9 replies to this topic

[Diabolik]

I'm just curious, since the Pre-Title Sequence" is so important to the Bond film and, in some cases, the best part of the film, does anyone know of any PTS or PTS concepts that ended up not being used in the Bond films?

What was the gist of the unused PTS, what film was it for and why was it cut?

Okay, all of you 007 "know-it-alls" (I say that in the most complimentary sense) -- Have at it...

[Turn]

[JimmyBond]

Never Say Never again had a proper teaser at one point:

Bond was to be at a medieval jousting tournament and witness a "Knight" being slain by a lethal lance. Bond would pursue the killer (who would turn out to be a woman) into a parking lot where he would eventually kill her.

All this was taken from Stephen Jay Rubin's "James Bond Encyclopedia"

[dinovelvet]

TWINE - the PTS was originally written as taking place in Cuba, not Bilbao, and Bond would chase the cigar girl down the Thames by flying a jetpack, not Q's boat. There was also a scene (filmed?) with the cigar girl telling Renard (half-seen in the shadows) what happened at the bank, and Renard tells her to go to London and finish it.

DAF - One idea bandied about was that OHMSS should end with Bond and Tracy driving away from the wedding, and DAF would begin with her being killed.

LALD - Something about Bond fighting someone on top of a skyscraper??? I'm sure someone else can fill in the blanks on this one.

[Flash1087]

Never Say Never again had a proper teaser at one point:

Bond was to be at a medieval jousting tournament and witness a "Knight" being slain by a lethal lance. Bond would pursue the killer (who would turn out to be a woman) into a parking lot where he would eventually kill her.

All this was taken from Stephen Jay Rubin's "James Bond Encyclopedia"

Heck of a way to re-introduce Connery.

[JimmyBond]

There was also a scene (filmed?) with the cigar girl telling Renard (half-seen in the shadows) what happened at the bank, and Renard tells her to go to London and finish it.

Yeah, it was filmed, I saw the footage on the official site back before the film came out. Back then they were going to segue into the main titles from that scene. The MI6 explosion and boat chase would have happend in the film proper.

Heck of a way to re-introduce Connery.

Let me elaborate a bit, I did kind of rush through that description:

We open onto a medieval setting. Knights in full armor are jousting, we view one knight pick up a lance that has pointed tip on it. The knight then mounts a horse and jousts, the other knight is killed. This causes quite a stir and another knight doffs his helment, revealing himself to be James Bond! Bond gives chase (up until this point everything appears to be taking place in the middle ages). All of a sudden the other knight doffs her helment to reveal a female. She rides her horse over a fence and we are now in a parking lot. Bond hops from parked car to parked car until he catches up to the girl and kills her.

I think that would have made a hell of a sequence!

[ACE]

FRWL
The original idea was for Grant to stalk fake Bond through the assault course Klebb and Morenzy walk through on SPECTRE Island ("We use live targets too")

LALD
Bond was to have met a contact in a mysterious garden. Said contact gives Bond information in the form of a micro dot on his contact lens. Contact is then led through a door in garden and walks out...and off a tall building, screaming to his death. It is a rooftop garden and this is the Italian affair which procures Miss Caruso for Bond. (An actor for the contact was hired and dummies of him were created for the fall)

SWLM (numerous):

Young Radicals burst into SPECTRE HQ and gun down the existing hierarchy and set up their own organization. (Imagine the thinking: "Jeez, those kids just gunned down Blofeld. They must be bad!")

Introduces Bond in Hawai on a raft and the call from M has Bond leap on to a surfboard, ride a wave to shore, jump in a beach buggy and roar off.

Bond in South America chased by villains in the jungle. Comes to a small clearing where he sees a church. Runs inside. Villains come in side but cannot find Bond anywhere. Small church. Where is he? We see villains leaving from POV behind altar where Bond is hanging behind the cross in cruxifiction pose.

Existing PTS appended with Bond firing grappling hook from parachute to back of boat and water-skiing to safety.

OCTOPUSSY
An idea for the Octopussy PTS was to have Bond involved in a motor-cycle rally.

LICENCE TO KILL
The Tanker truck chase in LTK was developed as a PTS to another film.

LTK: early draft had the Miss Galaxy beauty contest Lupe wins being disrupted in some manner.

LTK: when originally set in China, a motorbike chase across the Great Wall.

GOLDENEYE
Bond attends a wine auction on a TGV, spots baddies (the sommelier serves the male host first - not the ladies! Brilliantly Thunderball!) and then drives Aston Martin through roof of car carriage, along top of train and down over the slope nose of train. Excellent stuff.

TOMORROW NEVER DIES
Existing PTS precursed by Bond climbing a frozen waterfall (imagine the water frozen in midair - ice suspended over a void). Analagous to the GE bungee jump. Bond then skis to Arms Bazaar and using his ski-stick and other gadgets mounts the remote camera.

TWINE
Bond gave chase using a jet-pack not a boat. As written, it is a PTS but when filmed the idea was the boat chase would fall in the main body of the film (Bond would arrive at SIS by seaplane - I believe he walks to Vauxhall Cross via a passage from the Thames which was shot). However, upon seeing the footage, the boat chase became the PTS again.

AVTAK
A young, tall, gangly, slightly acne'd tuxedo'd spy in a gala event. Sweating talking to girls (Hugh Grant/Woody Allen-ish - Hugh Woody? - this junior agent role was offered to Nicholas Lyndhurst). Trying to get information. Confronted by Scarpine - pleads for life, wets his pants before being shot. CUT TO M's Office. Robert Brown (answering phone as "Admiral Hargreaves": "Yes Minister. Of course, Collins, our agent in the French Embassy gala trying to find information on Zorin Industries, was fully trained. Of course, Sir Frederick. I'll recall him straight away"), tut-tutting to Moneypenny. "These younger agents are no good." Moneypenny (played by Auntie Lois - snatching a glance at Penelope Smallbone, filing)"I agree sir. Experience over callow youth anyday". "I need someone up to the job. With a proven track record. A man of the world and experience. Moneypenny, where's 007?" Moneypenny "On slab of ice. Or should be sir. He's in Siberia". CUT to existing sequence....*












*This last one is utter bunkum but fun, no? No! Oh well, I'll make some coffee...

[Loomis]

LALD
Bond was to have met a contact in a mysterious garden. Said contact gives Bond information in the form of a micro dot on his contact lens. Contact is then led through a door in garden and walks out...and off a tall building, screaming to his death. It is a rooftop garden and this is the Italian affair which procures Miss Caruso for Bond. (An actor for the contact was hired and dummies of him were created for the fall)

Wow. I think this sounds pretty cool (and very much in keeping with that blend of "the bizarre" and "the comic" that is the hallmark of the first two Moore outings). And it could have been a neat reference to the Garden of Death in Fleming's "You Only Live Twice".

Besides, I like the idea of locations not being what they seem. I once posted the following in response to a post by zencat on a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles:

Looks the perfect place for a (slightly Moore-ish) Bond pre-credits sequence (and perhaps the restaurant would be only too happy - just think of the publicity). We open with a bunch of Japanese tough guys discussing something over a meal - they're Yakuza, of course, and Bond is somewhere nearby, staking them out and in league with the waitress, who's undercover CIA, blah blah blah, and trouble inevitably kicks off.... the whole "joke" being that the viewer initially assumes the scene is taking place in Japan, but Bond and the bad guys crash through a paper sliding door and wow!, we're actually in L.A., and then 007 is running on top of the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign, chasing someone, and, well, you get the picture.

Bond in South America chased by villains in the jungle. Comes to a small clearing where he sees a church. Runs inside. Villains come in side but cannot find Bond anywhere. Small church. Where is he? We see villains leaving from POV behind altar where Bond is hanging behind the cross in cruxifiction pose.

Riiiiiiiight. Not difficult to see why that one was scrapped.

[ACE]

Jungle idea was actually from John Landis. Allegedly, Cubby's Catholicism was offended.

Loomis, totally agree about the element of the bizarre. These little reversals or visual juxtapositions or tonal anomalies give Bond extra flavour and have been somewhat missing with the recent "straight" pictures.

E.g. of the above:

FRWL - L'Annee Derniere A Marienbad PTS, treatment of Blofeld as man of mystery
GF - Seagull/Drug den PTS, machine gun toting old lady, shooting of Bond on laser table
TB - Widow=Boivard PTS, masked man mystery in Shrublands, some of the underwater imagery and music
YOLT - Bond's death PTS, funeral of Japanese fisherman on Ama island
DAF - lots of the surreality (cremation, astronaut moon landing, Bond popping out of pipeline in Tuxedo, eerie inflatable ball to the oilrig, Wint & Kidd)
LALD - Voodoo, Geoffrey Holder's flute interlude, Baron Samedi's return
MWGG - the Sumo statues coming to life, Scaramanga's caressing of Andrea with golden gun, fun house, Bond dummy etc.
MR - Rio alley approach of Jaws in full carnival costume, sport shooting sequence, death of Corinne, gassing of scientists and subsequent return to missing laboratory, Mayan setting
FYEO - priest crossing himself as Bond takes off in Universal Export helicopter
OP - clown suit denouement - very Hitchcock
AVTAK - zeppelin briefing, Zorin/Glaub + May Day relationship
TLD - moody fairground sequence with lethal balloon seller
GE - mime artist arena setting, Natalya in church RV with Boris, Statue Park
TND - Headline writing intro to Carver, Prof. Kaufman sequence
TWINE - Elektra/Renard relationship
DAD - dream machine, Zao/Graves relationship, Ice Palace, killing of General Moon (one of the things I like about DAD is the return of the element of the bizarre)

Other little ideas that ended up on the cutting room floor include Elektra's office being delivered by helicopter and "inflating" with all mod cons inside (probably was shot but cut).

Establishing shot of Ice Palace in DAD with golf being played in snow - nicely surreal.

I think this moody, surreal, bizarre tone really makes a good PTS in particular.

[Mr Malcolm]

I wonder if any of these PTS ideas will get used in future Bond films? The surfing bit ended up in DAD, after all. The original GE PTS just sounds completely silly and OTT. I like it!

You can get a look at the original TND PTS at simplyscripts.com.

Edited by Mr Malcolm, 09 April 2006 - 12:57 AM.