60 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

Clicky. What could have been...

The poster seems to work well.

[Blonde Bond]

The more I rewatch TLD and TLK, the more nostalgic I get for Dalton's Bond, so to me this sounds like it could've been a cracking film.

I feel the same way. I wouldn't mind if there would exist a third TD Bond. He was nothing like the previous ones and was the closest real life counterpart to the one in book pages.

I liked those movies. Then again, I wish the cold war never ended

j/k

[DaveBond21]

Like JimmyBond, from 1991 to 1994, I really thought that we had seen the last ever Bond film.



I am glad it wasn't!!

___

[The Richmond Spy]

Like JimmyBond, from 1991 to 1994, I really thought that we had seen the last ever Bond film.



I am glad it wasn't!!

___

If the series had ended with Dalton, I hope I would've discovered it one day and enjoyed it as I have. Although if Brosnan hadn't brought a lot of us younger fans in, I'm not sure most of us would've.

[DaveBond21]

If the series had ended with Dalton, I hope I would've discovered it one day and enjoyed it as I have. Although if Brosnan hadn't brought a lot of us younger fans in, I'm not sure most of us would've

I think you are right there, Richmond Spy. I assumed that Bond was finished, but the Bond writer Daniel Biederman actually pronounced "James Bond will Return" in the sleeve notes to my cassette of the Bond themes, and so I hoped he was right but it seemed so unlikely (say, in 1992), that I gave up on Bond for a while.

As soon as Goldeneye opened, I was right back into being a Bond fan again.

[stamper]

Funny, when I saw Brozza falling toward the plane in that horrible transparency fx trick at the beginning of GE, I prononced James Bond dead and buried. I'm not speaking of Tanya Romanvoa Kalachnikov Brutunzuk, or even that they managed to take a good looking actress like Famke Janssen, and make her look ugly in the whole movie. I was expecting True Lies style stunts and action, and here was some amateurish TV movie which should have been better suited direct to cable. Why make 006 survive the fall ? Just so that he is crushed by his satellite dish ! This was the stupidest Bond movie ever made, even Moonraker or MWTGG are better and have more charm. The other movies didn't help me change my mind, until Craig stepped in.
I do wish Dalton would have done just one more...

[dee-bee-five]

Funny, when I saw Brozza falling toward the plane in that horrible transparency fx trick at the beginning of GE, I prononced James Bond dead and buried.

Yeah, it is funny, because my reaction was entirely the opposite. At the cast and crew screening (I was part of neither) I recall seeing that scene and jumping to my feet, with everyone else, to applaud it. It was just so audacious and outlandish and fun. But more than anything else it said just one thing: James Bond was alive and well and... BACK!

[The Richmond Spy]

I do wish Dalton would have done just one more...

An early 90s Dalton film would've been sooooo nice.

[DaveBond21]

I think the series needs breaks from time to time.


I think the hiatus between 1989 and 1995 really worked for Goldeneye, and I think that the 4 year gap between 2002 and 2006 has helped Casino Royale.

As for the start of Goldeneye - everyone, in the cinema I was in, laughed....

[dunmall]

I would have loved to see Tim get three movies but I agree that the gap helped GE, which when I saw everyone cheered and clapped when Bond caught up with the plane and pulled himself inside....

[stamper]

I guess no one cared for the dodgy transparencies then... well it's just a critical eye, a movie in my mind must be done right, any obvious transparency or composite when there shouldn't be one kills my enjoyement. It's a bit like getting a hot woman on your knees, and realise she have big breasts, but bad breath. Some would not care and kiss and fondle. I would leave in disgust

[The Richmond Spy]

stamper, it would depend on her personality.

[dunmall]

well I have no problem watching 1953's The War of the Worlds with visible wires holding up the war machines or TV's Thunderbirds, Doctor Who and Star Trek, a little piss poor effects work never hurt anyone it just adds to the charm imho

Edited by dunmall, 16 August 2006 - 12:14 AM.

[stamper]

The poster in the first post looks like a 500% more promising movie than the final product was ! Wow. Stuff of dreams. Could someone CGI Dalton's head over Brozza in all the movie ? That would be cool, all we have to do is convince Dalton to redub the dialogue then.

I love their DAF posters with Lazenby also... so cool !

[dee-bee-five]

I'm pretty sure Timothy Dalton quit as Bond around March/April in 1994 and Pierce Brosnan was signed a couple of months later in June and soon set to work on GoldenEye.

You are right. The press release announcing his retirement from the role was dated 12th April 1994.

[JamesBondJr]

Clicky. What could have been...

I just joined the forums. Those posters are impressive. It would've been interesting to see Dalton in the GoldenEye film.

Edited by JamesBondJr, 15 September 2006 - 12:45 PM.

[Robert Watts]

Hope you don't mind Harms, but I thought I'd quote your review (which in turn was a quote of someone elses here) of the original Goldeneye script from MI6 here for others to see (People who missed it ). I personally thought this version worked a lot better:

Hamrsway, id be interested in seeing this draft you have? is that possible.

It's not electronic, so I can't. But somebody on CB.n did a great summary (by Donovan). Here it is:

----------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some basic observations of the first draft:

First, it is 156 pages. That's a big screenplay. The law of film averages says that a page is roughly one minute of screen time. This would mean a 156 minute film.

Xenia is not "Onatopp", but she does enjoy killing men a least as much as having sex. Instead of using her thighs, she uses her hands to induce heart-attacks.

THE SCRIPT:

We meet the main girl, Marina Varoskaya, immediately. The train chase is because someone is trying to kill her. She is a design/engineer and was a major player in developing the "Tempest" EMP weapon for the Soviet Union, which was eventually changed to "GoldenEye". She's on the train because she helped design it. Our man James is on it working security. A guy posing as a waiter tries to blow the train up. Bond catches him, and the guy climbs out to the top of the train where a helicopter is waiting to pick him up. Bond follows suit, and kills the "waiter". The helicopter attacks the train, and a large hole is blown in the top of the auto-carrying car. Bond climbs through the hole and drives his Aston Martin DB7 out onto the roof of the train, over the streamlined front, and bumps the low-flying chopper so that it flies out of control and crashes into the train, which keeps going. (this is told very quickly by me).

The slaughter scene at Severnaya is lead by Augustas Trevelyan, not Xenia. And he uses two EMP-proof helicopters. Alexei Makvenio is basically Boris Grishenko, but not quite as geeky. MiGs are scrambled from an aircraft carrier, not land. The Tempest is set to detonate much like we saw the GoldenEye. The helicopters fly away unharmed while the arriving MiGs are destroyed.

Then the story moves to the death of a scientist. Turns out that he was part of a team that developed the orbiting EMP satelites. These scientists are being killed (or attempted to be, like Marina) to eliminate the chances of their being used to foil Trevelyan's schemes.

Now France includes some Fleming characters. Loelia Ponsonby, Bond's secretary (although France has Bond call her 'Loelia', where he called her 'Lil' in the books) and Sir James Molony, the medical officer. I did not gather that Trevelyan is Messervy's replacement. The M described in this story seems to be Messervy, smoking a pipe. When I read the script, I thought Trevelyan might be Messervy's predecessor, but he's only 60. The Minister of Defense (Frederick Gray, although not mentioned by name) is also back, always asking the usual "what does this mean?" The dialogue in this scene is very much like "A View To A Kill": Minister asks what EMP means, and Bond explains. Bond is sent to Moscow to investigate the murder of the aforementioned scientist, who was cooperating with MI6. His death was KGB-ish. I do not recall seeing Moneypenny...first signal of the end of Caroline Bliss?

Next is a scene where Trevelyan is acting like Blofeld, holding a meeting, killing an operative who failed the train job. Bond is now in Moscow. Instead of Jack Wade, Bond's contact is Valentin Kosygyn, who answers to the name Romaly. Bond has only been to Russia once, and has a dark memory about it. He runs into General Leonid Pushkin (from TLD) and asks point-blank if Pushkin had the scientist killed. Pushkin's character becomes Defense Minister Mishkin in the film. Pushkin doesn't like being questioned by Bond and orders him escorted to his car. There, Bond sees Trevelyan and Bond wants to kill him. One interesting part of the dialogue is Trevelyan asking Bond, "...if the vodka martinis ever completely still the voices of all the men you've killed. Or if you ever find forgiveness, in the arms of all those women, for the one that you failed to protect."

The hotel pool scene is for the most part similar to how it worked in the film. Xenia greets Bond without any clothes on. In the film, Bond doesn't sleep with her, but in this script he does...twice. Xenia sets a trap for Bond, who thinks he's going to surprise Trevelyan. Trevelyan wants to play the Russians and British off against each-other (similar to TLD). Bond escapes the trap (poison gas) and breaks into old KGB headquarters to pick up some records/files (as Mission: Impossible did on a different level). He is looking for the girl, Marina, from the train. He is discovered and the militia come out blazing. Bond naturally escapes.

For some reason, this next part reminds me of Fleming's "Moonraker"---the test-firing of a new weapon. What is actually happening is a nuclear weapon is supposed to explode in a controlled area, and destroy 300 other weappons as part of a treaty. Marina, who has been hiding much like Natalya, arrives at the site where she runs into Alexei (Boris), who was her mentor. She trusts him, and is knocked unconcious for it by a thug named Illya Borchenko. Bond then enters the scene, sees the girl, and questions Alexei about what is really going on. This part seems a bit weak: Alexei is basically trying to test what an EMP would be like with this blast. Bond is knocked out by Illya (I know). When he comes to, they are in amid a collection of hundreds of warheads. He manages to whack Illya in the leg, who sprays machine gun bullets everywhere, killing Alexei. Illya is chasing Bond who grabs Marina and they run for it. They run past blast doors just as they shut (TWINE). A small explosion from gunfire makes a chain reaction of warheads physically toppling over. Bond dives through the last blast door, Illya is caught inside and incinerated by the nuclear explosion. Bond and Marina still have to escape the shaking/crumbling ground. This scene was toned down to basically become the Tiger helicopter destruction in the film.

Once safe, Bond and Marina are captured and brought to a remote interrogation headquarters. Bond has a short talk with Marina, somewhat like the short talk with Natalya in the prison. It is here that he has a flashback that reveals what he has against Trevelyan. 003, 005 (female) and 007 are sneaking up on a house (same one that Bond has just been brought to) where Trevelyan is being held by the KGB. This is Bond's first time in Russia. Bond can see inside the house as Trevelyan is interrogated by KGB. Bond snipes the guards. He signals to Trevelyan to move. Trevelyan picks up a weapon from a dead guard and gives away Bond's position to other on-coming guards. Trevelyan shoots 003 and 005, killing them both. Bond gets away, but is visibly angered by the betrayal.

Back in the present, as Marina is being interrogated, Trevelyan shows up in a helicopter and attacks the building. Bond and Trevelyan come face-to-face again, Bond is held at gun point. Trevelyan explains to Bond about defecting. He was the head of MI6, and wanted to defect to the Soviet Union. Trevelyan boasts that he supplied the Russians with every bit of secret information he could. Now Bond does what Roger Ebert calls "the fallacy of the talking killer routine" where Bond plants a seed of doubt in the killer's mind and this delays Bond's execution long enough to let Bond escape from a distraction.

Part of Bond and Marina's escape involves a broken-down plane. After that, they escape on skis, and are chased by the helicopter with the sawblades.

Now with all this commotion surrounding Bond, Puskin thinks it is he that is leaving the wake of dead Russian soldiers. He orders him captured or killed. Meanwhile, Marina expresses guilt and regret for her role in developing the Tempest. There is or were three satellites, not two. They are in space under the guise of belonging to legitimate communications firms. They also have defenses such as lasers. As Bond and Marina make it to a crowded celebration at dusk near a palace. Bond's contact Romaly helps them, but they are soon chased by Pushkin's militia. Bond splits off from Romaly and Marina. Bond gets captured. Xenia is there too and has a henchman shoot at Marina, but Romaly pushes her out of the way and is killed. Meanwhile Bond plants a seed of trust with Pushkin directly, and escapes. Pushkin is not sure he can trust Bond, but he won't have him killed. Bond gets on a horse from the celebration and chases after Marina, Xenia and the henchman. Bond engages the henchman, and Xenia uses a garrotte concealed by earrings to strangle Marina. The henchman gets lost in the crowd, and Bond throttles Xenia off of Marina. Then Xenia attacks Bond and Marina shoots her with a gun Xenia dropped in the fight. Bond grabs Marina and they flee on horseback. The horse walks across an icy waterway, and the ice cracks under the weight, but never gives. Chasing militia cannot persue because of the weakened ice.

Meanwhile, apparently after a report from Bond, NATO is tracking down the two most likely evil satelites. The good satelites try to destroy them, but the evil satelites have some interesting weapons, like mini-mines that are magnetic (how did the magnets differentiate from the satelite it is protecting?) and cling to the good satelite and explode.

Bond and Marina know to go to the Carribbean, to an island called St. Latrelle (ode to Fleming's Solitaire?). A giant 600-foot diameter dish is seen (not camouflaged by being underwater). The plane is promptly persued by two helicopters. Bond leads a plane into the dish, and quickly manuevers out so that the helicopter has little time to react and crashes into the edge. Bond and Marina parachute out of their damaged plane. In the film, Bond and Natalya slide along the smooth edge of the dish. There is a fairly more complicated scene in this script involving crashed helicopters and Bond with opening a second 'chute as he and Marina reach the center, which is a hole leading to a large cavern.

Bond and Marina split up. He tells Marina she has to try and stop the Tempest from being fired. He plants a bomb on a parked plane in a hangar full of planes. Meanwhile, we see Trevelyan, in a computerized control complex that France describes as looking "like the New York Stock Exchange as designed by Ken Adam."

This part is very interesting: Trevelyan's target is New York City. Why? For much the same reason as the film: to wipe out a trace of his stealing hundreds of billions of dollars ($600 bil). New York is chosen because he is doing this via the World Trade Center. One million New Yorkers will be killed in the process. The WTC has trillions of dollars processed from overseas daily. After the '93 bombing (which occurred just as the script was written--so this was topical), Trevelyan planted a computer operative in the WTC as new security protocols were enacted. As for the death of one million people, Trevelyan dismisses them as "merely dust on the globe."

Trevelyan relishes that no one can trace him. Tensions are high between east and west, thanks to his Koskov-like plan of playing agents off each-other, and New York will be engulfed "in flames from a terrorist attack." Trevelyan also will use the impending sharp drop in the dollar to his advantage in the exchange rates after the blast.

Meanwhile, Marina has broken into the complex and re-routed the satelite to their position in the Carribbean. The bomb Bond planted goes off, starting a chain-reaction of exploding planes in the hangar. This while Trevelyan's techs are trying desperately to re-task the approaching satelite...which will be here in five minutes. Bond and Marina escape to safety, but Bond gets a bullet wound in the arm. There is a chance the techs can recover, and Bond sets out to stop them--which places him in the line of fire for the Tempest along with the operation. He has a savge fight with a henchman named Savatier, who has been in and out of the scenes prior. The Tempest explodes and Savatier, surrounded by conducive girders, is electrocuted. Bond grabs a non-conducive rope and dangles from it. Trevelyan barely escapes. Bond and Marina make eye contact as Trevelyan grabs her and pushes her into the dish. She falls into a precarious net of wreckage, delaying her doom. Bond and Trevelyan engage in a fight upon loosened panels of the dish, which slowly give way with every punch. Bond notices this and gives a final powerful kick to a panel holding Trevelyan. This breaks loose and Trevelyan falls 200 feet into flaming wreckage. Bond barely grabs Marina as her safety net gives way and falls. They escape in a EMP-proof helicopter.

At NATO HQ, M, Q and and American security head the damage and where it has occured. They know 007 went to that area, but cannot reach him because of the effects from the EMP blast. "Heaven only knows what survival conditions he's being forced to deal with," says Q.

CUT TO: Bond upset that his vodka martini is stirred, not shaken. But then manages to get over it in a romantic embrace with Marina.
-----------------------------------------------------------

There's also a great on-going series of articles on another Bond 17 treatment from the 90's at MI6.

Edited by Robert Watts, 30 September 2006 - 07:38 AM.

[Killmaster]

according to that series of articles, eon had actually gone so far as to approach disney studios to create the animitronic assassin for the proposed "bond 17".

it may just be me, but after the gritty realism of "ltk" i just can't see dalton taking a huge leap backwards and fighting fem-bots!

[Robert Watts]

I can't see Dalton neccesarily doing it (though he seemed to enjoy lighter roles too) but after the *relative* poor performance of LTK at the B.O it makes sense for EON to go in a somewhat more 'fantastical' direction.

[License To Kill]

I read the plot for the 3rd film and was disppointed it never came to fruition as it sounds like a very exciting movie.

Bond 17 - Synopsis, Gadgets, Vehicles & Locations
24th July 2006

MI6 takes a retrospective look at what could have been the 17th James Bond film and Timothy Dalton's third outing as 007, a very different concept to what fans of today are familiar with. The world now knows "GoldenEye" starring Pierce Brosnan as Bond 17, however at the time of original planning, 007's seventeenth outing would have looked very different.
Bond 17 - History

Unofficial Synopsis
MI6 receives a letter threatening the destruction of a secret government lab in Scotland. A week later, with no further contact or ransom demands, the lab is mysteriously destroyed. James Bond is dispatched by MI6 under the guidance of Nigel Yupland to assess the threat. Following his only lead, Bond tracks down master thief Connie Webb and discovers her sinister dealings with Kohoni Industries.

Bond journeys to Japan to offer Connie the chance to broker a deal and sell a high-tech computer chip to her contacts. Escaping from certain death at the hands of twin assassins - the Kohoni brothers - Bond pursues Connie to Hong Kong to meet with her buyers.

Aided by veteran agent Denholm Crisp and Q, Bond must learn the true nature of Sir Henry Lee Ching's scheme, escape a Yakuzi assassin and deal with the Chinese Secret Service.

After witnessing the aftermath of a nuclear meltdown in China caused by Sir Henry, Bond must stop him at all costs before he launches many more attacks - causing global pandemonium and sparking World War Three.

Above: It was planned for Timothy Dalton to make a third James Bond film, but fate intervened.

Characters

James Bond (Timothy Dalton) - Returning to play James Bond for a third time, Timothy Dalton will lend his hard dark edginess to Ian Fleming's iconic spy.

Q (Desmond Llewelyn) - MI6's top gadget master will once again head out into the field to support Bond on assignment - this time in Japan.

M (Robert Brown) - The head of the 00 section is under pressure to produce positive results after coming under an internal review from Yupland.

Nigel Yupland - A career focused man, Yupland has quickly ascended in rank to Minister of Defence at MI5. He has the confidence of the British Prime Minster, and no love for the 00-section and would like to see nothing more than it shutdown.

Connie Webb - A retired Olympic skier in her early 30s, she is the daughter of a world famous thief. This American adventuress also takes after her father's line of work and is occasionally used by the CIA to steal unobtainable items.

Twin Kohoni Brothers - Both brothers are large well-built men in charge of a vast Japanese industrial empire, and have no intention to sell their company. The twins have connections to the Japanese underworld and Yakuzi.

Denholm Crisp - A veteran agent who is verging on retirement. Resides in Japan and is old friends with Q.

Otto Winkhart - Swiss Lawyer who acts as Connie's middleman for fencing highly priced commodities.

Sir Henry Lee Ching - In his mid 30's, this half Chinese-British computer genies entrepreneur has built his own large high tech computer chip empire, supplying the World with industrially grade chips which are used in everything form factory robots through to missiles. Currently based in Hong Kong, his motivations are a mystery.

Dr. Ronberdy - Ching Lee's research assistant who advises him on the computer chip Bond is selling.

Mi Wai - A beautiful field Chinese Intelligence Services operative.

Quen Low - Mi Wai's immediate superior who is section chief of Chinese Intelligence Service. Suspects the British may be planning to renege on a promise to hand back Hong Kong.

Rodin - A Yakuzi assassin who is on Sir Henry's payroll and out to stop Bond and Connie at any cost. He is equipped with an array of high tech weapons and gadgets that would make even Q envious.

Locations
Bond 17 would have ventured to the Far East the final two acts of the film being set in Japan and Hong Kong. The climatic battle would have taken place deep beneath Hong Kong city.

United Kingdom
Scotland (secret government weapons testing laboratory)
London (Houses of Parliament, MI5 and MI6 Headquarters)
Japan
Tokyo
Hong Kong
Central China
Vehicles

Aston Martin DB5
- Twin ejector seats
- Rear bulletproof shield
- Mines
- Flares
Lamborghini
Stealth Car
- Heat seeking missiles
- Machine guns
- Infrared tracking system
Motorcycle with front mounted missile launcher

Above: Bond's classic Aston Martin DB5 would have returned for "one final outing".

Gadgets

A high-tech helmet with a Heads Up Display (HUD) that has several views: heat sensing, night vision, and more
'Nan' - a female robot assassin

www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articles/bond_17_elements.php3?t=&s=url]

Yep, sounds really good.

Quite! I remember when Dalton was dating Whoopi Goldberg and she was rumored to be involved as the Bond girl in the film.

[Robert Watts]

Regarding Whoopi as a villainess, I saw her on an episode of Criminal Intent recently, and I'm certain my problem wouldn't be her not being able to perform the part, but rather being to 'big' for the role (I see Whoopi Goldberg and I think frizzy hair and singing Jazz standards as a nun )

[JimmyBond]

Unless you are clairvoyant. I'm not sure you would have saw her as a nun singing nightclub act had you seen her in Dalton's third film

[Robert Watts]

Depends what year they'd have ended up releasing it



Regardless, as a child, I'd think I'd be more likely to see the singing black nun movie before the violent white hired killer movie

Edited by Robert Watts, 03 October 2006 - 12:44 PM.

[HildebrandRarity]

My recollection of the '91 Bond rumours for the LTK follow-up also involved including TD's then real-life girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg as some type of 'Bond Girl villian' using exoskeletal-looking cybernetic killing machines (Terminator style?).

[FilmNerdJamie]

My opinion of the matter is if that film described above had been made and released in Fall '91 (as originally planned), it would be have a big hit. But Dalton would have left the franchise after his 3rd film.

Considering how hard he worked to get the character back to the "gritty Fleming" roots with The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, I couldn't see him sticking around with his contract up and his last film being a throwback to the 60s/70s "fantasy" Bonds...to which he wasn't crazy about (i.e. female robot assassin).

Then, things would have unfolded with the franchise as they ultimately did (i.e. the 4 film Brosnan era and now the Craig "reboot" series). But that's just my opinion towards the topic. Just seeing a 3rd Dalton film would have kicked regardless; but that film sounded pretty damn sweet...

[Rebel Agent]

A lost opportunity. damn

[DavidSomerset]

From the Telegraph:

Mr Maidment had specifically highlighted Dalton's characterisation as a factor for the declining appeal of the films.

He wrote: "My confidential advice is that Licence to Kill has not performed as well 'relatively speaking' as the previous Bond pictures but this has been attributed to the characterisation of Timothy Dalton more than anything else."

Mr Maidment, who, during his time with Columbia, presided over hit films including A Man For All Seasons and Lawrence of Arabia, subsequently said that neither of the Dalton films was likely to make a profit - a state of affairs he suggested might prove fatal for the franchise.

In an undated letter that appears to have been written in 1989, he wrote: "While Connery and Moore were playing the leading role, the successes were unique, but relative incomes have fallen when Timothy Dalton took over and the producers have indicated that they do not expect profits from the last three pictures.

Also in "For For My Eyes Only : My Life With James Bond" by John Glen, he clearly mentions that Brocolli was upset with the BO of LTK and hence politely fired Glen from the director's chair. So another Dalton movie was never going to be made - by Brocollis and the studio execs.
They all wanted Brosnan.

[David Schofield]

[quote name='DavidSomerset' date='17 January 2007 - 07:33' Also in "For For My Eyes Only : My Life With James Bond" by John Glen, he clearly mentions that Brocolli was upset with the BO of LTK and hence politely fired Glen from the director's chair. So another Dalton movie was never going to be made - by Brocollis and the studio execs.
They all wanted Brosnan.
[/quote]

Many would disagree that EON wanted Brosnan that desperately...

Certainly, MGM seem to have been keen on the idea, though THAT might have had a lot to do with the mere fact that Brozza was cheap and a well known face in the USA, rather than any really positive "skills" he might have brought with him.

[DavidSomerset]

Many would disagree that EON wanted Brosnan that desperately...

Certainly, MGM seem to have been keen on the idea, though THAT might have had a lot to do with the mere fact that Brozza was cheap and a well known face in the USA, rather than any really positive "skills" he might have brought with him.

Say what you may but Brocollis and MGM perceived Brosnan as a safer BO bet than Dalton and it was proved right by GE's success. Dalton was too risky after LTK - and without his fault. He was the wrong man at the wrong time. Even Sean Connery as Bond would have screwed up against Batman, Indy and Lethal Weapon.

[Royal Dalton]

John Parkinson, Danjaq spokesman:

"We're in discussion with him (Dalton), and we're not in discussion with anyone else. He's the Bond of record."

- Empire, August 1993.

According to Eon Productions' spokeswoman Liz Ihre, discussions are underway for Timothy Dalton to make his third trip out in the tuxedo, although "nothing's been signed yet - but we are extremely hopeful."

- Film Review, August 1993.