Connery was not interviewed for the Special Edition DVD documentaries. The interview material on the DVDs is from an interview that appeared on British television in 1992.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Loomis


My feeling is that, if Connery has indeed turned his back on Bond, it's because he's the only Bond actor to have had a thriving post-Bond career in the big league

Connery has been absent from all EON events precisely because of his dislike for the Broccoli clan. His dislike of EON is such that he even refused to appear at Broccoli's funeral (even though he dould have) or tape interviews for the DVD doumentaries (all the on-camera interviews are courtesy of LWT).
Does anyone know the details of the lawsuit that Connery filed against EON for royalties??? I know that he sued Broccoli and Saltzman, but never learned what the resolution of the case was?!

[doublenoughtspy]

DLibrasnow,

The case was well watched by the entire industry because of its ramifications. (Can you imagine every actor who became famous later on sued for back royalties on films?).

It was settled out of court. The number I've heard, although not published, was something like 8.5 million.

Yes, Sean was not on the DVD's, although he was approached. (I worked on them briefly - mainly on the OHMSS one).

As the DVD producer pointed out - why would Connery contribute to something that would eventually put more money in the EON and MGM pockets - and get nothing for him in return?

In all fairness, Timothy turned down DVD interview requests numerous times as well.

I'm saddened that they weren't on them.

Of course, you then have the minor players who think their worth is as inflated as Connery's. Burt Kwok wanted $10,000 to be interviewed for the Goldfinger special edition Laserdisc.

Ah greed. Personally I think they should have offered him 70 million tons of rice...his bid for the priceless pictures in Casino Royale.

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by doublenoughtspy
In all fairness, Timothy turned down DVD interview requests numerous times as well.

True. Which is a source of constant irritation for me! *grumble grumble* I too am very saddened that both Sean and Tim don't appear on the dvd docs (except for old interviews). Roger and Pierce are so nice about it. Couple of brats, that's what they are.

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Jaelle

Later in the book Zec explains the merchandising dispute between Sean and the producers. According to Zec, Sean claimed that he had rights to merchandising royalties of *any* Bond merchandise in perpetuity, whether or not his physical image was used. Whereas Cubby and EON's understanding of the contract was that Sean had rights to royalties accruing from merchandising relating to only his films, his name and *his* physical image as Bond -- not any other actor's or any non-Connery Bond films. In the early 90s, Cubby demanded several newspaper retractions because of reports that quoted Sean saying that he (Cubby) and EON had (to Cubby's reading of the allegations) "stolen" money from Sean.

Sheer greed on Connery's part, surely? Does he really feel that he ought to be receiving royalties on, say, Pierce Brosnan dolls, or even Raymond Benson novels?

Originally posted by doublenoughtspy

Yes, Sean was not on the DVD's, although he was approached. (I worked on them briefly - mainly on the OHMSS one).

doublenoughtspy, was Lazenby asked to record a commentary for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE?

[doublenoughtspy]

Loomis,

He was not. The word from EON was that no lead James Bond actor would be on the audio commentaries. Its too bad because there was a lot of Lazenby interview material that couldn't be put in the documentry portion that would have gone well in the audio commentary part.

I do not know why. My theory is that since they knew Sean would never do it, they didn't want some discs to have the main actor and others not.

Its just a theory. It kind of goes out the window now the Pierce has done commentary on DAD though.

An EON representative vetted all material both on the audio commentaries and on the documentries and of course Barbara and Michael had final approval over everything.